Ask HN: What makes the game Doom that special in a Software Engineering context?

2 points by andygrunwald 2 years ago · 3 comments · 1 min read

E.g. What groundbreaking logic it had implemented?

E.g. Why it is ported to various platforms and always used as a test game to run in the next (fascinating) engine?

2 threads

al2o3cr 2 years ago

    What groundbreaking logic it had implemented?

We consider a lot of what it introduced as "just videogames" nowadays, so it can be hard to spot. Comparing can help - consider Doom (1993) versus Wolfenstein 3D from the previous year:

* walls at angles besides 90 degrees

* floor and ceiling textures

* multiple kinds of ammunition

* lighting

    Why it is ported to various platforms

It was open-sourced in 1999, so it's partly about availability. I suspect it's also because it's _possible_ to port to lots of things; it benefits from specialized hardware for graphics acceleration but doesn't require it.

wingi 2 years ago

It was the first famous 3d game and the renderer was so easy to adapt to any other system.

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Ask HN: What makes the game Doom that special in a Software Engineering context?

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