Developer(s) | id Software, (John Carmack, John Romero, Dave Taylor) |
---|---|
Final release | 1.9 / February 1, 1995 |
Repository | github.com/id-Software/DOOM |
Written in | C, Assembly language |
Platform | MS-DOS, PC-98 Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Amiga, NeXTSTEP, NeXT, Jaguar, 32X, PlayStation, 3DO, Nintendo 64, Saturn, Game Boy Advance, Switch, BSD, Unix, others |
Predecessor | Wolfenstein 3D engine |
Successor | Quake engine |
License | GNU GPL-2.0-or-later [1] 3DO: MIT [2] |
id Tech 1, also known as the Doom engine, is the game engine used in the id Software video games Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth . It is also used in Heretic , Hexen: Beyond Heretic , Strife: Quest for the Sigil , Hacx: Twitch 'n Kill , Freedoom , and other games produced by licensees. It was created by John Carmack, with auxiliary functions written by Mike Abrash, John Romero, Dave Taylor, and Paul Radek. Originally developed on NeXT computers, [3] it was ported to MS-DOS and compatible operating systems for Doom's initial release and was later ported to several game consoles and operating systems.
The source code to the Linux version of Doom was released to the public under a license that granted rights to non-commercial use on December 23, 1997, followed by the Linux version of Doom II about a week later on December 29, 1997. [4] [5] The source code was later re-released under the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later on October 3, 1999. [6] [7] The dozens of unofficial Doom source ports that have been created since then allow Doom to run on previously unsupported operating systems and sometimes radically expand the engine's functionality with new features.
Although the engine renders a 3D space, that space is projected from a two-dimensional floor plan. The line of sight is always parallel to the floor, walls must be perpendicular to the floors, and it is not possible to create multi-level structures or sloped areas (floors and ceilings with different angles). Despite these limitations, the engine represented a technological leap from id's previous Wolfenstein 3D engine. The Doom engine was later renamed[ citation needed ] to "id Tech 1" in order to categorize it in a list of id Software's long line of game engines. [8]
The Doom engine separates rendering from the rest of the game. The graphics engine runs as fast as possible, but the game world runs at 35 frames per second regardless of the hardware, so multiple players can play against each other using computers of varying performance. [9]
A simple setup demonstrating how Doom represents levels internally
Viewed from the top down, all Doom levels are actually two-dimensional, demonstrating one of the key limitations of the Doom engine: room-over-room is not possible. This limitation, however, has a silver lining: a "map mode" can be easily displayed, which represents the walls and the player's position, much like the first image to the right.
The base unit is the vertex, which represents a single 2D point. Vertices (or "vertexes" as they are referred to internally) are then joined to form lines, known as "linedefs". Each linedef can have either one or two sides, which are known as "sidedefs". Sidedefs are then grouped together to form polygons; these are called "sectors". Sectors represent particular areas of the level.
Each sector contains a number of properties: a floor height, ceiling height, light level, a floor texture and a ceiling texture. To have a different light level in a particular area, for example, a new sector must be created for that area with a different light level. One-sided linedefs therefore represent solid walls, while two-sided linedefs represent bridge lines between sectors.
Sidedefs are used to store wall textures; these are completely separate from the floor and ceiling textures. Each sidedef can have three textures; these are called the middle, upper and lower textures. In one-sided linedefs, only the middle texture is used for the texture on the wall. In two-sided linedefs, the situation is more complex. The lower and upper textures are used to fill the gaps where adjacent sectors have different floor and ceiling heights: lower textures are used for steps, for example. The sidedefs can have a middle texture as well, although most do not; this is used to make textures hang in mid air. For example, when a transparent bar texture is seen forming a cage, this is an example of a middle texture on a two-sided linedef.
Doom makes use of a system known as binary space partitioning (BSP). [10] A tool is used to generate the BSP data for a level beforehand. This process can take quite some time for a large level. It is because of this that it is not possible to move the walls in Doom; while doors and lifts move up and down, none of them ever move sideways.
The level is divided up into a binary tree: each location in the tree is a "node" which represents a particular area of the level (with the root node representing the entire level). At each branch of the tree there is a dividing line which divides the area of the node into two subnodes. At the same time, the dividing line divides linedefs into line segments called "segs". [11]
At the leaves of the tree are convex polygons, where further division of the level is not needed. These convex polygons are referred to as subsectors (or "SSECTORS"), and are bound to a particular sector. Each subsector has a list of segs associated with it. [10]
The BSP system sorts the subsectors into the right order for rendering. The algorithm is fairly simple:
The process is complete when the whole column of pixels is filled (i.e., there are no more gaps left). This ordering ensures that no time is used drawing objects that are not visible and as a result maps can become very large without any speed penalty.
This section possibly contains original research .(February 2023) |
All of the walls in Doom are drawn vertically; it is because of this that it is not possible to properly look up and down. It is possible to perform a form of look up/down via "y-shearing", and many modern Doom source ports do this, as well as later games that use the engine, such as Heretic . Essentially this works by moving the horizon line up and down within the screen, in effect providing a "window" on a taller viewable area. By moving the window up and down, it is possible to give the illusion of looking up and down. However, this will distort the view the further up and down the player looks.
The Doom engine renders the walls as it traverses the BSP tree, drawing subsectors by order of distance from the camera so that the closest segs are drawn first. As the segs are drawn, they are stored in a linked list. This is used to clip other segs rendered later on, reducing overdraw. This is also used later to clip the edges of sprites.
Once the engine reaches a solid (1-sided) wall at a particular x coordinate, no more lines need to be drawn at that area. For clipping the engine stores a "map" of areas of the screen where solid walls have been reached. This allows far away parts of the level which are invisible to the player to be clipped completely.
The Doom graphic format stores the wall textures as sets of vertical columns; this is useful to the renderer, which essentially renders the walls by drawing many vertical columns of textures.
The system for drawing floors and ceilings ("flats") is less elegant [ according to whom? ] than that used for the walls. Flats are drawn with a flood fill-like algorithm. Because of this, if a bad BSP builder is used, it is sometimes possible to get "holes" where the floor or ceiling bleeds down to the edges of the screen, a visual error commonly referred to as a "slime trail". [13] This is also the reason why if the player travels outside of the level using the noclip cheat the floors and ceilings will appear to stretch out from the level over the empty space.
The floor and ceiling are drawn as "visplanes". These represent horizontal runs of texture, from a floor or ceiling at a particular height, light level and texture (if two adjacent sectors have exactly the same floor, these can get merged into one visplane). Each x position in the visplane has a particular vertical line of texture which is to be drawn.
Because of this limit of drawing one vertical line at each x position, it is sometimes necessary to split visplanes into multiple visplanes. For example, consider viewing a floor with two concentric squares. The inner square will vertically divide the surrounding floor. In that horizontal range where the inner square is drawn, two visplanes are needed for the surrounding floor.
Doom contained a static limit on the number of visplanes; if exceeded, a "visplane overflow" would occur, causing the game to exit to DOS with one of two errors, "No more visplanes!" or "visplane overflow (128 or higher)". The easiest way to invoke the visplane limit is a large checkerboard floor pattern; this creates a large number of visplanes.
As the segs are rendered, visplanes are also added, extending from the edges of the segs towards the vertical edges of the screen. These extend until they reach existing visplanes. Because of the way this works, the system is dependent on the fact that segs are rendered in order by the overall engine; it is necessary to draw nearer visplanes first, so that they can "cut off" by others further away. If unstopped, the floor or ceiling will "bleed out" to the edges of the screen, as previously described. Eventually, the visplanes form a "map" of particular areas of the screen in which to draw particular textures.
While visplanes are constructed essentially from vertical "strips", the actual low level rendering is performed in the form of horizontal "spans" of texture. After all the visplanes have been constructed, they are converted into spans which are then rendered to the screen. This appears to be a trade off: it is easier to construct visplanes as vertical strips, but because of the nature of how the floor and ceiling textures appear it is easier to draw them as horizontal strips.
Each sector within the level has a linked list of things stored in that sector. As each sector is drawn the sprites are placed into a list of sprites to be drawn. If not within the field of view these are ignored.
The edges of sprites are clipped by checking the list of segs previously drawn. Sprites in Doom are stored in the same column based format as the walls are, which again is useful for the renderer. The same functions which are used to draw walls are used to draw sprites as well.
While subsectors are guaranteed to be in order, the sprites within them are not. Doom stores a list of sprites to be drawn ("vissprites") and sorts the list before rendering. Far away sprites are drawn before close ones. This causes some overdraw but usually this is negligible.
There is a final issue of middle textures on 2-sided lines, used in transparent bars for example. These are mixed in and drawn with the sprites at the end of the rendering process, rather than with the other walls.
The Doom engine achieved most of its fame as a result of powering the classic first person shooter Doom , and it was used in several other games. It is usually considered that the "Big Four" Doom engine games are Doom , Heretic , Hexen: Beyond Heretic , and Strife: Quest for the Sigil .
Year | Title | Developer |
---|---|---|
1993 | Doom | id Software |
1994 | Doom II: Hell on Earth | |
Heretic | Raven Software | |
1995 | The Ultimate Doom | id Software |
Master Levels for Doom II | ||
Hexen: Beyond Heretic | Raven Software | |
1996 | Final Doom | TeamTNT |
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders | Raven Software | |
Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel | ||
Strife: Quest for the Sigil | Rogue Entertainment |
In the 1990s a handful of developers acquired licenses to distribute total conversions of Doom, and following the 1997 source code release a number of standalone titles have been produced in the engine, including freeware, fangames and commercial titles. [14]
Year | Title | Developer |
---|---|---|
1996 | Chex Quest | Digital Café |
1997 | Doom 64 | Midway Studios San Diego |
Chex Quest 2: Flemoids Take Chextropolis | Digital Café | |
HacX | Banjo Software | |
2000 | Sonic Robo Blast 2 | Sonic Team Junior |
2003 | Freedoom | Freedoom Team |
2008 | Chex Quest 3 | Charles Jacobi |
Blasphemer | Blasphemer Team | |
Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl [15] | Scuba Steve | |
2009 | Harmony [16] | Thomas van der Velden |
2014 | The Adventures of Square [17] | BigBrik Games |
2016 | Blade of Agony [18] | Daniel Gimmer |
2017 | Rise of the Wool Ball [19] | MSPaintR0cks |
2018 | REKKR [20] | Mockingbird Softworks |
Annie [21] | SergeJkn | |
Ashes [22] | Vostyok | |
Total Chaos [23] | wadaholic | |
2019 | Hocus Pocus Doom [24] | Ravage |
Hedon [25] | Zan_HedonDev | |
Shrine [26] | Scumhead | |
2020 | Project Osiris [27] | ArcturusDeluxe |
2021 | Castlevania: Simon’s Destiny [28] | batandy |
Vomitoreum [29] | Scumhead | |
2022 | Hands Of Necromancy [30] | HON Team |
Fashion Police Squad [31] | Mopeful Games | |
CountryCide [32] | TrenchWork | |
Project Absentia [33] | Waffle Iron Studios | |
I Am Sakuya: Touhou FPS Game[ citation needed ] | Sigyaad Team | |
2023 | Beyond Sunset [34] | Metacorp / Vaporware |
Supplice [35] | Mekworx | |
Venturous [36] | neitey | |
Apocalyptic Vibes [37] | Amanito Computing | |
2024 | Hands of Necromancy 2 [38] | HON Team |
Beyond Sunset [39] | Metacorp / Vaporware | |
Selaco [40] | Altered Orbit Studios |
Hexen: Beyond Heretic is a fantasy first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by id Software distributed through GT Interactive on October 30, 1995. It is the sequel to 1994's Heretic, and the second game in Raven Software's "Serpent Riders" trilogy, which culminated with Hexen II. The title comes from the German noun Hexen, which means "witches", and/or the verb hexen, which means "to cast a spell". Game producer John Romero stated that a third, unreleased game in this series was to be called Hecatomb.
In computer science, binary space partitioning (BSP) is a method for space partitioning which recursively subdivides a Euclidean space into two convex sets by using hyperplanes as partitions. This process of subdividing gives rise to a representation of objects within the space in the form of a tree data structure known as a BSP tree.
Ray casting is the methodological basis for 3D CAD/CAM solid modeling and image rendering. It is essentially the same as ray tracing for computer graphics where virtual light rays are "cast" or "traced" on their path from the focal point of a camera through each pixel in the camera sensor to determine what is visible along the ray in the 3D scene. The term "Ray Casting" was introduced by Scott Roth while at the General Motors Research Labs from 1978–1980. His paper, "Ray Casting for Modeling Solids", describes modeled solid objects by combining primitive solids, such as blocks and cylinders, using the set operators union (+), intersection (&), and difference (-). The general idea of using these binary operators for solid modeling is largely due to Voelcker and Requicha's geometric modelling group at the University of Rochester. See solid modeling for a broad overview of solid modeling methods. This figure on the right shows a U-Joint modeled from cylinders and blocks in a binary tree using Roth's ray casting system in 1979.
The Build Engine is a first-person shooter engine created by Ken Silverman, author of Ken's Labyrinth, for 3D Realms. Like the Doom engine, the Build Engine represents its world on a two-dimensional grid using closed 2D shapes called sectors, and uses simple flat objects called sprites to populate the world geometry with objects.
Doom WAD is the default format of package files for the video game Doom and its sequel Doom II: Hell on Earth, that contain sprites, levels, and game data. WAD stands for Where's All the Data?. Immediately after its release in 1993, Doom attracted a sizeable following of players who created their own mods for WAD files—packages containing new levels or graphics—and played a vital part in spawning the mod-making culture which is now commonplace for first-person shooter games. Thousands of WADs have been created for Doom, ranging from single custom levels to full original games; most of these can be freely downloaded over the Internet. Several WADs have also been released commercially, and for some people the WAD-making hobby became a gateway to a professional career as a level designer.
A first-person shooter engine is a video game engine specialized for simulating 3D environments for use in a first-person shooter video game. First-person refers to the view where the players see the world from the eyes of their characters. Shooter refers to games which revolve primarily around wielding firearms and killing other entities in the game world, either non-player characters or other players.
The Quake engine is the game engine developed by id Software to power their 1996 video game Quake. It featured true 3D real-time rendering. Since 1999, it has been licensed under the terms of GNU General Public License v2.0 or later.
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Jedi is a game engine developed primarily by Ray Gresko for LucasArts. It is very similar to the Build engine used in Duke Nukem 3D. While not a true 3D engine, it supported a three-dimensional environment with no limitations in the 3rd dimension (Z). In Doom, environments or levels were limited to existing in the X-Y plane only – levels were laid out two-dimensionally: while floor and ceiling heights could differ, areas could not overlap vertically. The Jedi Engine had support for areas or rooms on top of one another, a trait that it shared with the Build engine. In the Dark Forces revision of the engine, the renderer could not display two rooms situated on top of each other simultaneously. This capability was added for Outlaws.
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In video games, first-person is any graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character, or from the inside of a device or vehicle controlled by the player character. It is one of two perspectives used in the vast majority of video games, with the other being third-person, the graphical perspective from outside of any character ; some games such as interactive fiction do not belong to either format.
A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through the eyes of the main character. This genre shares multiple common traits with other shooter games, and in turn falls under the action games category. Since the genre's inception, advanced 3D and pseudo-3D graphics have proven fundamental to allow a reasonable level of immersion in the game world, and this type of game helped pushing technology progressively further, challenging hardware developers worldwide to introduce numerous innovations in the field of graphics processing units. Multiplayer gaming has been an integral part of the experience, and became even more prominent with the diffusion of internet connectivity in recent years.
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