John Carmack, the famous mind behind some of the greatest graphics engine technology ever developed, has commented on the Bethesda Blog that it is already researching the direction for the next generation of graphics engine. He admits, however, that right now it is hard to make grand leaps; and he does not feel pressured to rework the id Tech 5 graphics engine at this time.

The id Tech 5 engine that will power the upcoming title RAGE from id Software was not licensed to third-party developers like previous versions of the engine. Instead, the engine has been kept for use within the id/Bethesda/Zenimax family, which gives the company an advantage. It is rumored that other projects within the id/Bethesda/Zenimax are also using the engine, but currently little is known as to which projects they might be.

Carmack says that the work will continue and he has additional research projects to undertake in the year ahead, but right now he is excited about data management and work flow though the development process and those don’t have anything to do with graphics.

Read the entire Q&A with Carmack on the Bethesda Blog here.