7upMan

Stumpy, can you test with settings cranked up? Like higher res, 16xAF, 4xAA, shader high and ambient standard? 205 fps is really a lot, I'd like to know how performance suffers from higher settings.

Maybe. My first system that had 4 GB had a mainboard with a AMD 690 Chipset, and that was fairly modern. It had 3.3 GB, meaning 100 MB less than what my current mobo and BIOS gives me. No, you aren't, because I remember that too. EMS, XMS and all that stuff, typing RAM address ranges into... what was it, the config.sys? Well, I'm happy this is far behind us now. Unless you use the 3GB switch in Windows 32. Here is my boot.ini: [boot loader] timeout=5 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB" /fastdetect /usepmtimer /3GB /USERVA=2990 /NoExecute=OptOut multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect=OptIn /usepmtimer This is actually the only way for me to be able to play the Fakefactory Cinematic Mod for Half-Life 2 on my system (WinXP/32), because if I don't set the switch, HL2 can't access the amount of RAM required. (See the Microsoft explanation here)

I'm sorry, but are you absolutely sure about that? If you're talking about onboard graphics with shared memory, then yes, the memory the onboard graphics uses is taken from RAM. However, a discrete graphics gard has its own RAM, and while certain addresses are mapped in RAM, it's never the whole amount. For example, my HD4870 has 1GB of VRAM, and my system (4 GB RAM) has 3.4 GB available, just like you have with your 512 MB gc. You can test it out with a graphics card that has 1 GB, you'll have the same amount of system RAM available. I experienced the same when I had my HD3870/512MB, I had the same 3.4 GB RAM available. On the other hand, I have no idea what happens once a game is started. Maybe the textures stored in the graphics card's VRAM have to be stored in the system RAM too, but to my knowledge that doesn't happen. But I'm no expert.

No, the book is actually blank. Okay, so I'll explain in detail (it seems absolutely natural to me, but I've played the FM about a hundred times while beta-testing it).

Well, you can d/l GPU-Z from here ( http://www.techpower.../SysInfo/GPU-Z/ ). You don't need to istall the s/w, just run it. It will display everything there is to know of your graphics card. Edit: CPU-Z ( http://www.cpuid.com/ )will show you the same for your CPU and RAM.

Myagi, it's interesting that you mention this. I had a ATI 9800SE@Pro back in the days. The 9800 SE was a 9800 chip with some shader units disabled. This could be due to production errors as well as to sell the card at a lower price. My 9800SE was a All in Wonder card with a TV decoder and had the shader units re-enabled by the shop where I bought it (which made her the ATI 9800SE@Pro). However, the shader units must really have had some defects, because not only I got the white noise in Doom 3 you mentioned, but also serious graphics glitches in 'Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay'. On none other my of ATI cards (X1600, X1900, HD3870, HD4870) I had similar errors, not even the green/red glitches both of you have. I'm using Catalyst 9.10 and stock frequencies for my gc. What are the temperatures of you GPUs? I have AtiTrayTools set up so that my CPU never goes over 80°C, most of the time it stays at 76°C.

Melan, just out of curiosity, do you know what type of HD4800 your graphics card is? After all, there are no less than 4 types of the 4800 type on the market: 4830, 4850, 4870 and 4890, and that's not including the X2 and overclocked variants. And your CPU is a single-core AMD Athlon 64 3200+?

...hence my question about if it's possible to have AI in the timedemo, to make the test as close to the actual performance as possible. But I know zero about the inner workings of the Doom 3 engine (or any other graphics engine, for that matter), so you'd be the ones who could give an informed answer.

Hi Melan, considering your FM I have two issues to report. The first one is the torch in the room opposite the starting position. The flame is a lot higher than the base of the torch.

Okay, here is what I can tell: on my Radeon, the sky is displaying in a strange way, much like Ishtvan reported. I have Catalyst AI disabled, so the error must be in the map itself. In all other FMs, the sky is shown properly once Catalyst AI is disabled. My system: CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE @ 3.4 GHz GPU: ATI Radeon HD4870/1G RAM: Corsair 4x1GB DDR2-800 CL4 OS: Windows XP 32Bit SP3 Settings: 1920x1200, 2xSS-AA, 16xAF, Bloom off, Vsync off, Shader: High quality, Ambient: Standard My results: 84,7 fps after the third run (being 69,2 after the first run, so I would recommend at least two runs to have the FM completely loaded into the RAM). I have a request: is it possible to modify the Training Mission in such a way that two (or more) AIs are spawned that start attacking each other? I don't know if the result of such a fight would be the same every time, but this would certainly stress the CPU, wouldn't it?

Hi TDM team, say, in the next TDM release, is it possible for you to include a timedemo in the training level for benchmark purpose? This way, you could get much better readings as to what components are more important (CPU vs. GPU vs. RAM) so players can update/purchase their rigs accordingly. Like, for example, what does TDM benefit more from: a fast graphics card, a fast clocked single-/dual-core CPU, or a slower clocked multi-core CPU? Is it a good idea to trade a HD3870 for a 9800something? Things like that could be answered very easily, and displayed in a chart as well.

I'd say Yes and No at the same time. On the one hand, you have Quake 4 and Prey, which look a lot less like plastic IMO. On the other hand, you have the new Wolfenstein that still looks remarkably like plastic, even though it's the last and final stage of the idtech4 engine. So I (who knows zero about the technology behind it) would say that it's easy to make idtech4 renderings look artificial, but also possible to omit that. Is there anyone who can support this claim?

You forgot "plastic" in your list. Almost everything in vanilla doom seems to be made of plastic, which makes the whole environment very artificial. I just wish John Carmack had J.C.Denton's shaders when he released D3...

Well, either you select them under "Other styles" in the editor menu (next to "Fonts"), or you type [ spoiler ] [ /spoiler ] (without the spaces, similar to the "quote" and "/quote" tags).

Incredible work! I just checked the screens, and to think that this was just the Training Map... How will Melan's FM look with these shaders?! Speaking of which, how big is the impact of the new shaders? I saw a difference of everything between 5 to 15 fps. I suppose this is also due to the AA, or is the impact equally high even without AA? By the way, there seems to have been on and off talk about implementing soft-shadows, which seems to be a problem in Doom 3. What is your opinion on this, would you be able to implement them?

I'm not good enough to surpass the quality of your reviews, and that would be the only thing that motivated me to post my own one. If anything, I'd add a comment afterwards, but since I prefer to stay away from TTLG (and I forgot my password anyway), that is postponed indefinitely. Try the following: open the mansion outside doors with the House Key, and then hide in the shadows and wait. You'll notice that the patrol guards (at least the ones inside the house) will notice eventually that the doors are open. Then they start looking around, until they are satisfied that they didn't spot anything. This worked for the guard next to Lord Nelson as well, but not for Lord Nelson himself (even with lights switched on). But it seems that every player might have a different experience.

SneakyJack, what you could have mentioned for Sons Of Baltona is, that the guards are alerted if doors are opened that should be closed. I loved that part the most, and only a few FM makers seem to have used this feature so far - which is a real pity, because it makes playing so much more immersive IMO.

Goldchocobo, the AA is the culprit. I had 4xSS-AA enabled (on my HD4870/1G), which got me 8 fps when looking at the start in the direction of the city. After switching off AA, I got manageable 25 fps. Although it looks ugly, I'm afraid this map forbids the use of any quality features. It's not. When I enable 4xAA on my 24" screen (1920x1200), TDM looks just beautiful. The only thing that's slightly annoying are the extremely hard-edged shadows. I'm still experimenting with some Doom3 shaders to have them softened, but it seems that TDM produces really bad graphics errors when I try to enable them.

Hi stgatilov, the thing with the guards being able to re-light torches but not lamps seems to be a missing feature in TDM itself, at least that's what Carnage had said during beta-testing. It would have greatly increased difficulty, so while not a high priority, it'd be great if the team could add this feature (or show a workaround).

It's our (beta-tester's) fault. But I guess you can't spot anything. That's a TDM issue, AFAIK. It's also in Sonosuke's FM, and his graphics card displays the cupboard correctly.