Models too blocky?

I posted the new screenshots at a forum and most people said they looked too colorfull, and the models were too blocky. Personally I like how iD is finally adding color to their games, Quake 1 and Quake 2 were too brown and gray. Quake 3 finally was colorfull and detailed, and now Doom 3 seems to be following that route (For certain areas ofcourse. Other areas will be dark and moody). But I do agree that some models should have the number of polygons increased to round off harsh edges. Namely the revenant's head, and the lost soul.

Also I heard they have highpoly versions of every model because they texture the highpoly model first, then downgrade the polygons so it can get acceptable framerates ingame, and apply the texture used on the highpoly model on the lowpoly model for maximum detail. But wouldn't it be cool if they allowed people to download the highpoly models at a later time once technology improves?

This image demonstrates that technique btw,
http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/5/0,3363,sz=1&i=53617,00.jpg

A highpoly Cyberdemon would be very cool to see :D

The blockiness isn't really visible at all when the models are in motion.

Hmm, more like still visible, but just not noticeable unless you really try to see it. And then it's only going to be on the contour of the model which will most likely rotate in some way before it actually sticks out of place in your head.

Too colorful? O_o
Just some months ago it was the opposite.

Quake3 has a level of detail rendering option for the player models, maybe there is an option like that for the Doom3 in-game models as well?

But apart from that, a Doom3 scene in motion looks a dozen times more real and detailed then a HL2 scene for example. When you see the light change on the surfaces of the models in Doom3 you actually see the enormously detailed high-poly models and I haven´t yet seen anything as detailed as that in a game engine.

In some screens the models look blocky, yes. I've played the alpha and I've never noticed the blockyness at all. You simply don't look at a model's polygones during gameplay, when the lights are flickering, the shadows are shifting and the model is moving.

Tetzlaff said:

Quake3 has a level of detail rendering option for the player models, maybe there is an option like that for the Doom3 in-game models as well?

But apart from that, a Doom3 scene in motion looks a dozen times more real and detailed then a HL2 scene for example. When you see the light change on the surfaces of the models in Doom3 you actually see the enormously detailed high-poly models and I haven´t yet seen anything as detailed as that in a game engine.

6 polygon los rez should work on my system. ; P

Lengis said:

But wouldn't it be cool if they allowed people to download the highpoly models at a later time once technology improves?

Even if some day we have the ability to draw a few million pixel-shaded triangles per frame in real-time on a desktop pc, it would be utterly pointless. I mean yeah, if you were to make a Final Fantasy-style CG movie it'd be nice, but for a relatively fast animated game like Doom 3 the 'blockiness' you refer to is no problem.

Lord FlatHead said:

Even if some day we have the ability to draw a few million pixel-shaded triangles per frame in real-time on a desktop pc, it would be utterly pointless. I mean yeah, if you were to make a Final Fantasy-style CG movie it'd be nice, but for a relatively fast animated game like Doom 3 the 'blockiness' you refer to is no problem.

...and if I may take this one further, at the time that we have that capacity, the games out at that point would probably be so far beyond that quality that either:
a. It would be virtually pointless because itwould be too far in the future to justify releasing it now.
b. There would be the capacity of modding it at that time...

just my $.02. And I agree with Senor Flathead as far as the fast animation in a game like Doom 3 pretty much renders the 'blockiness' factor mostly irrelevent. In motion, as everyone else has stated, it does not matter too much.

Scabbed Angel said:

...and if I may take this one further, at the time that we have that capacity, the games out at that point would probably be so far beyond that quality that either:
a. It would be virtually pointless because itwould be too far in the future to justify releasing it now.
b. There would be the capacity of modding it at that time...

Maybe it will be a feature of a doom 3 source port.
It would take a lot of CPU power to just render a single frame of the high-res model. To have one or more of those models being rendered in a scene with multiple light sources in real-time isn't something computers will be able to do for a little while.


Playing doom I don't really take notice that sprites are used... too caught up in gameplay..

I wouldn't say any of the models are too blocky. And like everyone else has said, any roughness will not be noticed with all the animation and lighting.

Everybody's a critic.

Come on... i think the technique used on the models is one of the most impressive ive seen yet, who cares if they are blocky, the bump mapping alone makes the models look good.

I would rather have a low polygon count if it meant this game will run better on my machine, than increase the count up on all the models and slow the frame rate.

And yes i agree, Quakes colours were just brown and grey :)
Bring on the colour i say, even though the game is soooo dark, we wont notice. ;D

I like the theory that you can change the detail settings to increase the roundness of the model.

Type /seta r_lodbias 2 in the console in Quake III to get a taste of what we mean when we say you can change the details.

they don't look too bad

The reasoning behind that is, the original models where movie CGI quality, millions of triangles.

Attempting to render that in real time would result in your AGP bus taking a short walk off a tall cliff.

The D3 models range in the 1000-2500 poly range so it can acually RUN the game, the bumpmapping is there to make up for that detail loss.

doesnt matter to me, as long as its funb and runs ok on my pc. yall care too much. life goes on.

Dark Fox is right. High poly counts are not the selling point of the game. The atmospheric effects, scripting language, built-in editing tools, per-pixel lighting and nostalgia factor ARE.

ATI's Truform will sort out the blockyness of the monsters .

problem sorted

dont id's engines suposed to run better on Nvidia?
i remember the radeon 9700 demonstration didnt look so hot, the shadows were just black things as opposed to the correctly shaded shadows in the screenshots.