Doom 4 "three times" Rage visual quality

Id Software didn't show Doom 4 during its press conference at QuakeCon this year, but co-founder and technical director John Carmack did claim that the game would look much better than current project Rage.

Doom will "not be another four-year development period", said Carmack, but will have "three times the graphics richness" because it runs at 30 frames-per-second, rather than 60, which Rage targets.

"You can expect the Doom game to look like it's developed with the next-generation graphics technology," said Carmack.

Carmack later said clarified his comments, adding that the PC would have advanced so much by the time Doom 4 comes out that while the game will be 30fps locked on console, it could be 60fps or higher on PC, so "PC will be able to crow a bit over the consoles again".

Todd Hollenshead, id CEO, couldn't say much about the game. "I can tell you there will be guns. I can tell you there will be blood. I can tell you there will be demons. I can tell you there will be gibs. In other words, I can tell you it's going to be kickass, because it couldn't be anything else right?" he joked.

He asked the audience when it would be out. "When it's done," everyone shouted. He nodded. It's also based on id Tech 5, which means it's due on PS3, 360 and PC.

Earlier we asked Rage project lead Tim Willits about Doom 4, which is being headed up by a team run by Kevin Cloud. "I think during the conference when Todd talks about it, he's just going to have the Doom logo up," he said. So it proved. So there's nothing tangible to see, we asked? "No, no. It's way early."

We're hoping to speak to Kevin Cloud tomorrow about Doom 4, for which id is currently hiring, so we'll let you know more as we hear it.