Doom: The Dark Ages marks our first look at the latest version of the legendary id Tech engine, and the series appears to be moving away from the relatively limited combat scenes and glory kills of Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal to something entirely epic in scale, exclusive to current-gen consoles and PC. While the trailer contains less than two minutes of actual gameplay footage, there's still a lot we can learn about The Dark Ages and its technology from what id has revealed so far.
The first thing I noticed in the trailer were the voluminous clouds, something I wouldn't expect in a Doom game. They are prominent in many shots in the trailer, but the most prominent is the intro shot where the burning Citadel hangs in the sky. Here, the clouds enveloping the structure show clear evidence of localized self-shadowing, sunlight, and light transmission at the cloud edges.
Then, as the Doom Slayer is shot down planetside, the clouds around him break up – though given the performance impact, this is likely some kind of VDB animation playing out rather than a physical volumetric simulation. That said, you can indeed spot volumetric clouds throughout the trailer, often on top of distant mountains, and sometimes even seeming to show evidence of movement or evolution – it's interesting.
An early analysis of Doom: The Dark Ages. What does the reveal trailer reveal about the game's tech? Check it out on YouTube
The trailer also gives us an idea of the scale of the environments, which appear to have a much larger play area with very little apparent gatekeeping. If that's the case, volumetric clouds are a smart choice, as they allow for easier and more repeatable creation of sky art than static skyboxes. These clouds also help maintain proper parallax, perspective, and visual quality in a game where you can fly, something not available in the previous two latest Doom titles, but the trailer showcases a rideable dragon that makes good use of that cloud technology.
Beyond the cloud effect, the large play area means that Level of Detail (LOD) transitions, which switch to higher quality versions of assets as they get closer and larger on the screen, become crucial. These LOD transitions felt natural overall, with only a handful visible to the eye, despite fast camera movements.
Objects also look great up close, at least based on some of the items we've seen this way in the trailer. Doom Eternal has significantly increased the amount of geometry shown on screen compared to Doom (2016), and it seems like a similar trend is coming with The Dark Ages. For example, the Super Shotgun is very round, with barely any visible polygonal edges. Also, a close-up of the Doom Slayer shows a lot of detail achieved with real geometry, such as his spiked chainmail. Textures also seem to be high-resolution overall if you look closely, and one of my favorite details is the animated rain texture seen in the intro, which is subtle but looks great.
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What I had a hard time finding was clear visual evidence of ray tracing. Doom Eternal added RT reflections in a patch on PC and high-end consoles, so I expect to see the same here, but the environment and lighting choices are not as good. Most metals are very worn, so the RT reflections are more subtle, and when shiny surfaces appeared on screen, I experienced screen space artifacts. Doom Eternal mixes screen space reflections with RT reflections, and I imagine that's what I'm seeing here, but it remains unconfirmed at this point.
The last thing I noticed about the trailer was how realistic it was. It didn't look fake in any sense of the word. Judging by the performance fluctuations throughout the trailer, we're definitely looking at something rendered in real time. Analyzing it with a framerate analysis tool, we can see the framerate dropping into the 30s when explosions are triggered, as well as dropped and duplicated frames in other places. This suggests that this is genuine gameplay footage that's still in development. Given id's track record, we can expect a smooth (if not completely frozen) 60fps even on current-gen machines.
As a Doom fan, this trailer has me super excited. It comes out with incredible gusto, showing off new gameplay, weapons and enemies, all set to a fantastic backtrack. I'm excited to see what else they reveal about the game's tech in the lead up to launch.
