Doom 3 to Hit Stores August 5

[BRiT]

IT'S DONE!!!!!!!

Yes, this is the official word that DOOM 3 has been code released and has been approved for manufacturing! It won't be long now until the anticipation ends and the PH34R begins ;-) We literally just hung up with Activision and have confirmed that our latest release candidate has been mutually approved and is finally GOLD. Thanks to everyone for their patience (yeah right! =) and for everyone at id, Activision and our numerous partners for helping us create what I believe is absolutely the best game we have ever made.

So, the next question is release dates. Retailers in the States will be allowed to pick up games starting at 12:01 AM on August 3rd. The official street date is actually August 5th in the U.S.A., but some of your favorite stores will probably have it early for those of you who have to have it first. Check with your local retailer for that information.

Internationally, the game will take a few more days to make it to the store shelves. The UK will probably get it first, on or about August 6th. Everywhere else will probably be Friday, August 13th (que Twilight Zone Theme) or close to that date, with just a few exceptions (e.g. Russia and Poland). This isn't because we don't have love for you folks outside the U.S., but the localization and manufacturing process takes a bit longer outside the U.S. where we will have JVC run 24/7 to get the units built. I guess the European manufacturers prefer to give their employees nights and weekends off. Go figure!

The champagne is flowing here at id and smiles abound!

http://www.shacknews.com/finger/?fid=toddh@idsoftware.com

[Jason]

I can't wait, my PC is revved and ready for Doom 3 and anything else for a while after. :D Bring it on!

[Skorch]

Brit, are you quoting an article or do you actually work at id? Not that I doubt the validity of the great news, I'm just curious.

[BRiT]

I was quoting the news announcement via .plan update of the CEO of id Software, Todd Hollenshead. It's linked at the end of the post.

Back then, I was too tired to post up my thoughts on the upcoming sure-to-be mega-hit game.

Even though my system will likely do well on the game, I'm likely to upgrade it in the fall. I feel so out of the loop since I don't have an AMD 64bit cpu or an ATI X800 XT or Nvidia 6800 Ultra.

[MaxPower]

I am so there!

[Captain 151]

last game i played like that was wolfenstien 3D. Ah yes, to be young again.

[BRiT]

There's a rather drool-worthy trailer clip out for this sure-to-be game of the year.

New Trailer: http://scifi.pages.at/noname_01/d3/doom3g4.rar 11.5Meg

Official Trailer: http://akamai.doom3.com/video/trailer_large.mov 39.2Meg

It's a little surprising that the game has not yet been rated. Is there any doubt it'll recieve anything other than Rated-M?

[BRiT]

Just watched the new smaller trailer, which is DiVX encoded avi. I hope the game turns out to be as much fun as it looks to be. I'm really digging the Plasma Gun effects as well as the BFG effects!

To help some of you out, to view the smaller trailer you will need a DiVX player. You can find DiVX 5.2 here: http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/ .

But first, you need to extract the divx file (avi) from the compressed file. You can find WinRAR here: http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

[Jason]

I'm sooooo stoked. :)

[Descent]

OH YEAH! IT'S DONE! I'M SO FUCKING HAPPY!

I have been waiting for this game more than any other game in my life...

This thing better run well on my rig...mine is middle-end.

Too bad the demo will be released afterwards, because I can't afford to buy the game! Thanks, Seagate! If your fucking drive didn't die on me, I would have had enough money to buy Doom 3! Oh, well.

Ooooo...Doom 3 is going to shit all over HL2. I'm getting a free copy of HL2 (Thanks, ATI!), but I don't know if it will get played much, because Doom 3 will be the best game ever! That would be cool if it actually surpasses the original Doom...

Shit, I'm stoked...

Does anyone here know if Doom 3 runs off DirectX 9 or OpenGL? I was just wondering, because I heard somewhere that Carmack switched platforms...I played the Alpha, and I know for a fact that ran off OpenGL. I'm hoping it runs off OpenGL, because it is so much faster than DX9. I'm really glad that my card supports OpenGL 2.0...That would be kick ass if he programmed the game in the beta version of OpenGL 2.0. It's so much faster than DX 9, my card would ace it!

[BRiT]

The Alpha, *cough* leaked and stolen *cough*, was very much a work in progress and is not representative of the final product. It's been in continued development since then. Carmack, as always, has used OpenGL for his rendering platform of choice. As far as speed, the two (DirectX and OpenGL) perform about the same when tasked to do equal work.

However, nearly all windows-based games make use of Direct-X for other items, such as Direct-Input for basic keyboard/mouse/controller input. There is also Direct-Audio for the sound aspects. Even though alternatives exist for both, I haven't seen too many widely used, such as OpenAL for audio.

[Descent]

Yeah, just for the record, the Alpha was built off a modded Quake 3 engine.

Saying that OpenGL and DirectX perform the same with equal work is incorrect. What you are seeing is companies like Crytek and Epic Games who use Direct3D, optimize it for Direct3D, then make OpenGL drivers later so that you can run it on Linux or MacOS.

When optimized for OpenGL, games perform much better, mainly because OpenGL's set of instructions are less complicated and put less load on the GPU when rendering.

[BRiT]

I, and a ton of other developers beg to differ on that. A game can run as well using DirectX as it can for OpenGL given the same level of effort. OpenGL does have a benefit of exposing vendor-specific extensions that are more closely catered to the exact chip specifics. However, it is a well known fact that ATI's OpenGL driver is not as well tuned as Nvidia's OpenGL driver. ATI, through the hireing of ex-DEC compiler engineers, is in the process of rewriting their OpenGL driver to be as effecient as their DirectX drivers. Check out the 3D Architecture and other forums of Beyond3D for some additional information.

Anyways, Doom 3 and HL2 are both going to kick some major ass... Now if only Duke Nukem Forever would come out sometime this decade.

[BRiT]

The official Doom 3 website is finally online at http://www.doom3.com/ .

[BRiT]

Less than two weeks away...

Now if only the newer video cards would be readily available. Is anyone else going to upgrade their system to enjoy Doom 3?

[Descent]

OH YEAH! I'M UPGRADING MY SYSTEM!

I'm getting an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ or the new AMD Sempron 3100+...whichever one is the better value. The Sempron has not launched yet, it launches on August 17th...

If only my OCed Duron could handle the latest games...if only...

Also, I feel that Duke Nukem forever will be fucking sick if it is ever released. I love Duke! For those of you who need to play Duke Nukem, check this out:

http://jonof.edgenetwork.org/buildport/duke3d/

THE DUKE NUKEM 3D WINDOWS PORT! IT HAS OPENGL ACCELERATION AND LOTS OF COOL SHIT! JUST WHIP OUT YOUR OLD DUKE NUKEM 3D CD (or download the shareware version) AND FRAG AWAY!

It's one of my all-time favorite programs.

[RGN-dRaGoN]

ShiT i gotta upgrade my video card, freking 64 bit nvidia, thas gotta go, time to get a wildcat :D, yea pft, right, maybe ill just setle 4 a 128 radeon 9800 i think that should be fine.

[Descent]

Buy a Radeon 9700 Pro. They perform only about 4% worse then a Radeon 9800 Pro and cost a shitload less....You can get one on Newegg for about $180...

If your CPU is below 2.6GHz (Or an AMD 2600+) I would recommend upgrading that too...that way you will get much more performance for todays latest, most demanding games.

[Descent]

Hey...I just saw the G4TechTV id Software interview...it has all new Doom 3 footage! It's amazing! Seeing the game in a nice, fullscreen window really allows you to see just how immersive it will be.

http://doom3hq.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=fileid&lid=11

Check it out, it's awesome!

[Al Caponeoni]

I remember the good ol' days of Doom and Doom 2. . .

Does anyone remember the end of Doom 2 (It might of been 1, not sure), where the bunny rabbit's head is on the pike?

So, how does that story evolve into this one?

:D

EDIT: Oh my God, finally, someone who is a Duke Nukem fanatic! ! ! !

That game kicked major ass when it was released. I especially like the strippers. . . .:D

And when he took a shit in that aliens head? Awesome.

:)

[CopyLifted]

I got a AMD Athlon 64 coming as I type this. So I should be all set there. I just hope my 9600 pro is up to the task.


EDIT:

I was curious what the system requirements were for Doom 3 so I did a google search and this is what I came up with. For those that were also wondering and didn't already know......


Most recently, id CEO Todd Hollenshead spoke with the Houston Chronicle about the minimum system requirements needed to play the graphics-intensive shooter. According to the paper's "Computing" column, the game will require:

An Nvidia GeForce 3 graphics card or ATI Technologies 8500: Column author Dwight Silverman says that given the game's demanding visuals, serious gamers should splurge for a GPU from Nvidia's GeForce FX or 6800 line or ATI's Radeon 9800 or X800 series. He says more frugal PC owners can make do with a GeForce 5900XT or a Radeon 9600XT.

A 1.5-gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 chip or AMD Athlon 1500: Though these will run the game, Silverman suggests a 2GHz Pentium or equivalent, with the "ideal" processor being 3 GHz or over.

384MB of memory: Again, Silverman stresses that this is a minimum requirement, and he recommends 512MB at least, with 1GB preferred.

Two GB of hard drive space:. Four GB is suggested if your PC is running low on free space.

[TheGunslinger85]

Hey guys, I know id released the system requirements, but I want your opinion on my P.O.S. computer's ability to run this game. Here are my specs:


Abit KG7-RAID
Athlon XP 2100+ (Palomino)
384 MB PC2100 (ouch, planning to upgrade, I swear)
GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB (If only it was an X800 XT with PCI express)
3dMark03 Score 1475 (1716 OC'ed GPU) w00t


With graphics on low and DX9 features absent, do I have any chance of running a decent framerate while still enjoying the "graphics" of the game?

[Broken]

I remember the good ol' days of Doom and Doom 2. . .

Does anyone remember the end of Doom 2 (It might of been 1, not sure), where the bunny rabbit's head is on the pike?

So, how does that story evolve into this one?

:D

EDIT: Oh my God, finally, someone who is a Duke Nukem fanatic! ! ! !

That game kicked major ass when it was released. I especially like the strippers. . . .:D

And when he took a shit in that aliens head? Awesome.

:)

You don't know Duke... Hve you ever heard of Cases ladder?

[Al Caponeoni]

Obviously not, because that name does not ring a bell.

Wait. . . does it have something to do with Duke?

[Descent]

That may run it okay...I am not too sure...

I'm saving up for an Athlon XP 3000+, so as soon as I buy that, my games will SCREAM. My video card is a Visiontek Radeon 9600XT.

I have played Duke Nukem 3D and Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, but I have not played some of the newer ones. The Duke Nukem series is a wonderful series, among the best in the PC industry.

Download that Windows port of Duke Nukem 3D...It's REALLY good.

[Broken]

Obviously not, because that name does not ring a bell.

Wait. . . does it have something to do with Duke?
yeah, back in the day; all the duke players where members of Case's Ladder. You DMed 1.vs1 to ten; Loser reports to the ladder. My highest rank was 5 of of well over 5,6 thousand players. Very very tough. I played only the Reg game levels for Ladder matches. Fahrenheit and Hollywood, OT.. I was almost unbeatable.
Do you know all the warp points in HH?

[TheGunslinger85]

That may run it okay...I am not too sure...

I'm saving up for an Athlon XP 3000+, so as soon as I buy that, my games will SCREAM. My video card is a Visiontek Radeon 9600XT.

I have played Duke Nukem 3D and Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, but I have not played some of the newer ones. The Duke Nukem series is a wonderful series, among the best in the PC industry.

Download that Windows port of Duke Nukem 3D...It's REALLY good.



Yeah...It's kind of funny. Some games run surprisingly well and some run horribly. For example, my computer barely meets the minimum requirements for Painkiller, yet it runs very well. My computer easily meets the requirements for BF1942, yet the game runs like shit (I probably just need to do some tweaking). CoD, which by the way is my favorite WWII shooter right now, runs pretty well.


I dont know what to do, though. I really wish Id would release a demo so I could see how it runs. It would be a shame to spend $55 and find out I can only get 25 fps.

So the Duke Nukem 3D port is good? I recently meddled with a 3d Doom Port for Windows XP. It is SWEET. OMG....the sprites are awesome.

[Al Caponeoni]

Do you know all the warp points in HH?

Yes indeedy.

:D

[Broken]

Yes indeedy.

:D

That's my favorite DM level.

[Al Caponeoni]

Mine, as well. So many secret spots and stuff. . .

Ahh, the good ol' days.

:)

[MaxPower]

Anyone here ever play "Blood" or blood II ?

[Descent]

Update...I'm upgrading my PC to a dual 1.8GHz Duron...Yes, a dual Duron. I just did the bridge mod for my current Duron so I am set to go! A 1.8GHz duron is equivalent to a 2200+ in terms of performance, so this should last me for about two more years. Now I just need to buy a dual AXP mobo! I'll also upgrade to a Radeon 9700 pro after I get the cash.

The Duke Nukem 3D port is great...It's fast, stable, and doesn't have too many graphical glitches.

Also, was that 3D version of Doom called jDoom? I have jDoom and it kicks ass.

I'm gonna go play Duke 3D now...

I've never played Blood by the way...but I have heard of it. Wasn't that circa 1998?

[Descent]

UPDATE:

Two days ago, I had a dream about Doom 3...

I was outside on my back deck, except that it was laid out differently and was really long. It was extremely dark out, pitch black, and I could barely see the trees. I was blasting away the fat pale blue zombie guys in the game...at first with a shotgun, then with the exact same machine gun used in the game. The zombies even had bump mapping...yes...bump mapping...right on their bodies. After I killed them all, my brother comes out in a robe and says "Wanna go in the hot tub?" I respond, "Sure...right after I get the shotgun."

PLEASE! PLEASE! I CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER! I NEED DOOM 3!

[BRiT]

It seems iD has released yet another new trailer for the game Doom 3. It weighs in around 40 megs, requires Quicktime to play, and can be located at the following mirrors: Gamers Depot (http://www.gamers-depot.com/files/activision/doom3/001.htm), Shacknews (http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=5198), Gamehelper (http://filecabinet.gamehelper.com/files/462.htm), Filerush (http://www.filerush.com/download.php?target=d3pcdownloadf inal.mov), Doom3.de (http://www.ingame.de/filebase/index.php?action=file&cid=133&fid=1624), GamingHorizon (http://news.gaminghorizon.com/media/1091243571.html), , Fileplanet (http://www.fileplanet.com/files/140000/143755.shtml), and Computer Games.ro (http://www.computergames.ro/download.php/optiune-show_download/did-3660/index.html).

I'm getting exceptional speeds, 420KB/s from FileRush...

[BRiT]

This page (http://doom3.fragshack.com/media.htm) has two new in game footage clips. The top two are the ones to check out. They are divx files captured with the fraps tool. They show off the teleportation effect and the beserker mode.

[Descent]

I read the review of Doom 3...It's sick! I can't wait to pick myself up a copy. It's gonna kick ass.

For all of you wondering how Doom 3 will run on your system, check this out:

http://www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQ0

This is an in-depth real gameplay benchmark for Doom 3. I have a Duron 1.8GHz OCed to 2.0GHz (2400+ speeds), a Visiontek Radeon 9600XT, and 512MB of RAM. I'm already set, it's gonna run pretty damn good. Hell, it's even playable (and pretty) on a Geforce4 MX440.

Don't bother upgrading for Doom 3, unless your comp really bites the big one. Read this article first and then see if you are really screwed.

I think this game may have the most efficient graphics engine to date.

[Descent]

Hey, has anyone else here noticed that the leaked alpha has all of a sudden become a hot topic on gaming message boards again? I understand fully. People can't wait, and therefore they have to play anything even resembing Doom 3.

Such as people like me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with fun.

I'm so psyched.

[BRiT]

Alright, now who has played Doom 3? What were your thoughts on it?

[Descent]

GREAT NEWS!

ATI has just released a public beta of the Catalyst 4.9 drivers. It has a HUGE increase in OpenGL performance. Those DEC engineers really overdid it this time. I don't know how big the performance increase is in the real game, but in the Alpha, my framerates have gone from unplayable to excellent. They have doubled. It still bogs down a bit in heavy combat, but only 1/3 as much as it used too...Could this be a new chapter in the ATI history books? For the first time ever, ATI owners may be seeing wonderful OpenGL performance.

To download the drivers, uninstall your old ones first and then download and install this file:

http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4547.html

If you were using third party drivers, such as the Omega drivers, YOU MUST UNINSTALL ALL parts of the old drivers, so that means RadLinker and MultiRes have to go if you are an Omega user. If you don't uninstall these, your ATI Control Panel will NOT load up. I learned this the hard way.

[FUBAR]

DOOM 3 is unbeleivable this game is fucking awesome

[YUCK FOU!!!]

ahhh doom how awesome it is to see it unable dor it to be played on a 486 jeez it was so long ago since i had played doom ahhh happy memories

[TheGunslinger85]

:eek: Is it just me, or is this game a scary motherfucker? As I write this, I am only at Alpha Labs Sector 4 and have been frightened beyond belief. Runs pretty well on my computer, btw. My MSI Ti4200 (128MB) is making me proud...it blew away my friend's 5600xt (this isn't saying much, I know). Sweet game! Highly recommended!!

[GottaHurt]

Less than two weeks away...

Now if only the newer video cards would be readily available. Is anyone else going to upgrade their system to enjoy Doom 3?

Get the 6800GT, it rocks, it's about $100 cheaper than the Ultra and clocks easily into Ultra speeds. I've been playing FarCry with Folding@Home in the background without as much as a hiccup.

Haven't played D3 yet, but this is what I'm running FarCry on:

Abit IC7-Max3 :: P4 3.0 @ 3.7 :: SP-94 w/92mm Tornado :: NB-1 w/45mm Delta :: OCZ 1GB PC-3200 EL DDR
eVGA GeForce 6800 GT 256 :: WD 74GB Raptor :: WD 120GB SATA :: Plextor PX-708A DVD-R±R/W :: Sony 16x DVD
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 :: Altec Lansing ADA-885 :: Cooler Master TAC-T01-EK :: PC Power & Cooling 510 Deluxe
Aerogate II :: APC UPS XS 800 :: ViewSonic G220fB 21" CRT :: Win XP SP-1

[BRiT]

If I was ONLY a Doom3 player I'd go for the Nvidia 6800-series of cards. Most of the games I play are DirectX/D3D, which the ATI X800 series usually runs better (looks better, runs smoother, runs faster) than the same priced Nvidia card. I'm hooked on using high levels of AntiAliasing, so ATI wins hands down with their gamma-corrected AA as well as their temporal-AA modes.

With that said, I'm not all that fond of Doom3. The gameplay is too 1994 -- encounter blue lock, backtrack to find blue key, hit trigger point spawning monsters, encounter red lock, backtrack to find red key, hit trigger point spawning monsters, wash-rinse-repeat. The rooms are amazingly small and cramped. Not much room to maneuver. I guess I've grown beyond the 1994 style of gameplay for single player mode.

The game runs very smooth on my system: Abit AN7, AMD Barton 2.6Ghz RAW speed, 2x512M PC3500 2-2-2-11, ATI 9800 Pro 400/330.

[Descent]

HOLY SHIT...A 2.6GHz BARTON?! Holy shit, what is that equivalent to?! A 3700+?! That's one hell of an overclock...

I really want a new CPU and Graphics card...Mine suck donkey balls. Try out those Catalyst drivers, they kick ass. They provide serious performance. I have sent them to all my friends who have Doom 3, and they say they are great. They really sped up their gameplay.

[Descent]

Alright...now I'm pissed.

Just downloaded the Doom 3 Demo :D . Total bummer...Performance is three times as bad as it was in the Alpha. I'm running the non-beta 4.9's now, and I'm still getting shit framerates. I'm downloading some softmodded 4.9 drivers right now so I can overclock this fucking Radeon 9200LE...

Life sucks.