DOOM Won’t Come With Additional Modding Tools Beyond SnapMap, SnapMap Limitations Unveiled


The Doom series is widely known for its openness to the modding community. After all, a mod that – perhaps – influenced id Software while creating the latest installment in the Doom series was no other than Brutal Doom. Therefore, modders were looking forward to the modding tools that would be available in the new Doom. Well, if you were one of them, get ready to be hugely disappointed as id Software won’t provide any additional modding tools other than SnapMap.

This was confirmed by Bethesda’s Pete Hines in a Quakecon 2015 interview with Gametrailers. As Pete Hines said, everything that Bethesda is doing on the mod side is going to be through SnapMap.

This basically means that – as its name suggests – SnapMap will be, more or less, a map editor with script support. However, it won’t be anything like proper modding tools.

Not only that, but SnapMap’s capabilities are limited. Players won’t be able to create outdoor spaces with SnapMap and they won’t be able to create large open spaces like in the opening of the Doom demo. In short, SnapMap only does smaller interior spaces (similar to those MP maps that were showcased).

Another big question is whether players will be able to use custom Texture Packs via SnapMap. According to what we’ve gathered so far, that won’t be possible. Players will rely on the game’s textures in order to create their own maps. Both id Software and Bethesda claimed that SnapMap’s ability to transfer maps on all platforms relies on simple data, and that players won’t have to download huge amount of data. Therefore, support for high-resolution custom texture packs seems unlikely at this point.

DOOM Multiplayer, SnapMap & More! - Bonus Round QuakeCon 2015