IW engine
The IW engine is the engine of the Call of Duty series. Infinity Ward built the first Call of Duty (2003) on id Software’s id Tech 3 and turned it into its own engine for Call of Duty 2. Infinity Ward, Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games now develop it together.
History
The first game used id Tech 3 with Ritual Entertainment’s ÜberTools. For Call of Duty 2 (2005) Infinity Ward reworked it heavily, with DirectX 9 and better visuals, and called it the IW engine. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) ran on IW 3.0 with world-dynamic lighting, HDR and dynamic shadows. Treyarch built World at War and the Black Ops games on modified versions of Infinity Ward’s engine.
Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013) used IW 6.0, with Pixar’s SubD technology and support for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. For Modern Warfare (2019) Infinity Ward rebuilt the engine over five years with its new studio in Poland (IW 8.0). IW 9.0, first used in Modern Warfare II (2022), is developed by Infinity Ward, Treyarch and Sledgehammer to share tools across the studios.
Games made with IW engine
14 games, oldest first. Each game links to the article that names its engine.
| Game | Year | Developer | Engine version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call of Duty | 2003 | Infinity Ward, OmegaSoft (N-Gage), Aspyr (COD Classic) | id Tech 3 |
| Call of Duty 2 | 2005 | Infinity Ward | IW engine |
| Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare | 2007 | Infinity Ward | IW 3.0 |
| Call of Duty: World at War | 2008 | Treyarch | IW 3.0 |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | 2009 | Infinity Ward, Beenox (Campaign Remastered) | IW 4.0 |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops | 2010 | Treyarch | IW 3.0 (modified) |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops II | 2012 | Treyarch | IW 3.0 (modified) |
| Call of Duty: Ghosts | 2013 | Infinity Ward | IW 6.0 |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops III | 2015 | Treyarch | IW (modified) |
| Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare | 2016 | Infinity Ward | IW 7.0 |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) | 2019 | Infinity Ward | IW 8.0 |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | 2020 | Treyarch, Raven Software | IW (modified) |
| Call of Duty: Vanguard | 2021 | Sledgehammer Games | IW 8.0 |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) | 2022 | Infinity Ward | IW 9.0 |
The version numbers (IW 2.0 to 9.0) follow Wikipedia.
At a glance
- Developers
- Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games
- First game
- Call of Duty 2 (2005)
- Based on
- id Tech 3
- Current version
- IW 9.0 (2022)
- Licence
- In-house, Call of Duty studios
- Status
- Active
Sources
Checked .
Image credits
- Infinity Ward logo — Infinity Ward. Public domain. Placed on a white square and converted to WebP
