Which Doom3 Mods Work with dhewm3?

dhewm3 only runs old Doom3 mods if they either don't ship their own game DLL or have been ported to dhewm3. Mods that rely on a custom game DLL built for the original Doom3 executable will not load unless someone has recompiled that DLL for dhewm3. For newer mods, the dhewm3-mods project provides compatible DLLs for a handful of titles, so the practical answer is: check the Mods page first, then check dhewm3-mods for a prebuilt library.

The compatibility rule

The dhewm3 project page states it plainly: dhewm3 "only supports old Mods if they either don't require their own game DLL or have been ported to dhewm3."

That splits mods into three groups:

• No custom game DLL — these are pure asset/content mods (maps, textures, sounds, defs, GUIs). They generally work because dhewm3 supplies the engine and game logic itself.
• Custom game DLL, already ported — the mod author or a third party has rebuilt the DLL against the dhewm3 SDK. These work.
• Custom game DLL, not ported — the mod ships a binary compiled for the original Doom3. dhewm3 cannot load it, so the mod won't run.

The reason is that a game DLL is compiled against a specific engine's interface. dhewm3 is a source port with its own build of that interface, so an original Doom3 DLL is not binary-compatible.

Mods with DLLs provided by dhewm3-mods

The dhewm3-mods repository supplies DLLs for several newer mods, so you can use their game data with a dhewm3-compatible library instead of the one they ship:

The Real Gibs entry is the clearest example of the 32-bit caveat: the mod's own instructions assume a 32-bit build, but the restriction applies to the DLL they bundle, not to dhewm3 as a whole. Swapping in the matching library from dhewm3-mods (or compiling it yourself) is the workaround.

How to check a mod before installing

1. Look at what the mod ships. If there is no .dll/.so game library in the package, it is likely a content-only mod and should load.
2. If it does ship a game DLL, check the dhewm3 Mods page for that mod's name.
3. If it isn't listed there, check dhewm3-mods for a prebuilt library.
4. If neither has it, the mod needs to be ported — either by its author or by building the library against the dhewm3 SDK yourself.

Practical caveats

• Match the library to your build. A 32-bit DLL won't load in a 64-bit dhewm3, and vice versa. Use the .dll on Windows and the .so on Linux, matching your architecture.
• Game data is still required. dhewm3 is a source port, not a standalone game. You still need to legally own Doom3 and provide the game data, as noted on the project page.
• The Mods page is the source of truth. Compatibility changes as mods get ported and as dhewm3-mods adds libraries, so check it rather than relying on a fixed list.

If your mod isn't covered anywhere, the fallback is to build its game library against the dhewm3 SDK — that is the same route the ported mods took.