MT Framework

Developer(s)	Capcom
Platform	Windows,Xbox 360,PlayStation 3,Xbox One,PlayStation 4,Nintendo Switch,Wii U,Wii,Nintendo 3DS,PlayStation Vita,iOS,Android
License	Proprietary

MT Framework is agame engine created byCapcom. "MT" stands for "Multi-Thread", "Meta Tools" and "Multi-Target". While initially MT Framework was intended to power 2006'sDead Rising andLost Planet: Extreme Condition only, Capcom later decided for their internal development divisions to adopt it as their default engine. As a result, the vast majority of their internally developed video games for thePlayStation 3 andXbox 360 platforms were created on it, including four new titles and threeremastered ports of past titles in theResident Evil series.^[1] The visuals of the first games built with the engine were well received, and MT Framework has also won aCEDEC award.^[2]

Throughout the years MT Framework received various updates, most significant of which was a major revision calledMT Framework 2.0, introduced withLost Planet 2 in 2010. Additionally, two offshoots of the engine have been made;MT Framework Lite targets theWii and PlayStation 3 consoles, andMT Framework Mobile powers games for theNintendo 3DS,PlayStation Vita,Android andiOS.

As of 2014, Capcom's stance on the future of the engine is that while it will continue to be used to create games for theseventh generation of video game consoles,smartphones andhandhelds.RE Engine, which was used to developResident Evil 7: Biohazard, serves as the successor to the engine for developing games for theeighth generation of video game consoles.

Before the creation of MT Framework, Capcom's internal development teams were each using engines and tools of their own design, a process that was deemed inefficient. Thus, the decision to build an engine that would support the needs of all of Capcom's developers was made.^[3] At first MT Framework was being developed to be used inDead Rising andLost Planet: Extreme Condition only. Capcom evaluated theUnreal Engine 3 engine for adoption as their internal engine, but decided against it due to some performance limitations and difficulties of getting technical support from its American developer,Epic Games, in Japan. As such, the decision to further develop MT Framework and extend its internal use was made.^[4]

Development of MT Framework had begun in September 2004 based on theOnimusha 3 engine. The engine was built to use PC development tools and initially target theXbox 360 system because of its similarity to the PC platform. In 2004 the project had started by just one programmer but in the following years and as they added support for more platforms more people joined in.^[4] Because of its PC development tools, video games can be programmed first on the PC, and then adjusted to run on console hardware.^[5] MT framework supportsmultithreading techniques to take advantage of the multicore CPUs that are being used in the Xbox 360 andPlayStation 3 consoles, as well as modern PCs.^[6]

ForLost Planet: Extreme Condition and its use of MT Framework, Capcom highlighted the following features supported by the engine: a lightmotion blur effect called "2.5D motion blur" (based on the "Stupid OpenGL Shader Tricks" presentation by Simon Green at theGame Developers Conference 2003)^[7] is supported to help smooth 30fps games;Light-Space Perspective Shadow Maps,^[8] a form ofshadow mapping, is used for the rendering of the shadows and a technique calledPercentage Closer Filtering to smooth them;normal mapping,HDR rendering, softparticles, variable amounts ofMSAA, and a technique with which particles can be rendered at 1/4th of the full resolution for the benefit of performance; basicphysics handling by the integratedHavok middleware, and a custom physics engine to handle character-local physics calculations such ascloth physics andinverse kinematics.^[4]

The first significant update to the engine was the release of the PC version ofLost Planet: Extreme Condition, which was the second PC game to support DirectX 10 and the first with aDirectX 10 demo.^[9][10]Ambient occlusion andparallax occlusion mapping support was added to the engine, and under DirectX 10 improved soft shadow rendering, and by the use ofvertex shaders, less artifact-prone motion blur,fur shading and improveddepth of field with abokeh-like appearance.^[11][12][13] The two games on PC that followedLost Planet: Extreme Condition -Devil May Cry 4 andResident Evil 5 - also featured DirectX 10 support, but Capcom decided against using it to improve upon the visuals,^[14][15] thus making them look largely the same as when running underDirectX 9.^[16][17] However,Resident Evil 5 under DirectX 10,^[18] was the first video game to be presented fully instereoscopic 3D, including all of itscutscenes, and the first to be rated as"3D Vision Ready" by Nvidia.^[19] Later re-releases of the two games on PC removed DirectX 10 support.^[20][21]

A major update to the engine called MT Framework 2.0 began development in January 2008 and made its debut with the release ofLost Planet 2 in 2010. According to Capcom, several parts of the engine were re-written from scratch and as a result it performs better on the PlayStation 3 hardware, compared to the previous version of the engine which was first built with the Xbox 360 in mind. Capcom highlighted the interactivity between characters and vegetation inLost Planet 2 as one of the significant improvements made possible with the new engine, but also noted because the game began development on the previous version of the engine it doesn't fully represent the capabilities of the new iteration. Capcom further commented that MT Framework 2.0 is able to hide the specifics of the hardware and the supported shader models from programmers, enabling them to write more platform-agnostic code than before, and reducing their burden. In Capcom's 2011 annual report, it was confirmed that 80% of MT Framework's development process is common between the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms, something which reduced development costs.^[22] Lastly, Capcom made possible for the first time for external contract studios that would partner with them, to use the engine.^[23] The first externally developed game to use MT Framework 2 wasMarvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.^[24]

The PC version ofLost Planet 2 released some months after the console versions in 2010, added support forDirectX 11 features such astessellation,displacement mapping and the use ofDirectCompute forsoft body simulation andwave simulation.^[25] Later MT Framework 2.0 games released on PC were DirectX 9 only.

Another significant update was made forDragon's Dogma, released in 2012. Previous MT Framework games were "stage-based" with each stage divided by aloading screen. BecauseDragon's Dogma's levels are tens to hundreds times larger than in previous MT titles, and the structure of the game isopen world, the only way they could make it work on the engine was by adapting it to be able to move in and out of memory portions of the game world as needed. Another improvement is that the engine moved from using a forward renderer to a hybrid one that makes use ofdeferred lighting (also known as Light Pre-Pass).^[26] This made it possible to support a 24-hour cycle and weather variation and an "infinite" number of lights. Other changes include support for real-time variation of a character model andFXAA.^[27] Building on top ofDragon's Dogma's updated technology,Resident Evil 6 addedSSAO,^[28] and improved hair rendering (based on the "Light Scattering from Human Hair Fibers" paper presented atSIGGRAPH 2003)^[29] along withfacial expressions and eye movement.^[26]Monster Hunter: World, released in 2018, can output inHDR.^[30]

In late October 2009, it was reported that Capcom was bringing MT Framework to Wii to reduce the development time and costs of developing Wii games.^[31]Sengoku BASARA 3 was confirmed as the first game running on MT Framework Lite, a special version of the engine targeting the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 hardware. At E3 2010,Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition andResident Evil: Revelations were announced as upcoming games for theNintendo 3DS, and in late September 2010, the two games along withResident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D andMega Man Legends 3 were revealed to be running on MT Framework Mobile, a new version of the engine, based on MT Framework 2.0, specifically designed for the Nintendo 3DS.^[32][33] Capcom noted that thanks to MT Framework Mobile,Resident Evil: Revelations features a graphics rendering pipeline that is almost identical to that ofResident Evil 5, supporting HDR rendering, self shadowing, normal mapping, color correction, gamma correction, depth of field, motion blur and anti-aliasing on the Nintendo 3DS hardware.^[24] In late January 2011, Capcom demonstrated the intro ofLost Planet 2 running on MT Framework Mobile on the "Next Generation Portable", later renamed toPlayStation Vita.^[34] The Vita version ofUltimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was the first MT Framework Mobile game to be released on the hardware. MT Framework Mobile's support for iOS was later also announced,^[35] and the first game to use the engine on theiPhone was the port ofPhoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, released in 2014.

In a 2014 interview with Masaru Ijuin, an engineer behind MT Framework and the upcoming proprietary Capcom enginePanta Rhei, it was detailed that Capcom plans to move to the new engine starting withDeep Down but will continue the use of MT Framework for games developed for the seventh generation of consoles as well as MT Framework Mobile for handhelds and smartphones.^[36] He stated that "creators will have to start back at square one when they learn how [to] develop games using Panta Rhei" but the overall efficiency of development would increase more than it would if they had merely updated MT Framework. In June 2016,Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was announced and revealed to be running on a new proprietary engine by Capcom namedRE Engine. RE Engine was said that it, too, will power multiple upcoming Capcom games.^[37] However Capcom chose MT Framework to build 2018'sMonster Hunter: World, despite the game targeting PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and modern PCs, as they felt the existence of custom toolsets built into the engine from previousMonster Hunter titles, would benefit its development.^[38]

• 2006 software
• 3D graphics software
• Capcom
• Video game engines

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