arena · Doom · System 0 vs an LLM, at game speed · recorded and replayed

Can System 0 run Doom?
It decides every tic.

Doom runs at 35 tics a second. An LLM played it with the game paused, and shad0w learned its choices into a – table. Then six decision makers played the same games in real time: shad0w, two hosted LLMs, and three open System One decision models (Julia-1, Laya, Kev-4B) served by llama.cpp on the same laptop. While a lane's answer is on its way, its marine stands still. Every frame below is real ViZDoom (Freedoom assets), replayed move for move from the recordings.

the whole picture · all in real time

Same games. The clock decides.

time per decision

The tic budget.

Median time to decide one move, on a log scale, against one Doom tic (28.6 ms). Anything to the right of the line misses the tic: the game moves on without it.

how the table was made

The LLM played paused. shad0w watched.

    play one yourself

    A 1v1 against a shad0w, in your browser.

    The duel is a first-person rifle fight on a small desert map. Its brain learned tactics from an LLM the same way, and decides 60 times a second in your tab.

    Play the duel → Snake arena → Pong →