This modder is bringing the long-dormant dream of Voxel Doom to life
Previous projects struggled with the OpenGL rendering of Doom’s various source ports.
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ModderCheelois taking Doom’s classic 2D sprites and translating them into 3D voxel versions for a new take on the classic FPS' iconic designs.
Even beyond its contributions to first person shooters, Doom was essential to the development of 3D game design more broadly. The game’s enemies and objects, however, consist of 2D sprites that rotate to face the player, with id’s later shooter Quake bringing the now-standard 3D models into the picture.
The idea of populating Doom with full 3D models instead of a 2.5D compromise has had purchase in the community for a long time, but traditional 3D modelling could run the risk of entering “Nintendo, hire this man” territory, overpowering the charming original designs with something of higher fidelity, but not necessarily quality. Voxel art—a style of 3D modelling that can resemble pixel art—provides a route for bringing Doom’s critters to 3D without sacrificing id’s distinctive art style.
Multiple projects tobring voxel models to Doomseem to have emerged out of the Doomworld forums in the 2000s and early 2010s, but nothing came of them and users theorize that the OpenGL rendering used by Doom’s various source ports was uniquely unsuited to render voxels, dooming any further efforts.
Despite that history, Cheelo has been steadily posting updates of this new Doom Voxel project toYouTubeandTwitter, and most recently demonstrated the mod working onE1M5. The voxel objects and enemies have an uncanny effect where you could mistake them for 2D sprites from far away, but upon closer inspection have a depth and presence we’ve never seen from these classic designs.
Cheelo has previously given the voxel treatment toassets in Monolith’s Blood, and you can follow progress on Doom Voxel via Cheelo’sTwitterandYouTubechannels. Cheelo also has aKo-Fi pageto support the artist, with a stated goal of acquiring an RTX-ready system to help test and implement Doom Voxel withsultim-t’s Ray Tracing mod for Doom.
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Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister’s copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he’s not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.
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