Unregistered
2002-10-10, 00:38:20
Doom 3: Tim Willits Interview
Author:
SubSonic
Date Written:
10/08/02 @ 2:10 pm
Could you please state your name “for the record”?
Tim Willits: w-i-l-l-i-t-s.
And what exactly is your position at id Software?
I’m the lead designer on Doom III
How long have you been with id?
Since 1995
Now, what inspired you to do game design?
Well, I’ve always been interested in designing things, like my brother, my older brother, used to play D&D when I was younger, I never really liked to play but I thought making maps was cool. When Doom II came out it was great because it gave me the chance to make my own maps and modify their maps, and it was really cool because it gave me the chance to be able to run around in worlds that I built and it really inspired me, and the rest is basically history.
What is it like working with Carmack?
Oh it’s great, John is the visionary of the company, Doom in particular, he has the overall visual design, and it is then my job to instill what john wants down to the rest of the group, but you know, its great, I don’t really understand him most of the time, but that’s ok, no one else does either
Yeah no kidding, so how is the development of Doom III coming?
It’s coming well, the core technology is basically done, as john said yesterday and we’re working on finishing up the maps and we got some new monsters, and we’re just getting that stuff worked out.
What are some of the challenges you have faced in working with Doom III?
When you are working with a new technology, that and the game at the same time, it’s like filming a movie and inventing the camera, so we are discovering what all we can do, while we do it, so the base challenge is exploiting the engine as much as we can, but we haven’t even scratched the surface with the new technology.
What feature has held your attention or impressed you the most with what you have been able to accomplish with the new engine?
What just one? The great thing that Doom has is the 5 in 1 sound support, the physics engine, the unified light system where we get more textures, polygons, more colors now, and great visual fidelity. The unified light system is great because we can have scriptable walls and breakable boards and the player can’t tell what is going to change and what’s not going to change because it will all look the same and add to the fear factor, scary, very atmospheric.
How will the physics engine differ from other games that id has done in the past?
We have a very good physics engine, it’s very realistic, and is being developed internally. We’ve never had that before, and so it makes things a little more believable.
Will Doom III have multiplayer?
Yes, there will be basic multiplayer, we wont have any breaking ground with this, it’s fully scalable, John said yesterday that it's just going to be four player but it really depends on the maps we make and the multiplayer style we develop, but we are still along way from that, we’ve really been working on the single player mode of the game.
Oh ok, so you don’t know if you’re gonna do a co-op style or what?
We won’t do co-op, that’s definite.
What about Voice over IP?
Again, once we get further into the multiplayer aspect we will explore those options but for now we don’t have plans for it. All we know is that it is gonna have death match, primarily because we are really structured in the single player experience, and that’s what we are really focusing on.
How does id plan to support the mod community, if at all?
Well actually Doom will be very moddable, in my opinion it will be easier, we are shipping all the needed tools, editors, maps, the scripting info, models for the creatures, and a lot of the code is broken up so it easier to mod.
What design tools will be comparable that come with the game?
Radiant is the editor that will be shipped, the same that we used for Quake III.
Has id been working with any video card companies, if so, which ones?
Well John works with lots of different video card companies, we get cards early and John does tests and gives them feedback, he is very well integrated into the video card market.
What attempts are being made to allow Doom III to play on the mid and lower end computers?
The Platform for Doom III will be Geforce 3 and above cards but you can play it on a Geforce 1 but you will have to turn a lot of the visuals off to play. We are hoping that in the future we will be having good penetration on all the cards.
Other then the graphics how will Doom III immerse the player into the game?
Well, the sound, the 2 6-channel audio really envelops them, the physics engine really makes things more believable and the story it’s self will help, that and the richness of the characters them selves, you know, all the great things.
We are very close to our community and one of the biggest question we get is “are any of the weapons from the previous games going to be in Doom III if so, which ones”?
Well, as you see we have the shotgun and machine gun, so doom fans won’t be disappointed and we are still working on some weapons.
So you still haven’t decided on the model of the BFG?
No, I didn’t even think about it until yesterday, but we will definatly have the BFG.
Will Doom III be objective based or the classic “kill anything that moves” Doom?
We have the over-all story which has certain missions that have objectives, that and we have the ability to create really great combat scenes.
Another question we get a lot is the average poly count of different things.
The best place to look for that info is some transcripts online.
How will Doom III be handling the Per-Poly collision detection?
The Per Poly hit detection gives us great feed back on where someone is hit it removes the square bony boxes we had in the past and helps make things more believable and adds to a richer environment, but you know, you can't shoot your ear lobe off.
What other design companies plan to license Doom III other then Raven for Quake IV?
We have had quite a few companies who are very interested, we have deals signed and when we have games figured out we will be sure to announce those.
That’s pretty much what we have..
Cool
..and we really appreciate you spending time with us and thank you for all the info!
Thank you.
User Comments
Add a Comment
[ Posted by Tom on 09/29/02 @ 06:59 am ]
very good interview. learned quite a lot!
umm
[ Posted by deitiphile on 10/08/02 @ 02:00 pm ]
no trent reznor info? grr.
[ Posted by Neo_Monkey on 10/08/02 @ 07:13 pm ]
I was really hoping that I would hear something more on the core story line...like how does this DooM truely fit in with the series...as far as I could tell with the presintation and with the booth at Quakecon 2002 this year it looks as if it's a begining to the story...as if DooM III will be like starting over with a hardcore explaination of what really happened.
[ Posted by Apoc on 10/08/02 @ 07:21 pm ]
This was just one of a few interviews we should be conducting regarding DOOM III. While this interview was a little more broad, we will ask more specifics in upcoming interviews.
[ Posted by Neo_Monkey on 10/08/02 @ 07:29 pm ]
kewl I would really like to hear alot more depth about the story line if it's not too much trouble
[ Posted by SubSonic on 10/08/02 @ 07:30 pm ]
No co-op is kind of a bummer. I know the point of the game is that you're the only one there to save earth from hell, but if you're trying to focus on story based gameplay without evolving the multiplayer too much, a co-op mode would do just the trick. And since when to 4 "only men left to save the earth from hell" get together to blow each others brains out? :p Hopefully they'll rethink their multiplayer mode a little bit once the single player game nears completion, but at least it's better than leaving it out altogether (as Unreal 2 will, for instance)
No co-op?
[ Posted by VTI on 10/08/02 @ 10:04 pm ]
I can't begin to say how bummed about this I am...they might as well have left out the shotgun or the cyberdemon...what a rip off
We won’t do co-op, that’s definite. ?
[ Posted by Mactator on 10/09/02 @ 12:15 am ]
That´s not good i like to play DooM co-op much more than deathmatch. Co-op is the greatest fun ever.
[ Posted by Apoc on 10/09/02 @ 09:54 am ]
Well, due to all the buzz that particular answer has been getting around the internet, I wouldn't be surprised if id software made an announcement about it or seriously reconsidered based upon fan reaction. I personally would love to see co-op myself.
Author:
SubSonic
Date Written:
10/08/02 @ 2:10 pm
Could you please state your name “for the record”?
Tim Willits: w-i-l-l-i-t-s.
And what exactly is your position at id Software?
I’m the lead designer on Doom III
How long have you been with id?
Since 1995
Now, what inspired you to do game design?
Well, I’ve always been interested in designing things, like my brother, my older brother, used to play D&D when I was younger, I never really liked to play but I thought making maps was cool. When Doom II came out it was great because it gave me the chance to make my own maps and modify their maps, and it was really cool because it gave me the chance to be able to run around in worlds that I built and it really inspired me, and the rest is basically history.
What is it like working with Carmack?
Oh it’s great, John is the visionary of the company, Doom in particular, he has the overall visual design, and it is then my job to instill what john wants down to the rest of the group, but you know, its great, I don’t really understand him most of the time, but that’s ok, no one else does either
Yeah no kidding, so how is the development of Doom III coming?
It’s coming well, the core technology is basically done, as john said yesterday and we’re working on finishing up the maps and we got some new monsters, and we’re just getting that stuff worked out.
What are some of the challenges you have faced in working with Doom III?
When you are working with a new technology, that and the game at the same time, it’s like filming a movie and inventing the camera, so we are discovering what all we can do, while we do it, so the base challenge is exploiting the engine as much as we can, but we haven’t even scratched the surface with the new technology.
What feature has held your attention or impressed you the most with what you have been able to accomplish with the new engine?
What just one? The great thing that Doom has is the 5 in 1 sound support, the physics engine, the unified light system where we get more textures, polygons, more colors now, and great visual fidelity. The unified light system is great because we can have scriptable walls and breakable boards and the player can’t tell what is going to change and what’s not going to change because it will all look the same and add to the fear factor, scary, very atmospheric.
How will the physics engine differ from other games that id has done in the past?
We have a very good physics engine, it’s very realistic, and is being developed internally. We’ve never had that before, and so it makes things a little more believable.
Will Doom III have multiplayer?
Yes, there will be basic multiplayer, we wont have any breaking ground with this, it’s fully scalable, John said yesterday that it's just going to be four player but it really depends on the maps we make and the multiplayer style we develop, but we are still along way from that, we’ve really been working on the single player mode of the game.
Oh ok, so you don’t know if you’re gonna do a co-op style or what?
We won’t do co-op, that’s definite.
What about Voice over IP?
Again, once we get further into the multiplayer aspect we will explore those options but for now we don’t have plans for it. All we know is that it is gonna have death match, primarily because we are really structured in the single player experience, and that’s what we are really focusing on.
How does id plan to support the mod community, if at all?
Well actually Doom will be very moddable, in my opinion it will be easier, we are shipping all the needed tools, editors, maps, the scripting info, models for the creatures, and a lot of the code is broken up so it easier to mod.
What design tools will be comparable that come with the game?
Radiant is the editor that will be shipped, the same that we used for Quake III.
Has id been working with any video card companies, if so, which ones?
Well John works with lots of different video card companies, we get cards early and John does tests and gives them feedback, he is very well integrated into the video card market.
What attempts are being made to allow Doom III to play on the mid and lower end computers?
The Platform for Doom III will be Geforce 3 and above cards but you can play it on a Geforce 1 but you will have to turn a lot of the visuals off to play. We are hoping that in the future we will be having good penetration on all the cards.
Other then the graphics how will Doom III immerse the player into the game?
Well, the sound, the 2 6-channel audio really envelops them, the physics engine really makes things more believable and the story it’s self will help, that and the richness of the characters them selves, you know, all the great things.
We are very close to our community and one of the biggest question we get is “are any of the weapons from the previous games going to be in Doom III if so, which ones”?
Well, as you see we have the shotgun and machine gun, so doom fans won’t be disappointed and we are still working on some weapons.
So you still haven’t decided on the model of the BFG?
No, I didn’t even think about it until yesterday, but we will definatly have the BFG.
Will Doom III be objective based or the classic “kill anything that moves” Doom?
We have the over-all story which has certain missions that have objectives, that and we have the ability to create really great combat scenes.
Another question we get a lot is the average poly count of different things.
The best place to look for that info is some transcripts online.
How will Doom III be handling the Per-Poly collision detection?
The Per Poly hit detection gives us great feed back on where someone is hit it removes the square bony boxes we had in the past and helps make things more believable and adds to a richer environment, but you know, you can't shoot your ear lobe off.
What other design companies plan to license Doom III other then Raven for Quake IV?
We have had quite a few companies who are very interested, we have deals signed and when we have games figured out we will be sure to announce those.
That’s pretty much what we have..
Cool
..and we really appreciate you spending time with us and thank you for all the info!
Thank you.
User Comments
Add a Comment
[ Posted by Tom on 09/29/02 @ 06:59 am ]
very good interview. learned quite a lot!
umm
[ Posted by deitiphile on 10/08/02 @ 02:00 pm ]
no trent reznor info? grr.
[ Posted by Neo_Monkey on 10/08/02 @ 07:13 pm ]
I was really hoping that I would hear something more on the core story line...like how does this DooM truely fit in with the series...as far as I could tell with the presintation and with the booth at Quakecon 2002 this year it looks as if it's a begining to the story...as if DooM III will be like starting over with a hardcore explaination of what really happened.
[ Posted by Apoc on 10/08/02 @ 07:21 pm ]
This was just one of a few interviews we should be conducting regarding DOOM III. While this interview was a little more broad, we will ask more specifics in upcoming interviews.
[ Posted by Neo_Monkey on 10/08/02 @ 07:29 pm ]
kewl I would really like to hear alot more depth about the story line if it's not too much trouble
[ Posted by SubSonic on 10/08/02 @ 07:30 pm ]
No co-op is kind of a bummer. I know the point of the game is that you're the only one there to save earth from hell, but if you're trying to focus on story based gameplay without evolving the multiplayer too much, a co-op mode would do just the trick. And since when to 4 "only men left to save the earth from hell" get together to blow each others brains out? :p Hopefully they'll rethink their multiplayer mode a little bit once the single player game nears completion, but at least it's better than leaving it out altogether (as Unreal 2 will, for instance)
No co-op?
[ Posted by VTI on 10/08/02 @ 10:04 pm ]
I can't begin to say how bummed about this I am...they might as well have left out the shotgun or the cyberdemon...what a rip off
We won’t do co-op, that’s definite. ?
[ Posted by Mactator on 10/09/02 @ 12:15 am ]
That´s not good i like to play DooM co-op much more than deathmatch. Co-op is the greatest fun ever.
[ Posted by Apoc on 10/09/02 @ 09:54 am ]
Well, due to all the buzz that particular answer has been getting around the internet, I wouldn't be surprised if id software made an announcement about it or seriously reconsidered based upon fan reaction. I personally would love to see co-op myself.