Issues with DOOM 3

[romulus_ut3]

DOOM 3 at it's current state isn't fully enjoyable. Here's why:

• The game stutters like crazy regardless of hardware vendors, unless a certain fix is used (getting to that)
  
  
• Using com_fixedtic "1" helps to eliminate the stutters but introduces another problem, whenever the framerate dips below 60, the player's movement becomes sluggish. With mods like Sikkpin's Sikkmod, framerates are bound to take a few dips.
  
  
• Poor widescreen support. The game's widescreen currently has two issues: Stretched GUI plus mouse cursor, not to mention the mainmenu is stretched, and the FOV feels a little awkward. (Compared to BFG Edition)
  
  
• Modern hardwares do not get detected properly, or gets utilized efficiently.
  
  
  Is it possible for the community to provide a fix for these issues? Specially since I'm new to modding, and DOOM 3 has better support for modding, I was wondering if the above issues could be resolved, not from a modder's perspective, but from a gamer's perspective as well.

[The Happy Friar]

If you're talking about that slight frame skip it has (there was a big to-do about it years ago), it's nothing to do with D3.  D3 just has the tools to let us detect it easier (fixed tic & the like).

It happens on Windows, Mac and Linux machines.  It happens with all brands of GPU's.  It happens with all games that use "modern" GPU's.  That would be ~2003ish and later.  I've confirmed it with others at QuakeCon's on various machines.  I've confirmed it in other games.  I believe (from the testing me and other have done) it's due to GPU hardware:  people with VooDoo's never reported this years ago with Quake 1/2/3/Half Life/Unreal, but it happens now, on those very games when using "modern" GPU's.

It appears to be because there is no system, when not forced (com_fixedtic 1) can display every frame and keep the framerate 100% constant, just due to the time it takes for things to happens (fractions of a second add up, so if one frame of the game lasts 0.016 repeating seconds, 60fps, it might take 0.0167 each frame, then that adds up and it skips a frame to keep the average 60fps eventually).  When you use com_fixedtic 1 the engine forces X # of frames per game second, so it doesn't skip to keep the average up (59.9 to 60fps, for example), is slows the system down to make it all work (it always displays 60 fps).

Possible solutions were to either a) ignore it as it happens in EVERY game and D3 seems to be the one people noticed (again, because you have so much more control over how it runs vs other games/engines) or b) reduce how many frames the game runs at.

Stock D3 does support multiple aspect ratios and resolutions, you might need to manually input yours.  r_customheight/width & r_custonaspectratio (I think).  Won't fix the GUI's though.

The last one I never cared about.  I can run on "Ultra" now. 

[motorsep]

@romulus_ut3: Use Doom 3 BFG - I don't know about stuttering, since I never notices it neither in Doom 3 nor in Doom 3 BFG, but it supports widescreen resolutions out of the box, it runs much smoother on modern hardware and generally and more responsive than Doom 3. Downside - not as moddable as Doom 3, but if you just want to play, it's just fine. I played through Doom 3 and RoE in Doom 3 BFG past winter holidays and not only "lower quality" didn't bother me, I didn't really have any negative experience playing (that was my first time playing / beating entire RoE). The only thing I didn't find there was envirosuit (old RoE supposedly has it).

Btw, you might want to mod scripts / C++ gamecode in BFG. That doesn't require any new assets, and there is a lot of room to make things better on the gameplay side. Plus it's a good learning experience.

[The Happy Friar]

@romulus_ut3: Use Doom 3 BFG - I don't know about stuttering, since I never notices it neither in Doom 3 nor in Doom 3 BFG,

If you're not looking, odds are you'll never notice.  I suggest you don't look.  It will get annoying when you start to see it. 

[romulus_ut3]

You guys will find this surprising that a lot of the stuff that was cut, little stuff like disabled special effects or particle effects and animations are still in the game or can be added back to the game. If you guys are willing to help out, the BFG Edition can be made to live up to it's name. I am already trying to mod the flashlight back to the way it was in DOOM 3, in fact I was able to extract all the assets from DOOM 3 and have it run on the BFG Edition. It works! Though the characters miss some of the textures, normalmaps which I believe the stuff that's in .dds format (I could be wrong) and is incompatible with BFG. It is very possible to either update DOOM 3's source code to bring it up to speed and standard, or update BFG edition to add back the stuff that was cut and make it fully backward compatible where running the mods are concerned. As my username suggests, I'm a die hard Unreal Tournament fan, and I am really sensitive when it comes to stuttering as it breaks my immersion and I'm sure there are many more like me. So if you guys would be so kind as to give me some directions, it's the community that willl benefit from finally getting the true DOOM 3 experience.

[motorsep]

I don't really see what was cut out of Doom 3 alpha and missing in Doom 3 retail. Little effects don't add anything to gameplay anyway. Cinematics such as pipes bending and pinky demon coming out from behind the pipes were just a test of technology. For whatever good reason stuff like that didn't make it into the final game. Player's brutal death maybe ok to have with bosses, but definitely not ok with every large monster. And so on..

As for making BFG to be exactly like Doom 3, so that all mods play - not possible due to some fundamental engine changes (which were done for the best). Actually, there isn't a need in porting all mods, old flashlight, etc. to BFG. It should really serve as a new playground for new mods. Doom 3 modding scene has been stagnating for a long while. If you really want to revive it with BFG, then it's time to make something new. I personally see a value in new maps and improved gameplay mechanics. Maybe a story spin off

[The Happy Friar]

I'm a die hard Unreal Tournament fan, and I am really sensitive when it comes to stuttering as it breaks my immersion and I'm sure there are many more like me.

The stuttering happens in all UT games too, not just D3.  It's like the texture pop in RAGE: *EVERYBODY* complained about it but there's worse texture pop in UT 3 engine games (I'm saying it's worse based on the fact the textures aren't as large as RAGE and it's even more noticeable).  I just don't hear about UT3 engine texture pop just like I don't hear about UT3 engine stutter because nobody noticed it like they did for id games.