I've noticed an alarming trend of threads cropping up with problems that have been resolved in other threads, generic problems (ie, my performance sucks), and threads that basically describe the issue, yet have next to no information about it, making it impossible for anyone to resolve without resorting to psychic powers, or a game of 20 questions.

In an attempt to bring some sanity back to the tech support forum, here's what you need to do before and during your initial post, when requesting for help or enlightenment.

Step #1: Search
First thing you need to do is search for your problem. If it's been answered elsewhere, it saves everyone the trouble of going through it all over again, and wastes noone's time. If you find your issue, you can potentially have your problem solved straight away, and we don't have to waste our time re-solving it all over again, or pointing you to the other thread.

If you can't find your problem in the tech support forum, broaden your search. Try different keywords, search all forums - not just the tech support one, try looking at Activision's support page for DOOM3, try Google, exhaust as many other possibilities as possible. Failing all of these, you can then move on to your first post.

Step #2: Provide all the necessary information
This is extremely important. There's no point complaining that DOOM3 performs poorly on your system, for instance, if you don't provide us with any clue as to just what your system is. The most crucial peices of information for most problems are:

• Your operating system version.
• Your video card, and its configuration (ie, amount of video memory, AGP bus speed).
• Your processor, and its speed/performance rating.
• Your amount of memory, and in the case of older computers, its type and speed/performance rating.
• Your soundcard, or onboard sound chipset.
• If an OEM based computer such as Dell, AlienWare, HP, etc, its make and manufacturer.
• Your video card driver version.
• In the case of Windows, your version of DirectX.
• Again in the case of Windows, your service pack version - if one is installed.

For Windows users, a lot of this information can be found by looking in such places as the System Properties in the Control Panel, but I generally find that programs such as Lavalys's Everest or AIDA32 are far better at providing all the information you'll ever need and more.

For Mac users, usually their particular Mac model, video card, amount of memory and OS X version is generally sufficient - all of which can be obtained from the System Profiler. We expect better from Linux users.

(At the time of writing, the OS X and Linux versions aren't currently available - think of this as future-proofing).

So, hopefully these two easy steps should help your initial foray into the tech support forum become more successful, and will definately take a lot of stress off of us, the people who are here to help.

Also keep in mind that a little gratitude goes a long way around here.

Please submit your bug reports to this thread:
http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2909

I've noticed an alarming trend of threads cropping up with problems that have been resolved in other threads, generic problems (ie, my performance sucks), and threads that basically describe the issue, yet have next to no information about it, making it impossible for anyone to resolve without resorting to psychic powers, or a game of 20 questions.

In an attempt to bring some sanity back to the tech support forum, here's what you need to do before and during your initial post, when requesting for help or enlightenment.

Step #1: Search
First thing you need to do is search for your problem. If it's been answered elsewhere, it saves everyone the trouble of going through it all over again, and wastes noone's time. If you find your issue, you can potentially have your problem solved straight away, and we don't have to waste our time re-solving it all over again, or pointing you to the other thread.

If you can't find your problem in the tech support forum, broaden your search. Try different keywords, search all forums - not just the tech support one, try looking at Activision's support page for DOOM3, try Google, exhaust as many other possibilities as possible. Failing all of these, you can then move on to your first post.

Step #2: Provide all the necessary information
This is extremely important. There's no point complaining that DOOM3 performs poorly on your system, for instance, if you don't provide us with any clue as to just what your system is. The most crucial peices of information for most problems are:

• Your operating system version.
• Your video card, and its configuration (ie, amount of video memory, AGP bus speed).
• Your processor, and its speed/performance rating.
• Your amount of memory, and in the case of older computers, its type and speed/performance rating.
• Your soundcard, or onboard sound chipset.
• If an OEM based computer such as Dell, AlienWare, HP, etc, its make and manufacturer.
• Your video card driver version.
• In the case of Windows, your version of DirectX.
• Again in the case of Windows, your service pack version - if one is installed.

For Windows users, a lot of this information can be found by looking in such places as the System Properties in the Control Panel, but I generally find that programs such as Lavalys's Everest or AIDA32 are far better at providing all the information you'll ever need and more.

For Mac users, usually their particular Mac model, video card, amount of memory and OS X version is generally sufficient - all of which can be obtained from the System Profiler. We expect better from Linux users.

(At the time of writing, the OS X and Linux versions aren't currently available - think of this as future-proofing).

So, hopefully these two easy steps should help your initial foray into the tech support forum become more successful, and will definately take a lot of stress off of us, the people who are here to help.

Also keep in mind that a little gratitude goes a long way around here.

Please submit your bug reports to this thread:
http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2909

I've noticed an alarming trend of threads cropping up with problems that have been resolved in other threads, generic problems (ie, my performance sucks), and threads that basically describe the issue, yet have next to no information about it, making it impossible for anyone to resolve without resorting to psychic powers, or a game of 20 questions.

In an attempt to bring some sanity back to the tech support forum, here's what you need to do before and during your initial post, when requesting for help or enlightenment.

Step #1: Search
First thing you need to do is search for your problem. If it's been answered elsewhere, it saves everyone the trouble of going through it all over again, and wastes noone's time. If you find your issue, you can potentially have your problem solved straight away, and we don't have to waste our time re-solving it all over again, or pointing you to the other thread.

If you can't find your problem in the tech support forum, broaden your search. Try different keywords, search all forums - not just the tech support one, try looking at Activision's support page for DOOM3, try Google, exhaust as many other possibilities as possible. Failing all of these, you can then move on to your first post.

Step #2: Provide all the necessary information
This is extremely important. There's no point complaining that DOOM3 performs poorly on your system, for instance, if you don't provide us with any clue as to just what your system is. The most crucial peices of information for most problems are:

• Your operating system version.
• Your video card, and its configuration (ie, amount of video memory, AGP bus speed).
• Your processor, and its speed/performance rating.
• Your amount of memory, and in the case of older computers, its type and speed/performance rating.
• Your soundcard, or onboard sound chipset.
• If an OEM based computer such as Dell, AlienWare, HP, etc, its make and manufacturer.
• Your video card driver version.
• In the case of Windows, your version of DirectX.
• Again in the case of Windows, your service pack version - if one is installed.

For Windows users, a lot of this information can be found by looking in such places as the System Properties in the Control Panel, but I generally find that programs such as Lavalys's Everest or AIDA32 are far better at providing all the information you'll ever need and more.

For Mac users, usually their particular Mac model, video card, amount of memory and OS X version is generally sufficient - all of which can be obtained from the System Profiler. We expect better from Linux users.

(At the time of writing, the OS X and Linux versions aren't currently available - think of this as future-proofing).

So, hopefully these two easy steps should help your initial foray into the tech support forum become more successful, and will definately take a lot of stress off of us, the people who are here to help.

Also keep in mind that a little gratitude goes a long way around here.

Please submit your bug reports to this thread:
http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2909