Open-Source Doom 3 Projects Aren't Cultivating

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Open-Source Doom 3 Projects Aren't Cultivating

While ioquake3 projects continue to thrive as open-source projects spun off from the id Tech 3 game engine, when it comes to the open-source Doom 3 (id Tech 4) engine, there is barely any public activity...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTM0NTE

[MaxToTheMax]

The reason for this is simply because there's not a whole lot id Tech 4 has to offer that other open-source engines don't already have. The previous id engines are better understood by the community, and many of them have already been upgraded to match or exceed id Tech 4 in terms of graphics and performance. The community-extended engines also generally have better cross-platform support.

Even if you ignore the other engines having a head start, id Tech 4 has its own inherent disadvantages as well. For starters, it's huge: at more than a half million lines of code, it's 2x as big as ioQuake3, 3x as big as Qfusion, 3.5x as big as DarkPlaces, 4.3x as big as CRX, and 4.9x as big as Quake2World.

If you wanted to start a brand new game from scratch using an id Tech engine, and you didn't want to use any of the community engines, id Tech 4 would probably be the best choice. But existing games don't really have any reason to switch, and for new games, the id Tech engines are going out of fashion. Unity, Unreal, and Source have largely taken over what used to be a largely Quake-dominated modding scene.

For that reason, I predict that the only open-source games we'll see using id Tech 4 are Doom 3, Quake 4, PREY, ET:QW, and so on (depending on which ones get open-sourced.) Open-sourcing id Tech 4 was a good way for id Software to keep existing games alive for decades to come, but I don't think we'll see any new long-lasting open-source games with that engine.

[Kano]

I hope that cut videos work sometime with RBDoom3BFG, then it would be more fun to play it. Without it is a bit boring to play the campain.

[toyotabedzrock]

They should rename it ioIDTech4 instead of ioDoom3.

If you read about ioQuake3 and then see ioDoom3 you might think they are the same or that the latter is older.

[soupbowl]

People cry that steam is ruining linux, but developers are not using or making decent games on currently superior graphics engines.
Linux users are just cheap crybabies.

[Cyber Killer]

I had a discussion about game engines with a friend recently and I got the impression that not many ppl understand that switching the engine is not a straightforward operation for any game project (just think about Duke Nukem Forever). Most of the time you'd need to at least convert all game assets (some of which might not be compatible at all and need to be rebuilt from scratch, like maps e.g. quake bsp vs unreal maps - completely different design philisophy) and rewrite nearly all custom code. With so much work to do, you might as well start a new game completely.

And about starting new games... Most of the FLOSS games that we like and play nowadays have been in development for years currently (hell, many of them were already in development when I started using GNU/Linux over 10 years ago) - it takes a load of work to make a game. That load of work translates into an enormous amount of time when we're talking about volunteer effort. Maybe there are new game projects being started as we speak, and they use one of the new engines. Yet it will probably take a couple of years for them to pass from concept stage into anything visible, and even more time for them to be something playable. In that time, there will be new FLOSS game engines out there, and this question will be back - why aren't they using something "modern" - the answer is cause they were using what was "modern" when they started and the time passed...

[powdigsig]

People cry that steam is ruining linux, but developers are not using or making decent games on currently superior graphics engines.
Linux users are just cheap crybabies.

Steam ain't mentioned in the whole article so you're clearly offtopic. Regardless continuing being offtopic steam IS linux nowadays. If you're not on steam you're not on the world map.

Phoronix, have you ever mentioned Flare 0.18? OpenGameArt rulez.

[Mike Frett]

People cry that steam is ruining linux, but developers are not using or making decent games on currently superior graphics engines.
Linux users are just cheap crybabies.

What in the world, I don't even...If by "cheap" you mean I won't fork out money to give to Microsoft for a platform I think is outdated? Then yes I'm cheap. If by cheap you mean Linux users want free stuff and aren't willing to pay money for anything, then you have been proven wrong. Or maybe you didn't get the word that people actually buy games on Steam, Donate to Kickstarter and pay twice more for Humble Bundles.

You want cheap? Look at Windows users, pirating Games, their own OS and going as far as to pay the absolute minimum for Humble Bundles. It took me 15 years of Windows use before I saw that Microsoft was a dead end, I'll never go back now that my eyes have been opened. I don't care what MS Fanbois say, keep those chains on and those hooks dug in deep; it's going to be my pleasure watching it all go up in flames.

I agree with others here, most Devs don't see that advantage of the Engine and are satisfied with current ones. But it is nice to know that we have it if we need it.

[powdigsig]

Bad thing on Steam. They use flash technology video instead of HTML5 video.

And I got gnash, so youtube works 100% of the time with gnash and otherwise HTML5 with WebM and H.264 works in Chromium(nah, not all times). Though Firefox bugs me much less about "not up to date flash, please upgrade".

This may show a bad light for Steam right now as they don't support standards. They obviously only support "standards" like Adobe Flash.

Now though that Steam will get the blessing of linux(we also got the blessing of Steam of course!) I believe that they will be more standards compliant for HTML5 as well.

[AluminumHaste]

Phoronix: Open-Source Doom 3 Projects Aren't Cultivating

While ioquake3 projects continue to thrive as open-source projects spun off from the id Tech 3 game engine, when it comes to the open-source Doom 3 (id Tech 4) engine, there is barely any public activity...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTM0NTE

While we didn't have a public fork available before, it is up now on the Downloads page, along with the source for the currently stable version; 1.08

The Dark Mod | Downloads

, the Dark Mod team is very busy working with the source code. We do have major revision source code available however:
We're working on going standalone with the next major update. I dare say that we'll be the first project to have a standalone version of the iDTech4.

While we may be a small project compared to IoDoom3, I like to think that we are pretty significant in this sphere.
In case you don't know what the Dark Mod is:

Stealth Gaming in a Gothic Steampunk World
THE DARK MOD is a total conversion for Doom 3, turning it into a dark and moody stealth game inspired by the Thief series by Looking Glass Studios. More like a professional game release than a mod, it includes creative new gameplay features, dozens of unique AI, and a complete set of custom art assets, allowing players and mappers alike to enjoy missions in a gothic steampunk universe. The Dark Mod was officially released on October 17th, 2009.

Link: The Dark Mod
Forums: The Dark Mod | Forum

-AluminumHaste
-Dark Mod Contributor