Id Tech 2

Infobox Software
name = id Tech 2



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developer = id Software
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genre = Game engine
license = GNU General Public License
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id Tech 2, formerly known as the Quake II engine, is a game engine developed by id Software for use in their games, most notably "Quake II". Since its release, id Tech 2 has been licensed for use in several other games.

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.Another interesting feature was the subdivision of some of the components into dynamic-link libraries. This allowed both software and OpenGL renderers, which were switched between by loading and unloading separate libraries.Libraries were also used for the game logic, for two reasons:
*id could release the source code to allow modifications while keeping the remainder of the engine proprietary.
*Since they were compiled for a native platform, instead of an interpreter, they could run faster than "Quake"'s solution, which was to run the game logic (QuakeC) in a limited interpreter.

The level format, as with previous id Software engines, used BSP. The levels were lit through a lightmap method, in which light data for each surface is precalculated (this time, via a radiosity method) and stored as an image in the level file, which is then used to determine how much lighting intensity each model should receive, but not its direction.

John Carmack released the source code on 2001-12-22 under the terms of the GNU General Public License. [ [http://slashdot.org/games/01/12/22/053211.shtml Slashdot | Quake 2 Source Code Released Under The GPL ] ]

Notable games using id Tech 2

* "Quake II" (1997) – id Software
* "Heretic II" (1998) – Raven Software
* "SiN" (1998) – Ritual Entertainment
* "" (1999) – Xatrix Entertainment
* "Soldier of Fortune" (2000) – Raven Software
* "Daikatana" (2000) – Ion Storm
* "Anachronox" (2001) – Ion Storm

Derivative engines

* [http://maniac.aq2world.com/apr/ "AprQ2"]
* [http://egl.quakedev.com/ "EGL"]
*"Jake2" (Quake II engine ported to Java)
* [http://www.bryceinc.com/index.php?main=NoCheat "NoCheat"]
* [http://icculus.org/quake2/ "q^2"]
* [http://q2pro.sourceforge.net/ "Q2Pro"]
* [http://www.leweyg.com/download/SIRD/q2/index.html "Quake II AbSIRD"] (Renders "Quake II" in Single Image Random Dot Stereogram imagery)
* [http://www.quake2evolved.com/ "Quake II Evolved"]
* [http://www.fruitz-of-dojo.de/php/download.php4?dlnr=6 "Quake II" for Mac OS X]
* [http://quake2xp.quakedev.com/ "Quake2XP"]
* [http://jdolan.dyndns.org/trac/wiki/Quetoo "Quetoo"]
*"Qfusion"
*"R1Q2"
* [http://icculus.org/alienarena/rpa/index.html "CRX"] (Currently, the only game which uses the CRX engine is . The CRX engine has had most of the original Q2 code replaced.)
* [http://www.vertigosoftware.com/quake2.htm "Quake2 .NET"] (Quake II engine ported to .NET, seems defunct now)

See also

*List of game engines
*First person shooter engine
*id Tech 1

References

External links

* [http://www.idsoftware.com/business/idtech2/ Official id Tech 2 licensing page]
* [http://www.uvlist.net/groups/info/quake2engine Quake II engine full games list]