‘GZDoom is basically dead’ modders proclaim as contributors split from Doom’s most popular sourceport, with tensions boiling over after its creator adds AI-generated code to the project
Numerous contributors to GZDoom, Doom’s most popular sourceport and the basis for countless mods and several entire games, have split from the project and revealed plans to build their own version. This follows long-running tensions with GZDoom’s creator that came to a head earlier this week.
As reported by Techspot, the schism within GZDoom’s community arose through a thread on the project’s GitHub page. It began with GZDoom contributor the-phinet (real name Marcus Minhorst) listing several issues regarding recent updates posted to the project by its creator, Cristoph “Graf Zahl” Oleckers.
Among multiple complaints, Minhorst claimed Oleckers had “pushed untested code” and made “use of an LLM to write your code for you,” which Minhorst pointed out likely violated GitHub’s licensing agreement. These grievances arrived on top of other, longer-standing complaints from GZDoom contributors regarding updates to the sourceport, such as its controversial texture-filter that blurs Doom’s pixels.
The changes highlighted by Minhorst appeared to have come as an unpleasant surprise to GZDoom’s contributors, especially since Oleckers had seemingly taken a back seat on the project over the previous year. Minhorst wrote, “I understand that this is your project, and you can do whatever you like. Please instead of pushing directly, open PRs and wait for a maintainer to [acknowledge] them. This would set a good example, allowing time for maintainers and other developers to review your work.”
Oleckers issued a short response to Minhorst’s post, stating simply that he should “Feel free to fork the project.” For those unfamiliar, ‘forking’ refers to the creation of a separate code repository from the original, allowing users to make changes independent of the base version. GZDoom itself is a fork of another Doom sourceport, ZDoom.
This exchange seemed to be the last straw for much of the GZDoom community. Several more contributors accused Oleckers of poor management and not working in the interests of the sourceport.
GZDoom contributor Kaelan Evans expressed frustration: “What the hell is your problem, Graf? You disappear for a year, come back to send a bunch of work to the curb, use generative AI bullshit to solve an easily searchable problem, and then tell people to kick rocks when they raise a valid concern for it?”
Meanwhile, community member Boondorl pointed out that “so much was getting done on GZDoom that we decided to upgrade to a 5.0, a move you agreed to because so many amazing features had managed to get in. Days after you decided to come back out of nowhere, the project is now completely bricked and everyone is abandoning ship.”
Indeed, it appears the community has taken Oleckers’ advice to heart, creating a new fork of ZDoom called UZDoom. This fork enables contributors to work independently, without Oleckers acting as the de-facto head of the project.
As a sourceport, UZDoom aims to be a straight continuation of the plans made for GZDoom 5.0, which include better netcode and support for ray tracing. UZDoom contributor Ricardo Luís Vaz Silva commented on the new fork’s direction: “Other than rebranding, nothing has changed roadmap-wise. No drastic changes will be done, the next release will continue as-planned with the netcode update.”
The split is already making waves in the Doom modding community. Over on ModDB, the upcoming World War 1-themed Doom 2 mod Trench Foot posted an update explaining that its planned release has been affected due to uncertainties surrounding the shift from GZDoom to UZDoom.
“GZDoom is basically dead,” wrote developer TrenchWork. “For a while now, we’ve been using dev builds of GZDoom 5.0, the next version that was supposed to come out. That is still the plan for UZDoom, but with the complete management change, the release window has just been thrown out the window.”
Despite this setback, the modders remain optimistic regarding the future of UZDoom. “We can expect to see tons of great changes in the long run. We’re not going to talk about it on behalf of the dev team, but we’ll just say that a lot of feature plans that have been shut down before can finally be realized.”
As the GZDoom community reorganizes and UZDoom takes shape, the Doom modding scene looks set for an interesting new chapter—one that could bring fresh innovations and renewed energy to this iconic game’s sourceport ecosystem.
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/gzdoom-is-basically-dead-modders-proclaim-as-contributors-split-from-dooms-most-popular-sourceport-with-tensions-boiling-over-after-its-creator-adds-ai-generated-code-to-the-project/
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