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The Technology Behind ID's Games

Posted by timothy on from the don't-forget-ego-and-superego dept.

orac2 writes: "The current issue of IEEE Spectrum has an article on the groundbreaking technology behind iD Software's games, from the days of Commander Keen through to Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Graphics technologies covered include the original 2-D buffer trick that made side-scrolling games on the PC feasible, as well as the more modern Raycasting and Binary Space Partition Tree techniques. Carmack is quoted extensively."

7 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Timely information. by Meefan · · Score: -1, Troll

    Good thing, too, because everyday I say to myself "hey, I wish I could write a game with grainy, low resolution graphics like Commander Keen with 2D BUFFER TECHNOLOGY!"

    --

    ------
    http://cooltech.org
    If it ain't cool, it ain't coolt
  2. he is a C hacker, that's it by sploreg · · Score: 0, Troll

    How the BSP tree being great technology is beyond me. It is over a decade old and is just horrid! It is preventing games from having dynamic environments because of its slow insert time. It's time that someone in the CS field trys to figure out a different method, if one exists, because our current method or ordering polygons is downright bad. Now as for Carmack, not to sound like a troll, but he is just a C hacker who is using previously used ideas and techniques. Why people worship him, especially now, is beyond me. If he comes up with a way to render polygons fast and provide a quick way of adding new polygons to a scene in real time without just increasing the minimum requirements to $3000, then I will be impressed. Other companies have provided new techniques and methods that have had a far greater impact than any ID game, but they don't get any credit. I'm not sure why. I could make a game that renders with Final Fantasy, the Spirits Within, level of graphics but the minimum requirements will be tremendous. Would people think I was a genius for "bringing games to the next level"? Sure they would. but for what? The same thing but with more muscle thrown at it? bah

  3. Re:Carmack IS God! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Yes, kids, if you make enough money by selling crappy games to the masses, you too can buy your own Korean wife! "Sucky-sucky for free, white man!" Oh yeah!

    Carmack is a loser.

  4. Re:Generic Style engine? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Are you saying that Katherine Anna Kang and John Romero are generic engines?

    -- The_Messenger
    (Banned for making Fent my generic engine.)

  5. Re:it's "id" NOT "iD" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    That's what you get for trying to be cool and use a funky case in your logo. Spell it "Id" if it rhymes with "did". Spell it "ID" if it rhymes with "I pee". I mean, otherwise you have no right to complain. If I called my company "Compyter Company", I shouldn't be surprised if people spelled it "wrong".

    Id Software is a bunch of morons.

  6. Re:Carmack IS God! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    That's all the more impressive when you realized that that photo was rendered with the new Unreal engine.

    -- The_Messenger
    (Banned for rendering jizz all over Fent's fat ass.)

  7. Re:Id didn't develop the Keen trick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Well, there's a reason why he's a PC programmer.

    -- The_Messenger
    (Banned for fucking Fent in her foul fuckhole until she fainted.)