About
Doom 3 is a 2004 first-person shooter survival-horror game by id Software in which a demonic invasion overwhelms a Mars research facility; a remastered BFG Edition, released in 2012, added improved lighting, a checkpoint save system, and the Resurrection of Evil and Lost Mission expansions. RBDOOM-3-BFG is an extensive, actively developed modernization of id Software's DOOM-3-BFG source code, started in 2012, rebuilding the renderer with physically based materials, baked global illumination via irradiance volumes and environment probes, DX12/Vulkan support, soft shadow mapping, and temporal antialiasing, plus TrenchBroom level-editor support, aiming to bring the engine's visuals closer to modern titles while keeping the original DOOM 3 gameplay. It builds on Windows, Linux, and macOS via CMake.
How it differs from the original
Compared to the original DOOM 3 BFG Edition, this port adds substantial rendering technology absent from the 2004/2012 releases — physically based materials, baked indirect lighting, DX12/Vulkan rendering, soft shadows, temporal antialiasing, and several retro filter modes — while still requiring the purchased original game's data files to run, and it doesn't support old Doom 3 modifications that ship compiled binary (.dll) code.
Getting started
You'll need a legitimately purchased copy of DOOM 3: BFG Edition (from Steam or GOG) for its data files, which get placed alongside the compiled engine or a downloaded release build. The project can be built from source with CMake on Windows, Linux, or macOS, or installed from a pre-built release on the project's ModDB page.
History
The project was started by its author in 2012 as a modernization of id Software's DOOM-3-BFG source release, and has since grown through contributions from more than 40 people worldwide.
Known limitations
- audio: Audio support may require additional dependencies on Linux (ALSA and/or PulseAudio).
- compatibility: Does not support old Doom 3 modifications that include binary sourcecode modifications (.dll).