ALL WRITEN MONDAY, i dont know if, you know but some info on HL-2 and Doom 3
Fans of Half-life 2 are quickly getting accustomed to the fact that Doom 3 will be released first and that H-L 2 is unlikely to see a summer release. It would seem that September 30 is again becoming the favorite release date for the highly anticipated title.
As Gabe Newell had already mentioned and now Doug Lombardi has confirmed, a solid release candidate is expected to be with Vivendi in August.
Now that Valve is getting a bit more confident on the progress of the game, its team has started playing hinting games with the press and we can now attempt guesses at when the RC version will reach Vivendi. Using Gabe Newell's latest comments then, a mid-to-late-August date sounds possible for the game going gold. Mr Newell said, right now we are looking at our bug numbers... Each day you fix some bugs and you find some new bugs. The net number tells you how quickly you will get to zero. At our current rate of find/fix bugs, we'll be down to zero bugs in 16 days...
If the numbers work out, then a summer release clearly is out of the question but suddenly a symbolic September 30 seems to be much more likely. Valve itself is clearly hoping for an early fall release and according to Doug Lombardi, we're hoping to see the product on store shelves this fall but we do not have a confirmed ship date at this time...
As the Doom 3 launch approaches, the news about the highly anticipated title keeps coming in fast and thick. The latest interesting bit of information regarding iDs blockbuster has to do with a feature supported by the game but which has no hardware support for the time being.
According to the information then, when Doom 3 is finally released, it will be able to utilize a card with 512MB of memory. The game, it is rumoured, will have ultra graphics performance settings which will use larger uncompressed textures when a 512 Mb board is detected. It is unlikely that any use for this feature will be possible for a while but it seems that the only card that could, potentially, support this feature is a 3Dlabs workstation card, one which is unlikely to be a part of a gamer's setup.
iD programmer Robert A. Duffy comments on the Ultra setting, 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 given 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.
Interestingly enough, the Inquirer mentions Ultra textures and the possibility that iD may have chosen to ignore ATIs 3Dc texture compression feature, possibly due to contractual obligations to a certain ATI rival. We would be interested to see if the game will use any ATI specific features but believe it is unlikely as is any comment from John Carmack on why that is the case.
A long time before HardOCP went and released its report on Doom 3 performance, any gamer asked would have told you that nVidia boards will perform better, justifying the response by claiming that the deal between iD and the graphics giant guarantees superior performance on nVidia based systems.
Strangely enough the HardOCP article seems to ignore the special relationship and at times seems slightly taken-in by the results produced. Recommendations that ATI needs to implement changes to its product line based on the results of the Doom 3 tests may seem a bit drastic and may be the reason ATI has decided to respond to the results obtained on the HardOCP report.
In response to an enquiry by Team Radeon, ATIs Chris Hook has suggested that since the game has not been officially released yet, we shouldn't rush to any conclusions and quickly manages to get an innuendo in, regarding nVidia's use of partial precision. He goes on to add We expect to have updated drivers available in the coming weeks. Mr. Hook clearly expects the introduction of the new drivers to play an important part in performance upgrade, although he does not mention exactly how that improvement will come about.
Chris Hook goes on to suggest that ATIs performance, although below nVidia's, is not all that bad in the HardOCP report and that even iDs John Carmack said that there's more to consider than just frame rate... ATIs man goes on to mention, again, the use of partial precision by some of our competitors... and how ATI would never ever consider using PP.
Strangely enough Mr. Hook goes on to mention that most games will run faster on ATI cards, indirectly telling us that Doom 3 is not the only game out there (Half-Life 2 is not clearly mentioned). It does sound like ATI is telling us that the frame rates produced by the article may be improved upon slightly but that we shouldn't expect much more and that we should look forward to other titles if we wish to reaffirm our belief in ATI products.
iD is gradually building-up to the Doom 3 August 3 release by a variety of announcements and releases. The news coming from the developer suggests that the Doom 3 tools and source will be released very soon after the game, with a level editor included in the retail package.
It is a well known fact that iD not only helps the mod community but relies on it in order to secure the longevity and continued success of its titles and Doom 3 will be no exception. Previous titles have reaped the benefits of a strong mod community and Doom 3 is also bound to do so. The large number of fan sites for the game are a result of iD's good relationship with gamers and they can also produce some news. The D3 theme tune, composed by Chris Vrenna (formerly of the Nine Inch Nails) and Clint Walsh, can now be downloaded, in-full, from a variety of D3 fan sites. The music adds a definite metal sound to the game but it is the intro tune and not much detail is known about the rest of the OST. Many fans claim that the absence of Trent Reznor is obvious and fondly reminisce the music which opened Quake.
Cheers
Fans of Half-life 2 are quickly getting accustomed to the fact that Doom 3 will be released first and that H-L 2 is unlikely to see a summer release. It would seem that September 30 is again becoming the favorite release date for the highly anticipated title.
As Gabe Newell had already mentioned and now Doug Lombardi has confirmed, a solid release candidate is expected to be with Vivendi in August.
Now that Valve is getting a bit more confident on the progress of the game, its team has started playing hinting games with the press and we can now attempt guesses at when the RC version will reach Vivendi. Using Gabe Newell's latest comments then, a mid-to-late-August date sounds possible for the game going gold. Mr Newell said, right now we are looking at our bug numbers... Each day you fix some bugs and you find some new bugs. The net number tells you how quickly you will get to zero. At our current rate of find/fix bugs, we'll be down to zero bugs in 16 days...
If the numbers work out, then a summer release clearly is out of the question but suddenly a symbolic September 30 seems to be much more likely. Valve itself is clearly hoping for an early fall release and according to Doug Lombardi, we're hoping to see the product on store shelves this fall but we do not have a confirmed ship date at this time...
As the Doom 3 launch approaches, the news about the highly anticipated title keeps coming in fast and thick. The latest interesting bit of information regarding iDs blockbuster has to do with a feature supported by the game but which has no hardware support for the time being.
According to the information then, when Doom 3 is finally released, it will be able to utilize a card with 512MB of memory. The game, it is rumoured, will have ultra graphics performance settings which will use larger uncompressed textures when a 512 Mb board is detected. It is unlikely that any use for this feature will be possible for a while but it seems that the only card that could, potentially, support this feature is a 3Dlabs workstation card, one which is unlikely to be a part of a gamer's setup.
iD programmer Robert A. Duffy comments on the Ultra setting, 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 given 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. Interestingly enough, the Inquirer mentions Ultra textures and the possibility that iD may have chosen to ignore ATIs 3Dc texture compression feature, possibly due to contractual obligations to a certain ATI rival. We would be interested to see if the game will use any ATI specific features but believe it is unlikely as is any comment from John Carmack on why that is the case.
A long time before HardOCP went and released its report on Doom 3 performance, any gamer asked would have told you that nVidia boards will perform better, justifying the response by claiming that the deal between iD and the graphics giant guarantees superior performance on nVidia based systems.
Strangely enough the HardOCP article seems to ignore the special relationship and at times seems slightly taken-in by the results produced. Recommendations that ATI needs to implement changes to its product line based on the results of the Doom 3 tests may seem a bit drastic and may be the reason ATI has decided to respond to the results obtained on the HardOCP report.
In response to an enquiry by Team Radeon, ATIs Chris Hook has suggested that since the game has not been officially released yet, we shouldn't rush to any conclusions and quickly manages to get an innuendo in, regarding nVidia's use of partial precision. He goes on to add We expect to have updated drivers available in the coming weeks. Mr. Hook clearly expects the introduction of the new drivers to play an important part in performance upgrade, although he does not mention exactly how that improvement will come about.
Chris Hook goes on to suggest that ATIs performance, although below nVidia's, is not all that bad in the HardOCP report and that even iDs John Carmack said that there's more to consider than just frame rate... ATIs man goes on to mention, again, the use of partial precision by some of our competitors... and how ATI would never ever consider using PP.
Strangely enough Mr. Hook goes on to mention that most games will run faster on ATI cards, indirectly telling us that Doom 3 is not the only game out there (Half-Life 2 is not clearly mentioned). It does sound like ATI is telling us that the frame rates produced by the article may be improved upon slightly but that we shouldn't expect much more and that we should look forward to other titles if we wish to reaffirm our belief in ATI products.
iD is gradually building-up to the Doom 3 August 3 release by a variety of announcements and releases. The news coming from the developer suggests that the Doom 3 tools and source will be released very soon after the game, with a level editor included in the retail package.
It is a well known fact that iD not only helps the mod community but relies on it in order to secure the longevity and continued success of its titles and Doom 3 will be no exception. Previous titles have reaped the benefits of a strong mod community and Doom 3 is also bound to do so. The large number of fan sites for the game are a result of iD's good relationship with gamers and they can also produce some news. The D3 theme tune, composed by Chris Vrenna (formerly of the Nine Inch Nails) and Clint Walsh, can now be downloaded, in-full, from a variety of D3 fan sites. The music adds a definite metal sound to the game but it is the intro tune and not much detail is known about the rest of the OST. Many fans claim that the absence of Trent Reznor is obvious and fondly reminisce the music which opened Quake.
Cheers
