Quake II engine
Encyclopedia
id Tech 2, also known as the Quake II engine is a game engine
developed by id Software
for use in their games, most notably Quake II
. Since its release, the Quake II engine has been licensed for use in several other games.
One of the engine's most notable features was out-of-the-box support for hardware-accelerated graphics, specifically OpenGL
, along with the traditional software renderer.
Another interesting feature was the subdivision of some of the components into dynamic-link libraries
. This allowed both software and OpenGL renderers, which were switched between by loading and unloading separate libraries.
Libraries were also used for the game logic, for two reasons:
The level format, as with previous id Software engines, used BSP
. The levels were lit through a lightmap method, in which light data for each surface is precalculated (this time, via a radiosity method) and stored as an image in the level file, which is then used to determine how much lighting intensity each model should receive, but not its direction.
John Carmack released the source code on 22 December 2001 under the terms of the GNU General Public License
.
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
developed by id Software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
for use in their games, most notably Quake II
Quake II
Quake II, released on December 9, 1997, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Id Software and distributed by Activision. It is not a sequel to Quake; it merely uses the name of the former game due to Id's difficulties in coming up with alternative names.The soundtrack for Quake II...
. Since its release, the Quake II engine has been licensed for use in several other games.
One of the engine's most notable features was out-of-the-box support for hardware-accelerated graphics, specifically OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
, along with the traditional software renderer.
Another interesting feature was the subdivision of some of the components into dynamic-link libraries
Dynamic-link library
Dynamic-link library , or DLL, is Microsoft's implementation of the shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems...
. This allowed both software and OpenGL renderers, which were switched between by loading and unloading separate libraries.
Libraries were also used for the game logic, for two reasons:
- id could release the source code to allow modifications while keeping the remainder of the engine proprietary.
- Since they were compiled for a native platform, instead of an interpreterInterpreter (computing)In computer science, an interpreter normally means a computer program that executes, i.e. performs, instructions written in a programming language...
, they could run faster than Quakes solution, which was to run the game logic (QuakeCQuakeCQuakeC is an interpreted language developed in 1996 by John Carmack of id Software to program parts of the computer game Quake. Using QuakeC, a programmer is able to customize Quake to great extents by adding weapons, changing game logic and physics, and programming complex scenarios...
) in a limited interpreter.
The level format, as with previous id Software engines, used BSP
Binary space partitioning
In computer science, binary space partitioning is a method for recursively subdividing a space into convex sets by hyperplanes. This subdivision gives rise to a representation of the scene by means of a tree data structure known as a BSP tree.Originally, this approach was proposed in 3D computer...
. The levels were lit through a lightmap method, in which light data for each surface is precalculated (this time, via a radiosity method) and stored as an image in the level file, which is then used to determine how much lighting intensity each model should receive, but not its direction.
John Carmack released the source code on 22 December 2001 under the terms of the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
.
Games using a proprietary license
- Quake IIQuake IIQuake II, released on December 9, 1997, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Id Software and distributed by Activision. It is not a sequel to Quake; it merely uses the name of the former game due to Id's difficulties in coming up with alternative names.The soundtrack for Quake II...
(1997) - id SoftwareId SoftwareId Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack... - Heretic IIHeretic IIHeretic II is a fantasy action-adventure game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision in 1998 continuing the story of Corvus, the main character from its predecessor, Heretic....
(1998) - Raven SoftwareRaven SoftwareRaven Software is an American video game developer. The company was founded in 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them... - Sin (1998) - Ritual EntertainmentRitual EntertainmentRitual Entertainment was a computer game software developer established in 1996 by Robert Atkins, Mark Dochtermann, Jim Dosé, Richard 'Levelord' Gray, Michael Hadwin, Harry Miller and Tom Mustaine...
- Kingpin: Life of CrimeKingpin: Life of CrimeKingpin: Life of Crime is a first-person shooter developed by Xatrix Entertainment and published by Interplay Entertainment in June 1999. The game begins with the player character wounded and beaten up by the Kingpin's henchmen, and the story follows his thirst for revenge...
(1999) - Xatrix Entertainment - Soldier of Fortune (2000) - Raven SoftwareRaven SoftwareRaven Software is an American video game developer. The company was founded in 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them...
- DaikatanaDaikatanaJohn Romero's Daikatana, or simply Daikatana, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. Released on May 23, 2000 for Windows, it was led by John Romero. The game is known as one of the major commercial failures of the computer game industry....
(2000) - Ion StormIon stormIon storm may refer to:* Ion Storm, a defunct games software company.* An interplanetary coronal mass ejection , a disruption of the fast and slow solar winds, often called "ion storm", "solar storm" or "space storm"... - AnachronoxAnachronoxAnachronox is a 2001 third-person computer role-playing game produced by Tom Hall and the Dallas Ion Storm games studio. It offers gameplay in the style of console RPGs, such as Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy series...
(2001) - Ion StormIon stormIon storm may refer to:* Ion Storm, a defunct games software company.* An interplanetary coronal mass ejection , a disruption of the fast and slow solar winds, often called "ion storm", "solar storm" or "space storm"...
Games based on the GPL source release
- CodeRED: Alien ArenaCodeRED: Alien ArenaAlien Arena is a free, stand-alone first-person shooter computer game based on source code released by id Software. Begun by COR Entertainment in 2004, the game combines a 1950s-era sci-fi atmosphere with gameplay similar to the Quake, Doom, and Unreal Tournament series...
- COR Entertainment - War§ow - War§ow Team
- UFO: Alien InvasionUFO: Alien InvasionUFO: Alien Invasion is an open source strategy video game in which the player fights aliens that are trying to take control of the Earth. The game is heavily influenced by the X-COM series . It is based on a modified id Tech 2 engine, and runs on Linux, Microsoft Windows, AmigaOS 4, and Mac OS X...
- UFO: Alien Invasion Team - Digital Paint: Paintball 2
See also
- List of game engines
- First person shooter engine
- Doom engineDoom engineThe Doom engine is the game engine that powers the id Software games Doom and Doom II. It is also used by HeXen, Heretic, Strife, Freedoom, and HacX, and other games produced by licensees. It was created by John Carmack, with auxiliary functions written by Mike Abrash, John Romero, Dave Taylor and...
- Quake engineQuake engineThe Quake engine is the game engine that was written to power 1996's Quake, written by id Software. It featured true 3D real-time rendering and is now licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License ....
- id Tech 3