Out Of iDoom Puns

id has announced Doom Resurrection, a Doom 3-themed FPS heading to the iPhone next week. It looks like it's squeezing a heck of a lot out of the little device. There's also an article at Macworld.

Looks like Doom 3 on a Voodoo, but I guess the Apple loonies will buy anything.

Fuck the iPhone. And fuck Apple while we're on the subject.

heh +1 about the graphics. If I were them I would have faked the bumpmapped lighting somehow.

Yeah, I'm not sure why they didn't bake the bumpmaps onto the actual textures if they can't use them. It wouldn't have been accurate, but it would have probably looked a hell of a lot better than just removing them and not compensating for it with pre-shaded textures.

esselfortium said:

Yeah, I'm not sure why they didn't bake the bumpmaps onto the actual textures if they can't use them. It wouldn't have been accurate, but it would have probably looked a hell of a lot better than just removing them and not compensating for it with pre-shaded textures.

but they're $10 million dollar assets!!

The trailer on the Escalation Studios site seems sort of... weak.

EDIT:
Is it just me, or does it look like it's a rail shooter?

DJ_Haruko said:

Is it just me, or does it look like it's a rail shooter?

That's exactly what I thought when I saw the screenshots, and the trailer seems to confirm it.

it is possible that it's a CyClones like set up. Though I kind of doubt it.

Snarboo said:

That's exactly what I thought when I saw the screenshots, and the trailer seems to confirm it.

The trailer has been confirmed after Id said it did not present the final game. So that does not have too be the case.

I for one am amazed simply by the mere fact that they got Doom 3 too run on a hand held at all.

Oh, another Doom cashin for IPhone? What I don't understand about IPhone is that I can't see anyone really wanting to play a game on a little phone, the idea certainly doesn't appeal to me. According to the adverts 'there's a app for this, app for that' message, it should be some sort of revolutionary gadget that does everything, but to me the 'apps' just look like silly gimmicks, and I'm under the impression that the IPhone is just something you get for 'cool factor' to flash to your mates etc.

My friend got the Iphone. He's all up and atom about these games. Apparently IWolf was kick ass.

The reason I suspect this game is a rail shooter is because it lacks the on-screen movement arrows that iWolf and iDoom have. Otherwise, it doesn't seem like the player has any way to control his movement. There was also a few scenes in the trailer where a message pops up saying "Dodge!", which implies to me that you quickly tap the screen to avoid enemies, like in some rail shooters.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that approach, however. Squeezing visuals like that on an iPhone must have required some effort. And of course, I could be wrong.

From the Macworld article:

Mustaine explained that it wasn’t until they settled on a control scheme that combined accelerometer-based movement and aiming with tap-based firing that Doom Resurrection really gelled.

Doesn't sound like a rails shooter at all. Macworld also removed the trailer at id's request, so whatever you guys were watching wasn't intended to be watched by the public.

boris said:

Looks like Doom 3 on a Voodoo, but I guess the Apple loonies will buy anything.

Textures look like ass. Models look like ass. Everything looks like ass. At least I can actually see that it looks like ass versus the everdark original Doom3 which I think looked very good. At least what I could see using my flashlight was OK. ;)

Enjay said:

Textures look like ass. Models look like ass. Everything looks like ass. At least I can actually see that it looks like ass versus the everdark original Doom3 which I think looked very good. At least what I could see using my flashlight was OK. ;)

There actually is a difference ;) The Voodoo2 shots have all (most?) shaders missing, so there's no normal mapping and per pixel lighting. And from the shots that also seems to be missing from that iPhone Doom 3 thing.

Have a look at this screenshot:

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7395/md5k.png

That's from a md5 loaded I wrote ages ago. No lighting, no shaders. Looks familiar, huh? :)

Yeah, sorry, I realised that they had done things like sacrificed normal mapping and so on. It was a weak, and apparently failed, attempt at humour.

I agree with the others that they should have done some pre-shading or something on the textures and skins to make them look a bit better. They would never look as good as they did in Doom 3 where all the shader effects and so on could be switched on, but they look pretty horrible and flat with nothing done to them.

It definitely looks like the rail shooter, see the ammo counter (38/ infinite).

I thought the visual designs of Doom 3 was incredible (when you could actually see it). It was the gameplay that reduced the longevity of the game for me.

Mr. Chris said:

It definitely looks like the rail shooter, see the ammo counter (38/ infinite).

I don't think it's a rail shooter. But even if it were i think it would still be pretty fun too play.

For those who didn't get a chance to see the trailer before it was removed:

Ugh. Quake looks better than that trailer.

Hard to tell if it's a rail shooter, but the video does make it feel like the movement is heavily restricted. Lets face it, having full control of the player on an iPhone would be very complicated and does not seem compatible with the whole "casual gaming" thing they are going for.

Well, I believe Carmack had some issues with getting controls right for Doom and Wolf on the ipod, and that was only moving in 2D. I can't imagine a full 3D shooter would work well, if at all. It looks like a rail shooter to me, and the fact that you can freeaim, and yet not change your viewpoint, plus the "dodge" warning made it clear. It's a rail shooter, but I still think it's damn impressive they managed to create even those simple graphics, which look circa a good 1998 computer, on a damn cell phone is impressive. Seven years ago being able to play Snake and Gorillas in two colors on a cell phone was an amazing feat. One of the things I love about Carmack is that he loves doing insane things with programming and engineering just to prove that they can be done, even if the result is slightly more than underwhelming.

I'm sorry, this looks awful. It would have looked much better if they had created new resources for use in this game rather than using stock Doom 3 resources, which were clearly not meant to be used without normal/specular maps and per-pixel lighting being utilized.

I swear I'm the only one who thinks playing games using a touchscreen where your fingers are going to be blocking parts of the screen while playing and having no real tactile feedback sounds less than ideal. If I wanna play games I'll get something that has some kind of buttons on it.

AgentSpork said:

I'm sorry, this looks awful. It would have looked much better if they had created new resources for use in this game rather than using stock Doom 3 resources, which were clearly not meant to be used without normal/specular maps and per-pixel lighting being utilized.

I swear I'm the only one who thinks playing games using a touchscreen where your fingers are going to be blocking parts of the screen while playing and having no real tactile feedback sounds less than ideal. If I wanna play games I'll get something that has some kind of buttons on it.

I'm forced to agree. The tech just isn't up there enough yet. It's a nice idea, but you can't simply downgrade like this and expect it to work out.

As you described, the nature of the game's controls being for a handheld is handicap enough for the poor thing as is.

david_a said:

Ugh. Quake looks better than that trailer.

AgentSpork said:

I swear I'm the only one who thinks playing games using a touchscreen where your fingers are going to be blocking parts of the screen while playing and having no real tactile feedback sounds less than ideal.

I think most people would agree with you. I have a feeling a lot of people who buy something like this won't play it for more than an hour or two before moving on to the next shiny thing.

Honestly I would much rather have seen a game based in the Quake 1 universe with cool new levels

Joking aside, I have to say that I do prefer the fact that you can actually see what is going on due to it not being as dark as Doom3 (OK, so there doesn't look like there is any true lighting). However, the textures, and model skins in partucular, do look horribly lifeless. Quake may well have been a better option.

Enjay said:

Joking aside, I have to say that I do prefer the fact that you can actually see what is going on due to it not being as dark as Doom3 (OK, so there doesn't look like there is any true lighting). However, the textures, and model skins in partucular, do look horribly lifeless. Quake may well have been a better option.

I have already said it once and now i will say it again:

This trailer DOES NOT represent the game. Id software even demanded that it would be removed from the site that first hosted it. That HAS too mean that the final version of the game will look better then what is seen in that "trailer".