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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

Infinity Engine was conceived by BioWare as a base of their complex demo called then Battleground Infinity, which later in its final form became a game Baldur's Gate.[3] The graphical engine is an API written in OpenGL.[3] and was created specially for cRPG games - in truth, it is based on isometrics pre-rendered graphics 2D and both PCs and NPCs use sprites.[3][4]

In December 2002, after publishing a game Baldur's Gate 2, Ray Muzyka decided that there would be a patch published for games of BioWare, so the Infinity Engine could work in resolutions bigger than 800 x 600 pixels.[5] The last computer game using Infinity Engine was Icewind Dale 2 from 2002;[6] it was not until 2016, after 17 years since publication of the original game, it was developed a expansion Siege of Dragonspear for Baldur's Gate using the same graphical engine.[7]

The Aurora Engine is considered to be the "spiritual successor" of the Infinity Engine, and was utilized by BioWare to creat the 2002 Neverwinter Nights (and its expansions) in 2002.[8][9] The Polish studio CD Projekt Red used the Aurora Engine to develop The Witcher, the 2007 video game adaptation of the Polish fantasy novel series, 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 "Infinity Engine". Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  4. ^ "Infinity Engine". Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  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". Gamspot.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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