Software:Quake engine

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Quake engine
Developer(s)id Software (John Carmack, Michael Abrash, John Cash)
Final release
1.09 / December 21, 1999; 26 years ago (1999-12-21)
Repositorygithub.com/id-Software/Quake
Written inC, Assembly (for software rendering & optimization)
PlatformDOS, AmigaOS, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Nintendo 64, Zeebo, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
PredecessorDoom engine
SuccessorQuake II engine, GoldSrc
LicenseGNU GPL-2.0-or-later
Ingame screenshot of the first-person shooter Nexuiz, running on a modified Quake engine

The Quake engine (part of id Tech 2) is the game engine developed by id Software to power their 1996 video game Quake. It featured true 3D real-time rendering. Since 1999, it has been licensed under the terms of GNU General Public License v2.0 or later.

After release, the Quake engine was immediately forked. Much of the engine remained in Quake II and Quake III Arena. The Quake engine, like the Doom engine, used binary space partitioning (BSP) to optimise the world rendering. The Quake engine also used Gouraud shading for moving objects, and a static lightmap for non-moving objects.

Historically, the Quake engine has been treated as a separate engine from its successor, the Quake II engine. Although the codebases for Quake and Quake II were separate GPL releases,[1][2] both engines are now considered variants of id Tech 2.[3]

History

The Quake engine was developed from 1995 for the video game Quake, released on June 22, 1996. John Carmack did most of the programming of the engine, with help from Michael Abrash in algorithms and assembly optimization. The Quake II engine (id Tech 2.5) was based on it.

John Romero initially conceived of Quake as an action game taking place in a fully 3D polygon world, inspired by Sega AM2's 3D fighting game Virtua Fighter. Quake was also intended to feature Virtua Fighter-influenced third-person melee combat. However, id Software considered it to be risky, and it would've taken longer to develop the engine. Because the project was taking too long, the third-person melee was eventually dropped.[4][5]

Simplified process of reducing map complexity in Quake

Derivative engines

Family tree illustrating derivations of Quake engines

On December 21, 1999, John Carmack of id Software released the Quake engine source code on the Internet under the terms of GPL-2.0-or-later, allowing programmers to edit the engine and add new features. Programmers were soon releasing new versions of the engine on the net. Some of the most known engines are:

  • GoldSrc – The first engine to be created by Valve. It was used in the Half-Life series, and gave rise to the Source and Source 2 engines. The Xash3D projects, as well as the FreeHL and FreeCS ports,[6] use Quake source code in part to recreate this engine, even with a wrapper for running the game.[7][8]
  • DarkPlaces – A significantly modified engine used in several standalone games and Quake mods.[9][10] Although the last stable release was on May 13, 2014, it has received numerous updates through its SVN repository since then.[11] Its home page was hosted on Icculus.org until 2021, when the engine switched to a Git repository hosted on GitHub.[12] The developers of Xonotic provide mirrors of DarkPlaces source code on various social coding platforms[13][14] since the game is built on and distributed with the development version of the engine.
  • QuakeForge - One of the earlier major community ports.[15]
  • NPRQuake - Fork of Quake featuring non-photorealistic rendering giving it a pencil drawn look.[16][17]
  • Tenebrae - Custom Quake engine with real time lighting and bumpmapping among other features.[18][19][20][21]
  • TyrQuake - A conservative focused source port.[15]
  • Fisheye Quake - Custom Quake engine with fisheye distortion by the author of PanQuake.[22]
    • Blinky - Fork of the fisheye view along with the TyrQuake software renderer.[23][24]
  • WinQuake
    • Engoo (Derivative of WinQuake) - Graphically enhanced software renderer based port.[25]
  • Fruitz of Dojo - Source port aimed at Mac OS X.[26][27][28]
  • NehQuake - Custom engine for the Nehara mod.[29]
  • GLQuake
    • FitzQuake (Derivative of GLQuake) - Seminal port whose SDL version was later forked into numerous others.[30]
      • MarkV (Derivative of FitzQuake, successor to DirectQ) - Came in both GLQuake and WinQuake derived versions.[31]
      • Quakespasm (Derivative of FitzQuake) – Commonly used source port.[32]
        • Quakespasm-Spiked (Derivative of Quakespasm) - Limit-removing fork. [33]
        • vkQuake – (Derivative of Quakespasm) – Uses Vulkan API for rendering programmed by id Software employee Axel Gneiting, released under the GPLv2.[34][35]
        • Ironwail - (Derivative of Quakespasm) – An engine aiming at maximum performance.[36]
  • FTEQW (Derivative of QuakeWorld) - A modern client for online multiplayer.[37][25]
  • FuhQuake
    • ezQuake (Derivative of FuhQuake) - Multiplayer focused port often paired with the nQuake launcher.[38][39]
    • JoeQuake (Derivative of FuhQuake) - A port popular with speedrunners.[40]

Games using the Quake engine

Games using a proprietary license

Year Title Developer(s) Publisher(s)
1996 Quake id Software GT Interactive
1997 Quake Mission Pack No. 1: Scourge of Armagon Hipnotic Interactive 3D Realms
Quake Mission Pack No. 2: Dissolution of Eternity Rogue Entertainment 3D Realms
Hexen II Raven Software id Software, Activision
Malice Ratloop Quantum Axcess
Shrak Quantum Axcess Quantum Axcess
Software:X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse Zero Gravity Entertainment WizardWorks
1998 Hexen II Mission Pack: Portal of Praevus Raven Software id Software
Activision
Abyss of Pandemonium - The Final Mission Impel Development Team Perfect Publishing
2000 Laser Arena Trainwreck Studios ValuSoft
2001 CIA Operative: Solo Missions Trainwreck Studios ValuSoft
Urban Mercenary Moshpit Entertainment Moshpit Entertainment

Games based on the GPL source release

Year Title Developer(s) Publisher(s)
2000 OpenQuartz[41] OpenQuartz Team SourceForge
2001 Transfusion[42] Transfusion Project SourceForge
2002 Eternal War: Shadows of Light Two Guys Software Two Guys Software
2005 Nexuiz Alientrap Alientrap
2007 The Hunted[43] Chris Page ModDB
2011 Xonotic Team Xonotic Team Xonotic
Steel Storm Kot-in-Action Creative Artel Kot-in-Action Creative Artel
2012 Forced: Leashed[44] Kepuli Games Kepuli Games
RetroBlazer[45][46][47] Hydra Game Works Hydra Game Works
2013 Chaos Esque Anthology[48] Chaos Esque Team Chaos Esque Team
2015 Rexuiz[49] Rexuiz Team Rexuiz Team
2017 FreeCS[6] FreeCS Team GitHub
2018 FortressOne[50] FortressOne Team FortressOne Team
The Wastes[51] Vera Visions L.L.C Vera Visions L.L.C
2019 (Early access) LibreQuake[52] LibreQuake Team GitHub
2021 (Early access) Doombringer[53] Anomic Games Anomic Games
2024 Software:Wrath: Aeon of Ruin[54] Killpixel 3D Realms
1C Entertainment
2025 Brazilian Drug Dealer 3: I Opened a Portal to Hell in the Favela Trying To Revive Mit Aia I Need to Close It[55][56] Joeveno Joeveno

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Quake engine GPL release". https://github.com/id-Software/Quake. 
  2. ↑ "id Tech 2 GPL release". https://github.com/id-Software/Quake-2. 
  3. ↑ "id Tech 2 page". id Software. http://www.idsoftware.com/business/idtech2/. 
  4. ↑ "Does John Romero Still Enjoy Shooting People?". Next Generation (30): 9–12. June 1997. https://archive.org/stream/NextGeneration30Jun1997/Next_Generation_30_Jun_1997#page/n9/mode/2up. 
  5. ↑ Edge, May 1997, "My original idea was to do something like Virtua Fighter in a 3D world, with full-contact fighting, but you'd also be able to run through a world, and do the same stuff you do in Quake, only when you got into these melees, the camera would pull out into a third-person perspective. It would've been great, but nobody else had faith in trying it. The project was taking too long, and everybody just wanted to fall back on the safe thing – the formula." 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Larabel, Michael (2017-11-10). "FreeCS: Aiming For An Open-Source Counter-Strike Implementation". https://www.phoronix.com/news/FreeCS-Open-Counter-Strike. 
  7. ↑ BTRE (2020-08-03). "Half-Life: Absolute Zero mimics Half-Life's original vibe, run on Linux with Xash3D FWGS". https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2020/08/half-life-absolute-zero-mimics-half-lifes-original-vibe-run-it-on-linux-with-xash3d-fwg/. 
  8. ↑ Beschizza, Rob (2022-03-09). "Play the original Half-Life in the browser". https://boingboing.net/2022/03/09/play-the-original-half-life-in-the-browser.html. 
  9. ↑ Emms, Steve (2023-10-29). "DarkPlaces – Quake modification". https://www.linuxlinks.com/darkplaces/. 
  10. ↑ "DarkPlaces Homepage". https://icculus.org/twilight/darkplaces/. 
  11. ↑ "Darkplaces subversion repository". http://svn.icculus.org/twilight/trunk/. 
  12. ↑ darkplacesengine/darkplaces, DarkPlaces Engine, June 14, 2021, https://github.com/darkplacesengine/darkplaces, retrieved June 21, 2021 
  13. ↑ "DarkPlaces Quake Engine on Xonotic GitLab". https://gitlab.com/xonotic/darkplaces. 
  14. ↑ "DarkPlaces Quake Engine on Xonotic GitHub". https://github.com/xonotic/darkplaces. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Stevenaaus (2010-03-01). "Game Engines". https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Quake-HOWTO-3.html#ss3.1. 
  16. ↑ Beschizza, Rob (2018-07-30). "Quake on me: classic shooter rendered with pencil sketch filter". https://boingboing.net/2018/07/30/quake-but-every-frame-rendered.html. 
  17. ↑ Ille, Adrian (2014-09-11). "Non-Photorealistic Rendering Techniques for a Game Engine". University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://www.slideserve.com/parley/non-photorealistic-rendering-techniques-for-a-game-engine. 
  18. ↑ Goldstein, Maarten (2002-09-25). "New Tenebrae". https://www.shacknews.com/article/22796/new-tenebrae. 
  19. ↑ Royal, Simon (2015-10-10). "TenebraeQuake, an Enhanced Quake Front End". https://lowendmac.com/2015/tenebraequake-enhanced-quake-front-end/. 
  20. ↑ Wiley, Galen (2003-07-14). "New Tenebrae Release for PC". https://www.insidemacgames.com/historical/news/story.php%3FArticleID=8023.html. 
  21. ↑ Largent, Andy (2002-10-27). "New PC Tenebrae Quake, Mac Update Soon". https://www.insidemacgames.com/historical/news/story.php%3FArticleID=6328.html. 
  22. ↑ Bosworth, Patrick (2021-07-02). "Part 5: Source Ports and Fisheye Quake". https://www.shacknews.com/article/125425/cquake-how-to-run-classic-quake-maps-and-mods-on-modern-pcs?page=6. 
  23. ↑ Chalk, Andy (2015-10-10). "Peripheral vision in games goes ultrawide with new Quake mod". https://www.pcgamer.com/peripheral-vision-in-games-gets-ultrawide-boost-with-new-quake-mod/. 
  24. ↑ Chakrabarty, Aditya (2015-03-12). "Peripheral Vision in game goes Ultrawide thanks to the new Quake Mod". https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/peripheral-vision-in-game-goes-ultrawide-thanks-to-the-new-quake-mod. 
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Baxter, Joel (2015-05-03). "Quake Engines, Old and New". https://neogeographica.com/site/pages/guides/engines.html#04. 
  26. ↑ Cook, Brad (2006-03-19). "Quake Gets Universal Binary". https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/Quake_Gets_Universal_Binary. 
  27. ↑ Monks, Neale (2003-08-01). "Classic Games: Quake". https://www.mymac.com/2003/08/classic-games-quake/. 
  28. ↑ "Frank's Craptacular House of Mac Quake Stuffs". 2019-07-01. http://quake.chaoticbox.com/. 
  29. ↑ Stevenaaus (2010-03-01). "Mods". https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Quake-HOWTO-4.html. 
  30. ↑ Boyle, Joshua (2022-08-18). "Nods to Mods Interview: Rubicon 2 for Quake". https://slayersclub.bethesda.net/en-US/article/nods-to-mods-interview-rubicon-2-for-quake. 
  31. ↑ Papadopoulos, John (2018-12-11). "Quake Xmas Jam 2018 adds 21 new maps to id Software's classic shooter, available for download". https://www.dsogaming.com/news/quake-xmas-jam-2018-adds-21-new-maps-to-id-softwares-classic-shooter-available-for-download/. 
  32. ↑ Yang, Robert (2021-08-23). "Quake Renaissance: a short history of 25 years of Quake modding". https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/quake-renaissance-a-short-history-of-25-years-of-quake-modding. 
  33. ↑ Dawe, Liam (2022-04-27). "Block Quake is basically Quake made into LEGO". https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/04/block-quake-is-basically-quake-made-into-lego/. 
  34. ↑ Gneiting, Axel (July 20, 2016). "My Vulkan Quake 1 Port running "In the Shadows" mod. Some stuff still missing. Code is here https://github.com/Novum/vkQuake". https://twitter.com/axelgneiting/status/755988244408381443. 
  35. ↑ "Vulkan Quake port based on QuakeSpasm". https://github.com/Novum/vkQuake. 
  36. ↑ Spirit (2022-01-30). "Ironwail, a high-performance QuakeSpasm fork". https://www.insideqc.com/ironwail-a-high-performance-quakespasm-fork/. 
  37. ↑ Chalk, Andy (2021-02-17). "This mod turns Quake into a top-down shooter". https://www.pcgamer.com/this-mod-turns-quake-into-a-top-down-shooter/. 
  38. ↑ Campbell, Alex (2016-05-20). "We're running a Quake server all week—come play with us!". https://www.pcgamer.com/were-running-a-quake-server-all-weekcome-play-with-us/. 
  39. ↑ Fenlon, Wes (2021-05-22). "We're running a Quake multiplayer server all week for the 25th anniversary". https://www.pcgamer.com/were-running-a-quake-multiplayer-server-all-week-for-the-25th-anniversary/. 
  40. ↑ Fairweather (2022-02-19). "Quake Engines & Source Ports: A Beginners Guide". https://www.slipseer.com/index.php?threads/quake-engines-source-ports-a-beginners-guide.11/. 
  41. ↑ neozeed (2018-06-24). "Open Quartz". https://virtuallyfun.com/2018/06/24/open-quartz/. 
  42. ↑ Von Kallenbach, Gareth (2003). "Devoted to the cause - Blood Transfusion to save aging game". http://www.gameindustry.com/interviews/int030320.asp. 
  43. ↑ "The Hunted Chronicle 2 review". https://nixbit.com/software/the-hunted-chronicle-review/. 
  44. ↑ Tricky (2012-08-25). "Force: Leashed". https://jayisgames.com/review/force-leashed.php. 
  45. ↑ Yu, Derek (2012-01-16). "RetroBlazer (Alpha)". https://www.tigsource.com/2012/01/16/retroblazer-alpha/. 
  46. ↑ Priestman, Chris (2015-01-21). "RetroBlazer Has The Fast Pace, Bright Colors Of 1990s FPS". https://www.siliconera.com/retroblazer-has-the-fast-pace-bright-colors-of-1990s-fps/. Retrieved 2024-07-14. 
  47. ↑ Tarason, Dominic (2012-01-12). "16-Bit Killer – RetroBlazer Demo Offers 2.5d FPS Nostlagia With A Twist". https://www.diygamer.com/2012/01/retroblazer-demo/. 
  48. ↑ "Chaos Esque Anthology Free 3D FPS, fork from Xonotic". 2024-04-03. https://fossgames.com/chaos-esque-anthology-fps-xonotic/. 
  49. ↑ "Rexuiz FPS". https://www.indiegamer.io/games/rexuiz_fps. 
  50. ↑ Dawe, Liam (2018-11-21). "Get some classic FPS action on with QuakeWorld Team Fortress". https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2018/11/get-some-classic-fps-action-on-with-quakeworld-team-fortress/. 
  51. ↑ "The Wastes". https://www.frag-net.com/game_wastes.html. 
  52. ↑ Yang, Robert (2021-08-05). "Quake Renaissance: how to start playing the original Quake today". https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/quake-renaissance-how-to-start-playing-quake. 
  53. ↑ Dawe, Liam (2021-06-05). "DOOMBRINGER is a new first-person shooter from veterans of the Doom and Quake communities". https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/06/doombringer-is-a-new-first-person-shooter-veterans-of-the-doom-and-quake-communities/. 
  54. ↑ Russell, Bradley (March 7, 2019). "3D Realms' VP Talks 'Exceeding' Quake with Wrath: Aeon of Ruin and 'Dumbed Down' Call of Duty". https://www.gamerevolution.com/features/506351-wrath-aeon-of-ruin-3d-realms-frederik-schreiber-interview. 
  55. ↑ Zwiezen, Zack (2025-09-24). "New $3 Boomer Shooter Is A Wild Fever Dream You Should Play" (in en-US). https://kotaku.com/quake-2-brazilian-drug-dealer-3-favela-steam-review-fps-boomer-shooter-weird-2000628167. 
  56. ↑ Andy Chalk (2025-09-23). "Steam celebrates all things boomer shooter with 'Boomstock 2025,' blasting up to 80% off the very best in retro-inspired FPS" (in en). PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/steam-celebrates-all-things-boomer-shooter-with-boomstock-2025-blasting-up-to-80-percent-off-the-very-best-in-retro-inspired-fps/. 



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