GZDoom Community Splits Over AI-Generated Code Controversy

Open source GZDoom community splinters after creator inserts AI-generated code

If you've even idly checked in on the robust world of Doom fan development in recent years, you've probably encountered one of the hundreds of gameplay mods, WAD files, or entire commercial games based on GZDoom. The open source Doom port -- which can trace its lineage back to the original launch of ZDoom back in 1998 -- adds modern graphics rendering, quality-of-life additions, and incredibly deep modding features to the original Doom source code that John Carmack released in 1997. Now, though, the community behind GZDoom is publicly fracturing, with a large contingent of developers uniting behind a new fork called UZDoom. The move is in apparent protest of the leadership of GZDoom creator and maintainer Cristoph Oelckers (aka Graf Zahl), who recently admitted to inserting untested AI-generated code into the GZDoom codebase. "Due to some disagreements -- some recent; some tolerated for close to 2 decades -- with how collaboration should work, we've decided that the best course of action was to fork the project," developer Nash Muhandes wrote on the DoomWorld forums Wednesday. "I don't want to see the GZDoom legacy die, as do most all of us, hence why I think the best thing to do is to continue development through a fork, while introducing a different development model that highly favors transparent collaboration between multiple people." AI-way or the highway Zahl's project leadership has generated plenty of friction within the GZDoom development community over the years -- this Reddit thread provides a brief history of some of the drama. But the inciting incident leading to this week's UZDoom split seems to center in large part on Zahl's open use of AI-generated code in a recent GZDoom update. While such use of AI coding tools is often hard to identify from the outside (as Zahl himself noted in a GitHub post), this particular instance was highlighted by Zahl's own commented code snippet: "This is what ChatGPT told me for detecting dark mode on Linux." That comment led to a lengthy discussion among developers about the use of "stolen scraped code that we have no way of verifying is compatible with the GPL," as one described it. And while Zahl eventually removed the offending code, he also allegedly tried to remove the evidence that it ever existed by force-pushing an update to delete the discussion entirely. // This is what ChatGPT told me for detecting dark mode on Linux. Graf Zahl code comment Zahl defended the use of AI-generated snippets for "boilerplate code" that isn't key to underlying game features. "I surely have my reservations about using AI for project specific code," he wrote, "but this here is just superficial checks of system configuration settings that can be found on various websites -- just with 10x the effort required." But others in the community were adamant that there's no place for AI tools in the workflow of an open source project like this. "If using code slop generated from ChatGPT or any other GenAI/AI chatbots is the future of this project, I'm sorry to say but I'm out," GitHub user Cacodemon345 wrote, summarizing the feelings of many other developers. A fork in the road In a GitHub bug report posted Tuesday, user the-phinet laid out the disagreements over AI-generated code alongside other alleged issues with Zahl's top-down approach to pushing out GZDoom updates. In response, Zahl invited the development community to "feel free to fork the project" if they were so displeased. Plenty of GZDoom developers quickly took that somewhat petulant response seriously. "You have just completely bricked GZDoom with this bullshit," developer Boondorl wrote. "Enjoy your dead project, I'm sure you'll be happy to plink away at it all by yourself where people can finally stop yelling at you to do things." In a community update posted to the ZDoom Discord, moderator Agent_Ash promised that the new UZDoom will maintain compatibility with old GZDoom saves and mods while adding new planned features in the future. But the new project will also provide "a more stable development structure with healthy collaboration and less power given to individual 'project leads,'" Agent_Ash wrote. In a Reddit thread discussing the UZDoom fork, Muhandes detailed how "UZDoom gets rid of the 'one man decides everything' / 'my way or the highway' development model. Everyone has to make pull requests that must be peer-reviewed thoroughly, and everything will be transparent -- no one is allowed to commit directly to the master branch." "I have never seen something I've worked so hard on, for the past 2+ decades -- a life passion of mine, you could say -- implode this hard," Muhandes added on Bluesky. While GZDoom will continue to exist, Agent_Ash wrote that "it's reasonable to assume that UZDoom will be the 'main' flagship version of the engine moving forward." And while Zahl will be welcome to continue contributing to the new project, "UZDoom will not be led by him and he's not going to have a final say on new features and changes," Agent_Ash added. The infighting over a modern source port of a 32-year-old game speaks highly of the deep cultural impact Doom continues to have on multiple generations of fans. Going forward, it's hard to say how this dramatic split will affect the continued development of what has become a load-bearing part of the game's continued legacy. For now, though, the move highlights how the use of AI coding tools has become a non-negotiable flashpoint for many in the world of open-source game development.

'GZDoom is basically dead' modders proclaim as contributors split from Doom's most popular sourceport, with tensions boiling over after its creator adds AI-generated code to the project

"The project is now completely bricked and everyone is abandoning ship." Numerous contributors to GZDoom, Doom's most popular sourceport and the basis for countless mods and several entire games, have split from the project and revealed plans to build their own version, after long-running tensions with GZDoom's creator came to a head earlier this week. As reported by Techspot, the schism within GZDoom's community arose through a thread on the project's Github page, beginning with GZDoom contributor the-phinet (real name Marcus Minhorst) listing several issues regarding recent updates posted to the project by its creator, Cristoph "Graf Zahl" Oleckers. Among multiple complaints, Minhorst claimed Oleckers had "pushed untested code" and made "use of an LLM to write your code for you" which Minhorst pointed out likely violated GitHub's licensing agreement. These grievances arrived on top of other, longer standing complaints from GZDoom contributors regarding other updates to the sourceport, such as its controversial texture-filter that blurs Doom's pixels. The changes highlighted by Minhorst appear to have come as an unpleasant surprise to GZDoom's contributors, with Oleckers having seemingly taken a back seat on the project over the previous year. "I understand that this is your project, and you can do whatever you like," Minhorst wrote. "Please instead of pushing directly, open PRs and wait for a maintainer to [acknowledge] them. This would set a good example, allowing time for maintainers and other developers to review your work." Oleckers' issued a short response to Minhorst's post, stating simply that he should "Feel free to fork the project". 'Forking' refers to the creation of a separate code repository from the original, allowing users to make changes independent of the base version. GZDoom is itself a fork of another Doom sourceport, ZDoom. This, it seems, was the last straw for much of the GZDoom community, prompting several more contributors to accuse Oleckers of poor management and not working in the interests of the sourceport. "What the hell is your problem, Graf? You disappear for a year, come back to send a bunch of work to the curb, use generative AI bullshit to solve an easily searchable problem, and then tell people to kick rocks when they raise a valid concern for it?" wrote GZDoom contributor Kaelan Evans. Fellow community member Boondorl, meanwhile, pointed out that "so much was getting done on GZDoom that we decided to upgrade to a 5.0, a move you agreed to because so many amazing features had managed to get in. Days after you decided to come back out of no where, the project is now completely bricked and everyone is abandoning ship." Indeed, it seems the community has taken Oleckers' advice to heart, creating a new fork of ZDoom called UZDoom that they can work on without Oleckers acting as de-facto head of the project. As a sourceport, UZDoom aims to be a straight continuation of the plans made for GZDoom 5.0, which included better netcode and support for ray tracing. "Other than rebranding, nothing has changed roadmap-wise," wrote UZDoom contributor Ricardo Luís Vaz Silva in response to questions regarding UZDoom's plans. "No drastic changes will be done, the next release will continue as-planned with the netcode update." The split is already making waves in the Doom modding community. Over on ModDB, upcoming World War 1-themed Doom 2 mod Trench Foot posted an update explaining that its planned release has been affected due to uncertainties surrounding the shift from GZDoom to UZDoom. "GZDoom is basically dead," wrote developer TrenchWork. "For a while now, we've been using dev builds of GZDoom 5.0, the next version that was supposed to come out. That is still the plan for UZDoom, but with the complete management change, the release window has... just been thrown out the window." Despite this, the modders are optimistic regarding the future of UZDoom. "We can expect to see tons of great changes in the long run. We're not going to talk about it on behalf of the dev team, but we'll just say that a lot of feature plans that have been shut down before can finally be realized."

OG Doom Source Port Forks After AI Controversy

Some people just want to touch the stove even when they should know better If you’ve dabbled at all in playing the original Doom or Doom 2 on PC, you’ve likely used GZDoom before: It’s one of many “source ports†of the original Doom engine out there. Some ports are more suited for multiplayer, others offer more modern features like jumping and freelook (heathens!), and GZDoom is arguably the most popular after 20 years of history in the Doom modding scene. Read More: OpenAI Is Pivoting To Porn A fork from the previously popular ZDoom, it was published by Christoph Oelckers, known as Graf Zahl, in 2005. Graf has a reputation in the scene as somewhat of a feather ruffler, sometimes described as “elitist†and prone to rash actionsâ€"the latest of which was sticking some ChatGPT-written code into GZDoom and, well, it’s going down about as well as you might expect. Graf Zahl justified his use of AI-written code in an amusing exchange on GitHub (h/t Rock Paper Shotgun), saying in response to someone taking issue with it: everybody is using AI for boilerplate code these days those who act as unreasonable as you did here will lose out in the end and be ridiculed. This silliness follows a public declaration on GZDoom’s Discord that some folks working on the project were leaving their work on GZDoom behind to start work on a new fork, UZDoom, which aims to carry over all of GZDoom’s beloved features. Unsurprisingly, “conflict [with] GZDoom’s lead developer/maintainer Graf Zahl†sparked the schism. A now-locked post over on r/boomershooters gives further insight into how Zahl’s actions have gone over with the community. “Ohh God please no. Spare gzdoom from the drama†reads one post, speaking to the frustration over the inclusion of the code and the inevitable back and forth Internet Debatesâ"¢ likely to spawn from any discussion of AI and LLMs. As one comment thread documents, the LLM-added code was rejected and “it’s safe to say that the only versions of the port that have this wonky code are the latest dev builds,†meaning current public releases are likely still AI-free. Who knows how long that’ll last, though? Might be time to consider a new source port for your favorite WADs.