"Creative and id Software Announce DOOM 3 Engine/EAX ADVANCED HD Collaboration.

MILPITAS, Calif., July 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF - News), a worldwide leader in digital entertainment solutions for PC users, today announced its agreement with id Software(TM) relating to Creative's patented shadowing technique and id's cutting-edge 3D graphics DOOM 3 engine, allowing Creative to develop EAX¿ ADVANCED HD(TM) 3D audio options for future licensees.

"The DOOM 3 engine ushers in a new rendering paradigm that allows id and our licensees to bring cinema quality visuals to game players in real time," said Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software. "We look forward to further enhancing players' audio experience by working with Creative to leverage their EAX ADVANCED HD audio technology in the DOOM 3 engine."

"Working together with id Software, an industry icon, provides Creative with an exciting opportunity to enhance one of the hottest game engines around," said Hock Leow, CTO of Creative Technology. "We look forward to the challenge of implementing EAX ADVANCED HD Multi-Environment technology within the Doom 3 engine, and subsequently working with id to make these enhancements available to their licensees. We are also pleased with the agreement relating to Creative's patented shadowing technique and id's cutting-edge 3D graphics DOOM 3 engine."

A future version of the DOOM 3 engine featuring Creative EAX ADVANCED HD audio technology is expected to be available to id Software licensees later this year. For more information, visit http://www.idsoftware.com/ or http://developer.creative.com/."

"We have begun work on a new mod for Doom 3 called Doom 3 Bloopers. The mod will rebuild the existing single player story of Doom 3 and infuse a cackling plethora of gags and "accidents" along the way. Monsters will drop their weapons, forget their lines and scamper off yipping all the way. Characters will be slaughtered in mid sentence, lights will come on during spooky parts of the game and a bunch of other Loki-inspired riches await!

Feel free to visit our website for more info, or visit the Slashdot journal where it all began"

"Let's not lose sight of the fact that ATI performance isn't relatively poor at all. I think Kyle himself said that even the X800pro delivered 'great' performance, and Carmack said in the HardOCP article that there's more to consider than just frame rate. The frame rate difference even today is so minor, it's impossible to tell without diagnostic tools - ie: the end user experience isn't affected. And with ATI you get full-precision enabled all the time - we don't do PP (on R3XX and R4XX) like some of our competitors. It's also important to note that most of today's games play faster on ATI hardware, and you can expect that to extend to other 'big title' games expected this summer."

"That air of eerie calm belies the intense work taking place in id's office: "It's like being blindfolded and running flat-out through a forest, praying you don't hit a tree," says CEO Todd Hollenshead. But that's not all Hollenshead has to worry about. For id to succeed, its next game, Doom 3¿four years in the making¿must be a monster hit. And even if this game sells well, as most experts expect, id, one of the last small players in a field of giants, won't be able to take its survival for granted. As in id's videogames, potentially deadly dangers¿a consolidated industry, tougher competitors, and a distracted founder¿lurk around every corner."

Gamespot:

"Word is Doom 3 will be as much--or more--about suspense than action. How did its development differ from a more standard shooter?

Todd Hollenshead: I would say the game is more about terror than suspense, in terms of what it feels like when you play."

Gamespy:

"How is the Xbox version of DOOM 3 coming along?

Tim Willits: The Xbox version is going well. It's looking faster, it's more stable, it's really coming together well. I think people will be surprised. Recently, we had some visitors passing through and I had it up in my office on a television, and they were like "Wow -- that just looks amazing!" We're very excited about it."

IGN:

"Does it feel good to be done?

Tim Willits: Yeah we're still in shellshock a bit. Working on a title for four years is kinda like sending a child out into the world to have a life of their own. We're still a bit nervous but some of our early reviews have come back very positive which makes us all feel very good."

"When the original DOOM arrived on computers over a decade ago, it radically changed the way we look at games. id's incredible game brought gamers into an immersive world like never before. Now, over ten years later, id's designers and programmers describe their struggle to make a return trip to that hellish world in DOOM3."

Hardwired.
Gamestar.
3D Gamers.
Tiscali Games.

"It should be noted that all of the modern cards play the game very well, and benchmark scores should not be the be-all-end-all decision maker. Scores will probably improve somewhat with future driver releases, and other factors like dual slots or dual power connectors can weigh against some of the high end cards."

"John Carmack and I had established a friendship while working on Quake. He came to see us playing during the last tour and wanted to get my feelings on a remake of Doom with a new advanced engine he was working on. We discussed how cool it would be to create a place that was immersive to the point it wouldn't need a "soundtrack" -- the technology was advanced enough to visually and aurally to create a rich environment you could truly explore and inhabit. We discussed my involvement as the overall sound producer -- from foley and voice over to ambient world noise.

Later, I started work on what would be used at the e3 show 2 years ago. It was exciting working in a totally new way with new tools. I was working directly in the game editor and with the programmers refining the sound code and helping the environment come alive. Tried "tuning" various environmental sound sources so they'd cohesively interact with on another in a "musical" way. The advanced technology provided enough horsepower to give me a seemingly limitless amount of freedom. It was a lot of work, a lot of thinking in a different way, and a lot of fun. I was working with the best guys in the field -- true geniuses.

Our idea was to have no music, apart from a main theme I¿d write for the intro. no rock, nothing current sounding, nothing to date the game.

Well... eventually time and money and bad management came into play and it didn't work out. Disappointing on a number of levels for me, but that's the way it went.

I have seen the engine at work and it is great. I¿m looking forward to seeing what they've done with the game.

And I guess tool did the theme song."

"I am working on the rendering technology for the next game right now, so it looks like the balance will stay about the same for a while at least."

"In the gaming world, this is no minor event. Doom 3 has been in the works for four years and is built on id co-founder and chief programmer John Carmack's latest graphics technology.
[...]
The last new-generation engine from id was introduced with Quake 3 in 1999, and previews of Doom 3 have hinted it's an even bigger leap forward. Players will be treated to near-cinematic images as they battle demons from Hell on Mars, provided they have the right hardware."

"HomeLAN - How much access did id Software give you while you were writing the book?

Steven Kent - As id's inclusion under the "by" on the cover of the book suggests, id played a huge role in the creation of this book. I flew to Texas twice and
spent one full week interviewing everybody at id. Marty Stratton, director of business development, really spearheaded the project. He arranged my interviews, arranged for me to try the game, and saw that I got everything I needed. My interviewing style is informal, and many of the interviews took a couple of hours. As a company, id Software takes protective stance when it comes to its products and properties. Marty and company CEO (and now, co-owner) Todd Hollenshead insisted on reviewing every word on every page in my book to make sure it was accurate."

"HomeLAN - What will be Fantasy Flight's approach in adapting Doom to a board game?

Kevin Wilson - Well, the trick with adapting a computer game into a board game is that you've got to respect the media you're working in. Computer games excel at some things that board games are terrible at, and board games do some things that computer games cannot. The trick is knowing when to stick to the computer game experience as closely as possible, and when to depart from it for the good of the board game. If the board game was strictly running around a board and shooting monsters, well, the computer game does that just fine already, and it has sound and moving graphics, so why not just play the computer game instead?"

14. Download Doom 95
Play the original all over again, and hope that id Software has learned a great deal between now and then on how to craft a good single-player experience.

13. Check up on John Romero
Sure, he hasn't worked at id in years, but you know that deep in your heart of hearts, you still feel like the spirit of John Romero lives on in id Software's next game. Not that John Romero is dead. But I totally killed him a bunch of times at the end of Doom II.

Gen Gamers.
Tiscali Games.
3D Gamers.