Showcasing a highly detailed environment set in desert valley--presumably a race track given the accompanying banners, flags, spectator, and vehicle--the scene was said to use over 20GB of unique textures. "They can go in and look at the world and, say, change the color of the mountaintop, or carve their name into the rock," said Carmack (thanks Engadget). "They can change as much as they want on surfaces with no impact on the game." According to MacRumors, Carmack also noted the demo was completed in only 10 days.  "We're going to be showing on a Mac, PC, PS3, and Xbox [360] at E3," he continued. "We'll have another Mac announcement at E3."

Prior to Carmack's surprise premiere of the new technology, Electronic Arts co-founder and CCO Bing Gordon had been on-stage to announce his company's renewed support of Mac computers and devices, which includes Mac editions of Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars, Battlefield 2142, Need For Speed: Carbon, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in July, followed by Madden NFL 08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 in August.

In a surprise demonstration during Steve Job's keynote at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference today, John Carmack unveiled id's latest revolution in game engine technology with the very first showing of id Tech 5 running live on the Mac with OS X.

The ground breaking technology unveiled today will power id's new internally developed game and will be available for licensing to third parties. The new id rendering technology practically eliminates the texture memory constraints typically placed on artists and designers and allows for the unique customization of the entire game world at the pixel level, delivering virtually unlimited visual fidelity. Combined with a powerful new suite of tools designed to specifically facilitate and accelerate this content creation process, id Tech 5 will power games that contain vast outdoor landscapes that are completely unique to the horizon, yet have indoor environments with unprecedented artistic detail.

Photo by Albert Watson While shown for the very first time running in real time on a Mac, id Tech 5 additionally supports the Xbox 360 and Playstation3 console platforms as well as the PC, and will be available for licensing to developers and publishers interested in working with a truly next generation rendering and game development solution. id Software will be showing id Tech 5 to interested developers and publishers by appointment only at the E3 Media & Business Summit from July 11 - 13, 2007 in Santa Monica, Calif. Companies interested in id Tech licensing information can visit www.idsoftware.com or email [email protected] with an E3 appointment request.