Doom 3, W10 and AMD

magoo

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Oct 21, 2004
Messages
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Ok.
I have 2 systems, both W10.
One with GTX 1080 Ti installs retail Doom 3 fine runs great.
One with 5700 XT, wont launch, shows default.cfg error.

What am I missing?
I read everywhere people have no issues.
 
Is this the original game installed from CD fresh on both PCs, or did you download and install it from Steam?
If the former, did you install all the patches to get it up to date?
Can you show us what the exact error is?
 
I have the most up to date Adreniline drivers.
The game is the retail version off real CDs.....hehe... I love keeping old stuff around........fully patched.

My thought is there is something in the Open GL that nvidia does that AMD doesnt....or vice versa.....
I just dont get why the same version of the game works fine on one system and not the other.....they are otherwise nearly identical excepting for GPUs.
If you google default.cfg + Doom 3 youll see what folks have posted.
I deleted all the game files out of frustration

I get this blue box that says cant load default.cfg at the top and at the bottom something about vid_restart and closing open GL
 
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Sounds like the game wasn't properly installed on the one PC. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game? It's only $5 on Steam if you're having issues with the discs.
 
Doom3 may not be using the best render path.
seta r_renderer "best"
// best, arb, arb2, cg, exp, nv10, nv20, r200, nv50
// ARB2 was the render path that Carmack had intended for
// NV30/R300 and newer cards to run on anyway......

https://steamcommunity.com/app/9050/discussions/0/1473095331494304732/


Maybe easier to use a source port like dhewm or fhdoom.
The game would still boot if it was using the wrong renderer. The error OP is describing happens when the default installation path is not updated to what the user identified, or one of the .pk4 files didn't install correctly. Unless there is an issue with one of the discs, a reinstallation of the game should fix it. You should also run the game once before applying the patches.
 
The game would still boot if it was using the wrong renderer. The error OP is describing happens when the default installation path is not updated to what the user identified, or one of the .pk4 files didn't install correctly. Unless there is an issue with one of the discs, a reinstallation of the game should fix it. You should also run the game once before applying the patches.

Let me just say this.
I firmly believe this is an AMD issue.
I have tried to install and run this on my computer using a 5700 XT and it simply refuses.
I can't tell you how many times I've uninstalled and reinstalled.
There is something in the files somewhere which is not allowing AMDs OpenGL paths to work correctly.

In DIRECT CONTRAST, using the SAME discs, installing, patching to 1.31 (before launching the game) the game runs flawlessly on my computer which
runs W10 and uses an nvidia graphics card. Both machines are otherwise nearly identical in their base components. Same motherboard, same CPUI, identical RAM and storage.
 
Let me just say this.
I firmly believe this is an AMD issue.
I have tried to install and run this on my computer using a 5700 XT and it simply refuses.
I can't tell you how many times I've uninstalled and reinstalled.
There is something in the files somewhere which is not allowing AMDs OpenGL paths to work correctly.

In DIRECT CONTRAST, using the SAME discs, installing, patching to 1.31 (before launching the game) the game runs flawlessly on my computer which
runs W10 and uses an nvidia graphics card. Both machines are otherwise nearly identical in their base components. Same motherboard, same CPUI, identical RAM and storage.
It is odd, indeed. It may be an issue with the retail version because I can't seem to find any instances of people having issues starting the game with the Steam version and the 5700 XT. I know the game has always had issues with ATi/AMD due to their half-assed OpenGL support, but the game would at least start. Seems odd to me that the issue you're having is not related at all to the video card (the "vid_restart" missing command is because the game can't access the cvar list), yet it is still having this issue.
 
copy of the message:

Loaded pk4 F:\Doom_3\Doom 3\base\pak008.pk4 with checksum 0x23ae5993
Current search path:
F:\Doom_3\Doom 3/base
F:\Doom_3\Doom 3\base\pak008.pk4 (3 files)
F:\Doom_3\Doom 3\base\pak007.pk4 (38 files)
F:\Doom_3\Doom 3\base\pak006.pk4 (48 files)
F:\Doom_3\Doom 3\base\pak005.pk4 (63 files)
F:\Doom_3\Doom 3\base\game03.pk4 (2 files)
F:\Doom_3\Doom 3\base\game02.pk4 (2 files)
F:\Doom_3\Doom 3\base\game01.pk4 (2 files)
game DLL: 0x0 in pak: 0x0
Addon pk4s:
file system initialized.
--------------------------------------
Unknown command 'vid_restart'
idRenderSystem::Shutdown()
Shutting down OpenGL subsystem
...shutting down QGL
Couldn't load default.cfg
 
This used to happen with Quake 4 before it got an update post Steam release. I've even seen it on Q3A in some cases.

One thing to check is the resolution setting in the config file. It may not be detecting it correctly. The custom mode is setting "-1" I think, where you then specify the resolution on separate X and Y line items. You might try setting it yourself, or maybe try one of the standard modes. If I remember correctly, changing to a positive integer instead of the "-1" setting. You might want to verify this by looking up the console commands. At any rate, I think it's related to screen mode settings.
 
I tried a bunch of things today, including transferring files from my other computer......nothing worked.

As a last ditch, I installed Dhewm3 and followed the Readme instructions.
Crazy thing is, this port uses basically the same .pak files as does the vanilla game.

It worked!!! All I had to do was install Creative ALchemy for sound.

I have no idea where the problem is........oh well........I can play the game at least on this AMD system now.
Only downside it doesn't support any Mods to speak of.
 
Actually I was mistaken.
Doom3 Redux works perfectly fine.
Actually fun to play back through this game.
Looks great at 1440 and of course runs like a dream.

I have had a lousy time liking Doom Eternal, this is more to my liking.
 
Just wanted to follow up in case anyone anywhere has issues with this combo.....
I got to the end of the Alpha Labs2 and was going through a transfer when the game crashed to the console.
Apparently there can be a conflict between the Dhewm3, the Mod Redux and Open AL.
Message is "Open AL hardware buffer"
If you goggle that you will be taken to Github where you will find a fix in the way of a zip file called " dhewm3 oal fix"
I applied that and have run smooth as silk since.
 
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Thanks for following up and finding/posting a solution. Hopefully I never need it, but it's appreciated when you post the solution as so many people never come back for others to know the fix.
 
Thanks for following up and finding/posting a solution. Hopefully I never need it, but it's appreciated when you post the solution as so many people never come back for others to know the fix.
No problem.
In my search for answers to my Doom3 issues I found a ton of half finished conversations and no solutions.
I spent almost a full day searching stuff. (like I had anything else to do......COVID)
Yeah, this is an old game and it runs fine as is on nvidia hardware (at least in my case) but AMD is another issue altogether.
So I thought I'd make it a little easier for the next guy. :)👍
 
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