After the drama tore apart GZDoom, UZDoom v5 is here to update the FPS classic

After the drama tore apart GZDoom, UZDoom v5 is here to update the FPS classic

Resume

  • UZDoom unveils GZDoom after dev team drama; this is now the preferred active fork.

  • UZDoom 5.0 adds bone-based IQM model support, better controllers with haptics, multiplayer, and ZScript debugging.

  • After a year of rework, v5.0 is now shipping — check out the GitHub repo and grab v5.0 today.

The great thing about open source software is that if you really don’t like where it’s headed, you can always take it apart and make it your own. That’s exactly what happened late last year when the popular Doom modding engine GZDoom’s development team imploded due to some drama. But don’t worry because the team has opened the code and created UZDoom, which looks like the version people should be using going forward.

UZDoom reaches v5 after recovering from some major drama

If you can’t beat them, open them

As noticed GamingOnLinuxUZDoom just released version 5.0. You can check all the fixes listed changelogbut the developers added this helpful summary that explains the most important parts well:

After over a year long development cycle and internal reworks, UZDoom 5.0 is finally here! Dice manipulations for IQM models, vastly improved controller support (including touch feedback!), overhauled multiplayer, ZScript debugging support, and more. we knew this version needed a full update. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we know it took a while, but we promise it will be worth the wait.

If you’re wondering what happened with the drama, the GZDoom dev team had quite a bit management issues In October 2025, they pushed unfinished builds, used LLM to code features, and messed up the repo. The owner said if people weren’t happy they could cut it off and that’s exactly what they did. Thus, UZDoom was born, and it seems to be the version that people mostly work with from now on.

If you want to know more, check this out UZDoom GitHub repo and Download build v5.0 available right now.

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