Xbox Doom 3 shaping up nicely?

[Megadrive1988]

Xbox Doom3 is very noticably and significantly scaled down from the PC version. the Xbox version looks nice but obviously not as nice as PC version. (duh!)


it's like going from mortal kombat 2 in the arcade to mortal kombat 2 on SNES.

or from Ridge Racer arcade to Ridge Racer on PS1

or from VF4 on NAOMI 2 arcade to VF4 on PS2

etc

 

[Gubbi]

Xbox Doom3 is very noticably and significantly scaled down from the PC version. the Xbox version looks nice but obviously not as nice as PC version. (duh!)

So you played it. And the PC version too.. And can tell the difference.

I'm impressed.

Cheers
Gubbi

 

[AlNom]

In any case, I certainly won't be upgrading my aging computer to play the latest games so...... this will be a nice alternative.

 

[nobie]

From the screenies it seems to be a pretty good port. But then again those were pretty small pictures and grainy scans, you can't really tell much from that.

 

[Bohdy]

I am very impressed with what Vicarious Visions are doing with Doom on the Xbox; the control setup they have implemented sounds especially good.

The graphics are noticeably downgraded though... but may still improve with time.

Oh and just for some contention: I don't care what Hollenshead says, the Cube could do it with not too many cuts!

^^Discuss 8)

 

[V3]

Looks similar to me. I wanted them to increase the poly number for the zombies for the Xbox one, but it seems as it stays roughly the same.

 

[rabidrabbit]

I'm starting to worry that Doom3 will be another case like Deux Ex: Invisible War, where the game was simultaneously coded for xb and PC. The final game did not live up to it's hype, and the game was simplified too much to fit inside xbox, from the original plans when it was for PC's.

Doom 3 for the PC has been in development since the fall of 2000, while the Xbox edition started in earnest in July 2003.

And that's "Xbox version," not "Xbox port", because Doom 3 is being sculpted--and in some cases rewritten--specifically for its console debut. "Everything's there," says Stratton. "You've got the full physics system, the lighting and shadows, all the rendering passes, although done a bit differently. It's tough to tell the difference sometimes between this and the PC version."

I somehow DOUBT they have 'simultaneous' development going on.

Ok, but from July 2003, they are being developed simultaneously

It must have been the following sentence that I read too hastily (I do that too often), and led me to wrong conclusions.

The Xbox version is being programmed by Vicarious Visions, which is in simultaneous development with id. And that's "Xbox version," not "Xbox port", because Doom 3 is being sculpted--and in some cases rewritten--specifically for its console debut.

 

[PiNkY]

The per-pixel effects in D3 are SO SIMPLE compared to HL2 it's really not comparable. Hell, you don't even need pixel shaders at all to do the lightning algorithm D3 uses, though it requires a silly amount of rendering passes on non-shading hardware, which is why it runs so gosh-darned slow on GF1/2 cards.

DIII will probably be mainly bottlenecked (gpu wise) by its fill rate requirements. If a r300 can hit 30 fps at 1024*768 then nv2a should be able to do approximatly the same at 480p given its somewhat lower efficiency (even though nv2a is supposed to have some of nv30s more advanced stencil capabilities, like supporting signed stencil additions). Calling the shader effects "SO SIMPLE" in regards to HL2's is a bit beyond me. HL2's pixel shaders probably aren't much longer then DIII's (call them register combiner instructions if you want...) on average and both engines obviously try to archieve different things.

 

[London Geezer]

london-boy:

...go back and have a look...

Ok.

(compiled by border)

Thanks for confirming my point. They look similar of course because they portray the same thing, but the differences ARE there, especially in the lighting of the surfaces. And SHOULD be there too!

I'm not saying it doesn't look good, cause it certainly does, but it's just NOT indistingushable from the PC version like you said.

 

[SteveHill]

THe more obvious in these screens:

They dropped down to one light source casting shadows.
Lower texture res ,and not everything is normalmapped (a low res normal map would show too much pixelisation ,so it's often better not to have it.)
And 4x fsaa....

On the first point, I'm not sure how you arrived at that conclusion since in the second shot (unless I'm mistaken) there appear to be two separate shadows overlapping on the floor to the left of the zombie's right leg. It's really hard to draw firm conclusions from a couple of restroom stills anyhow .

Re textures, there are bound to be some sacrifices, which are somewhat justified given the limited display resolution and Xbox memory limits. I'm not sure about the cutting of normal maps (*), some of the surfaces are smooth anyway . In addition, there look to be signs of DXT compression, especially on the gun.

The worst aspects for me are firstly that these aren't the most enthralling shots, perhaps because I've seen the setting plenty of times already. Secondly, the green tinge on the zombie in the second image is pretty odd -- does anyone have an idea of a possible cause for that?

(*) I think the extra definition of diff+spec bump is worthwhile even at a low resolution, compared to a completely flat look.

 

[kyleb]

What support has there been from ID for xbox??? (before D3, which is not even coded by ID)

rtcw

 

[Evil_Cloud]

What support has there been from ID for xbox??? (before D3, which is not even coded by ID)

rtcw

That game was ported by Nerve Software & previously developed by Gray Matter Studios (which is working on a new project ^^)...

 

[kyleb]

ya i know the history of the development, but it is none the less a game from id software. says so right on the box.

 

[Evil_Cloud]

ya i know the history of the development, but it is none the less a game from id software. says so right on the box.

Yeah, but I don't really think Id was involved with the console versions of rtcw, more like a commercial decision of Activision.

 

[hcpizzi]

Some time ago, while talking about NV30 vs. R300 performance while running Doom, Jon Carmack explained the different codebases for each processor family.

There he stated that NV20 basecode used 2-3 passes (per light I guess).

http://www.webdog.org/cgi-bin/finger.plm?id=1

 

[_phil_]

I've been told that it's actually 5 passes for each light.