They're Making a Doom Driving Game!

Well, not really. There /is/ a game being developed that will be using
the Doom engine, and -based solely on its proposed title, "Motor"- it
will be a game involving cars. But very little else is known about it,
since all that's known about it is taken from a trademark filing.*

But I just couldn't resist the topic line.


Idtech -the brand name for the core software used in Id's various
games from 1993's "Doom" through "Quake" and up to the most recent
"Doom Eternal"- occasionally incrementing its version number as the
years went by and the technology improved. idTech 1 was "Doom"; idTech
2 was used in "Quake"; idTech 3 was "Quake 3", and so forth. "Doom
Eternal" used idTech 7; the general assumption is that the next game
("Doom: The Dark Ages") will be using idTech 8. It's been frequently
licensed to other developers (most prominently in the idTech 3 years,
when it was incorporated into 20+ games) and for a long time it's
always been something of a wonder when first released. Together with
Epic's Unreal Engine, it was seen as the 'high end' of modern gaming
software.

Or at least it used to be. Ever since Carmack left the company, idTech
has lost a lot of its allure and marvel. It's not that it isn't a
powerful engine, but it seems a lot less cutting edge than it once
did. Whether this is because that Id has lost its way or that its
competitors have caught up to Id's prowess is debatable. Even before
Carmack's departure, idTech was starting to trail behind. IdTech4
("Doom 3") did a lot of neat stuff with lighting and bump-mapping, but
it was reputedly hard to work with and didn't output visuals
generationally ahead of any other system. IdTech 5's ("Rage") main
advantage seemed to be 'megatexture' rendering  technology, which
didn't offer any significant advantages and fit in poorly with
developer work-flows. IdTech 6 and 7 lacked any real innovations at
all, instead following up on ideas already implemented elsewhere.

So seeing a game advertised as 'powered by idTech' is a lot less
exciting than it used to be. I mean, why should I care? Other than
branding -and nostalgia- what does it mean for the end-user over any
other game-engine?







* here's the filing:
https://trademarks.justia.com/986/07/motor-powered-by-98607273.html