Azure CTO pastes Doom into Paint one frame at a time

Microsoft Azure's Chief Technology Officer, Mark Russinovich, has engaged in a lighthearted experiment by repurposing Microsoft Paint as a display for the classic video game, Doom. Titled "MS Paint Doom" or "DoomPaint," this project is a result of a leisurely endeavor. According to Russinovich, Microsoft Paint merely acts as a platform to paste game frames from the background running game.

The software does not compute anything; it merely renders the game. Russinovich emphasized that Paint remains computationally inert throughout the process. The outcome is as amusing as it is futile. Despite the suboptimal framerate, the project's success was the primary objective. Notably, the game also produced sound effects. ViZDoom, a headless Doom implementation, provides each frame via the Windows clipboard, which Paint then pastes onto its canvas.

Low-level keyboard hooks handle and suppress game inputs when Paint is in the foreground. The code for this project was written with the help of AI assistant Claude. In a LinkedIn post, Russinovich revealed that he often uses Fable 5 for serious research, but finds it a marked improvement over Opus 4.8. This experiment is not a serious research project, as acknowledged by Russinovich, but rather a frivolous one.

This is not Paint's first appearance in "Can it run Doom?" challenges. Earlier projects mirrored the game's display into Paint, while this version sends every frame through the Windows clipboard as a Device Independent Bitmap (DIB) and displays it on the canvas. The "Can it run Doom?" challenge and Claude's assistance with a KiCad PCB design project to render Doom in vectors have converged in this whimsical endeavor. While Azure may have more pressing matters, this project stands out as delightfully silly.