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; 22 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/

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]

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

Games based on the GPL source release

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. ^[15] In 2006, it was used to experiment playing 3D games with eye tracking. ^[16] The performance of Jake2 is on par with the original C version. ^[17]
• Quake2Forge - one of the earliest community produced source ports. ^[18]
• Quake2xp - a port of Quake II to modern operating systems. ^{[19] [20] [21]}
• 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. ^[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] [35]}
• 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. ^{[36] [37]}
• CRX Engine - custom version for CodeRED: Alien Arena. ^{[38] [39] [40]}
• Qfusion - a modification of the GPL version of the engine. The engine was used in the 2012 game Warsow. ^{[11] [12]}
• Q2Pro - a mutliplayer oriented port, which was also used as the basis for Quake II RTX. ^{[41] [42]}
• R1Q2 - another multiplayer focused port. ^[43]
• 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

• 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

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