id shows off Tech 5

JOHN CARMACK'S id Software has shown off its new game engine, dubbed Tech 5, for the first time - and it looks pretty awesome.

On stage at WWDC, Steve Jobs showed Tech 5 running natively inside OSX on an Intel-based PC, we assume with an 8800 inside. Since Carmack is so mad about OpenGL, porting to OSX is a relatively simple task, since it's a cross-platform language. Tech 5 is obviously also being ported to PC, Xbox 360, PS3 etc.

In a message to fans, Carmack told them that "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," and went on to say that "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."

You can check out a video of the unveiling over at here. The graphics sure do look purdy.

Tech 5 will be the basis of a game based on 'new IP' for id, meaning no more Doom or Quake. Carmack claims to have made more headway eliminating textures as a bottleneck, following on from his mega-texture work, and says that Tech 5 will be powered by a world-class suite of building tools. µ