Turning AA off helped my frame rates quite a bit.

Surprised nobody's complained about the heavy handed scare tactic of not being able to use the flashlight and a weapon at the same time. You'd think marines protecting a poorly lit environment would have some weapons equipped with lights (or at least watched Jack Bauer use a pistol and flashlight in a few episodes of 24).

I don't know the story of Doom 3 so maybe this doesn't fit into the story but it would be cool if you could meet a NPC Raver whose still high on Excstasy and she lights the way with glow sticks twirling around as she can't stop dancing. It would be a great demo of a moving glowing light source.

According to the lead programmer, Robert Duffy, Doom 3 autoselects the detail setting based on your videocard memory. 64 MB gets low quality, while 128 MB gets medium quality and 256 MB gets high quality. Apparently, ultra quality is intended for cards with 512 MB or more.

What cards out there have 512MB? Is it referring to using Nvidia's SLI technology or Alienware's dual video card thing?

The Wildcat VP990 which goes for ~$600 has 512MB DDR, but it's designed as a hardcore high-end CAD product.

Are there any homages to the original DOOM? Like, say, old-school DOOM music, or recreations of E1M1?

I thought of this too. I'm rather underwhelmed by this game. The graphics are awesome, the sound is great, and the gameplay is from 1998. No secondary fire, few weapons, underpowered weapons (the shotgun feels like I'm firing a pump action BB), cheap scares, and the game is so damn dark. Why make such pretty graphics and then have you run around in the dark all the time?

As I've heard elsewhere - the Doom 3 engine is great; I can't wait for someone to make a game with it.

All the original monsters from Doom are back and they look cooler than ever.

Will my setup handle this game well?

Pentium4 2.53 GHz
512 MB RDRAM
64 MB GeForce TI 4200
48x CD ROM

I know very little on where my graphics card fits into the hierarchy of good vid cards, etc.. though I imagine the 64 MB is a bit on the low end.

I spent five hours with D3 last night. Initial assessment, after five hours of play: mixed.

Spoiler-free comments:

• Graphics: Duly impressive - the quality of their models and lighting is much better than anything you've seen before. Although id blew Quake 3 by making it oddly cartoonish, they redeemed themselves by making Doom 3 surprisingly realistic and solid. However, as mentioned, the game is really dark - I've seen most of the game through a flashlight beam. This is frustrating for two reasons:
  
  • You can't hold a flashlight while aiming, so you often find yourself shooting blindly to hit a fast-moving monster.
    
  • The nice level design is partially wasted by your inability to see it. And since you don't see enough of the room to build a decent mental map, you find yourself getting lost more than usual.
• Weapons: Very well-done, even without an alt-fire mechanism. Many recent FPSes are frustrating because the enemies just don't respond to damage. You blast them with 39 bullets, and they don't look different or even flinch; the 40th bullet drops them. Half-Life suffered from this; Halo suffered so much that I actually stopped playing halfway through. Doom 3 is much better in this regard, and it ramps up the fun factor a lot.
  
• Creep factor: id borrowed liberally from Half-Life for the story and feel, but it's considerably less revolting. You don't have headcrabs burrowing into your skull, or barnacles swallowing you head-first; at worst, something leaps out at you. In fact, this is great - it makes Doom 3 much more playable. Half-Life's horror was excessive, and it made me overly cautious: I spent most of the game tiptoeing around, trying to find and snipe every headcrab from a mile away. You don't have to do that with Doom 3, and you can focus instead on playing the game.
  
• Difficulty: At the same skill level, Doom is an easier game than Half-Life - again, a great decision. With Half-Life, I found myself playing most scenes 2-3 times (often many more) simply because I had to ration bullets and health like crazy. Eventually, I just assumed that I'd have to replay every new room several times - which wrecked the experience for me. Doom 3 is much better: as long as you're not wasteful, you'll have plenty of ammo and health. I find myself reloading only occasionally, and the game keeps moving.
  
• Length: I played for five hours last night, and based on the single-player map list, I think I'm about 20% through. Honestly, I think this is too long - I'm already finding the environments and enemies somewhat repetitive.
  
• Performance: My 3.2GHz P4 with 128mb GeForce FX5700go gets a steady 30fps at 640x480 with medium-res textures. I've had some framerate drops when viewing lots of sfx - fire, in particular, seems GPU-intensive.

Overall, I'm quite pleased. I'm looking forward to multiplayer, and my final assessment will depend heavily on it (as a measure of long-term viability.)

- David Stein

One more statement, which I am prepared to be bashed for: I'd be more impressed with Doom 3 if I hadn't played Riddick: EFBB. The graphics in that game were pretty damn good, and *GASP* featured guns with lights and the handy eye shine ability for seeing in the dark.

ram is a bit on the low side, but it would still run. Your biggest problem is the video card. I'd recommend picking up a 9700-9800, they can probably be found for ~200

birrman54

when you say "still run", can I expect 20 fps at the medium res settings?

i don't have experience with that particular video card.

I would expect that you'd be able to run it at 640x480 with reasonable frame rates, possibly at slightly higher resolutions.

I know that it's running smooth as silk on my 2.8P4 6800GT.

birrman54

btw

http://www.forumplanet.com/planetdoo...33&tid=1438663

I don't know if any of you have seen this. I believe it's basically a tweak that allows Doom to cache more data into system memory.

I tried it (raising 20 to 128) and it allowed me to up quality from 1280x1024 High to 1280x1024 Ultra w/ 4xAA. I get between 45 and 60 fps.

birrman54

I took it very slow last night and made it back to the command center after all hell broke loose. This game should come with an extra pair on undies.

Moaning zombies I can handle. Zombie soldiers with machine guns I can handle. Flaming Imps tossing fireballs I can handle. Whatever crawled up on me in the dark and started smacking me silly while I scrambed for my shotgun scares the crap out of me every time.

It runs pretty darn well on my 9800 Pro / 3000+ XP / 1 gig 3200 system. I'm running on medium settings at 1600 by 1200 and it looks extremely real. The facial animations are just jaw dropping.

Some people complain, but I like the flashlight setup. It really adds to the strategy and atmosphere of the game. You have to be ready to switch as soon as you enter a new room.

The storyline has been very involving so far. The PDA setup was well thought up and it adds to the mood. The sound is also a huge plus. Anyone with a surround setup will be impressed.

I complained about that on the first page of this thread

Quote:

What cards out there have 512MB? Is it referring to using Nvidia's SLI technology or Alienware's dual video card thing?

No consumer card ihas 512 right now. The engine was simply designed to be flexible for the future.

Quote:

I thought of this too. I'm rather underwhelmed by this game. The graphics are awesome, the sound is great, and the gameplay is from 1998. No secondary fire, few weapons, underpowered weapons (the shotgun feels like I'm firing a pump action BB), cheap scares, and the game is so damn dark. Why make such pretty graphics and then have you run around in the dark all the time?

The gameplay is certainly a complaint that i've seen a few times. But personally, i like the simplistic gameplay... i don't want a 10 different buttons on my keyboard trying to make my character do flips. I think the gameplay fits the rest of the game nicely. I don't see a need for secondary fire... i think the weapon selection is about on par with most games. You're nuts if you think the Shotgun is underpowered. The pretty graphics and the darkness are just a choice that iD made to make the game scary. I like it, but i know a lot of people seem to be annoyed with it.

Don't get me wrong - I like simplistic gameplay. Serious Sam was one of my favorites, and that was the king of simplicity. Switching back and forth between being able to actually see anything and being able to shoot anything is not what I consider entertaining.

The shotgun may have plenty of power, but it sounds like a bb gun. More than once I've fired the gun and thought I was on the pistol.

EeerrrRRRR...A BB gun? Sounds to me you need to upgrade you speakers. They sure as hell doesn't sound like a BB gun to me.

Hmm - I think you're exaggerating, but I agree that the shotgun sounds surprisingly weak. The single shotgun and the double-barrel shotgun from Doom 2 each packed a bigger wallop.

- David Stein

anyone have experience with the multi-player DeathMatch aspect of the game yet? Is there a limit to the # of players allowed per match?

You think it sounds like a shotgun? I'm exaggerating, of course, but it certainly doesn't sound like a powerful weapon.

The limit is tecnically 4, but people have put up servers that allows for more people. 2 problems with that: 1) Like iD said, there's a ton of lag due to the network traffic of the game. 2) There's not enough spawn points

My friend told me he went on a 12 player server and at spawn he got telefragged, and then the person that telefragged him got telefragged. Funny stuff.

Nothing will beat Xbox live!