login sign up feeds about

Doom 3

Or, why id Software's next game will be more than just a technology demonstration.

Id Software are something of an anomaly in the games industry. Not only can they promise the world, but inevitably they deliver it too, and in an era when anti-hype has crushed some previously highly anticipated releases, it is something of a testament to the skill of the Texas based developers that nobody in the industry doubts that Doom 3 will be a major success. With the game's release arriving at the end of 2003 or early 2004 (the old 'when it's done' scenario), perhaps it's time to recap on the story so far, as it were.

• images (10)

  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • all 10 images

• game info

  • Publisher:

    Developer:

    Release Date:

  • more

• related stories

  • Doom 3 slippage among new Activision...
  • E3: Doom 3 Xbox official
  • Doom 3 conspiracy fears
  • Doom 3 Alpha Leaked
  • Doom 3 exposition
  • more

• pc

  • Stan Lee thinks games are like "watching the greatest superhero movie"
  • Obsidian working on RTS?
  • Splinter Cell: conviction suffers a delay
  • Scott Warner on Mercenaries 2
  • Free Kung Fu MMO goes live in 8 days
  • more

• doom

  • 
  • Doom 3 goes 'Super' for PS3
  • Doom movie slated for October
  • Doom 3
  • Doom RPG Mobilised
  • The Rock talks Doom
  • more

Id have always gone their own way. Despite their massive critical and financial successes over the years, they have resisted the temptation to grow for growths sake - Id still numbers around the 20 employees mark. This is partly down to Carmack's well known apathy towards anything other than programming and rocketry, but also perhaps partly due to the fact that Id is one of the few developers out there lacking in outright leadership. Carmack himself owns 40% of the company, with artists Adrian Carmack and Kevin Cloud holding over 50% and the remainder spread between other employees. The result is a level of infighting that would tear other companies apart. Indeed, divisions were rife over the decision to make Doom 3 itself, and eventually resulted in the sacking of artist Paul Steed after he organised a rebellion of employees who were in favour remaking the early classic.

Once development began, however, further strife was avoided and the game is now considered technologically complete, with only minor fixes and changes ahead before final release sometime in the next eight months. That, of course, does not mean that there is not considerable work to be done. The much vaunted Doom 3 technology causes the developers some considerable problems as well as offering opportunities. The root of the problem is the massively increased level of detail the engine can handle - this looks incredible but it must first be generated, and the increased content needs of a graphics engine that can handle models of up to 250,000 polygons take a considerable toll on a small company like Id.

Carmack's genius was to design an engine that utilised models built to full CG specifications, and then convert them to a low polygon version with very little noticeable loss of detail. This is accomplished through a variety of means, the most important of which is modelling the shadows created on the full CG model in a texture format, creating the illusion of a far higher polygon count.

The engine is, of course, the real star of the show. Carmack has always shown incredible foresight, and Doom 3 will be the first mainstream game engine to offer dynamic lighting. In older engines (Quake 3 and before, Unreal, etc.), when a level designer compiles a level, the compiler calculates the lighting of the level based on the position and strength of the light sources placed within it, including a certain amount of reflected light (light that bounces-off surfaces). This information is stored in something called a lightmap that is used, along with the level geometry, to load the level that the player sees. Doom 3, however, does away with such lightmaps once and for all by calculating the effects of all light sources dynamically during the game.

This has several important implications. In the older engines lightmaps imposed limits on the amount of lighting that could be changed in the game - perhaps the main character might have a shadow, as well as the enemies. Later iterations might introduce new tricks to make the light seem more dynamic - light switches, shooting out lights, etc. But the fact is, in Doom 3, all lighting is dynamic. Shoot a ceiling lamp and it will swing, and all the objects in the room will have their shadows recalculated on the fly. One consequence of the move to dynamic lighting is the loss of reflected light calculations, meaning that any area where there is no direct lighting will be rendered black, but this is a small matter for a game designed to invoke fear. These changes bring tremendous possibilities, however, and for the first time we should see lighting techniques inherited from cinema being utilised to create fear, suspense and foreboding.

Next

1. *boring*

   endless Tuesday, 29 July 2003, 14:26:24

2. Congratulations Nick McCrea. You really described it perfectly. New engine, new tehnology... everyone can realise the power of ID software... There are only 20 members of ID... Only genious people can number such CREW. Offcourse, Carmack is the LEADER and he'll always be.

   snake Wednesday, 30 July 2003, 06:18:39

3. my only hope is that the Gameplay and Story line will be as great as the Graphics

   Mr Smile Wednesday, 30 July 2003, 10:40:31

4. The gameplay is my only (albeit very vague) concern, but the fact is that Carmack has consistantly claimed to have pushed the technology towards the kind of tools his level designers wanted, and not the other way round.

   This, I think, bodes well. Time will tell, as they say.

   Nick Wednesday, 30 July 2003, 17:47:45

5. It'll likely be a very id-like game: straight-forward and repetitive with no plot, yet technically amazing and with a bit of an atmosphere.

   I'm doubting it will be as tense as, say, System Shock 2, a very creepy FPS/RPG hybrid.

   Colonel_K Thursday, 31 July 2003, 00:33:31

6. nice review nick, it sounds like they have put a lot of work into the gameplay as well as teh gfx, pity, ill need a new computer before i can play it.

   [UberMonk] Thursday, 31 July 2003, 02:07:14

7. Other than half life 2 Doom 3 is perhaps my most anticipated game, other than rome total war and half life 2 doom 3 is my most anticipated game, other than halo 2 and half life 2 and rome total war doom 3 is my most anticipated game other than half life 2 rome total war and halo 2 and deus ex 2 doom 3 is my most anticipate game,

   Slug Thursday, 31 July 2003, 08:28:47

8. Dynamic lighting new...er well maybe seen it before in every graphics card demo of the last year or so...high detail normal maps new...well maybe not given those nvidia demos of dawn and ogre and some stuff from last year and...but clostophobic gameplay now that's new...er wait resident evil by capcom..

   I have no doubt the graphics will be good but watching at E3 you couldn't really make out much given the 70-80% darkness in some areas and getting a whole new sound system to hear the breathing behind me is kind of excessive don't you think.

   I'll get halflife 2 and halo 2 and total war and if i'm stuck for something to do after that then I'll pick up doom 3. Trend towards more involving shorter games?!? when did Carmack loose touch? Longer more involved games is what we want not shorter especially seeing as the prices are about to go up!

   Penhalion Friday, 1 August 2003, 18:08:14

9. "and character movement away from the console immediately equips the last weapon used, should the player be ambushed"

   Yeah.. I mean take away our "use" key and hit us up with this potentially ANNOYING senario. Nice. :P

   "Id understandably wanting to avoid opening a portal to hell specifically to ask some demons for some motion capture help"

   Yeah but SIERRA decided to get help from REAL ALIENS!! :P

   JimmyBottles Saturday, 9 August 2003, 09:03:17

10. :-)

    hello this game have a good look

    jean Sunday, 10 August 2003, 11:51:26

11. id are really going to have to make soemthing special of the fear thing - if it's just hype then it looks like we have nothing but a playable tech demo.

    Sam Tuesday, 12 August 2003, 18:37:8

12. you guys are forgetting that ID were the first people to make an FPS game, Doom revolutinized the gaming industry, for god's sake have some faith... damn the game after you have played it....

    as far as I am concerned Doom was and will always be better than Half-Life, Dues EX and duke nukem even if doom 3 turns out to be a total failure,,

    Doomfanatic Friday, 29 August 2003, 03:31:12

13. doom 3 is going to be a hell of a game

    "and the growing sophistication of the Mod community will no doubt mean some incredible efforts from them. The shadows of Doom 3 should ensure that the future remains bright."

    phleb:ac Friday, 29 August 2003, 17:17:46

14. i thought it was quite scary when i pressed next page it had that weird zombie thing looking down on me. Doom 3 shall rock, and i will never be able to play it, you need like a GeForce4 MINIMUM to play it with the great shadow effects

    MOHAA fanatic Saturday, 30 August 2003, 01:59:34

16. Wow gys you made the right thing DOOM3 gona bee the best game ever congratulation youre the best yust kep doing all like that and you gona smash the stupid half life 2.

    darko from SERBIA Saturday, 6 September 2003, 07:54:38

17. always take notice of the potential that any new game has. The possibilities that DOOM 3 and its engine entails are really huge! Up to this day developers are still feeding of from the remaped Quake engine which Carmack himself created in the mid nineties. Doom 3 ushers in the begining of a new era. Just like HL2, this will be the new age of games. The previous engine war was between Quake and Unreal, this time its going to be HL2 and Doom3

    Fr0sT Thursday, 11 September 2003, 03:47:58

18. this game looks more of a kick ass game then halo is. The graohics are awsome and just when i thought doom 2 was good now this will even better.

    Julius Caesar fanatic Thursday, 23 October 2003, 17:27:32

19. I have no idea what doom3 is like. Never played it

    jake Sunday, 14 December 2003, 01:26:13

20. hi im just saying that ive seen the doom3 trailer(www.doom3.com)and it looks sweet and the graphics are class and how long is it going to be until its realeased

    FRAGF!SH Saturday, 31 January 2004, 05:29:57

21. quakes beta

    007 Monday, 19 April 2004, 09:08:19

22. sweet

    PIMP Thursday, 10 June 2004, 11:19:50

23. Doom3, the beta was really impressive... scared the crap out of me... especially the bathroom scene when you look into the mirror and the big fat scary monster appears next to you... there are already some user created maps which are quite good... belive me... it won't be only a high tec demo. even if they mess up the story, the monsters are great (beta is three years old), and will keep you focused on the real important thing... survival

    V_wnage Tuesday, 15 June 2004, 07:53:9

24. This game drives me crazy even before the relize! What will happen afterwards then...

    Dan Tuesday, 22 June 2004, 03:21:43

25. Doom 3 WOW. Its all that needs saying really. Doom is muck better than quake and u cant forget than doom revolutionised the gaming industry and fps

    Olly Friday, 2 July 2004, 00:25:52

26. well back in the day i was a total doom freak and can hardly wait but id really like a simple remake of the classics . run fast and shoot everything . no mouse and some wicked graphics.like the old saying ( KISS )

    keep it simple stupid. ltr

    jay Sunday, 11 July 2004, 08:24:18

27. so many comments...

    As for the Doom 3 beta??? Remember when it "came out" 3 years ago as an alpha? The so called "Beta" is the same thing w/a few new maps and a slightly modified config file. It took me about a day to modify that config file beyond what the so called "Beta" did (although the new maps were nice).

    Fully dynamic light? well, yes, Nvidia had some demos that sort of had that. but actually they used shadow maps (to an extreme, and tried to fake soft dynamic shadows). Doom 3 uses fully dynamic stencil shadows. Not the same as Nvidias demos. And if u want dynamic soft shadows (not faked w/today's shadow maps).... wait about 2 years, it's coming (the newest gfx cards are already capable).

    Normal mapping? well there is a difference between bump and normal maps. and some Nvidia demos have them, but don't forget... THESE ARE DEMOS. They have 1 main thing happening and only have to run on one specific high end card. Having this in a game is another story.

    As far as game length. I hear it takes over 20 hours to beat. That's far more than most fps I've played lately.

    The game will be scary. Also both slow and intense at the same time. You can't doubt a Carmack engine. It's obviously more than just a tech demo, otherwise it would have been released awhile ago. Mods will make up for multi. And if the same (modified) engine is used for Quake 4, I don't think anyone will complain.

    fantom Thursday, 15 July 2004, 05:25:32

28. PC Gamer has already played and reviewed the game and has claimed that this is not true. It is almost 23 hours of gameplay and that the intense action never stopped. Not only is it a graphics powerhouse, the game is supposedly raises the bar on all FPS standards.

    PCGAMERFAN Thursday, 22 July 2004, 21:41:35

29. is Doom 3 c0mming 0ut 0n ps2?

    jay Friday, 6 August 2004, 01:49:12

30. doom 3 is a fantastic game .

    maddad Wednesday, 15 September 2004, 10:26:38

32. 1 problem ...... NO Sound!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    People say they are waiting for ID to make a patch, but i have been waiting for Ages.

    This is soo annoying. I want to play so bad i could cry :-( .

    Does any body know why this problem occurs??? PLEASE HELP

    I have a sound blaster live sound card

    Me... Wednesday, 15 September 2004, 15:17:46

33. I've played the first few levels so far, they are awesome! Despite how creepy it gets, I still can't stay away. I hope it keeps getting better.

    Captain Morgan Tuesday, 12 October 2004, 17:28:16

34. I also have no sound when playing doom 3, running a sound blaster live sound card?????????????????

    Rob Wednesday, 28 December 2005, 21:10:35