Lithtech
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Image:Jupiter Ex.PNG Lithtech is a game engine which was initially developed by Monolith Productions in collaboration with Microsoft. Monolith later formed a separate company, LithTech Inc., to deal with further advancements of the engine technology and currently, after a change of its corporate identity, LithTech Inc. is known as Touchdown Entertainment. A number of different video game developers, including Monolith itself, has been using Lithtech to power their first-person shooter games, thus contributing to the success of the engine, establishing it as an alternative to other products, such as the Quake and Unreal engines. The Lithtech engine is continually being developed, and as of 2005, its latest incarnation has been codenamed Jupiter Extended or Jupiter EX for short.
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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 technology, but that deal fell through. Monolith continued development on their own and were able to license the engine to other companies. After a corporate reorganization, the Lithtech team was split off into a separate company, which is now known as Touchdown Entertainment.
Lithtech 1.0 did not compare favorably to the more powerful Quake and Unreal engines, lacking advanced graphical features found in its competitors' products. It was however, lauded for its ease of programming: this was a direct result of its development history, being originally planned as part of DirectX and a programming system originally conceived as a way to simplify game development.
The 1.5, or Talon version of the Lithtech engine supported advanced animations, and was a much better engine, rivaling the Quake 3 engine and Unreal Tournament version of the Unreal engine. It had many newer features, such as facial animations and some vehicle support. Despite this, it was intended as a partial step towards the true next-generation version of the Lithtech engine, hence its designation as version 1.5.
The Lithtech engine was completely overhauled with the release of 2.0 or Jupiter. With this version, Lithtech was better able to compete, in areas such as graphical features as well as graphical appeal, with its main competitors, the Unreal and Quake engines.
The latest incarnation of the Lithtech engine, known as Jupiter Extended or Jupiter EX for short, was featured in the 2005 computer games, F.E.A.R. and Condemned: Criminal Origins.
Lithtech implementations
The following is a partial list of computer games built with the Lithtech engine. If not otherwise stated the game was/is developed by Monolith Productions.
Lithtech 1.0
- Shogo: Mobile Armor Division (1998)
- Blood II: The Chosen (1998)
- Legends of Might and Magic (1997)
Lithtech 1.5: Talon
- No One Lives Forever (2000)
- Sanity: Aiken's Artifact (2000)
- KISS: Psycho Circus by Third Law Interactive (2000)
- Aliens versus Predator 2 (2001)
- Face of Mankind by Duplex Systems (2001)
- Global Operations by Barking Dog Studios (now known as Rockstar Vancouver) (2002)
- Might and Magic IX (a.k.a Might and Magic IX: Writ of Fate) by New World Computing (2002)
- Gods and Generals by Anivision (2003)
Lithtech 2.0: Jupiter
- No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way (2002)
- Contract J.A.C.K. (2003)
- Tron 2.0 (2003; used the Triton engine, a heavily modified version of the Jupiter engine)
- The Matrix Online (2005)
- Mob Enforcer by Touchdown Entertainment (2004)
- Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault by EA Games (2005)
- Face of Mankind by Duplex Systems (2005)
Jupiter Extended (EX)
- F.E.A.R. (2005)
- Condemned: Criminal Origins (2005)