I’m excited to announce that development for DML 3.X has officially started!

The name DML 3.X is a work-in-progress title I’ve used for years, due to this project originally intended to be “just” the next-gen version of DML 2.X.

Now that development has officially begun, the project has grown beyond that scope, becoming something more advanced and ambitious. Because of this, the name will change to better reflect its new direction.

More details will come as the project evolves! Until everything is more finalized (and I settle on a better name), I’ll stick with the codename DML 3.X.

Got ideas? Share them!

Before I get into my current ideas, let’s jump straight to the reason I made this post in the first place:

If you have any ideas that you think would make a game launcher truly great, I’d love to hear them. Don’t hesitate to share. It doesn’t have to be a “doom launcher” idea!

Feel free to reach out in whatever way is most convenient for you.

Cross-Platform

One of the key goals for this project is true multiplatform support.
The app will work seamlessly on:

  • Linux (including support for Raspberry Pi and Steam Deck)
  • Windows (from 7 onwards)
  • MacOS (if I can get my hands on a Mac)

You won’t need to install anything, so no .NET Framework, no Mono, just the app itself.

It will be completely self-contained.
Just download, double click on the .exe and you’re good to go.

That means the app will be larger than the current 300 KB… but the trade-off is a much smoother user experience, especially on non-Windows platforms.

What about mobile?

Technically, Android support is possible. I can build for it with relatively little effort, and I wouldn’t even need a Google developer account (which I had but got deleted due to inactivity… thanks, Google!), as you can still sideload APKs (for now at least… I wouldn’t be surprised if Google eventually restricts this in name of “security”… ).

iOS, however, is a different story. It would require both a Mac and an iPhone for development and testing. Also outside the EU you wouldn’t be able to sideload apps… so that means I would need an iOS developer account, in order to publish on the app store… so yeah… no iOS…

There’s also the question of whether it even makes sense to invest time and effort into mobile support.

From what I could gather with a quick search, there are just a handful of source ports on the Play Store (searching “doom source port” only finds 3 actual Doom source ports, while the rest are random apps…).

All of them seem to be closed source, and I assume they don’t support external commands. That said, I’ll keep investigating. If you have any knowledge or insights about mobile source port compatibility, I’d love to hear from you.

UPDATE google did it! By 2027 they plan to practically kill sideloading… So yeah… any plan for an Android port is also scrapped…

Built with modularity in mind

One of the major architectural changes in DML 3.X is its modular design.

Older versions of DML were built using a monolithic architecture, everything was tightly packed together, and all logic was interconnected. This made updates and feature expansions difficult.

In the new version, the business logic for loading and managing mods will be separated from the core application. Think of it like a web browser and its plugins. This separation will make DML 3.X far more flexible, maintainable, and extendible.

Open Source from Day One

The project will be open source. My plan is to make the source code public starting with the first official release. I’m still deciding on which license to adopt.
I might go with GPL for the core application and first-party plugins, and LGPL for the plugin interface.

This way, if you want to create a plugin, as long as you don’t change the plugin interface (which you shouldn’t, as otherwise your plugin won’t work for obvious reasons), you’ll be free to choose any license for your plugin, even a closed-source one.

So… when the first release?

There’s a lot of work ahead. Right now, I’m still in the early prototyping phase for the entire plugin system. And, of course, I’m balancing this with a full-time job, so progress may take time… a lot of time.
So no release window yet.

Share Your Ideas

If you have any suggestions for what would make a great mod loader or game launcher (again, not just for Doom!), I’d love your input.

To contribute your ideas, please send an email to:

info@p36software.net
Subject: DML 3.X suggestion - [short summary here]

And include as much detail as possible in the body.

You can also write me on Twitter (X) at @P36Software