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Pie in the Sky is a 2.5D and 3D first person shooter engine most popular in the mid-to-late 1990s by Pie in the Sky Software, also known as Power 3D and the 3D Game Creation or 3D Game Creation System engine. The engine was used in two games by the company as well as many other independent games and amateur projects after it was turned into a game creator, largely because it minimized the amount of computer programming knowledge needed to make 3D games in its editing tools. ==History== The company first learned to program 3D by creating a modestly popular TSR 3D screen saver called InnerMission in 1987. After more developments, they developed a 3D flight simulator ''Corncob 3D'' in 1992. The game was inspired by a flight simulator for the Apple II. The game was first released as shareware and then later commercially as ''Corncob Deluxe'' by MVP Software. After seeing ''Wolfenstein 3D'', they wrote a new 3D engine in C and used it in the first person shooter ''Lethal Tender'' in 1993. Based on that, they were hired by a German group to create a German first person shooter. Pie in the Sky released ''Terminal Terror'', the sequel to ''Lethal Tender'', in 1994. The development of this game, to be published by Expert Software, had taken precedence over the German development and thus strained the relationship. The game was relatively successful, but the company sensed they were unable to keep up and stay ahead of other first person shooter developers. To get around this and enter a niche market, they decided to create the ''3D Game Creation System'' and market themselves to consumers who wanted to make their own 3D games. It is first used by games such as ''Red Babe'' by The DaRK CaVErN Productions and ''La Cosa Nostra'' by Slade 3D Software. In 1995 it was used in the ''Despair'' series, ''Terror in Christmas Town'', ''Deer Napped'', and ''Castaway: The Ordeal Begins''. Meanwhile, the various bugs in the program were worked out and upgrades and patches were released, partly because of the rushed development of the system in the first place. The contract with the German group changed, and instead the new game creation system was re-released in German as well as English. The engine was ported to Microsoft Windows and Direct X in 1998, as well as updating it beyond ''Wolfenstein 3D''-like standards. The company had first detected the decline of DOS in 1994, and had decided to port to Windows and adopt 3D API technology using the Renderware library. This was first attempted in a racing game called ''Baja Bash'', but emphasis was switched to converting the old game creation engine because of market demands, time constraints, and some criticism of the later game - despite its attempted physics advances. Because of licensing constraints however, they eventually opted to use Direct3D. In this updated form that it was used in the game ''Pencil Whipped'', designed for the 2000 Independent Games Festival. ''Chub Gam 3D'', an earlier freeware game, was reissued in director's cut form in 1998. In 2001 the third version of the engine was released, featuring true-3D polygonal enemies and weapons, 3D terrain, super lighting effects, and other improvements. The engine ceased being sold in May 2003 and soon after the Pie in the Sky company website came down. The book ''3D Game Creation'' by Luke Ahearn for Cyberrookies has a section which examines making games using the ''Pie in the Sky'' development tools,〔(3D Game Creation (Cyberrookies) ) - Amazon.com〕 and the system, alongside ''GameMaker: Studio'', ''Construct'', ''The Games Factory'' and ''FPS Creator'', was used in the "Problem Solving through Game Creation" course put out by the College of Engineering and Applied Science. In 2010 the company was restarted, and has created a physics engine demo and a dice simulation for the Android operating system, tested on the Motorola Droid.〔(Pie 3D Physics Demo v1.0 - AndroLib.com )〕 The choice of a physics engine is likely inspired by the popularity of the ''Corncob 3D'' physics. The company's new website notes "the focus will be more about making fun stuff that being a money-producing business." The rebirth of the company was inspired by a feeling that small companies can make a better headway in the mobile market than on the PC market, based on their struggling experience trying to keep the ''Pie in the Sky'' tools current to big name standards in the 1990s.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pie in the Sky (game engine)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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