The Quake II engine is a game engine developed by id Software for use in their 1997 first-person shooter Quake II.[1] It is the successor to the Quake engine. Since its release, the Quake II engine has been licensed for use in several other games.[2]
 A screenshot of Quake II | |
| Developer(s) | id Software (John Carmack, John Cash, and Brian Hook) |
|---|---|
| Final release | 3.21 / December 22, 2001 |
| Repository | github.com/id-Software/Quake-2 |
| Written in | C, Assembly (for software rendering & optimization) |
| Platform | Windows, Mac OS 8, Linux, PowerPC Macintosh, Amiga, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Xbox, PlayStation 2 |
| Predecessor | Quake engine |
| Successor | id Tech 3,GoldSrc |
| License | GNU GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Website | www |
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.[2] Another interesting feature was the subdivision of some of the components into dynamic-link libraries. This allowed both software and OpenGL renderers, which were selected by loading and unloading separate libraries. Libraries were also used for the game logic, with consequences including:
- Since they were compiled for specific platforms, instead of an interpreter, they could run faster than Quake's solution, which was to run the game logic (QuakeC) in a limited interpreter.[3]
- id could release the source code to allow modifications while keeping the remainder of the engine proprietary.[4]
The level format, as with previous id Software engines, used binary space partitioning. The level environments were lit using lightmaps, a method in which light data for each surface is precalculated (this time, via a radiosity method) and stored as an image, which is then used to determine the lighting intensity each 3D model should receive, but not its direction.[5][6]
id Software released the source code on December 22, 2001, under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later.[7]
Games using the Quake II engine
Games using a proprietary license
| Year | Title | Developer |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Quake II | id Software |
| 1998 | Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning | Xatrix Entertainment |
| Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero | Rogue Entertainment | |
| Heretic II | Raven Software | |
| SiN | Ritual Entertainment | |
| 1999 | SiN: Wages of Sin | 2015, Inc. |
| Kingpin: Life of Crime | Xatrix Entertainment | |
| 2000 | Soldier of Fortune | Raven Software |
| Daikatana | Ion Storm | |
| 2001 | Anachronox |
Games based on the GPL source release
| Year | Title | Developer |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | UFO: Alien Invasion | UFO: Alien Invasion Team |
| 2008 | Gravity Bone | Blendo Games |
| 2012 | Warsow[8][9] | Warsow Team |
| Thirty Flights of Loving | Blendo Games | |
| 2017 | Alien Arena: Warriors of Mars | COR Entertainment, LLC |
Ports
- Jake2 is a Java port of the Quake II engine's GPL release. It has since been used by Sun as an example of Java Web Start capabilities for games distribution over the Internet.[10] In 2006, it was used to experiment playing 3D games with eye tracking.[11] The performance of Jake2 is on par with the original C version.[12]
- Yamagi Quake II is a port of Quake II to modern systems which aims to preserve the original gameplay.[13][14][15][16]
- vkQuake2 is the original Quake II engine with additional Vulkan renderer created by Krzysztof Kondrak, a programmer from Poland. It was originally released in December 2018 under the GPLv2.[17][18]
- Qfusion is a modification of the GPL version of the engine. The engine was used in the 2012 game Warsow.[8][9]
See also
References
External links
- "Official Quake II engine website". Archived from the original on November 8, 2009. Retrieved August 4, 2007.
- Official Quake II engine source code, as originally released at GitHub
- Official Quake II engine source code, version 3.21 at id Software