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Lithtech is a game engine created by Monolith Productions.
Monolith uses the engine for their own games, but the Lithtech engine is also offered as an alternative for the Quake and Unreal engines.
Development history
The Lithtech engine was originally developed by Monolith for Microsoft, to be included as a 3D engine for use with Microsoft's DirectX, but that deal fell through. Monolith continued development on their own, and they have also licensed the engine to other companies.
Monolith Productions is no longer involved in Lithtech's development. The Lithtech team, after a corporate reorganization split off into a separate company. The Lithtech engine is continually developed, and as of early 2004 the latest version is called the Lithtech Jupiter engine, or version 2.x.
Lithtech 1.0 did not compare favourably to the more powerful Quake and Unreal engines, but it is lauded for the ease of programming in it. This is a direct result of its development history: it was originally planned as part of DirectX, a programming system originally conceived as a way to simplify game development. Still, Lithtech games did not look as good as the competition, and lacked some advanced graphical features.
The Lithtech engine was completely overhauled with the 2.0 or Jupiter version: Lithtech Jupiter games can directly compete with Unreal- or Quake-powered games in features, and the graphics are at a comparable level.
The latest incarnation of the Lithtech engine will be featured in the as-yet-unreleased game F.E.A.R. It does not appear to have a respective codename and has been referred to as FEAR Technology by Touchdown Entertainment, the company that now appears to be responsible for Lithtech's development.
Lithtech implementations
The following is a partial list of computer games built with the Lithtech engine.
Lithtech 1.0
Of this list, the Blood games were a moderate success, and NOLF was a real hit. The other games were not so successful.
Lithtech 2.0 "Jupiter"
FEAR Technology
External links
- lithtech.com (http://www.lithtech.com/) - Official website for the Lithtech Jupiter engine licensing
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