Divinity Engine
Divinity Engine is a game engine developed by Larian Studios.[1] It has undergone several iterations, with the latest version being Divinity Engine 4.0 developed for Baldur's Gate 3.[2]
History
Larian began development of Divinity Engine 1 for its game Divinity: Original Sin on a budget of only a few million dollars.[1] Larian included a copy of the Divinity 1.0 Engine with Divinity: Original Sin for some Kickstarter backers, allowing them to make custom mods.[1] To showcase the abilities of the engine, Larian included a "cow simulator" game made with the Divinity Engine Toolkit in its early access release.[3][4]
Divinity Engine 2 was developed for Divinity: Original Sin II.[5] Divinity Engine 2, along with all the in-house tools Larian developed such as for making levels, was included in the game files as "DivinityEngine2.exe".[5][6] It had a focus of improving existing tools from Divinity Engine 1 as well as creating new tools and improving documentation.[5] The engine has also been referred to as "Divinity Engine 3.0."[7]
Divinity Engine 4.0 was developed for Baldur's Gate 3.[2][8] A major focus for the new iteration was better support for cinematics.[9] It included a Vulkan backend which was used as an option in Baldur's Gate 3 alongside the DirectX 11 backend.[10][2] The modding tools initially included with Baldur's Gate 3 were not as extensive as those included in previous Larian games.[11] In September 2024, an update for Baldur's Gate 3 was shipped that included essentially a modified version a Divinity Engine 4.0 but with many of the features disabled by default, including the level editor, although there are mods that can enable it.[12] Larian developers attributed part of the game's success with their continued use of Divinity Engine as opposed to using a commercial engine such as Unreal Engine, having used and worked on the engine since 2010 while with commercial engines "the engine's roadmap is not necessarily your roadmap".[13]
References
- ^ a b c Mozuch, Mo (30 June 2024). "10 Years Ago, an Ambitious RPG Paved the Way for 2023's Game of the Year". Inverse.
- ^ a b c Lewis, James (5 August 2023). "Baldur's Gate 3 | What Engine Does it Run on?". Hardcore Gamer.
- ^ Purchese, Robert (27 June 2014). "Cow Simulator 2014 built for Divinity: Original Sin". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ O'Connor, Alice (23 June 2014). "Nude Skins Ahoy! Divinity Original Sin Editor Due This Week". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ a b c Cox, Matt (6 October 2017). "Divinity: Original Sin 2 dev on mod tools, accessibility and favourite mods". Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
- ^ Wilde, Tyler (4 October 2017). "How to set up Divinity: Original Sin 2's mod tools". PC Gamer. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ Palumbo, Alessio (22 August 2016). "Divinity: Original Sin 2 Available on Steam Early Access from September 15th". Wccftech.
- ^ "Support - Larian Studios | General Information". larian.com.
- ^ Dealessandri, Marie (27 February 2020). "Larian plays dungeon master for a new era of Baldur's Gate". GamesIndustry.biz.
- ^ "Support - Larian Studios | What is Vulkan? What is the difference between Vulkan and DX11". larian.com.
- ^ Wilde, Tyler; Litchfield, Ted (22 March 2024). "Baldur's Gate 3 mod tools won't be as extensive as Divinity's: 'We're not a tools company,' says Swen Vincke". PC Gamer.
- ^ Litchfield, Ted (8 September 2024). "It only took two days for someone to unlock a developer mode in Baldur's Gate 3's modding tools, opening up the possibility of custom levels and campaigns". PC Gamer.
- ^ Tapsell, Chris (28 March 2024). "The big Larian interview: Swen Vincke on industry woes, optimism, and life after Baldur's Gate 3". Eurogamer.net.