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#227165 - 15/07/2004 10:22 Do you live under a rock?
mschrag
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/09/2000
Posts: 2303
Loc: Richmond, VA
If so, Doom 3 = August 5, officially announced. Feel free to clean yourself up now. Oh, that's 2004


Edited by mschrag (15/07/2004 10:22)

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#227166 - 15/07/2004 10:42 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
CommOri
journeyman

Registered: 30/12/2001
Posts: 83
Actually, 12:01AM August 3rd at some stores...if you're lucky.

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#227167 - 15/07/2004 21:36 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Doom3] [Re: mschrag]
AndrewT
old hand

Registered: 16/02/2002
Posts: 867
Loc: Oxford, UK
I'd like to get this ASAP to the release date in the UK without paying over the odds at the same time. Does anyone know of any good online stores/deals?

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#227168 - 16/07/2004 08:12 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Doom3] [Re: AndrewT]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
play.com have it for £27.99.

Amazon UK have it for £24.99.
_________________________
-- roger

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#227169 - 16/07/2004 14:14 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
Tim
veteran

Registered: 25/04/2000
Posts: 1525
Loc: Arizona
I resigned myself to the fact that Doom 3 or Halflife 2 would not be released during my lifetime. It almost happened... I just about had a heart attack when they announced they went gold

I'm excited about Doom 3, even though RON is arriving today (Empire Earth just doesn't do it for me any more). I'm dying for Halflife 2 though... maybe it was just because of the great single-player story and TFC was just about the most fun I ever had in a multi-player game.

- Tim

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#227170 - 16/07/2004 15:30 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: Tim]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
I just about had a heart attack when they announced they went gold

You just need a paper bag...
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#227171 - 16/07/2004 15:33 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: tfabris]
peter
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
Quote:
You just need a paper bag...

I didn't get that at all. What's the paper bag for? Preventing hyperventilation?

Peter

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#227172 - 16/07/2004 15:58 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: tfabris]
mschrag
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/09/2000
Posts: 2303
Loc: Richmond, VA
I was thinking about a topic along the lines of the gay marriage thread that is about my plans to romance and subsequently marry my copy of Doom 3 when it shows up. Not sure how either side would come down on that desire

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#227173 - 16/07/2004 16:04 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
my plans to romance and subsequently marry my copy of Doom 3 when it shows up. Not sure how either side would come down on that desire

Or better yet, how Mrs. Doom3 will react when you start eyeing Ms. Halflife2 a month later.

Peter: Yes, hyperventilation.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#227174 - 16/07/2004 16:06 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: tfabris]
Tim
veteran

Registered: 25/04/2000
Posts: 1525
Loc: Arizona
That was great!

UserFriendly has great cartoons occasionally - I haven't followed it for about two or three years. I guess it might be time to start looking again.

- Tim

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#227175 - 16/07/2004 17:01 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Doom3] [Re: AndrewT]
AndrewT
old hand

Registered: 16/02/2002
Posts: 867
Loc: Oxford, UK
Leading up to the release of Quake 1/2/3 I was forever on Blues checking for .plan updates and so on but this time around, based largely upon JC's lack of public posting a while back, I stopped checking. Now Doom3's release is imminent I'm obviously hankering after getting my hands on a copy to put it mildly!

Does anyone have any idea of what the system requirements are going to look like?

I know I need to upgrade my graphics card, preferably with a sub £100 card but I'm not in a position to do a massive PC upgrade. Here's what I have at the moment:
P4 2.53GHz
1GB PC2100
GeForce 4 MX 420
Win XP

Am I likely to get away with this or am I SOL?

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#227176 - 16/07/2004 18:18 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: tfabris]
mschrag
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/09/2000
Posts: 2303
Loc: Richmond, VA
Quote:
eyeing

I prefer the term "humping" to "eyeing" with respect to Halflife 2

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#227177 - 19/07/2004 21:24 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: peter]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
Quote:
I didn't get that at all.
Probably because User Friendly is seldom if ever funny. You were expecting a joke where one did not exist as such.
_________________________
Bitt Faulk

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#227178 - 20/07/2004 07:08 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
If so, Doom 3 = August 5, officially announced. Feel free to clean yourself up now. Oh, that's 2004


Not in the UK, where, apparently, it's due on the 13th (according to both play.com and Amazon UK).

Fortunately, that means that it won't clash with the Great British Beer Festival, which is 3rd-7th August.
_________________________
-- roger

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#227179 - 03/08/2004 14:08 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
mschrag
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/09/2000
Posts: 2303
Loc: Richmond, VA
Ship, dammit. SHIP. Amazon! (shaking fist)

[edit]I sure hope it's not illegal to threaten a customer service rep with the possibility of a baby seal being clubbed if an order doesn't go out as scheduled ...


Edited by mschrag (03/08/2004 14:21)

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#227180 - 03/08/2004 16:13 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
Quote:
I sure hope it's not illegal to threaten a customer service rep with the possibility of a baby seal being clubbed if an order doesn't go out as scheduled ...

At least you have someone to threaten. I have no clue when, or where ATI is shipping my 2 year old preorder. And e-mails to customer service get met with blank stares.

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#227181 - 03/08/2004 16:25 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: drakino]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
Tod cancelled his Amazon order because it hadn't shipped yet, we're gonna go buy our copies today the old-fashioned way.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#227182 - 03/08/2004 16:30 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: tfabris]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
I can't cancel my ATI order and get any money back, because it was a bundle deal. Buy one of the first shipping Radeon 9700 Pros at Quakecon 2002, get Doom 3, the card, and a Remote Wonder. The card and Remote Wonder have done their job just fine for the past 2 years, awaiting the game the card was built for.

Guess I could go stop by my old address and make sure they don't turn away any deliveries to me. ATI claims my address was updated, but I have no clue if the person found the right database since they commented "We have nothing to do with Doom 3", even with my Quakecon reciept attached.

*sigh*

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#227183 - 03/08/2004 16:41 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: tfabris]
mschrag
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/09/2000
Posts: 2303
Loc: Richmond, VA
Yep. They screwed me. They ran out and decided they'd rather not notify me. I've had this thing preordered for MONTHS.

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#227184 - 03/08/2004 17:29 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
JeffS
carpal tunnel

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2858
Loc: Atlanta, GA
Quote:
They ran out and decided they'd rather not notify me. I've had this thing preordered for MONTHS.

I hope they don't do that with the Star Wars DVD preorders . . .
_________________________
-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.

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#227185 - 03/08/2004 17:38 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: JeffS]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
Nah. Lucasfilm will just screw you by only having the Special Edition versions on there and not the real movies.
_________________________
Bitt Faulk

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#227186 - 03/08/2004 17:42 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: wfaulk]
JeffS
carpal tunnel

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2858
Loc: Atlanta, GA
Yeah, well I'm prepared for that already.
_________________________
-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.

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#227187 - 03/08/2004 17:48 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
peakmop
journeyman

Registered: 02/07/2004
Posts: 95
Loc: 384400 km from the Moon
I guess this is only a marketing trick. Same thing happened to me when the cable modems first became available...

I only wish they come up with Linux version of the game sooner

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#227188 - 03/08/2004 18:11 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
Cybjorg
addict

Registered: 23/12/2002
Posts: 652
Loc: Winston Salem, NC
Quote:
Yep. They screwed me. They ran out and decided they'd rather not notify me. I've had this thing preordered for MONTHS.


Ah, memories of Seinfeld...

Quote:

JERRY: I don't understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?
RENTAL CAR AGENT: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.
JERRY: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.
RENTAL CAR AGENT: I know why we have reservations.
JERRY: I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.


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#227189 - 03/08/2004 19:20 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: Cybjorg]
mschrag
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/09/2000
Posts: 2303
Loc: Richmond, VA
I was actually thinking of this same Seinfeld gag when I was talking to the Amazon customer service rep.

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#227190 - 03/08/2004 20:02 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
tman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
One trick a particular mail order company does here in the UK is to accept preorders and if they then find out they can't get it for that price they change the product code. Your preorder will stay in the system forever as they won't add any stock under that code. Sods.

They don't accept any money until you actually get the item shipped obviously.

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#227191 - 03/08/2004 20:06 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: tman]
loren
carpal tunnel

Registered: 23/08/2000
Posts: 3826
Loc: SLC, UT, USA
Just got my first looks at the first and seconds levels. Looks amazing, but it'll take a monster machine to run it at a decent size and framerate. It's chunking all over the place on some of our fastest dev machines.
_________________________
|| loren ||

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#227192 - 03/08/2004 20:16 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: loren]
tman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
Damn. What spec is the dev machines?

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#227193 - 03/08/2004 20:20 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: loren]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
It's chunking all over the place on some of our fastest dev machines.

Make sure you didn't go in and set the detail levels to "Ultra" for everything. I haven't gotten the game yet, but what I've read tells me that the "Ultra" detail level is only for next-generation video cards with 512 megs or more of video memory. Most of the video cards available today have only 128 or 256 megs of video memory, and the "Ultra" detail level won't fit on those cards because it pumps up to 600 megs of textures to the card and will cause chunky gameplay if you try. The "High" detail level is meant for 256 meg video cards, and it compresses certain kinds of lightmaps or normal maps (don't remember which) before sending them to the card. The Ultra level compresses nothing, hence the huge memory requirements.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#227194 - 03/08/2004 20:50 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: tfabris]
loren
carpal tunnel

Registered: 23/08/2000
Posts: 3826
Loc: SLC, UT, USA
The machine I saw it on is a Dual 2.something with a one gen behind card... guys not at his desk right now so I don't know the exact model, but it's one of the newer FX line. He was running on default settings (medium) at 640x480 and was still getting chugs everytime you'd enter a new room. Highest we tried was High at 800x600. Pretty unplayable. Others are reporting similar results on slightly better machines.
_________________________
|| loren ||

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#227195 - 03/08/2004 20:57 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: loren]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
OK, cool.

Chugs are usually texture loads. Most of the time when I see that stuff happening, it's because the computer or the video card doesn't have enough free RAM to do the job smoothly. Also, it could be caused by an AGP bus that's not running at its full speed, and it's taking longer than expected to squirt the textures to the card.

Of course, I've also seen games where the chunk happens simply because the game code doesn't manage the texture loads efficiently enough. Hope that's not what's happening here, or there are going to be a lot of disappointed people tonight.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#227196 - 03/08/2004 23:56 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: loren]
genixia
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 08/02/2002
Posts: 3411
Great. After years of waiting for the software, now we're going to have to wait for years for the hardware too!
_________________________
Mk2a 60GB Blue. Serial 030102962 sig.mp3: File Format not Valid.

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#227197 - 04/08/2004 04:15 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: loren]
mschrag
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/09/2000
Posts: 2303
Loc: Richmond, VA
I'm on a 2.4Ghz, Radeon 9700Pro, 1G RAM. Running at 800x600 Medium Quality. It's both stunning and almost always 30fps (with an occasional blip below, but always very playable). I'm curious to try higher res + higher quality just to see what it looks like, but I believe I'm at the edge of my machine's capabilities currently.

This game is so incredibly immersive. The amount of detail is just amazing in the environments -- it's obvious why it took them so long to finish it. The other part that is very surprising is that there really is a story and it is actually interesting. They also have tons of unique NPC's -- no repeating Half-Life scientists ("I won't move another step!") and the voice acting is great. Definitely some serious attention to detail here.

By the way, I'm at the forum here because Doom just made my adrenaline shoot through the roof and I need to come down. It's a really creepy game.

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#227198 - 04/08/2004 12:04 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
Cybjorg
addict

Registered: 23/12/2002
Posts: 652
Loc: Winston Salem, NC
Quote:
I'm on a 2.4Ghz, Radeon 9700Pro, 1G RAM.


Those are my specs as well. Nice to know things are running pretty well.

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#227199 - 04/08/2004 12:57 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
I'm on a 2.4Ghz, Radeon 9700Pro, 1G RAM.


That's similar to my specs: I'm on an Athlon 3200+ (at 2.21GHz), Radeon 9800 Pro (128MB), 1GB RAM.

It's good to know that I won't need to upgrade just yet.

One question, though: how much video card memory do you have, out of interest?
_________________________
-- roger

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#227200 - 04/08/2004 13:01 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
peter
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
Quote:
I'm on a 2.4Ghz, Radeon 9700Pro, 1G RAM. Running at 800x600 Medium Quality.

I've still got somewhere a 1992 copy of PCW where they reward the year's best PC systems... the award for Power User System started off something like "What is a power user? Well, nowadays you could almost say that a power user is someone who plays games..." It's been interesting to watch that statement's journey from whimsy to orthodoxy over the intervening twelve years...

Peter (all of whose favourite games could run in a BBC micro emulator running in a RiscPC emulator on a machine of that spec)

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#227201 - 04/08/2004 13:04 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: Roger]
mschrag
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/09/2000
Posts: 2303
Loc: Richmond, VA
I believe it's 128M on the card ... I'll double check in a little bit.
[Edit] Yep ... dxdiag says 128M


Edited by mschrag (04/08/2004 13:27)

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#227202 - 04/08/2004 13:31 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: mschrag]
mschrag
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/09/2000
Posts: 2303
Loc: Richmond, VA
Also, for ATI people, ATI released beta Doom 3 optimized drivers yesterday:
http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4547.html

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#227203 - 04/08/2004 18:37 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: drakino]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
Ok, called ATI today. Grunt level customer service guy had no clue, transferred me to second level. He found my 9700 order by my phone number. Oddly the order number on the reciept wasn't valid. Anyhow, he also wasn't sure about it, so I got transferred to some guy on the "Internet promotions team" who did know about it, and took down my correct address.

Now comes the problem. They anticipate shipping the copies out middle of this month. Probably due to the now broken ties between iD and ATI, or something. Anyhow, I'm going to go buy a copy from the store to have for Quakecon, then when the ATI one comes, return it in unopened form back to the store for a refund.

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#227204 - 04/08/2004 18:38 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: drakino]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
I'll probably be a promo copy with no bar code or something.
_________________________
Bitt Faulk

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#227205 - 05/08/2004 00:53 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: wfaulk]
Ezekiel
pooh-bah

Registered: 25/08/2000
Posts: 2413
Loc: NH USA
You will be a promo copy?
_________________________
WWFSMD?

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#227206 - 05/08/2004 01:11 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: Ezekiel]
tman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
This tweak might be useful. I've not got Doom 3 yet so can't tell you if it actually does anything significant.

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#227207 - 07/08/2004 23:34 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: tman]
AndrewT
old hand

Registered: 16/02/2002
Posts: 867
Loc: Oxford, UK
Changing seta image_cacheMegs "something" doesn't make any difference to my timedemo1 scores (always 5.0 )

I optimistically tried changing seta image_useCache "0" to "1" but when I do that the game doesn't load and I get reverted back to the windows desktop.

Has anyone else had any better luck, oh, and BTW, I'm using a PC with 1GB, P4 2.5GHz, 64MB Nvidia gfx card?

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#227208 - 07/08/2004 23:57 Re: Do you live under a rock? [Re: AndrewT]
Cybjorg
addict

Registered: 23/12/2002
Posts: 652
Loc: Winston Salem, NC
I changed my useCache to 1, my cacheMegs to 512 (half of my available RAM), and my cacheMink to 20480. It seems to work out fine for me.

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