Doom 3 BFG Uses Rage Tech, Faster Gameplay Than Original

In a recent interview with VG247, id Software's Tim Willits said that Doom 3 BFG Edition isn't merely a re-release of something old with added content: it's a complete overhaul of the 2004 slow-paced survival horror shooter. Willits said the studio has returned to its roots with this release, cranking up the action so it's not such a gloomy crawl-fest.

Of course, there's more to the BFG Edition than cranking up the action. Levels have been re-designed to match the pace, and the team has thrown in new textures to bring the game up to speed on current consoles. Other goodies include new lighting mechanics, the new eight-mission chapter called "Lost Mission," and bits of Rage tech thrown into the mix.

"It’s not just Doom 3 – that’s what we’re keen to make sure everybody knows," Willits said. "We’re doing more with Doom 3 BFG than just re-releasing the original. We’ve actually put a heck of a lot of Rage tech into the Doom 3 engine to kind of modernize the game."

As an example, the team tossed in the Rage input control and checkpoints. They also updated the lighting so it's brighter throughout the game, changed the annoying flashlight, tweaked the ammo, and even implemented the Rage network layer to make it run faster at low latency. There's also 3D support, and multi-display support for the PC platform.

"We went through every single level of the original and things that were really frustrating or not fun, we made them more enjoyable. So it is really kind of cool for us – especially as we all love the Doom franchise – to go back and rework the game in such a way," he added.

Doom 3 BFG Edition has enough small changes to essentially re-introduce the franchise to old and new fans alike. "Everyone’s heard of Doom, but you’d be surprised at just how many people haven’t actually played it," he said.

As for the specs needed to run the PC version, they'll obviously need to be higher than what was required in 2004. Willits said the biggest change with the PC version is that it now runs at 120 Hz. The team also revamped the HUD elements, the PD elements, and made map modifications. Overall the biggest glaring change will be for console junkies who purchased Doom 3 for the original Xbox eight years ago.

That said, the interview went on to talk about tweaking the map designs. He pointed out one section in the Alpha Labs that simply had to go because it was incredibly... not fun. "There was this part where you walk up these stairs, and the stairs fall apart behind you and Imps spawn in front of you," he said. "When we were playing through that earlier this year we were like, 'this is not fun right here…this was a bad idea.'"

"We grabbed our young designers and said, 'young designer, this is a bad design right here. How do you think we can fix it?’ and so we fixed it," he added. "You know it’s kind of funny, because most of the guys who worked on Doom 3 originally, they still work there."

"One of the guys wanted to go back and up-rez and make the characters look better, and a texture artist said, ‘you know, I never liked those textures, can I go back and fix them?’ and we said ‘sure, go ahead, knock yourself out and fix them up,'" he said.

Sounds like Doom 3 BFG Edition will be an entirely new experience when it launches on October 16. To read the full interview with Willits, head here.

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  • ricardok
    As long as it's not plagued with RAGE bugs....
    Reply
  • yapchagi
    I might bite this if there's no bug for PC version like RAGE's texture popping and low textures.
    Reply
  • namtrooper
    Well Rockstar used the Rage engine for Max Payne 3 and I've hardly seen any bugs in that. Guess it depends how much time they've spent polishing the end product. Rage was horrible in the beginning. Then after a few patches it worked better. After the last patch they've made the game unplayable on my 5970.
    Now I'm stuck with a game that I'd like to do another run through with, but is unplayable. Thanks ID.
    Reply
  • shin0bi272
    See now I almost want to buy this just to see if its actually worth it. The thing that irked me about idtech 4 and 5 engine were the ultra low res textures on the ground and things like phones and the like... random garbage if you will. Like they have no higher resolution than 16x16 or something. They have amazing textures on things like enemies and npcs (see: RAGE) and the outside world from a distance looks great... but once you get close it looks pixelated as all hell. Like it doesnt have that last mip level of detail. But now with dx11 and the concept of high res (if not photo-realistic) textures and the old style doom faster paced action (hopefully with more enemies on the screen as well) it just might be playable.

    About Rage... the real reasons it sucked was the storyline wasnt compelling and just sort of stopped all of a sudden, the afore mentioned detail/high res textures missing, and the inability to pick a genre and go with it... or as carmack called it "messaging" as to what the game was supposed to be... So in a world accustomed to mass effect like storylines and fallout like rpg elements in an FPS we got a half assed version of both of those with some "death race" thrown in for color. I never experienced the bugs that some complained about but those are game issues not engine issues.

    So Id essentially putting doom3 on the idtech 5 engine and updating the textures and lighting could make doom3 really fun!
    Reply
  • Chipi
    namtrooperWell Rockstar used the Rage engine for Max Payne 3 and I've hardly seen any bugs in that. Guess it depends how much time they've spent polishing the end product. Rage was horrible in the beginning. Then after a few patches it worked better. After the last patch they've made the game unplayable on my 5970.Now I'm stuck with a game that I'd like to do another run through with, but is unplayable. Thanks ID.
    RAGE = vide ogame developed by id Software using the id Tech 5 engine
    RAGE = Rockstar Advanced Game Engine used in GTA IV, Max Payne 3 and GTA V

    Know the difference
    Reply
  • greghome
    ChipiRAGE = vide ogame developed by id Software using the id Tech 5 engineRAGE = Rockstar Advanced Game Engine used in GTA IV, Max Payne 3 and GTA VKnow the difference
    RAGEnoun
    1.angry fury; violent anger.
    2.a fit of violent anger.
    3.fury or violence of wind, waves, fire, disease, etc.
    4.violence of feeling, desire, or appetite: the rage of thirst.
    5.a violent desire or passion.


    Sentence Making: I was so filled with rage when RAGE was popping textures the first day I tried to play it so I went back to playing Pokemon
    Reply
  • Maziar
    As long as it doesn't have performance issues,I'll be happy :) it feels great playing doom 3 again. Simply one of the best horror games ever
    Reply
  • 4745454b
    Sentence Making: I was so filled with rage when RAGE was popping textures the first day I tried to play it so I went back to playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

    Fixed.

    Sounds like a fun game. Never got to play the original 3 so I want to try this one. (played 1 to death....)
    Reply
  • shahrooz
    the flashlight and the dark gloomy atmosphere was doom3 imo it's not doom3 anymore without them
    Reply
  • cRACKmONKEY421
    yay for 120hz
    So weird that Rage was the only game that I couldn't somehow run at 120hz. I was offended.
    Reply