John Carmack on Doom tech

Since the release of their multi-million selling first person shooter "Doom", id Software has been known as much for its ground-breaking graphics engines as for the games themselves. But whereas their graphics have always been amongst the best in the industry at the time, other aspects of the games have fallen short. Sound is a classic example - id actually licensed the sound code for Doom from another company, and things haven't got much better since then.

"Some of the things like sound and game logic are things where I would just always do something that's acceptable that would get the job done", lead programmer and co-founder John Carmack admits in an interview with Stomped. "There was never a primary focus for it."

With work now underway on a new Doom game though, fresh blood is being brought in to fill the holes in Carmack's knowledge. "We have got the strongest programming team we have ever had in the company. We've got programmers that are working on areas that we have conventionally short-shrifted - we've got a programmer dedicated to making great sound; a programmer dedicated to making great game technology; a programmer dedicated to great tools."

"Of course, we are going to have great graphics and great networking and all this type of stuff we have always been known for, but a lot of the areas that have been kind of our secondary strength are going to be brought to primary level, and that's going to be really cool."