Sweet Spot for DOOM 3

[Chebago]

allright, I just got Doom 3 and have been messing with the settings trying to find a "sweet spot" that I find very playable on my machine, the way I figure it, we could all post on here so people just starting the game, and I'm pretty sure there is going to be alot in the next couple of days, know what they can expect from their rig.

I don't have fps stats or benches because I don't really need to know if my card runs 75 fps when I am the only one moving and 10 fps when there is any action, for an average of 42.5 which sounds playable, yet isn't.

I started with 1280x1024 on high settings with the advanced settings all kept at default, the game was semi-playable but got very choppy whenever there was any hint of intense action, this made dropping the flashlight and aiming the guns at the enemies in the dark very difficult because there was too much slow down, also going through each door there was a noticeable pause...

So I dropped the texture quality to medium, left advanced settings on default and kept res at 1280x1024 and have found the game to be very playable, I have a few applications running in the background but there was only moderate slowdown and the no pause between opening doors and dropping the flashlight and shooting was alot smoother, I think this is going to be the sweet spot for me while playing this game. It doesn't look as good as high, but it is still very much acceptable IQ and I don't think I am going to feel like I didn't get a good "doom 3 experience"

my rig:
athlon xp barton 2600+ not overclocked
512 samsung pc2700 ram
asus a7n8x deluxe
Radeon 9800 pro with vga silencer not overclocked
audigy 2 platinum
windows xp pro

the reason I kept the resolution at 1280x1024 was because of the native resolution on the lcd, that's why I decided not to keep settings on high and drop to 1024x768. Oh, also, there doesn't seem to be ghosting with my envision lcd and its 25ms response time...so if you have an older lcd and are worried about the darkness of the game and ghosting, don't be.

Please post your system and the settings you find to be the most comfortable so everyone can gauge waht they can expect from doom 3

 

[jamesbond007]

I've been playing it on a friend's P4 3.0GHz\1GB PC3200 DDR\ATi AIW 9700 Pro and his system runs it OK with 1024x768 and 'High Quality' settings. Ultra High results in extreme choppiness. (Cat 4.7s)

I run D3 on my machine, 3.2GHz P4, 2GB PC3200, and a GeForceFX 5900XT at 1280x1024 with 'High Quality' and it runs like butter. I have not yet tried Ultra-high, but I really don't care to exhaust my system when I am already plenty satisifed with the IQ.

We are both LCD users, so higher resolutions are of no use. (17" and 19" Samsung LCDs)

EDIT:
Neither of us are running overclocked machines or graphics cards...

However, on a side note, do you enjoy the game? Personally, it just seems so repetitive. It is like FarCry with tweaked graphics, Resident Evil zombies, and has a Jurassic Park-like theme/story.

I don't mean to put water on anyone's fire/anticipation about the game, but it isn't as great as I thought it'd be...at least so far. I think I am pretty far in the game, too, on 'Marine' difficulty. I might consider myself to be somewhat insensitive to 'scary' games or whatever you'd like to call them, but this game gives you a good fright if you are.

What are your takes thus far?

 

[GZFant]

I wish I could start a "donation for the poor" thread because I recommend NOT playing Doom 3 on my current and only setup.

The choppiness is on the extreme factor when playing this game. I am guessing down to 5-10 fps.

My rig is a Pentium 3 933/512RDRAM/GFFX5200Ultra.

I have all my setting turned completely off, quality at low and running on 800x600 res. The game plays terrible right now and I am almost about to uninstall and wait for another year when I have enough money to upgrade

I really don't want this comment to come out as "poor me" but it is extremely frustrating playing an incredible game at the lowest of the lowest graphics and still being very choppy .

Well, as they say. "Back to the drawring board."

 

[Chebago]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007

Neither of us are running overclocked machines or graphics cards...

However, on a side note, do you enjoy the game? Personally, it just seems so repetitive. It is like FarCry with tweaked graphics, Resident Evil zombies, and has a Jurassic Park-like theme/story.

...

What are your takes thus far?

It's allright, I have 2 minor annoyances though, number one: it is rather claustrophobic, the flashlight doesn't illuminate very well. I'm only on level 1 or 2 or something and find it very annoying that you have to drop the flashlight to fire, and because it is so dark you can't see the monsters very well when you drop it to shoot at them, I really wish you could have a headlamp or something, but that might happen later on, I don't know. I know they were trying to make it realistic, but I find it relatively annoying...atleast they didn't make the flashlight have batteries.

number two: it has a haunted house in an amusement park kinda feel sometimes, go to point a and when you get there, event b will happen...if you don't look down the hole then the monster will never jump out at you, but if you do, then he jumps out...I have felt at times like I am walking through a haunted house with predetermined "scare points"

but I think it will be a nice break from Americas Army, which is the only game I have been playing for the last month or two.

 

[jamesbond007]

Chebago, I totally agree. My buddy kept asking me how I knew where to shoot in dark spots and where people were. Maybe it's too many FPS games for me, but it seems like once you've played one, you've played 'em all.

Still, my all-time favorite game is Halo. First-time through, everything felt 'new' to me. Nothing seemed to be re-used from previous games I've played. Top-notch game from storyline to heavy multiplayer action!

 

[worcmai]

I've been running the game for erm.. 2 days, it runs Single player 1024x768 medium settings pretty much solidly. However... in multiplayer FPS/smoothness really depends alot on your ping/server but it didn't run well at all, infact I had to use 640x480 low settings with all effects off for it to even be uhm... how should I say... "Not restricting my skill in anyway".
I'm running it on a AMD XP 1900+, 512 PC3200, Geforce FX5900 (nothing overclocked)


The game's graphics really are great... but I personally don't find what they have done with them is amazing, as far as the lighting and surfaces go. I'd say even though FarCry's engine isn't nearly as solid as Doom 3's, the lighting, and eye appeal is much better.

My view on D3 is it's not worth $55 upon release... maybe add a few outstanding mods for Multiplayer and you've got a fun game. I think ID is more concerned with making a "money maker" engine rather then a good stellar game. With such an attitude I've somewhat lost respect for ID. Infact I think they gimp the multiplayer just so people will buy the engine and put its multiplaying part to use... hmm buy 2 games(with the same engine) from the same company (indirectly) sigh.

 

[Excelsior]

1024x768 - Medium Quality = ~30fps.

2200 Mhz Athlon XP (256k Cache)
Nforce2 - 512MB Corsair PC3200 @ 400Mhz Cas2
9700Pro - Default clocks - Cat 4.7s

 

[zodder]

I wish some A64/6800 people would post in here.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: zodder
I wish some A64/6800 people would post in here.

will do tonight (hopfully)

 

[gururu]

1024, 16x AF(quality), no AA, switch between high/medium quality settings (can't make up my mind!!!).about 80% through the game. it gets way better as you go. you learn to use the flashlight effectively. You really have to clear out a room one at a time before progressing. I'm finding it quite easy now. the AI stinks for sure. everything will follow you around a corner for a shotgun blast to the face. weapons are awesome. why they can't attach a flashlight to a gun or helmet bewilders me. Farcry overall provided a more satsifying and challenging experience thus far in. D3 is a lot like a console game.

9700pro

 

[zodder]

Originally posted by: JBT

Originally posted by: zodder
I wish some A64/6800 people would post in here.

will do tonight (hopfully)

Me too.

 

[Boogak]

Originally posted by: zodder
I wish some A64/6800 people would post in here.

Been playing the last couple of nights on my stock Athlon 64 3200+, stock BFG 6800 GT, 1gb 400DDR memory. Leaving the AA and AF to application controlled in Display Properties, I find my sweet spot to be 1280x1024 High Quality (which I believe changes AF to 8x automatically?). I tried 1600x1200 High Quality which is still very playable, but it gets a little choppy in some rooms - and by choppy I don't mean a slideshow but just not as smooth as I'd like when turning around. I tried 1024x768 Ultra Quality and that is playable too except for stutters when textures are being loaded. It happens enough where I felt it ruined the gaming experience, plus I couldn't tell much of a difference between High and Ultra anyway.

 

[Avalon]

My video card is just about overclocked short of its limit, and there are no side effects while playing the game. I'm not sure what they meant by it using parts of the video card that have never been used before, and that overclocked cards would have problems. Hmm, who knows. Game ran alright at 1024x768 high settings, but I prefered the smoothness at medium settings. I'm going to go ahead and try playing with 2xAA and 4xAF and see if there is any difference.

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: gururu
gets way better as you go. you learn to use the flashlight effectively. You really have to clear out a room one at a time before progressing. I'm finding it quite easy now. the AI stinks for sure. everything will follow you around a corner for a shotgun blast to the face. weapons are awesome. why they can't attach a flashlight to a gun or helmet bewilders me. Farcry overall provided a more satsifying and challenging experience thus far in.

What I hate is that sometimes you can't always kill something you see farther in a room...I remember walking into a room and I wasn't able to 'finish off' a body on the ground on a room I walked into, until I went around this table so that I could be 'scared' of this enemy creature coming to life at a close range. I find it impressive that my pistol can knock water jugs, books, and lamps off of tables, but them damn Coke cans just won't budge! They must be made of lead or something...

I'll have to admit, this is the only game I've played that actually gave me goosebumps. Watching friends, who are easily spooked, play it for the first time is great entertainment. I wish I had a videocamera...and a seatbelt in my computer chair.

 

[vshah]

i play at 800x600, MQ, no aa/af, all advanced options on, get min 25, max 60 fps on a p4 3.0 @ 3.4, 1gb corsair 3200, ti4200@4600 speeds

-Vivan