Doom 3 Is Open Sourced

By , Published November 23, 2011

The seminal survival horror game Doom 3 has been open sourced.

The source code to the game, which uses the id Tech 4 engine, has been published under the GPL license making it free to access, modify and distribute under the same license.

The code is hosted on Github.

Plans for the Doom 3 source code to be open-sourced have long been known, but held up by legal issues affecting various elements within the game and its code. Because of this Doom3 GPL does not ship with the ‘Carmack’s Reverse‘ shadow technique.

The developers behind Doom 3, id Software, have open-sourced several of their games in the past, including Quake 3 which lead to the creation of popular open-source spin ‘Open Arena‘.

With a new code base to work from I suspect we will see new, imaginative and wholly native Linux titles spring up over the coming years.

Related posts:

  1. Germany Lifts ‘Doom’ Ban After 17 Years – Toast Demons To Celebrate
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  • Michal Budínský

    Not the game itself (Doom3), but game engine which have been used in Doom3 game (id Tech 4). So no textures, models, music and so on was opensourced. Just the game engine was!

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ Joey-Elijah Sneddon

      Yeah, that’s what I said. 

      • Yi Sun-sin

        The title, and the frequent reference to “open-sourcing the game”, are really confusing. It really gives the user unfamiliar with id Software’s habits the impression that the game can now be included in the distribution’s repository and shared freely, which is completely false.

        • http://profiles.google.com/hero1900 hero 2000

          yep thats true the title and the way its written make me confused i know that the engine has been open sourced but the game as it self didnt

      • Anonymous

        No it’s not.
        “The source code to the game, which uses the id Tech 4 engine, has been published under the GPL license…”

        • http://twitter.com/ux92 uvazquez

          What was open sourced was in fact the “id Tech 4″ engine, not DOOM 3 itself.

      • http://twitter.com/danizmax Daniel

        Not at all… the engine is far from the game, Yi Sun-sin pretty much sums up my answer.

      • http://twitter.com/ottorobba Otto Robba

        No that is not.
        You said the game has been open sourced. It has not.The Doom 3 game *engine* has. It is important to point out the difference. I’d correct the article if I were you.

      • Anonymous

        Can you change it to “Doom 3 engine is now open source” or similar to reduce confusion?

      • Anonymous

        no it’s not.

        “The source code to the game”

        “Doom 3 source code”

        really joey?

      • http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala

        Sorry, youve been OWNED today.

    • http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala

      You opensource the code, textures, music, etc are not code.

      • http://twitter.com/Dannulandia Daniela Armanda

        but the source code of the game itself still not avaiable, you should still writing menu handlers, weapons, etc like ID Tech 3, engine just handles graphically the game, but the client is still closed source and with an EULA :B

        that means you can write an RTS game or an bowling game without tweaking anything, just writing the client code

  • http://twitter.com/yusf Juice

    Great news! Icculus is already on it, too! http://www.iodoom3.org/

  • Anonymous

    With all respect to omgubuntu and John Carmack, the seminal survival horror is Alone In the Dark.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ Joey-Elijah Sneddon

      Haha ;)

    • http://profiles.google.com/waspbr wasp br

      Agreed, Doom is an Action Horror. Though I would have to argue that Amnesia is the most faithful definition of survival horror to date. 

    • https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ActionParsnip ActionParsnip

      Penumbra, get it! Get it now!

    • https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ActionParsnip ActionParsnip
  • http://www.thekiplingconspiracy.co.uk christiegrinham

    Because of the licensing issue with carmack’s reverse, carmack is writing a new piece of code to do it.

    • http://profiles.google.com/lilianftp Moraru Lilian

      He actually rewrote it already…

      • Anonymous

        I was under the impression that his “rewriting” was actually purely deleting the functionality?

        • Anonymous

          The legal issue was a software patent. Carmack tweeted he only had to add 4 lines of code and remove a few.

    • Anonymous

      yea he’s awesome

      • http://twitter.com/ux92 uvazquez

        He’s been my hero since I was two years old lol no kiddin’

  • http://twitter.com/Jebril Pedo Bear

    Awesome stuff right here.

  • http://gaveen.owain.org Gaveen

    id engine releases resulted (both directly and indirectly) in a multitude of games, not just Open Arena. The list include engines like darkplaces & ioquake, games like Urban Terror, Tremulous, Nexuiz/Xonotic, Alien Arena, Warsow, UFO: Alien Invasion, World of Padman, Freedoom, etc. It’s bulk of the FOSS FPS games. :)

    • Anonymous

      Alien Invasion could benefit from a graphics engine update I suppose. It sth looks quite dated.

    • http://plus.google.com/115156608954156312882/ Matt Sturgeon

      The first Call of Duty was an ID Tech 3 game, and I believe the Call of Duty engine is still quake-based…

      • http://gaveen.owain.org Gaveen

        Yep, I was only referring to FOSS games. When it goes to proprietary counterparts there’s a boatload of games stemming from id engines including Half-Life, American McGee’s Alice, Prey, CoD, MoH, Star Wars*, etc., etc. Not to mention all of the games by id itself. ;)

  • https://launchpad.net/~macslow MacSlow

    As always id software is a reason for me to do the funky dance *wiggle.around* Thanks a bundle id!

  • Anonymous

    Really hope to see some new fps games on linux! Most of the current ones could really use some revamping! :)
    Although I do love those games

  • https://launchpad.net/~serrano-pereira Serrano

    Great news!

  • http://twitter.com/ux92 uvazquez

    Best news, been waiting for this too long :D

  • Subhadip Ghosh

    It’s about time people learn that Open source is the future. We have had enough of those proprietary days! Time for a change people

    • Yi Sun-sin

      John Carmack has been releasing game engines from 1999. You are out of date.

  • Satchit Bhogle

    Doom 3 running natively on Ubuntu would rule.

    • patrick blank

      it already does. you just have to buy the game, and then follow the instructions from id (it involves copying the data files off the CD, and then downloading something)

      • Todd McCullough

        Damn. That was easy to do. Thanks patrick. Are their other games compatible like this?

        • Anonymous

          not rage

        • Anonymous

          A lot of games from iD software are. iD has been very Linux friendly and one of the founders, John Carmack is a fan of open source and Linux.
          Games that work like this:
          Doom 3
          Quake 4
          Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
          Prey
          Quake 1/2/3
          Most of these games require a Windows retail disc and you to download the installer from the website (not on iD’s site for enemy territory quake wars, the installer can be found here: http://www.splashdamage.com/node/57 )
          Some recent games that have not been for linux:
          Wolfenstien (2009). iD was not directly involved with the 2009 version.

          Rage came out last month and has a Linux binary port planned on being released in early 2012.

          • Todd McCullough

            I would love to play Rage on linux.  Actually I’d just like to play it. :)

          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4LXTMAC7KVMD7JBKWBCCBU4HSU inner_turbulence

            Rage can not even be played on windows, DAMN YOU ATI!

    • Anonymous

      It has run natively on Linux since release.

  • http://mark-y-a.myopenid.com/ Marky

    “Because of this Doom3 GPL does not ship with the ‘Carmack’s Reverse‘ shadow technique.” <– they should just use Naruto's shadow clone technique. ^___^

    • ean5533

      I laughed at that joke and I am ashamed for it.

      • Yi Sun-sin

        I did not, but maybe that’s because all I know about Naruto is that it is about an orange-wearing ninja, and the simple concept of orange-wearing ninja is so absurd it makes me want to watch something sensible like Robo-geisha, Vampire girl versus Frankenstein girl, or Alien vs Ninja.
        Because even *that* makes more sense o/ !

        • http://mark-y-a.myopenid.com/ Marky

          I know right? That’s what I said before when I had not watched/read a single Naruto video/manga. I changed my mind later. It’s fun and not too serious unlike other anime. =)

          • Yi Sun-sin

            I’m not a fan of anime. As you can see from the film I listed, I’m more into Japanese live movie. Provided they are Z-movie filled with cheesy FX and nonsensical plot. But on purpose. Yes, Battle Royal, I’m thinking about you !

          • https://launchpad.net/~rafalcieslak256 rc

            @yi_sun_sin:disqus Oh, man! I have watched Battle Royale several times, and for me that movie is insane, yet I like it very much. I believe I have never understood it fully, though. Maybe the point is in some complex metaphors, which I can’s spot, as I am not familiar with Japanese culture? If it is possible, could you please guide me towards explanation of the plot? Maybe by chance you know a good article on it, which is worth recommending?

          • Yi Sun-sin

            @openid-15208:disqus I guess there was a misunderstanding here. I was categorizing Battle Royal as a Z-movie filled with cheesy FX and nonsensical plot but not on purpose, on the contrary of Robo-geisha, Vampire girl versus Frankenstein girl, Alien vs Ninja,

            Mutant Girls Squaq,
            Samurai Princess,
            The Hajirai Machine Girl,
            Geisha vs Ninja, …
            About Japanese culture, well, they are mainly very good at making bad movies and bad at making good movies.

        • Wayne Rodrigues

          As @openid-44631:disqus said, I wasn’t a fan of Naruto either. That was before I actually watched the anime (or read the manga). The starting (when he’s a child) may get a bit boring, but stick to it and it gets awesomely cooler at the end!

          • Yi Sun-sin

            As I told Marky, I’m not really into japanese animation. Except for Hokuto No Ken with the original French dubbing. Which definitely rocks, thanks Philippe Ogouz.

          • Fran jsj

            You mustn’t spend time for watch naruto, japanese anime are more as Naruto, for example, City hunter, saint seya, ergo proxy, monster, etc etc

  • Anonymous

    Thanks ID (once again), you guys rock !

  • Anonymous

    I can’t wait to see what great games our community will produce!

    • Guest

      I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you!

      • Anonymous

        Haha I know.. But someone has to be there for moral support! :)

  • Gabriel Rousseau

    Now I can play Doom 3 for free and add a lot of mods! =D

    • Anonymous

      No, you can’t. You still need to buy the game to play Doom 3. All this does is let you make your own games.

  • http://twitter.com/kent_stor Kent Storbakken

    It’s obviously an older engine, but it still runs great on almost any pc. I’d love to see some linux developers run with this, create some great textures and hopefully a great game!

  • k j

    Whats interesting is a few devs. started making this renderer and engine based off of the quake 3 engine called Xreal, they have added various enhancements including opengl 3.2 support, HDR, soft shadows, FOV etc. They are currently remaking wolfenstein: enemy territory in this engine called ET:Xreal. They are also planning to incorporate ID tech 4 code or doom 3 engine code into their own, they have the initial renderer done, just the framework and ways to use that engine, such as toolsets, still need to be done. I am very impressed with what they have so far, their game and engine so far is over at sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/xreal/

  • Jacob Knepper

    Someone needs to fix the article title. IdTech 4 is now under GPL, not Doom 3.

  • Brian D

    come on people. ofcourse the “Whole GAME” is not open sourced..that would allow people to change the name then sell it again… dumbasses. Get real. I already knew when i read the title it was just the engine. 

 
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