JAjakearmitage·Apr 7, 2020Submission
Retro game engine based on old id tech
17 points · Open discussionklaussilveira
qengine
C2019–2020
klaussilveira / qengine
qengine
Retro game engine for creating games like it's 1997
3Distinct people
6Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
893GitHub stars
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What it is
Retro game engine for creating games like it's 1997
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by month6 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2019-01-11 19:16:37 UTC to 2020-04-07 16:46:39 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Feb 2019 | 2019-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2019 | 2019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2019 | 2019-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2019 | 2019-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2019 | 2019-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Jul 2019 | 2019-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2019 | 2019-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2019 | 2019-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2019 | 2019-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2019 | 2019-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2019 | 2019-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2020 | 2020-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2020 | 2020-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2020 | 2020-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
What Hacker News says
6 sourcesI agree. That's why https://github.com/klaussilveira/qengine has some pretty shitty assets, and a Python-based asset generator: https://github.com/klaussilveira/qengine/tree/master/src/too...
This way, devs can run the engine with base assets and I can even add some e2e tests to make refactoring easier.
In Open Source Game ClonesI think the easiest way to get started is mapping. This is a very cool map editor for Q1 and Q2:
https://github.com/kduske/TrenchBroom
There's plenty of good content here:
http://forum.tastyspleen.net/quake/index.php?topic=21859.0
http://maps.rcmd.org/tutorials/
Map compiling and texture tools are included in the engine code:
https://github.com/klaussilveira/qengine/tree/master/src/too...
The Quake community is awesome:
https://quakewiki.org/wiki/Mapping_tutorials
https://www.quaddicted.com/forum/
http://www.celephais.net/board/forum.php
In Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997This is a cool project!
- CMake, yay! These make generating build files for a variety of platforms (even Windows) a breeze. It also works with code completion stuff (CLion IDE, KDevelop both have CMake-based projects)
- I like how it splits stuff up as well (https://github.com/klaussilveira/qengine/tree/master/src/gam...).
- As for vendorizing SDL2, there is an opportunity for optimization: The shared libraries and header files can be scanned through CMake scripts. Example: https://github.com/tcbrindle/sdl2-cmake-scripts.
- I see the .clang-format file, nice! (This is for clang-format: https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ClangFormat.html)
Unfortunately, license is going to be a real barrier to most game developers. The ironic thing is this engine includes SDL 2 which prides itself on being on a permissive license. (https://youtu.be/MeMPCSqQ-34?t=
Read the rest
405, 6:40 to 7:30)
If it's the intention to create an open source library to be helpful as possible to developers. If it's the intention to have a library just for use in the GPL ecosystem of games (which isn't bad: OpenTTD is GPL!) then this is okay.
The reason why is a private game developer want to retain control of their intellectual property, even throughout the prototyping phase.
As for open sourcing, I'd approach it in a different way: I'd release reusable components under a permissive license (e.g. MIT, BSD, ISC, zlib, etc.) and keep any creative work product code/source files private.
Similar SDL2 framework for 2D games (I made some CMake contributions a while back): https://oxygine.org/
From my perspective, that odd lighting and tint is part of the aesthetic that makes it great. You can learn more about how the renderer works here:
http://fabiensanglard.net/quake2/quake2_software_renderer.ph...
You can create your own palette using the included pcx2pal:
https://github.com/klaussilveira/qengine/blob/master/src/too...
After that, you might want to generate the colormap:
https://github.com/klaussilveira/qengine/blob/master/src/too...
If you enjoy the code of Q2, but also would like more modern rendering, I highly recommend quake2xp from Barnes:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/quake-2-xp
Yamagi is the gold standard for all Q2 engines:
https://github.com/yquake2/yquake2
And some art help:
http://maps.rcmd.org/tutorials/q2_palette_textures/
In Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997Retro game engine for developers that enjoy creating games like it's 1997
344 points · Open discussion