id Software debuts new engine at Apple conference

Just minutes ago, during Engadget's liveblogging of Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote, id Software had the first public debut of their newest technology. While they're not showing off what the new IP is just yet, they were showing off the technology that will power it and, in what we think is a first for id, the engine won't be named after the game it was built for. Instead, the technology is called "id Tech 5," perhaps a reference to a fifth generation graphics engine (we're losing count; Wolfenstein, DOOM, Quake, Quake II, Quake III, and DOOM 3)?

Carmack introduced the technology, saying, "So the last couple of years at id we've been working in secrecy on next-gen tech and a game for it ... this is the first time we're showing anything we've done on it publicly." He describes the demo happening on screen: "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."

Carmack finished off the tease saying, "We're going to be showing on a Mac, PC, PS3, and Xbox at E3, we'll have another Mac announcement at E3." Wow, talk about multiplatform. Check out some pics of the id Tech 5 demo from Engadget after the break.