Doom3world

I've been tweaking Doom 3 recently and playing around with some mods, and I wanted to show the difference with and without them. It's pretty substantial. I know many may think D3 is outdated (and it is), but it's still a fun game, and these mods breathe new life into it.


Mods Used:

+ sikkmod v1.2
- HDR
- DOF
- POM (as included with sikkmod v1.2)
- Soft Shadows

+ monoxead's high-res texture pack
+ wulfen's high-res texture pack


Screenshots:

screenshot 1 (no mods)
screenshot 1 (mods)

screenshot 2 (no mods)
screenshot 2 (mods)

screenshot 3 (no mods)
screenshot 3 (mods)

screenshot 4 (no mods)
screenshot 4 (mods)

screenshot 5 (no mods)
screenshot 5 (mods)

Use tab switching to see the difference. HDR and the texture packs make a big difference, but POM is what really adds the finishing touch. The way that the textures actually have dimension is not from the texture packs, but by using POM (parallax occlusion mapping). It's actually quite impressive, but somewhat of a resource hog. In fact, Doom 3 is one of the most taxing pc games I own, post-mods that is. Moreso than Crysis, even.

**Just to clarify, I in no way take credit for these mods! Sikkmod is created by sikkpin (of the doom3world.org boards), and the texture packs are created by monoxead and wulfen respectively. I only implemented their mods for my own personal use.




There are lots of Doom 3 mods out there and many of which I haven't tried, but I like to play the game like it was originally meant to be played, as much as possible. These mods will not alter gameplay (perhaps only slightly), but they will make the game look a heck of a lot better. If you want to get your version of D3 looking like mine, here is what you do:




1. sikkmod v1.2


2. Sikkpin's patch for glprogs folder


3. Monoxead's high-res texture pack


4. Wulfen's high-res texture pack


5. Trent Reznor's sound pack (optional)


The order in which you will install these is the order that you downloaded them in above.




IMPORTANT: BACKUP YOUR DOOM 3 FOLDER BEFORE YOU START INSTALLING MODS

1. Open the first file (2011_09_03_sikkmod_v1.2-D3.rar) and extract the sikkmod folder into the base of your Doom 3 folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\doom 3
(This is assuming that you bought Doom 3 on steam. If not, your path will look slightly different)


2. Open sikkmod_v1.2-D3_glprogs_fix.rar and extract the sikkmod folder to the same place:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\doom 3
Overwrite any folders or files that it asks you about

Note: If you want to use POM (Parallax Occlusion Mapping), copy the files "interaction.vfp" and "test.vfp" from the sikkmod\glprogs\POM folder into the base of the glprogs folder (i.e sikkmod\glprogs). If you don't know, POM is what makes the textures "pop", and actually become dimensional instead of being flat. It makes it look great but it does take a hit on the frame-rate.


3. Open HR_Textures.rar and extract the "materials" and "textures" folder to the base of the sikkmod folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\doom 3\sikkmod
(again, this is assuming that you bought Doom 3 on steam)


4. Open wulfen texture pack 1.0.rar and extract the "models" and "textures" folder to the same place; overwrite any files that it asks about:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\doom 3\sikkmod


5. Open trentreznorsounds.zip and extract "pak005.pk4" to the base of your sikkmod folder (the same place you put materials, models, and textures):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\doom 3\sikkmod


6. Finally, go into steam, right-click Doom 3, properties, then "SET LAUNCH OPTIONS". Copy and paste the following:
+set fs_game sikkmod
(If you don't have steam, you should be able to add this at the end of your Doom 3 shortcut.)


Doing this will tell Doom 3 to start with sikkmod, the high-res textures, and the sound pack enabled. If you don't wish for Doom 3 to automatically start this way, you can simply select "sikkmod" from the mod menu within Doom 3.

Once you start up sikkmod, you will notice that you have "sikkmod options" at the bottom of the menu screen.

WARNING: I have a pretty powerful computer and I have the settings turned up relatively high. If your frame-rate is terrible, try disabling depth of field first, and if it's still bad, disable POM by deleting "interaction.vfp" and "test.vfp" out of \sikkmod\glprogs. They should still be in the POM folder (don't delete them there), but if they're not in glprogs then they're (POM is) not active.




DoomConfig.cfg (located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\doom 3\sikkmod\DoomConfig.cfg) will have to be edited to some degree. Basically, you need to change a couple options to enable the high-res textures, and you may need to set a custom resolution.

1. To enable the high-res textures, make sure that these parameters are set as follows in DoomConfig.cfg:

seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "0"
seta image_useNormalCompression "0"
seta image_useAllFormats "1"
seta image_useCompression "0"
seta image_preload "1"
seta image_roundDown "0"
seta image_forceDownSize "0"
seta image_downSize "0"


2. To set a custom resolution:

Find these lines:

seta r_customHeight "xxxx"
seta r_customWidth "xxxx"

Change the x's to set your resolution. Now find this line:

seta r_mode "x"

Change the "x" to "-1".

Find this line:

seta r_aspectRatio "x"

If your screen aspect ratio is 16:9, change the "x" to "1".
If your screen aspect ratio is 16:10 or 15:9, change the "x" to "2".


Note: If you would like to use my settings instead of tweaking it yourself, simply download my config file here, and overwrite the one in the base of your sikkmod folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\doom 3\sikkmod\DoomConfig.cfg

I am running the game at 1920x1080, 16:9 aspect ratio, fyi. If you have a different resolution and/or aspect ratio, you can just download my config file and edit it accordingly.




-If you have an ATI Radeon graphics card, disabling Catalyst A.I. can solve many problems that you may encounter.

Hope this helps. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Wow, people complained it was dark before.

Thanks!

Of course, you can change the brightness to your liking. If anything, I think that the game is too bright by default!

Hopefully someone will get some use out of this thread. Installing everything on your own is not hard (just takes some reading), but I wanted to bring everything together in one location to make it that much easier.

Edit: Can anyone verify that my instructions work properly when followed? They work for me, but a couple people on different forums have reported "weird graphics" after following my tutorial. But of course I have no idea what exactly is going on in their case -- they may have preexisting mods installed that are conflicting with these, or they may not be disabling catalyst AI correctly.. I have no idea. I just want to make sure that my instructions are correct. Could someone read through it briefly and make sure everything sounds good?

Wouldn't downloading 2 different texture packs at the same time make some sort of conflict? (wulfen's and monoxhead)

Great tutorial- I'm constantly recommending these mods to people, but there hasn't really been a one-stop link for these.

game looks better without the pom. Pom is not optimize well. In some places it looks very bad, especially in hell. Good job lukeman but I have seen already better Doom3 with the same MODs.