What's New in dhewm3 1.5.5?

Updated

dhewm3 1.5.5 is a source port update that focuses on smoother frame pacing, widescreen UI support, and a newer texture compression format. If you already run dhewm3, this release is mainly about fixing microstutter and enabling higher-quality retexture packs; if you are installing fresh, you still need to legally own Doom3 and supply its game data separately.

Smoother frame pacing

The headline change is the removal of several sources of microstutter, including the long-standing 60 vs 62.5fps problem. According to the project page, the game should now run smoother than before, especially when VSync is enabled.

This matters because VSync previously interacted badly with Doom3's internal timing, producing small hitches even on hardware that could hold a steady frame rate. If you had given up on VSync in dhewm3, 1.5.5 is the version to retest.

Widescreen GUI support

dhewm3 1.5.5 adds support for widescreen GUIs. This is not automatic: it requires adjusting the .ui files.

To make it easy, Arl created updated .ui files for:

  • the base game
  • Resurrection of Evil
  • The Lost Mission

These are offered as an optional download (dhewm3-wide-guis-*.zip). If you play on a widescreen monitor and want the HUD and menus to lay out correctly, install the matching package for the campaigns you own.

BC7 (BPTC) .dds texture support

dhewm3 now supports BC7-compressed (BPTC) .dds textures. Compared with the older S3TC/DXT/BC1-3 standard that Doom3 always supported, BC7 offers better quality at the same size as DXT3-5.

That makes it useful for high-resolution retexturing packs, where compression artifacts are more visible. The first texture pack to use this feature is hidef2k by y2keeth.

Mod-related updates in this release

The project also notes changes on the mods side:

  • dhewm3-mods now has DLLs for new mods: ELDOOM, Grimm, HeXen: Edge Of Chaos Demo, and Real Gibs. For Real Gibs, the mod page states it only works with the 32-bit version of dhewm3 — but that refers to the realgibs.dll they ship. You can use their gamedata with the .dll/.so provided by dhewm3-mods, or build the library yourself.
  • Blood Mod has been updated to v1.8 and now also supports Resurrection Of Evil.
  • LibreCoop is now maintained as part of dhewm3-sdk until upstream becomes active again.

Getting the build

dhewm3 1.5.5 is available for download at GitHub, including builds for Windows and 64-bit Linux. As usual, a signed and notarized build for macOS can be found at Mac Source Ports.

What hasn't changed

Two constraints from earlier versions still apply:

  • dhewm3 is a source port of the original Doom3, not Doom3 BFG. For BFG, the project points to Chocolate DOOM-3-BFG.
  • The Doom3 source code is GPL, but you still need to legally own the game and provide dhewm3 with the game data to play.

It also only supports old mods if they either don't require their own game DLL or have been ported to dhewm3 — check the Mods page for the current list.