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Doom 3 Source Released

alteveer writes "Just like Quake 3 before it, the Doom 3 source code has been released to the public (minus rendering of stencil shadows via the 'depth fail' method, a functionality commonly known as 'Carmack's Reverse')."

11 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Has anyone actually made any worthwhile with th by Lemming+Mark · · Score: 4, Informative

    Xonotic (successor to Nexuiz) is worth a look: http://www.xonotic.org/

    I think that might actually have evolved from Quake 2 era code originally, or something crazy like that - it's a lot more advanced now.

    UFO:AI uses the Quake 2 engine on some level as well I think: http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/News

    In my experience Nexuiz and UFO:AI have both been quality Open Source games, although I think UFO:AI contains some media that are not categorised as fully Free in the strictest sense. Xonotic looks to be doing some cool new things and I hope that UFO:AI has also improved since I last played with it.

  2. Re:Has anyone actually made any worthwhile with th by xavdeman · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's funny you mention Modern Warfare 3 since that game's engine is based on id Tech 3, an engine id Software open sourced before, just like they are doing now with Tech 4. "The engine was first used for Call of Duty 2 in 2005 under a proprietary license of id Tech 3 created by id Software in 1999, as at this time, the engine was a heavily modified version of the Quake III engine. The engine did not have an official name until IGN was told at the E3 2009 by the studio that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 would run on the "IW 4.0 engine". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IW_engine)

  3. License by u17 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It seems that the licensing is a mess.

    The header in the source files state that the code is GPLv3 or any later version, with additional clauses added.

    In addition, the Doom 3 Source Code is also subject to certain additional terms. You should have received a copy of these additional terms immediately following the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License which accompanied the Doom 3 Source Code. If not, please request a copy in writing from id Software at the address below.

    However, it seems that it is only possible to apply these additional terms to GPL version 3 exactly (and not any later version):

    2. Replacement of Section 16. Section 16 of the GPL shall be deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:

    These additional terms seem to be just disclaimers of liability and an indemnity clause, but it is entirely possible that they make the source GPL-incompatible, which, if true, would be a huge disappointment.

    So not only is the license not self-consistent, it is likely also GPL-incompatible. The additional terms may further make the license non-free, and definitely non-DFSG-compliant. Thanks go to the corporate lawyers who have turned Carmack's good intentions into an abomination. I hope that they can re-release this under saner terms.

    1. Re:License by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      This doesn't seem to be a problem since the base GPL v3 license explicitly allows replacement of Section 16:

      7. Additional Terms.

          "Additional permissions" are terms that supplement the terms of this
      License by making exceptions from one or more of its conditions.
      Additional permissions that are applicable to the entire Program shall
      be treated as though they were included in this License, to the extent
      that they are valid under applicable law. If additional permissions
      apply only to part of the Program, that part may be used separately
      under those permissions, but the entire Program remains governed by
      this License without regard to the additional permissions.

          When you convey a copy of a covered work, you may at your option
      remove any additional permissions from that copy, or from any part of
      it. (Additional permissions may be written to require their own
      removal in certain cases when you modify the work.) You may place
      additional permissions on material, added by you to a covered work,
      for which you have or can give appropriate copyright permission.

          Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, for material you
      add to a covered work, you may (if authorized by the copyright holders of
      that material) supplement the terms of this License with terms:

              a) Disclaiming warranty or limiting liability differently from the
              terms of sections 15 and 16 of this License; or

              b) Requiring preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or
              author attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal
              Notices displayed by works containing it; or ... [snip] ...

  4. Re:Has anyone actually made any worthwhile with th by MBoffin · · Score: 5, Informative
  5. Re:Carmack's Reverse by scdeimos · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is hardly an authoritative source, but it does give some historical insight (from 2009) into why Carmack's Reverse had to be removed from the Doom 3 source release: http://newenthusiast.com/carmacks-reverse-still-an-issue-20090409489

  6. Re:Can I learn how to program the GPU from the sou by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've worked extensively with the Quake 1 and 2 sources (I ported them both to Pocket PC, which required rewriting a lot of the computationally expensive routines from floating point to fixed point math, as the ARM processors of that era did not have a FPU). I can say that no, you're not going to learn anything that way. The code has few if any comments at all, the routines are optimized, the data structures are optimized, tons of preprocessing of data happens both at the content level and during load time, plus any other trick Carmack could throw in there to increase performance. Unless you wanting to follow the path of execution as it relates to a specific data set or type of rendering, just to see the exact techniques used (obviously knowing specifically what you are looking for) then you're not going to learn that way.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  7. Re:Carmack's Reverse by Lord_Jeremy · · Score: 4, Informative

    IMHO the best thing about Doom 3 was that it lead to Quake 4, which is definitely one of my favorite single player games. Hell, Q4 is also one of the few games that had both worthwhile single player and multiplayer.

  8. Re:Has anyone actually made any worthwhile with th by Ciccio87 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Check out Tremulous

    Or World Of Padman, also (as far as I know) a derivative work from Quake3 sources, like Tremulous. (World Of Padman)

  9. Re:Shadow clarification by XenoBrain · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can read the substituted implementation here: https://github.com/TTimo/doom3.gpl/blob/master/neo/renderer/tr_stencilshadow.cpp https://github.com/TTimo/doom3.gpl/blob/master/neo/renderer/tr_shadowbounds.cpp I won't pretend to fully understand it but it does seem to be an implementaion of shadow volumes.

  10. Re:i think. by petman · · Score: 4, Informative

    Minor detail: id Software, as well as Bethesda Softworks, is owned by Zenimax Media. In other words, id and Bethesda are sister companies.

    Now please mod me informative.