Q2DM1 is the name of the first of a series of “deathmatch” environments for the 1996 game Quake2 by id Software. At the time Quake2 was released real-time rendering technology on home computers wasn’t advanced enough to display much environmental detail. As a result, many games chose to simplify the architectural detail of the game environments to maintain a high frame-rate for more responsive player interaction. This was especially true of games where the game-play included direct competition between players. One of the most popular competitive computer game genres was (and continues to be) deathmatch, in which two or more players complete head-to-head or in teams.

These architecturally simple environments, constructed as competitive play-fields, also offer a relatively blank slate. They may be “re-skinned” by modifying the texture maps to give then a different visual appearance. Using the deathmatch environments included with  Quake2 is particularly interesting to me, since they are designed as alien urban-industrial environments.

My goal is to transform the Q2DM1 environment, created to be both functional and fictional,  into a proposal for an actual, physical space. The result will be a series of digital prints presented as architectural studies. The intent is not to use the guise of architecture to somehow legitimize the space. I’m hopeful that the process will allow me to better understand a non-physical space in which I spent hundreds of hours.