Darkness_Falls

I proposed an idea in the early days of Dark Mod (mid-2000s or so) where if the statistics/stealth score screen showed that you had been discovered, it would let you see a short video replay of the event actually happening, or a freeze-frame image, of the moment. To make it work, as you play the level, if a guard spots you or a body that you should have hid better, then the game would capture the few seconds surrounding that moment, or a snapshot image, so you could watch it/look at it from the post-mission (and death/failure) stats screen to help see where you went wrong. (Because without context, it's hard to learn from your mistakes... or know, from the player's perspective, if the game is being realistic/truthful, etc. Plus, it'd just be cool to see those moments captured and shown to you in a way that doesn't interrupt or intrude with your gameplay while playing the mission. If implemented, I'd assume this replay video or image could be from the perspective of the guard, or the player, or the body, depending on the situation and what the consensus of the team was. For the UI, you'd be able to jump from one failed situation to the next as you review your failures. And, actually, since this is a video game, then instead of each failure being a non-interactive 2D video or image, I could see TDM capturing the moment in such a way that when you replay it from the stats screen, the replay/review would be in-engine, whereby you could manipulate the camera (swing or pan it around, zoom-in/-out, etc. in 3D space). From what I remember, this was, of course, a nice-to-have feature rather than a critical one... and was to be sidelined to maybe be implemented at a future time. I still think this would be a neat feature to have, if it's ever possible. At the time, I'd never seen any games do this sort of thing, and still haven't seen it since. Maybe there's some one-off games that have done it, but I sure haven't played them. Then again, stealth games ever since Thief I/II have such simplistic stealth mechanics and theme park ride/guided-tour situations, along with contextual music/sounds when you're spotted, that you always know when and where you're spotted and by who; so it hasn't been very needed, in general.

Voice acting is my #1 thing that I think could use improvement. Though, not an easy feat, I know

Thanks for the clarification, @JackFarmer!

That said, I think you should be able to mantle at least a small crate after shouldering a body

C:\Program Files\darkmod. I thought it was D:\ drive, but forgot darkmod went to C:\, unfortunately. That's my SSD drive. (I think I remember someone saying a while back I can just move it to D:\, but I didn't try yet.) Thanks! I only have one user profile on my PC that I know of. I do sometimes go "Right-mouse button > Run program as Administrator," even when installing software sometimes Are you saying I shouldn't do that? Years ago, that was a recommended thing to do for Win7 and/or WinXP stuff, so I do it out of habit whenever it crosses my mind. I wasn't sure if you were talking about that, or some other Admin thing

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For me it did. I got a new PC and thought it might be from that, but doubted it. Just did a forum search and found this thread instead. Indeed, ever since at least a few months ago, I have to crank the Brightness and Gamma to full values and it still seems pretty dark. TDM is now near-impossible to play in daytime or with lights on in room -- even half-dimmed ones. Actually, just tested now, and I do not feel Brightness/Gamma adjustments are changing anything at all; or if they are, it's incredibly minor. In years past, I remember the Gamma/Brightness settings were very sensitive... where going from 0.8 to, say, 1.2 on the slider was a drastic difference, IIRC. And you could get much brighter, I think. Now, it's not sensitive enough and you can't set brightness/gamma high enough. I'm not sure what changed in TDM, but am hoping to be able to Gamma/Brighten it up more someday. Also, the "Bloom" setting doesn't seem to work how I'd expect. Lights don't get a typical soft-glow and soft-edge like I'd expect. Instead, bloom mainly just bleaches out white canvas textures and such.

On the Download Missions page, when you go to your mission's full Description, there are a bunch of <\br> tags. Thought that might be a problem with how your description was written, as I checked a few different missions and didn't see the issue there? I tried to grab a screenshot, but somehow failed. (I think screenshots sometimes capture background TDM menus/pages instead of the active window.) And since I've already downloaded your mission, it's not on the Download Missions page for me anymore. Hopefully you can replicate

Nailed it. Wow, why would Win10 put a program game folder to Read Only?? So annoying, lol. And to not have the ability to simply click the Read Only mark in Properties to clear it away? Equally annoying. I went through your steps, though, and it works like a charm! The 'Read Only' mark still shows, but I'm able to save games I assume somewhere in the long list of other permission groups, one of them is on Read Only still, so that's why it insists on saying 'Read Only' still(?). Oh well. I think I now actually recall having a TDM permissions issue in Win10 months ago (maybe during initial install) and it was a similar resolution, lol. I'll have to try to remember Win10 likes locking users out of simple folders.

I haven't played for a while, but tried today. Played a bit, but noticed my save attempts weren't working. Can't do via QuickSave (F4/F5 for me) or hard save via the game's main menu. Console shows some errors like these (see image) Thoughts?

That's my understanding, as well, OrbWeaver. Thanks for breaking it down!

Oops, I started researching fire elementals and replying before noticing the elemental discussion above was from four years ago. Sooo, I'll just post anyways in case anyone else was curious: fire elementals now work! Below is a screenshot from JackFarmer's "Hidden Hands: Initiation" mission (2018). As well, SH wrote in 2017: "Hopefully grayman's new fire elemental will see some use." And in 2018, JackFarmer wrote: "Yes, I can confirm (...) These creatures are fully functional...and they shoot on sight!"

A new Thief first!

Not exactly true. "They didn't really care about copyright that much" is a pretty presumptuous statement. And, "If they didn't put any disclaimers in the metadata/properties of the file regarding who is the author, etc." assumes the composer of the music is some sort of professional who knew/knows how to do these things. TDM has/had some professionals working on it, sure; but some are/were amateurs, or with varying areas of expertise contributing in a variety of disciplines. "Most don't disclose their real name... this is equivalent to being anonymous" -- again, presumptuous. A composer using a pseudonym instead of their real name does not mean they want to sever all ties with their work, or are okay with the world using their creation however they want. There are plenty of artists (musicians, writers, actors, etc.) who don't use their real name. And when it comes to a game mod, maybe some artists just want some semblance of privacy; but if/when $$ enters the equation, or the loss of their work to someone else becomes possible, or their work might be used for something not agreed upon originally, of course they'd have a tendency to speak up. I'm 'case in point'. I contributed my audio to be used and re-used in the mod, within the mod, for free. I didn't authorize it or want it used for sale or re-sale, or for someone else to profit off of my work, or for use in other projects. That type of stuff is something I'd first want to be made aware of, to have a conversation about, and to have the opportunity to mull it over before deciding whether or not to allow. Had I not randomly stumbled upon this thread, I wouldn't have known one of my works was potentially being offered up for sale for non-Dark Mod usage, and someone else potentially being labeled the author. I still need to see what that 'underground_darkness' piece is; I may very well NOT be the composer, and probably am not; but I just want to make sure. But what if some composer other than Schatten did that piece or one of the others listed. Respectfully, the original composers may, similarly, want to know and weigh in; just as I would like to on my work. And *if* I didn't originally mention myself being the author in the metadata/properties of the original file -- or if that info didn't get transferred from my original file to the finalized file that someone else processed for eventual inclusion in the mod -- that's not me saying "I didn't really care about copyright that much." I just ask that you please don't try to speak for me or other artists, or put words in our mouths. You've been incorrect on every front so far when trying to represent my thoughts, my position, or my desires, I'm sorry to say. Just play it safe and don't assume the owners of the music files are who the file says it is, and don't assume the original artists think exactly like you do. Talk to the artists directly, which is what this thread aims to do and is what I wanted to make sure it does; which was the main reason for my initial post above. And if the original owner is not absolutely determinable and cannot be contacted for whatever reason, then don't use it. You know, this type of thing is why The Dark Mod is free and always has been; and why every instance of "you guys should sell TDM and profit from it" becomes a can of worms that eventually gets shut down. The original intent/spirit of the mod was not to sell it or the assets, and tracking down all the original owners who might lay claim to profits, and determining percent-outlays of cash, etc. would be a nightmare. In the end, it always seems to come back to the same mantra: "Leave the money out of it." It's the safest bet. In the case of the musical pieces, it might be the safer bet, as well.

I was looking to see if there was any new Thief news, and didn't find any. But I saw this documentary on Eidos Montréal getting a new studio. Didn't find it being posted here before so thought I'd share, in case anyone was curious to see. Seeing a lot of Deus Ex influence

Real-time ray-tracing is actually pretty cool, in practice. I played "Control" with an nVidia RTX2070 and I found it pretty incredible. It felt like it was the graphical feature I didn't know I was missing, lol. In one part of the game early on, I was sneaking around in a dimly-lit (after hours) office building. As I approached an office that was enclosed in glass walls, a perfect reflection of 'me' realistically appeared in the glass and it totally startled me. For a game like Thief, where lighting and environments play a big role... polished tiles, polished oak wood mansion set pieces, marble, rain-soaked stones, windows, etc. reflecting torchlight, fireplaces, characters, etc., in a realistic way, it could be an amazing thing; adding another layer/element to the environment and gameplay. My own reflection startling me?? That's a crazy potential gameplay element. One that may not work forever if you get used to it... but combined with other character reflections and moving set pieces being realistically reflected, you never know. Maybe you would never get used to it since it's so dynamic and environment-dependent. That's how I felt, anyways. I saw a ton of potential. You might have to experience real-time ray-tracing firsthand to fully understand/appreciate, though. PS: If it were ever to be in Thief or TDM, I'm in the camp that says we should not see Garrett's face. Sooo, his face would be hidden in the shadow of his hood in any mirror, window, or golden chalice he might reflect in. Caveat: I don't have a PS4 or XboxOne.... so, I've been a bit out-of-the-loop graphically-speaking up until recent. So, maybe it's not that great of leap for gamers who have been experiencing awesome graphics the past 5+ years.

Are you certain that reveals the actual author of the composition? Or might it just tell you who went through the process of finalizing the piece/file in some situations? I won't be able to see what you're seeing or hear these actual pieces until possibly later, but I think we'd want to be extra careful to make sure the actual authors are who it says they are. A few ambient files I contributed (mainly an ambient track and some machine sounds) were likely finalized by someone else (i.e., our audio lead at the time ... Schatten, I think?). Basically, someone who had access to different audio tools than me and/or different areas of expertise -- either for looping purposes, or getting the file(s) into the correct file format, or turning stereo audio into mono (or vice versa), etc. Things like that. Other audio creators were likely in the same boat as me regarding this. By just viewing the text titles of the above pieces, I'm pretty sure I didn't compose any of those. But seeing "darkness" in the title of one makes me wonder a little (I want to verify later), since one of mine was titled Darkness_Falls, or something to that effect (had the word 'darkness' in it) and I've heard it in at least two or three maps.

Awesome! Thank you, Freyk. Since TDM is on my C:\ drive (a small SSD drive), I'll just plan to uninstall it sometime and then get it over to my D:\ drive using your installer :)

Thanks! Somehow, TDM installed on my C:\ drive, which I didn't want because that's an SSD I wanted to reserve for the OS. I must have missed the option to install it where I wanted to (the D:\ drive); which I assume is possible. I'll re-install it to my D:\ drive someday and avoid that C:\ drive and "Program Files" OS-locked-down nonsense.

Wow. That is the issue! Come on, Windows 10; that's pretty bad. Thanks for the info! And after I disabled 'Read Only', I was able to start downloading missions. However, when I looked away during the download queue of about five missions, TDM crashed to Desktop at some point during the downloads. Now, when I look at the folder again, Win10 has set it back to 'Read-Only'. Nice. I'll have to try and troubleshoot more on a different day ? UPDATE: I re-set the settings today and was able to finally play. Thanks again. Will see if the settings stick after reboots. Maybe it was human error in terms of the settings not sticking last time

I got new PC with Win10. Installed TDM for the first time on it. When I try to download missions from in-game, though, I get message saying I can't connect to the server. Any thoughts? Has had this issue for a couple weeks now, so I don't think it's the servers? I will try to install missions via other sources rather than via in-game to see if that works. Most went well during TDM fresh installation a couple weeks ago, except for when it wanted to install some version of some Microsoft Redistributable near the end of the install process. I kept my existing Redistributable because mine was newer. Could that cause the issue? If so, is there a way to fix whilst keeping my existing (newer) version? UPDATE: I downloaded a couple .pk4 missions from elsewhere and put them in the 'fms' folder, where a few other folders already were, like 'stlucia' and 'trainingmission'... but when I try to install/play missions that are already on my PC, it doesn't show any missions in the list. Essentially, am unable to play TDM. Can't even start stlucia or trainingmission.

Stuck early, lol... PS: I wish there was a 'spoiler' tag icon among all the other icons when composing a reply. (If it's there, what does it look like?) I don't post here a lot, and I even more rarely need to use spoiler tags... so when I do need to, I can never remember if the spoiler tag is [ s ] or [ spoiler ] or some other tag. So, I try to go to advanced editing and check there, but that doesn't help much; and/or I have to preview post and make sure my attempt works.

Yes!! Very cool Yeah! I'm pretty sure the latest update did, indeed, say that if the stretch goal isn't met, they would cover the difference themselves to make sure the stretch benefits happen, regardless

Only 3 days left on the 'Firmament' Kickstarter campaign. Almost funded! $1,088,924 pledged of $1,285,000 goal. I think that's US dollars... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1252280491/firmament

I don't think I've ever interacted directly with BD much or at all through the years; so, from my perspective, he's always just been one of those names I see as a big Thief fan and big contributor in his own way to TDM. (Sorry BD if I'm just forgetting!... but I am not yet an official mapper, so I'm pretty sure we haven't really chatted much.) But what I'd like to say is that the 'Banned' label being in a vibrant red, bold font underneath his name on his posts now, seems a little harsh. For now, it might be an okay and appropriate font/label; that's not for me to say. However, will it be like that for a year? 5 years? 10 years+? I don't really believe in having that harsh bright red bold stigma tied to him or anyone, engraved in Internet stone, for so long. People can and do change. Sometimes there are personality conflicts that cause a ban in the first place. A whole multitude of reasons can cause disagreements and eventual moderator bans; even if the mod is wrong and the label recipient is right. Sometimes we don't know what the person has gone through or is going through in their personal life. (Though, I do know why BD was banned here, based on this thread and thread(s) before.) I would just hate for the vibrant scarlet letter 'banned' label under his name to follow him the rest of his life, and cause issues (or be a dark cloud) five or ten years from now in his personal life for something he learned from or changed his ways regarding, ya know? I think if it was just black font, or dark gray, that would be effective without it feeling so judge, jury, and executioner for life. It's just my opinion, though. I know he verbally asked for the status change, and his offenses were not well-received by the community; so take my opinion for what it's worth (The term 'Banned' has room for being eventually softened, imo, as well ... but I probably shouldn't go there right now.) I think this way for most anyone, really. And by me not really knowing BD, I speak from a perspective of not being biased when I say this. Carry on, friends!