doom-matrix

doom_led.mov

Note: Flickering isn't seen with human eyes. 👀

Runs Doom on LED matrices connected to a Raspberry Pi.

Made possible thanks to these libraries:

• doomgeneric
• rpi-rgb-led-matrix
• SDL2 / SDL_mixer 2

For best performance it's recommended to run an OS like DietPi.

Hardware

• 64x64 LED Matrix
• Adafruit RGB Matrix Bonnet
• 5V 10A Power Supply

Setup tooling and libraries

1. Install C and C++ compilers + make for your OS
2. Fetch the dependency submodules with git submodule update --init --recursive --depth=1

Audio

Audio should be decently turn-key, but can take a little more work. It's not recommended to use the on-board audio on the Pi while driving the matrix for performance reasons, so it's best to disable it on boot. I used an inexpensive USB adapter and made it the default for ALSA.

Because I built the libraries locally I needed to install:

• Sounds
  • libasound2-dev
• Music
  • fluid-soundfont-gm
  • freepats
  • timidity
  • fluidsynth

And built SDL and SDL Mixer in the libs/SDL and libs/SDL_mixer paths respectively. See build and installation instructions for more info.

In libs/SDL and libs/SDL_mixer you should only have to run:

./configure
make
make install (as root)

Note:

• It can take a while to compile these on a Pi! You can also consider cross-compiling from a faster machine.
• If your distro has SDL packages you can install them instead.
• Even if running doom-matrix as root, you'll probably need to add your user to the appropriate audio group.

Building the project

make

Cleaning

make clean

Running

The binary accepts arguments for both rpi-rgb-led-matrix and doomgeneric, e.g.:

./doom_matrix --led-gpio-mapping=adafruit-hat -iwad doom1.wad --led-rows=64 --led-cols=64

See those libraries for information on what arguments are available.