What Engine does it use? Does it matter?

So I have a fairly low-end GPU, and I was wondering if the coding engine for each game is optimized for particular setup or not...

For instance, with a yitch3 configuration, and the COD4 engine, I'm able to achieve 55fps on average, even on big big firefights with smoke and explosions.

What engine does Call of Duty 4 use? I noticed that its coded VERY well because the Yitch configuration allows my fairly low end GPU to achieve good framerates.

I was just wondering if people knew what engine the following games uses because my purchasing decisions for future games may be highly influenced even though it may not meet the technical requirements

Call of Duty 4
Resident Evil 5
Gears of War
Devil May Cry 4

I'd like to buy in the future:

Modern Warfare 2
Batman Arkham Asylum

I've noticed that whatever the Gears of War engine is, its by far the crappiest coded/ported games ever developed. I've gotten a stuttering average of 30fps on this poor game on super low resolutions.

Devil May Cry 4 runs very well, and Resident Evil 5 runs somewhat decent at 29fps.

My PC specs are listed below for reference if anyone has a similar GPU combination and plays Batman: AA....its a fairly new game but I figured if Resident Evil 5 runs alright, maybe Batman will too...

 

gears of war uses unreal 3 engine, which is actually a nice engine for higher end machines. capable of creating crysis like graphics but with a lot higher fps. it still bogs down low end cards though. batman AA uses the same engine.
i don't know if i want to call re5 optimised, it's playable, but if you look at the model and textures, it's very ugly. feels like hl1 with bloom motion blur to me.

 

I downloaded the Batman AA demo, and I can't even run it?

I get an error that says something to this effect...

“Microsoft .Net Framework Unhandled exception occured in your application. Value was too small for an Int32.”

Stupid unreal 3 engine.

 

Devil May Cry 4, Lost Planet, Resident Evil 5 use Capcom's MT Framework Engine. It has been praised, along with the engine used on Call of Duty 4 and 5 for its great optimization for lower-end hardware.

 

CoD uses the quake 3 engine, and I wouldn't call the Unreal engine bad... it's just not for low end computers.

 

Unreal engine is god! Get out of here!

 

Maybe indoor scenes where the draw distance isn't an issue. There is no way the Unreal 3 Engine can compete with Crysis in any type of outdoor scene. Crysis is on an entirely different level. The only draw-back to Crysis at this point is that even high-end desktop rigs can't run it in full glory. Were close, but not quite which means laptops are very, very far behind.

Crytek are brilliant developers. They could have very well disabled certain affects that stress the hardware the most and renamed them to 'ultra high' like some games do, but they were honest and built in settings that melt video cards. The community complained because the high end rigs couldn't play it... I just don't understand it. Anyway, not to go off on a tangent. Just saying that Crysis is in a league of its own and Crytek have some brilliant developers. The Yerli brothers are great.

 

People have a weird obsession of needing to play games on the HIGHEST setting. Medium setting on Crysis is probably as good as the Highest on virtually any other engines out there but they aren't satisfied. GPU makers can make "future-proof" cards, why can't developers make "future-proof" games?

 

See, the thing is, even if you go to the Gears of War PC official forums, GameFaqs/GameSpot forums, you have PC users who are using high end desktops and notebooks with GTX280m, 9800m GTX, 3870 x2, and 3850 x3 AND still have stuttering issues.

Its like the game engine will let you have your sweet 60fps for 20 seconds, and then it stutters for 2 seconds and resumes back again.

If Batman AA uses the same exact engine, forget it, I don't want to play on med/high settings...I just want to play the game, even if it means its on low settings.

Alrighty, COD4 runs SWEET on this computer, I guess I gotta look for Quake 3 Engine games then.

Unreal engine + Gears of War 1 PC = People crying for a new god.

It makes Crysis play like a dream on the same computer.

Nope, I just want to play games on ANY setting on my lowly ultraportable notebook.

 

actually i totally changed my opinion about Unreal Engine after i played Batman AA, it even has anti-aliasing which most games with Unreal 3 lacks.

 

the engine is heavily modified for cod 4, other games using id tech 3 would look much worse, but provide good fps.

See, the thing is, even if you go to the Gears of War PC official forums, GameFaqs/GameSpot forums, you have PC users who are using high end desktops and notebooks with GTX280m, 9800m GTX, 3870 x2, and 3850 x3 AND still have stuttering issues.

strangely, UT3 itself runs pretty well.

 

crysis is god for sandbox games, you're totally right.

 

when it comes to crysis thank goodness for CCC.

 

Agreed' 10 Char.

 

It seems you're the one who is very, very far behind as desktops and laptops can run Crysis at the highest settings these days.

As for the OP's opinion on the graphics settings not mattering, why the hell do you have problems with Gears then? Trying to max everything out? I have, and I haven't had issues, but if you do, try playing it on low. Same with Batman, it runs fine on low and very well on the highest of settings.

edit: Should've said this earlier, it's not wise to judge games based on the engine. That's the most absurd way to decide what games you'll play. I also don't see why you all of a sudden attribute your amazing frames to the engine.

Speaking of engines, to further the topic. If you highly despise the Unreal engine you're in for rough times as it is the most popular engine out there and the one to be most likely used for future games (due to its ability to work well on consoles and their ports).

Also, as of Call of Duty 2, Infinity Ward has been running their own engine (the IW Engine). You are most likely not going to find it anywhere else but Infinity Ward games.

 

why would you base a purchase on the engine? plus the unreal engine is awesome. even on my mid end system i can run unreal engine games on high settings without lag.

 

Well, I can't have mobility and the best gpu at the moment. So yes...I am behind, but its because there's no such thing as a GTX280m SLI inside a 13.1 inch notebook.

On Gears of War, I'm playing it on all settings low @ 800x600...It just stutters all the time. And its not attributed to my GPU, but the game was just poorly coded for the PC.

Well, to be honest, as a CASUAL gamer, I don't have any knowledge about how well something runs, so its not absurd to assume that game engine behind the game is what makes it run smoothly or not. What makes a game run well on a PC? Game Coding? Optimizations?

Like I said before...I don't mind other engines, I highly enjoy Resident Evil 5 for the PC, as well as Devil May Cry 4. Both of these game did come out after Gears of War PC right? Should I not attribute that engine running in the background is what makes it play alot more smoothly than the Gears of War PC engine?

If you're saying Batman:AA runs well on low (again, I don't mind graphical settings on low which I think you're assuming I'm running on high settings with 16x AA @ 1600x900 resolution with Gears of War PC) I'm willing to give it a shot BUT...I can't even get the Demo to run on my PC. It doesn't even launch without a .Net Framework error. Do you want to help me run the Demo so I can test the game?

I would base a purchase on how well the demo runs as well as how other games based on the same engine runs on my computer. Slow. Stuttering.

Graphically on low settings is still nice to look at albeit worse than x360/ps3 settings, I don't mind that.

So in my mind...

Gears of War PC on the Unreal Engine stutters...on low settings...

Batman: AA PC demo doesn't even run on my computer.

I've just have 2 bad influences from the unreal engine.

So...out of all the games on this list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games#Unreal_Engine_3

Which is best optimized Unreal Engine 3 game that has some sort of demo I can play that's comparable to Batman AA?