BFG ROE vs standard retail CD ROE for pc

[Nar!]

I finally got through the entire ROE campaign, straight off the BFG edition and can finally draw comparisons to my standard retail CD copy of the game.

First off, DOOM 3 BFG edition, in it's entirety, has noticeably smoother frame rates, than that of my retail copy of the game.

Even at 60 fps (which you can push even further in BFG only), I actually get a consistent and smooth frame rate, with no stuttering or tearing. It's a real nice experience.


My retail copy (CD set) of the game, does seem to have an issue with keeping a steady frame rate, due to some quirks in the game code, despite me having a computer that is way over the recommended system requirements.

The particle issues are gone in BFG! On my retail copy, I experienced game breaking particle issues (fire balls with a black opaque, square frame around them).


When I first ran the BFG edition, everything seemed rather blurry, even at 1920x1080. But then I learned about the LOD (level of detail) Bias option and set the thing to non and now, the image quality is much more crisp.

I really like that I can play with the field of view, too! I punched it up to 90.



Now the draw backs...

The audio in BFG edition. You may have read about this before. It's not the worst thing, but it is lacking in atmospheric balance. Sometimes it's hard to make out the PDA recordings, videos, etc.

With the retail copy, it makes good use of a quality audio card and has options to play with, to really help with the immersive experience. There's non of that in BFG edition.

Can I deal with it? Sure. But I do miss the excellent sound quality I got from my retail copy.



Yes, skin mod support is available for the BFG edition..but here's the caveat. If you want to use them, they will only run from a separate .exe file and any play through, will not affect your Steam achievements.

So for example, if you beat D3 in marine difficulty, with the HD skin mod applied, you will not receive the achievement for that accomplishment, because you're technically running the game off a separate exe that comes with the mod files, which works with the original installation files in your Steam app folder.

I didn't realize this and was a little bummed out about it, however, once I accomplish every achievement, I can return to the game and disregard the achievement system and just run the game off the mod exe, to enjoy the higher res textures.

That being said, I was able to accept the game's vanilla graphics and it's really not that bad, considering the age of the game (and after removing the LOD Bias). I also lowered the darkness a tiny bit.



All in all, I had fun playing through ROE with very smooth frame rates. It's almost like gliding through maps.

Oh, another big improvement in BFG, is super fast loading levels. On my retail CD, it took a few seconds for each map to load. In BFG, they're almost instantaneous. Keeps you playing for hours!


For the sale price of less than 5.00 dollars (this past weekend), I have 0 regrets buying this package deal. It's so worth it, even if you have the retail copy. Being able to play Doom 1 and 2, as well as the Lost Missions, are nice extras.

[W3RN3R]

I have the original Doom 3 an ROE, is the graphics (textures) the same with bfg? I just dont want dumbed down worse textures, but i gues for the price i think it's worth getting just for the hell of it in anycase.

[Jon.pettet.]

you had a great deal.injoy

[HellsDelight]

Publicado originalmente por Werner:

I have the original Doom 3 an ROE, is the graphics (textures) the same with bfg? I just dont want dumbed down worse textures, but i gues for the price i think it's worth getting just for the hell of it in anycase.

Doing a search 1000s of websites show up like https://www.gamespot.com/videos/doom-3-vs-doom-3-bfg-edition/2300-6398470/
So in short Textures are little better on vanilla BFG Edition also with higher resolutions than on vanilla Doom 3 but Doom 3 is darker.

[Nar!]

Publicado originalmente por Werner:

I have the original Doom 3 an ROE, is the graphics (textures) the same with bfg? I just dont want dumbed down worse textures, but i gues for the price i think it's worth getting just for the hell of it in anycase.

Werner, some of the textures in Doom 3 BFG (this includes ROE and Lost Missions) are noticeably better than those found in the CD retail version (aka vanilla version).
The skin textures on people look much more detailed, for example.

Everything else, seems either the same or better, but I wouldn't say worst. You just have to remember to make sure to pull back the LOD Bias bar, all the way back, in the menu settings. If you don't, you will find, the overall image quality will look blurry.

As for brightness, I dropped it down a notch in the options. It did seem brighter than the retail version.


@Jon.Pettet, yeah a very good deal. I was anticipating paying the full price, but lucky for me, it went on sale.

[HellsDelight]

Publicado originalmente por Nar!:

Publicado originalmente por Werner:

I have the original Doom 3 an ROE, is the graphics (textures) the same with bfg? I just dont want dumbed down worse textures, but i gues for the price i think it's worth getting just for the hell of it in anycase.

As for brightness, I dropped it down a notch in the options. It did seem brighter than the retail version.

Yep, it's brighter and in the Video above they think that parts of the vanilla "seem" to look better because of the more shadowy going on compared to the BFG.

[W3RN3R]

@ Nar! and Hellsdelight, thank you for the info, i'll be getting it then.

[Nar!]

Publicado originalmente por Werner:

@ Nar! and Hellsdelight, thank you for the info, i'll be getting it then.

Cool, I hope you enjoy it, bud. The Lost Missions, Doom 1 and 2, are great extras, especially if you've never played them before.
Once you install and run the game, you'll be greeted with 3 menus. One for Doom 1, Doom 2 and Doom 3 BFG. When you click on Doom 3 BFG, start a new campaign and you will have the option to pick from Doom 3, ROE or Lost Mission.

At first, I was having a hard time finding ROE, but figured out that they were selectable every time you start a new campaign mode.

Another helpful tip, refrain from taking ingame screen shots, if you're looking to stack up your Steam achievements. For some reason, it deactivates achievements (you get a message that console was enabled). If this happens and you'd like to go back to the map to get an achievement, you can do so without a problem.

I've learned this after I beat ROE. I was taking a lot of screen shots and it disabled my Steam Achievements.

[W3RN3R]

I played them all, just adding this to the collection, thanx again.

[Squishy boi thighs]

Yeah I remember playing Doom 3 on Xbox through most of my teen years. I bought the original retail version for pc a year ago but I didn't like how unstable it felt since I wanted to mod it. I saw it for sale on Steam for less than five bucks and had to get it. Compared to the Xbox version, I'm suprised how different the levels are, and the fact there's more cutscenes and enemy encounters. I forget how much I loved this game and I can seriously play for hours at a time. Not to mention it's so much easier to play with mouse and keyboard instead of a controller.

[W3RN3R]

Original Doom 3 looks better texture wize TBH, i also dont like the weapon fov in the BFG edition, just doesnt feel right, to consolish for me, the pda and interface looks cheap and rushed, i would recommend getting the original Doom games for PC.

[Nar!]

The original retail disc set for Doom 3, does make good use of your graphics and audio peripherals installed on your machine, so you're right about the crispness of the textures. Unfortunately, the original game also has trouble running very smooth fps on modern machines. Even at 60 fps, there's a memory issue that seems to create stuttering in some levels.

So give a little, take a little.

I also still can't get around the particle issues on my original installation of D3 and ROE either, so I'm forced to run Doom from BFG on Steam. May be due to my video card or simply an incompatible driver. With BFG, my game runs liquid smooth and has 0 particle problems.

There's unfortunately no fix or work around to get my original Doom 3 to run as smooth as that of BFG Doom 3. If could could get it to run liquid smooth and sans the particle issues (for example, black squares behind demon fireballs) I would have never bothered running D3 from BFG, except for Lost Mission.

[W3RN3R]

You can use the seta com_fixedtic 1 command to get rid of that annoying stutter, but that causes cutscene videos to be out of sync, lipsync to be more exact, i am using RTSS and vsync enabled, i'm used to the stutter, doesnt bother me frankly, also i dont get the particle issues you talk about, have a look at your Doomconfig.cfg file and check if its enabled for ultra details, have a look here:

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Doom_3

[Nar!]

Publicado originalmente por Werner:

You can use the seta com_fixedtic 1 command to get rid of that annoying stutter, but that causes cutscene videos to be out of sync, lipsync to be more exact, i am using RTSS and vsync enabled, i'm used to the stutter, doesnt bother me frankly, also i dont get the particle issues you talk about, have a look at your Doomconfig.cfg file and check if its enabled for ultra details, have a look here:

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Doom_3

Thanks for the helpful tips Wener. I'll definitely have a look and see if I can at least get around the the problem with the particle effects.