Quake II engine

The Quake II engine (id Tech 2.5), 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]

Quake II engine

A screenshot of Quake II
Developer(s)	id Software (John Carmack, John Cash, and Brian Hook)
Final release	3.21 / December 22, 2001; 23 years ago (2001-12-22)
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.idsoftware.com/business/idtech2/

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][8]

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
	Zaero (unofficial expansion for Quake II)[9]	Team Evolve
	Juggernaut: The New Story (unofficial expansion for Quake II)[9]	HeadGames Publishing
	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
2000	D-Day: Normandy[10][11]	D-Day: Normandy Team
2003	UFO: Alien Invasion	UFO: Alien Invasion Team
2008	Gravity Bone	Blendo Games
2012	Warsow[12][13]	Warsow Team
	Thirty Flights of Loving	Blendo Games
2017	Alien Arena: Warriors of Mars	COR Entertainment, LLC
	Quetoo[14]	Quetoo Team
2019	Warfork[15]	Warfork Team

Ports

• Jake2 – 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.^[16] In 2006, it was used to experiment playing 3D games with eye tracking.^[17] The performance of Jake2 is on par with the original C version.^[18]
• Quake2Forge – one of the earliest community produced source ports. ^[19]
• Quake2xp – a port of Quake II to modern operating systems.^[20][21][22]
• KMQuake2 – an upgraded engine for Quake II.^[22][23][24]
• Quake2maX – OpenGL focused source port.
• Quake 2 Evolved – early graphically enhanced game engine.^{[25][26][27][28]}
• Quetoo (formerly Quake2World) – multiplayer focused port derived from Quake2Forge.^[14][29]
• Berserker@Quake2 – graphically enhanced Quake II port.^[30]
• Yamagi Quake II – a port of Quake II to modern systems which aims to preserve the original gameplay.^{[31][32][33][34][22]}
• vkQuake2 – 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.^[35][36]
• CRX Engine – custom version for CodeRED: Alien Arena.^{[37][38][39][40]}
• Qfusion – a modification of the GPL version of the engine. The engine was used in the 2012 game Warsow.^[41][12][13]
• Q2Pro – a mutliplayer oriented port, which was also used as the basis for Quake II RTX.^[42][43]
• R1Q2 – another multiplayer focused port.^[22]
• DirectQII – DirectX oriented source port.
• Fruitz of Dojo – a source port aimed at Mac OS X.^[44][45][46]
• Q2DOS – a backport of the game to MS-DOS.^[47][48][49]

See also

• Free and open-source software portal
• Video games portal

• List of game engines
• Quake engine
• Id Tech 3
• Id Tech 4
• Id Tech 5
• Id Tech 6
• First-person shooter engine
• Quake modding

References

1. Grant, Christopher (August 9, 2011). "id Software looking to shorten dev cycles, stop building new engines for every game". Joystiq. AOL. Archived from the original on August 28, 2011.
2. "Technology Licensing: id Tech 2". Archived from the original on November 8, 2009. Retrieved September 17, 2008.
3. Sanglard, Fabien (September 16, 2011). "Quake 2 Source Code Review 2/4". fabiensanglard.net. Retrieved July 29, 2023. Dynamic linking provided numerous advantages: [...] Full native speed for mods, no need to rely on QuakeC and Quake Vitual machine.
4. Sanglard, Fabien (September 16, 2011). "Quake 2 Source Code Review 2/4". fabiensanglard.net. Retrieved July 29, 2023. Dynamic linking provided numerous advantages: [...] More capabilities to mod makers, the entire game could be altered via game.dll.
5. Milne, Rory (March 1, 2019). "The making of Quake 2". pcgamer.com. Retrieved July 29, 2023. We also had light bouncing—simulated radiosity—so every corner of the world had some lighting.
6. Sanglard, Fabien (September 16, 2011). "Quake 2 Source Code Review 3/4". fabiensanglard.net. Retrieved July 29, 2023. Contrary to Quake1, Quake2 used radiosity and colored light during the precalculation.
7. DiBona, Chris (December 22, 2001). "Quake 2 Source Code Released Under the GPL". Slashdot. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
8. Foster-Johnson, Eric (January 24, 2002). "Quake 2 Sources Released". Computerworld. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
9. Wilson, Hamish (November 13, 2023). "Building a Retro Linux Gaming Computer Part 35: The New Stories". GamingOnLinux. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
10. Albert, Jose (November 9, 2023). "D-Day: Normandy: Un Juego FPS para Linux basados en Quake2". Ubunlog. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
11. "D-Day: Normandy: Un Juego FPS para Linux basados en Quake2". Laboratorio Linux. November 12, 2023. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
12. Dolinsky, Sergey (2008). "Открытые бета-тесты декабря". Strana Igr (in Russian). No. 250. Gameland. p. 142.
13. "Warsow". Level (in Romanian). No. 4/2008. April 2008. p. 7.
14. Dawe, Liam (February 8, 2017). "Quetoo, a free and open source FPS is looking to get on Steam". GamingOnLinux. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
15. Dawe, Liam (August 19, 2019). "Based on the classic FPS Warsow, the new Warfork is now live in Early Access". GamingOnLinux. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
16. "JDK 6u10: Jake2: Quake II in Java". Sun Microsystems. Retrieved July 27, 2023. The Jake2 applet example shows the future of game distribution over the Internet. Jake2 is a port of id Software's Quake II to the Java platform developed by Bytonic Software. (...). With the new Java Plug-In, it is now possible to deploy the game directly into the web page with full hardware acceleration and rock-solid reliability.
17. Miller, Ross (August 3, 2006). "Play with your eyes". Joystiq. Archived from the original on February 3, 2008. Retrieved July 18, 2009.
18. "Q24j: Jake and Java-gaming Viability". O'Reilly Media. November 28, 2005. Retrieved July 18, 2009. This is a great show of 3D prowess. Things like this, as well as the Narya 2D open source engine from ThreeRings really are starting to at least show Java can serve as a first-class gaming platform. More than that, just having seen all the… *cough* horrible code in games before, having things like Java's threading model, network and database support might really make it a BETTER platform for a lot of forthcoming games than C.
19. Shaikh, Anees; Sahu, Sambit; Rosu, Marcel-Catalin; Shea, Michael (January 2004). "Implementation of a service platform for online games". ResearchGate. Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Network and System Support for Games. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
20. Papadopoulos, John (August 19, 2018). "Quake2xp final 2018 version is available for download, adds lots of modern graphical features". DSOGaming. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
21. Papadopoulos, John (April 24, 2022). "New features showcased for the Quake 2 HD graphical overhaul mod, q2xp". DSOGaming. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
22. Fenlon, Wes (October 9, 2014). "How to run Quake II on Windows 7/8". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
23. Lane, Rick (February 21, 2022). "Quake 4 in Quake 2 does exactly what it says on the tin". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
24. Papadopoulos, John (February 16, 2022). "Quake 4 in Quake 2 Demake is now available for download". DSOGaming. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
25. Klum, Marcel (December 10, 2002). "Quake 2 Evolved Beta1". Neowin. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
26. Parker, Steven (December 17, 2002). "Quake II Evolved Doomed?". NeoWin. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
27. Harris, Wil (November 23, 2005). "Quake 2 Evolved brings old-skool to new hardware". Bit-Tech. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
28. Brinkmann, Martin (November 21, 2005). "Quake II Evolved". ghacks.net. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
29. Larabel, Michael (April 1, 2012). "Quake2World Goes Into Beta With Nice Graphics". Phoronix. Retrieved August 9, 2024.
30. Larabel, Michael (January 7, 2016). "A Quake 2 Game Might Get Ported To Linux". Phoronix. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
31. Dawe, Liam (June 16, 2021). "Alternate Quake II game engine Yamagi Quake II adds optional Vulkan support". GamingOnLinux. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
32. Burmeister, Yamagi. "Yamagi Quake II project page". Retrieved July 29, 2023.
33. "Quake 2 - Source Ports". GOG.com. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
34. "Quake II: Quad Damage Review". Gaming Pastime. August 18, 2017. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
35. Larabel, Michael (December 20, 2018). "Quake 2 Gets A Vulkan Renderer 21 Years After Release". Phoronix. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
36. "vkQuake2 on GitHub". GitHub. December 19, 2022.
37. Larabel, Michael (April 26, 2009). "A Battle For Good Open-Source Game Graphics?". Phoronix. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
38. Larabel, Michael (November 30, 2012). "Alien Arena 7.65 To Bring Huge Renderer Enhancements". Phoronix. Retrieved August 9, 2024.
39. Graymur (March 7, 2008). "Alien Arena 2008 v7.0 released". Game Watcher. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
40. Quirk, Kev (July 7, 2012). "Alien Arena – 'Quake' for Linux". OMG Ubuntu. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
41. Larabel, Michael (June 15, 2013). "QFusion Game Engine Advanced With New Features". Phoronix. Retrieved August 9, 2024.
42. Meer, Alec (January 18, 2019). "Raytraced Quake II makes me want to buy a ludicrously expensive new graphics card". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
43. Papadopoulos, John (May 4, 2019). "Quake 2 RTX – Official PC Minimum System Requirements + New Screenshots". DSOGaming. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
44. Royal, Simon (May 31, 2016). "Quake 2: First Person Shooters at Their Best". Low End Mac. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
45. Cook, Brad (March 19, 2006). "Quake Gets Universal Binary". The Mac Observer. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
46. Monks, Neale (August 1, 2003). "Classic Games: Quake". MyMac.com. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
47. neozeed (May 2, 2015). "Porting Quake II to MS-DOS pt1". Virtually Fun. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
48. Sledge (August 17, 2023). "Q2DOS – Quake II pro DOS". High Voltage. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
49. Winkie, Luke (February 16, 2017). "Meet the superfans who spent a decade bringing Daikatana back to life". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 15, 2024.

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