Dinosorceror

Thank you so much, Springheel! It certainly does seem to be a case of a missing sound file reference, and the game having a default tone to play instead, and although I can see it being a useful development tool, sure was driving me batty! The link to the forum post that Destined found (again, very helpful, thank you!) actually didn't have the correct text of the line to change in darkmod.cfg to fix the issue (unless it changed in some revision). The link reported: The beep plays on missing sound files if s_playDefaultFile cvar is 1. ...but in reality, the line in darkmod.cfg to change is: seta s_playDefaultSound "0" It had been previously set to 1 on my install, and this was causing the default sound replacement tone. I made the change and tested Lords & Legacy and the tone is gone! Man, now I have to go through and try and find the dozen or more levels I've been avoiding. Thanks everyone...I only wish I had remembered to follow up sooner on my original post, because I'm so thankful for everyone's quick responses. I'm a huge Thief fan, and I've gone as far as watching some of Springheel's videos on level creation, because one of these days I want to pay everyone back by contributing some content, and this is just even more motivation to do so.

I'd especially be interested in hearing more detailed instructions from Dead Rat, as he seems to have had the exact same problem and successfully solved it. I just wasn't able to follow the instructions, I think I need a little more detail. I know what the name of the light is that makes the sound, but don't know how to find that in the Sound Editor screen. The instructions mentioned something about left-clicking on the light in the game window, but most times I try that, the game just freezes when I try to get close to the yellow box and then just left click.

Well, I was thinking that may be the case, as when I'm in that editSounds screen, a lot of the entries under it play a tone that sounds a lot like the constant tone emitted from the troublesome lights. I'm attaching a picture of the screenshot of one of the many lights in "Lords & Legacy" that emits the tone, and also a link to a video capture of me in the Sound Editor, clicking on the various sounds in the one section that play the tone. You can also hear the constant tone of the lights/biground1_streetlamp_4fold_snd lamp in the background, underneath my clicking the sections, as the game is running. This really leads me to believe my install is missing base package sound files that a lot of these levels that have electric lights in them may be referring to. As a way to test, is there way for me to place dummy sound files in a location inside the level's folder, or inside my base install, to see if I can get them to show up? Again, still not really familiar with how the innards of Dark Mod works at all, but willing to put in more effort to get this resolved! DM didn't always have this problem, but couldn't say at what point (OS or DM upgrade) it started happening. http://download.lavadomefive.com/dmsoundeditor.mp4

Hate to be a pest, but I'm still having the issue with the sounds...afraid I don't have any experience with the editors in Dark Mod. I have used editSounds and noclip to find the source of one of the sounds in the latest mission I'd like to play, "Lords and Legacy", and the yellow box identifies the light as: lights/biground1_streetlamp_4fold_snd I can't seem to find in the sound editor dialogue where that entry is...any help? To take the issue back to the source, am I right in thinking that the reason I hear the tones for certain lights in the game is that the sound files are missing from my install, so it's playing that awful howling default tone? If so, instead of trying to fix every instance of missing sound files, is there a way to tell Dark Mod to simply play no sound when there's a missing sound? I understand the value of having an annoying placeholder for a sound that's missing to alert developers, but it would be nice to be able to disable that. Is there a reason these sound files are missing? Is there a way I can find where these files are and replace them? Just trying to wrap my head around a problem that I guess hasn't gotten a lot of attention since not a lot of folks care about EAX or have EAX-capable sound cards anymore, but I'd be willing to put in a little bit more effort if someone can point me in the right direction. Thanks!

Hello, everyone! I've done some searches in the forums, and looked in the troubleshooting on the wiki, but there's a problem that's been in Dark Mod for the past version or two that's now prevalent enough for me to log in and report. Not sure if it's an issue with the Dark Mod itself or just one model of light that someone developed and is using in more and more missions, but it's driving me nuts. In several missions, electric lights are used and the tone the game has them emanate...well, I'm supposing it's supposed to be a soft hum, but instead it's a piercingly loud sine wave kind of tone, like you'd hear if you were taking a hearing aid test. It's literally deafening compared to the sounds in the rest of the game, and as more and more levels use this light, it's really cutting down on the levels I want to play. Since no other users seem to be reporting this, I'm wondering if it's because of my particular audio configuration. I am using EAX (through Creative ALchemy) on Windows 10 on a current Sound Blaster card, so I'm wondering if somehow the EAX processing is making the sound so damn loud. The latest mission that seems to have this sound is "In The Black." I'm including a screenshot of one of the lamps in question. This one is in kind of an odd spot on an internal balcony railing, and I can hear it buzzing from well down the hall in another room. There are other rooms that have several of these lamps as well. Is there any kind of tweaking I can do in the .pk4 files to silence this model of lamp until the issue is resolved? I really want to be able to play these missions without being deafened. I'm up for any kind of troubleshooting, or if you'd like me to make a recording from a USB mic of how loud the tone is compared to other sounds in the game to hear exactly what I'm experiencing.

Thank you all for your help! I got it working! First, to Xarg: maybe I should have been clearer in my first post, but I did have sound OK to start with. It's just that the sound died when it went back to the main menu. Oh, and another thing I noticed: from previous experience, I did notice that the mission loaded *insanely* fast, and...I just thought it was the new rig. Like, in just a few seconds. Once I tried Springheel's advice, and simply turned EAX off, the mission was loading more in the range of 30 seconds or so, and I was like, "I have a good feeling about this...!" And sure enough, was dropped into the mission just fine! I think here was the new issue with the new system: in my previous rig, I had a real Sound Blaster card installed, with the usual Creative drivers and OpenAL and Creative ALchemy to provide EAX support for older games. On the new rig, I decided for the first time to just try using the built-in sound, as it came "enhanced" with the Creative X-Fi 3 MB, which I'm assuming just enhances the motherboard's sound via software to do all the stuff the normal Creative Labs cards do. And yes, it does have OpenAL and ALchemy, and it was working fairly well for the older Thief games (which is the only reason I care about EAX ), but...I'm guessing it has an issue with Dark Mod. Disabling the EAX, as Springheel suggested, seemed to fix it right up. I figured I'd take the time to make a more verbose resolution post, in case anyone else is having issues with Dark Mod crashing and a Google might hit this post. If you're new to Dark Mod and you think that a 5 second level load time is normal -- well, it's not. Try turning off that EAX! I may actually put in the old sound card, but...I think for now I'll try to get what's there working. Maybe if they update the drivers or software, I'll be able to turn EAX on again. Once again, I find The Dark Mod community to be...like, pretty much the best and most responsive and helpful gaming...no, just community community out there. I want SO BAD to take some time and make some content for it! I know I keep promising, but one of these days (especially with that contest) I'ma-gonna-do-it! Thanks again, guys!

Hi there, all! I've been enjoying The Dark Mod for years now, and finally got myself a brand spanking new computer system, pretty high end stuff. I had been using Windows 8 on the last rig and I had gotten TDM to run, but now I'm having problems. I've done the usual things, of running it as administrator and making sure it has write access to the directory, but whenever I try to play a mission, like St. Lucia, it goes through the intro, lets me pick equipment, starts to load and shows progress, then just drops me back to the main menu -- with no sound. I've got a geForce 780 Ti video card now, and I can get other games to do 3D just fine -- not sure if I've gotten any other OpenGL game to work yet, though. Also, sometimes it drops me back to the main menu, with no sound, and kills my mouse's ability to move. I need to sleep/wake up or reboot to get it back. Keyboard stays fine. I've pulled up the console, and here's the last few lines of the console that I see when it drops me back to the main menu: removed 2 degenerate triangles removed 16 degenerate triangles removed 10 degenerate triangles --------- Game Map Shutdown ---------- WARNING:Door atdm_mover_door_2 is not within a valid AAS area ModelGenerator memory: No LOD entries. --------- Game Map Shutdown done ----- ERROR:idSoundCache Load: error 40963 loading data into OpenAL hardware buffer -------------------------------------- WARNING:idSession: triggering mainmenu watchdog I'm going to guess that I've gotta install some more runtimes to get it working. Anyone have any clues? Oh, and the install directory is C:\Games\darkmod, so no issues with spaces, and I'm running 2.01 so it supposedly fixed the bug where I needed to run it as c:\darkmod...

Well, this has been an interesting discussion, back to work, etc. yes. But...I will say, I am going to do my best not to re-neg on my promise to make a level in Mr. Russell's honor and "pay back the project in time." In much the same way that "Fifty Shades" was set in the Twilight universe with copypasta to avoid copyright infringement, I am going to try and develop a level entitled "For Old Time's Sake" and have it be a denouement to the series. I was thinking at work today of a story with references to Thief II's opening mission: It's after the fall of everything, and you've done your best to retire as a thief, because all it seems to do is get you involved in political intrigue with the wrong types of people. You've got enough from the Watchers' storerooms to live like a king for the rest of your days. As far as the City is concerned, you were killed in the events leading to the downfall of the Watchers. It's five years later, and Lady Oppenheimer's son Markus is claiming that after holding his silence for years to prevent retribution, he was the one to bring the master thief down beneath his own blade, and he had the blackjack taken off your corpse to prove it. You had helped a friend of yours, Larry the Lightfingered, get his bride-to-be out of servitude to Lady Oppenheimer years back, and when Larry, one of the few people you still even alive to keep in touch with from the old days, tells you of Markus' boast, Larry helps you into Markus' stronghold to set the record straight and ensure your legend lives on. Just like old times... Markus' stronghold slash museum is the most secure facility ever constructed in the City, and if you were to clean it out, there'd be no doubt as to who was responsible. In fact, you plan to leave Markus' unconscious body draped across the pedestal where he showcased your supposed blackjack, with a nice note...and with a Watcher insignia you kept as a memento. Those Oppenheimers, they never learn...

Wow, it hasn't even been a full day, and these are just awesome responses, especially from key players...I'm actually kind of overwhelmed! Great constructive responses too. To address a few...obviously it wouldn't be Garrett, just like The Dark Mod is not Thief 4 and tries to be "[eerily similar], but [...] legally distinct" (as Futurama put it once) from the Thief universe. And I won't go into Thi4f bashing, but I do have quite a few negative opinions about the new one, and my impulse in my original message was just as much a "fuck you" to Eidos as it was standing up for the iconic voice of the character. That man can act, and the diversity...Garrett, Bennie and Karras? That's just awesome. I'm no professional critic, but I really enjoy superb voice acting, and there's only a handful of people I know who I'd use the term 'superb' with, and he's one of them. I think the points about compensation, logistics, "just a copy" of Garrett are all valid. And I have to admit, my keeping up with this community amounted to (1) hearing about Dark Mod, (2) downloading Dark Mod and 3) seeing if a new version was out , I'm excited to hear so much active development and "light at the end of the tunnel" talk. However, I think the best counter-suggestion I heard so far is something along the lines of at least saying a "Thank you!" to Mr. Russell by asking him to do a single mission. Maybe call it "For Old Time's Sake." Just as with The Dark Mod, you're not saying it's Garrett, it's not him by name, and it's not a ripoff -- it's a tip of the hat to the guy who we feel got a bad deal from Eidos for...heck, they may even be valid reasons, but _we_ think he was a critical component in the mythos. And I would like to think that Mr. Russell is a nice guy and would appreciate the sentiment and wouldn't need payment for some lines he'd just record at home, but money does speak louder than words in some cases, a PayPal bouquet of bills is an awful nice thanks, too, or as was also suggested, donated to a charity of his choosing in his honor. I mean...c'mon. This whole thing is just...a really bad taste in the mouth, and...well, I'd just like Mr. Russell to know that there's a bunch of people who don't think it's Garrett without him. Finally, the point about donating effort and time...man, I have to say, you guys make it sound easy. I think I will be inspired to try and create some mission content for The Dark Mod as a result of this thread. ...maybe "For Old Time's Sake."

Okay, I'm not much of a forum poster. Heck, I run a few, and I hardly post! But I do feel guilty that I haven't posted to thank everyone for all their hard work on The Dark Mod. I loved playing all the current content, and...let's just say I already liked it a ton, but fell in love with it when I first saw a guard relight a torch. Damn. But to keep this post on topic, I read something very disturbing in The Escapist yesterday: http://www.escapistm...Actor-For-Thief Not only is the new Thief game looking like some kind of alternate universe reboot that just takes elements from the old games and mashes them into something new, but now we find out they got some BS reason for not hiring Stephen Russell to do voice acting for it -- he needs to do his voice acting during motion capture, so he needs to be able to do his own stunts. As if Tom Cruise can't have a stuntman in his movies or CG because it "just wouldn't be real enough?" C'mon. We all know that Mr. Russell is a very, very large part of why we loved the original series. Even in the lackluster third entry, it was his presence that made that game acceptable and welcomed. The Escapist article has a link to a petition someone started to bring him back, but I say the heck with that. That new Thief reboot is looking more and more like a lackluster lost cause. Er...however, I know that some folks here actually work in the games industry. In signing up for the forum, I noticed a comment about a contributor here doing a level in Dishonored -- also a very Thief-y game I enjoyed. And maybe I don't necessarily want to take a dump on the new Thief reboot, especially if people who are "just doing what they can" from here may be working on it, but... ...c'mon. We all loved Thief in a large part due to Stephen's awesome acting. Can we get a Kickstarter going to not only finish up the stand-alone implementation of The Dark Mod, and finish up the mission storyline being developed, but also hire Stephen Russell to do voice acting for it, too? ...pretty please?