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Doom3 and OpenGL2.0

Screaming Lunatic writes "John Carmack has decided to write an OpenGL2.0 rendering path for Doom3. You can read his .plan or you can finger him. This will be huge for the development of OpenGL2.0. Video cards are typically benchmarked with respect to the framerate when running Quake3. Future benchmarks will be based on Doom3. This means IHVs will be somewhat forced to write good OpenGL2.0 implementations."

14 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And why would this be a good thing? by MrResistor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe because it isn't open?

    I'll believe OpenGL is dead when I can run all my DirectX games on Linux.

    --
    Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
  2. Not as great as it sounds for OpenGL 2.0 by VenTatsu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This won't force companies to write good OpenGL 2.0 drivers, it will only force them to write drivers that impement those functions that DOOM 3 uses, the other functions may not even be implemented properly or implemeted at all.

    As a former VooDoo (various versions) owner this is just fine if you only want to play games made by a few big name companies, but if your like me and looking to play smaller or indy games you'll find that your lucky if the games even run.

    1. Re:Not as great as it sounds for OpenGL 2.0 by Angron · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Getting them to provide some functionality is better than not getting any at all.

      The difference between this situation and that of 3Dfx's minidrivers is that the mini-drivers were made on a per-game basis, with a separate .dll for each game on your system (i.e. a 3dfxgl.dll file in each of your quake, quake2, half-life) rather than on a system-wide basis (one .dll for any game you throw at it). IIRC, Carmack railed against them for this, and with Quake3 discontinued support of the minidriver implementations, requiring 3Dfx to get off its ass and produce a full working OpenGL ICD.

      So I really don't think we'll have the same problem as the Voodoo cards had. Thankfully.

      -A

    2. Re:Not as great as it sounds for OpenGL 2.0 by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "This won't force companies to write good OpenGL 2.0 drivers, it will only force them to write drivers that impement those functions that DOOM 3 uses, the other functions may not even be implemented properly or implemeted at all."

      I think you're being a little cynical, though there is some truth to what you're saying. I've heard of drivers being tweaked especially for Quake 3. Pretty nasty, eh?

      The good news, though, is that the 3D Rendering market uses gaming cards. This is a case where if the card doesn't perform, actual money can be lost, and I'm reasonably sure most card manufacturers would rather avoid those potential problems.

      If that's not enough, Nvidia has a form of 'global driver' that works on any of their chipsets. I have a feeling this idea may catch on. I personally trust NVidia and keep an eye on what they're up to. I'm a little hesitant with other cards like Radeon.

      I do have a piece of advice for new card shoppers though: Best Buy has a pretty good return policy. You get 30 days price match and satisfaction guaranteed. CompUSA, though, is 14 days and I think they charge a restocking fee for returns. If you go shopping for a card, look for stores that have a policy similar to Best Buy. The reason I mention BB in particular is that you can order from the web and return at the store.

      Cheers.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  3. You'll need more to bring about OpenGL support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just because DoomIII uses OpenGL I don't believe card manufactures will race out to upgrade their OpenGL support. If a dozen or so games do, that's another story but to bend over for one game just doesn't make sense financial, especially since the other 95% of games use DirectX.

    Sure my Nvidia 4400 might not get Doom to run as well as Serious Sam, Unreal II, Star Wars Galaxies, Neverwinter Nights, etc. etc. but who honestly cares? If Nvidia increases their support of OpenGL more power to em, that would be great, but one game won't decide the future, even if it is Doom III (Which I believe will fail to live up to hype).

    Not intended as a flame by any means (it seems anything with a negative viewpoint is a 'flame'...whatever....) but there's a lot of hype on Doom III and some of it is deserved and some of it is just hype. I'm guessing it won't meet expectations when it does come out and won't be in the same spirit of the original Doom games (which were frag fests and fun not horror and lighting).

    Let's also not forgot a general user who will have a higher end machine and not comprehend how their other games look gorgous and run exceptionally well and Doom III just doesn't meet their framerate and effects expectations due to the fact its in OpenGL instead of DirectX.

    I hope they support both standards as DirectX isn't going away anytime soon and like it or not, it is a great set of tools which have helped bring about computer gaming to what it is today.

  4. Doom3 != Good OpenGl 2 Implementation by RaboKrabekian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    this will mean that card makers write drivers that are *optimized for Doom 3's use of OpenGL 2*, not that they'll write good OpenGl drivers in general. This has been the case sicne Quake 2. Drivers are optimized to score well on Quake benchmarks above all else, which hurts their performnce in a more generalized sense. This will help adoption of OpenGL 2, but not as quickly or as robustly as many would like to see.

    --
    "Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
  5. Nothing like a little Carmack... by mbourgon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...to make me feel both ignorant and stupid at the same time. Really puts things in perspective. Sure, I may be smart, but there's no comparison.

    --
    "Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
    1. Re:Nothing like a little Carmack... by Anonymous+Pancake · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Yeah carmack is great. He's a really smart guy, but he chose to waste his life coding pc games. He could have been doing something really productive, changing the world, but instead just makes games were you shoot people with guns. Pathetic.

  6. But at least by germinatoras · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...they're using it in the first place. The original "mini-GL" driver for GLQuake was wildly successful even though it was only a partial implementation of OpenGL 1.x. Down the road, we now have full hardware openGL implementations, which probably would never had happened without the initial momentum that GLQuake caused. The video card vendors will never release OpenGL drivers for their hardware if they have no demand for it - this accountment will give them just that. There is now a business case for assigning developer hours to the project.

    Besides, what would you rather have? An impetus for groundbreaking work on a hardware OpenGL 2.0 implementation, or another ringing endorsement for DirectX 8?

  7. Re:And why would this be a good thing? by SirKodiak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That is a valid point regarding market share.

    However, how many of those crappy built in video cards are going to be able to run Doom3? In the case of Doom 3 you won't get any more potential customers by supporting PCs with crappy built in cards. On the other hand, there are Linux and Mac users with nice graphics cards that are capable of handling the graphics in Doom 3, but can't do DirectX. So in the case of Doom 3 using OpenGL instead of DirectX makes sense even just from a marketshare perspective.

  8. Re:What I would really like by Jondor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I bet that a zillion gamers would install Linux just to be able to test Doom3. They have been waiting for>years!!

    Yeah, and they would rush back to windows at the release of the next big title. In the meantime they would endlessly complain about everything which was to complicatied for their single-minded view.

    If you want get people to use linux, they have to come for a better reason. That they can play their games under linux too is a very nice bonus.

    --
    Nobody expects the spanish inquisition!
  9. Re:UNIX Finger jokes are fucking old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Well the finger jokes were old in the 80's, so the fact that you found them funny in the 90's proves that someone should find them funny in the 00's. Someone will be learning Unix (and Unix humour) right up until Unix is dead.

  10. Re:You'll need more to bring about OpenGL support. by be-fan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Two things:
    1) Its Doom 3. It is guaranteed to sell like crazy, whether its good or not. If you're card doesn't run Doom 3 well, you might was well just not release it.

    2) ID licenses the engines. Doom 3 will be *the* engine to have over the next year or two. If you're hardware can't run all those games (definately more than a dozen) again, don't even bother releasing it.

    --
    A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  11. Re:take this in the spirit it is written in by re-Verse · · Score: 2, Insightful

    First of all - sorry about your roomie. I've lost those close to me from addiction as well. But want to know something terribly sad? Almost everything is addictive. There have been people who have eaten themselves to death with food addcitons. Adreneline junkes have often pushed their need for thrills to fatal levels. Once i even say somebodies fanscination with books drive him away from family, friends, and eventaully all normal life.

    Everything is horrible, at a certain level. People should be taught to recognize when they reach unacceptable levels of any activity. And if they are lucky, they will have friends that will intervene when their behavior becomes dangerous.

    As far as violent online games - you're wrong. For many people, its about skill. I met my future wife in a game of quake, over 3 years ago. We have a sharing, loving relationship, and still play together. Its not a "sickass violent porno", but as a challenge to eachother, a test of skills. Its also incredibly good as a part of conflict resolution. Some of the cooler, more interesting people i know i have met in violent online games. I've never seen any of them at all violent in real life.

    As far you you telling the doom devs they are sick, and you hate them... Its your right to hate whomever you want. But you can't make a judgement call on people you don't know for what they choose to do with their time. I do wonder if some of your haterd at others is really misplaced hate for yourself when you did nothing (or didn't do enough) to help your roomie who was obviously an addictive personality, lost in a game addiction, so similar to so many peoples television addiction.