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Id Tech
id Tech is a series of successive game engines designed and developed by id Software. Prior to the presentation of the id Tech 5-based game Rage in 2011, the engines lacked official designation and as such were simply referred to by the names of the games the engines had been developed for (i.e., Doom and Quake engines). The id Tech engines up through 4.5 have been released as free software under the GNU General Public License. id Tech versions 0 to 3 were released under GPL-2.0-or-later; id Tech versions 3.5 to 4.5 were released under GPL-3.0-or-later. id Tech 5 to 7 remain proprietary, with id Tech 8 currently being the latest engine.
According to Eurogamer.net, "id Software has been synonymous with PC game engines since the concept of a detached game engine was first popularised." However id Tech 4 had far fewer licensees than the Unreal Engine from Epic Games. id planned to regain the momentum with id Tech 5, until the company was bought by ZeniMax Media in 2009 (who was later bought by Microsoft in 2021), with both companies choosing to keep the id Tech engines exclusively for id and its sister studios as a proprietary engine.
In the id Tech numbering system, the earliest engine to bear the name is either id Tech 1 (used for the original Doom) or id Tech 0, retroactively applied to Wolfenstein 3D. However, id Software had developed 3D engines for several games before Wolfenstein 3D. Each engine had progressively more advanced 3D technology.
Wolfenstein 3D (1992) increased the color palette from 16-color EGA to 256-color VGA and also adopted raycasting. The game engine was also licensed out to other companies. The source code to Wolfenstein 3D, along with its prequel Spear of Destiny, was released on 21 July 1995 under a proprietary license, and then later under GPL-2.0-or-later.
ShadowCaster (1993) was built upon the Wolfenstein 3D engine and was licensed out to Raven Software. It features diminished lighting, texture mapped floors and ceilings, walls with variable heights, and sloped floors. This Raven engine was later also used by In Pursuit of Greed, and with further modifications for CyClones as the STEAM engine.
Rise of the Triad uses an enhanced engine of Wolfenstein 3D and was meant to serve as the sequel to it. The source code was released on 20 December 2002 under GPL-2.0-or-later.
Other games using this engine are: Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, Blake Stone: Planet Strike, Corridor 7: Alien Invasion, and Operation Body Count.
Originally known as the "Doom engine", this engine powers the id Software games Doom (1993), Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994) and Doom 64 (1997). It was created by John Carmack, with auxiliary functions written by John Romero, Dave Taylor, and Paul Radek. Initially developed on NeXT computers, it was ported to MS-DOS for Doom's release and was later ported to several game consoles and operating systems. The source code was released on 23 December 1997 under a proprietary license, and then later on 3 October 1999 under GPL-2.0-or-later.
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Id Tech
id Tech is a series of successive game engines designed and developed by id Software. Prior to the presentation of the id Tech 5-based game Rage in 2011, the engines lacked official designation and as such were simply referred to by the names of the games the engines had been developed for (i.e., Doom and Quake engines). The id Tech engines up through 4.5 have been released as free software under the GNU General Public License. id Tech versions 0 to 3 were released under GPL-2.0-or-later; id Tech versions 3.5 to 4.5 were released under GPL-3.0-or-later. id Tech 5 to 7 remain proprietary, with id Tech 8 currently being the latest engine.
According to Eurogamer.net, "id Software has been synonymous with PC game engines since the concept of a detached game engine was first popularised." However id Tech 4 had far fewer licensees than the Unreal Engine from Epic Games. id planned to regain the momentum with id Tech 5, until the company was bought by ZeniMax Media in 2009 (who was later bought by Microsoft in 2021), with both companies choosing to keep the id Tech engines exclusively for id and its sister studios as a proprietary engine.
In the id Tech numbering system, the earliest engine to bear the name is either id Tech 1 (used for the original Doom) or id Tech 0, retroactively applied to Wolfenstein 3D. However, id Software had developed 3D engines for several games before Wolfenstein 3D. Each engine had progressively more advanced 3D technology.
Wolfenstein 3D (1992) increased the color palette from 16-color EGA to 256-color VGA and also adopted raycasting. The game engine was also licensed out to other companies. The source code to Wolfenstein 3D, along with its prequel Spear of Destiny, was released on 21 July 1995 under a proprietary license, and then later under GPL-2.0-or-later.
ShadowCaster (1993) was built upon the Wolfenstein 3D engine and was licensed out to Raven Software. It features diminished lighting, texture mapped floors and ceilings, walls with variable heights, and sloped floors. This Raven engine was later also used by In Pursuit of Greed, and with further modifications for CyClones as the STEAM engine.
Rise of the Triad uses an enhanced engine of Wolfenstein 3D and was meant to serve as the sequel to it. The source code was released on 20 December 2002 under GPL-2.0-or-later.
Other games using this engine are: Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, Blake Stone: Planet Strike, Corridor 7: Alien Invasion, and Operation Body Count.
Originally known as the "Doom engine", this engine powers the id Software games Doom (1993), Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994) and Doom 64 (1997). It was created by John Carmack, with auxiliary functions written by John Romero, Dave Taylor, and Paul Radek. Initially developed on NeXT computers, it was ported to MS-DOS for Doom's release and was later ported to several game consoles and operating systems. The source code was released on 23 December 1997 under a proprietary license, and then later on 3 October 1999 under GPL-2.0-or-later.
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