Technology[edit]
Further information: id Tech 4
According to John Carmack, the lead graphics engine developer at id Software, the technology of Doom 3 was supported by three primary features: unified lighting and shadowing, complex animations and scripting that showed real-time with fully dynamic per-pixel lighting and stencil shadowing, and GUIsurfaces that add extra interactivity to the game.[44] The key advance of the id Tech 4 graphics engine developed for Doom 3 is the unified lighting and shadowing. Rather than computing or rendering lightmaps during map creation and saving that information in the map data, most light sources are computed in real-time. This allows lights to cast shadows even on non-static objects such as monsters and machinery, which was impossible with static non-directional lightmaps. A shortcoming of this approach is the engine's inability to render soft shadows and global illumination.[44]
To increase the interactivity with the game-world, id Software designed hundreds of high-resolution animated screens for in-game computers. Rather than using a simple "use key" to operate these computers, the crosshair acts as a mouse cursor over the screens allowing the player to use a computer in the game world. This allows for in-game computer terminal to perform more than one function, from operating security door codes, activating machinery, toggling lights or unlocking weapons lockers. According to the Doom 3 manual, GUI designer Patrick Duffy wrote over 500,000 lines of script code, and generated more than 25,000 image files to create all of the graphical interfaces, computer screens, and displays throughout Doom 3.[45] Other important features of the game engine are normal mapping and specular highlighting of textures, realistic handling of object physics, dynamic, ambient soundtrack, and multi-channel sound. Doom 3 on Xbox supports 480p widescreen video display resolution and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.[46]
Release[edit]
Doom 3 achieved gold status on July 14, 2004[47] and a Mac OS X release was confirmed the next day.[48] Doom 3 was released in the United States on August 3, 2004 and to the rest of the world on August 13. Due to high demand, the game was made available at select outlets at midnight on the date of release. Additionally, a Linux version was released on October 4, 2004 byTimothee Besset. The Mac OS X version was released on March 14, 2005 and on February 20, 2006 the patch 1.3 Rev A included a universal binary, adding support for Mac OS X on the x86 architecture.[49] Finally, the modified Xbox conversion was released on April 3, 2005.
A week before the game's release, it became known that an agreement to include EAX audio technology in Doom 3 reached by id Software and Creative Labs was heavily influenced by a software patent owned by the latter company. The patent dealt with a technique for rendering shadows called Carmack's Reverse, which was developed independently by both John Carmack and programmers at Creative Labs. id Software would have placed themselves under legal liability for using the technique in the finished game, so to defuse the issue, id Software agreed to license Creative Labs sound technologies in exchange for indemnification against lawsuits.[50]
During the keynote address at QuakeCon 2011, John Carmack announced that the source code for the Doom 3 engine would be released.[51] The source code was open-sourced under the GPL on November 22, 2011. It contains minor tweaks to the shadow rendering code to avoid potential patent infringement with a patent held by Creative Labs. Art assets such as 3D models, music, sound effects etc. remain subject to the EULA.[6]
Versions[edit]
Expansion[edit]
Main article: Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil
On April 3, 2005, eight months after the release of Doom 3, id Software released an expansion pack for Doom 3 on Windows.[52] The expansion, entitled Resurrection of Evil, was developed byNerve Software, a company that had partnered with id Software on several other projects, including Return to Castle Wolfenstein and the Xbox conversion of Doom. Once again published byActivision, a Linux version was released on May 24, 2005, and an Xbox version followed on October 5, 2005.[53] The expansion featured a new twelve-level single player campaign, set two years after the original storyline, as well as three new weapons, one of which is geared towards manipulating the physics in the game. Several new enemy characters were also introduced. Multiplayer gameplay was enhanced, officially increasing the player limit to eight and adding new game modes such as capture the flag.[54] Resurrection of Evil's reception was not as positive as it had been for Doom 3, but still received generally favorable reviews from the industry's critics.[55]
BFG Edition[edit]
Main article: Doom 3 BFG Edition
A re-release of Doom 3 called Doom 3: BFG Edition was released on October 15, 2012, in Australia, October 16, 2012 in North America,[56] October 19, 2012 in Europe and November 22, 2012 in Japan for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The BFG Edition features enhanced graphics, better sound with more horror effects, a checkpoint save system, and support for 3D displays and HMDs. The game also includes the previous expansion Resurrection of Evil and a new single-player expansion pack called The Lost Mission. Additionally, it includes copies of the original Doom (theUltimate Doom edition with the add-on fourth episode, "Thy Flesh Consumed"), and Doom II with the expansion No Rest for the Living, previously available for the Xbox 360. The BFG Edition also features the ability to use the flashlight while holding a weapon, in the form of the so-called armor-mounted flashlight.[57] The PC version of Doom 3: BFG Edition requires the Steam client and a valid Steam account for installation, play and achievements.
Reception[edit]
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Doom 3 was a critical and commercial success for id Software; by the beginning of 2007, over 3.5 million copies of Doom 3 had been sold, making it the most successful project by id Software to date.[9] The game engine for Doom 3, id Tech 4, has been licensed out for the use of other developers, such as in Human Head Studios' Prey, Raven Software's Quake 4, Splash Damage's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Raven Software's Wolfensteinand Splash Damage's Brink; however id Tech 4 has not been widely licensed compared to Epic Games' Unreal Engine.[71]
Doom 3 received a favorable reception from critics, with the PC version of the game holding an 87 percent score[65] and an 88 percent score[67] at the review compilation sites Metacritic and GameRankings respectively. Much praise was given to the quality of Doom 3's graphics and presentation;GameSpot described the game's environments as "convincingly lifelike, densely atmospheric, and surprisingly expansive",[19] while PC Gamer UKdescribed the graphics and non-player character modeling and animation as simply "flawless", stating that Doom 3 signalled the return of the Doomfranchise to the forefront of the computer and video game industry, eleven years after the release of the original Doom.[16] IGN's Dan Adams noted that the game's presentation comprised a remarkably high proportion of the game, stating that "without the atmosphere, Doom 3 is a plain shooter that hearkens back to those of the '90s."[18] In addition, several reviewers praised id Software for making the game still look surprisingly good even on lower graphics levels.[12][18]
A number of reviewers also praised the attention paid to the game's premise and setting; GameSpot's Greg Kasavin described getting "the impression that Doom 3 takes place in a fully realized world"[19] while IGN noted that "the UAC base also has a very worn and lived-in feel that adds to the realism."[18] Eurogamer in particular pointed out that the game's opening sequence "feels like a fitting tribute to the excellent ideas" of Valve Software's genre-defining Half-Life.[59]
Many reviewers noted that Doom 3 stuck with a similar "run and gun" gameplay style that was successful with its predecessors, and the game was alternately praised and criticized for this element. Several reviews were critical of a perceived repetitiveness in gameplay after a while.[12][19] In addition, the game's artificial intelligence was not regarded as particularly challenging, with GameSpot noting that "enemies follow the same sorts of predictable patterns that [players] may remember from previous Doom games"[19] while GameSpy stated the way enemies would spawn to attack the player was "gimmicky"; the reviewer noted that players would realize that picking up a lone armor vest would cause a variety of zombies to emerge from hidden compartments in the dark.[11] In addition, several reviewers noted that the game's methods of conveying the story were "ineffectual", compounded by the lack of an identity for the player character.[19] Finally, the game's multiplayer was seen as lacking in innovation, with its low player limits and small number of game modes, particularly in contrast to id Software's influential Quake III Arena.[11][18][19]
The Xbox version of Doom 3 received a similar level of critical support, holding a score of 88 percent on Metacritic[66] and an 87.7 percent score on GameRankings.[68] The game was praised and faulted on many of the same issues as the PC version,[61] although the game was praised for maintaining smooth and user-friendly controls on a gamepad, as well as for including a two player co-operative multiplayer mode, which IGN described as "worth the price of admission alone."[63]However, some criticism was directed towards slow-downs in play due to the game engine, despite being scaled down for the Xbox, still being demanding on the Xbox hardware.[63]
Legacy[edit]
A Doom film, loosely based on the franchise was released on October 21, 2005 in the United States and in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2005. It was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak and starred Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, and The Rock. The film did not fare well and received a poor critical response,[72] with ticket sales for the opening weekend totalling more than US$15.3 million, but promptly dropping to $4.2 million in its second weekend.[73]
In early 2008, a new series of Doom novels by Matthew J. Costello were published, an author who had worked on the story and scripts for Doom 3 and Resurrection of Evil; previous Doom novels had expanded the storyline of the original two Doom games. The series of books aim to novelize the story of Doom 3, with the first installment, Worlds on Fire, published on February 26, 2008.[13]The second book in the series, Maelstrom, was released in March 2009.[74] A further Doom game developed by id Software on their new id Tech 5 game engine, Doom 4, was announced in May 2008,[75] although the game is not going to continue the story of Doom 3.[76] On November 22, 2011, the source code of the Doom 3 engine was released under the GPL, but the game's artwork content still remains under the EULA. A later source code drop also included the changes made for the BFG Edition, allowing the re-release to potentially be ported to other previously unsupported platforms such as Linux and OS X,[77] and such a port was eventually released.[78]
