id Tech is a series of successivegame engines designed and developed byid Software. Prior to the presentation of theid Tech 5-based gameRage in 2011, the engines lacked official designation and as such were simply referred to by the names of the games the engines had been developed for (i.e.,Doom andQuake engines). The id Tech engines up through 4.5 have been released asfree software under theGNU General Public License. id Tech versions 0 to 3 were released under GPL-2.0-or-later; id Tech versions 3.5 to 4.5 were released under GPL-3.0-or-later. id Tech 5 to 7 remain proprietary, with id Tech 8 currently being the latest engine.
According toEurogamer.net, "id Software has been synonymous with PC game engines since the concept of a detached game engine was first popularised." Howeverid Tech 4 had far fewer licensees than theUnreal Engine fromEpic Games. id planned to regain the momentum withid Tech 5,[1] until the company was bought byZeniMax Media in 2009 (who was later bought byMicrosoft in 2021), with both companies choosing to keep the id Tech engines exclusively for id and its sister studios as aproprietary engine.
In the id Tech numbering system, the earliest engine to bear the name is either id Tech 1 (used for the originalDoom) or id Tech 0, retroactively applied toWolfenstein 3D. However, id Software had developed 3D engines for several games beforeWolfenstein 3D. Each engine had progressively more advanced 3D technology.
Wolfenstein 3D (1992) increased the color palette from 16-colorEGA to 256-colorVGA and also adoptedraycasting. Thegame engine was also licensed out to other companies. The source code to Wolfenstein 3D, along with its prequelSpear of Destiny, was released on 21 July 1995 under a proprietary license, and then later under GPL-2.0-or-later.[2][3]
ShadowCaster (1993) was built upon the Wolfenstein 3D engine and was licensed out toRaven Software.[4] It features diminished lighting, texture mapped floors and ceilings, walls with variable heights, and sloped floors.[5] This Raven engine was later also used byIn Pursuit of Greed, and with further modifications forCyClones as the STEAM engine.
Rise of the Triad uses an enhanced engine ofWolfenstein 3D and was meant to serve as the sequel to it. The source code was released on 20 December 2002 under GPL-2.0-or-later.
Other games using this engine are:Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold,Blake Stone: Planet Strike,Corridor 7: Alien Invasion, andOperation Body Count.
| 1993 | Doom engine |
|---|---|
| 1994–1995 | |
| 1996 | Quake engine |
| 1997 | Quake II engine |
| 1998 | |
| 1999 | id Tech 3 |
| 2000–2003 | |
| 2004 | id Tech 4 |
| 2005–2010 | |
| 2011 | id Tech 5 |
| 2012–2015 | |
| 2016 | id Tech 6 |
| 2017–2019 | |
| 2020 | id Tech 7 |
| 2021–2024 | |
| 2025 | id Tech 8 |
Originally known as the "Doom engine", this engine powers the id Software gamesDoom (1993),Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994) andDoom 64 (1997). It was created byJohn Carmack, with auxiliary functions written byJohn Romero,Dave Taylor, and Paul Radek. Initially developed onNeXT computers, it wasported toMS-DOS forDoom's release and was later ported to severalgame consoles andoperating systems. The source code was released on 23 December 1997 under a proprietary license, and then later on 3 October 1999 under GPL-2.0-or-later.[6]
Heretic andHexen: Beyond Heretic were developed byRaven Software and published by id Software. Their sources were released on 4 September 2008 under GPL-2.0-only. Other games using this engine includeStrife: Quest for the Sigil andChex Quest.
Originally known as the "Quake engine", it was originally written to power 1996'sQuake. It featuredtrue 3Dreal-time rendering and is the first id Tech engine to use theclient–server model. The source code was released on 21 December 1999 under GPL-2.0-or-later.
TheQuake engine was updated with a new executable titledQuakeWorld that contained code to enhance the networking capabilities ofQuake in response to the demand for across-internet network games that arose as a result ofQuake's usage ofUDP for networking.
id Tech 2 was later updated for the release ofQuake II in 1997, with enhancements such as colored lighting and a new MD2 model format.[7] This updated version of id Tech 2 is the last id Tech engine to include asoftware renderer. The source code was released on 22 December 2001 under GPL-2.0-or-later.
Originally known as the "Quake III Arena engine", it was used to power id Software'sQuake III Arena in 1999. TheQuake III Arena engine was updated to patch 1.26 and later versions are called "Quake III Team Arena engine" with a new MD4 skeletal model format and huge outdoor areas. id Tech 3 is the first in this series to require anOpenGL-compliantgraphics accelerator to run. The source code was released on 19 August 2005 under GPL-2.0-or-later.
id Tech 3 was updated with the 2001 release ofReturn to Castle Wolfenstein, which included a single-player scripting system. id Tech 3 was also used to power the firstCall of Duty title in 2003, ultimately spawning theIW engine. It was also used forWolfenstein: Enemy Territory. The source code was released on 12 August 2010 under GPL-3.0-or-later.
Commonly known as the "Doom 3 engine" which was used to powerDoom 3 as it released in 2004, id Tech 4 began as an enhancement toid Tech 3. During development, it was initially just a complete rewrite of the engine'srenderer, while still retaining other subsystems, such as file access, and memory management. The decision to switch fromC to theC++programming language necessitated a restructuring and rewrite of the rest of the engine; today, while id Tech 4 contains code from id Tech 3, much of it has been rewritten.[8] The source code was released on 22 November 2011 under GPL-3.0-or-later.
Other games using this engine are:Raven Software'sQuake 4 (2005) andWolfenstein (2009),Human Head Studios'Prey (2006),Splash Damage'sEnemy Territory: Quake Wars (2007) andBrink (2011).
id Tech 4 was updated with the 2012 release ofDoom 3: BFG Edition with some features from id Tech 5. The source code was released on 26 November 2012 under GPL-3.0-or-later.
Used for id Software'sRage, the engine is based on the file system frameworks. Some technologies included are the GUI system fromid Tech 4, including a new renderer,MegaTexture 2.0 technology, soft shadows and more.id is requiring companies that use the engine to publish their games through id's sister company,Bethesda Softworks.[9]
The engine was later used to powerMachineGames' first twoWolfenstein titles,The New Order in 2014 and its standalone expansionThe Old Blood, from 2015. It was also used forTango Gameworks'The Evil Within (2014).
id Tech 5 is currently the oldest id Software engine not to be released under theGNU GPL license. As of 2025, the engine remainsclosed-source.[10][failed verification]
Used forDoom released on May 13, 2016. While the engine uses some of the features from id Tech 5, id has also added support forVulkan rendering. Development of the renderer is led by Tiago Sousa, who had previously worked onCryEngine, following previoustechnical directorJohn Carmack's resignation in 2013. id Tech 6 was also used inWolfenstein II: The New Colossus (2017), andWolfenstein: Youngblood (2019) again byMachineGames. It was not used forQuake Champions however, which combined id Tech features with theSaber3D Engine.
AtQuakeCon 2018, id Software announced the release of a new game in the Doom franchise calledDoom Eternal.[11] Powered by the id Tech 7 engine,Doom Eternal was released on March 20, 2020. The new engine is capable of delivering an increase in geometric detail without drops in frame-rate vs. id Tech 6.[12] On PC, id Tech 7 supportsVulkan rendering only.[13]
AtDeveloper_Direct 2025, id Software revealed gameplay details[14] and the PC specifications[15] forDoom: The Dark Ages, which is powered by their id Tech 8 engine and was released on May 15, 2025.
The id Tech 8 engine increases the maximum number of on-screen enemies and supportspath tracing and realisticgame physics, featuringdestructible environments.[16] It is the first generation of id Tech engine that requires dedicatedraytracing-enabled hardware,[17] primarily due to the lighting to be fully raytraced global illumination.
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