Carmack On New Doom Engine

[Linguica]

id programmer John Carmack made two posts to a recent Slashdot article (post 1 / post 2) regarding next-gen graphics hardware, its effect on games, and most importantly, its effect on the new Doom engine. Here's some of the good stuff:

Obviously, any game done with the new Doom engine is going to run slower than a game done with Q3 technology. You can make some of it back up by going to the simpler lighting model and running at a lower resolution, but you just won't be able to hit 60+ fps on a GF2. The low end of our supported platforms will be a GF1 / 64 bit GF2Go / Radeon, and it is expected to chug a bit there, even with everything cut down. [...] We are aiming to have a GF3 run Doom with all features enabled at 30 fps. We expect the high end cards at the time of release to run it at 60+ fps with improved quality.
The standard lighting model in DOOM, with all features enabled, but no custom shaders, takes five passes on a GF1/2 or Radeon, either two or three passes on a GF3, and should be possible in a clear + single pass on ATI's new part. It is still unclear how the total performance picture will look.

A GF3 will run the new Doom at 30 FPS? That goes a long way towards showing how big a jump the engine will be over Quake 3, which runs on the GF3 with all the bells and whistles at something like a hundred FPS.

[Arioch]

So those people who said id was actually going to cap the fps rate on Doom 3 to about 30fps were talking out their asses as usual.

[DiSTuRBeD]

LOL, you believed THAT?

[Guest Captain Napalm]

I was hoping Doom3 would run on my system if I turned off like a lot of details, but it probably won´t even run on my system. Oh well guess I´ll have to buy a new system when Doom 3 comes out.

[bigd]

Hm, looks like no doomtest in august, hehe. By the time Doom is released, it will be running on post-geforce3 cards at 60fps, so carmack says. so much for using my gf2, meh.

[Guest Fanatic]

Jesus, I guess I'm out because of my video card (a 16 meg TNT2 Pro).

And I just upgraded to a 1 gighz processor and 512 megs fo ram too. Dammit.

[Lüt]

Again, I laugh at the people who have already assembled computers specifically for Doom3.

[Jon]

Heh I certainly wouldn't try and pre-guess the specs needed by an ID game, and I won't buy any 'doom compatible' system until it hits the shelves and is reviewed.

[Swedish Fish]

I've got to agree with Lüt - if your trying to assemble a new computer for Doom3 it is futile. I just bought a new computer knowing full well that it would not be close to the specs needed for doom3.

[TheRequiem]

Damn, I already have almost 2 grand saved up for a new computer system... I wont buy one until it's atleast 2+ gigahertz and over 400 mhz bus with atleast 512mb. I found a guy that can get me a stick of 512 mb RDram from Samsung for a little over a $100. Plus, a good mother board is essential. Anyhow thoe, I better start saving some more money for a Geforce 4 Ultra.

[Law]

Oh dear, I won't play Doom3. *Laughs* I think I'll survive...

[Guest sLydE]

is the doom 3 engine gonna support original doom maps? that would be a very cool little feature

[skadoomer]

those of us with laptops are equally screwed, as we can't upgrade our video cards. Fuck it, eye candy is bullshit if the game isn't half decent its-self. That will be proven when those of us without geforce3 cards play the game....

[Guest Black Knight]

Give me that guys number for the 512 mb for $100. Yeah, I got first dibs on that Geforce 4!!!

[sgtcrispy]

16 meg TNT2 pro??

you poor bastard...

:)

[Gokuma]

It would be nice to hear about the actual freaking game like if they matched the player speed of the original or are exluding weapons like railguns that are lame outside of optional mods. So far the new Doom sounds like a piece of shit Quake 4.

[Arioch]

I'd have to say that those people who expect the new "Doom" game to be exactly like the originals, except for one hell of an engine upgrade, are lame.

[kristus]

Arioch; Not llame. More, naive.

[Arioch]

No, I definitely meant "lame".

[stphrz]

Oh I don't expect or even want the new Doom game to be like the original to any great degree. I just definately expect it to be *not* like the Quake games. At all.

[Lüt]

"I found a guy that can get me a stick of 512 mb RDram from Samsung for a little over a $100"

BWAAHAHAHHAHAH!! Jeez, what a ripoff. First off: RDRAM is NOT better than SDRAM. The fastest RDRAM chip was beaten by PC133 SDRAM in 11 of 14 benchmark categories. Guess where this info comes from? Intel's very own home page.

Find yourself a gig of PC133 SDRAM for a little cheaper than that 512MB shitstick you're looking at. Hell, go on ebay and get 1.5 gigs of PC133 SDRAM for that price. Might not be brand new, but most of it is.

Besides, there's a totally new type of RAM in the works that will most likely be commonplace by the time Doom3 is out, and it will blow away SDRAM and RDRAM.

[mystic]

I know all the nerdy geek types will be wetting themselves in excited expectation, but who do id think they are kidding calling it doom 3, quake was doom 3, this new attempt to cash in is quake 4, they are calling it doom coz theres a lot of us out there with a strong affection for the greatest computer game ever. Me, I stopped looking to id for my kicks years ago, with the ever improving ports like legacy and zdoom etc and new wads coming out all the time who really needs this 'new' doom 3? not me.

[Gokuma]

Don't put words into my mouth, asshole. I'm just saying Doom 3 better not be another Quake with lame weapons and a slow moving player.

[Arioch]

In which case I wasn't talking about you. Although I could care less if the Doom 3 guy can't run 90mph.

[Guest Guy Ferrante]

Dammit, Id has been doing this since the days of the 80386. First they release Doom 1 for the 386 and it runs like crap! you then upgrade to a high end 486-dx-66 or better just to get smooth framrates for like $1,200 and your great, then Quake 1 comes along that runs like crap on the 486 so you then go Pentium 1 class for smooth Q1 framerates and your great again, then Q3 is released and it runs like crap on the Pentuim 1 class system so you then upgrade to Pentium 2 class for a decent framerate. Wow just look at all the money I spent just to run Id's games. This news about DooM 3 is not good, here's why, Im getting about 40-50 fps with Q3 on my current system with most options turned off! and you need atleast 70-100 fps to enjoy any game these days . I been thinking about upgrading to pentium 3 class machine to run Q3 better, but now I read that DooM 3 req a LOT MORE COMPUTER, I will not upgrade just to run D3 at 30 FPS!!!! I love Id's and Raven game but the buck stops here. Lets hope that Id will streamline the code a bit to make it run on current system. Or I'll have to wait till the GF4 card drops to about 150.00!!

Guy Ferrante

[Arioch]

Seems like you already skipped a generation. NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO MAKE EXCUSES FOR YOUR NOT BEING UP WITH CURRENT-DAY TECHNOLOGY!@$!$!@#

[Gokuma]

Then don't put my name as the subject.

[Guest Slapnutz]

''Although I could care less if the Doom 3 guy can't run 90mph.'' How come you dislike doom so much? if u told the reason before i didnt see em...

[Guest Slapnutz]

*arioch*

[Arioch]

Yes that's right, when will you losers realize I'm HERE FOR THE MONEY