Power 3D



Power 3D (stylized as POWER 3D) is the underlying 2.5D first person graphics engine written by Kevin Stokes and used by Lethal Tender (1993), Terminal Terror (1994) and the 3D Game Creation System (1995, 1998, 2001) and associated games. It was also going to be used in a later cancelled German FPS in development by Pie in the Sky Software.

Originally inspired by Wolfenstien 3D by id Software, it featured several features beyond it including diagonal walls, multiple wall heights, stairs and height blocks. It also featured several then singular gameplay features for first-person shooters such as an inventory system, the ability to pick up written notes, a distinctive implementation of jumping, and more.

It remained however grid-based, unlike the sector-based designs of the Doom, Build and Jedi engines. In this sense, it was somewhat similar the early grid-based draft of Build created by Ken Silverman pre-June 1993 or the highly modified Wolfenstein 3D engine used in Rise of the Triad.

Version 2.x of the GCS, also known as the Win95 GCS Replacement Engine, was released in December 1998 and converted it to DirectX and made it true-3D, featuring the ability to look up and down. The final version 3.x was released in 2001 and upgraded it with more 3D geometry, MD2 models from id Tech 2 and better lighting and post effects.