Dark Engine
Encyclopedia
The Dark Engine is the computer game engine
used for the Looking Glass Studios
games Thief: The Dark Project
(1998), Thief II: The Metal Age
(2000), and the Looking Glass/Irrational Games
title System Shock 2
(1999).
-like skybox
effects and colored lighting introduced in Thief 2. Due to the limited hardware of the time, the Dark Engine was not designed with scalability in mind, and can therefore only display 1024 terrain polygons
onscreen at once, as well as various other limits on objects and lights. In terms of textures, the game supports palletized PCX
and TGA
textures
, in powers of two up to 256x256. Textures are grouped in "families" which share the same palette
. There is a maximum of 216 textures and independent palettes, excluding 8 animated water textures.
The engine does not natively support advanced game scripting, with AI and object behavior being controlled by 'Object Script Module' (.OSM) files, which are DLLs which are loaded at runtime. As such, new modules can be written and plugged into the level editor, DromEd, but are limited due to the scope of the functions made available by the core engine. In order to overcome this, editors must resort to complicated Rube Goldberg machine
-like effects using a combination of its other systems.
For its time, the Dark Engine offers advanced AI and sound features, as well as a powerful object-oriented object system.
The designer has full control of sound propagation within the level, and the "artificial intelligence
" of the non-player character
s (NPCs) allows for three levels of awareness: vague acknowledgement caused by mild visual or auditive disturbances, which only prompts a startled bit of dialogue; definite acknowledgement caused by significant visual or auditive disturbances which causes the NPC to enter "search mode", and definite acquisition (triggered by visual on the fully lit player, or face-first contact with a player regardless of the light level), prompting a direct attack.
. The code was a complete set of the engine's resources, and included the libraries needed to compile the code. Fans of the Thief and System Shock series subsequently petitioned the publisher to consider releasing the code. The ramifications of releasing this set of code is currently being reviewed by lawyers at the company.
In late April 2010, a user on the Dreamcast Talk forum disassembled the contents of a Dreamcast
development kit he had purchased. The contents of the kit included, among other things, items pertaining to ports of Thief 2 and System Shock 2 to that system. By December 2010, it had been discovered by the user and subsequently the greater Looking Glass Studios fan community that a compact disk included with the kit - the contents of which had been uploaded to the Internet - included a second copy of the Dark Engine source, minus the libraries needed to compile the code.
for the Dark Engine. It was originally used in the design of Thief: The Dark Project, but after a petition from the fan community it was released to the public, as were later versions.
There are four different versions of DromEd: for Thief: The Dark Project, for Thief Gold, for Thief II, and lastly for System Shock 2, commonly called "ShockEd." DromEd for Thief: The Dark Project and Thief Gold use the same version of the Dark Engine and therefore can open levels created for each game, although Thief Gold levels may refer to in-game objects that are not found in Thief. Thief II uses a revised version of the Dark Engine, and therefore it is difficult to open levels created for Thief with DromEd for Thief II. ShockEd is not compatible with any Dark Engine games aside from System Shock 2. However, basic level geometry can be moved between editors using a geometry export feature called "multibrush". System Shock 2 levels can be loaded by DromEd 2 with some work.
The name of the level editor, DromEd, is a reference to the original project it was designed for — a game based on the Arthurian legend of Camelot
— the Camel becoming Dromedary and thence Dromed. DromEd has been used by fans to create upward of 800 fan missions for Thief and Thief II, and several missions for System Shock 2.
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
used for the Looking Glass Studios
Looking Glass Studios
Looking Glass Studios was a computer game development company during the 1990s.The company originally formed as Looking Glass Technologies, when Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research merged....
games Thief: The Dark Project
Thief: The Dark Project
Thief: The Dark Project is a 1998 first-person stealth game developed for Windows by Looking Glass Studios and published by Eidos Interactive...
(1998), Thief II: The Metal Age
Thief II: The Metal Age
Thief II: The Metal Age is a 2000 first-person stealth game developed by Looking Glass Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. The sequel to Thief: The Dark Project, the game's plot follows Garrett, a master thief, as he attempts to uncover a conspiracy in a medieval, steampunk city...
(2000), and the Looking Glass/Irrational Games
Irrational Games
Irrational Games is a video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier as Irrational Games...
title System Shock 2
System Shock 2
System Shock 2 is a 1999 first-person action role-playing video game, designed by Ken Levine for Microsoft Windows. The title is a sequel to the 1994 PC game System Shock, and was co-developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios...
(1999).
Features
The Dark Engine's renderer, originally created by Sean Barrett in 1995, supports graphics similar to that of the original Quake, with UnrealUnreal
Unreal is a first-person shooter video game developed by Epic MegaGames and Digital Extremes and published by GT Interactive in May 1998...
-like skybox
Skybox (video games)
A skybox is a method of creating backgrounds to make a computer and video games level look bigger than it really is. When a skybox is used, the level is enclosed in a cuboid; and the sky, distant mountains, distant buildings, and other unreachable objects are projected onto the cube's faces , thus...
effects and colored lighting introduced in Thief 2. Due to the limited hardware of the time, the Dark Engine was not designed with scalability in mind, and can therefore only display 1024 terrain polygons
Polygon (computer graphics)
Polygons are used in computer graphics to compose images that are three-dimensional in appearance. Usually triangular, polygons arise when an object's surface is modeled, vertices are selected, and the object is rendered in a wire frame model. This is quicker to display than a shaded model; thus...
onscreen at once, as well as various other limits on objects and lights. In terms of textures, the game supports palletized PCX
PCX
PCX is an image file format developed by the now-defunct ZSoft Corporation of Marietta, Georgia. It was the native file format for PC Paintbrush and became one of the first widely accepted DOS imaging standards, although it has since been succeeded by more sophisticated image formats, such as GIF,...
and TGA
Truevision TGA
Truevision TGA, often referred to as TARGA, is a raster graphics file format created by Truevision Inc. . It was the native format of TARGA and VISTA boards, which were the first graphic cards for IBM-compatible PCs to support Highcolor/truecolor display...
textures
Texture mapping
Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...
, in powers of two up to 256x256. Textures are grouped in "families" which share the same palette
Palette (computing)
In computer graphics, a palette is either a given, finite set of colors for the management of digital images , or a small on-screen graphical element for choosing from a limited set of choices, not necessarily colors .Depending on the context In computer graphics, a palette is either a given,...
. There is a maximum of 216 textures and independent palettes, excluding 8 animated water textures.
The engine does not natively support advanced game scripting, with AI and object behavior being controlled by 'Object Script Module' (.OSM) files, which are DLLs which are loaded at runtime. As such, new modules can be written and plugged into the level editor, DromEd, but are limited due to the scope of the functions made available by the core engine. In order to overcome this, editors must resort to complicated Rube Goldberg machine
Rube Goldberg machine
A Rube Goldberg machine, contraption, device, or apparatus is a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction...
-like effects using a combination of its other systems.
For its time, the Dark Engine offers advanced AI and sound features, as well as a powerful object-oriented object system.
The designer has full control of sound propagation within the level, and the "artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
" of the non-player character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s (NPCs) allows for three levels of awareness: vague acknowledgement caused by mild visual or auditive disturbances, which only prompts a startled bit of dialogue; definite acknowledgement caused by significant visual or auditive disturbances which causes the NPC to enter "search mode", and definite acquisition (triggered by visual on the fully lit player, or face-first contact with a player regardless of the light level), prompting a direct attack.
Source Code
In 2009, a complete copy of the Dark Engine source code was discovered in the possession of an ex-Looking Glass Studios employee who was at the time continuing his work for Eidos InteractiveEidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
. The code was a complete set of the engine's resources, and included the libraries needed to compile the code. Fans of the Thief and System Shock series subsequently petitioned the publisher to consider releasing the code. The ramifications of releasing this set of code is currently being reviewed by lawyers at the company.
In late April 2010, a user on the Dreamcast Talk forum disassembled the contents of a Dreamcast
Sega Dreamcast
The is a 128-bit video game console which was released by Sega in late 1998 in Japan and from September 1999 in other territories. It was the first entry in the sixth generation of video game consoles, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube.Dreamcast sales were...
development kit he had purchased. The contents of the kit included, among other things, items pertaining to ports of Thief 2 and System Shock 2 to that system. By December 2010, it had been discovered by the user and subsequently the greater Looking Glass Studios fan community that a compact disk included with the kit - the contents of which had been uploaded to the Internet - included a second copy of the Dark Engine source, minus the libraries needed to compile the code.
DromEd
DromEd is the level editorLevel editor
A level editor is a software tool used to design levels, maps, campaigns, etc and virtual worlds for a video game. In some cases the creator of a video game releases an official level editor for a game, but other times the community of fans step in to fill the void...
for the Dark Engine. It was originally used in the design of Thief: The Dark Project, but after a petition from the fan community it was released to the public, as were later versions.
There are four different versions of DromEd: for Thief: The Dark Project, for Thief Gold, for Thief II, and lastly for System Shock 2, commonly called "ShockEd." DromEd for Thief: The Dark Project and Thief Gold use the same version of the Dark Engine and therefore can open levels created for each game, although Thief Gold levels may refer to in-game objects that are not found in Thief. Thief II uses a revised version of the Dark Engine, and therefore it is difficult to open levels created for Thief with DromEd for Thief II. ShockEd is not compatible with any Dark Engine games aside from System Shock 2. However, basic level geometry can be moved between editors using a geometry export feature called "multibrush". System Shock 2 levels can be loaded by DromEd 2 with some work.
The name of the level editor, DromEd, is a reference to the original project it was designed for — a game based on the Arthurian legend of Camelot
Camelot
Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world...
— the Camel becoming Dromedary and thence Dromed. DromEd has been used by fans to create upward of 800 fan missions for Thief and Thief II, and several missions for System Shock 2.