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Open-Source Doom 3 Advances With EAX Audio, 64-bit ARM/x86 Support (phoronix.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the done-just-in-time-for-doom-4 dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Dhewm3, one of the leading implementations of the Doom 3 engine built off the open-source id Tech 4 engine, has released a new version of the GPL-licensed engine that takes Doom 3 far beyond where it was left off by id Software. The newest code has full SDL support, OpenAL + OpenAL EFX for audio, 64-bit x86/ARM support, better support for widescreen resolutions, and CMake build system support on Linux/Windows/OSX/FreeBSD. This new open-source code can be downloaded from Dhewm3 on GitHub but continues to depend upon the retail Doom 3 game assets.

17 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Uninformed Phoronix-ripoff news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Did you do any actual investigation? Just copied a Phoronix article to Slashdot?
    For those actually interested; No, EAX, 64-bit support and ARM-support are not new. Quick read-through of the Github commit log shows that all stuff has been in there since 2012. What has changed, was adding SDL2 support and enabling EAX reverb effect by default.
    There is no claim that 64-bit ARM would have received any attention, since the hardware is not easily available. Given the portability of Linux/SDL2, it's safe to assume that 64-bit ARM would work with minimum work. (Assuming they ever get decent graphics drivers..)

    1. Re:Uninformed Phoronix-ripoff news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Slashdot is something of a news aggregator and not a "journalistic" news source that has investigative reporters digging for the news and writing Pulitzer-winning reports.

    2. Re:Uninformed Phoronix-ripoff news by del_diablo · · Score: 1

      So in other words: Its still just Doom 3 engine port, with no real improvements after being open sourced.

    3. Re:Uninformed Phoronix-ripoff news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not if you're still using a 32-bit OS with OSS for audio, no.

    4. Re:Uninformed Phoronix-ripoff news by del_diablo · · Score: 4, Informative

      You are oversimplifying it.
      Big improvements consists of large performance increases, less frame jitter, improved IO for loading, or changing the GPU/CPU load towards something more modern.
      Most of us have no idea what EAX really means, or if our hardware even supports it. 64 bit seems to be the most irrelevant thing ever, unless there is large performance gains for that port.
      Arm ports means you have to compile yourself.
      Ease of use is another one, and I think the original doom ports is the best example of this

  2. Newb question by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

    Good and all, I'd like to play Doom 3 again on my Linux workstation. However are the wads (?) provided as well?

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    1. Re:Newb question by Gaygirlie · · Score: 4, Informative

      However are the wads (?) provided as well?

      Wads? Doom 3 uses .pak. Also, if you mean things like maps, textures, sound-effects and all then no, it even reads right up there: "continues to depend upon the retail Doom 3 game assets."

    2. Re:Newb question by del_diablo · · Score: 2

      There is The Dark Mod.... and? I don't think any other standalone .pak exists.

    3. Re: Newb question by malignant_minded · · Score: 3, Informative

      For anyone not knowing, Dark mod was the Thief concept rebuilt on the Doom 3 engine. About a year or so ago Dark mod completed making all their own assets Victorian / SteamPunk / Medieval. Cool game but not a FPS.

    4. Re:Newb question by spire3661 · · Score: 2

      NO, you provide your own copies of that data, jsut like we have been doing for Doom 1 and 2 shareware versions since forever. I use the .wads/.paks from my steam copies of the games, works great.

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  3. Re:This is all well and good by delt0r · · Score: 1

    My wife and daughter love the fast paced FPS like quake. In fact they where a lot better than many of my friends. It was a big deal to beat the family.

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  4. What?! by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    Open-Source Doom 3 Advances With EAX Audio

    No love for A3D? It's a far better codec!

    1. Re:What?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "No love for A3D? It's a far better codec!"

      A3D died a long time ago, creative is still around producing hardware. A3D is not.

    2. Re:What?! by spire3661 · · Score: 2

      Aureal died a long time ago. This is like saying "No Glide????"

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  5. ARM port? by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 1

    A port to ARM platform means you can now run the game on hardware it could NOT run on before. And given the popularity of ARM-based hardware, that's a big thing imho.

    Arm ports means you have to compile yourself.

    No it doesn't. It just means that someone has to compile it. Or perhaps just as likely: set up an auto-build environment, where a machine continuously integrates patches, compiles the source, runs some tests, and produces fail/success and other reports for developers to look at. Sure, it has to go through a compiler at some point, but that's true for the bulk of all software in existence.

    As long as produced binaries are distributed somehow, all a user has to do is download/install and run (and whip out his Doom 3 game discs).

  6. Is anyone making TCs for Doom3? by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And if not, why should I care? Is there something wrong with the existing engine?

    If there were some meaningful game that I could play with the engine without using the Doom3 resources, then I might get excited. Or even with them, I could probably get it cheap used on eBay, right? ... a-yup, under eight bucks.

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  7. Re:there are Voodoo2 running Doom3 by spire3661 · · Score: 1

    http://www.youtubedoubler.com/...

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