Doom 3

Doom 3 takes its time in the dark

The original Doom 3 places you inside a UAC research facility on Mars as a demonic invasion overwhelms it. Its enclosed spaces, darkness and horror setting give combat a different atmosphere from the abstract arenas and quick map-to-map movement of the earliest Doom games. Exploration and the next close-range encounter share the same corridors.

That is the game behind this port, but the hosted D3Wasm launch supplies the demo. It is a way to experience part of Doom 3 and its engine in a browser, rather than an included copy of the entire commercial campaign.

id Software · Doom 3 publisher description · D3Wasm · creator documentation and limitations

An id Tech 4 browser experiment

D3Wasm is Gabriel Cuvillier's experiment bringing the Doom 3 engine to WebAssembly and WebGL, using dhewm3 as its basis. The demo's data download is roughly 400 MB. The menu arrives after the first portion, while most of the remaining data continues loading; you can inspect the controls during that wait.

The full retail game requires a separate setup with your own data. Opening the hosted demo does not supply that commercial campaign.

D3Wasm · creator documentation and limitations

Two browser-specific keys to remember

WASD is the default movement layout. The port uses Home for the menu and skipping sequences where the original game uses Escape, and Insert opens the console. Those substitutions are worth learning before play because the browser handles some keys differently from a native application.

The project stores saves and configuration in IndexedDB and caches downloaded data locally. Private browsing can prevent that persistence, so use a normal browser profile when you want to return to the same saves.

D3Wasm · creator documentation and limitations

Use a desktop and expect an experimental renderer

Use a desktop for this build. The creator reports mobile performance limitations and no usable touch controls. Some visual effects differ from the original renderer, and the documented in-game brightness adjustment does not work. That matters in a game whose dark spaces are central to its presentation.

D3Wasm · creator documentation and limitations