Doom

Doom (sometimes written DOOM){{ref|title}} is a computer game developed by id Software in 1993, and is one of the seminal titles in the first-person shooter genre. Combining immersive 3D graphics with graphic violence{{ref|ESRB}}, it became both controversial and immensely popular, with a shareware release version that is estimated to have been played by 15 million people. Beyond defining many gameplay elements of first-person shooters, Doom established a subculture by popularizing networked gaming and allowing player-created expansions called WADs. The game's success influenced the mid-1990s boom of first-person shooters to the degree that these games are sometimes known as "Doom clones".

Development

Main article: Making of Doom

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The development of Doom started in 1992 with John Carmack creating the new game engine, the Doom engine, while the rest of the team finished Spear of Destiny. When the game design phase began in late 1992, the main thematic influences were the science fiction action movie Aliens and the horror movie Evil Dead II. The title of the game was picked by Carmack:

Related Topics:
1992 - John Carmack - Game engine - ''Doom'' engine - Spear of Destiny - Game design - Science fiction - Action movie - Aliens - Horror movie - Evil Dead II

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:There is a scene in "The Color of Money" where Tom Cruse ' shows up at a pool hall with a custom pool cue in a case. "What do you have in there?" asks someone. "Doom." replied Cruse with a cocky grin. That, and the resulting carnage, was how I viewed us springing the game on the industry. {{ref|DWCarmack}}

Related Topics:
The Color of Money - Tom Cruse

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Designer Tom Hall wrote an elaborate design document called the Doom Bible, according to which the game would feature a detailed storyline, multiple player characters, and a number of interactive features.{{ref|bible}} However, many of his ideas were discarded during development in favor of simpler design primarily advocated by Carmack, resulting in Hall in the end being forced to resign due to not contributing effectively in the direction the rest of the team was going. Most of the level design that ended up in the final game is that of John Romero and Sandy Petersen. The graphics, by Adrian Carmack, Kevin Cloud and Gregor Punchatz, were created in various ways: although much was drawn or painted, several of the monsters were digitized from sculptures in clay or latex, and some of the weapons are toy guns from Toys "R" Us. A heavy metal-ambient soundtrack was supplied by Bobby Prince. {{ref|MoDdesign}}

Related Topics:
Tom Hall - Design document - Level design - John Romero - Sandy Petersen - Adrian Carmack - Kevin Cloud - Gregor Punchatz - Clay - Latex - Toys "R" Us - Heavy metal - Ambient - Bobby Prince

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Engine technology

Main article: Doom engine

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Doom's primary distinguishing feature at the time of its release was its realistic 3D graphics, then unparalleled by other real-time-rendered games running on consumer-level hardware. The advance from id Software's previous game Wolfenstein 3D was enabled by several new features in the Doom engine:

Related Topics:
3D graphics - Real-time - Wolfenstein 3D

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• Height differences (all rooms in Wolfenstein 3D are at the same altitude);
• Non-perpendicular walls (all walls in Wolfenstein 3D run along a rectangular grid);
• Full texture mapping of all surfaces (in Wolfenstein 3D, floors and ceilings are not texture mapped); and,
• Varying light levels (all areas in Wolfenstein 3D are fully lit at the same brightness). While contributing to the game's visual authenticity by allowing effects such as highlights and shadows, this perhaps most importantly added to the game's atmosphere and even gameplay; the use of darkness as a means of frightening or confusing the player was an unseen element in games.

In contrast to the static levels of Wolfenstein 3D, those in Doom are highly interactive: platforms can lower and rise, floors can raise sequentially to form staircases, and bridges can raise and lower. The life-like feeling of the environment was enhanced further by the stereo sound system, which made it possible to roughly tell the direction and distance of a sound's origin. The player is kept on guard by the grunts and gnarls of monsters, and receives occasional clues to finding secret areas in the form of sounds of hidden doors opening remotely. Monsters can also become aware of the player's presence by hearing distant gunshots.

Related Topics:
Staircase - Stereo sound

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Carmack had to make use of several tricks for these features to run smoothly on 1993's home computers. Most significantly, Doom levels are not truly three-dimensional; they are internally represented on a plane, with height differences added separately (a similar trick is still used by many games to create huge outdoor environments). This leads to several limitations: it is, for example, not possible for a Doom level to have one room over another. This two-dimensional representation does, however, have the benefit that rendering can be done very quickly, using a binary space partitioning method. Another benefit was the clearness of the automap because it could be displayed with 2D vectors without the risk of overlapping.

Related Topics:
Plane - Binary space partitioning

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Another important feature of the Doom engine is a modular approach that allows the game content to be replaced by loading custom WAD files. Wolfenstein 3D was not designed to be expansible, but fans had nevertheless figured out how to create their own levels for it, and Doom was designed to take the phenomenon further. The ability to create custom scenarios contributed significantly to the game's popularity (see the section on WADs below).

Related Topics:
WAD files - WADs

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