Gaming Invations That Defined The Future of Computer Games
In 1993 id Software released Doom to critical aclaim. Doom was on of the first and most detailed games to include a 3D envionment, besides id Software's earlier games.
This technological leap was possible due to the 'id Tech 1' game engine. Instead of the engine processing the player in a 3D envionment, the 'id Tech 1'
game engine would process a 2D level and use a Z-Axis value for walls and floors to only render a 3D envionment.
The player and other entities in the level would also have a Z-Axis value that allowed the game engine to determine where a AI non-playable character or player could traverse.
The optimization of Doom's game engine alowed the game to be played on popular personal computers at the time.
Doom's predecessor Wolfenstein 3D was released in 1992 by id Software. Wolfenstein 3D was inpired by the game Castle Wolfenstein in 1981. Castle Wolfenstein was heavily pixelated 2D game. Wolfenstein 3D, as the name suggest was a 3D first person shooter. Wolfenstein 3D was built from the ground up by id Software on a much more primitive version of their 'id Tech 1' game engine. Wolfenstein 3D did not have as crisp of visuals or Z-axis rendering like Doom, but still was still greatly popular enough to pave the road for Doom's success.
The New Age of PC Games
In 1998 Valve released Half-Life, a game that not only rendered a 3D environment, but simulated it as well. All items and enimies were rendered in 3D. At the time these attributes on their own were not impressive. The most impressive part of Half-Life was the realistic and reactive AI non-player characters. The AI of both enimies and friendlies were complex and detailed. Half-Life was run on Valve's GoldSrc engine. After the release of Half-Life many other popular games such as, Counter-Strike and James Bond 007: Nightfire, would be run off of GoldSrc.