A construction company is designing buildings using the Doom engine

Doom’s source code has been available under a free license for 15 years, and just when you think you’ve seen all possible uses of the engine known as id Tech 1, a construction company comes along to change your mind. Popular Science reports that DIRTT Environmental Solutions (for “Doing It Right This Time”), a Calgary, Canada-based construction firm, designs blueprints for prefabricated buildings using software they developed called ICE — software that is based on the Doomengine. The original 1993 game rendered a 3D space from a 2D floor plan, and that’s what ICE does as well. ICE works with industry-standard design software like AutoCAD, and allows engineers to create a virtual mock-up of a room, including underlying building features such as pipes and electrical lines. Then, everything is built at once, not piecemeal, which DIRTT says is a much more efficient method.