Doom 3?

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
When the hell is Doom 3 coming out for mac?



Is it going to be optimized for mac at all? I think ID does a great job at optimizing their mac games so hopefully we'll be able to kick some butt with the G5...
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 36
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Yeah, it's definitely coming out. Actually, that's what id's doing right now, considering that the demo is practically out on PC, and that id stated that once they got the PC demo out the door, they could start some work on the Mac version.





    They actually have a Mac build right now, but it only runs on G5s. (My question is, do they mean that 'only a G5 can manage to run it at semi-acceptable FPS', or "A g5 runs it incredibly, but it scales badly to the to the low end'?)
  • Reply 2 of 36
    Welllll...things aren't quite as rosy as all that, I'm afraid.



    While, yes, id is now busily optimizing Doom3 for the Mac, there remains a very large fly in the ointment...they have no publisher yet for the Mac version. Which is amazing considering Doom3 was, arguably, the most anticipated game release in the past several years. Still, I have to think they are hopeful that one will show up...otherwise I can't imagine they'd waste more time and money on optimizing it for the Mac.



    I want this game on my Mac but, without a publisher, a Mac version could very well never see the light of day.



    Cross your fingers!
  • Reply 3 of 36
    Don't even think about running Doom 3 on a G4.
  • Reply 4 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Thorzdad

    Welllll...things aren't quite as rosy as all that, I'm afraid.



    While, yes, id is now busily optimizing Doom3 for the Mac, there remains a very large fly in the ointment...they have no publisher yet for the Mac version. Which is amazing considering Doom3 was, arguably, the most anticipated game release in the past several years. Still, I have to think they are hopeful that one will show up...otherwise I can't imagine they'd waste more time and money on optimizing it for the Mac.



    I want this game on my Mac but, without a publisher, a Mac version could very well never see the light of day.



    Cross your fingers!




    I don't see why they couldn't make the Mac binary and installer available for download and just let people buy the PC CD-ROM if they can't find a publisher.



    But the real question is, how could publishers pretend like Doom 3 won't be a hit on Macs?
  • Reply 5 of 36
    kotatsukotatsu Posts: 1,010member
    And make sure you have a very chunky GPU as well. I've been playing it on my PC (P4 3Ghz, 1Gb RAM, Radeon 9800 Pro 25Mb) and the frame rate is less than great. Running at 1280x1024 with no Anti-Aliasing in 'HIGH' quality mode.



    Most games I can run at 1600x1200 with 4x FSAA on this PC, and at 85fps. Doom 3 manages 30fps at best, but it's often lower. I can get better frame rares at 1024x768 and 800x600, but the loss of clarity spoils the visuals too much for me. Even at 1280 with no anti-aliasing it's much too jaggy. I guess I need a better card.



    Great game though, loving every minute of it. Make sure you have some good speakers, as the sound is very nicely done.
  • Reply 6 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by kim kap sol

    But the real question is, how could publishers pretend like Doom 3 won't be a hit on Macs?



    Could be several factors. One being whatever monetary deal id insists on making. The Mac market is pretty small to begin with, and the percentage of the Mac market that would buy the game is an even smaller number. Thus, the return is going to be tight. I'd love to see the numbers on other "hit" Mac games to see just how much of a profit was really made.



    The cost of distributing a Doom3 is probably the same as distributing any other, cheaper, game. It could easily come down to simple bottom-line numbers.



    Still, if any game stands to be a big hit on the Mac, this is the one.
  • Reply 7 of 36
    resres Posts: 711member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by kim kap sol

    I don't see why they couldn't make the Mac binary and installer available for download and just let people buy the PC CD-ROM if they can't find a publisher.



    But the real question is, how could publishers pretend like Doom 3 won't be a hit on Macs?




    The big problem is that the only Macs that can run it well are the top of the line towers, and even then only if you upgraded your video card.



    Since the vast majority of Mac users (those of us who own iMacs, powerbooks, iBooks, or G4 towers) don't have machines powerful enough to play Doom 3, the publishers don't think it will sell very well.



    I think that one thing that really put off the publishers was the weak video-card in the new iMac. I really don't think we will see Doom 3 on the Mac until the iMac is powerful enough to play it, and who knows how long that will take? 2005? 2006?
  • Reply 8 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by kim kap sol

    But the real question is, how could publishers pretend like Doom 3 won't be a hit on Macs?





    Maybe because it's pants?
  • Reply 9 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Res

    The big problem is that the only Macs that can run it well are the top of the line towers, and even then only if you upgraded your video card.



    Since the vast majority of Mac users (those of us who own iMacs, powerbooks, iBooks, or G4 towers) don't have machines powerful enough to play Doom 3, the publishers don't think it will sell very well.



    I think that one thing that really put off the publishers was the weak video-card in the new iMac. I really don't think we will see Doom 3 on the Mac until the iMac is powerful enough to play it, and who knows how long that will take? 2005? 2006?




    Well, we really don't know what the system requirements will be for Doom3/Mac yet. I would think, definitely, the game will be OSX-only. After that...who knows? G5-only. Very probably. Towers-only? With the new G5 iMac, that may be more of a question. Still, even if you include the new iMac, a G5-only game is going to be seriously limited as far as potential buyers are concerned.



    The video card is debatable. id has made much noise about their efforts to make the game look and play as nice as possible at varying levels of quality. I've seen screenshots of the game with settings scaled way back and settings maxed and everything in between (as well as on middle-of-the-road vid cards) and, IMHO, the thing looks really good at all those settings. Admittedly, id have also said that there is no system available today that can take advantage of all the quality settings in the game. But I think that's more of a statement of the long-term playability of the game, rather than a statement of necessary system strength.



    A good friend of mine is currently playing Doom3 on her PC with a 64-meg ATI card, and she says it looks and plays beautifully. So, hopefully, the OEM cards in the Macs will work.
  • Reply 10 of 36
    Apple has already stated (No links though) that Doom III will run on the new iMac G5's. If that includes the EDU model, I dont know... But that means a G5 1.6, with a CrapForce 5200, 64 Mb vram, will run it.
  • Reply 11 of 36
    kotatsukotatsu Posts: 1,010member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by T'hain Esh Kelch

    Apple has already stated (No links though) that Doom III will run on the new iMac G5's. If that includes the EDU model, I dont know... But that means a G5 1.6, with a CrapForce 5200, 64 Mb vram, will run it.



    You can run Doom 3 on just about anything if you turn it down low enough. That doesn't mean it will look any good though, and with Doom 3, the visuals are a huge part of the atmosphere and appeal.



    As I mentioned above, it struggles on my 9800 Pro 256mb, so imagine it on something much lower down the scale.
  • Reply 12 of 36
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    CrapForce 5200



    You're so quick and witty.





    Ladies and Gentlemen, may I please point out the difference between...(drumroll) Runnable and Playable! Any system that can load the Doom3 menu screen is 'running' doom 3! Now, ask yourself, does clicking through the menu screen provide me enough entertainment for $50?"
  • Reply 13 of 36
    resres Posts: 711member
    There is a long thread about the iMac and doom 3 in the future hardware forum, take a look at it here.



    Basically it takes a 3+ GHz P4 or a Athlon 3200XP using top of the line video cards to get constant 30+fps.



    With lower powered graphic cards the game is just unplayable (A Athlon 3200XP with 512MB ram using a 128MB Radeon 9600XT will drop down to 13 fps when set on Medium Quality and No AA or AF).



    The new iMac, with a 1.6/1.8GHz G5 and a 5200FX ultra is not going to run doom 3 well at all, and you really cannot expect publishers to come out with Doom3 for the Mac until it is playable on more of the Mac line.
  • Reply 14 of 36
    marcukmarcuk Posts: 4,442member
    Has anyone managed to get Doom3 running in VPC yet?!!!!
  • Reply 15 of 36
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    VPC doesn't support 3D hardware. I imagine it would be quite horrid running on emulated software renderers (and would probably refuse to run).
  • Reply 16 of 36
    The reason it doesn't run so good on ATI hardware is that it isn't optimized yet. Before a patch is released, it will only run in (almost) all its glory on Nvidia cards
  • Reply 17 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Sopphode

    The reason it doesn't run so good on ATI hardware is that it isn't optimized yet. Before a patch is released, it will only run in (almost) all its glory on Nvidia cards



    You're making it sound like you'll not have a good experience with Doom 3 on ATI hardware. You can most certainly enjoy Doom 3 fine on ATI hardware, on high resolution and with all the eye candy on. But it'll run slightly better on nVidia hardware, until ATI gets it's act together and fully optimizes the OpenGL drivers.
  • Reply 18 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Zapchud

    You're making it sound like you'll not have a good experience with Doom 3 on ATI hardware. You can most certainly enjoy Doom 3 fine on ATI hardware, on high resolution and with all the eye candy on. But it'll run slightly better on nVidia hardware, until ATI gets it's act together and fully optimizes the OpenGL drivers.



    I tried it on a 2,8ghz shuttle pc with a radeon 9800 and it ran very good. Its just that on a 2,4ghz with Geforce 4 Ti the difference isnt as big as it should be.
  • Reply 19 of 36
    marcukmarcuk Posts: 4,442member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Stoo

    VPC doesn't support 3D hardware. I imagine it would be quite horrid running on emulated software renderers (and would probably refuse to run).



    I thought VPC7 (just released?) ran the 3d API's
  • Reply 20 of 36
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    Microsoft's site isn't much help wrt 3D support in VPC 7, as it just lists "Snappier graphics" (or words to that effect).
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