In video games, the term destructible environment, or terrain deformation, refers to an environment within a game which can be wholly or partially destroyed by the player. It may refer to any part of the environment including terrain, buildings and other man-made structures.

An early example can be found in Dig Dug, in which the whole of each level is destructible and enemies can usually only follow the player through a combination of pre-made tracks and paths made by the player. In most games that feature destructible terrain, it is more common for only part of the environment to be destructible to prevent players being able to cut their way directly to the goal.

Another example is "Red Faction", released in 2001, which features the Geo-Mod engine and such allows destructible enviroments.

Newer iterations of this feature can be observed in games such as Crysis (CryEngine 2), Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, and Battlefield: Bad Company (Frostbite Engine). Future implementations will be core facets of gameplay and will be found in Far Cry 2 (Dunia game engine) and Fracture.

Notes

See also

• Deformable body
• Terrain rendering