As ive said in other posts, when another game comes out with similar graphics or better, Doom 3 will be forgotten. It isnt going to be a classic, Far Cry should be the classic in terms of graphics, as they are the ones who stole most of Doom 3's thunder in that dept, if Far Cry never came out before Doom 3, Doom 3 would have been the evolution in graphics, but i think that has to be Far Cry.
Of course u all will say the graphics are crap and all, but think about it, a game with a 2Km viewing range, with those lighting and shadows and texture resolution, i doubt it.
And if i remember correctly, from what ive read in PC Gamer over in the UK, he was trying to make a quality engine, not a fast engine. And the fact that if a developer were to use the Doom 3 engine to create vast outdoor scenes, they would have to compromise in the fact that the detail will have to be toned down to be able to run a view range of 2Km, but it might be able to do it slightly better, but not by much, and vice versa for Far Cry, if a developer would use that engine, as it also will be getting some SM3 support, it would be able to increase detail resolution and have more shaders and run much faster as with SM3 support it can do 4 light in 1 pass, as with only 1 light in 1 pass. But Crytek arent going for more detail, they are trying to increase frame rates, but as i was saying before, they could easily have good frame rates and increase detail and could possibly be on par with Doom 3's engine...
And also, CARMACK ONLY MADE THE GRAPHICS ENGINE!!!!!
He never made the sound, the gameplay, the physics, the story or anything like that except for the Engine.