Editing Quake II (section)

==Development==
===Design===
[[File:Quake2b.jpg|right|thumb|Unlike its predecessor, ''Quake II''{{'}}s engine allows colored lighting effects and [[Skybox (video games)|skyboxes]].]]

Originally, ''Quake II'' was supposed to be a new game and [[intellectual property]]; titles like "Strogg", "Lock and Load", and just "Load" were toyed with in the early days of development. But after numerous failed attempts, the team at id decided to stick with ''Quake II'' and forgo the Gothic [[Lovecraftian horror]] theme from the original in favor of a more sci-fi aesthetic.<ref name="Retro Gamer 2016">{{cite journal |last1=Retro Gamer |title=20 Years of Quake |journal=[[Retro Gamer]] |date=2016 |issue=154 |pages=18, 27}}</ref>

{{blockquote|It was a conscious decision [to change ''Quake II''{{'}}s direction] and controversial inside the company. We weren't happy with the [original] ''Quake'' story. [John] Romero was gone, so there was no one left to defend it. Kevin Cloud headed up ''Quake II'' and he wanted to make it story-driven.|Todd Hollenshead
<ref name="Retro Gamer 2016" />}}

The game was developed with a 13-person team.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85882834/ |title=Wizards of Id |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |page=193 |date=December 13, 1997 |accessdate=August 17, 2021 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> Activision obtained the worldwide distribution rights to the game in May 1997.<ref>{{cite web |first=Helen |last=Lee |url=http://headline.gamespot.com/news/97_05/30_acti/index.html |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19980119053214/http://headline.gamespot.com/news/97_05/30_acti/index.html |title=Activision Gets Quake II |website=[[GameSpot]] |archivedate=January 19, 1998 |date=May 30, 1997 |accessdate=July 25, 2022}}</ref> Artist and co-owner Adrian Carmack had said that ''Quake II'' is his favorite game in the series because "it was different and a cohesive project".<ref name="Retro Gamer 2016" /> This is the last id Software game to feature [[American McGee]] as he was fired shortly after its release.<ref>{{cite web |first=Micheal |last=Mullen |url=http://headline.gamespot.com/news/98_03/13_mcgee/index.html |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20001013091835/http://headline.gamespot.com/news/98_03/13_mcgee/index.html |title=Id Designer Let Go |website=[[GameSpot]] |archivedate=October 13, 2000 |date=March 13, 1998 |accessdate=October 25, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/14192/John-Carmack-Archive-plan-1998 |title=John Carmack Archive - .plan 1998 |work=scribd.com}}</ref>

===Technology===
Unlike ''Quake'', where hardware-accelerated [[graphics controller]]s were supported only with later [[Patch (computing)|patches]], ''Quake II'' came with [[OpenGL]] support out of the box. Later downloads from id Software added support for AMD's [[3DNow!]] instruction set for improved performance on their [[K6-2]] processors, and [[Rendition (company)|Rendition]] released a native renderer for their V1000 graphics chip. The latest version is 3.21. This update includes numerous bug fixes and new levels designed for multiplayer [[Deathmatch (gaming)|deathmatch]]. Version 3.21, available as source code on id Software's [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]] server, has no improved functionality over version 3.20 and is simply a slight modification to make compiling for [[Linux]] easier.

''Quake II'' uses an improved [[client–server model]] introduced in ''Quake''. The game code of ''Quake II'', which defines all the functionality for weapons, entities, and game mechanics, can be changed in any way because id Software published the [[source code]] of their own implementation that shipped with the game. ''Quake II'' uses the [[shared library]] functionality of the [[operating system]] to load the game library at run-time—this is how mod authors are able to alter the game and provide different gameplay mechanics, new weapons, and much more. The full source code to ''Quake II'' version 3.19 was released under the terms of the [[GNU General Public License|GNU GPL-2.0-or-later]] on December 22, 2001. Version 3.21 followed later. An [[LCC (compiler)|LCC]]-friendly version was released on January 1, 2002, by a [[modder]] going by the name of Major Bitch.<ref>{{cite news |title=Quake II Engine Source for LCC Compiler |url=http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~thompp/Quake2/q2tut21.html |first=Pete |last=Thompson |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014155217/http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~thompp/Quake2/q2tut21.html |archive-date=October 14, 2012 |access-date=November 15, 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

''Quake II''{{'}}s game engine was a popular license and formed the basis for several commercial and free games, such as ''[[CodeRED: Alien Arena]]'', ''[[Warsow (video game)|War§ow]]'', ''[[SiN]]'', ''[[Anachronox]]'', ''[[Heretic II]]'', ''[[Daikatana]]'', ''[[Soldier of Fortune (video game)|Soldier of Fortune]]'', ''[[Kingpin: Life of Crime]]'', and ''[[UFO: Alien Invasion]]''. [[Valve Corporation|Valve]]'s 1998 video game ''[[Half-Life (video game)|Half-Life]]'' used the ''Quake II'' engine during early development stages.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Kelly |first=Andy |date=August 1, 2016 |title=Returning to Quake 2, the legendary shooter that's still fun today |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/returning-to-quake-2-the-legendary-shooter-thats-still-fun-today/ |access-date=August 16, 2020 |magazine=PC Gamer |language=en-US}}</ref> However, the final version runs on a heavily modified version of the [[Quake engine|''Quake'' engine]], ''[[GoldSrc]]'', with a small amount of the ''Quake II'' code.

===Music===
The soundtrack for ''Quake II'' was mainly provided by [[Sascha Dikiciyan|Sonic Mayhem]], with some additional tracks by [[Bill Brown (composer)|Bill Brown]]; the main theme was also composed by Bill Brown and [[Rob Zombie]], and one track by Jer Sypult. The soundtrack for the [[Nintendo 64]] version of the game was composed by [[Aubrey Hodges]], credited as Ken "Razor" Richmond.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gameranx.com/features/id/473388/article/what-is-quake-2-64/|title=What Is Quake 2 64?}}</ref>

===Source ports===
Since the release of the ''Quake II'' engine's [[source code]], several updates from [[Third-party developer|third-party]] projects to the [[game engine]] have been created; the most prominent of these are projects focused on graphical enhancements to the game such as most notable Yamagi Quake II, Quake2maX, EGL, Quake II Evolved, and KMQuake II. The source release also revealed numerous security flaws<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.quakedev.com/forums/index.php?topic=53.0 |title=List of vulnerabilities in Quake II 3.20 (Server) |author=R1CH |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003152829/http://www.quakedev.com/forums/index.php?topic=53.0 |archive-date=October 3, 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=November 15, 2017}}</ref> which can result in remote compromise of both the ''Quake II'' client and server. As id Software no longer maintains ''Quake II'', most third-party engines include fixes for these bugs. The [[unofficial patch]] 3.24 that fixes bugs and adds only meager tweaks is recommended for ''Quake II'' purists, as it is not intended to add new features or be an engine mod in its own right.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://leray.proboards.com/post/25066/thread |title=Quake2 3.24 Unofficial Patch: Released! |author=knightmare |publisher=The Quake2 Café |date=July 19, 2012 |access-date=November 15, 2017}}</ref> The most popular server-side engine modification for multiplayer, ''R1Q2'', is generally recommended as a replacement for the 3.20 release for both clients and servers.

In July 2003, Vertigo Software released a source port of ''Quake II'' for the Microsoft [[.NET Framework|.NET]] platform, using [[Managed Extensions for C++|Managed C++]], called Quake II .NET.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vertigo.com/quake2.htm |title=Vertigo: Quake II .NET |date=July 2003 |publisher=Vertigo Software, Inc. |access-date=November 15, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080217234133/http://www.vertigo.com/quake2.htm |archive-date=February 17, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> It became a poster application for the language, showcasing the powerful interoperability between .NET and standard C++ code. It remains one of the top downloads on the [[Visual C++]] website. In May 2004, Bytonic Software released a source port of ''Quake II'' (called [[Jake2]]) written in [[Java (programming language)|Java]] using [[Java OpenGL|JOGL]]. In 2010 Google ported Jake2 to [[HTML5]], running in [[Safari (web browser)|Safari]] and [[Google Chrome|Chrome]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://webtoolkit.googleblog.com/2010/04/look-ma-no-plugin.html |title=Look ma, no plugin! |first=Chris |last=Ramsdale |date=April 1, 2010 |publisher=[[Google Web Toolkit]] |access-date=November 15, 2017}}</ref>

====vkQuake2====
In December 2018, Polish programmer Krzysztof Kondrak released the original ''Quake II'' v3.21 source code with [[Vulkan (API)|Vulkan]] support added. The port, called vkQuake2, is available under the [[GNU General Public License#Version 2|GPLv2]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=vkQuake2-Quake-2-Vulkan |title=Quake 2 Gets A Vulkan Renderer 21 Years After Release - Phoronix |last=Kondrak |first=Krzysztof |date=December 20, 2018 |website=[[phoronix.com]] |access-date=December 20, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/kondrak/vkQuake2 |title=vkQuake2 on GitHub |website=[[GitHub]] |date=December 5, 2019}}</ref>

====Quake II RTX====
A new source port of the game, titled Quake II RTX, was announced by [[Nvidia]] in March 2019<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/quake-ii-rtx-ray-tracing-vulkan-vkray-geforce-rtx/ |title=Quake II RTX: Re-Engineering a Classic with Ray Tracing Effects on Vulkan |publisher=NVIDIA}}</ref> and was released on June 6 for Windows and [[Linux]] on [[Steam (service)|Steam]]. This source port requires either a Nvidia [[Nvidia RTX|RTX]] or an [[AMD]] [[Radeon RX 6000 series]] [[Graphics processing unit|GPU]] or higher to utilize these cards' hardware [[Ray-tracing (graphics)|ray tracing]] functionality, but a software fallback is available for graphics cards that are fast enough.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Burnes |first1=Andrew |title=Quake II RTX Available On Windows and Linux June 6th |url=https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/quake-ii-rtx-june-6-release-date/ |access-date=June 6, 2019 |publisher=[[Nvidia]] |date=May 27, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=McWhertor |first1=Michael |title=Quake 2 with ray-tracing support coming June 6, for free |url=https://www.polygon.com/2019/5/27/18641307/quake-2-rtx-ray-tracing-remaster-download-nvidia |access-date=June 6, 2019 |website=[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]] |date=May 27, 2019}}</ref>
The source port, provided free of charge, includes the three levels present in the original ''Quake II'' demo,{{efn|Nvidia calls it [[shareware]] but Quake II was the first id Software game that did not have a shareware release.}} but can be used to play the full game if its data files are available.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Lilly |first1=Paul |title=Quake 2 RTX with ray-traced graphics is now available, first 3 levels are free |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/quake-2-rtx-with-ray-traced-graphics-is-now-available-first-3-levels-are-free/ |access-date=June 6, 2019 |magazine=PC Gamer |date=June 6, 2019}}</ref> Unlike in most games, ray tracing is used extensively here for lighting, reflections, etc. This is only possible because of the otherwise low hardware demands of ''Quake II''.