What are dhewm3's system requirements and supported platforms?

dhewm3 is known to run on Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and AROS, and it should work on (or be easily portable to) any system that supports OpenGL 1.4 with ARB shaders, SDL, and OpenAL. If your machine meets those three library requirements, dhewm3 is very likely to build and run there. Separately, you still need to legally own Doom3 and supply its game data — the engine alone won't start a game.

Supported platforms

The project lists these as known-working targets:

Beyond that list, dhewm3 "should work on (or be easily portable to) any system that supports OpenGL 1.4 with ARB shaders, SDL and OpenAL." In other words, the platform list isn't a hard ceiling — it's a record of what's been confirmed. A system with the right graphics, input/windowing, and audio libraries is a reasonable porting candidate.

The actual technical requirements

Three dependencies define compatibility:

• OpenGL 1.4 with ARB shaders — the rendering baseline. This is a relatively old OpenGL level, so most hardware from the mid-2000s onward qualifies. The ARB shader extension is the part to check, not just the OpenGL version number.
• SDL — handles windowing, input, and platform glue.
• OpenAL — audio output. dhewm3 uses OpenAL Soft's EFX support to provide EAX-like sound effects on all operating systems and hardware, rather than relying on platform-specific audio paths.

If a platform provides these three, the porting effort is described as easy rather than a rewrite.

64-bit support

dhewm3 has 64-bit support, which the original Doom3 release did not. The 1.5.5 release notes specifically mention builds for Windows and 64-bit Linux, with a signed and notarized macOS build available via Mac Source Ports. So on the major desktop platforms you can run a native 64-bit binary rather than being limited to 32-bit.

What dhewm3 is not

dhewm3 is a source port of the original Doom3, not Doom3 BFG Edition. For BFG, the project points elsewhere (Chocolate DOOM-3-BFG). This matters when checking requirements, because BFG has different data and engine assumptions.

Mod compatibility is a separate requirement

Meeting the system requirements doesn't guarantee every mod runs. dhewm3 only supports old mods if they either don't require their own game DLL or have been ported to dhewm3. Mods shipping their own compiled game logic need a dhewm3-compatible build of that library. The project maintains DLLs for some newer mods, and notes cases like Real Gibs, where the shipped realgibs.dll is 32-bit only — you'd use their game data with the .dll/.so provided by dhewm3-mods instead, or build the library yourself.

Practical takeaway

• On Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, or AROS: expect it to work; grab a build for your platform.
• On another OS: check for OpenGL 1.4 + ARB shaders, SDL, and OpenAL. If all three are present, it's a viable port target.
• In all cases: you must own Doom3 legally and provide the game data — the port ships the engine, not the game.
• For mods: verify the mod either has no custom game DLL or has been ported to dhewm3 before assuming it will load.