Doom 3: BFG Edition

Doom 3: BFG Edition is a re-release of Doom 3, released on October 16, 2012 in North America and on October 19, 2012 in Europe. It is currently available for the PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV and NVIDIA SHIELD tablet. The BFG Edition also features The Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and No Rest for the Living as bonus. These run using an integrated version of the original Doom engine called Doom Classic, based on the code used by the Xbox 360 Doom and Doom II ports.

The game package is sold through Steam and GOG.com. People who already own Doom 3 on Steam are given a discount via that service.

The source code was released a little over a month later, on November 26, 2012. It has since been ported to Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD.

Differences with Doom 3
Compared to the "normal" Doom 3, the BFG Edition features:
 * Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil included as a bundle-in expansion.
 * A new campaign, The Lost Mission.
 * A checkpoint save system.
 * Rebalanced difficulty, notably with greater amounts of ammunition available.
 * An "armor-mounted flashlight" which can be used alongside a weapon.
 * The view position changes position based on view pitch (and roll if that input is enabled), with a primitive head/neck model. This was originally intended to make the planned Occulus Rift support feel more natural in use, but was nevertheless kept despite the removal of Rift support.
 * Flashlight-projected character shadows are disabled.
 * More light sources in the levels.
 * Textures are stored with a more visually faithful compression format, YCoCg-DXT5. The textures are not in higher resolution, with the exception of some face textures such as Dr. Betruger, Elliot Swann, and the main protagonist.
 * The armor color of the UAC marines is now green, though this is not changed in videos such as in the final cinematic and when Sergeant Kelly contacts the player via video during the game. In the latter case, not only does the character have the old armor color but also his old face texture from the original Doom 3.
 * Some video setting options cannot be turned off anymore, with the rationale that more recent hardware does not need to sacrifice those settings for performance; this includes anisotropic filtering, shadows, specular maps, and bump maps.
 * PK4 archives are not supported, meaning any mods made for the original game cannot be loaded. The game has been modified to store levels and meshes in a compact binary format which the original version of the game cannot read, packed inside a streamed resource file format adapted from called the ".resources" file, which now contains textures and models in more compact, binary formats.
 * The bespoke RoQ video format has been replaced with the proprietary format.
 * The Martian Buddy lockers code website www.martianbuddy.com does not exist any longer, therefore the player gets the locker code in an e-mail.
 * In Level 05 (Alpha Labs - Sector 1) in the Hydrocon Condenser room there is a staircase which in the original Doom 3 is missing one stair and collapses underneath you when you walk over it. In the BFG Edition, this stair is no longer missing and the stairs do not collapse. This prevents the possibility of getting stuck in the area below by jumping back off the stairs as they collapse.
 * Theresa Chasar, the crying NPC in the Enpro Plant, now has tears in her eyes.

Resurrection of Evil

 * When using the Artifact, the game doesn't switch back to the previous weapon like it used to in the original version. Instead the player has to switch back to the previous weapon manually.
 * At the beginning of Level 03 (Erebus - Level 3) after the transmission the Forgotten Ones do not spawn anymore.
 * The Hazmat suit has been removed from Erebus - Level 5: Erebus Research. The player can remain in the toxic waste tunnels indefinitely without running out of air, and the Bio-Suit Zombies do not drop air tanks.
 * The "Sarge's Big Game Hunt", "Hellanoid", and "Martian Buddy Blaster" arcade games were all removed and replaced with redundant copies of "Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3," for no known reason. Playing the game long enough to get a high score still sends an email dated 12-12-2145, the date of the original game, which makes no sense in terms of Resurrection of Evil's story line.
 * The Hell level is missing the Green Forest part. It has also the biggest changes in monster placement. Some monsters have been removed, some have been added.
 * Maledict doesn't spawn any Forgotten Ones, instead he only throws fireballs at the player.
 * At the end of the last cinematic the screen fades to black instead of white.

The Lost Mission
The Lost Mission, like Resurrection of Evil, features another protagonist: a member of Bravo Team, the unit that the hero of the original campaign was meant to rejoin. The primary objective is to shut down a teleporter to Earth to prevent the demons from using it.

Differences with Doom and Doom 2
In the PC version of BFG Edition classic Doom content is available through three WAD files found in ; these are, , and.

Ultimate Doom and Doom II

 * In the PC version multiplayer is disabled.
 * All cheat codes have been disabled.
 * The keyboard function keys and related functions are disabled.
 * It is not possible to input the original command line parameters. However, custom IWADs can still be used if loaded as a normal Doom 3 style mod.
 * There is no confirmation when selecting Nightmare! skill.
 * On Nightmare!, the fast monsters mechanic has been removed entirely: fireballs shot by imps, cacodemons, barons of Hell and Hell knights are no longer sped up, and neither is the running speed of demons. Monsters retain increased reaction times.
 * The pickup sprites for the stimpack, medikit, and berserk (STIMA0, MEDIA0, PSTRA0) are modified in compliance with the Red Cross' wish that its symbol not be used in games. Instead, the symbol is replaced by a red and white pill.
 * A new DMENUPIC lump is present, though unused. This was the title screen in the original Xbox 360 version.
 * An M_MULTI menu graphics lump has been added, which reads "multiplayer".
 * M_GDHIGH reads "Fullscreen:" instead of "high".
 * M_SCRNSZ reads "Gamepad:" instead of "Screen Size".
 * Four new menu graphics lumps are present: M_ACPT ("accept"), M_CAN ("cancel"), M_EXITO ("Are you sure?"), and M_CHG ("change game"). They have been inserted in between the DEMO2 and DEMO3 lumps in DOOM.WAD, and placed at the very end of the file in DOOM2.WAD.
 * The engine ignores the sound effects' sample rate, and instead uses a fixed rate of 11025 Hz. The "item respawn" sound (DSITMBK) and some super shotgun sounds (DSDBOPN, DSDBCLS, DSDBLOAD), however, are still sampled at 22050 Hz; therefore when they are played back they are slower and lower pitched than intended.
 * The player's view bobbing is reduced by 25%.

Ultimate Doom specific

 * All animation has been removed from the intermission screens; the lumps for the animations are still present in the IWAD though.

Doom II specific
Several of the changes made to Doom II may cause compatibility issues with classic source ports:
 * The TITLEPIC lump, not used, is entirely missing from the IWAD. This creates a severe incompatibility with the original exe, as well as most source ports. Chocolate Doom, Doomsday, the Eternity Engine, and ZDoom and derivatives can handle the missing lump.
 * All Wolfenstein SS have been search-and-replaced by zombiemen. In multiplayer with another player using a non-BFG IWAD, the difference in actors will create desyncs in the secret levels.
 * MAP33: Betray is present, though it is not normally accessible. The secret level exit in MAP02 that took the player there in the Xbox version is present, but does not function properly. Note many source ports fix this, including the Eternity Engine and ZDoom-family ports.
 * The load game menu now includes a sub-menu allowing the user to access the save games for either Doom II or NRFTL from either game.

The rest of the changes are purely cosmetic and should not affect gameplay directly:
 * The Wolfenstein SS sprites (SSWV*) are all replaced by copies of POSSA1 with bad offsets. Oddly, the offsets change for each sprite, even though none of them look usable. The last four sprites of the gib death (the S, T, U, and V frames) are unchanged, however.
 * MAP31: Wolfenstein and MAP32: Grosse become MAP31: IDKFA and MAP32: Keen. The CWILV30 and CWILV31 lumps are changed to reflect this.
 * The ZWOLF* texture with Nazi iconography (Hitler portraits, swastikas, Reichsadlers, etc.) now look like their unadorned counterparts. ZWOLF2, ZWOLF3, and ZWOLF4 look like ZWOLF1; ZWOLF6 and ZWOLF7 look like ZWOLF5; ZWOLF12 and ZWOLF13 look like ZWOLF11. The definitions in TEXTURE1 are identical; it is the patches that have been changed.
 * D_EVIL and D_ULTIMA are now copies of D_DOOM.
 * The INTERPIC lump is used instead of TITLEPIC.
 * The M_EPISOD lump is used and reads "Which expansion?" instead of "Which Episode?"
 * M_EPI1 is used and reads "Hell on earth"; M_EPI2 is used and reads "No rest for the living". (M_EPI3 remains unused and still reads "Inferno".)
 * CWILV32, MAP02, MAP33, MAP31, and MAP32 are moved below the F_END marker and before the four new menu graphics, in that order, rather than being placed in sequence.

No Rest for the Living
The expansion pack lacks the metadata it had in the Xbox 360 port. This means that the sound track and par times are unchanged from Doom II.

Source port support
Because some of the changes in the Doom II IWADs can create serious problems, some source ports have taken active steps to support the BFG Edition version.

Note that some of these ports do not yet support the Doom II IWAD in their latest stable releases.


 * Chocolate Doom can find both IWADs in the Steam directory where they are installed by default. It identifies the BFG edition of DOOM2.WAD by the lack of a TITLEPIC lump, and will use the INTERPIC instead in this case (unless a TITLEPIC is provided in a loaded PWAD). A message about this is printed during initialization. There are no other changes. Note that No Rest for the Living is not supported, as its maps require a limit-removing source port.
 * Doomsday fully supports Doom, Doom II, and No Rest for the Living from the BFG Edition as additional profiles.
 * The Eternity Engine identifies the BFG IWADs by the presence of DMENUPIC, M_ACPT, M_CAN, M_EXITO, and M_CHG. If the path to NERVE.WAD is configured, it is loaded as an episode to Doom II and Doom II BFG edition games. In addition, for people wishing to have both the normal and the BFG edition available, IWAD aliases prefixed with "bfg" ("bfgdoom.wad" and "bfgdoom2.wad") are supported.
 * Odamex identifies the BFG IWADs by their MD5 checksum and the presence of the DMENUPIC lump. It uses INTERPIC instead of TITLEPIC unconditionally when using the BFG Doom II IWAD. When starting Doom II BFG, the menu is automatically opened.
 * ZDoom and GZDoom can find both IWADs in the Steam directory where they are installed by default. They identify the BFG IWADs from the presence of DMENUPIC, M_ACPT, M_CAN, M_EXITO, and M_CHG. When loading Doom II, NERVE.WAD is automatically loaded to be added as an episode; and the two secret levels have their names changed accordingly to their BFG Edition names. In addition, for people wishing to have both the normal and the BFG edition available, IWAD aliases prefixed or postfixed with "bfg" (such as "bfgdoom2.wad" or "doom2bfg.wad") are supported.
 * ZDaemon will use the DMENUPIC lump instead of TITLEPIC. In addition, when playing online, the IWAD is patched in memory to become identical to DOOM2.WAD v1.9, avoiding desyncs in the secret levels and reestablishing functionality to the Wolfenstein SS.

Canceled VR support
According to, Doom 3: BFG Edition was initially supposed to include support for the and be featured as a bundle-in with the device's standard development kit. It was abruptly announced as canceled in the Rift's Kickstarter Update 21 and contributors were offered Steam store credit instead.

It was later revealed that this cancellation was due to failure to reach an equity agreement with ZeniMax Media. This became a significant factor in the subsequent departure of John Carmack and the majority of the id tech team from the company as of November 23, 2013. In a legal brief filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern Texas, ZeniMax maintained that an announcement of official support for the Rift in their products was never condoned by the company itself. This issue amongst others will be settled at trial.