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Quake engine

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Reading time
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Topic
Computer Science
Quality
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Released
1996
Views
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Last edited
18 Sept 2026
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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  1. Quake engine
Quake engine
Video game engine developed by id Software
Developersid Software (John Carmack, Michael Abrash, John Cash)
Final release1.09 / December 21, 1999 (1999-12-21)
Written inC, Assembly (for software rendering & optimization)
PlatformDOS, AmigaOS, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Nintendo 64, Zeebo, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4,
PlayStation 5
PredecessorDoom engine
SuccessorQuake II engine, GoldSrc
LicenseGNU GPL-2.0-or-later
Websitewww.idsoftware.com
Repositorygithub.com/id-Software/Quake

The Quake engine is the game engine developed by id Software to power their 1996 video game Quake. It featured true 3D real-time rendering. Since 1999, it has been licensed under the terms of GNU General Public License v2.0 or later.

After release, the Quake engine was immediately forked. Much of the engine remained in Quake II and Quake III Arena. The Quake engine, like the Doom engine, uses binary space partitioning (BSP) to optimize the world rendering. The Quake engine also uses Gouraud shading for moving objects, and a static lightmap for non-moving objects.

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Contents
  • (Top)
  • History
  • Derivative engines
  • Games using the Quake engine
  • See also
  • References
  • External links
  • Recent changes
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Contents
Contents8 sections
  • (Top)
  • History
  • Derivative engines
  • Games using the Quake engine
  • Games using a proprietary license
  • Games based on the GPL source release
  • See also
  • References
  • External links
  • Recent changes
  • Rabbit hole
Categories:
  • 1996 software
  • Free game engines
  • Game engines for Linux
  • Id Tech
  • Quake (series)
  • Video game engines

621 words · 55 references · revision 1375581981 · CC BY-SA 4.0

General
  • Recent changes
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This article
Reading time
9 min
Topic
Computer Science
Quality
Start-class
Released
1996
Views
2.3k in 14 days
Last edited
18 Sept 2026

Key concepts

  • Id Software4
  • Quake (video game)3
  • Nexuiz2
  • Game engine1
  • True 3D1
  • Real-time rendering1
  • GNU General Public License1
  • Fork (software development)1
  • Quake II1
  • Quake III Arena1

The articles this one links to most, weighted towards the introduction.

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History

Further information: Quake (video game) § Development

The Quake engine was developed from 1995 for the video game Quake, released on June 22, 1996. John Carmack did most of the programming of the engine, with help from Michael Abrash in algorithms and assembly optimization.

John Romero initially conceived of Quake as an action game taking place in a fully 3D polygon world, inspired by Sega AM2's 3D fighting game Virtua Fighter. Quake was also intended to feature Virtua Fighter-influenced third-person melee combat. However, id Software considered it to be risky, and it would have taken longer to develop the engine. Because the project was taking too long, the third-person melee was eventually dropped.12

Simplified process of reducing map complexity in Quake: Brushes used to define a play area
Preprocessor identifies interior spaces and external void
Preprocessor prunes faces that are not visible in the play area
Final processed game map

Derivative engines

Family tree illustrating derivations of Quake engines

On December 21, 1999, John Carmack of id Software released the Quake engine source code on the Internet under the terms of GPL-2.0-or-later, allowing programmers to edit the engine and add new features. Programmers were soon releasing new versions of the engine on the net. Some of the best-known engines are:

  • GoldSrc – The first engine to be created by Valve. It was used in the Half-Life series, and gave rise to the Source and Source 2 engines. The Xash3D projects, as well as the FreeHL and FreeCS ports,3 use Quake source code in part to recreate this engine, even with a wrapper for running the game.45
  • DarkPlaces – A significantly modified engine used in several standalone games and Quake mods.67 Although the last stable release was on May 13, 2014, it has received numerous updates through its repository since then. Its home page was hosted on until 2021, when the engine switched to a repository hosted on . The developers of provide mirrors of DarkPlaces source code on various social coding platforms since the game is built on and distributed with the development version of the engine.

Games using the Quake engine

Games using a proprietary license

YearTitleDeveloper(s)Publisher(s)
1996Quakeid SoftwareGT Interactive
1997Quake Mission Pack No. 1: Scourge of ArmagonHipnotic Interactive3D Realms
Quake Mission Pack No. 2: Dissolution of EternityRogue Entertainment3D Realms
Hexen IIRaven Softwareid Software, Activision

See also

  • List of game engines
  • First person shooter engine
  • id Tech
  • Quake II engine
  • Quake modding

References

  1. 1"Does John Romero Still Enjoy Shooting People?". Next Generation. No. 30. June 1997. pp. 9–12.
  2. 2Edge, May 1997, “My original idea was to do something like Virtua Fighter in a 3D world, with full-contact fighting, but you'd also be able to run through a world, and do the same stuff you do in Quake, only when you got into these melees, the camera would pull out into a third-person perspective. It would've been great, but nobody else had faith in trying it. The project was taking too long, and everybody just wanted to fall back on the safe thing – the formula.”
  3. 3Larabel, Michael (November 10, 2017). "FreeCS: Aiming For An Open-Source Counter-Strike Implementation". Phoronix. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  4. 4BTRE (August 3, 2020). "Half-Life: Absolute Zero mimics Half-Life's original vibe, run on Linux with Xash3D FWGS". GamingOnLinux. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  5. 5Beschizza, Rob (March 9, 2022). "Play the original Half-Life in the browser". Boing Boing. Retrieved July 16, 2024.

External links

  • Quake's Lighting Model: Surface caching by Michael Abrash
  • Quake engine code analysis by Fabien Sanglard
  • Source code for winquake, glquake, quakeworld, and glquakeworld
SVN
8
Icculus.org
Git
GitHub
9
Xonotic
10
11
  • QuakeForge - One of the earlier major community ports.12
  • NPRQuake - Fork of Quake featuring non-photorealistic rendering giving it a pencil drawn look.1314
  • Tenebrae - Custom Quake engine with real time lighting and bumpmapping among other features.15161718
  • TyrQuake - A conservative focused source port.12
  • Fisheye Quake - Custom Quake engine with fisheye distortion by the author of PanQuake.19
    • Blinky - Fork of the fisheye view along with the TyrQuake software renderer.2021
  • WinQuake
    • Engoo (Derivative of WinQuake) - Graphically enhanced software renderer based port.22
  • Fruitz of Dojo - Source port aimed at Mac OS X.232425
  • NehQuake - Custom engine for the Nehara mod.26
  • GLQuake
    • FitzQuake (Derivative of GLQuake) - Seminal port whose SDL version was later forked into numerous others.27
      • MarkV (Derivative of FitzQuake, successor to DirectQ) - Came in both GLQuake and WinQuake derived versions.28
      • Quakespasm (Derivative of FitzQuake) – Commonly used source port.29
        • Quakespasm-Spiked (Derivative of Quakespasm) - Limit-removing fork.30
        • vkQuake – (Derivative of Quakespasm) – Uses Vulkan API for rendering programmed by id Software employee Axel Gneiting, released under the GPLv2.3132
        • Ironwail - (Derivative of Quakespasm) – An engine aiming at maximum performance.33
  • FTEQW (Derivative of QuakeWorld) - A modern client for online multiplayer.3422
  • FuhQuake
    • ezQuake (Derivative of FuhQuake) - Multiplayer focused port often paired with the nQuake launcher.3536
    • JoeQuake (Derivative of FuhQuake) - A port popular with speedrunners.37
    • Malice
    Ratloop
    Quantum Axcess
    X-Men: The Ravages of ApocalypseZero Gravity EntertainmentWizardWorks
    1998Hexen II Mission Pack: Portal of PraevusRaven Softwareid Software
    Activision
    2000Laser ArenaTrainwreck StudiosValuSoft

    Games based on the GPL source release

    YearTitleDeveloper(s)Publisher(s)
    2000OpenQuartz38OpenQuartz TeamSourceForge
    2001Transfusion39Transfusion ProjectSourceForge
    2005NexuizAlientrapAlientrap
    2007The Hunted40Chris PageModDB
    2011XonoticTeam XonoticTeam Xonotic
    Steel StormKot-in-Action Creative ArtelKot-in-Action Creative Artel
    2012Forced: Leashed41Kepuli GamesKepuli Games
    RetroBlazer424344Hydra Game WorksHydra Game Works
    2013Chaos Esque Anthology45Chaos Esque TeamChaos Esque Team
    2015Rexuiz46Rexuiz TeamRexuiz Team
    2017FreeCS3FreeCS TeamGitHub
    2018FortressOne47FortressOne TeamFortressOne Team
    The Wastes48Vera Visions L.L.CVera Visions L.L.C
    2019 (Early access)LibreQuake49LibreQuake TeamGitHub
    2021 (Early access)Doombringer50Anomic GamesAnomic Games
    2024Wrath: Aeon of Ruin51Killpixel3D Realms
    1C Entertainment
    2025Brazilian Drug Dealer 3: I Opened a Portal to Hell in the Favela Trying To Revive Mit Aia I Need to Close It5253JoevenoJoeveno, NoQuarter
    2026MeowGun: Hell Denizen 54SusaDeBastetSusaDeBastet
    2026Brazilian Drug Dealer Before 4: Demons From The Portal To Hell I Opened Are Still In The Favela And Now I Have To Save Mamadas From Ronaldo 55JoevenoJoeveno, NoQuarter
    6
    Emms, Steve (October 29, 2023). "DarkPlaces – Quake modification". LinuxLinks. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 7"DarkPlaces Homepage". icculus.org. Retrieved November 6, 2017.
  • 8"Darkplaces subversion repository". svn.icculus.org. Retrieved August 9, 2019.
  • 9darkplacesengine/darkplaces, DarkPlaces Engine, June 14, 2021, retrieved June 21, 2021
  • 10"DarkPlaces Quake Engine on Xonotic GitLab". Retrieved February 3, 2020.
  • 11"DarkPlaces Quake Engine on Xonotic GitHub". GitHub. Retrieved November 6, 2017.
  • 12Stevenaaus (March 1, 2010). "Game Engines". Linux Quake HOWTO. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  • 13Beschizza, Rob (July 30, 2018). "Quake on me: classic shooter rendered with pencil sketch filter". Boing Boing. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  • 14Ille, Adrian (September 11, 2014). "Non-Photorealistic Rendering Techniques for a Game Engine". SlideServe. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  • 15Goldstein, Maarten (September 25, 2002). "New Tenebrae". Shacknews. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 16Royal, Simon (October 10, 2015). "TenebraeQuake, an Enhanced Quake Front End". Low End Mac. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 17Wiley, Galen (July 14, 2003). "New Tenebrae Release for PC". Inside Mac Games. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 18Largent, Andy (October 27, 2002). "New PC Tenebrae Quake, Mac Update Soon". Inside Mac Games. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 19Bosworth, Patrick (July 2, 2021). "Part 5: Source Ports and Fisheye Quake". Shacknews. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 20Chalk, Andy (October 10, 2015). "Peripheral vision in games goes ultrawide with new Quake mod". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 21Chakrabarty, Aditya (March 12, 2015). "Peripheral Vision in game goes Ultrawide thanks to the new Quake Mod". sportskeeda. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 22Baxter, Joel (May 3, 2015). "Quake Engines, Old and New". Neogeographica. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 23Cook, Brad (March 19, 2006). "Quake Gets Universal Binary". The Mac Observer. Archived from the original on July 16, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  • 24Monks, Neale (August 1, 2003). "Classic Games: Quake". MyMac.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  • 25"Frank's Craptacular House of Mac Quake Stuffs". pOx's Playhouse. July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  • 26Stevenaaus (March 1, 2010). "Mods". Linux Quake HOWTO. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  • 27Boyle, Joshua (August 18, 2022). "Nods to Mods Interview: Rubicon 2 for Quake". Slayer's Club. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  • 28Papadopoulos, John (December 11, 2018). "Quake Xmas Jam 2018 adds 21 new maps to id Software's classic shooter, available for download". DOSGaming. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  • 29Yang, Robert (August 23, 2021). "Quake Renaissance: a short history of 25 years of Quake modding". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  • 30Dawe, Liam (April 27, 2022). "Block Quake is basically Quake made into LEGO". GamingOnLinux. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  • 31Gneiting, Axel (July 20, 2016). "My Vulkan Quake 1 Port running "In the Shadows" mod. Some stuff still missing. Code is here https://github.com/Novum/vkQuake". Twitter. Retrieved August 6, 2016.
  • 32"Vulkan Quake port based on QuakeSpasm". github.com/Novum/vkQuake. Retrieved August 6, 2016.
  • 33Spirit (January 30, 2022). "Ironwail, a high-performance QuakeSpasm fork". InsideQC. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  • 34Chalk, Andy (February 17, 2021). "This mod turns Quake into a top-down shooter". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 35Campbell, Alex (May 20, 2016). "We're running a Quake server all week—come play with us!". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 36Fenlon, Wes (May 22, 2021). "We're running a Quake multiplayer server all week for the 25th anniversary". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  • 37Fairweather (February 19, 2022). "Quake Engines & Source Ports: A Beginners Guide". Slipgate Sightseer. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  • 38neozeed (June 24, 2018). "Open Quartz". Virtually Fun. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  • 39Von Kallenbach, Gareth (2003). "Devoted to the cause - Blood Transfusion to save aging game". Game Industry News. Archived from the original on April 8, 2003.
  • 40"The Hunted Chronicle 2 review". Nixbit. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  • 41Tricky (August 25, 2012). "Force: Leashed". Jay Is Games. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  • 42Yu, Derek (January 16, 2012). "RetroBlazer (Alpha)". TIG Source. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  • 43Priestman, Chris (January 21, 2015). "RetroBlazer Has The Fast Pace, Bright Colors Of 1990s FPS". Siliconera. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  • 44Tarason, Dominic (January 12, 2012). "16-Bit Killer – RetroBlazer Demo Offers 2.5d FPS Nostlagia With A Twist". DIY Gamer. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  • 45"Chaos Esque Anthology Free 3D FPS, fork from Xonotic". FOSS Games. April 3, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  • 46"Rexuiz FPS". Indie Gamer. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  • 47Dawe, Liam (November 21, 2018). "Get some classic FPS action on with QuakeWorld Team Fortress". Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  • 48"The Wastes". Frag-Net.con. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  • 49Yang, Robert (August 5, 2021). "Quake Renaissance: how to start playing the original Quake today". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  • 50Dawe, Liam (June 5, 2021). "DOOMBRINGER is a new first-person shooter from veterans of the Doom and Quake communities". GamingOnLinux. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  • 51Russell, Bradley (March 7, 2019). "3D Realms' VP Talks 'Exceeding' Quake with Wrath: Aeon of Ruin and 'Dumbed Down' Call of Duty". Game Revolution. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
  • 52Zwiezen, Zack (September 24, 2025). "New $3 Boomer Shooter Is A Wild Fever Dream You Should Play". Kotaku. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
  • 53Andy Chalk (September 23, 2025). "Steam celebrates all things boomer shooter with 'Boomstock 2025,' blasting up to 80% off the very best in retro-inspired FPS". PC Gamer. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
  • 54"MeowGun: Hell Denizen PC review — Non-stop cat mayhem that scratches that Quake itch". gamescout. Retrieved February 2, 2026.
  • 55"BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER BEFORE 4: DEMONS FROM THE PORTAL TO HELL I OPENED ARE STILL IN THE FAVELA AND NOW I HAVE TO SAVE MAMADAS FROM RONALDO on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved September 18, 2026.
    • Created
    27 Nov 2004
    History
    696 edits
    393 contributors
    No edits in the last 30 days
    Last edited
    18 Sept 2026

    696 revisions in total · 393 contributors

    1. 18 Sept 2026, 17:47 UTCMarshalbacalhauAdded BDDB4, by the same developer of BDD3, added publisher "NoQuarter" as pointed on the Steam page for BDD3 and BDDB4+631diff
    2. 29 Jun 2026, 22:37 UTCWillondonUndid revision 1361750629 by ~2026-37389-19 (talk); unsourced, still unexplained despite edit summary advice on user talk−96diff
    3. 29 Jun 2026, 21:18 UTCTemporary accountrevertedNo edit summary+96diff
    4. 29 Jun 2026, 16:51 UTCDiscospinstermReverted edits by ~2026-37389-19 (talk): not providing a reliable source (WP:CITE, WP:RS) (HG) (3.4.14)−99diff
    5. 29 Jun 2026, 16:50 UTCTemporary accountrevertedNo edit summary+99diff
    6. 29 Jun 2026, 16:45 UTCDiscospinsterno article or reference−555diff
    7. 29 Jun 2026, 16:43 UTCTemporary account§ Games based on the GPL source release+98diff
    8. 29 Jun 2026, 13:44 UTCWillondonUndid revision 1361682329 by ~2026-37389-19 (talk); unexplained removal of sourced data; addition of unsourced data+1,053diff

    View full revision history

    Created
    27 Nov 2004
    History
    696 edits
    393 contributors
    No edits in the last 30 days
    Last edited
    18 Sept 2026

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