id Tech 2-3
The Quake engine was created by id Software for their 1996 game Quake, succeeding their earlier Doom engine, and was one of the first true 3D polygonal game engines along with Parallax Software's Descent engine and Bethesda Softworks' XnGine. It was later updated with coloured lighting and other features as the Quake II engine for Quake II in 1997, with both incarnations later termed id Tech 2 as part of the id Tech family. The Quake III engine from 1999 was a major re-write and later termed the id Tech 3 engine, most notably adding curved surfaces and mandating graphics acceleration.
The original Quake engine also formed the basis of the GoldSrc engine used by Half-Life in 1998, later reworked into the Source engine in 2004 for Half-Life 2, while the Quake III engine along with Ritual Entertainment's Übertools enhancements evolved into the IW engine used in the Call of Duty franchise. The original engine via source ports such as DarkPlaces has in more recent times been used in indie games such as Wrath: Aeon of Ruin and Doombringer.
The Quake source code was released in 1999, the Hexen II code in 2000, the Quake II code in 2001, and the Quake III code in 2005, with Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory code released in 2010. The id Tech 4 engine, launched in 2004 with Doom 3 followed by Quake 4 in 2005, saw its source code released in 2011, with the code for Doom 3: BFG Edition also released in 2012. Experimental ports of Quake 4 to the Doom 3 code have been attempted.
This was the last code release prior to id Software co-founder and open-source advocate John Carmack leaving the company in 2013, while still during the commercial lifespan of his final engine id Tech 5. Subsequent id Tech engines have been kept proprietary and lead by former CryEngine engineer Tiago Sousa (which ironically saw an open source incarnation itself via the Open 3D Engine in 2021).
Raven Software released the source code for Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Outcast and Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy in 2013 following the closure of LucasArts by Disney.
Games[]
Ranking Every Quake Engine Game (Including DarkPlaces) From Worst to Best
- Quake engine
- Quake (1996)
- Quake Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon (1997)
- Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity (1997)
- Team Fortress (1996; released online)
- Hexen II (1997)
- Quake: Abyss of Pandemonium - The Final Mission (1998)
- Malice: 23rd Century Ultraconversion for Quake (1998)
- Shark for Quake (1998)
- X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse for Quake (1998)
- The Sword of Ares (1998)
- Quake (1996)
Ranking Every Quake 2 (id Tech 2.5) Engine Game From Worst to Best
- Quake II engine
- Quake II (1998)
- Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning (1998)
- Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero (1998)
- Quake II Netpack I: Extremities (1998)
- Quake II - Vengeance (1998; cancelled)
- Action Quake II (1998; released online)
- Quake II: Unseen (1998; released online)
- Zaero for Quake II (1998)
- Juggernaut: The New Story for Quake II (1998)
- SiN (1998)
- SiN: Wages of Sin (1999)
- Kingpin: Life of Crime (1999)
- Quake II (1998)
Ranking Every Id Tech 3 Game From Worst to Best
- Quake III engine
- Quake III Arena (1999)
An expansion pack called Quake III: Team Arena was released by id Software in 2000, while Raven Software released Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force that same year, with Gray Matter Studios releasing Return to Castle Wolfenstein in 2001, and Splash Damage releasing Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory in 2003. Ritual Entertainment released Star Trek: Elite Force II that same year, utilizing its "Übertools" enhancements. All were published by Activision. Raven also developed the games Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy under license from LucasArts in 2002 and 2003.
Meanwhile Raven Software had released Soldier of Fortune through Activision using the Quake II engine back in 2000 (with the Quake III powered Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix in 2002), and Ion Storm through Eidos Interactive also released the long-delayed Daikatana and Anachronox that year, while Trainwreck Studios released Laser Arena through ValuSoft using the original Quake engine (while parent 2015 Inc started developing 2002's Medal of Honor: Allied Assault using the Quake III engine and Übertools).
See also[]
- QuArK level editor