Hytale Haven’t Even Launched, and the Modders are Already Porting Doom
The Bottom Line: Before the first public player has even set foot in Hytale’s Early Access, modder Tr7zw has successfully ported a playable version of Doom into the game. While the 20 FPS block-based port is more of a technical flex than a viable way to play id Software’s classic, it serves as a massive proof-of-concept for Hytale's scripting flexibility—suggesting the game’s modding ceiling might already be higher than Minecraft’s ever was.
It was only a matter of time. The "Can it run Doom?" challenge is a rite of passage for any new hardware or software. We’ve seen it on pregnancy tests, tractors, and even gut bacteria. But seeing it run inside a game that hasn’t officially launched yet? That’s a new benchmark. It took modder Tr7zw a few sleepless nights to get Vanilla Mocha Doom running on a monitor made of actual Hytale blocks, and while the result is "janky" by the creator’s own admission, our analysis suggests this is the most important piece of pre-launch data we’ve seen so far.
The Technical Breakdown: How it Works
This isn't just a video file playing on a surface. This is a real-time engine-in-engine translation. The port runs on its own thread, essentially "screengrabbing" the Doom engine and downsampling it into the Hytale world. We’ve broken down the specs of this build below:
| Metric | Specification | Editor's Note |
|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 80x60 blocks | Essentially 480p for ants. Expect eye strain. |
| Frame Rate | 20 FPS | Playable, but barely. We’ve seen smoother on a TI-83. |
| Input Latency | High ("Broken Keyboard") | Don't expect to pull off any speedruns here. |
| Method | Real-time Downsampling | A clever use of the engine's block-update logic. |
Why This Matters for the Minecraft Crowd
For those of us who have spent a decade wrestling with Minecraft’s Java limitations, Forge versioning nightmares, and block ID conflicts, what Tr7zw achieved is a revelation. In the early days of sandbox modding, getting something like this to work required invasive "core mods" that would break your entire client. Hytale appears to be built from the ground up to handle this kind of data injection.
We believe this signals a shift in the "Modding Wars." While Minecraft remains the king of the hill due to sheer momentum, Hytale’s toolset is clearly designed to empower creators rather than fight them. Hypixel Studios is already leaning into this, showcasing their own internal prototypes, including:
- Skeleton Army Commands: Real-time RTS-style unit control.
- Automated Factories: Claw-based conveyor belts that look significantly more optimized than a typical "BuildCraft" setup.
- Custom Side-Scrollers: Using the engine's tools to completely change the camera and genre of the game.
The "Hypixel" Advantage
Our take? Hytale isn't just another voxel clone; it’s a platform. With CurseForge support locked in for Day One and an integrated in-game mod browser on the roadmap, the friction between "having an idea" and "playing the mod" is being aggressively reduced.
However, we have to stay grounded. As Tr7zw noted, the code for this Doom port "doesn’t follow best practice at all." Early modding is often a house of cards. If Hytale’s API changes significantly between this pre-release period and the actual launch, a lot of this "technical wizardry" might turn into "broken legacy code" overnight. We’ve seen this happen with almost every major Minecraft update (the 1.12 to 1.13 jump still haunts some developers).
The Final Word: If a modder can force Doom into Hytale before the "Install" button even exists, the community is going to absolutely tear this engine apart—in the best way possible—the moment it goes live. This isn't just about a meme; it’s about the sheer power of the tools Hypixel is handing us.