Doom 3 Outdated?

[Gildoran]

How much of a performance hit are we talking about here? Shouldn't it be possible to tell the renderer (once we have the source maybe, maybe before that, I don't know) to do most textures and object arbitrarily, but reserve certain ones for ordering from the camera viewpoint?

Yeah, I figure it should be possible to only order translucent surfaces if we have access to the rendering backend. It's just that I'm not sure how many translucent surfaces are usually in PVS, and how long it would take to sort them.

[AluminumHaste]

Yeah, I figure it should be possible to only order translucent surfaces if we have access to the rendering backend. It's just that I'm not sure how many translucent surfaces are usually in PVS, and how long it would take to sort them.

 

Isn't that what this keyword is for in the material file: sort nearest

 

Also: sort decal

Edited March 20, 2008 by AluminumHaste

[jdude]

I think the only reason the D3 engine would even be considered dated at all is because of the RAGE engine, which looks totally awesome from a design point of view.

 

But no I wouldn't say the D3 engine is outdated yet, give it 3-4 years more

[Baddcog]

Well, it's almost impossible to release a mod for an engine that isn't somewhat dated anyway.

 

Most developers start working on a new engine, or a new version of an old engine by the time the game is released. That's when a mod can start.

 

So theoretically all mods start on a last gen engine because the new gen is in works by the time you buy a game and start modding, that's if the engine is released with the game and not later.

 

If we were working on a next gen engine we wouldn't be a mod team, we would be a studio.

 

Furthermore, there isn't really a thing known as a 'current gen' engine. Once a new one is in the works the old one is 'old', thus 'outdated'. People just get a little too carried away with the whole 'next gen' thing.

Look how long it took old engines like Dromed to become outdated. And it still gets heavy usage anyway.

[Komag]

But with Doom 3 it was quite advanced when it came out, pretty much ahead of its time really, so it's only just barely showing age at this point I think, and has a lot of life left and even growth left.

 

It can do some pretty current/next gen stuff still, and eventually when source code hopefully comes out it will be very upgradable as well.

 

It's basically the best possible choice this mod!

[jdude]

Agreed, there's only been a handful of small advances since D3. Some which are post-process affects such as soft shadows, and more efficient lighting calculations. Take away those things, and it's still modern. The d3 engine I wouldn't say is outdated yet because it can still push machines to their limits and provide great results, as opposed to say the HL1 engine which lags no matter what your specs if you exceed a specific poly count and cannot perform certain post-process affects.

[Order of the Hammer Bureaucrat]

Remember in like 2004 or 2005 there was a demo of unreal engine 3 or maybe 4 where the big monster was illuminated with many colours and there were boxes made to look like plastic, silver, gold, asphalt, present boxes, etc, what was it? That seemed really impressive, people might have gotten the idea that's recent. There were pictures of ruined stone ornate houses with lots of polygons.

[SneaksieDave]

Wow, two-year delayed followup on a concept; that's gotta be a record!