DOOM Ants

The first Windows build of DOOM_Ants — plus a self-contained Linux build. 🪟🐧

A preview / development snapshot (pre-release): the classic renderer is complete and playable on both platforms; the Phase-2 3D renderer is still in progress. Published as a pre-release so it doesn't imply the in-progress features are finished.

Downloads — both are one-download-and-done (just add a WAD)

• Windows (x86-64): doom_ants-0.2.0-pre.1-windows-x86_64.zip Unzip, drop a .wad next to doom_ants.exe, run. All needed DLLs are bundled.
• Linux (x86-64): doom_ants-0.2.0-pre.1-x86_64.AppImage One file. chmod +x it (or right-click → Allow executing), then run: ./doom_ants-0.2.0-pre.1-x86_64.AppImage -iwad doom1.wad Every library is bundled (SDL2, SDL2_mixer, FluidSynth) and a compact General-MIDI soundfont is baked in, so music works out of the box — no apt/zypper/dnf install needed. Targets reasonably current distros (built on a recent glibc).

A DOOM .wad is required and not included (licensing). The free shareware doom1.wad works, as do retail doom.wad / doom2.wad.

What's new

• First-ever Windows build via a new mingw-w64 cross-build target (DOOM-0006).
• Self-contained Linux AppImage — no dependency install, music included.
• Both built from master @ 5859307.

Notes

• A console/terminal window accompanies the game and shows startup messages.
• 3D acceleration uses the system Vulkan loader (GPU driver / system package); the game runs fine without it on the classic renderer.
• The older v0.1.0 tarball remains for systems where you'd rather use your distro's own SDL2/FluidSynth packages.

DOOM_Ants

A modern, ray-traced reimagining of id Software's DOOM, built on the original GPL source code.

Still plays like DOOM — just with the lights turned on.

What this is

In 1997 id Software released the source code to DOOM. It's a brilliant piece of 1990s engineering: it fakes 3D with a clever 2D trick and draws every pixel on the CPU. DOOM_Ants takes that code and modernises it in two stages:

1. Make it run today. Get the 1997 engine compiling and playing on modern 64-bit Linux, replacing the ancient X11 graphics/sound code with SDL2.
2. The spin. Evolve the renderer toward true 3D with hardware ray tracing (and path tracing where it's feasible), dynamic lighting, volumetric "god-ray" lighting, and a solid 60 FPS floor — without losing the feel of the original.

See ROADMAP.md for the plan and CHANGELOG.md for what's shipped.

Status

🚧 Early days — building the foundations. The repo currently holds id's original source plus the project's documentation and standards. The "make it run today" work comes next.

Building & running

⏳ Not yet — modernising the build is the first milestone (see the roadmap). You will also need a DOOM .wad data file (e.g. the shareware doom1.wad), which is not included here for licensing reasons.

Licence

GPL v2, inherited from the original DOOM source. See LICENSE.TXT. Original code © id Software; see README.TXT for the 1997 release notes.