Doom Graphics Study: How A Single Frame Is Rendered

Megalith

Megalith

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If you are in for a more intensive, technical read, this is it. The author looks at a single frame in Doom and meticulously explains how everything is rendered, with all manners of mapping and effects isolated for you to see.

Doom pioneered fundamental changes in game design and mechanics back in 1993, it was a world-wide phenomenon which propelled to fame iconic figures like John Carmack and John Romero…23 years later, id Software now belongs to Zenimax, all the original founders are gone but it didn’t prevent the team at id from showing all its talent by delivering a great game. The new Doom is a perfect addition to the franchise, using the new id Tech 6 engine where ex-Crytek Tiago Sousa now assumes the role of lead renderer programmer after John Carmack’s departure.
 
...all that 60 times a second, so no more complaining.

That's pretty cool. I saw a somewhat similar analysis for Quake 3 Arena a long time ago.
 
Yep...they've come a long way since Wolfenstein (the rendering of which is also kinda cool!). Thanks for posting this!
 
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Wow, this brings back old memories, of having my dreams of becoming a 3d game engine designer crushed. When I entered college I managed to look up and speak with the lead programmer for some Sega Dreamcast game back in the day that was hugely popular. I was asking him for tips and what kind of mathematics courses I should pursue to get to where he is, and he started laying all this technical shit like what you see here. My shoulders dropped and I realized there was no way I was cut out for this stuff lol.
 
Reading that article reminded me of a game programming class I took, and failed twice, during my Computer Science undergrad.

I cannot wrap my mind around game programming, 3D graphics rendering, and real time physics modeling. All while keeping the frame buffer in check and making sure things behave properly...

Yeah, that article brought back bad memories but it's still very interesting to read about.
 
My 3d engine on the atari 8 bit machines was not this sophisticated. But it did run at 30fps, so I believe EA would call it Cinematic.
 
Great article. It's fascinating how much work is being done to generate these 3d simulations. I always chuckle at the thought that most of it is still very sophisticated use of high quality smoke and mirrors.
 
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