DUDE

What is DUDE?

DUDE (the Doom3 Unified Development Engine) is a new engine for the DOOM 3 games and Quake 4. It replaces the program that runs the game, not the game itself: your maps, monsters, story and saves stay exactly as id Software and Raven made them.

What changes is how the game is drawn. Pick a quality preset in the menu: Potato is the untouched 2004 look, and every step up adds modern lighting, shadows and effects. On a graphics card with ray tracing you can go further, up to a path-traced mode where every light in the level is traced in real time.

DUDE does not include any game files. You need your own copy of the game from Steam, GOG or the original discs. The install guide covers each case step by step.

Games it runs

DOOM 3

The 2004 original. Steam, GOG or CD/DVD (patched to 1.3.1).

Resurrection of Evil

The official expansion, with its own game code.

The Lost Mission

The community port of the BFG Edition's extra chapter.

Quake 4

The full retail single-player campaign, new in 0.9.8.

Highlights

The classic look, kept

Every improvement is optional. The lowest preset is the original renderer, untouched, and the gameplay is never changed.

One menu, six presets

Potato, Low, Medium, High, Ultra and Nightmare. Choose one in the System options and DUDE sets everything else for you.

Ray tracing and path tracing

On RTX, Radeon RX 6000+ and Arc cards: traced shadows, reflections and bounce light, or fully path-traced lighting.

Smooth on modern PCs

High refresh rates while the game logic stays at its native speed, variable refresh (G-Sync/FreeSync) and fast level loads.

Saves and mods keep working

Loads savegames from retail DOOM 3, dhewm3 and every DUDE release. Runs mods built for dhewm3 1.5.5.

Controllers

Xbox-style pads work, with one-click default bindings for DOOM 3 and its expansions (settings menu, F10).

See every feature

Screenshots

DOOM 3, Mars City common area, a window onto the red Martian landscapeCommon Area DOOM 3, an organic hellish passage lit orange from a floor grateMain Shaft DOOM 3, a corridor glowing red through the grated floor, with a new objective on screenWalkway to Enpro DOOM 3, the dim pump station with a lit doorwayPump Station DOOM 3, a tiled restroom under a flickering ceiling lightRestroom DOOM 3, Dr. Betruger in close-up in his officeBetruger

More images and videos on the ModDB page.

Download

DUDE 0.9.8 (2026-11-05) Windows (64-bit)Linux / SteamOS (x86_64)Release notes
Quake 4 add-on (only for Quake 4) Windows (64-bit)Linux / SteamOS (x86_64)
Optional extras Baked shading packsAll releasesSource code

Not sure which file you need? The downloads page explains each one.

Community

GitHubReport a bugModDBBuy me a coffee ☕

Donations go toward the hardware needed to build and test real HDR output and the ray-tracing pipeline.