What is dhewm3?

Updated

dhewm3 is a source port of the original Doom3 — not Doom3 BFG. It runs the same game you already own, but on a modernized engine that fixes long-standing bugs, adds 64-bit support, improves widescreen handling, and brings EAX-like sound effects to every supported platform. You still need to legally own Doom3 and supply its game data; dhewm3 itself does not include the game.

What dhewm3 actually is

A source port takes released game source code and rebuilds it to run on current hardware and operating systems. dhewm3 does this for the original Doom3 codebase (which id Software released under the GPL). It is not a remake, not a new game, and not a port of Doom3 BFG — the project page explicitly points BFG owners toward Chocolate DOOM-3-BFG instead.

Because the engine code is separate from the game assets, dhewm3 ships as an executable plus support files. The Doom3 data (maps, textures, sounds, scripts) comes from your own installation.

What it improves over the original Doom3

Area Original Doom3 dhewm3
Bug fixes Original release state Many accumulated fixes
Sound EAX limited by OS/hardware EAX-like effects on all OSes and hardware via OpenAL Soft EFX
Widescreen Poor support Much better widescreen support, including widescreen GUIs (1.5.5)
64-bit No Yes
Settings menu Mod-dependent New mod-independent Settings Menu
Texture compression S3TC/DXT/BC1–3 Also BC7 (BPTC) .dds textures as of 1.5.5

The 1.5.5 release also removed several sources of microstutter, including the old 60 vs 62.5 fps problem, so the game runs smoother — especially with VSync enabled.

Platform support

dhewm3 is known to work on:

  • Windows
  • Linux
  • macOS
  • FreeBSD
  • OpenBSD
  • AROS

The project states it should work on, or be easily portable to, any system supporting OpenGL 1.4 with ARB shaders, SDL, and OpenAL.

Mod compatibility — read this before installing mods

dhewm3 only supports old mods if they either:

  • don't require their own game DLL, or
  • have been ported to dhewm3.

Mods that ship their own compiled game DLL for the original Doom3 engine will not work unmodified. The project maintains a Mods page and a dhewm3-mods repository with DLLs for selected mods.

What you need to play

  1. A legally owned copy of Doom3.
  2. The Doom3 game data files from that copy.
  3. A dhewm3 executable for your platform.
  4. Optionally, the widescreen GUI files (dhewm3-wide-guis-*.zip) if you want properly scaled interfaces for the base game, Resurrection of Evil, or The Lost Mission.

The project page is clear on the licensing split: the source code is GPL, but the game data is not, so owning the game remains a requirement.

Where to get it

  • Executables: the project's GitHub releases, including Windows and 64-bit Linux builds.
  • macOS: a signed and notarized build is published at Mac Source Ports.
  • Game data: from your own Doom3 installation — see the project's How to Install section.

If you own Doom3 (not BFG) and want it to run cleanly on a modern 64-bit system with working widescreen and cross-platform sound effects, dhewm3 is the straightforward choice. If you own Doom3 BFG instead, look at Chocolate DOOM-3-BFG.