id Software unveils new engine

id Software's John Carmack has unveiled the company's new game engine, Tech 5, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

Shown running on a Mac, the new engine will be available for licensing to third parties as well as powering id's internally created game properties, and also supports PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms.

"Since many developers at id have made the switch to the Mac for their personal use, we decided it was now time to bring our core game technology to OS X," Carmack said.

"After a rapid bring up of the codebase, we were delighted to find that the latest Macs are the fastest systems in our offices for some of the time consuming processing jobs and will be contributing to our development process in many useful ways."

As revealed to GamesIndustry.biz last month, id Software is working on a new franchise which will be powered by the Tech 5 engine.

In a press release issued to coincide with the Tech 5 unveiling, id said its new rendering technology "practically eliminates the texture memory constraints typically placed on artists and designers". The engine is provided with "a powerful new suite of tools", and capable of supporting vast outdoor landscapes as well as detailed indoor environments, the developer added.

id Software's previous engines, created for games such as Doom and Quake, have powered games worth more than USD 1 billion in worldwide retail sales. The company plans to demonstrate Tech 5 to interested parties at next month's E3 Media and Business Summit in Santa Monica.