Doom 3 source code going free after Rage launch

by JC Fletcher on Aug 4th 2011 7:30PM

You've been waiting to get your mitts on the source code to Doom 3 (how do you type with those mitts on?), and your time is almost here. First announced at QuakeCon 2009, John Carmack confirmed plans today, during QuakeCon 2011, to release the source to the 2004 FPS following the launch of id's new hotness, Rage. The code will be released this year.

According to VG247's liveblog, Carmack said in his keynote that these releases of Id code are a "challenge to other developers," and are beneficial to both Id and "the community." They're also a QuakeCon tradition -- last year, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Return to Castle Wolfenstein were opened up.

In related news, the Doom & Quake Complete Pack is on sale on Steam right now for $30.

Source: VG247

Tags: Doom-3, fps, id-software, john-carmack, pc, quakecon-2011, rage, source-code

Reader Comments (41)

Can someone explain to me why this is important? I'm not trolling, legit question. I'm not very technical. There are already mods and stuff, so it's not that...

@TraceurRyuk Part III

it´s important because you are going to see the real code, not mods, not editors, the real source raw. Many people can learn a lot of those sources not only to improve or make the engine better, they can use all that knowledge to create their own engines, it´s an amazing source of knowledge that only a great man like Carmack is willing to share, i wish more people were like him.

@TraceurRyuk Part III I'm guessing people can make games with the source code and release them without the need for doom. Sounds cool to me.

So it's basically just a share of programming expertise. That makes sense.

@TraceurRyuk Part III It's particularly useful because people are still using bits of the older id Tech engines. Hell, even Call of Duty uses a modified version of id Tech. Seeing how Carmack has improved the engine and added features to it will be a boon for novice programmers and big companies alike!

If we want to get REALLY nerdy, it'll also be a good example of real-time shadowing with Carmack's reverse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_volume

@Once known as Shadsy

Well you guys know Windows UI and success can also be attributed to Doom. Carmack is like the Albert Einstein of video games.

In fact Gabe Newell might weigh less than 200lbs and not be running Valve if it wasn't for Carmack and his engine/UI expertise.

And it's id Software saying it, so you know it's going to happen. They're generally really good about this sort of thing - better than pretty much any other company.

How long until Doom 3 gets ported to everything under the sun, then? I suppose it'll take some time to top Doom 1/2 and Quake 1, but give it time...

@Shadow Hog
I actually think it might take a LONG time to port Doom 3. This game is massive with crazy requirements, how many other devices can play it? I'm hoping it can, but I think there will be problems :)

Was that a reference to Strong Bad? :3

It's about time... Doom 3 is one game that really needed some light shed on it.

@Acosta02 ISeeWhatYouDidThere.jpg

Wait wait wait.. IdTech4's finally going OSS?!

Holy Zombie Raptor Crystal Dragon Jesus. this is going to be freaking AWESOME.

Who the hell cares? Doom 3 came out like 6 years ago. At least 6 different engines come to mind that are a thousand percent better. This should have happened at release.

@Mastadon Really? "Who the hell cares"? How many of those "6 different engines" are open source? Besides, it's tradition. Every idTech up until 4 has been free up until now.

@Mastadon

Should have? We're lucky this is evening happening after Bethesda bought id. Besides, it's not like every other game developer is releasing their source code at release, let alone releasing it at all

@Mastadon

Yeah, and who wants a Honda Civic when there are cars that are like a thousand times cooler and faster? If it's not the best, it can't get the job done and there's no use for it!

@Mastadon

Reverse Engineering...

That's pretty much all. The lighting in this game's still awesome, and a lot could be learned that's for sure.

while (gamerunning == true) {
doMonsterCloset();
}

[Engine.BadSpawn]
AdapterNumber=B
DisableBadguys=False
UseTripleDarkening=True
ForceShadeSpawn=1
EnableShine=True
MaxVaselinePerbadguy=8

@Enosoma

RememberToPackDuctTape=False
KickSelf=100
BuyLEDHeadLampForNextMission=True

Sweeet I can make the Doom game I've always wanted.

I call it "Secure the Bathroom" where you lock yourself into a bathroom and try to survive and hide from the demon onslaught. There will also be a bonus level called "Hide in the Office" where you hide under a desk and try not to cry in fear as various demons walk in looking for more victims.

Game play elements include trying to control your heartbeat and trying not to mess your drawers.

@Zombie Jesus

Gotta watch your breathing as well, don't want the ewoks to hear you.

@Zombie Jesus

Finally a use for the Vitality Sensor!

Keeping it classy, id. This is fantastic news for aspiring game developers. Any guesses as to what people will create with this source code?

@JC Freeman The Dark Mod (A Thief series modification for Doom 3) has been really happy about the source release. It allows them to release the whole game as standalone, implement new features, and fix longstanding bugs.

If you own a copy of Doom 3, you should check it out here: http://www.thedarkmod.com/

If you don't, it'll probably be a full, standalone game before long. Hooray id!

The Doom and Quake pack finally contains Quake 4... It kind of stinks that I bought it a long time ago when it didn't. I was hoping maybe they'd toss it into my steam game list, but nope.

Oh well.

Ok question. I've never played Doom 3. It's the only one I haven't and that's because I'm not a PC gamer and never had an Xbox till recently ($10 at a yard sale). Should I play it? I mean I've seen it for about $5-10 on Amazon

@blessrok

It's definitely worth 5-10 dollars. The major complaint is of course how dark it is, but it's definitely a fun game. And IIRC, the xbox version supports 2 player coop.

@bigwhiteyeti

-Flashlight mod
-Co-op mode I think supports up to 16 players.

@rullers
Co-op mod*

Don't install the flashlight mod, not until you try it without and see how you like it. There are a lot of great moments and setpieces that would just be ruined by an always-on flashlight. None of the people telling you to get the mod really understand that. They're the same people who would wish for Resident Evil to have strafing and jumping.

Same goes for the co-op mod btw. Who the hell would want that? You play the game on your own, or at least with only one player in the game. It just defeats the point completely otherwise.

Not to be rude, but this engine sucks! Not that I understand that realtime shadows are a tech feat, but witht he prossesing power of my future computer I am still unable to run it with them without a frame rate drop.

Honastly you would be better off learning using the Unreal 3 UDK its been out there for a long time and it is still capable of current gen graphics. And you would be using software that they used to animate "District 9" to make Borderlands and make many very popular games right now.

BTW it was free for a long time ago, and well the doom 3 engine is just avalible now because it is utterly usless....

@Retrofraction

I like how you tried to educate us about Unreal Engine 3 / UDK... and even better, claim that they used UDK to animate models in District 9! As if Peter Jackson, with Weta Digital in his back pocket, would use UDK... for a movie...

It is an insult to Joystiq readers.

@Mike DPad

Actually, the CGI in District 9 was done by Image Engine (that's a company) because Weta Digital had their hands full with Avatar at the time.

Other than that, you're 100% correct. The Unreal Engine can't even support the vast amounts of high polygon models needed in District 9. And on top of that, why would you use a real-time rendering engine in a movie? The bonus is that you CAN do pre-rendered visuals, why sell yourself short.

@Retrofraction

"Not to be rude, but... [utterly rude remark]"

@Mike DPad

Pssst.

It wasn't a Peter Jackson movie.

Read credits. Neil Blo...Blogkampf....some guy named Neil wrote and directed it. Jackson had very little to do with it as an executive producer.

@Retrofraction

Not much of a future computer if you can't run a game from 03 (04?) without framerate issues. My "beast" of a machine five years ago ran it perfectly fine, and my current "higher than average to low high end" machine cuts throiugh this mofo and enhancing mods like a hot knife through butter.

In short:it's not the game's fault you have a crappy PC.

Actually, the UDK WAS used for previs work on D9, and the animation work for the movie (as in, the skeletal animation, not the rendering) was done in Unreal Kismet.

Now, the difference between UDK's availability and the IdTech4 engine (which, by the way, is powering such titles as, well, you know, BRINK. AND PREY 2 yes, 2..) is the fact that you will soon have access to the ENTIRE SOURCE CODE. Everything is yours to examine, to modify, to play with, to improve.. The UDK only allows you to edit a predefined binary with uscript. The idtech4 sourcecode would allow you to competely rewrite the rendering tree or netcode from scratch if you so wished.

To give you an idea of how this works, look at Duke Nukem Forever. Yes it may only look mediocre by todays standards, but remember the fact that it is running on what used to be the UNREAL TOURNAMENT 99 ENGINE.

For someone who appreciates OSS, this is an awesome thing. Especially since Mr Carmack is a coding genius, and he consistently writes efficient, well documented and commented code that really takes control of the hardware.

old? first.. id tech 4 was a complete rewrite ..now in c++ and using only shaders..

if you pick this code.. change its forward rendering to deferred rendering..
put a little improvement to animation, sound.. and link it to a good physics middleware like bullet or havok.. thats it.. it will be new as a baby.. and competitive as id tech 5..

this beauty (id tech 4), with its shadow volume and megatexture technique.. will teach some abc.. even to hot stuff like frostbyte and naught dog engine..

(people talk a lot about source engine or crytek.. but they are pretty much a "brute force" approach.. in the enginnering sense.. but of course they
are good stuff to in a lot of ways and have their own strenghts)

pretty much all of the big engines out there.. has source from 2004 or even earlier..

Doom 3

Doom 3 source code going free after Rage launch

Reader Comments (41)

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 7:45PM TraceurRyuk Part III said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 7:56PM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 7:58PM bxgt said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 8:08PM TraceurRyuk Part III said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 8:41PM Once known as Shadsy said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 12:51AM Anticrawl said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 7:49PM Shadow Hog said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 1:46AM darksied said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 8:05PM QuintonFlynn said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 8:22PM Acosta02 said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 8:32AM PoisonedAl said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 8:29PM Muskie said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 8:33PM Mastadon said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 8:50PM gold163 said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 8:57PM EGOvoruhk said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:04PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:28PM liquidsoap89 said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 8:42PM FriedConsole said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:27PM Enosoma said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 1:26AM arkweld said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:18PM Zombie Jesus said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:29PM liquidsoap89 said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 3:02PM sonicspike41 said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:32PM JC Freeman said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 4:06PM tapoxi said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:13PM Softserve said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:26PM blessrok said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 12:11AM bigwhiteyeti said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 6:24AM rullers said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 6:24AM rullers said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 8:17AM bm111 said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 8:22AM bm111 said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 11:26PM Retrofraction said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 12:09AM Mike DPad said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 12:17AM bigwhiteyeti said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 8:23AM bm111 said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 12:23PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 12:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 7:58AM Muskie said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 8:27AM Muskie said

Posted: Sep 12th 2011 10:57AM fabiokaminski said

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