DOOM III

[tonylongjohn]

Do you think the reason why Doom 3 runs so much better on the Nvidia cards is due to the fact that D3 is OpenGL?... NV cards ultimately having better OpenGL perfromance overall?

That's exactly why. When/if Half Life 2 comes out it will be a different story. Hopefully ATI updates/re-writes thier OGL driver to make them more competitive

[cubase]

Here is a Doom 3 wallpaper from which I think the visuals are absolutely stunning...

They appear to contain much higher details than previous shots from the game.

On another note, after reading some recent interviews, they seem to really push the envelope with the games 5.1 surround setup... which is kinda making want to upgrade to 5.1.

I have been meaning to upgrade to a decent 5.1 setup for Audio mastering anyway and thought now would be the best time to finally fork over some bills for a new sound setup in time for Doom 3.

I am looking at the Sound Blaster AUDIGY 2 ZS PLATINUM PRO for the card becuase it has the neat breakout box for easy access, and for speakers I am looking at the Logitech Z-680's.

This is an expensive setup, so keep in mind it not ONLY for Doom 3... it for my future uses aswell... but what do you think?

Cheers,

-Cub. =o)

Sound Blaster AUDIGY 2 ZS PLATINUM PRO

Logitech Z-680's

[tonylongjohn]

That's sweet, just set it as my background.

[cubase]

If you want to see Doom 3 at its best, you will probably want a 512MB video card...

Latest news stright from Robert Duffy's (Doom 3 Programmer) .plan entries have the following to say about Doom 3's contraversial "Ultra" quality setting...

"Image fidelity is dependent on what quality level we load the textures at.

In Ultra quality, we load each texture; diffuse, specular, normal map at full resolution with no compression. In a typical DOOM 3 level, this can hover around a whopping 500MB of texture data. This will run on current hardware but obviously we cannot fit 500MB of texture data onto a 256MB card and the amount of texture data referenced in a give scene per frame ( 60 times a second ) can easily be 50MB+. This can cause some choppiness as a lot of memory bandwidth is being consumed. It does however look fantastic and it is certainly playable on high end systems but due to the hitching that can occur we chose to require a 512MB Video card before setting this automatically.

High quality uses compression ( DXT1,3,5 ) for specular and diffuse and no compression for normal maps. This looks very very close to Ultra quality but the compression does cause some loss. This is the quality that for instance the PC Gamer review was played in.

Medium quality uses compression for specular, diffuse, and normal maps. This still looks really really good but compressing the normal maps can produce a few artifacts especially on hard angled or round edges. This level gets us comfortably onto 128MB video cards.

Low quality does everything medium quality does but it also downsizes textures over 512x512 and we downsize specular maps to 64x64 in this mode as well. This fits us onto a 64MB video card."

Full entry

So there you have it, 256 should do the job niceley, however, this does prove that 512 MB cards are getting to the point of necessity for viewing new games at their best, especially if we are talking about the next generation of titles.

-Cub. =o)

[cubase]

HardOCP has released the Ultimate Doom 3 Hardware Guide

This comtains literally HEAPS of information in regards to just about ANY PC set up available, from the MX440s through to the 6800's and X800's. This trully is an amazing resource if you are wanting to know EVERYTHING about running Doom 3 at it's optimum settings...

It appears as if the 6800 Ultra has trully taken the performance crown on this one... but honestly... the frames may be better, but as you will read, the difference in quality bitween the two cards is minimal, if not, non-existant... have we finnaly found common truce amoungst the ATI and Nvidia community. If so, Doom 3 will surely be bringing gamers together and 'wowing' them for years to come!

Check it out

Not long now!

-Cub. =o)

[cubase]

"Anticipation after all, is everything..."

Oh yeah, a quote stright from the NEW official Doom 3 trailer. Check it out, it looks amazing!

Also, it appears as though some people have snagged their copy of Doom 3 ealier than expected. A best buy store in IL has apprently had the game on their stores since a day ago, and gamers have come from miles around to snag their copy. As for me, it's Aug 3rd here in Australia when I get my copy, which is Aug 2 there in the US... so I am kinda happy! Either way, many stores have jumped the gun! Kida sucks caus I am waiting for my new sound setup to ship in and it looks like I will have the game before the setup... I dont think I can handle Doom 3 sitting there and not playing it!

What pisses me off though... it has also made its way into the warez community! God dammit I hate those guys!

-Cub. =o)

[cubase]

"Transport Arrived"... the message I get when I visit the Official UAC DOOM³ countdown website ...well mainly becuase it is synched to my Sydney clock... but hey... at least we get it 14 hours before the Yanks!

None the less... it is August 3rd. DOOMSDAY! Time for all of os to go to hell! If anyone has not ordered or secured a copy, I strongly urge you to do so...

Web and print reviewers have not yet given the game a rating lower than 92% (or 94... one of the two). So that pretty much says a lot doesn't it?

Anyway, I am off this morning to go get my copy, along with my new sound setup... hey, if I am going to hell, I'm going in style!

Hopefully we can have many stimulating conversations RE the game. Enjoy!

See you all in hell!

-Cub. =o)

[tonylongjohn]

Well I purchased my copy of Doom 3 and it kicks ASS!!!!!! I've been playing for about 3 hours now.

[cubase]

I reckon! How good is it!

I have plyed a little bit of it but don't want to REALLY play it until my friggin soundcard arrives. I was able to get the 5.1 speakers yesterday with the game, but the card is being delivered sometime today...

Have you any idea what it is like to have Doom 3 sitting in front of you and not being able to play it!?!?!??!

-Cub. =o)

[busylover]

NEW BETA CATALYST 4.9 OPTIMISED FOR DOOM III !!!



it's becoming hard to have clear views upon Catalyst releases...we have a 4.7 WQHL, a 4.8 unofficial beta and now a special DOOM III 4.9, supposed to display enhanced FPS in DOOM III

download here

[cubase]

hmmm, sounds good... but lets just see how they do. Considering, the X800 XT Platinum Pro could not get an edge on the 6800 GT...

If they do manage to pull it off though, I guess I will have to commend them on great driver work... (so as you can imaging, it's kiss of death all the way here! lol)

Hmm, this just in, a review of the new cat 4.9's... and the results (as in, percentage increase)... it appears that the X800 XT PE still falls short of the Standard 6800 (by a calculation of FPS as a percentage added to the tests performed on the 4.7's in the review).

But, in a recent review over at Anandtech, they have tested Doom 3 with the 6800 Ultra Extreme finally... however, seeing as this particular version of the card was not completely polished, it had a few problems, but as you will see, the Ultra Extreme is in a league of it's own!

There is also a nice CPU test.

-Cub. =o)

[cuchumino81]

There is also a nice CPU test.

nice article cub

[busylover]

thxx for infos cube

nice stuff

[John McClean]

hey guys, just bought doom myself. havent played it since i'm on vacation, i cant wait to get home i read this on ampednews.com and was wondering if you fellas were interested. if someone tries it post feedback? http://www.ampednews.com/?page=articles&id=1699

[cubase]

hey guys, just bought doom myself. havent played it since i'm on vacation, i cant wait to get home i read this on ampednews.com and was wondering if you fellas were interested. if someone tries it post feedback? http://www.ampednews.com/?page=articles&id=1699

...Yeah I tried this one myself but did not see any noticeable difference in performance... Others have reported seeing quite a large increase in FPS using Readon cards... but as for me, I tried upping it to 256 MB and only probably noticed about a 5fps difference. Must be an nvidia thing...

As for the game, it is getting better by the second!

-Cub. =o)