Doom 3 Mod Seminar Hits QuakeCon

Thanks to HomeLAN Fed for details from today's Doom 3 modding seminar held at QuakeCon, with "id Software programmers Robert Duffy and Jim Dose, animator Fred Nilsson and intern Robert Harris in attendance." On the question of the Doom 3 SDK release date, "Duffy said they were aiming for sometime next week but added, 'Don't quote me on that'." Other interesting tidbits include vehicle modding ("Even though the gameplay doesn't lend itself to vehicles, Doom 3 does support vehicles and when the SDK is released a sample map will be included that will have a six wheeled buggy in it"), as well as level-of-detail issues for modders ("Most of the artwork in the game started as a 3D model and things like character models had over 1 million polygons before they reduced them down to be used in the game. id plans to release exporters for programs like Maya and some sample character models for the game in order to help mod artists with their work.")

Comments

Duffy said:

[wviperw]

"they were aiming for sometime next week but added, 'Don't quote me on that'."

Oops, too late.

3dsMax?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey does anyone know if the editing tools for D3 have a max exporter or support for max models? Non-Maya users want to know!

I can't wait for a good CS-like mod.

[bretharder]

id has always been good at supporting its modders

Re:I can't wait for a good CS-like mod.

[dzym]

There, you've just confirmed it for me that CS will be the destruction of all that is good in gaming.

When Doom 3 came out I said: "now somebody's going to make a CS out of this and that will mark the end of Doom 3 modding."

cout << "INFINITE LOOP OF H8" << endl;

Re:I can't wait for a good CS-like mod.

[bretharder]

I guess you don't like CS?
Heh...
I just remember the good ol' days of Quake mods.
Q-Ball, co-op, TF, CTF.
Remember the grappling hook?
Rocket jumping?
I miss the hours upon hours of playing Hunted on the original TF.
Quake 2 and 3 were just not the same.
And then CS came out.
Dying had a consequence!
The first mod I'd ever played where you tried to stay alive.
No more instant respawn!
Honestly though, I just want id to reclaim their place as the gods off FPS.
And I think a CS-like mod will achieve that.

Re:I can't wait for a good CS-like mod.

[PainKilleR-CE]

Quake 2 and 3 were just not the same.
And then CS came out.
Dying had a consequence!
The first mod I'd ever played where you tried to stay alive.
No more instant respawn!


Obviously you missed a half dozen Q2 mods...
Action Quake was doing the same thing long before CS (but of course when they tried to make ActionHL they tried to add too much other crap, and the first few versions were so irritating that no one bothered after a while).

Personally, I'm getting a little irritated that mod developers have gone through this constant re-invention of Quake and Q2 mods in the last few years. CS had some changes from the ActionQuake mold, but those aren't generally what people talk about when they talk about how great CS is. On the other hand, what I'm really talking about is the TF remakes. Every time a new game comes out with mod tools (especially an id game) people rush to announce that they're remaking a mod from a previous id game for this new game. I guess that's great for the community surrounding a particular mod, especially if the original developers happen to be doing it (which is the case for some mods, but the TF stuff has cropped up on just about every new game, despite the original developers working at Valve).

I guess the fact that all of the professional developers are rehashing old games is part of the same problem. No one has something new to do with a game engine simply because they see the "professionals" doing the same things over and over again, therefore there must not be any new things to do in the field.

Re:I can't wait for a good CS-like mod.

[bretharder]

Yeah I never got into Q2.
I stuck with Quake:TF, until CS came out.
HL:TFC just wasn't the same as Q:TF... even if it was the original devs.

Re:I can't wait for a good CS-like mod.

[Rethcir]

Yeah, for some reason I missed out on all the Q2/Q3 mods, even though i bought them both. But Quake 1 was simple enough to mod that some really cool stuff could be done with it pretty simply. I think my favorite three mods were Requiem, which was a weapons mod but it had a bot built in which was nice because I was on a 14.4 at the time or something (I think that now my celphone has a better modem in it than that), the superhero mod where you could pick three superpowers (similar to a few games that have come out recently, but it was fun to be able to cloak yourself, or teleport, or grapple or shoot fireballs or whatever in that huge low-grav level) and AirQuake, which let you fly a little plane around and shoot shit up. Hopefully some imaginative mods come out for Doom 3, especially once the average hardware level picks up and we can start to see some huge levels. (any new maps out yet btw?)

game engine

[OwlofCreamCheese]

see... doom wasn't really a game... it was a game engine, they released it and its absolutely awsome, now they hope someone bothers to make a game useing this engine they made.

Re:game engine

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

You mean this: Penny-Arcade?

Gaming Gods

[Anonymous Coward]

id Software programmers Robert Duffy and Jim Dose, animator Fred Nilsson and intern Robert Harris in attendance

Robert Harris was there? You mean the intern Robert Harris? Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod. I totally wish I went to QuakeCon. He's like my favorite intern ever. I love the intern stuff he did on Doom 3.

Seriously though, do we need to know an intern was there? Do people really care enough to ask him questions like how he felt getting coffee for the Doom 3 team?

Re:Gaming Gods

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

"Along with the SDK, id plans to release a web site link with some tutorials on the tools that was written mainly by Harris."

It seems that while he is only an intern, he knows his shit.

That quote comes directly from the article.

Re:Gaming Gods

[nacturation]

Perhaps, but read the quote again:

"Along with the SDK, id plans to release a web site link with some tutorials on the tools that was written mainly by Harris."

The phrase "was written" is interesting. It implies that the subject is singular, as in "the apple was chosen" -- if the subject were plural, the phrase would be "the apples were chosen". So if we look in the sentence for the singular subject, the only thing that's singular in that sentence is "a web site link". Ergo, we can conclude that Intern Harris wrote only the link and not the tutorials nor the tools. For an intern, I'd say that sounds about right. :)

Re:Gaming Gods

[Rethcir]

As an intern, I'm offended by this statement. Just kidding.

Seriously though, Robert Harris is important enough to have been mentioned in Masters of Doom, so he must be doing something useful for his employers. Unlike myself.

Re:Gaming Gods

[Jerrith]

Actually, they got his name wrong, it's Brian Harris. We're both students at the Guildhall @ SMU, a graduate level program in developing computer games.

I was there at the talk. Basically, I think they were just being complete, letting you know who was on stage, talking.

I haven't seen them yet, but the web pages they said he's done sound useful for Doom 3 modders. I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Re:Gaming Gods

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, it sounds like you're just being a language nazi about it.

Where's my linux binaries?

[photon317]

Stop trying to pick up the 0.3 unpaid chicks at quakecon and get back to work you lazy bums.

someone make a good co-op mod

[aok]

I was waiting to upgrade my video card for Doom3 so I can play it in co-op with a couple of friends on nightmare mode like back in Doom2.

Turns out there isn't a co-op mode. I can understand why they didn't include it. The gameplay probably has sequences where after you pass a certain point, the path behind is destroyed.

But maybe someone can modify the single-player game to overcome these co-op obstacles.

Re:someone make a good co-op mod

[homeobocks]

The co-op mode was actually planned by id, but was removed because of all the areas where there are tunnels where only one person can fit through. Perhaps, some day, someone will make a Sven Co-op-like mode for Doom 3 that will include map modifications. Only time will tell.

Re:someone make a good co-op mod

[sn0wman3030]

There will be a coop mode in the X-box verion of Doom 3, but that won't be out until November. I hope coop is added in a patch or something seeing as how they will have already done all the work to write it and such.

Re:someone make a good co-op mod

[MC Negro]

Turns out there isn't a co-op mode

Oh but there is, and for those of you too lazy to click the link, it's "exclusive" to the Xbox version of Doom 3. You know, it's id's way of thanking all the people who upgraded their systems to meet the rather ,uh, "demanding" system requirements.

Oh, wait.

Re:someone make a good co-op mod

[rich99]

We will have to wait for some mod like this one: http://coop.doom3maps.de/

Re:someone make a good co-op mod

[bretharder]

Yeah co-op doom2 was awesome.
I was really disappointed that they didn't include it in the release,
but I understand they designed the game to be single player;
mulitiple players would ruin the 'shock' value.

But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someone will create a co-op mod.

Re:someone make a good co-op mod

[Vengeance_au]

There is one. googling is good for you

Re:someone make a good co-op mod

[big daddy kane]

one could bar the players from proceeding until both reach an area/checkpoint, this could be useful to control when triggered events and ciniematics occur.

Headlights!

[thesuperav]

I just hope that buggy has headlights :)

Re:Headlights!

[FatalTourist]

You have to download a mod for that.

Re:Headlights!

[Hassman]

Oh come on! This is funnier than the parent!!!

bah, you people don't know funny from nothin'

Linux binaries???

[getnuked]

But where are the Linux binaries? id, please don't hold back - your 'soon after the windows release' is now turning into a hell of a long wait!

Re:Linux binaries???

[Delphiki]

It hasn't been two weeks yet, give me a break. People complain about companies who don't release Linux ports, then when someone does and it's just a little bit late, you get posts acting like id is screwing Linux users. I strongly suspect id isn't going to be making any money creating a Linux port, so you should respect the fact that they're doing what amounts to a favor for the Linux community.

Re:Linux binaries???

[Trejkaz]

Indeed. It's not id's fault anyway, it's Activision's fault for not caring a dick about Linux or in fact, any OS other than Windows.

In related news ;

[88NoSoup4U88]

GTKRadiant has released version 1.5, which supports Doom 3 (not yet the realtime rendering within the editor though)

See Qeradiant.com for more details.

doom 3 mods on xbox

[mono_indy]

do you think they xbox version of doom 3 will support user mods?

id only releases game engines?

[Metsys]

I understand that some of you think that id just released a game engine, and the single-player game was just a little bonus.

I havn't heard of anyone that said Valve released Half-Life just so that it could be used for modders. They didn't know that it would have the most popular mod of all time. And I don't hear anyone saying now that Half-Life 2 is being made just as a little bonus for their Source engine.

I can say that id was a bit guilty of that when they made Quake3. I mean, multi-player only? It's not too hard to make a bunch of stock levels and models and then leave it to the moders and licencing the engine. But I think they actually tried this time to make a rock-filthy rendering engine but at the same time making a pretty good single player game that I enjoyed from beginning to the very short ending :P.

I saw this a few years ago and it's being confirmed now: game developers are going to make sure that expandability is part of their game to increase sales and popularity of the game.

Re:id only releases game engines?

[Anonymous Coward]

Half-life was a mod of an id engine which latter got moded for other games. maybe this time around in hl2 they might focus more on the modding tools but the first they focused more on the gameplay(except the end).

im at quakcon, it rocls

[scaaven]

im at quakcon, a little drunk but i can report. ther are alot of fucking people here. i drove from colorado and my god, there are people that have driven from alaska. alaska holy damnn..... anyways, shout out to all of ./ from qcon 2k4... out

THE RED STAPLER MOD

[way2trivial]

ya know, the one where you are holding out a red stapler in the fully open position shooting staples at the bad guys? something with just a hair more range, but less damage, than fists?
and it holds a full strip (250 per) of ammo? I'd especially like to see the reload animation....

actually, I'd like to see a 'fullly lit' mod, where the flashlight is uneeeded, and I can see everything in all it's glory...