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Linguica

Another Doom 3 Preview

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The Daily Telefrag has posted their Doom 3 impressions from E3, which retreads a lot of the ground covered in the million previous articles about the game, but gives some new info about gameplay and the like. Here's a bit:

This is DOOM! We are not going to mimic Serious Sam where player is exposed to relentless attacks by hordes of identical enemies. Monsters will be more than adequate, sometimes they'll attack in tens, sometimes they poke around alone. We want player not to be aware of what's behind the next door, so that he would be up to storm the front every second of play. DOOM III is all about pressure and terror.

That clears up one of my concerns...

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Apparantly you will meet the same level of resistance (with regards to numbers) as you did in Doom1 (excluding episode 4).

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We are pretty aware, though, that many players and especially Doom I and II fans might dislike delving into the fundamentals of the story, and ignore the roots of incident on Mars. We can't force them to, so we grant an option to finish game in a shooting-spree style. Well, those who want to know the truth, will find it out".

Great! That means that those of us who want to go "all-out-war" can do that. (of course, I'm going to check out the story-line at times, but that could get boring in the end).

"This is DOOM! We are not going to mimic Serious Sam where player is exposed to relentless attacks by hordes of identical enemies. Monsters will be more than adequate, sometimes they'll attack in tens, sometimes they poke around alone. We want player not to be aware of what's behind the next door, so that he would be up to storm the front every second of play. DOOM III is all about pressure and terror." Charming! Doom's conception is alive, and it has risen onto a new level. But what hardware is required to render tens of highly detailed monsters simultaneously? "The trick is in the extensive use of bump-mapping," says Jim Dose as he winks. "The characters are not REALLY high-polygonal, but the bump-mapping provides proper picture. This is how we intended to cram tens of monsters onscreen without damaging performance.

Tens of monsters on-screen? Sounds almost too good to be true - I thought Zaldron said that we would only see about a max of 5 monsters on-screen.
/Me is well pleased.

(the movie exposed zombie, pinky demon, imp, flying skulls, and cyber-demon),

Cyberdemon??? Where? This guy must've mistook the Hell Knight for a cybie, because the HK was the biggest baddie in that video.

That's what our monsters are - they will act like real creatures. They won't hole up around the level or talk to their mates through radio. Their objective is to kill every living being, and your fear attracts them. That's their natural pattern of behavior, and they all attack in a different way, according to their savage ruses".

/Me likes

"Yes, there will be NPCs in DOOM III", - assured Mal. "They won't be many (look for yourself, how many survivors can there be given that hordes of blood-thirsty monsters are crawling around the Martian base?). However, on your way you will encounter characters whom you can interact with. They can even demand your help (like getting them food or killing a particular monster that occupied their residence), and reveal you a door to the secret room or give out valuable ammo in return. Actually, it's not a significant part of the game, and we need it to reinforce the game's credibility".

Sounds good, as long as they don't fight by your side :-)

According to Mal's words, DOOM III will span around thirty levels (probably a bit more). They will be really huge, and will be constructed to convey the pressing atmosphere of fear and terror, where you oppose Evil and you have no idea what's there around the corner.

Whoa! Thirty levels? That's quite a lot considering the time it takes to do these. And they'll be large too? Greatgreat!

Moreover, according to Jim Dose, DOOM III won't be confined within narrow corridors and rectangular rooms of military base. Did they opt for the outdoor areas and huge sceneries of Mars? "Yes, that's right", - says Jim, - "we plan a number of outdoor levels. I'm not going to reveal you precise number of indoor and outdoor areas. Don't want to spoil the impression. Actually, implementing open-air levels is not our primary purpose. They won't be more than needed, and we are not willing to churn them out just because its flashy these days".

Right, so all you outdoor-happy people will get some outdoor areas to take a brake after all the claustrophobia :-)

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Woohoo, interesting stuff in that interview. :) but damnit, i'm trying to lose interest in doom three till the game comes out. The news people are making it hard though :P. I want this game.

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Whoa! Thirty levels? That's quite a lot considering the time it takes to do these. And they'll be large too? Greatgreat!


Those maps don't take that long to make.. shouldn't take more time to do those than to make 3d design in max. Takes longer time to make maps in quake or doom, cause of all the stupid limits and clumsiness of the engine.

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I'm not sure about this, but is a GeForce4 MX 420 better than a GeForce3? It seems to have less memory bandwidth, but..

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I am thinking on the editing possibilities. The advanced lighting engine seems to be made in order to enhance mood. Perhaps editing for Doom3 might be more like creating art than designing games.

I was thinking about making a totally nonviolent Myst-clone using the Doom3 engine, just for the combination of pure mood and freedom of movement.

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Sounds like its gonna kick ass to me!,specially the NPC's.though i wouldnt expect them to be fighting alongside you,seeing as theyre dead or dying after being taken by suprise

Hmm,as for serious sam,a lot of people compared that to doom,but i didnt really see it...sure the doom engine has the potential to create huge outdoor areas and fling a million monsters at you,but the actual game didnt do that very often (several add-on levels did though...)

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kristus said:

Those maps don't take that long to make.. shouldn't take more time to do those than to make 3d design in max. Takes longer time to make maps in quake or doom, cause of all the stupid limits and clumsiness of the engine.

Hm? According to what I've heard (both official stuff and from tech guys like Zaldron) it takes at least three times as long to do Doom 3 maps than to do Q3A maps.

I'm not sure about this, but is a GeForce4 MX 420 better than a GeForce3? It seems to have less memory bandwidth, but..

I've heard that the GeForce 4 MX sucks donkey balls and that it's inferior to even the GeForce 3 in some areas.

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dsm said:

Hm? According to what I've heard (both official stuff and from tech guys like Zaldron) it takes at least three times as long to do Doom 3 maps than to do Q3A maps.


When you don't have to bother with non convex (or is it convert, whatever, never remembered wich was wich) it ends up being a whole lot easier and faster to edit. Then of course the other things such as scripting and animation of the world could take more time, but i don't think it will take any longer than it would to do it in any other engine (specially for id since they got other people for that). The design seem to be mostly base, (cut and paste is a common utility in these sort of designs) wich is detailed by bump mapped textures and non convex limited brushes. wich gives you more freedom, faster creation process. cause you don't have to cut everything and bother with such crap, also the textures do alot of the detail job for you. There's not even any compiling time to drag it for you. I see no reason why this engines maps would take longer. Unless of course the editor sucks.

I've heard that the GeForce 4 MX sucks donkey balls and that it's inferior to even the GeForce 3 in some areas.


That's because GF4 MX is a boosted GF2.

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So it's better to just go and get the normal Geforce3? Just that the damn thing costs a shitload of money. I don't wanna be paying like $300 more for DOOM III just 'coz my TNT Vidia Detonator X card isn't supported. Maybe $100 more at the most. You think the relative price'll go down by 2003?

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If you're getting a GF4 MX, Get the 440, not the 420. Huge difference in performance, not so much in price.
IMO, GF4MX should be called GF3mx, since it's really just a cheapo GF3 without any of the fancy features, and slower than any GF3 card.
In any case, do NOT get a MX card for playing Doom, they don't have the technology you need. Save up and get something really good instead :)

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