Dark Engine

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.

For its time, the Dark Engine offered 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 characters (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.

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 Interactive.

[2] In September 2012, a significant unofficial update to the Dark Engine was published anonymously in a French forum, most probably based on the leaked Dreamcast source code.