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PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Doom 3 Vaporware no More 537

gilxa1226 writes "The waiting will soon be over... I was browsing Best Buy's website, and saw a preorder for Doom 3. It looks as though the release date is 4/1/2004. Doom 3.com also has info on presales."
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Doom 3 Vaporware no More

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  • 4/1, eh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by i_am_syco ( 694486 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:29AM (#7944476)
    ...... APRIL FOOLS!
    • Or, as in Europe - January 4th (2005?)
    • wow (Score:5, Interesting)

      by abhisarda ( 638576 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:54AM (#7944655) Journal
      I opened the doom3 mainpage and that mechanical robot page. Jesus, what a coincidence.
      It's almost as if that the doom3 monster *is* the mechanical robot covered in flesh.
      Doom [doom3.com]
      Robot [enryu.jp]
    • Re:4/1, eh? (Score:4, Funny)

      by gnu-generation-one ( 717590 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @11:19AM (#7944811) Homepage
      4/1, eh? ... APRIL FOOLS!

      WTF? 4/1/2004 has been and gone, 7 days ago, and I can't remember it being April yet.

      • Who thought Doom 3 was "vaporware?" There was no reason to. I don't think anybody did. Wtf?
    • Re:4/1, eh? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Alan ( 347 ) <arcterex.ufies@org> on Sunday January 11, 2004 @12:21PM (#7945200) Homepage
      Erhmm... the ebgames page [ebgames.com] says it's ship date is 7/14/2004...
    • by Overly Critical Guy ( 663429 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @02:42PM (#7946100)
      Wow, Slashdot is posting retailer release dates now? After all these years, this supposed "geek site" doesn't know that every retailer has different dates that are never true? This is ridiculous. Why would Taco post this? According to EBGames last year, I should have gotten Half-Life 2 in November...since we're believing random retailers now. Right, I'm sure Best Buy is really in the know about id's release schedule.

      Not only that, but we get a bizarre headline calling Doom 3 "vaporware" for no apparent reason. Nobody thought it was vaporware. It has had a steady stream of screenshots, an alpha leak, and a multiplayer demo, as well as no release date to delay in the first place.

      Get with it, Slashdot.
      • by t0qer ( 230538 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @04:26PM (#7946770) Homepage Journal
        Wow, Slashdot is posting retailer release dates now?

        This is a story about Doom. It's important to us geeks because we will all be trading in our mothers to get the hardware needed to play this game. It will drive the PC gaming market and force everyone to upgrade meaning.

        1. I will be playing it.
        2. I will be getting a lot of calls from people wanting me to "fix" their machines (for $$$) so they can play it.

        Dec 10 1993 was when it all started. (Hard to believe its been over 10 years. From that day forward a group of gamers were turned truly geek. They sat up long hours tweaking their machines to get that extra 1-2 fps. They learned the basics of networking for multiplayer.(Funny, same day my mother and stepfather got married? Coincidence? I think not)

        Doom got me and a lot of my friends interested in networking to the point where we all became sysadmins. We started on tweaking ipxodi.com to run high for doom and it led to working with novell servers. From there Windows servers, and in the end Linux.

        I'm glad Slashdot reported it. Even if it is an early Aprils Fools joke, it's related very much to my lifestyle, my friends, nerds.

        BTW i'm going to tangent this thread here, who's not buying new hardware till they can have Doom3, PCI express video and a 64bit CPU?
  • Doom3 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:30AM (#7944480)
    What with the leaked Alpha, numerous screenshots on every gaming site, I never really thought of Doom3 as vaporware. DNF is another story
    • Re:Doom3 (Score:5, Funny)

      by Patrik_AKA_RedX ( 624423 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:47AM (#7944601) Journal
      DNF is another story
      What do you mean DNF is vaporware? It's already for sale [gamasutra.com] in Ukraine.
  • Listed for release on April Fools Day... anyone want to bet this is another false alarm?

    I'll wait to HL2 anyway
  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:30AM (#7944484)

    Wow, what a great engine!

    I can't wait till someone makes a game with it.

    • by ziggles ( 246540 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @12:06PM (#7945106) Homepage
      Ya know, maybe I'm weird, but I like to play games before deciding they suck and their only redeeming feature is their engine. It's not like id has a track record of making crappy games. They may not be great innovators, but every game they've made has been of high quality. You may be bored of FPS games, but that doesn't mean they all suck.

      Personally, I could care less about whether a game is innovative. I just want a game that's well-made and fun. id has always delievered at least that much in the past.
      • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @01:10PM (#7945498)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • by ziggles ( 246540 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @01:55PM (#7945808) Homepage
          I think it's great that they have such ridiculous designs. This is a Doom game, it should carry on in the tradition of Doom 1 & 2. If this was some other game about a mars base being overtaken by demons from hell then you may have a point.. but it's not. And actually, the game's plot (mars base overtaken by demons from hell? come on!) is so ridiculous, having "inspired" art direction would seem out of place regardless of the past Doom games.
      • by fredrikj ( 629833 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @01:17PM (#7945544) Homepage
        They may not be great innovators

        Bullshit. They invented the entire FPS genre.
        • by theefer ( 467185 ) * on Sunday January 11, 2004 @02:54PM (#7946155) Homepage
          Bullshit. They invented the entire FPS genre.
          Right, but it does not mean they have to stay with that very same gameplay for the rest of the studio's life, does it ? Actually is does sound like it is their plan.

          To me, Peter Molyneux's Bullfrog and Lionhead have been much more inventive than ID Software. This does not mean ID games suck, it just mean ID takes no risk and innovates only in technology, not game design.
          • by danila ( 69889 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @05:48PM (#7947297) Homepage
            You can't easily invent another genre in a mature market. id created FPSes, now FPS is a genre inside which they have to work (because they are best at FPS games). They have a lot of creative ideas, but there are certain limitations (like the game is first-person, you run around and basically shoot stuff) they have to respect. Still, Doom3 promises a lot of innovation in the style. It won't be the first movie-like FPS experience, but enough not to be considered a clone.

            Another thing is that id guys had a lot of ideas for their next game, including a very innovative Prey (IIRC). But ultimately they decided that they want to make Doom3, because they loved the original Doom and felt like the possibilities were simply to great to be ignored. This was neither milking the cash cow, nor investors' decision. The programmers (designers) made the decision.

            Then you might also think about the reason FPS games are popular. It's because there is very specific behaviour that we humans enjoy very much - wreaking havoc. We have a very good picture of what we want to experience in such games and the FPS genre is doomed to assimptotically approach the image in our minds. That's why FPS game can't be too innovative, we are already close enough to the perfect experience and changing too much would be straying in the wrong direction.
      • by AKnightCowboy ( 608632 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @03:03PM (#7946201)
        They may not be great innovators, but every game they've made has been of high quality. You may be bored of FPS games, but that doesn't mean they all suck.

        I have problems with id software continually releasing the same kind of "evil" dark games. Why can't they make something a little lighter? All the Dooms and Quakes concentrated on evil satanic monsters and nothing but mindless killing. As a Christian I have to wonder what this is doing to the children who end up playing these games behind their parents' backs (for example at a friend's house who has liberal parents or a single mom who is working hard to support the family). id should be ashamed of themselves for releasing such garbage. Why can't they make a good quality game about American soldiers hunting down evil terrorists?

  • old news (Score:5, Informative)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:30AM (#7944488) Homepage
    the prorder shelf boxes have been in best buy for over 2 weeks now here in the midwest.

    but there is no promises as to when you are able to get your copy, so dont get your hopes up too much about it coming out very soon.
    • Re:old news (Score:5, Funny)

      by nekura ( 600099 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @11:24AM (#7944842)
      In the Best Buy I work at, we've had the pre-order boxes out since around the time I started working (mid-November). For some reason, a $10 price tag and the words "Preorder Only" add up to equal "OMFG DOOM 3'S OUT" in a lot of people's minds. God it's a bitch working software sometimes. =D
  • by kryptkpr ( 180196 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:31AM (#7944489) Homepage
    I see what's going on here.. 4/1/03.. they're trying to make college/university students fail their 2nd term final exams! (usually the first through third week of April)
  • So what? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Acidic_Diarrhea ( 641390 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:31AM (#7944490) Homepage Journal
    Big deal - there's been a Doom 3 box at EB for awhile now. Just because a retail outlet says a product is going to be out on a date, doesn't mean much of anything - especially when it comes to a video game.

    This is completely meaningless. Stores put release dates out that are wrong quite often. Move on, move on.

  • The check is in the mail!
  • by klueless ( 695037 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:31AM (#7944494)
    What about the E3 Demo? This thing was playable a LONG time ago.

    I'm pretty sure our doom "vaporware" existed only at games.slashdot.org.

    Regardless, a date is always nice, although it doesn't guarentee anything (even with pre-orders).
    • by l810c ( 551591 )
      While i do think the term 'vaporware' is being tossed about a bit too freely in this case, this has definatally been id's longest development cycle. The game was announced June 1, 2000 and the famed E3 demo was over 1 1/2 years ago. If they make Fool's day release they will come in just under 4 years.

      There will probably be many derivitives and mission packs to follow over the next couple of years. At this pace, however, we can expect to see Carmack's next graphics engine in 2010.

  • Sorry, it's still vaporware until I can run it...

    on my Linux box!
  • When will the Pentium Pentiums be out?
  • by Decaffeinated Jedi ( 648571 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:33AM (#7944512) Homepage Journal
    <insert obligatory Duke Nukem Forever joke here>
  • No dates yet. (Score:5, Informative)

    by juhaz ( 110830 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:33AM (#7944515) Homepage
    Both stores linked from doom3.com state that:

    Please note: id Software has NOT supplied a release date for this title. We will provide a date as soon as one is announced. Pricing listed is an estimate and is subject to change.

    So anyone who has some specific date marked is just guessing.

    What's the big deal anyway? It's just a game.
    • What's the big deal anyway? It's just a game.
      jsut a game? why havent you heard? this is the next big thing in scare-the-shit-out-of-you-ware.....seriously. the alpha leak was scary as hell even at about 3fps....not that i played it...
    • I was wondering about that... I remember a few years ago there were a few places preselling Duke Nukem Forever, release date and all. (even unofficial box art...)

      I think we all know how far that got.
  • EB says 7/14/2004, Gamestop says 5/3/2004 and BestBuy says 4/1/2004. Any bets on which date will realistically be the ship date?
  • Large format trailer (Score:5, Informative)

    by embobo ( 1520 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:35AM (#7944524) Homepage

    I haven't slept for more then 24 hours but I didn't see a link to the large format trailer on the site so here it is:

    Slashdot Me [doom3.com]

    Of course, I already grabbed it myself.

  • EB Games [ebgames.com] just recently changed the 'ships on date' to 7/14....
  • by bain ( 1910 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:37AM (#7944535) Homepage Journal
    I can see the hardcore gamer trying to figure out if fate is toying with their sanity.
  • by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:38AM (#7944537) Journal

    That was the sound of utter terror from ten-thousand Nvidia, Ati, AMD and Intel engineers who can now look forward to putting out a bleeding-edge new graphics card / CPU in less then four months. Expect casualties.

    • by Telex4 ( 265980 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:42AM (#7944568) Homepage
      That was the sound of utter terror from ten-thousand Nvidia, Ati, AMD and Intel engineers who can now look forward to putting out a bleeding-edge new graphics card / CPU in less then four months.

      And the spontaneous orgasms of thousands of Nvidia, Ati, AMD and Intel sales persons awaiting the gullible geeks desperate for a video card upgrade to enjoy the full splendour of a video game for > 300
      • And the spontaneous orgasms of thousands of Nvidia, Ati, AMD and Intel sales persons awaiting the gullible geeks desperate for a video card upgrade to enjoy the full splendour of a video game for > 300

        And the simple acknowlegement of people like me that can buy the new knocked down Geforce9's to replace my voodoo 3 and play some modern games
    • by irokitt ( 663593 ) <[archimandrites-iaur] [at] [yahoo.com]> on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:56AM (#7944662)
      The demos run on a 9700. And Carmack says the game will run well on considerably less than that. It's OpenGL, so you don't even need the latest version of DirectX (9.0b) to run it. A ti-4600 or an overclocked ti-4200 will serve, if that's what you already have. A Radeon 9600 Pro/XT will give you the best bang for buck. And a 9800 will put a large dent in your wallet. But avoid the new Nvidia cards unless you're not interested in being able to play Half-Life 2 when that comes out.
      • by LookSharp ( 3864 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @11:52AM (#7945019)
        The nVidia render bug for HL2 was overblown, and fixed pretty much before it even went public.

        The only real FUD going on is that ATI and Valve are cross-promoting eachother's products, and to that end, Valve is coming out saying "the way we wrote the game, it's going to perform better on ATI's current cards."

    • by TigerNut ( 718742 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:58AM (#7944674) Homepage Journal
      Nah... you just need that new Pentagram 6.66 GHz CPU that's in beta testing...
    • Didn't the hardware vendors already make Doom3-ready hardware?
      You see, the funny thing is, I upgraded my computer in November of 2002 specifically to play Doom3.

      P4 2.4GHz, Radeon 9700 Pro, 512MB memory. I was ready!!

      time passes....

      No my computer is getting old. It never even got to run Doom3 (except for the leaked alpha). And guess what? I'll be upgrading again this spring, specifically to play Doom3.

      Curse you id software. Curse you.

    • That was the sound of utter terror from ten-thousand Nvidia, Ati, AMD and Intel engineers who can now look forward to putting out a bleeding-edge new graphics card / CPU in less then four months. Expect casualties.

      Dont worry, They'll just take the latest chips/cards, slap "ultra extreme edition XT second edition" on them and resell them at $500.

      PS: On a weird note, a friend just got a GeForce FX 5600 Ultra XT. I thought the XT thing was ATI's? Oh wait, I mean IBM's ;').
  • Yeah ! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Maybe it will be released earlier, thanks to ATi.
  • The trailer seems to have an awful lot of CG in it that appears to NOT be in-game. The screenshots and in-game CG look very nice, although they're at tiny resolutions..

    Why does that soldier's helmet say "ARSE"? Did any one else notice that?
  • (Not that anyone here's sensible...)

    1. Wait three to six months.
    2. Then buy a near-high-end computer.
    3. Marvel as you get 30 fps.
  • The Date (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Timmmm ( 636430 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:46AM (#7944594)
    4/1/2004 .... That was about a week ago...
  • by jamesjw ( 213986 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @10:46AM (#7944595) Homepage

    Duke nukem forever announced for late '04? :)

    -- Jim.
  • Notice! (Score:2, Informative)

    by cthellis ( 733202 )
    The one retailer actually listed on their site for pre-orders (EB Games) that actually lists a release date puts it at 7/14/2004. o_O It's been all over the map for a while. Nothing to see here...
  • I think I'll pre-order it straight away, so they'll send me the game together with SNES CD-ROm Device I preordered from them way back in ... uhm?
  • Who isn't terribly excited about Quake4, a/k/a Doom3 ???

    Their games, while aesthetically pleasing are far from original anymore. Doom3 is just going to be another run-and-jump-shoot-that-rocket game.

    At least with UT2k4 they're adding new game modes and vehicles and such.

    Also from all the stuff I've read it won't play decently on anything short of a 500$ graphics card and a 3Ghz processor.... Which leaves my main windows box [laptop] in the dust...

    Tom
  • ummm... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Transcendent ( 204992 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @11:00AM (#7944685)
    the ebgames [ebgames.com] preorder says it will ship on 7/14/2004

    That's a little late for that 4/1 prediction, doncha think?
  • Big news, yeah right. I found a boxed copy for pre-pay at EB or Game World durring xmas, asked the sales guy, was told 4/1/04. that was over a month ago. Same thing for HL2.
  • by Keiran Halcyon ( 550292 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @11:15AM (#7944765)
    I work at my local Best Buy very near the display which holds the Pre-Order for Doom 3. I looked in our system, and the date listed for Customer Fufillment (ordering out of stock or not released productsS) doesn't even match the 4/1/04 date. Everyone knows they just make up a date and use it for awhile, but 4/1/04 isn't even the first date set for Doom 3. It's changed at least twice since it sat on that shelf.

    Funny enough, sitting right next to it is Counter Strike: Condition Zero. It's release date has changed twice as well. I see people go by all the time and go "It's OUT! YES!" and then bitch and swear when they see pre-order.
  • by fireduck ( 197000 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @11:29AM (#7944868)
    you can pre-order it from any number of sites. EBgames has it coming out the end of March. However, anyone that pays any attention to these things, knows all the release dates are absolutely meaningless. Most high quality games (i.e., from high quality developers) have the "it's done when it's done" release date. When iD / Valve announces it's gone gold, then you can get it in 2 weeks. That's really the bottom line. This is a non-story.

    But if you must pre-order, EBgames does have a cute figurine for Doom 3. (I preordered the harvest moon game for the gba, just to get a stuffed cow that's sitting on top of my computer, along with diablo and arthas...)
  • Although I don't think Doom3 will be vaporware, its important to remember that preorders don't have much value. Back in 1998, I preordered Valve's TeamFortress 2, which looked like a killer game at E3 and was scheduled for release in late November, 1998. Its now January, 2004 and I have yet to receive my copy of TF2. At least EB did give me a refund :)
  • Suspicious plot... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by myc_lykaon ( 645662 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @11:49AM (#7944991)
    I've seen the trailer and I seem to have heard it somewhere before...

    Organisation conducting experiments into reaching other worlds; experiment goes wrong; creatures and entities from other world start appearing.

    I'm sure I saw a ginger haired guy with glasses near that reactor... hmmm

  • This is exiting. A release for DooM3 will bring DooM for Columbine that much closer.

    (Shameless plug)

    Check my .sig for details.

  • This site claims to be run by nerds, right?

    Retailers have been listing release dates that are no where near anything official for years now. If retailers were right, I would have had HL2 on 11/15 like they promised. It's been shown OVER AND OVER AGAIN that retailers don't know ANY more about game release dates than average joe game buyer.

    I honestly can't believe that slashdot even accepted this story let alone posted it on the main page.

    If you want REAL game news, go to shacknews.com. People who actua
  • by Temporal ( 96070 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @12:06PM (#7945101) Journal
    Amazon.com has had Doom 3 for pre-order [amazon.com] for quite some time. They list the release date as March 1, 2004. Where did they get that date, you ask? They made it up!

    id has a very specific policy regarding release dates: There are none. They will release the game when it is done, but until that point, any date you see is pure speculation.

    At one point, Amazon was actually offering a discount if you bought Doom 3 together with Half-Life 2, which I thought was pretty amusing.
  • Team Fortress 2 (Score:2, Informative)

    by nukem1999 ( 142700 )
    I believe was available for preorder at Amazon sometime in 99 or 2000. Preorder means nothing.
  • Offical (Score:3, Funny)

    by rudy_wayne ( 414635 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @12:22PM (#7945215)
    The official release date is April 23, 2004. I know this is true because I just made it up.

  • Good horror game! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DroopyStonx ( 683090 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @12:30PM (#7945259)
    I've been reading reviews and previews since the day this thing was announced, and they claim that this game will seriously scare the piss outta you mainly due to the graphics and lighting, but also due to the enemy AI. They'll actually HIDE from you only to jump your ass when you run by. Or you'll be walking down a faintly lit corridor only to see a vague silhouette of something moving, but by the time you think "..what was tha-," something's swiping and screeching at you.

    Amen to this... these are the best types of games to play. Nothing is better than playing these in the pitch black at 2 AM when no one else is up.

    Not that it's truly terrifying, but the fact that a game can remotely trigger the emotions to creep you the f'k out.. that's some quality stuff.

    I can't wait to see what comes out in the future.
  • by praedor ( 218403 ) on Sunday January 11, 2004 @03:28PM (#7946400) Homepage

    Until there is actual software available to install on system. idSoftware could have started making "preorders" available a year ago for all that means. It would be no less vaporware.


    When the game actually exists for purchase. When it is available to reviewers for, well, actually reviewing (instead of simply looking at nifty video clips from in-house), THEN it wont be vaporware.


    The fact of the matter is, it is STILL vaporware, just as much as it was last year or the year before. Preorder or not.

  • by Saville ( 734690 ) on Monday January 12, 2004 @12:32AM (#7949917)
    I saw some mis-information in a couple places. Rather than responding to all of them I'm just going to start a new thread.

    "GeForce 3 isn't capable of running the shaders that Doom 3 needs. You would need to have a GeForce 4 at the very least"

    nVidia has five generations of cards worth talking about;
    nv0x-TNT series
    nv1x-GeForce, GeForce2, GeForce4MX, nForce, nForce2, etc
    nv2x-GeForce3, GeForce4Ti, Xbox
    nv3x-GeForceFX series
    nv4x-next generation unannounced cards

    A GeForce3 is tweaked GeForce4 and will run Doom3 well. For ATI's cards we have this chart:
    http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=15 44
    r1x0-Radeon, Radeon 7000/7200/7500
    r2x0-8500/9000/9100/9200
    r3x0-950 0/9600/9700/9800

    Doom3 is going to have at least five methods of rendering according to a year old post by John Carmack:
    http://www.webdog.org/plans/1/
    ARB1-pre tty much standard OpenGL to be compatible with everything. Most DX7 level cards will use this. No specular highlights, no vertex programs so this'll put more work on the CPU.
    NV1x-five passes, renders all features
    NV2x-two or three rendering passes, renders all features
    R200-usually single pass, renders all features
    NV3x-single pass, renders all features
    ARB2-advanced standard OpenGL, single pass, renders all features. This will be used by all DX9 and better cards other than the GeForceFX which has a special optimized rendering path.

    The ATI Radeon and Intel Extreme Integrated Graphics will use the ARB1 path. The Matrox Parhelia will probably fall back to the standard DX7 path and not use its ability to do things like vertex programs. I'm not sure where the WildcatVP falls in, it supports nvidia's register combiner extensions so it could pretend to be a GeForce1/4MX, but I seem to remember a .plan file saying Doom3 may support the OpenGL high level shading language which would mean there is a sixth path;
    ARB3-basically be the exact same as ARB2, but using vertex/fragment shaders instead of vertex/fragment programs (high level language instead of low level asm shading language). Currently only supported by WildcatVP, but presumably ATI and nvidia would support this soon too. And any other DX9 level cards.

    The XGI Volari and S3 DeltaChrome would use the ARB2 path as would ATI's next generation card. Not sure about the NV4x... Users would probably have the option to choose any rendering path their hardware can do if they want.

    *rumour*
    The PowerVR Kyro is possibly not going to be able to run Doom3 because it can't do Cube Maps. If they allow Doom3 to run without CubeMaps then I guess the nvidia TNT, ATI Rage, Matrox G400, S3 Savage 2000, 3dfx cards, and Intel 815G integrated graphics, will be able to run it too. In theory ;) I bet bad drivers prevent it from running, and even if it did run it would actually walk, or crawl. :) */rumour*

    If Doom3 supports fragment/vertex shader it'll be the first on the market to do so. The only other advanced OpenGL game on the market for windows I know of is Homeworld2 which uses new extensions like fragment programs and vertex buffer objects.

    Finally there have been Doom3 benchmarks released:
    http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc. html?i=1821 &p=21
    Medium Quality: 1024x768:
    104fps - GeForceFX 5900 Ultra
    95fps - GeForceFX 5800 Ultra
    77fps - Radeon 9800 Pro
    55fps - GeForceFX 5600 Ultra
    40fps - Radeon 9600 Pro
    47fps - GeForceFX 5200 Ultra
    19fps - Radeon 9200

    Those are from May 12th, 2003. Probably a full year before the game ships. But it gives you an idea of how well the GeForceFX can do when partial precision floating point is used via the NV3x fragment program extension (there standard OpenGL fragment program extension only allows you to hint fastest, don't care, or nicest for the entire program while AFAIK the nvidia extension allows you to specify per instruction if you want 16bit or 32bit precission) and how well the GeForceFX "ultra shadow" technology works. :)

    I'm really looking forward to this game!

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