No split-screen option in Doom III Xbox

By Eurogamer staff Published 23 April, 2004

Exclusive: More details on Vicarious Visions' Xbox version of the game, including the latest release info and observations on how it runs compared to its PC counterpart.

Following yesterday's revelation that Doom III would be playable co-operatively over Xbox Live, our sources at Activision's Californian press event have confirmed that there will be no split-screen options in Vicarious Visions' forthcoming Xbox adaptation, and shed some light on other aspects of the presentation.

During a demonstration of the game by Id Software's Todd Hollenshead, it became apparent that while Xbox Live online options are certainly on the cards (both two-player co-operative and four-player deathmatch, in fact), split-screen offline modes are not, although graphically the game is "very, very faithful to the PC version" with no slowdown evident.

That said, nobody was actually allowed to play the game first hand, and there was no mention at all of any potential release date. Vicarious Visions CEO Karthik Bala has previously stated that development of the PC and Xbox versions of game is going on simultaneously at Id and Vicarious respectively, so we'd expect the pair to launch fairly close to one another.

At the recent Game Developers Conference in San Jose, Id Software's John Carmack said Doom III was "really close" to shipping, although the developer has always said the game will only appear when it's ready. We hope to see more of the Xbox version of the game (and the PC version, absent from the Californian Activision event) at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles next month.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 8 years ago

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  • malloc #1 8 years ago

    Only four player DM?

  • Chewy #2 8 years ago

    Only one player offline mode? Boo.

  • Pirotic #3 8 years ago

    damn, really hoped for a split-screen setting - surely they could of disabled a few of the fancy lighting effects to free up the CPU for it :p

  • Lutz #4 8 years ago

    That's Wank Activision. Totally BlankOBlank.

  • Rankin #5 8 years ago

    Sad news. Split screen co-op is the best.

  • Daryoon #6 8 years ago

    Pfft, but online IS THE fUtUrE!

  • Lutz #7 8 years ago

    With motorbikes.

  • Whizzo #8 8 years ago

    Only four player DM?

    It's always been only four player in DIII even on the PC.

  • MikeD #9 8 years ago

    Ah come on guys, like I said yesterday, this game would lose much of it's scary atmosphere if you are playing it with a mate.

    Me, I am lookign forward to the single player and the 'last man standing' multiplayer. That's going to be some freaky shit.

  • inpHilltr8r #10 8 years ago

    Not surprised. They'd have to hobble the engine to pull it off, or spend another year optimising it.

  • Syrette #11 8 years ago

    is there any possibility of system link features?

  • Jasper16 #12 8 years ago

    i think this game looks good and i don't think it will need split screen

  • #13 8 years ago

    as long as I'll be able to play it.. and it doesn't suck.. I don't care

  • SIDEARM #14 8 years ago

    If it has online co-op it should have system link, for the developers these are very similar features and once online is programmed in then system link is just a quick fix.

  • rygel #15 8 years ago

    D-led I believe the word they used was faithful. I'm not trying to be anal, but what I'm trying to say is that I don't think it will be identical. For example, take the PS (pixel shader) version. I'm sure that the support in the XBOX GPU is much less than that of current GPUs, however id being the clever programmers that they are have probably written scaleable code or VV have scaled it down appropriately.

    As for the split-screen, I'd lay odds that the game has the poor ol' 'box creaking and blowing steam at the seams. Probably why they dropped/didn't consider split screen action.

    Anyways, thats my 2 cents.

  • rygel #16 8 years ago

    Oh yeah, forgot to add, the XB version will be running at a lower res no doubt... I guess that I'll help...

  • Judas808 #17 8 years ago

    I don't personally think that the lack of a split-screen multiplayer option is a problem. Playing co-op or dm over a LAN or System-Link is a much better experience all round.

    Completely agree with rygel, the descision not to have split-screen multiplayer option, is most likely one based on the technical limitations of the Xbox console.

    Its all about co-op play over Xbox Live! I believe, thats where its going to be at.
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/04 @ 10:57

  • MikeD #18 8 years ago

    D-led, Doom 3 uses Opengl, not directx. So I'm sure they won't say 'directx 9 card required'.

  • rygel #19 8 years ago

    Ah yes... well remembered MikeD... Doom3 is indeed OpenGL. As far as I remember it OpenGL isnt as far advanced as DirectX in terms of things like Pix and Vertex Shaders. I think a big thing in D3 is the use of stencil shadowing as well which I suppose could be emulated on most of the new GFX chipsets these days.

  • 3william56 #20 8 years ago

    Soooo... Xbox in "not capable of doing twice as much as a top spec PC" shocker.

    /Checks.../

    Yep - Pope still Catholic, Bears still making whoopsies in the woods.

    When are they planning on announcing that HL2's 4 player split screen mode has been canned too...

    "Faithful" Arf!
    Edited by 1 at 27/04/04 @ 07:17

  • Judas808 #21 8 years ago

    D-Led, the Xbox uses DirectX 8. Its GPU is based on a GeForce 3 (a high-end PC GPU). The Xbox does have something very important, which is a pixel-shader. Remember Deus Ex Invisible War, it actually required one, without one the game didn't work on a PC. All DirectX 9 cards (even low-end) have pixel-shaders, I personally believe this is the reason why they say Doom 3 will require a DirectX 9 card, not because it uses DirectX 9, but because it will require a pixel-shader.

    Additionally, the Xbox OS is specifically designed to run DirectX 8, therefore, games. A PC windows OS, doesn't just run DirectX 9, it runs a whole load of other code as well, this drains system resources considerably, more than you'd think.

    Again. comparing the Xbox version and PC version of DE:IW (and Halo), they're almost identical (PC has high quality textures), however, the PC spec required to run the PC version was huge, on paper the Xbox spec doesn't compare. So the PC needs a lot more system resource, and much higher specs to run the same game. Its not a realistic comparison, comparing the Xbox spec to that of the required PC spec, then drawing the conclusion that the Xbox version of Doom 3 won't look and more importantly play as good.

    I wish Mircosoft would release a Windows OS specifically for running DirectX and games.

    Further more, the Xbox won't have the same graphics as the PC, thats impossible. The Xbox only supports a resolution of 640x480, the PC goes right upto 1600x1280. What they are saying is the Xbox version will have all the graphical effects of the PC version, because it can do that, did it with Halo and DE:IW.

    idsoftware aren't lazy. And I doubt very much that idsoftware would employ a lazy developer to port to the Xbox.