Doom 3 source code to be open sourced by the end of the year

The entire source code for Doom 3 is to be opened to the public for armchair game developers to play with, according to game creator id Software.

Speaking at the annual QuakeCon even (@quakecon | QuakCon on Facebook) John Carmack, co-founder and technical director of id, also called on other developers to release the old source code from their games to the public.

The code will officially be released after the launch of RAGE, id’s new near-future post-apocalyptic FPS built on their id Tech 5 engine, which is to be released on October 7.

Carmack made the announcement almost as a throw-away line during his 80 minute keynote address on Friday.  In the address Carmack lamented that developments in graphic processing and the professionalisation of the game development process had been at the cost of the mod community, who are now less involved in creation the process.

Carmack said he had just received permission to release the code based on the success of the open source release of Classic Doom and Enemy Territory Wolfenstein games for Apple’s iOS.

The release of the source code comes despite the development of Pray 2, which is being built on a modified version of the Doom 3 code.

However, although the announcement has been made Carmack warned that it is early days yet (the lawyers are still to get involved).  Firing across the bow of other games’ developers Carmack challenged them to also release their source code to the development community.

“I would almost put this out as a challenge to some of the software companies – there are a lot of you who could be releasing seminal, classic old source code that the community would appreciate, that young programmers can learn from, and that all these other benefits can come out of.”