While this is clearly a big advert for Battlfield 4 (and doesn't have anyway near enough Mirror's Edge 2 in it(read: none)), EA has released a new video explaining some of the benefits of its new Frostbite 3 engine and it's very impressive – even if the term “levolution” still sounds really dumb.
Really we should let the video speak for itself, but read below if you can't watch or would just rather have a rundown of what they're talking about. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHzhinTX1q4′]
There's a lot of mentions near the start of giving designers more of a toolset to work with, instead of just increasing the number of polygons in the world. Making more things automatic like wind and waves and natural parts of the environment that can be controlled but they don't need to be man-handled to do what level makers want any more.
As I mentioned above, “levolution” comes in to play as well and that's where large parts of the map change. A building might collapse or big explosions might create large holes in the ground. Can you see the BF4 features starting to dominate?
Perhaps the most interesting part of the video however, is the discussion on realism and storytelling. One of the big changes with Frostbite 3 was improved eyes. This involved having light dance across the surface of the eyeball and when it is demod and pointed out to you, it's quite obvious.
The video closes by explaining what a versatile engine Frostbite 3 is, being used for BF4, Dragon Age: Inquisition, CnC Generals 2 and more.
KitGuru Says: This is a very pretty engine and the subtle features are quite obvious at times – more so than in the jump between engines in the last gen which seemed to finally say goodbye to 2D looking textures/models.