This development from Carmack sounds very interesting, because his comments suggest that the id Tech 5 engine is a completely new approach where it renders AND 'paints' the models internally from the engine, as opposed to building colorless solids, then painting them with pictures (textures) fetched from memory. It sounds as though there is a conversion process in the development cycle that converts the original hi-res assets to engine coordinate/color values, and brings that directly into the engine code, so everything is rendered, colored and shaded, in real-time.
For lack of a better example, this actually sounds like a verbatim implementation of how the Nintendo 64 rendered its images, albeit on a far greater and more complex scale given today's powerful CPUs.
The implication (and I'm entirely reading between the lines here -- I honestly don't know) is that Carmack is giving the finger to the GPU (which is the bane of developers and an ever-moving target) and the GPU memory subsystem, and instead harnessing the power of the CPU to "brute-force" images out of the engine. If this is the case, it has some very far reaching implications:
1) Graphics cards and console GPUs, as we know them, would be rendered obsolete at the end-user level.
2) Development costs would be cut substantially because the game engine builds surfaces on the fly, so studios would not have to pack multiple sets of textures for varying resolutions and manufacturer/models of graphics adapters.
3) The PS3's raw power would (presumably) finally distinguish itself from the XBox 360.
Consider: http://www.n4g.com/industrynews/News-44688.aspx
"What we've got here is the entire world with unique textures, 20GB of textures covering this track. They can go in and look at the world and, say, change the color of the mountaintop, or carve their name into the rock. They can change as much as they want on surfaces with no impact on the game."
Contrast with the comment here: http://kotaku.com/gaming/update/id-shows-off-new-engine-on-mac-267790.php
"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 specifically to facilitate and accelerate the 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."
