So I've been trying to figure out what game engine MechWarrior 4 used, and the only even vaguely reliable lead I have is the mention of GameOS version 1.1 from 2000 in its crash logs. Links 2003 mentions GameOS 1.1 in its crash logs as well from slightly earlier in 2000, the crash logs are nearly identical in format too. Both games are from Microsoft. So either GameOS is a middleware both use, or an actual game engine, but finding more information on GameOS is nigh impossible due to the generic name and people typoing games as gameos on the internet, so I couldn't really find any good information on that besides a rumor that I can't verify that says MW4 used GameOS and I think it mentioned MW2 used it as well, but I can't really find any links between MW2 and MW4.
Looking around for more information provided me with pcgamingwiki link which mentions GameOS specific launch parameters which handle sound, graphics, memory management and controller support, so I'm fairly confident GameOS is indeed the game engine.
Another common trait between MW4 and Links 2001/2003 is the presence of Blade.dll, a software rasterization interface when 3D acceleration fails (I presume).
So questions that I still have left, since it's pretty obvious what engine those three games use is, are: Who made it? Was it Microsoft? What other games use it?
I somehow think several Microsoft published games from 2000-2003 period can probably be verified to having used it at least, error logs tend to linger on the internet fortunately long for this.
I'll be looking into this myself a bit more along with making a tag for the engine, but I'm pretty sure I've largely hit a wall in regards to finding information on the engine itself, though not what games used it.
MechWarrior 4 & Links 2001/2003 used GameOS?
Interesting, maybe trying to contact some dev could be an idea :)
In the meantime,I found these two games ... Is there a dupe ?
http://www.uvlist.net/game-45743-MechWarrior+4+Vengeance
http://www.uvlist.net/game-101785-MechWarrior+4+Mercenaries
In the meantime,I found these two games ... Is there a dupe ?
http://www.uvlist.net/game-45743-MechWarrior+4+Vengeance
http://www.uvlist.net/game-101785-MechWarrior+4+Mercenaries
Short answer: no.
Mercenaries was a different game based on Vengeance, less story driven overall following a mercenary company unlike Vengeance which followed House Davion (edit: House Steiner) or something like that. MechWarrior series has had a habit of having a mercenary company focused game and another that's focused on one of the clans or houses of the Battletech universe. Sort of a sub-brand that hasn't had too many games in it.
Edit 2: MechWarrior 2 previously had a Mercenaries version, and the upcoming MechWarrior 5 I think only has Mercenaries type release (so far).
Anyway, I've tagged the games I know to have used GameOS.. I had surprisingly little luck finding more games using it though, but I did find out who made it as the information on the tag now includes.
Mercenaries was a different game based on Vengeance, less story driven overall following a mercenary company unlike Vengeance which followed House Davion (edit: House Steiner) or something like that. MechWarrior series has had a habit of having a mercenary company focused game and another that's focused on one of the clans or houses of the Battletech universe. Sort of a sub-brand that hasn't had too many games in it.
Edit 2: MechWarrior 2 previously had a Mercenaries version, and the upcoming MechWarrior 5 I think only has Mercenaries type release (so far).
Anyway, I've tagged the games I know to have used GameOS.. I had surprisingly little luck finding more games using it though, but I did find out who made it as the information on the tag now includes.
Oh, and I found out Blade software rasterizer is not(?) part of GameOS apparently, since it's used in at least one game that doesn't use GameOS, though the GOS developer was involved with that game.