id Tech 8: A look at the new engine from id Software

Author Maximum Games, 06 May 2025. Published in IT market

Over its three decades of existence, id Software has repeatedly become a technological pioneer in the gaming industry. Since the release of the original DOOM in 1993, its engines have set the standard for 1D graphics, performance, and control responsiveness. Each iteration — from id Tech 7 to id Tech XNUMX — has not only accompanied the studio’s key releases, but has become the foundation for dozens of other games, inspiring competitors and defining the technical appearance of an era.

Now, with the release id Tech 8, the studio is taking another step forward — and, apparently, not an evolutionary one, but a revolutionary one. The new engine was created in the context of the industry's transition to a new generation of consoles, the spread of ray tracing, and increased demands on the scale and density of game worlds. id Tech 8 is a response to the challenges of modern graphics, physics, sound, and interactivity, adapted to the needs of powerful projects from Xbox Game Studios.

This article provides a detailed technical and conceptual analysis of id Tech 8: the history of its origins, architectural principles, visual and sound technologies, hardware requirements, real projects using the engine, as well as its development prospects in the Xbox ecosystem.

Engine development at id Software has always been at the forefront of the industry. Created by John Carmack, the technical platform has become synonymous with progress in 3D graphics and realistic physics since the 1990s. Each new id Tech engine has become more than just a technological upgrade, but the foundation for an entire generation of first-person shooters. Before moving on to id Tech 8, it’s worth tracing the path the technology has taken over more than three decades.

HISTORY OF ID TECH AND THE EVOLUTION OF TECHNOLOGIES

In 1993, the original Doom became a cultural and technical phenomenon. Although the engine was not technically “true” 3D, but used two-dimensional planes with the illusion of depth (called 2.5D), it gave players the experience of true three-dimensional navigation for the first time. This engine, later called id Tech 1, included lighting, texturing, and mod support, which influenced the development of an entire genre.

In 1996, Quake was released and the engine with true 3D graphics became the new standard. id Tech 2 offered OpenGL support, normal map-based lighting, and a client-server architecture that influenced future multiplayer games.

id Tech 3- one of the most influential engines of the late 90s. Used in Quake III, it brought support for skeletal animation, shaders, Bezier curves, and an advanced networking model. Many games used this engine, including Call of Duty, Jedi Outcast and Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

With the release of Doom 3 in 2004, the engine id Tech 4 focused on dynamic lighting and shadows. It was the first major shift from static lighting to fully calculated real-time lighting, which provided a unique atmosphere. However, performance limitations prevented this version from becoming as widespread as its predecessors.

Released in 2011 with Rage, the engine became famous for its "megatexture" technology, which allowed for the loading of huge textures for entire levels. While the concept was ambitious, it suffered from performance and data loading issues. However, id Tech 5 pushed landscape and environment streaming technologies forward.

Welcome back to DOOM in 2016 id Tech 6 was a triumph. It provided high performance on all platforms, incredibly smooth gameplay with a frame rate of 60 FPS and high-quality graphics without compromise. Using the technology Vulkan allowed to achieve access close to the metal GPU, minimizing delays.

The next step was id Tech 7 — DOOM Eternal was released on it in 2020. This engine brought more detail, double the amount of geometry, support for complex animation, and an improved post-processing pipeline. It also introduced a system for calculating demon destruction for the first time, which added visual depth and dynamics to the gameplay.

The introduction of a new generation of the engine was an expected step. After the success of DOOM Eternal, it became clear that the next round of development would require not just an evolution, but a radical restructuring of the architecture. id Tech 8 was created as a high-performance next-generation platform, adapted for current consoles, PCs and the requirements of the 2020s. The engine is based on scalability, ray tracing, improved particle rendering, dynamic physics and tools for rapid level assembly.

ARCHITECTURE AND KEY TECHNOLOGIES OF ID TECH 8

Architectural changes: abandoning the old core

id Tech 8 was not created as a refinement of previous versions, but as a practically new engine from scratch. id Software engineers reworked the rendering core, network architecture and data flow logic. This was necessary due to the growth of the scale of game worlds and the requirements for visual quality. Unlike id Tech 7, which used an internal scene and asset management system, the eighth version focuses on modularity and asynchronous processing.

The main directions of architectural changes:

Full resource asynchrony - loading of textures, meshes and scripts occurs without blocking rendering.
Scalability support — the engine is adaptable to Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, PC and potentially future devices.
A new approach to scenes — id Tech 8 uses a system of “scenegraphs” (SceneGraph Systems), which allows flexible management of dependencies between objects in a scene.

Ray Tracing and Hybrid Lighting

One of the main innovations is hybrid lighting using ray tracing. Unlike pure path-tracing, which requires huge resources, id Tech 8 uses selective tracing:

Ray-traced shadows - rays are calculated only for key light sources and shadows, ensuring high quality at moderate costs.
Ray-traced reflections - are used in limited areas (for example, on glass surfaces or water), the rest is supplemented by screen reflections.
Ray-guided GI - global illumination system with secondary order illumination.

The result is a balance between quality and performance. On high-performance RTX or Radeon graphics cards with RT blocks, the picture looks cinematic, but the engine maintains 60 FPS and above.

Next generation geometry and LOD model

id Tech 8 has significantly expanded the capabilities of geometry. Now it uses a dynamic level of detail (LOD) technique based on distance and context analysis:

System Geometry Bucketing automatically breaks down objects by distance, which reduces the load on GPU.
Introduced soft transitions between LODs using voxel transition forms - visually this removes the "switching" of the model.
Support real-time tessellation Allows you to create curved surfaces (such as leather, clothing or decorations) without losing performance.

Thanks to these solutions, the environments in games on id Tech 8 look dense and rich, especially in large open spaces.

Enhanced particle and destruction system

The next big innovation is a reworked particle system and destruction calculation. Unlike id Tech 7, where the destruction of enemy bodies was strictly defined, in the new version everything is calculated at the moment of collision:

The system is used Soft Body Deformation, which allows you to destroy objects along the impact vector.
Particles react to the surrounding space: smoke “swirls” from flying objects, blood settles according to physics.
Objects can now be split by material: Wood, metal, flesh and stone have their own strength and fracture behavior parameters.

It's not just a visual effect - it all works in conjunction with the mechanics and tactics of combat, which is especially important for games like Doom.

Next level sound subsystem

id Tech 8 features a completely new sound system that supports 3D spatial audio, HRTF and ambisonics:

Audio sources are processed based on real-world geometry - sound is reflected, dampened and diffused based on the environment.
Implemented realistic processing of EAX-like effects: reverberation, echo and sound positioning depend on the walls, volume and type of rooms.
Works with multi-channel output (7.1 and higher), as well as support for dynamic mixing of effects depending on the situation.

The result is complete immersion into the game world without the need for manual adjustment of scripts and sound zones.

DEVELOPMENT TOOLS, COMPATIBILITY AND PLATFORM SUPPORT

Tools and Integration

One of the strengths of id Tech 8 is a powerful set of tools created specifically for the internal needs of id Software and other Bethesda/Xbox studios. The new level editor is built on a modular architecture and supports "live" work with content without the need for a complete recompile of the scene.

Basic tools:

Level Streamer — a module for automatically loading locations and content as the player approaches. Uses data caching and can be controlled via a Blueprints-like system.
Node-based AI Editor — visual creation of enemy and NPC behavior. Allows you to set complex logic, including reactions to sound, light and damage.
FX Toolkit — a complex for creating visual effects, including simulations of liquids, smoke and magic particles.
ScriptLive — interactive debugger and scripting engine with hot code replacement on the fly (without rebuilding).

id Tech 8 also integrates with version control systems (Perforce, Git), build systems (Jenkins, Azure DevOps) and supports automatic build generation on Xbox Series and PC.

Compatibility and Requirements

For all the engine's graphics features to work properly - especially ray tracing, global illumination, advanced reflections and shadows - it requires video card with hardware support for ray tracing. It means:

On PC: minimum requirements - GeForce RTX 2060, Radeon RX 6600 XT or higher. Preferably — RTX 3060/4060, RX 6700 XT/7800 XT and newer.
On consoles: Xbox Series X / S и PlayStation 5 fully support ray tracing thanks to built-in RT units in the architecture GPU.
Older consoles (PS4, Xbox One) are not supported by the id Tech 8 engine at all.

It's especially worth noting that on systems without hardware ray tracing (such as the GTX 1080 or Vega 64), the engine either disables these features entirely or limits them to a minimum level - for example, leaving only screen-space reflections and baked lighting.

The engine also requires:

minimum 16 GB RAM,
SSD with high read speed (preferably NVMe),
processor not lower than Ryzen 5 3600 / Core i5-11600K.

Platform support

id Tech 8 was developed from the very beginning with cross-platform support in mind, but only within the new generation. At the moment, the engine is officially adapted for:

Windows 10/11 (x64) — the main development and launch platform.
Xbox Series X / S — with full access to DirectStorage and RDNA 2 APIs.
PlayStation 5 — with Tempest Engine integration for sound and ray tracing based on Navi.
Cloud (xCloud, GeForce Now) — thanks to good engine optimization for streaming via Vulkan/DirectX 12 Ultimate.

Linux and Steam Deck support is being considered, but is currently unofficial. Steam Deck is theoretically capable of running stripped-down builds on Vulkan-base, but without RT functions..

GAMES ON ID TECH 8, REAL USE AND PROSPECTS

The first wave of games on the engine

While id Tech 8 hasn't been officially released to the public as an SDK, it's already being used in a number of major titles being developed by Xbox's internal studios. Unlike previous iterations, version XNUMX is a strictly internal tech stack — and is only being used in games where maximum quality, high gameplay density, and high frame rates are critical.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

The first game officially released on id Tech 8 was MachineGames' action-adventure take on the Indiana Jones franchise, which saw id Tech's technology being gently adapted to a more cinematic, exploratory genre than traditional shooters.

Technical features of implementation in the game:

High polygon faces and advanced facial capture with blend-shape animation.
Complex lighting of museums, catacombs, dungeons and temples with RT processing of reflections from stone and metal surfaces.
Great attention to the physics of objects: ropes, cables, avalanches, ladders and traps use a skeletal physics system.
Third-person animation - for the first time within id Tech, full-featured "body awareness" is used, something previously more typical of Unreal.

Thus, Indiana Jones became the first full demonstration of how id Tech could adapt to more leisurely, story-driven gameplay, as opposed to ultra-dynamic projects like Doom.

Doom: The Dark Ages

The continuation of the famous series is coming out 15 May and will be the first game to fully utilize the id Tech 8 for its intended purpose - a high-speed shooter with an emphasis on destructibility, verticality, and continuous movement.

Confirmed engine features in The Dark Ages:

Full implementation of hybrid ray tracing - soft shadows from each demon, reflections on armor, dynamic lighting of portals.
New body destruction pipeline: each enemy type has up to 25 stages of damage, from armor scratched to complete dismemberment.
Elements of the environment are destroyed in real time with a reaction to the type of weapon (for example, a nail gun leaves craters, an axe splits).
Reworked sound architecture with realistic echolocation in closed arenas - shotgun sounds and demon roars now resonate differently depending on the geometry.

id Software also confirmed that the AI system has been rewritten based on id Tech 8, with enemies now able to adapt to the player's style, remember their behavior, maneuver between cover, and even use primitive path-blocking tactics.

Potential for other studios

While id Tech 8 is currently being used exclusively within the Xbox ecosystem, there's a good chance it will become the basis for other projects as well:

MachineGames will continue to use the engine, possibly in future Wolfenstein-licensed games.
Arkane Studios Austin is considering id Tech 8 as a technical platform for a possible Prey reboot or a new Immersive Sim.
Tango Gameworks studied id Tech 8 in the context of horror games with cinematic staging and dynamic lighting.

It's important to note that the engine is not intended for indie developers or third-party studios - its complexity, architecture, and tools are designed for a long production cycle with a large team.

Comparison with competitors

id Tech 8 is not a general-purpose engine in the spirit of Unreal Engine 5. It doesn't offer the same number of templates, doesn't have a giant ecosystem of plugins and assets, but it does provide:

Maximum productivity: Doom Eternal and Indiana Jones run at 60 FPS with RT enabled.
Better control responsiveness: thanks to low input processing and rendering latency, which is critical for shooters.
Optimal performance on consoles: id Tech 8 is tightly integrated with the Xbox Series and PS5 hardware, ensuring efficient use of RT units and memory.

ADVANTAGES, LIMITATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF ID TECH 8

Advantages of the engine

id Tech 8 was developed as a highly specialized, but extremely powerful engine, tailored for shooters, action games and games where response speed, accuracy and visual density are important. Among its key advantages:

1. Extreme Performance

Thanks to low-level access to GPU via Vulkan and DirectX 12 Ultimate, the engine is capable of delivering stable 60-120 FPS even with ray tracing enabled. It is optimized for CPU cache, multithreading, and parallel scene processing, making it one of the fastest technologies in the industry.

2. Realistic lighting without excessive resources

Unlike Unreal Engine 5, which requires path tracing (and expensive ones) for a realistic picture. GPU), id Tech 8 achieves a similar visual level by cleverly combining screen-space effects, ray tracing, and pre-set lighting. This allows for a cinematic effect on more modest hardware, provided that hardware ray tracing is supported.

3. Full integration of destruction and interaction

Each model in the engine can have its own physics, destruction system, deformation textures and sound reactions. This makes the worlds on id Tech 8 not only beautiful, but also rich in feedback from the player. Enemies, surfaces, scenery - everything reacts to the player's actions.

4. Built-in profiling and telemetry

Performance analysis tools are built right into the editor, making it easy to identify bottlenecks. You can monitor CPU usage in real time.GPU, pipeline overload, and heat maps of player activity at the level.

Limitations and Vulnerabilities

Despite its impressive technology, id Tech 8 has its limitations, which define its niche nature.

1. Non-universality

id Tech 8 is not suitable for slow-paced RPGs, sims, RTS, or open-world projects like Skyrim or GTA. Although the engine supports open levels, the architecture is oriented towards corridor-like or semi-open spaces designed for a quick change of pace.

2. Dependence on RT hardware

Many key features (lighting, reflections, shadows) are disabled without RTX or RDNA2+. If a game is designed for a mass audience, but relies on id Tech 8, then some users (especially with GTX or APU) are deprived of the basics of visuals. This limits the engine in terms of mass coverage.

3. Closeness

Unlike Unreal or Unity, id Tech 8 has no public documentation, tutorials, community, or licensing. It is only available to Xbox studios, and even within the ecosystem, it requires significant team preparation.

4. Training costs

Despite the presence of visual editors, full mastering requires deep preparation. Working with destruction, RT scenes, multithreading and memory management requires the involvement of system programmers, and not just designers and scriptwriters.

Development prospects

id Tech 8 is a platform for the next 6-8 years for shooters from Xbox Game Studios. It will primarily be used in the following areas:

Doom sequel — the franchise has entered a new phase, and id Software has already laid the groundwork for future Dark Ages games.
Bethesda Licensed Games — including a potential Wolfenstein, possibly a new Quake.
Experiments with VR and cloud gaming — id Tech 8 shows high stability in streaming conditions, which makes it promising for xCloud.
Integration with AI systems — the engine already contains an architectural blank for the implementation of AI models, including AI animation and ML-based enemy behavior.

id Tech 8 — is not just a new version of the engine, but a flagship technological platform of the new generation. It is focused not on mass licensing, but on achieving technical perfection within a certain genre. It is the quintessence of engineering thought, brought to the limit under the strictest requirements for speed, visuals and reactivity.

Games powered by id Tech 8 will be the most powerful and responsive action shooters in the coming years, and the engine could be the foundation for a new wave of Xbox technical dominance across platforms and technologies.