"Like most folks, we had very high expectations of Doom¿s ability to bring ground-breaking graphics that¿d help raise the bar for games and finally be able to tap the performance out of the latest video cards. They delivered in spades. Forget every screenshot you¿ve seen. For every trailer you¿ve watched, one truly must see Doom 3 in action to truly appreciate its full splendor."

"The levels are dark. Painfully dark. The lighting plays an important role in the gameplay. Imagine walking along minding your own business. Ah, there is a power up right over there. The coast looks clear. You jump down and grab it. Suddenly a flaming demon jumps out from a mysterious opening in the wall that was covered up a moment ago. In fact, Doom 3 makes a great cure to constipation when taken with a laxative. In other words, the game is scary. Take our advice and play it at night (if you buy the game you'll be up all night playing it anyways.)"

"I don't follow gaming message boards, because, at its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular game just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior. This slashdot story is about as close as I want to go..."

"One of the main reasons for the atmosphere being so good is the Doom 3 engine, which was greatly advertised by the developers. As we all have come to expect from id game engines, Doom 3 also takes it's toll on PC resources, with only the latest gaming rigs being able to run it at 1600x1200, with high details and anisotropic filtering and antialiasing activated. And although id declared that only a 512Ram video card can handle Ultra High Quality, that doesn't necessarily mean that the game looks bad on medium or high quality. Although I read the [H]ardOCP [H]ardware Guide that came out last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see the game running with 16 to 40 fps on my XP 2200+, GF4 Ti 4200 with 128 VRAM and 512 MB RAM, on medium quality, with no AA or anisotropic filtering. But I was only able to do so after I stopped all unnecessary services and made some tweaks to my Windows XP."

"Staying up all night benchmarking one of the most anticipated titles of the past few years has been very educational for us. Quite a few impressions we had about what our Doom 3 experience would be like had to be thrown out the window, and it all comes down to the fact that this is an impressive game no matter how you slice it."

"Finger: How did you find the inspiration come up with such a chilling soundtrack?

Ed Lima: When first starting out, I looked at several scary films and games for places to start, games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Clive Barker's Undying. But I also checked out films like The Exorcist, The Keep and The Entity to get some different ideas, particularly where cutscenes and boss monster intros were concerned. But after a certain point, I just had to dig deep and really try to capture sounds that would scare me. Also, a huge part of how scary the game's soundscape is comes from HOW sounds are triggered during gameplay, and for that I have to give HUGE props to Christian 'Xian' Antkow, who also did sound work on the game as well as level design work. His mix of sound and design skills made him the perfect guy to implement all of our scary content ingame to greatest effect."

RAISING HELL: ID SOFTWARE¿S DOOM 3 FOR THE PC SHIPS TO RETAIL

Santa Monica, CA ¿ August 3, 2004 ¿ The terror is about to begin¿id Software¿ and Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) have unleashed evil on gamers worldwide with the release of DOOM 3¿, the most anticipated PC game of the year. A sci-fi horror masterpiece, DOOM 3 combines a dramatic storyline, pulse-pounding action, incredible graphics and revolutionary technology to deliver the most gripping and frightening gaming experience ever created. PC Gamer has already declared DOOM 3 ¿a masterpiece of the art form,¿ and awarded it a score of 94%. DOOM 3 is currently available at retail outlets nationwide for a suggested retail price of $54.99 and is rated ¿M¿ (Mature) by the ESRB.

¿The wait is over. The next generation in PC gaming has arrived with the release of DOOM 3,¿ said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. ¿DOOM 3 is a total assault on your senses. The terrifying atmosphere, story, and cinema quality visuals and sound are like nothing ever seen in a game before, and we¿re thrilled to begin delivering it to game fans in North America, with the rest of the world only days away.¿
DOOM 3 utilizes id¿s revolutionary new 3D graphics engine to draw players into the most frightening and gripping experience imaginable. In DOOM 3, a massive demonic invasion has overwhelmed the UAC¿s Mars research facility leaving only chaos and horror in its wake. As one of only a few survivors, you struggle with shock and fear as you fight your way to Hell and back in an epic clash against pure evil. For more information, fans can visit www.doom3.com.

"If anything, Doom 3 will help the entire hardware industry sell more goods ¿ the two primary benefactors in that are ATI and NVIDIA. Let¿s face it; it¿s the GPU in your computer that¿ll make the single largest impact on Doom 3¿s ability to run good frame-rates for your gaming pleasure. They say 30 frames-per-second is what Movies are played at so anything above that is a waste ¿ what holds true for movies does not hold true for interactive gaming.

Doom 3¿s rendering engine is capable of displaying unparalleled in-gaming lighting effects and other DX9-Quality features that will bring most video cards to their knees."

"A note about antialiasing ¿ You may have read at the HardOCP and elsewhere that antialiasing isn't necessary in this game¿seems to be a near-universal opinion amongst those who have seen it. I don't totally disagree. In DOOM 3, object edges often have jaggies, but interior edges usually do not. Of course, the antialiasing used in most graphics cards today is multisampling, which typically only affects object boundaries. That's why you'll see annoying jaggies on interior edges in games like Far Cry, even with AA enabled. DOOM 3 doesn't have that problem, and I believe that it may be because id's pixel shader programs are programmed to do some antialiasing, at least in the game's "high quality" mode. So leave AA turned off, if you must. DOOM seems to kill interior edge jaggies anyhow."

"It doesn't take more than two minutes to see how advanced DOOM 3's new graphics tech is. The intro cut-scene initially appears to be a simple computer monitor, but the camera seamlessly peels away to reveal that it's part of a larger control room. As onlookers watch your ship come in for a landing, you can see small details like a camera tracking the ship on one of the control room monitors. After your ship docks, you're finally given full control of your character, at which point you can explore the immediate area and spend a few moments gawking at all the advanced shadow and lighting effects.

As you begin to explore the Mars City Hangar, you're greeted by a soldier who informs you that you need to head to registration. Interaction with other characters or objects is pretty simple: when you put your crosshair on something you can interact with, your weapon will automatically lower so you can "use" an item or talk to a person. After meeting this soldier, you can head directly to registration (as urged by a soothing female voice over the PA system), but there are also a few other corners of the hangar to explore. Down a set of stairs is a set of crates that you can push off a ledge into a seemingly bottomless pit; when you come across situations like this for the first "

"Of course, our reasons are purely rational: we want to have the game reviewed for you in as timely a way as possible to get you a full opinion on the game. It turns out that we're in the same boat as everyone else: Activision and id Software have not sent advance copies to the press (the early reviews you may have seen were based on play time at the actual Activision offices)."

"Main Menu Options

Ultra
Each texture (diffuse, specular, normal) will be at full resolution with no compression. In a typical DOOM 3 level, this can hover around 500 megabyte of texture data. This will run on current hardware but will not fit onto a 256MB card, causing texture thrashing. The amount of texture referenced in a given scene per frame ( 60 times a second ) can easily be 50 megabytes+. This is ideal for 512 megabyte video cards.

High quality
Uses hardware compression ( DXT1,3,5 ) for specular and diffuse textures and no compression for normal textures. This looks very very close to Ultra quality but the compression does cause some loss in quality. This is ideal for 256 megabyte video cards.

Medium quality
Uses hardware compression for all textures (specular, diffuse and normal). While this still looks good, compressing the normal maps can produce a few artifacts especially on hard angled or round edges. This is ideal for 128 megabyte cards.

Low quality
Uses hardware compression for all textures (specular, diffuse and normal) and automatically resizes diffuse and normal textures to no more than 256x256 and specular texture maps to no more than 64x64. This is ideal for 64 megabyte video cards."

"Id did a superb job of creating an environment ¿ atmosphere ¿ that sucks you into the world and makes you not want to put down the mouse and keyboard until you¿ve beat the game. That said, we¿ve found ourselves needing a break about every hour or so because the game tends to wear on your nerves (that¿s a good thing in this case). We can¿t remember the last time we played a game that spooked us this much.

Part of the eeriness is the interaction of your character to the environment ¿ there¿s definitely a great physics engine in Doom 3 which allows for many parts of the facility structure you¿re in to move around ¿ you can, for example, move boxes and chairs around, all of which behave very naturally. There is quite a number of scripted events too which modify the environment; all of which add to the suspense. The enemy too, at times, will use barrels and other things to throw at you."

"As virtual worlds go, Doom 3 is big. To play through it just once, never mind multiplayer matches and replay time, takes upwards of 30 hours. (Take that, Peter Jackson!) Despite its size, it is meticulously detailed. The monsters of the original Doom were barely animated blobs of pixels; this time the game is populated by a gallery of fascinating grotesques and gargoyles created by Kenneth Scott, id's soft-spoken lead artist, whose work references Francis Bacon and cheesy fantasy artist Frank Frazetta with equal reverence. The ghouls are excruciatingly detailed. As you're being devoured by a swarm of demonic cherubs, you can admire the iridescent patina on their insect wings. To play Doom 3 is to feel your skin prickle with atavistic fear. It's a bit too lifelike for comfort.

"Benchmarking in Doom 3 is different than in most other games. First, actual game play is capped at 60FPS, so real time FPS scores can only be achieved using FRAPS. In part two of our Doom 3 Benchmarking series, we'll be using FRAPS to gather real-world performance figures from the game. Today we'll be using a custom-made timedemo to give you a better idea of what to expect out of your graphics cards."

"But let's back up a bit, because even the segment that we played before the shooting starts warrants a detailed description. From the short snippets of Doom 3 footage that have been released so far, it has been difficult to glean exactly how alive the game's world really is; but play the game at length and this will quickly become apparent. When you first step off the lift and begin speaking with the soldiers and scientists who are performing their duties, you'll notice that the game's dialogue is both well-written and convincingly acted. As you walk from one grungy industrial facility to the next, you can't help but be impressed by the complex machinery that animates in almost every room. One television monitor even runs a perfectly animated video detailing the history of the Union Aerospace Corporation. In short, these aren't the production values you'd expect from an id game; they are, based on our brief experience, much more impressive."

"You are a space marine deployed to the planet Mars. A powerful and sophisticated technology corporation has been on the planet for years and for much of that time it has conducted tests and experiments to advance its resources. A Half-Life inspired opening cut-scene shows your arrival on the planet, all in real-time and looking gorgeous. A ship lands on the planet and out you step. A cut-scene reveals your entrance into a state of the art facility, which is built atop the planet, and when you step inside you're met with several guards who go over all the basics. Doom 3 features top-end presentation through and through, be it the detailed in-game graphics complete with unparalleled light and shadow or the well-delivered, dramatic voice acting that brings the characters to life. You will believe."

"Monday, August 2: 10:30 p.m. ¿ Fans line up for a chance to purchase DOOM 3. Prizes will be given away to the first 100 people in line.
Tuesday, August 3: 12:01 a.m. ¿ DOOM 3 for Windows on sale.

The following Best Buy stores are participating in the midnight sales:

California:
- West Los Angeles - 11301 W. Pico Blvd.
- West Hollywood - 7100 Santa Monica Blvd.
Illinois:
- Chicago - 1000 W. North Ave.
Washington D.C. Area:
- Sterling, VA - 45575 Dulles Eastern Plaza
- White Marsh, MD - Nottingham Square
Minnesota:
- Richfield - 1000 West 78th St.
New York:
- Westbury - 1100 Old Country Rd.
Texas:
- Plano - 2800 N. Central Expressway

"I'd sum up the single player game simply as the best purely visceral first person shooter that I've ever played. That is to say, the game focuses on fear, action, and atmosphere, much like the original DOOM games. Look at the game from this more abstract view, and I think that despite all the gameplay differences from its predecessors, you'll find that DOOM 3 really does stay true to the franchise's name. The game also lasts longer than most FPS games out today; twenty to twenty-five hours is about right for the first play-through. Then there's the higher difficulty modes as well."

"IGNM: How did you get involved in the project? And then when you and Clint wrote the theme, did they actually show you game footage or did you both fly by the seat of your pants?

Chris Vrenna: When I was doing what I call the musical sound design stuff, I actually had one of their full development PCs here at my place for a little while. They sent it to me 'cause just the way you have to work and the way you lay sounds within the levels and things of that nature [required that I see and play the game]. So I got to play a lot of the game back when I was doing that. But when it came time for the theme, they just had some specific styles and sounds that they wanted. And to do that, because it wasn't going to be locked to anything, and since I'd already seen a lot of the game before, it wasn't as important to see the game in order to compose that piece of music. But man does that game look cool! It's definitely a good one. It's really, really scary."

FileFront.
FileShack.
Gametrailers.

"i was just hanging out there and some guy came in with a box of 4 or 5 copies, saying he ordered them online and thought he ordered the xbox ones and got these sent ot him early...we thought they were bootlegged or something was fishy, but these are fully legit..."

"wow...words can't even describe it, its just beautiful...ive played it for about two hours, and i have to admit, no game has ever had me as on edge as this does...ive jumped like 50,000 times....

if anyone has any questions, ill answer them to the best of my abilities....lemme be the first to say it is AMAZING"

"id Software and HardOCP have teamed up to help answer your hardware questions. We're publishing this guide before DOOM 3 goes for sale, so you will know beforehand what to expect in terms of gameplay immersion by your current hardware. We also want to help maximize the overall DOOM 3 experience for those of you that have been waiting for the opportunuity to upgrade.

This guide is not an attempt to crown a king in the realm of hardware, and no direct comparisons are going to be drawn on any of our graphs. Our goal here is to help you understand where your system is positioned in terms of playing DOOM 3 and to help you choose an upgrade that will make a real difference and offer you the greatest improvement in gameplay for the money spent."

"Like any company Creative owns a number of technology patents and like any company we need to ensure that our patents are protected. Simply allowing another company to knowingly use a patent you own weakens your position and future claims against infringement. We therefore had to find a legally acceptable way to allow id to use this technique without it being seen as an infringement. The goal was the same from id's perspective"
[...]
"So with this deal everybody wins. The world gets to play DoomIII with the optimized shadowing technique, id did not have to pay any cash or royalties and Creative gets to add EAX into the DoomIII engine and make it available to gamers everywhere"

"Creative apparently has a patent on a shadowing technique that appears to have some similiarity with id Software's soon-to-be-available DOOM3's shadowing technique. Now, without attempting to raise any controversy on this matter, this reporter thinks that software patents in general are a Bad Thing. It is a little suspicious that Creative posted about their technique on their company's developer forum first. To have later filed a patent and then challenge id Software is in this reporter's opinion inexcusable. This is tantamount to blackmailing game developers -- inventing a technique, talking about it before filing a patent that hasn't been published and then telling a game developer that there is some infringement is just unethical behaviour."

"The patent situation well and truly sucks.

We were prepared to use a two-pass algorithm that gave equivalent results at a speed hit, but we negotiated the deal with Creative so that we were able to use the zfail method without having to actually pay any cash. It was tempting to take a stand and say that our products were never going to use any advanced Creative/3dlabs products because of their position on patenting gaming software algorithms, but that would only have hurt the users."

"I've seen quite a few posts in the forums about "Ultra" quality and why we don't set this by default out of the box. I thought I would clarify a few of the reasons and also take the time to mention some of the hardware and software we found incredibly useful during the development of DOOM 3.

To put things in perspective, most production levels in DOOM 3 contain more media assets than all of Quake 3: Arena. When we started working on the memory foot print, our goal was a 256MB system. In most cases loading up an area of the game on a 256MB system works fine, the problems arise when you start to transition from one area to the next ( successive map loads ). Memory fragmentation starts to really work against us and it ultimately made it just not feasible for a reasonable play experience to support 256MB.

Two basic options make up the quality levels, sound diversity and image fidelity.

Sound diversity is effectively how many sounds we support per sound shader for a given "sound". There may be for instance, 7 different "bullet striking the wall" sounds for a given bullet. In low quality, we only use one sound for this vs randomly choosing between one of the seven available. When we started on memory optimization, most levels used between 80 and 100 megabytes of sound data. We made the choice to move to .OGG for quite a few sounds which effectively removed the problem for us.

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."