Numerous contributors to GZDoom, the most popular source port of Doom and the foundation for many mods and full games, have separated from the project. They announced plans to establish their own version after long-standing disagreements with GZDoom’s creator escalated recently.

As stated by Techspot, the discord gained traction through a thread on the project’s GitHub page, where contributor the-phinet (real name Marcus Minhorst) detailed various issues related to updates that the creator, Cristoph ‘Graf Zahl’ Oleckers, implemented. Among multiple complaints, Minhorst accused Oleckers of “pushing untested code” and utilizing a large language model (LLM) to assist in coding, which he claimed likely violate GitHub’s licensing agreement.

These grievances piled onto other longstanding concerns from contributors about updates to the source port, particularly its contentious texture filter that blurs Doom’s originals pixels. The changes suggested by Minhorst seemed to catch GZDoom’s contributors by surprise, as Oleckers appeared to have taken a backseat on the project over the last year.

Minhorst remarked, “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.”

In a terse response, Oleckers told Minhorst to “Feel free to fork the project.” ‘Forking’ refers to creating a separate repository from the original, permitting users to modify changes independently of the base version. GZDoom itself is a fork of another Doom source port, ZDoom.

This appears to have been the final straw for many in the GZDoom community, leading several contributors to blame Oleckers for ineffective management and an apparent disconnect with the interests of the source port.

Indeed, it seems the community has acted on Oleckers’ advice, initiating a new fork of ZDoom known as UZDoom, which they can develop without Oleckers’ oversight. UZDoom intends to directly continue the development trajectory for GZDoom 5.0, which promises improved netcode and ray tracing support. “Other than rebranding, nothing has changed roadmap-wise,” UZDoom contributor Ricardo Luís Vaz Silva outlined about their plans.

The split has begun to resonate across the Doom modding community. Upcoming World War 1-themed Doom 2 mod Trench Foot stated that its planned release may be hindered due to the uncertainty surrounding the transition from GZDoom to UZDoom. “GZDoom is basically dead,” commented developer TrenchWork, explaining that they’ve been utilizing development builds of GZDoom 5.0. This situation remains precarious due to the significant management alteration, as their release schedule has been disrupted. Nevertheless, the modders maintain optimism for UZDoom’s future, expressing confidence that many previously stalled feature plans could finally be realized.