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Infinity Engine

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The Infinity Engine is a game engine which allows the creation of isometric role-playing video games. It was originally developed by BioWare for a prototype real-time strategy game codenamed Battleground Infinity, which was ultimately re-engineered to become 1998's Baldur's Gate. BioWare utilized it again in several subsequent installments of the series and also licensed the engine to Interplay's Black Isle Studios to create Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. The engine would serve as the cancelled Battleground Infinity's namesake.[1]

Infinity Engine
Developer(s)BioWare
Initial release1998
Written inC++
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X, AmigaOS 4, GNU/Linux
TypeGame engine
LicenseProprietary
Websitehttp://www.bioware.com
https://gemrb.org/ (open-source version)

As of 2005 the engine has been open-source and referred to as "GemRB," which is a multi-platform implementation of the engine.[2]

Characteristics

The Infinity Engine was conceived by BioWare as the foundation for the real-time strategy game, then-titled Battleground Infinity, which eventually evolved into the first Baldur's Gate, a CRPG.[3]

The graphical engine uses an API implemented in OpenGL[3], and was specifically designed for computer role-playing games. It relies on isometric, pre-rendered 2D graphics, with both PCs and NPCs represented by sprites.[3][4]

In December 2002, following the release of Baldur's Gate II, Ray Muzyka announced a high-resolution patch for BioWare's games that enabled the Infinity Engine to support resolutions higher than 800×600 pixels.[5] The last original computer game to use the Infinity Engine was Icewind Dale II, released in 2002.[6] It was not until 2016—17 years after the original game's debut—that an expansion, Siege of Dragonspear, was released for Baldur's Gate using the same graphical engine.[7]

The Aurora Engine is regarded as the spiritual successor to the Infinity Engine. BioWare would use it to create Neverwinter Nights (2002) and its expansions.[8][9] The Polish studio CD Projekt Red also employed the Aurora Engine to develop The Witcher, the 2007 video game adaptation of the Polish fantasy novel series by Andrzej Sapkowski, although the rendering module was rewritten from scratch.[10]

List of games using Infinity Engine

The following games and expansions are powered by the Infinity Engine:

See also

References

  1. ^ BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development. United States: Dark Horse Comics. 2020. p. 27. ISBN 9781506718804. Archived from the original on 12 August 2025. Baldur's Gate was the first game re-leased using BioWare's Infinity engine, named for Baldur's Gate's predecessor: the unreleased Battleground: Infinity. BioWare also used the Infinity engine for Baldur's Gate II... and... licensed it for other isometric Western RPG classics.
  2. ^ "gemrb/gemrb". GitHub. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  3. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Inf0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Inf1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ The Editors (La Redaccione) (2002-12-13). "Bioware, una patch alta risoluzione per i suoi RPG". multiplayer.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-08-03. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  6. ^ Greg Kasavin (2002-09-06). "Icewind Dale II Review". Gamespot.com. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  7. ^ Brett Todd (2016-04-14). "Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Review". Gamespot.com. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  8. ^ "Aurora Engine". Giant Bomb. Archived from the original on 4 May 2025. Retrieved 29 July 2025. The spiritual successor to the Infinity Engine. This 3D engine made its appearance in the Neverwinter Nights series, and provided a toolset along with multiplayer where players could be Dungeon Masters and make their own stories and play them out with friends.
  9. ^ Shields, Jo (27 August 2002). "The new night". HEXUS.net. Archived from the original on 24 September 2019. Retrieved 19 May 2009.
  10. ^ Bayer, Thilo; Reuther, Philipp (2022-10-27). "15 Jahre The Witcher 1: CD Projekt Reds erster Streich im Retro-Rückblick [Hinweis]". PC Games Hardware (in German). Archived from the original on 30 December 2022. Retrieved 2022-12-30.


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