DOOM has been a hotly anticipated game due to the massively upgraded graphics engine that id Software and Bethesda have used in it. Their previous version, most notable for its use in the not so well received Rage project, wasn’t quite the technological marvel that id Software has been known for. This new DOOM project, however, has completely changed that.
DOOM for PC was designed specifically for PC, and it shows
During the open-beta we were rather surprised at the locked-down nature of the graphics options. The focus was on the network back-end and in getting everything to play nice together, so it was understandable. The game was locked at 60FPS and locked to specific, and lower graphical settings. Now we get to see just exactly what Nightmare mode looks like, and whether or not it lives up to the standard that was created with Doom 3. We hope that this game is more than just a graphical showcase and also includes a deep storyline that is at least a homage to the Doom’s of yore.
Regardless of whether it’s inundated with good content, graphically it’s a stunning world that id Software and Bethesda have created. We put it to the test even though the underlying API is going to be updated to Vulkan in the coming weeks. This should serve as a baseline of performance that can then be compared after that Vulkan version is finally released. As you’ll see, initially it actually runs well on the PC, and looks outstanding. AMD lags behind but the theory is that the older OpenGL driver paths from them are the cause. New drivers that further optimize, and the Vulkan version, should improve performance immensly in the future. Thus far it isn’t terrible, just not great for team Red. Team Green has no such problems.