The original Call of Duty Warzone holds a very dear place in a lot of FPS fans’ hearts. While its current iteration still attracts millions of players, many believe it’s an inferior experience. Unless old content gets remade and re-released in the new Warzone (as we’ve seen with Rebirth Island, for example), the first game is now totally unplayable. However, out of nowhere, Activision just unvaulted the original’s final, large-scale map Caldera – but not in the way anyone would’ve predicted.
That’s because the publisher has released a free, open-source data set containing the full geometry of Caldera. While it will be texture-less, the full Call of Duty Warzone map is available to explore. So why has Activision dug up this old battleground from its dead FPS game and made it open-source? Well, it’s being used mainly as an educational tool.
The Caldera data set not only comes with the map’s “near-complete” geometry, but it also includes loads of randomized samples of player movement data, which will show developers how players traverse the map and where the hot spots for activity were. It’s rare to see a videogame data set of this type and scale be released, and it’s hoped a lot can be learned from academics and game devs’ analysis and study of it. Activision says that by making all this information about Caldera open source, it could also help improve future Call of Duty games.
“Innovations that come from this data set release could give more freedom and flexibility for our content teams to find the most engaging scenarios for our players,” says fellow software engineer Michael Vance.
However, as noble and righteous as this all seems, there is another side to this that certainly makes me feel a bit uneasy.
“Open-source assets like Caldera play a vital role in the advancement of artificial intelligence,” an Activision announcement post reads. “By providing a rich, diverse environment, we facilitate the training of AI models, enhancing the industry’s understanding of complex geometries and interactions. This can lead to more intelligent systems, paving the way for the next generation of gaming and simulation technologies.”
Yep, Caldera is going to help train AI tools. As you’ll probably have seen, big publishers’ intentions to lean more heavily on AI in game development, at a time where real developers have experienced a tidal wave of layoffs, hasn’t been best-received. It’s one of the most controversial talking points right now, and in truth, it’s not surprising to see it being one of Activision’s reasons for releasing all this data.
From the perspective of the CoD community, I think all of this does suggest one very interesting thing – Caldera will likely never return in Warzone again. Sure, it wasn’t well-liked by many, and doesn’t hold the legendary status that maps like Verdansk do. I don’t think anyone expected (or wanted) it to come back. But by releasing all of this data, it suggests to me that Activision has no need for Caldera in the future. It’s already brought back Rebirth Island, and it seems almost inevitable that Verdansk will one day return, but Caldera’s race seems to be run. At least it’s not going to rot in a content vault for the rest of days, though.
For more on some excellent multiplayer games like Warzone that you can play right now, check out our favorite battle royale games.
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