id Tech Forums

It looks as if realtime RayTracing might truly be the ultimate solution to resolve the decades long "shadow precision dilemma" battle between Stencil Shadows and ShadowMapping...

Inspired by VGames's gory zombie skin screenshots and a few other gore skin d3 mods, I sat down this afternoon to give the good old Sawyer Zombie a TWD style Gore Crank Up Overhaul...

System Shock 2016 Reboot Gameplay

When this was first released back in 2013 I instantly knew it was going to have an impact on the way how the game "feels" and I knew at some point in development I wanted to implement it for my own idtech4 projects...

It is nice to see the first wip idtech4 projects on moddb utilizing it and I just wanted to create this thread so the most recent implementations of the pack can be discussed here...

This BFG Mod here seems to make excellent use of it:



Also this original Doom3 1.3.1 Mod is utilizing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y67ifplCI4M

"punk0x29a" aka "Jan Kowalski" was kind enough to provide me with a basic asset and source code version of the "Overthinked DooM^3" CED implementation since I always I found the idea of working on a more tactical approach of a Doom3 mod very intriguing and was playing for quite some time with the thought of combining that with cooperative multiplayer elements, forcing players to really play through levels together tactically, instead of gunning everything down that moves.

Unfortunately I am still busy as hell with multiple idtech4 projects aswell as other non idtech4 related VR game projects but I hope in the not too distant future a time window will open up, allowing me to think about a multiplayer/cooperative implementation of those tactical elements.

In the meantime feel free to discuss that package here.

(CED) Chimuelos Assets Pack Download Link: http://www.moddb.com/mods/star1088/downloads

P.S. @VGames: "punk0x29a" told me that you did all the work on the double barreled shotgun and I must say I simply love the way it looks and ironsights in this video.

Great Job !

I'd like to know what OS everyone is using here and for what reasons...

I am currently using Windows 7 x64 Ultimate and plan on using it for quite a while longer (even after the free upgrade option period to Windows 10 will expire this summer).

Reasons:

IMO Win7 is the best OS suited for my needs. It has a nice Desktop and UI to look at (never could get warm with the minimalism styled UIs of Win 8, 8.1 and 10 looking way too boring to me. It almost felt like I was using Windows 3.1 again.

It runs stable for me, never crashes and unlike previous OSs I had to never re-install or recover this version running it since the first install (Original Install Date: 07.08.2009, 6:37:12 PM) almost 7 years ago. I remember having to recover system partitions on a daily basis up to 30 times a day with previous Windows versions when I would do experimental stuff braking the functionality of the OS in the process.

Not a fan of the windows 10 store. Also not as impressed by Directx12 as Microsoft would like me to be (and we still will be able to use Vulkan on Win7).

With most applications and games moving to an online-service business model nowadays I have the feeling that Windows 10 tries to pursue that same route which I am not supporting.

Also I was reading unconfirmed reports about software and games incompatibility issues and especially the ones about stereoscopic 3D Game rendering alarmed me the most. 

And once again you have been proven to be completely wrong...



Now delete this and the other "replicate thread" and MAYBE if you post your comments like a normal person there could be a discussion...

Due to recent events (namely NVIDIA's announcement and execution to discontinue 3D Vision for Geforce) I decided to step out of my passive forums reading state and throw in my two cents about what the future of S3D/VR gaming might be...

This probably should go into the "Future of 3D Vision Support (Official announcement from NVIDIA)" mega-thread but alone the size of that thread is intimidating, so I apologize in advance for creating this new thread and by all means if the mods feel like it should be moved into the mega-thread please go ahead doing so. 

I strongly encourage especially people without any S3D and/or VR experience to drop questions about it here, resulting in hopefully interesting discussions.

My personal experience with S3D/VR so far (condensed in cues originally posted back in 2016)

Quote- Been a stereoscopic 3D Games enthusiast for the past 2 decades

- Completely missed the first "VR Boom" in the 90s

- Got really interested in the second "VR Boom" sparked by Luckey/Carmack, expecting VR to take the stereoscopic 3D Gaming Experience to the next level of immersion

- Being busy with custom projects I decided to wait for "Consumer Ready" Version Releases of the new VR devices before considering to buy myself in

- The claims that VR needs to run at 90 FPS, on low persistence Displays, at high resolutions, allowing only certain gametypes and ways to play VR games (slow and mostly first person perspective only), ultra fast head & positional tracking, ideally with VR controllers, started to worry me about truly limiting the artistic freedom on the projects I had in mind to create with VR 

- VR Prerequisites/Conditions postulated by hardware and software VR developers intimidated me and ultimately made me loose interest in that form of VR

- Then recently regained interest in VR as a DIY S3D/VR HMD device strapped to the head, worked with my Samsung S5 OLED display mobile which sparked further interest to investigate what can be done with a DIY VR solution, displaying S3D content in the classical way with mouse & keyboard controls

- Quickly created a Home Made DIY kit out of some old shoe cardboard, double sided tape, farsighted glasses and my mobile, sparking enough further interest to order a "Google Cardboard 2.0 Plus" with a head-strap

- After setting the "Google Cardboard 2.0 Plus" up I expected the worst case scenario with lots of VR sickness and puking, pushing me to the limits with hours and hours of stereoscopic 3D VR gameplay (Quake 3D VR, Google 3d VR Cardboard Apps and 3D VR 360° videos)

- Surprised that after days of testing none of the side effects hit me (no puking, no VR Sickness, not even the slightest dizziness)

- Low FPS, Mouse and keyboard controls, fps/tps/isometric ingame view switching, phone gyroscope head tracking were all non problematic scenarios for me

- Question to myself: Did years of too close up to the TV/Monitor 3DS gaming eventually melt all potentially VR sickness inducing synapses in my brain away, making me sort of immune to VR Sickness ?

- Mobile VR was initially interesting but technically 20 years in the past and performance decreases when temps of the mobile device rise, so after all those positive experiences I thought about the next logical step (namely outsourcing the computational power of a modern gaming PC and displaying/streaming the resulting S3D/VR feed onto the mobile OLED Screen).

- I was curious whether the expected potential latency introduction due to the streaming would finally fuck me and my brain up and induce VR Sickness ?

- To my surprise a delay was barely ever noticeable (if at all) and so I prepared streaming the footage of a few games and custom projects in a SBS (side by side) Stereoscopic 3D format to the mobile

- Streaming SBS S3D/VR content worked surprisingly well for me at low latency still without inducing VR sickness of any kind at 1080p over a 70 Mbit/s wifi connection. Plus I now totally got rid of any cables to my DIY VR headset, making it even more comfortable to wear while reducing the weight at the same time.

- Even disabling headtracking and the lack of positional tracking are not VR sickness inducing for me and something I noticed early on while using the S3D/VR headset in classic PVE games like Quake VR was, that PVE Gameplay though looking really cool with headtracking, if used in combination with a controller (or mouse and keyboard) for hours during gameplay, can become tiring to the neck muscles and spine because if you sit in a comfortable couch/chair you need to frequently re-adjust your head neck position (I guess that's why Oculus targets a "swivel chair" as their ideal platform to experience Oculus Rift on). Disabling headtracking made me become "competitive" again, playing the games the way I am used  to from my desktop 3D gaming experience and my neck-spine and muscles don't get strained/fatigued since I can relax my neck/head in a comfortable position for hours long gameplay.

- People are "lazy creatures" by nature and if just hours long Headtracking gets me tired  over time, I don't dare to imagine how much more effort it would be to play PVE Games on the Vive with Room Scaled VR and Vive controllers. Having to do "Jumping Jacks" for hours after work just for entertainment is not exactly my definition of free-time-fun.

- And so having found a way for me to use all my existing projects and 3D games with a DIY S3D/VR headset replacing my classic 3D Vision Monitor/TV setup I instantly wonder: If a DIY Kit with an old S5 mobile OLED Screen is already so much fun, how much better would this work on DIY S3D/VR headset method with high end gear ?

2019 Update Remarks: In the past 3 years this hybrid approach method of playing 3D fixed games has become my primary way of playing games in Stereoscopic 3D / VR Vision. Not only did it conveniently solve my chronic problem of not being able to get my hands on new 3D TVs/Monitors (by 2019 the market for 3D TVs/Monitors has completely died, with only a few very very expensive models left), but it also clearly offers the superior 3D Experience. An OLED based HMD display offers superior PixelRepsonse times, Contrast/Black Levels and is 100% Ghosting free. No 3D TV model that I own can compare to that crystal clear visual S3D/VR fidelty, that I am able to achieve with this DIY solution. And now with the discontinuation of NVIDIA's 3D Vision support I think it is time to transform from a silent participant to an active member that could give the community something back.

It came to my attention that valued members of the 3D Vision community ("DarkStarSword" and "bo3b") are thinking about how to continue the legacy of 3D Gaming and are also working on paving the way for custom S3D / VR display solutions and so I would gladly like to contribute my part in case it is wanted/needed.

A big shout goes out to all the amazing past and currently active community shader modders:

Helix, DHR, MasterOtaku, Losti, Necropants, Helifax, bo3b, mike_ar69, Flugan, DarkStarSword, 4everAwake, 3d4dd and many more...

For people who would like to watch John writing code live (in Racket) for simple Mobile VR Games infront of an audience...

Since the Doom3 Master Server has been down for the past couple of days I would like to ask members here to write the following message at id software's contact page:

QuoteDear id software team,

we would like to inform you that the Doom3 Master Server "idnet.ua-corp.com:27650" has been down for the past 10 days.

Are you able to provide information about when and if the Doom3 Master Server will be up again ?

Thanks in advance

In the meantime players can use this gametracker.com Doom3 server list page to browse for Doom3 online servers, as the ingame browser menu currently remains blank due to the Master Server being down.

Thx

For quite a while I have been thinking about to implement the so called "True First Person" mode to idtech4 to unify the way the player models are represented in first and third person views.

Especially when you start working with stereoscopic 3d rendering and Virtual Reality, the benefits of such a unification become evident.

But also the traditional 2D monitor gaming benefits from such a mode by rendering a more consistent representation of "body awareness" which can contribute to both aesthetic (seeing your own playermodel body cast shadows onto itself and the environment and therefore connect you stronger with the environment) and gameplay (where making sure that enemy AI or players are able to detect your presence via lighting and shadows).

It also simplifies the content creation process as only one set of shaders, models and animations have to be created which then can be used as a generalized solution in any situation...

Here a very first and very rough example footage of that concept:

Re-Watching the latest "new" Doom Trailer, I noticed an effect that is commonly used in pretty much every new current engine generation.

"Emissive Bloom" for projectiles and particle effects:



Not knowing much about shader and graphics effects coding, I was wondering what it would take to port that kind of effect to idtech4...

Is anyone experienced enough with that topic to make a statement ?

I remember lately the community having debates about whether to stick with the original Doom3 codebase or to migrate to Doom3 BFG...

And while arguments were made for and against from both sides (Sikkmod vs RBDOOM-3-BFG for example) I always wondered why not creating a hybrid approach that takes the advantages of each codebase utilizing the best of both worlds...

This showcase consists of a code and assets merge of multiple previous prototype projects incorporating trebor's shadowmapping, sikkpin's hdr lighting, zombie's dungeon map and MCS's game & netcode...

It still runs on Doom3's original framework allowing easy modding (with a custom gamex86.dll) and dedicated server hosting and browsing...

Aside from the specifically showcased unified soft-shadow-mapping and high-dynamic-range-lighting, it was also as usual important for me to demonstrate that those features flawlessly work together with MCS's network synced AI over a high latency low bandwidth Server <-> Client connection (simulating a server/client distance of about 10000 kilometers).

As showcased in its current state, it is a proof of concept build and I don't feel at liberty to predict when and if at all it will make it into a final, releasable project, since there are currently too many factors but as you'll notice, it runs remarkably stable and performant.

Back in 1993 a combat flight simulator video game called "Strike Commander" was released. Designed and developed by Chris Roberts and Origin Systems, this game had everything I always dreamed about when it came to action combat flight sim games. Revolutionary graphics, phenomenal soundtracks and a compelling story glued me for years in front of my PC screen and made the "General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon" my absolute favorite fighter...


Over the years I always considered starting work on a Strike Commander Remake to bring the game's graphics up to date while also implementing networking for cooperative and adversarial multiplayer sessions across the internet. Since 1993, being still a kid/teen back then, I imagined about how cool it would have been to replace the AI wing-men in the game with human players across the network...


...but up until recently technology was just not ready/there yet to justify investing serious time into such a Remake Project. That changed when ArmA3 was released providing enough mod-ability to start working on a prototype that would feature cooperative and adversarial network gameplay within the vast ArmA3 Sandbox world...

And so without further due, here is a 12 minutes "early prototype" online cooperative enabled "Strike Commander Millennium" gameplay trailer:

Mars City Security: Taking Doom³ PVE (Coop) and PVP (Deathmatch) multiplayer combat to the next level and beyond

Credits to the amazing Doom3 Community members that make MCS possible


Fellow spacemarines,

"It's done" and MCS finally has a release date !


On September 27th 2015 it's payback time and the MCS Delta Squad will be kicking demonic asses straight back to hell...

...before announcing it on moddb and co I would like to give some of the Doom3 community members a chance to download and take a look at the current Release Candidate Build for feedback and final polish...

In case you are interested to help out and would like to test the different coop and adversarial modes, just send me a private message or an e-mail at "oneofthe8devilz@hotmail.com".

Confirmed MCS RC testers will receive download, installation and connection instructions.

See you guys soon on Mars (and Earth)

***Update***

We already started to collect valuable feedback the past days...

With increasing test-member-counts, we will now be hosting daily MCS gaming test sessions between (20:00 - 0:00 CET).

In case during the game session testing times (20:00 - 0:00 CET) the original dedicated server address is unreachable (due to Server Hardware Migration) try the secondary backup server ip address hosted at "178.201.171.214".

Has anyone so far had the chance to test for any issues regarding running Doom3 and BFG under Windows 10 ?

In the spirit of reviving and possibly increasing the community activity here, I wondered if anyone would be interested in joining some live idtech4 Twitch streams where idtech4 fans like us can showcase their latest WIP projects...

I just so happened to experiment with live streaming in the last few days and if there is interest, I could write detailed tutorials on how to setup your free live stream to do some idtech4 project showcasing...

Maybe we could set a date where most of us are available (probably Saturday or Sunday evening) and could agree to register free accounts at www.twitch.tv so that the members/viewers of the live stream would be able to ask questions and give live feedback during the streaming session...

In case there is enough interest I would agree to host the first live stream event, showcasing the latest projects I am working on and if people enjoyed it and would like to host their own streaming event I could put the tutorial on how to host a free live stream up here shortly after...

Thanks for your feedback in advance...

New Doom (idtech6) E3 2015 Gameplay Footage: Singleplayer, Multiplayer and Coop

Entire Doom E3 2015 Presentation 1080p@60FPS (High Quality)


4k Screenshots: http://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/doom-first-official-4k-screenshots-released/

I am currently in the process of removing all copyright protected music from MCS that up until now has served as placeholders and so I wonder if any of you might know some good places to purchase quality royalty free game combat music/themes....

I require soundtracks that fit to keywords like  "dramatic", "scifi", "combat", "war", "drums", "dark"