id-tech-5 posts

The DirectX graphics API created by Microsoft is used by nearly all PC game developers. The one big exception is id Software. Its main programmer John Carmack has used the OpenGL graphics API to help program all of id's 3D graphics engines including id Tech 5 which is the basis for id's upcoming shooter Rage.

While Carmack has been critical of DirectX in the past that has now changed. In an article at bit-tech.net (based on an interview Carmack gave to the Custom PC print mag) he states, "I actually think that Direct3D is a rather better API today." He added that while DirectX has improved over the years, OpenGL "has been held back by compatibility concerns."

So does that mean that Carmack will switch to DirectX? Maybe not. He states, "OpenGL still works fine and we wouldn't get any huge benefits by making the switch, so I can't work up much enthusiasm for cleaning it out of our codebase."

Developer id Software's first retail game in over seven years, the post-apocalypse first person shooter Rage, is not likely to have a playable demo. VG247.com reports that Pete Hines, the PR head for the game's publisher Bethesda Softworks, stated that while the chances of a Rage demo coming out were not zero he said, "... to be perfectly honest, from a technical standpoint, it isn't always possible. I don't see a demo for Rage on the cards."

The game will be the first title using id's new game engine labled id Tech 5 which is also being used by another Bethesda Softworks developer, Machinegames, on an unannounced title. Meanwhile Rage is currently scheduled for release on September 13.

Saturday night's surprise announcement of The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim by developer Bethesda Game Studios and publisher Bethesda Softworks has gotten perhaps the most buzz out of all the reveals at the Video Game Awards. Since then the game's official teaser site and Facebook page have launched. Today a little more info on the game came to light as Bethesda' Nick Breckon posted word on his Twitter page, "We can now confirm that the TES V: Skyrim engine is all-new. And it looks fantastic." That means the new game is abandoning the engine that has been used for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as well as the developer's last game Fallout 3.

While some have already speculated that the new engine being used is id Tech 5, the same engine that id Software (owned by Bethesda Softworks) is using for its upcoming shooter Rage, Breckon would only say in a following "tweet", "It's a new graphics/gameplay engine built internally. We'll have more details down the road."

id Software's master programmer John Carmack has been helping to make games for a long time now and he's not one to keep his opinions to helpself. In a new chat with the UK-based web site the Telegraph Carmack says he sees a day where releasing games via retail stores will be a thing of the past "sooner or later" and leaving digital downloads of games as the future of game distribution.

Carmack states, 'It is the wave of the future for everything. Everybody knows that eventually will be digital distribution like this – it's only a question of time." Carmack just released an iPhone/iPad spin-off of id's upcoming first person shooter Rage and most of the interview is devoted to the Rage port. Meanwhile the PC version of Rage is due out in September 2011.

Last August at QuakeCon, id Software said it was not going to license out its id Tech 5 graphics engine to third parties unless those developers were working on games for its parent company ZeniMax Media. Today ZeniMax, in confirming earlier reports that it had acquired Sweden-based MachineGames, also stated that the developer's first game will use id Tech 5.

That means MachineGames will be using the same graphics tech that' was developed by id's John Carmack for use in 2011's upcoming shooter Rage and also the next game in the Doom series. There are no other details on what MachineGames' first title will be like

When id Software first announced its plans for its next first person shooter Rage back in 2007 it also marked the debut of its all new id Tech 5 graphics engine. In the past all of id' Software's graphics engines have been available for license by third party developers. Indeed, in May 2009 id's head man Todd Hollenshead said that they had "seeded tech out to a few licensees" for id Tech 5 already.

Now it looks like there's been an about face on those plans in the wake of id's acquisition by ZeniMax Media later in 2009. Eurogamer reports from QuakeCon 2010 that Hollenshead has confirmed that id Tech 5 will "be used within ZeniMax, so we're not going to license it to external parties." It looks like the only way a third party developer will gain access to the technology will be if its game is published by ZeniMax's publishing arm Bethesda Softworks. Besides Rage, the id Tech 5 engine will be used for id's other big upcoming game Doom IV.

We are less than one day away from the single biggest free LAN gaming event/consumer game show in the US. QuakeCon 2010 will officially on Thursday morning at the Hilton Anatole hotel in Dallas but for the past several days the all-volunteer team have been getting ready for the thousands of people who will be bringing their desktops, notebooks and wild PC case mods into the BYOC area of the show.

The above video gives you an idea of just how massive the BYOC area is for QuakeCon and how much effort the team makes in getting all of the network cables, servers and more ready for Thursday. This year QuakeCon 2010 attendees will supposedly have a faster time of registering for the show thanks to a new set-up. We will see if it actually works as planned tomorrow.

Rage seems to have struck a chord with the press folks that got to see id Software's upcoming shooter at E3 last month. Part of the reason was the great looking graphics that are based on id Tech 5, the latest graphics engine created by id's master programmer John Carmack.

The game's publisher Bethesda Softworks released three new screenshots from Rage recently including the screenshot you see above. That shot, plus the two others that show landscapes from the game, were also used as wall murals for Bethesda's E3 2010 exhibit space. Not only has the publisher released JPG versions of all three screenshots in a variety of resolutions but it has also provided the TIFF images for all three shots as well. What does this mean? How does downloading a 25,600 by 16,000 resolution screenshot that's well over 300 mb in size sound? Yep, they are THAT BIG.

id Software is known for taking its time on making their games. With the exception of their free-to-play shooter Quake Live the Dallas-based developer hasn't released a game made on their own since Doom III way back in 2004 (although they have helped with the making of games like Quake IV, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Wolfenstein that were primarily made at other developers). In 2007 id announced Rage, their first all-original game since the first Quake game in 1996. It's been a fairly slow development process for the post-apocalypse themed first person shooter since then; id only began to really give details on the game last August at QuakeCon.

Big Download got to see that live demo at QuakeCon last year but at E3 2010 last week the developer showed us some more live (but hands-off) gameplay at Bethesda Softworks' booth (running on an Xbox 360 dev kit but it's still coming out for the PC). Much of the demo was pretty similar to what we saw at QuakeCon but there were some new bits that were revealed.

id Software is still at least a year away from releasing their next game major retail game Rage but they are also working on the next installment in the Doom shooter franchise (which may or may not be called Doom IV). There's next to nothing known about the game (other than it will use the id Tech 5 graphics engine) but id's creative director for Rage Tim Willits already has some high hopes for the title.

In a chat with Xbox360achievements.com Willits states, "It's gonna be cool. It's gonna be awesome. Hopefully, it'll be even more awesome than Rage." High expectations indeed. Perhaps we will learn more about the game when QuakeCon begins in August.