DOOM Eternal’s massive gameplay debut at QuakeCon 2018 was accompanied with a comprehensive information dump, and in the last few days, we’ve learned many new things, such as the game not featuring SnapMap, or having a new in-house developed multiplayer component. In most ways, it looks to be a perfect continuation of the 2016 title, which brought the classic first person shooter franchise into the modern generation screaming and kicking.
One of the few aspects of DOOM 2016 that proved to be somewhat disappointing, though, was its lack of mod support, something that the DOOM franchise has historically been a huge supporter of. With idTech 7, which is the updated engine that DOOM Eternal is being built on, developers id Software have made a number of changes that will allow them to fix those issues. While speaking with PCGamesN, directory Marty Stratton confirmed that though DOOM Eternal won’t have mod support at launch, that is something that id Software are actively building towards, so even if it’s not a certainty, it may end up happening at some point in the future.
“We had made some technical decisions way back that just pushed us in a different direction than mods,” Stratton said. “We have spent the last several years making technical decisions that get us back towards being able to do mods.
“It is a real, long-term initiative of ours to get back to where we can do that. Again, we’ve been making a lot of technical decisions that allow the tech – everything, the rendering, the way we do the gameplay, the way our levels are set up – really trying to make the game and the game code more flexible. Kind of put it in more components, and more data-driven in a lot of ways, which is how you get the mod content.
“So I can’t say that it’s right on the horizon or right around the corner, but it’s important to me. It’s important to Robert Duffy, our CTO. We have definitely swung the pendulum back pretty far towards being able to that. I hope down the road, in the not near future but the not too distant future, we can have a better conversation about that.”
That’s not all the more flexible idTech 7 will allow them to do, however. At the game’s QuakeCon reveal, id Software confirmed that it would be running on 60 FPS- which, for PCs was something we were expecting as it is. What’s interesting, though, is that on the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X as well, the game will be targeting 4K resolutions and 60 frames per second. On the base Xbox One, PS4, and the Nintendo Switch, DOOM Eternal will run the same as the 2016 title. Meanwhile, Stratton also confirmed that the gameplay shown during QuakeCon was running on a “very high end” PC.
“Everything you saw [in the demo], that’s pushing the envelope,” he said. On how the game will be taking advantage of the added capabilities of the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X, he said, “I’m not sure so much that we’re taking advantage, as we will abuse them. Our goal will be to make it look like that at 4K on the Pro and the Xbox One X, never really sacrificing the 60 frames per second.”
DOOM Eternal launches at some point in 2019 (a more concrete release date has not yet been revealed) for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
