+--| Enter The Game's |------------------------------------------+ | | | DDDDDDD OOOOOO OOOOOO MMM MMM 3333333 | | DDDDDDDD OOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO MMMM MMMM 333333333 | | DDD DDDD OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO MMMMM MMMMM 333 333 | | DDD DDD OOO OOO OOO OOO MMM MMMM MMM 333 | | DDD DDD OOO OOO OOO OOO MMM MM MMM 333333 | | DDD DDD OOO OOO OOO OOO MMM MMM 333 | | DDD DDDD OOOO OOOO OOOO OOOO MMM MMM 333 333 | | DDDDDDDD OOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO MMM MMM 333333333 | | DDDDDDD OOOOOO OOOOOO MMM MMM 3333333 | | | +------------| FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS v.1.0 |-------------+ http://Doom3.EnterTheGame.Com Visit Our Sites At: +-----------------------+----------------------------------------+ | Main ETG Site: | http://www.enterthegame.com/ | | ETG's Doom3 Site: | http://doom3.enterthegame.com/ | +-----------------------+----------------------------------------+ Contact Us: Irc.EnterTheGame.Com - #Doom3 Slave@Doom3Channel.EnterTheGame.Com Whiz@EnterTheGame.Com Info@EnterTheGame.com This FAQ is Copyright EnterTheGame 2004 Table of Contents ------------------------------------------- 1) What is DOOM 3? 2) What is the goal of DOOM 3? 3) Who is making doom 3? 4) Who is publishing doom 3? 5) What can you tell me about Doom 3's storyline? 6) Is the DOOM 3 engine a remake of the quake3 engine? 7) What makes this game different from all others in the past? 8) What about Doom 3 graphics? 9) What sound engine can we expect in Doom 3? 10) What type of soundtrack will be involved with DOOM 3? 11) What about modmaking and level editing? 12) What can you tell me about the doom 3 network code? 13) What about Doom 3 game code itself? 14) What about Doom 3 physics? 15) What can you tell me about game development and tools? 16) What about Doom 3 models? 17) What type of animation program was used for Doom 3? 18) What can you tell me about Doom 3 animation? 19) Will Doom 3 be available or ported to any consoles? 20) Will DOOM 3 have multiplayer? 21) What will DOOM 3's Multiplayer be like? 22) What will the gameplay in DOOM 3 be like? 23) What type of hit system will doom 3 use? 24) What weapons will be in doom 3? 25) What about Power-Ups? 26) How long will it take to complete DOOM 3 Single player? 27) How customizable is DOOM 3 be? 28) What are the system specs for DOOM 3? 29) What else can you tell me about graphics cards needed for Doom 3? 30) What other systems will DOOM 3 run on? 31) What is DOOM 3 rated? 32) Why should you not use the leaked version to test what Doom3 will be like? 33) What is in Doom3's HUD? 34) What about a Doom 3 demo? 35) What other facts can you tell me? 36) ID was planning on working on some other game instead of Doom 3? What was all this about? 37) Will Doom III be on DVD also? 38) Where are the pictures of DOOM 3? 39) When will DOOM 3 be released? FAQ Start ---------------------------------------------------------- 1) What is DOOM 3 ? -------------------- Doom III is the third version of the game that brought First Person Action Shooters onto the map of the gaming industry, and introduced the world- wide known online gaming experience known as death match. John Carmack, head programmer, made a .plan update on June 1, 2000 that announced the direction of the company in terms of what game was going to be the next project. "Well, this is going to be an interesting .plan update. Most of this is not really public business, but if some things aren't stated explicitly, it will reflect unfairly on someone. As many people have heard discussed, there was quite a desire to remake DOOM as our next project after Q3. Discussing it brought an almost palpable thrill to most of the employees, but Adrian had a strong enough dislike for the idea that it was shot down over and over again. Design work on an alternate game has been going on in parallel with the mission pack development and my research work. Several factors, including a general lack of enthusiasm for the proposed plan, the warmth that Wolfenstein was met with at E3, and excitement about what we can do with the latest rendering technology were making it seem more and more like we weren't going down the right path. I discussed it with some of the other guys, and we decided that it was important enough to drag the company through an unpleasant fight over it. An ultimatum was issued to Kevin and Adrian(who control >50% of the company): We are working on DOOM for the next project unless you fire us. Obviously no fun for anyone involved, but the project direction was changed, new hires have been expedited, and the design work has begun." DOOM 3 is the retelling, not sequel, or continuation, of the DOOM Series, it is a revamped version of the original DOOM story, as if the first two never happened. DOOM 3 is a first person action shooter, and a great one at that, its original series set the bar for the gaming industry, and introduced a cult classic. And now that legacy has returned with its new revamped story, and impressive graphics engine. DOOM 3 has once again set the bar for the gaming industry. It is described as an "over-the-top, story-based single-player experience..." with multiplayer support. June 1st, 2000 Press Announcement of DOOM 3: MESQUITE, Texas - June 1, 2000 - id Software, an independent developer of entertainment software, has started work on the next incarnation of DOOM, one of the most popular computer games of all time. Employing an entirely new 3-D graphics engine, the still untitled project will showcase id Software's legendary ability to create an over-the-top, story-based single-player experience. "id Software forever changed computer games with the DOOM franchise, and only id can carry on the cultural and technical tradition of the original masterpiece," Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software, said. Hollenshead offered few other details. "We expect to once again dramatically advance first-person gaming both technically and artistically with this title," Hollenshead added. "Other than that, id does not plan on issuing additional comments until the game is ready to speak for itself. The original DOOM was released to critical acclaim in 1993 as shareware and has since been recognized as one of the most downloaded pieces of software of all time. id later released DOOM and its sequels at retail, where combined they have sold more than 4 million copies, generating sales topping $100 million. 2) What is the goal of DOOM 3? ------------------------------- To provide a single player game that focuses on the fear factor, instead of the fast paced multiplayer game environment of a game like Quake 3. 3) Who is making doom 3 ? -------------------------- The creators of the original doom series, doom and doom 2, and of course the legendary ID Software! The id Software Team : Programmers: * John Carmack * Jim Dose * Jan Paul van Waveren * Robert Duffy * Graeme Devine Level designers: * Paul Jaquays * Tim Willits * Christian Antkow * Malvern Blackwell Artists: * Adrian Carmack * Kevin Cloud * Kenneth Scott * Seneca Menard * Fred Nilsson Music / sounds: * Chris Vrenna and Clint Walsh Misc: * Marty Stratton (biz guy) * Eric Webb (intern / tech support) * Todd Hollenshead (CEO) * Donna Jackson (id mom) 4) Who is publishing doom 3 ? ------------------------------ Activison 5) what can you tell me about Doom 3's storyline? -------------------------------------------------- To give the game a more in-depth feel, and to put the player into the story, id Software hired Matt Castelo to write a more complex and dramatic storyline for DOOM 3. Scripted sequences and cut scenes in the game will play along with the story. 6) Is the DOOM 3 engine a remake of the quake3 engine? ------------------------------------------------------- -On October 23, 2000 Jim Dose stated: "The engine is being completely rewritten, just piece-by-piece. Currently, the renderer, shader system, and game code are completely new. The cgame and network code have been removed. The animation system is currently being written from the ground up. The sound system and UI are still in place, but will be rewritten by Graeme and Robert when they are finished with the mission pack. At some point along the way, John will probably write a new network system. So, even though we are not starting out with a blank sheet of paper, the final result will be a full rewrite." John Carmack said: One of the primary functions of our next-generation technology is trying to do everything with bump-mapping and dot products. I am spending a huge amount of graphics horsepower to allow the engine to be flexible in ways that game engines have never been before. I am hoping that the absolute top-of-the-line system available when the game ships will be capable of running it with all features enabled and anti-aliasing on at 60hz, but even the fastest cards of today are going to have to run at fairly low resolutions to get decent frame rates. Many will choose to drop a feature or two to get some speed back, but they still won't be able to get near 60hz. The renderer is completely new, and very different in structure from previous engines. Interestingly, the interface remained fairly close for a long time, such that I was able to develop most of the DOOM renderer using the rest of Q3 almost unmodified. It finally did diverge, but still not too radically. 7) What makes this game different from all others in the past? -------------------------------------------------------------- This engine will enable real time lighting effects to be rendered and will include "moving lights" and "moving shadows"; something never seen before. This technology also allows the lighting effects to be rendered per pixel versus prior pregenerated lightmaps. Bumpmaps and 3d textures will be used, instead of the previous bitmaps seen in earlier games. 8) What about Doom 3 graphics? ------------------------------- Doom 3 will use an entirely new rendering engine. Possible features in the new engine include things such as fully-dynamic lighting and '3D textures'. Back in 2000 Carmack stated "one of the primary functions of our next-generation technology is trying to do everything with bump- mapping and dot products." Again in 2000 he seemed to confirm that there will be support for bump mapping for both artist-produced bumpmaps and procedural bumpmaps. In 2001 John Carmack introduced the Doom 3 engine for the first time at the MacWorld expo. 9) What sound engine can we expect in Doom 3? ---------------------------------------------- Doom III's sound engine will be EAX compatible. In other words, Doom III will have cinematic surround sound. As early as September 9, 2000, John Carmack said, "Graeme's primary task is going to be a completely new sound engine. Coupled with the fact that this will be the first project where I am comfortable using threads (previously the cross-platform issues have nixed it for me) for required background streaming, we should have quite literally an order of magnitude more audio richness than in our previous games." "When you hurl a fire ball, as it passes you, it hits you in the back speakers." -- Christian Antkow 10) What type of soundtrack will be involved with DOOM 3 ? ----------------------------------------------------------- At first Trent Reznor with Nine Inch Nails was working on the sounds & music for DOOM 3 but later left the project over unknown issues. Currently Chris Vrenna and Clint Walsh has been doing the sounds & soundtrack for DOOM 3, However, DOOM 3's soundtrack is unique from what it was in the past, The music is not the general type of music, it is more of ambient sounds and noises mixed together to give the maps and the singleplayer at type of rhythm that goes with the game. Unlike past id Software games, Doom 3 will have a programmer specifically dedicated to the sound code. Which in short will most likely give the audio in doom 3 a crisp sound, and make it unique apart from their past games. In a interview in 2000, John Carmack let the following information out regarding the new sound code: Graeme's primary task is going to be a completely new sound engine. Coupled with the fact that this will be the first project where I am comfortable using threads (previously the cross-platform issues have nixed it for me) for required background streaming, we should have quite literally an order of magnitude more audio richness than in our previous games. John Carmack said: We offer full dynamic 5.1 channel sound mixing, and multichannel playback of studio sounds. It isn't clear that the market is really there for it yet, but DOOM should be a poster child for surround-sound gaming. We have a nice sound system set up for our demonstration, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if quite a few people go buy one based on the experience. In 2001, Jim Dosé said the following about the sound system in the Doom 3 engine: "We hope to go really far with the sound in Doom. Probably the best thing about FAKK's system was the fact that it gave the sound designer a lot of control over sound in the game and we want to have the control and editing support in Doom to be just as good, if not better. Graeme is spending a lot of time developing a robust sound system and Robert is developing a user interface that allows us to quickly setup in-game editing facilities, so I think we should be able to give Doom's sound the justice it deserves." 11) What about modmaking and level editing? -------------------------------------------- All the editor tools you need for doom 3 are built within the game itself. With the purchase of the game, you will be given the full modding kit. Mod coders should start to prepare themselves with a decent knowledge of C++, and other programming code, and custom mappers can start to dream of level scripting, animated map objects and the absence of time consuming lightning stages while precompiling the maps. DOOM 3 will come with its own tools built right into the game's main executable for making levels. This will include everything that you need to build your own maps for doom 3 or any mods your creating for doom 3, create graphics, sounds and even scripts. id Software is using the same machines to make DOOM 3 as you will use to play it, Meaning some of the tools (ie map editor) are the same tools used in the development of the game. 12) What can you tell me about the doom 3 network code? -------------------------------------------------------- Doom 3 will be on the past style client/server TCP/IP networking code. There will not be a peer2peer connection anymore, as this was scraped by id Software prior to the Quakecon 2003 Event. John Carmack stated in 2001 when asked about exploiting a broadband-only design target: "The biggest thing that broadband will do is just save a lot of twitchy programmer time spent optimizing for the modem straw. This will increase flexibility and let developers concentrate on making the environment and game play more fun. Clearly, that is a good thing all by itself. Voice (probably with several optional vocoders) is a no-brainer once we get more bandwidth, and even talking-head webcam video becomes a useful possibility. I'm not sure of the exact utility of it, but it becomes feasible to send and receive packets from multiple sources on a real-time basis, which you can't afford to do with a modem. This may enable some architectures that are more clustered instead of the binary boundary of client / server." 13) What about Doom 3 game code itself? ---------------------------------------- Doom 3 will use the standard DLLs for the game code much as Quake 2 & Quake 3 have. John Carmack has mentioned his interest in creating a sort of 'Quake' simplified coding language which would make mods an easier affair than in the Quake 3 engine. Also the standard file format for DOOM 3 is .pk4 14) What about Doom 3 physics? ------------------------------- The physics in DOOM 3 will be 'real-time' physics, by this, meaning if not all, a great majority, of the objects in the world will be able to be pushed around and altered by the player, and the players themselves along w/ the creatures in the singleplayer, will have a 'rag-doll' effect put upon them. In 2000, Jim Dose had talked about a handful of popular 3D engines: "By this time next year, most, if not all, of the games made with these engines will use a fully featured physics engine, if not developed internally by the developer, then licensed from someone like Havoc or MathEngine. While not a hard-and-fast proof of any sort, this seems to strongly indicate that the Doom 3 engine will have a realistic physics model." 15) What can you tell me about game development and tools? ----------------------------------------------------------- Unlike earlier id games, Doom 3 was developed on the same machines it is intended to play on. In short, a good set of tools (not all but some) which where used in the development of DOOM 3 will be in the game when you get it, with no need for specific hardware. The development tools are integrated with the game code. In other words, there embeded with the executable file for doom 3. The decisions to integrate all tools (editor and map developing) directly into the executable, make DOOM 3 by far the easiest to create content for. Everyone that has the game installed edit the game. Also, I have banished the last of the binary file formats, so everything (except standard data files like .wav and .tga) is now in easily explored and understood text files. - John Carmack 16) What about Doom 3 models? ------------------------------ The following below is speculated comments made by people in regards to the doom 3 models. 2001 statement by "Wrath" ex lead animator at Ion Storm: "Ayup...that's 500,000 poly models. I saw them, they were in game though probably not the way you think. The high poly version of the models were being used as the reference for all the cool lighting effects...the self- shadowing, bump mapping, displacements, etc. That info was being projected onto a much smaller version of the model, maybe 1500 polys or so. The high poly versions were untextured, the low poly models were using 3 or 4 256x256 skins I THINK. They were very hush hush about specifics." "I dunno how exactly the magic was working, all I know is that they're starting with insanely detailed models, using them for all the lighting info, and passing that info on to the decimated skinned model that's actually running about in game. Not that you would be able to tell. You get close enough to a model, you can see the creases in fingers. All looking incredible." 2001 statement by Zaldron in the Doomworld forums: "I know this is a long quote, but it sounds to me that this trick is on par with the initial realization in the Quake engine of calculating lighting information beforehand and storing it in the map data, so I think such a long quote is warranted. Now, you have 2 models. One of them is the one you made for the game, it contains only mesh structure for the FIRST frame AND skinning parameters (that is the X, Y, U and V coordinates for every triangle). If you wanna know what X, Y, U, V, H, X, 545, Hoolapalazac, etc etc are. It's quite simple : A "skin" is made from several images. Artists prefer to use one whole image for the head and neck, the other one for the torso and arms, and the other one for the pelvis and legs. Anyway, each triangle is painted with several pixels of those pics, how? Simple, choose the X and Y coordinates on where it starts borrowing from the pic, and then the U and V numbers tell the engine the horizontal and vertical percentaje of the pic being used. Anyway, the thing is that X, Y and Z coords for EVERY vertex, the joined edges, the skinning parameters, the normals data and the sub-materials values mean a LOT of SPACE = LOT OF RAM. That's why the 500k one is untextured. Otherwise it would occupy several megs. Traditional animation says : 1 frame = one different mesh. This is a horrible, horrible waste, because the size required to store "mesh form" is enlarged as many frames there is. That's why id moved to skeletal. Both the low poly and the high poly versions contain only one frame of animation, commonly the shape of the creature in a non-complex gesture, as standing with both arms stretched. Now, the hi-poly is user for shadow/bump calculations. Since it's not being rendered, it doesn't need all that skin data, but the model keeps eating a fair amount of RAM. Anyway, we have 2 models. The hi poly model is being hit by the lightrays in the game, resulting in both shadow/highlight pixel values, and bumpmap results. Have you ever seen a really good texture job in a model? It generally makes up for the jaggy edges. Now, taking this data in account, the textures will be upgraded by both the shadows and the bumpmaps in real time, as I explained in my article. But this time the position data comes from a MUCH MORE ACCURATE model, meaning that the result will not match the low poly mesh, but actually looking better. Hard to understand? Imagine a 3 faced finger. Bleh. Anyway, a bumpmap over that finger would look horrible, because you can clearly see how the bumpmap takes in consideration that mesh, and draw some accurate results FOR A 3 FACED FINGER, NOT A NICE ONE. With id's method, the bumpmap will come from the NICE FINGER, and skinned over the CRAPPY FINGER, will make the CRAPPY FINGER look like the NICE FINGER -IN THE INSIDE- Why did I added that "IN THE INSIDE"? Hard edges are still there, and that's why I'm saying 1500 is way too low. Because the 500k poly will make shadows and bumpmaps look real-like, but the low poly is the one being rendered, and it still has those hard edges. It's like rendering the 500k poly with all the textures and lighting and shit, but then cutting the shape of the low poly one all around it." 17) What type of animation program was used for Doom 3? -------------------------------------------------------- Maya. According to an interview on February 20, 2001, Fred Nilsson also said: "We have a great pipeline in place already.. I can import a model from Lightwave or 3DSMax. Set it up with bones.. Adjust the deformations. Then export it right into the game.. We can even do cameras etc. So.. Making cinematics should be a blast.. " 18) What can you tell me about Doom 3 animation? ------------------------------------------------- It is known that id Software has been using Maya for their Doom 3 modelling/animating work as well. What sort of system will be required to play Doom 3? "Early indications suggest that the target system for Doom 3 will be a 700 mhz system with 128 megabytes of RAM and a "high-end" video card (assumably GeForce-level or higher). However, these specs are very tentative and will probably change multiple times. There will probably be versions released for Windows, Linux, and Mac." John Carmack Explains how the DOOM 3 engine will run: "I am spending a huge amount of graphics horsepower to allow the engine to be flexible in ways that game engines have never been before. It is a little scary to drop down from the ultra-high frame rates we are used to with Q3, but I firmly believe that the power of the new engine will enable a whole new level of game content. I am hoping that the absolute top-of-the-line system available when the game ships will be capable of running it with all features enabled and anti-aliasing on at 60hz, but even the fastest cards of today are going to have to run at fairly low resolutions to get decent frame rates. Many will choose to drop a feature or two to get some speed back, but they still won't be able to get near 60hz." John Carmack said, "For the game's human characters, the team has decided that motion capture is the most appropriate technique. The game's monsters will pretty much all be animated by hand, but the humans--most of whom you'll encounter in the early part of the game, before the portal to hell is opened--will use motion data to enhance the realism of their movements. Along with many new monsters that will appear in DooM³, most of the original cast from DooM and DooM II will be making a return with a complete overhaul and updated design. Among the known creatures returning include: Imp, Pinky Demon, Revenant, Arch Vile, Mancubus, Cyber Demon, Spider Mastermind, Hellknight, and Lost Soul." 19) Will Doom 3 be available or ported to any consoles? -------------------------------------------------------- The only console system DOOM 3 is being developed for is Xbox, currently being developed by Vicarious Visions, and will supposedly be out October, 2004. John Carmack mentions the following regarding DOOM 3 and console systems "Depending on how our next project actually turns out, I certainly wouldn't rule out a Dreamcast version, but at 16MB of memory, whatever we do, our next project is going to be more linear in nature so it should be easier. It might be a matter of turning every mission into a half-point or something like that, but that involves much more work. It's going to be a matter of going back in and actually redesigning some of the levels. And that would be a significant undertaking--it would require new content, significantly new code architecture, and all that. Now PlayStation2 is a more interesting question, because it's halfway in between the Dreamcast and Xbox on memory, and it's got a good processor, but there are some sticking points with the graphics that are just really, really unfortunate. PlayStation2 took the tack of having the simplest graphics rasterizer that it can get and because it's all embedded DRAM it's blazingly fast on there, but there's some capabilities that just aren't there. One of the primary functions of our next-generation technology is trying to do everything with bump-mapping and dot products, and that math just isn't there on the PlayStation2...I'm not sure if it's going to be able to do the full-impact stuff we can do on the Xbox. We could certainly do a cut-down version that will run on the PlayStation2 and Dreamcast, but it won't have the incredible next-generation graphics look that we're going to see on the next generation of PC chips. Carmack said a Xbox port would be pretty much of a no-brainer if (yes, the big if-word) the development for the Xbox is as close to the PC work as thinks it could be." 20) Will DOOM 3 have multiplayer ? ----------------------------------- Yes DOOM 3 will have multiplayer, with a support of 4 players, this however is not limited in the engine, it is just the limit id Software desired to put due to the construction of the maps in the multiplayer. Out of the box, the four game modes that will most likely be played are tournament mode, TDM, FFA, and a clan arena type mode initially. The modding community will be able to raise the player limit up to however many the engine & current hardware can handle (estimation 16 to 18 players ?). Splash Damage, the company who worked on RtCW mutliplayer expansion, Enemy Territory, has been hired to develop a variety of different multiplayer modes & maps including last man standing and, as mentioned before, four- player Deathmatch. 21) What will DOOM 3's Multiplayer be like ? --------------------------------------------- DOOM 3's multiplayer will be different from others in the past, this time you will be able to use the environment to your advantage, use shadows for cover, etc. The physics engine will also contribute to how you play the game, the objects in the map can be altered from your movement -so if you're trying to sneak around and you bump into an object and it knocks over, your cover is blown!- You will also have the ability to shoot rockets out of the sky, if you have the aim and the skill, you will be able to knock those puppies out before they hit you. Strafe jumping is also in multiplayer, as is the ability to rocket jump. And the classic berserker power up from the old doom is in there, where your vision changes to something 'chaotic' as you run through and destroy everything in your path! Reactions to gunfire are different with armor than without, more without armor, and less of course with armor. The movement and speed however, is notched down from other id software titles like quake 3 (a fast action multiplayer game), It's not incredibly slower, but still slower enough to notice the difference. 22) What will the gameplay in DOOM 3 be like? ---------------------------------------------- The gameplay in Doom III is slowed down to enhance the frightening fear factor of the single player experience. 30 fps will be all that is needed to comfortably and smoothly run the game and according to Todd Hollenshead, the game will be capped at 60 fps. You will be able to trick jump ramps and stairs, and the strafe jumping will give you a boost here and there when you need it. In multiplayer, BFG will be left out and there will not be a Soul Cube. Tim Willitis, lead level designer said in an interview on October 28, 2000, "Giving players information. We need to find better ways of giving players the information they need to advance through the game. Sidekicks and computers have been done before. As developers, we need to find more creative ways of giving players the information they need to progress as they play the game, and that's what we're hoping to do in DOOM." John Carmack in a Q&A at E3 2003: The team is debating the way that DOOM 3's save system will work... it may be significantly different from what players have seen in previous id games. This could mean there will be a limit on game saves, or saving between missions only. The old-style DOOM where you would run into a room and have to fight off 10 or more monsters is not going to be present in Doom 3. This will be a game of fear where you will (hopefully) be too afraid to look around a corner for fear of what is there. Shadows are going to play a big part in this, which will be calculated in real time. This means that a lot of the time you will see a monster's shadow moving around before you see the monster. There will be enough enemies on the screen for you to get excited, but with high poly models and amazing graphical improvements, there will definitely not be 20+ monsters running around on your monitor at the same time like the original doom. There are objectives the you need to complete to get you through the game, but you may also need to use the much simpler "kill anything that moves" method of getting to those objectives. And the objectives can be complex, like using the map to your advantage, or having a character in the world help you (ie scientist, marines). 23) What type of hit system will doom 3 use ? ---------------------------------------------- The hit system is a new hitscan system, call the 'per-polygon' system. Essentially every polygon on a monster can take damage. there will be headshots and you can target areas of the monster when shooting. 24) What weapons will be in doom 3? ------------------------------------ The same classic weapons from the original doom series will be in DOOM 3 with the exception of the Combat Shotgun (super shotgun) Along with several new weapons. The Chainsaw, pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, Chaingun, Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun, BFG 9000, Soul Cube (which should give things a twist). 25) What about Power-Ups? -------------------------- There will be ammunition pickups, berserk packs, and medical kits, among other things. 26) How long will it take to complete DOOM 3 Single player? ------------------------------------------------------------ DOOM 3's Single Player experience is estimated to take 20 - 40 hours depending on the player, with 30 maps, and a hell infested base, you'll be forced to take your time with this puppy!. 27) How customizable is DOOM 3 be ? ------------------------------------ In DOOM 3 itself, several things are locked from the multiplayer aspect such as shadows and picmip, but the general things are customizable to an extent, server side settings are still in text based format (.cfg files) And there are a wide variety of things that can be changed in the text files, such as how weapons behave, disable and enable reloading for the weapons (sort of like quake 3 where you never reload, just unload all the ammo that you can) and much more!. As for a modding aspect of DOOM 3, an sdk is planed to be released prior to doom 3 if not at the same time doom 3 hits the shelf, to allow the modding community to take advantage of the game, and its features. 28) What are the system specs for DOOM 3? ------------------------------------------ Windows 2000 or XP for the PC Minimum requirements - P4 1.5ghz or AMD Athlon 1500+ 384MB Ram GeForce MX 440 or ATI Equivalent w/64MB RAM 8x CD-ROM 2.2 GB of HD space Broadband for multiplayer Recommended requirements - p4 2.5 ghz or AMD 2500+ 1.0 Gig DDR Ram Nvidia FX 5900 128mb or ATI 9800 128mb 5.1 surround sound audio Live inside the game specs - 3.0 ghz or AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 2 gigs DDR Ram Nvidia 6800 Ultra or X800XT 6.1 surround sound audio Supported 3D Graphics chipsets: ATI: Radeon 8500, 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800, x800 NVIDIA: GeForce 3, GeForce 4MX, GeForce 4 Titanium, GeForce FX, GeForce 6 29) What else can you tell me about graphics cards needed for Doom 3? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Current line of graphics cards needed for doom 3 are as followed. ATI: Radeon 8500, 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800, x800 NVIDIA: GeForce 3, GeForce 4MX, GeForce 4 Titanium, GeForce FX, GeForce 6 For a deeper view on this, the way the quality works w/ doom 3 , and with the graphics cards are as follows. 512 Vid Mem card = Ultra Quality (textures require 512 megs of video memory for the transfer) 256 Vid Mem card = High Quality (textures require 256 megs of video memory for the transfer) 128 Vid Mem card = Medium Quality (textures require 128 megs of video memory for the transfer) - and it still looks good 64 Vid Mem card = Low Quality (textures require 64 megs of video memory for the transfer) - and of course is low quality but still looks somewhat good. Most recent benchmarks with the final build of doom 3 tested by hardOCP http://www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQy Hardware guide by HardOCP prior to their benchmark testing http://www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQ0 30) What other systems will DOOM 3 run on? ------------------------------------------- DOOM 3 will be available on Mac os x & Linux 31) What is DOOM 3 rated ? --------------------------- DOOM 3 is rated M for mature by the ESRB 32) Why should you not use the leaked version to test what Doom3 will be like? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- It's not a demo, its just what they used to show off the game/engine at E3. The engine was coded for an ATI R9700 on a Mac, and it doesn't run well on any other card. It will not give you a true rendition of how the full optimized game on your OWN PC when you play the full version. You can't change details in game, the game has been in a constant state of change since then, and there have been a lot of code changes and updates. The full version is very different from the leaked one. 33) What is in Doom3's HUD? ---------------------------- There are 9 things in single player that make up the HUD: 1. PDA/VIDEO disk indicator - When you pick up a new PDA or video disk, icons will appear. Hit PDA key (default TAB) to view your PDA and examine the new information. 2. Armour - Displays how much armour you have on. The maximum is 125. When you're shot or damaged, some of the impact is absorbed by the armour you wear. When armour is over 100 in Multiplayer, it slowly reduces itself to 100. 3. Health - The amount of damage you can take. You are completely healthy when the number reads 100. As you're shot or injured, this number decreases. If the number reaches 0, you will die and the demons will feast on your lifeless body. Picking up health packs or using health stations, increases your health. 4. Stamina - The orange bar indicates how much stamina you have left. As you sprint, your stamina decreases. If your stamina is completely depleted, you will not be able to sprint. When you stop sprinting, your stamina slowly replenishes. 5. Area Name - As you walk through the UAC facility on mars, this indicates your location. 6. Clip Ammunition - The amount of ammunition in your current weapon. Reload (default R) to fill it from your reserve ammunition. This indicator is either on the weapon, or in the lower-right corner. 7. Reserve Ammunition - The amount of additional ammunition you're carrying for the selected weapon. Reloading depletes this reserve. This indicator is either on the weapon or on the lower-right corner. 8. Weapons Carried - The blue dots indicate which weapons you're carrying. 9. Crosshair/Cursor - Your crosshair generally assists in aiming. However, as you approach other UAC personnel, your weapon lowers and your crosshair indicates that you can talk to the person. Their name appears near to the crosshair. When you approach a computer panel or other graphical interface, your weapon lowers and your crosshair becomes a mouse pointer you can use to interact with the information on-screen. 34) What about a Doom 3 demo? ------------------------------ There will be a demo for DOOM 3 however it is unknown if that demo will be out before or after the game hits the shelf. id Software has always felt of giving the community a test of a game before they buy it. 35) What other facts can you tell me? -------------------------------------- According to a 2000 interview with Mr. Elusive * One of his tasks with the Doom 3 engine will be working on the scripting. * Mr. Elusive said that while all the monsters would probably share a common basic AI, they would have different individual characteristics and personalities. Tim Willits said the following about an area he would like to explore in Doom 3: Giving players information. We need to find better ways of giving players the information they need to advance through the game. Sidekicks and computers have been done before. As developers, we need to find more creative ways of giving players the information they need to progress as they play the game, and that's what we're hoping to do in DOOM. 36) ID was planning on working on some other game instead of Doom 3? What was all this about? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What game you might ask? (Back) At first, id Software was planning on creating a MMORPG type game "Quest." Graeme Devine described the game this way: Quest would have combined the RPG massively multiplayer ideas of an game like Everquest with the multiple server features of a Quake-style game. Devine said Quest would have a small party of five, like a fighter, barbarian and magic user, and the players could sign on to a Quest server and have it be a different server with different missions and quests. "You were there on your own," Devine said, "You and your five buddies against the world." Each server would have been run by a person akin to a Dungeon Master in Dungeons and Dragons who would have been in control of the environments the players found themselves in, right down to the rats crawling around on the ground. 37) Will Doom III be on DVD also? ---------------------------------- No, id Software decided that it would be a costly and unnecessary decision to sell DVD versions of the game. 38) Where are the pictures of DOOM 3? -------------------------------------- In our gallery section 39) When will DOOM 3 be released ? ----------------------------------- The 4-year wait has come to an end and DOOM 3 will release Aug. 3rd, 2004! -END-