The Dark Mod that began as a total conversion mod for Doom 3 but evolved into a standalone game making use of the open-source id Tech 4 game engine is out with a big update. This is one of the few open-source games making use of the public id Tech 4 code-base and with today's v2.09 update is a large rewrite to its graphics back-end.

This open-source id Tech 4 game has a new OpenGL 3.3 renderer that replaces the existing graphics back-end, which will be removed moving forward. ARB shaders have been gutted from the new back-end, an effort made to minimize driver overhead, and supporting other "newer" OpenGL features like bindless textures, multi-draw indirect, UBO streaming, and more. The graphics support is still dated compared to the latest commercial games, but a step forward for open-spurce games and again The Dark Mod being one of the few active open-source projects atop id Tech 4.

Besides performing better thanks to its new graphics back-end, there are other optimizations, improved visuals, experimental gamepad support, mapping improvements, sound enhancements, some new assets, and more.

More details on The Dark Mod 2.09 via thedarkmod.com . Native Linux builds continue to be available.