The Infinity Engine
Long live the Battleground:Infinity
We released Baldur's Gate to great commercial success and critical acclaim in December 1998. Baldur's Gate was truly a game that we poured our hearts and souls into [...] We were very proud of the result [...] I personally am thrilled and honored to know that more than a million fans have played and enjoyed the original BG. -- Dr. Ray Muzyka, Joint CEO, BioWare Corp.
Baldur's Gate is the seminal Infinity Engine game. In fact, the campaign was developed by BioWare in parallel with the engine. As early as 1995-96, the engine was initially being coded for a Real-time Strategy game (RTS) called Battleground:Infinity, but was repurposed for the Baldur's Gate RPG.
Through licensure by Black Isle Studios, the IE would not only later power Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale 2 and Planescape: Torment, but it would also heavily influence many subsequent engines developed by BioWare and other developers. These include but are not limited to:
• Aurora (Neverwinter Nights)
• Heavily Modified Aurora (The Witcher)
• Electron (Neverwinter Nights 2)
• Odyssey (Knights of the Old Republic)
• Eclipse (Dragon Age: Origins).
Through licensure by Black Isle Studios, the IE would not only later power Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale 2 and Planescape: Torment, but it would also heavily influence many subsequent engines developed by BioWare and other developers. These include but are not limited to:
• Aurora (Neverwinter Nights)
• Heavily Modified Aurora (The Witcher)
• Electron (Neverwinter Nights 2)
• Odyssey (Knights of the Old Republic)
• Eclipse (Dragon Age: Origins).
Therefore, not just in considering the above but also what the above led to, the original Baldur's Gate is one of the most influential RPGs of all-time (for good and for bad, but mostly for good).
IWD2 is the only Infinity Engine entry that is designed for 800*600px resolution. BG2 runs at 800*600 but its UI does NOT take advantage of the extra space. Only IWD2 does.
BG2: SoA was the first Infinity Engine entry to officially support OpenGL acceleration; that is, support for 3D accelerator cards as it pertains to spell effects and background effects. As "acceleration" suggests, the object is to speed up the drawing of such effects and make them look better. IWD unofficially supported 3D acceleration, and its HoW expansion officially supported it.
Black Isle heavily modified the IE in PS:T and IWD2. While IWD and BG2 closely resemble the original BG, PS:T looks and feels quite different to the other IE games (radial menu, modified viewport), and IWD2's employment of 3rd Edition D&D also necessitated profound changes. The above-linked retrospectives + User Interface Evolution go into depth on many of the changes.
To this day, the Infinity Engine's power, efficiency and functionality still hold up -- and it's stable. In fact, in comparison to the IE, many current gen engines run like my Aunt May after she's had too much sherry to drink (disUnity, Debility Sin).
There are only four RPG engines I admire above the IE, and those are the ones powering Jagged Alliance 2, X-COM: Apocalypse, ToEE and Silent Storm. Sir-Tech's JA2 engine is in a league of its own; it soars above the rest in terms of functionality, efficiency and aesthetics.
There are only four RPG engines I admire above the IE, and those are the ones powering Jagged Alliance 2, X-COM: Apocalypse, ToEE and Silent Storm. Sir-Tech's JA2 engine is in a league of its own; it soars above the rest in terms of functionality, efficiency and aesthetics.
Aspects of the IE, such as its perspective, ruleset, combat system, graphics system and user interface, are covered in the future sections of this retrospective.
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