Doom 3 System Requirements Revealed

The Llama King writes "The Houston Chronicle's Computing column has got the Doom 3 minimum system requirements. Biggest eye-opener: 384 MB of memory. Lots of mainstream PCs have been sold with 256 MB of RAM, so upgrades will be in order. RAM chip manufacturers should be salivating about now. You'll also need a 1.5-GHz processor and a GeForce 3 or Radeon 8500 graphics card or better."

thats it?

[inf0c0m]

is it just me or is anyone else suprised?

even the desktops i order at work come with more than the minimum requirements (1gb ram, 2.4+ processor, geforce 4 (or equiv)).

but i suppose this is minimum requirements...recommended will be much more.

Re:DirectX 9.0?

[juuri]

Capability

That's just a shorthand way of saying "we require pixel shaders".

Re:P3 CPUs?

[CaptainPinko]

but didn't the P4 introduce instructions that aren't supported by the P3? Specifically the SSE2? A cutting edge game would seem to make use of those instructions...

Re:What OS are Supported?

[Tyreth]

The initial release will not have Mac or Linux support, but the Linux binaries will be released shortly after.

http://www.linuxgames.com/news/feedback.php?identi ferID=6737&action=flatview/ [linuxgames.com]

Doom 3 Technology

[PIPBoy3000]

Here's a good article [doomworld.com] on the technology behind Doom 3.

Essentially, it's geared towards a technology set that's already fairly well established. It relies heavily on normal mapping to produce seemingly high-polygon models when they're actually quite low-polygon. This is all done in OpenGL and not DirectX. Personally, I think it speaks highly of the ID developers that they can make an engine that looks so good on so many PCs.

more precisely

[real_smiff]

It's a shorthand way of saying "we expect pixel shaders v2.0". So my GF3Ti is right out.. (PS 1.1 == DX8 IIRC).

Re:Geforce 3

[MP3Chuck]

No ... In fact, I remember Carmack being annoyed with the naming scheme for the GF4 MX cards. Their performance is hardly comparable with a "real" GF4 ... and I don't honestly think an MX is up to par -- at all -- for Doom III.

Re:Dual CPU support?

[bedouin]

You'd think the Mac version would have to, since the entire PowerMac line is dual-CPU now.

Re:Does not compute, BIG jump from II to III

[richdun]

Come on guys, calm down. Doom II was also re-released for Windows 95 after it launched, which is probably where he got his stats.

Re:It is not THAT simple, though

[Tim C]

I don't suppose you'll need a gig and a half, but you are right about the minimum spec generally being the bare minimum. I have 512MB in my machine, and UT2k4 takes a geological age to load a level while playing online if I have "preload all skins" on. Without it, it loads much quicker (but still not exactly quickly), but has the odd pause now and then in game while it loads up a skin (which to me is far preferable).

Either way, I definitely need some more memory...

Re:Vaporware has specs?

[Roguelazer]

I hope you're kidding. I mean, it freaking ships in a few weeks. Hundreds of people outside of id have seen it. It's been reviewed for Pete's sake...

Re:thats it?

[Tim C]

We recently bought a bunch of new Dells, and they all come with Quadro FX 500 cards. Not that we need them - but to get the other specs we need (gig of RAM, 3GHz proc - we do server-side Java, and run every locally while developing, including the server), that's what comes in the machine.

It's really not worth our while getting them swapped out, though; our IT dept seems to have a fear of non-standard configurations. At least this way, if a machine dies, we can have an exact replacement here within hours (theoretically, at least).

Re:640K

[TopShelf]

Son, When i was young 640K was enough for anyone.

Back in my day, my first computer came with 8K, and IIIIIiiiii liked it! When it came time to upgrade to 16K, it cost $200 and I had to send it away for a couple weeks! (I shit you not)

Re:DirectX 9.0?

[h4rdc0d3]

I thought Carmack was a big OpenGL fan. (Maybe the last one in the video game industry.) Why would you need DirectX for Doom? Maybe that's just shorthand for certain shared requirements, such as programmable GPU capabilities.

It uses both actually. OpenGL is the graphics API which ID has always used, but it uses DirectX for the sound and input, etc.

Re:thats it?

[timeOday]

Geforce 4 isn't real special anymore. We're talking about an $80 add-on card. In fact some decent motherboards come with Geforce 4 onboard graphics, although that's the "MX" variant which may not count.

It might not be a bad idea to shell out a few extra bucks even for "typical desktop PCs" because of the liklihood of accelerated GUIs (ala Mac).

Re:From the article

[cozziewozzie]

Correction: Doom3 uses parts of DirectX, when running on Windows. It's far from being a DirectX game.

Re:Geforce 3

[ToLu the Happy Furby]

Is the Geforce 4 MX supported?

Yes. Presumably the Chronicle reporter either didn't understand or didn't want to confuse his readers by explaining that the GF4 MX has less advanced functionality than the "lower-numbered" GF3.

I know that origionally Carmak wanted to require programable shaders, is that still the case, or did he relent and support the fixed function pipline that the Geforce 4 MX line inherited from the Geforce 2?

The Doom 3 engine does not and was never conceived of as requiring general-purpose programable fragment shaders. From the beginning Carmack targeted it at the "register-combiner" fragment pipeline of the GeForce 1 (NV1x) family, which allows for restricted combinations of pixel operations but not the programmability of even the very simple PS 1.0-1.3 style shader languages introduced in DX8. (So it's something of a halfway point between the DX7- style fixed-function pixel pipeline and the DX8+ style programmable pipeline. The NV1x register-combiner pipeline did not have an analogue in the Radeon 7x00 series (R1x0) and was not exposed in DX7, so ironically Doom 3--written in OpenGL of course, so using Nvidia's proprietary extensions is allowed--will be one of the first and only games to use the technology.)

Except for some minor effects in the ARB2 (PS 2.0+ level functionality) path, Doom 3 will not be exercising any fragment level functionality that can't be done with register combiners; the only difference is the number of passes required per fragment (5 or more for NV1x in common situations; 2 or 3 for NV2x; and 1 for NV3x+ and R2x0+).

So, leaving performance--and possibly memory size limitations--out of it, Doom 3 is perfectly compatible with any NV1x card, all the way down to the GeForce 1 SDR. Of course this is like saying that you can run Windows XP on a 386; it doesn't address whether the thing is playable or not. Last I heard, id intended on including at least some GF4 MX cards on the minimum requirements list, which would indicate that a GF2 or GF2-Ultra would be even more playable (which is to say not very).

Re:thats it?

[athakur999]

Doom III's "Okay" mode will probably look just as good as the "High Quality" mode on the games that were popular a year or two ago. If you want the new eye candy that Doom III's "High Quality" mode will provide, then you need a card capable of handling all that eye candy. OTOH, if you're happy with the quality you're used to seeing, then you should be fine using the card you already have.

Re:P3 CPUs?

[brufleth]

You are so utterly incorrect.

Re:P3 CPUs?

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhh... no. PIII's are SLP capable. Celeron PIII's are not (Unless you have some fancy chipset work arounds). Besides, I doubt Doom3 is coded for multiprocessing.

Video Requirement

[yeremein]

Lots of mainstream PCs have been sold with 256 MB of RAM, so upgrades will be in order

Not to mention the ubiquitous yet entirely inadequate Intel "Extreme Graphics" found in nearly all big-name desktops. Even "high-end" systems ship with the barely adequate FX5200. Video card upgrades will be required of almost all stock brand name desktops.

Re:Longhorn?

[dasmegabyte]

OK. Just want to really quickly disspell some inaccuracies in your post, probably the result of believing Slashdot anti-Microsoft FUD.

try again - longhorn won't be out until at least 2007, and many are saying 2008 or later

Many on Slashdot are saying this -- many who have absolutely no frame of reference and no idea what they're talking about. Microsoft has always said Longhorn would be out in 2006. As far as I know, they're still saying 2006 and they're right on track for 2006, based on the work they've been showing. Expecting a machine to run two years from now is NOT absurd.

the "suggested" specs for a longhorn machine,

What you're talking about...the absurd specs of 4 GHz, terabyte of hard drive, etc...were disspelled as soon as Slashdot "reported" them. Right now, the recommended specs for a development build of Longhorn -- DEVELOPMENT, mind you, not "just running it" but actively writing, debugging and profiling software -- are 1.6GHz and 1GB of RAM, and suggested DirectX 9 support with 64MB of VRAM. Nearly identical speed to the Doom 3 requirements with a nice ram boost.

Re:Honestly, those are pretty low-end specs

[Anonymous Coward]

the xbox actually only has 64MB of ram.

Re:Geforce 3

[Keith Russell]

The NV1x register-combiner pipeline did not have an analogue in the Radeon 7x00 series (R1x0) and was not exposed in DX7, so ironically Doom 3--written in OpenGL of course, so using Nvidia's proprietary extensions is allowed--will be one of the first and only games to use the technology.

City of Heroes got there first. There was a lot of complaining in the official CoH boards that the game's graphics were corrupted on Mobility Radeon 7500 laptops. Somebody snooped the OpenGL calls, and saw that Cryptic used nVidia's register combiner extension. I'm posting this from memory, so I'm not sure of the details, but you can search the Technical Issues forum.

Re:thats it?

[AKAImBatman]

You'd have a hard time selling the fact that id engines are more popular than Epic ones anymore.

Unlikely. If you lumped all the games based on Id's engines together, and then lumped all the games based on Unreal's engines together, Id would easily win on shear numbers. Remember, there are companies based almost entirely on making use of Id's latest and greatest engine, chief among them being Raven Software.

Re:thats it?

[imr]

remember that the geforce4mx that you often see in cheap PC is equivalent to a geforce2 and sucks big time. Yes, you knew it already, but I see so many people buying that piece of crap that it cant hurt to be said over and over again.

Re:Carmack's Engine Code Delivers Again

[imr]

The problem with your speech is that D3 was written in C++.

Re:Doom 3 theme

[F100d]

Here, listen: http://www.dissention.net/media/music/toolRip.mp3 [dissention.net]L isten

Re:It is not THAT simple, though

[drinkypoo]

I second this. Also, my windows XP boot time was cut in half when I went from a half-gig to a gig. I have a lot of crap loading at startup though (14 icons in my system tray right now...)

Re:thats it?

[AKAImBatman]

I really thought that half-life was the first FPS with an immersive story.

It was. Sort of. CyberMage [the-underdogs.org] actually beat it out by several years, but no one ever played CyberMage. I just happened to find Elite Force more immersive than Half-life (which I STILL haven't beat. Doesn't this game ever END?) ;-)

Re:thats it?

[sparkster812]

Wrong, sort of. Mcintosh is the apple. The spelling of it asMacintosh was actually a typographical error, but Apple Computer decided to go with it.

Tada, there's your history lesson for the day.

Re:thats it?

[AbRASiON]

Actually it's often the other way round in FPS games.

You see more light because the nice shading is turned off and it's easier to see - you don't get scared when you should because monsters are walking around in wireframe (virtually)

Same problem with games on the internet, gamers disable all the options so it runs faster AND the bad guys can't hide behind things anymore (example grass in SOF2)