Graphics in Doom 3

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.doom (More info?)

Is there any difference in graphics between the various qualities found in the
system menu (low to ultra quality), of does it just change resolution? Would
it be better to have Doom 3 run at low quality with the special effects turned
on or have it at ultra quality with special effects off? I have not been able
to find the answer in the manual.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.doom (More info?)

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 03:36:58 GMT, michNOael_jSPAMd@hotmail.invalid
(Michael_jd) wrote:

>Is there any difference in graphics between the various qualities found in the
>system menu (low to ultra quality), of does it just change resolution? Would
>it be better to have Doom 3 run at low quality with the special effects turned
>on or have it at ultra quality with special effects off? I have not been able
>to find the answer in the manual.

Try the various combinations on your platform. I couldn't tell the
difference between utra quality and high quality with my BFG 6800 FT
OC. No one can be your eyes or judge for you.

If you have a slower graphics card then the lower the quality, the
higher the frame rate and the better the combat gameplay. Try the
console command

timedemo demo1 usecache

on the various settings. This command will yield the FPS during
gameplay and you can decided between the best graphics and the best
gameplay.

IMHO

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.doom (More info?)

"Michael_jd" <michNOael_jSPAMd@hotmail.invalid> wrote in message
news:41788058@news.actrix.gen.nz...
> Is there any difference in graphics between the various qualities found in
the
> system menu (low to ultra quality), of does it just change resolution?
Would
> it be better to have Doom 3 run at low quality with the special effects
turned
> on or have it at ultra quality with special effects off? I have not been
able
> to find the answer in the manual.

I find the biggest performance boost is from disabling shadows in the
Advanced options. If you're getting slow framerates, I'd also recommend
disabling anti-aliasing. It's a minor graphics goodie that is a major
performance hog.

I didn't notice too much difference between medium and high quality, except
on certain textures (the texture on the bio-scanner at the beginning of the
game has noticable compression artifacts, even at the medium setting). I'm
guessing that textures are sorted according to frequency of use in the level
and that the least-used textures get compressed the most. At Ultra setting,
all the textures are uncompressed but you need a graphics card with a LOT of
onboard memory or the game will spend a lot of time swapping textures on and
off the card and reducing performance. (So you might notice a hitch in the
game when you pass into a new area that has different textures.)

Doom 3 was deliberately made high-end. It will look great on this years top
of the line hardware but it will look even better on next years hardware.
Ultra quality is meant for graphics cards that have 512 megs of texture
memory. (Those cards don't exist, yet.). If you have a 128 Meg card, you'd
be better of sticking with Medium quality.

-- Nut

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.doom (More info?)

In article <3d8ed.724$mf7.381@fe39.usenetserver.com>, "NutWrench" <mrnutwrench@DETHB4SPAMhotmail.com> wrote:
>
>"Michael_jd" <michNOael_jSPAMd@hotmail.invalid> wrote in message
>news:41788058@news.actrix.gen.nz...
>> Is there any difference in graphics between the various qualities found in
>the
>> system menu (low to ultra quality), of does it just change resolution?
>Would
>> it be better to have Doom 3 run at low quality with the special effects
>turned
>> on or have it at ultra quality with special effects off? I have not been
>able
>> to find the answer in the manual.
>
>I find the biggest performance boost is from disabling shadows in the
>Advanced options. If you're getting slow framerates, I'd also recommend
>disabling anti-aliasing. It's a minor graphics goodie that is a major
>performance hog.
>
>I didn't notice too much difference between medium and high quality, except
>on certain textures (the texture on the bio-scanner at the beginning of the
>game has noticable compression artifacts, even at the medium setting). I'm
>guessing that textures are sorted according to frequency of use in the level
>and that the least-used textures get compressed the most. At Ultra setting,
>all the textures are uncompressed but you need a graphics card with a LOT of
>onboard memory or the game will spend a lot of time swapping textures on and
>off the card and reducing performance. (So you might notice a hitch in the
>game when you pass into a new area that has different textures.)
>
>Doom 3 was deliberately made high-end. It will look great on this years top
>of the line hardware but it will look even better on next years hardware.
>Ultra quality is meant for graphics cards that have 512 megs of texture
>memory. (Those cards don't exist, yet.). If you have a 128 Meg card, you'd
>be better of sticking with Medium quality.
>
>-- Nut
>
I have a Nvidia Geforce fx 5700 ultra 128 mb and a Athlon xp 2600+ Cpu with
512 mb Ram. It seems to run okay at high quality with all the special effects
on. You can have it at ultra with the special effects off. Anti Aliasing is
off on both settings and I run at 640*480 all the time.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.doom (More info?)

Explained here under Main Menu Options
< http://ucguides.savagehelp.com/Doom3/FPSVisuals.htm >

HTH

M.W.H

"Michael_jd" <michNOael_jSPAMd@hotmail.invalid> wrote in message
news:41788058@news.actrix.gen.nz...
> Is there any difference in graphics between the various qualities found in
the
> system menu (low to ultra quality), of does it just change resolution?
Would
> it be better to have Doom 3 run at low quality with the special effects
turned
> on or have it at ultra quality with special effects off? I have not been
able
> to find the answer in the manual.