The number four comes after three, right? Normally, yes. In the world of video games, however, it's not necessarily the case. Developers have taken on the "because I said so" school of thought in naming games, and id Software is among the best pupils of the philosophy. More in the full article.

At id Software's QuakeCon, John Carmack stole the show with a rather perplexing announcement: the iconic programmer predicted that the Xbox 360 version of their upcoming shooter Rage will look worse than the PC, PlayStation 3 and Mac versions. Find out why in the full article up next.

If you're a fan of the Doom franchise then here's some good news! id Software has announced that they're working on Doom 4 already. Interestingly enough, the game might be headed multiplatform on the company's new proprietary engine. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

Rage looks gorgeous and all, but all eyes are on the engine that makes it possible - id Software's Tech 5. Could the revelation at QuakeCon open the eyes of developers and sway them from the much popular Unreal Engine 3? id Director of Business Development Steve Nix sat down with Games Industry to talk more on what id's latest has to offer.

In a nutshell, Tech 5 is a breakthrough in the sense that artists can now create textures and models without having to worry about memory limitations due to hardware they're working on. Most games sacrifice visual flair for performance, but Tech 5 eliminates that with the "virtualised texture system," said Nix.

Gamers expect eye-bleeding graphics when a title is made under Epic's Unreal Engine 3, but developers may grow more fond of id's serving. According to Nix, aside from the convenience of being multiplatform, Tech 5 also allows devs to almost instantaneously get new assets into the game.

On the design side, "an artist can be working on a map and you're driving around in the car and, the next time you come around to that part of the track, in real-time what the artist has just done is there on the walls," he added.

Epic's own engine reached unreal heights, but id doesn't falter. "I don't spend much time looking at Epic's current offering or what their product line is - we've always just done our own thing at id, so we don't spend too much time thinking about them," Nix continued.

Another issue is pricing, which can be a major factor for companies looking to license technology with a tight budget. The last engine id released, id Tech 4, went off for US$ 250,000. One would imagine that id's Tech 5 will be a lot more expensive. However, Nix said id is not concerned with pricing of other competitors, saying, "We believe we have the best technology solution available."

For the full interview, head over the Read link below.

John Carmack, id Software co-founder and technical director, was unveiled as a surprise guest during Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote at this year's Worldwide Developers' Conference. While that may not be big news in and of itself to most readers, what Carmack brought to the keynote is.

   

According to Engadget, Carmack gave audiences at WWDC07 a first look at Tech 5, id Software's new game engine. Details about the engine are still scarce, but Carmack did give audiences a peek at some of the features that come packed with Tech 5.

What we've got here is the entire world with unique textures, 20GB of textures covering this track. They can go in and look at the world and, say, change the color of the mountaintop, or carve their name into the rock. They can change as much as they want on surfaces with no impact on the game.

More details about Tech 5 are expected to surface come E3. Carmack also noted that the engine was being geared towards the Mac, PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 gaming platforms. Yes, the Mac. Carmack also revealed that another announcement involving the Mac would be made at E3.