A new era in accurate AI Vision!

When id Software released the Doom 3 modding SDK, The Dark Mod team saw the potential for something more than a multi-player cops vs robbers game like Thievery UT. The sheer amount of access to essential game-play systems meant that a true Thief style experience could potentially be created. One of the first things the team did was to investigate how a light-gem system could be implemented. Having a good way for both the player and AI to know when the player is visible to others is a crucial part of the Thief experience so if we couldn’t build it then the dream of a Thief style experience was over. Fortunately, there were enough parts of the AI visual logic and more than a few stub pieces of the Render code that gave us the ability to build a robust system.

The downside of the light-gem system was performance. Even though we did our best to limit the viewport and resolution of the light-gem image captures, often the light-gem would cut FPS in half ( or less ). This was pretty painful, especially since most computers could just barely run vanilla Doom 3 at acceptable FPS. After this system was fully functional, other aspects of AI vision were investigated. Obviously, we could not afford to run the light-gem render for every object or body the AI might see so it was decided that the AI would do a more simplified light-gem calculation for things other than the player. This meant that ( to the AI visual scan ) all light volumes would be either cubes or pyramids with perfect exponential falloff. We would run a line-of-sight check to the objects then ( if it hit ) calculate the pixel brightness by the location of the spot in relation to the center of the light(s). This was far cheaper than rendering the whole scene but heavily impacted accuracy. Many solutions were proposed to improve things but a solution evaded us for years.

2.13 changes things! Now we have a "stochastic sampler" model that does regular measurements of the actual light volume pixels and builds a "running average" of how illuminated different entities are. The days of seeing knocked-out AI in the middle of a bright spotlight get ignored are over. Now all AI and loot entities (etc) essentially have their own light-gem and it performs excellently!

Magnificent Mission Management!

Daft Mugi has drastically improved the GUI menus for mission management. The Dark Mod mission list and in-game downloader now have a search filter window that follows modern conventions of reducing the listed items as each new letter eliminates a possible matching mission name. Both lists can be sorted by actual name ( The Rats Triumphant ) or Chicago Style ( Rats Triumphant, The ). Additional mission details ( readme data ) can now be scrolled so players can see more information about the mission without having to navigate to the darkmod/fms folders. The menus have also been tuned with smaller font sizes for more practical mission listing and have been hardened against buggy order of operations issues so that you will be far less likely to encounter strange issues or crashes when downloading and installing missions.

Parallax Occlusion Mapping!

Stgatilov has added the oft requested POM feature to the latest Dark Mod release! WellingtonCrab has coordinated with him to provide examples and check the functionality and quality. Now The Dark Mod is ready to offer a quantum leap in perceived geometric detail with all sorts of surfaces realistically showing 3D parallax rather than the flatter looking normal maps we usually offer. WellingtonCrab also created many texture variants that are tuned to look better with POM enabled.

Other Graphics Goodies!

Now cubemaps \ environment maps respect more stage keywords. This means that faked reflections on water shaders can now move in relation to the water texture movement offering a more convincing illusion! Subviews ( cameras, portals, mirrors, xray, etc ) can now be nested. You can now have a skybox render in a camera view, etc. Volumetric lights and particles now render in mirrors! Alpha-tested surfaces get alpha shadows in Shadow Maps mode. Tone-mapping now supports range compression to prevent unwanted overbright areas. Arcturus has introduced some new metal materials that use improved cubemaps as well as skyboxes with clouds that use POM!

Stability and Performance!

The console variable system ( CVAR ) has been improved to be thread safe. This should resolve some rare crashes that involve weapon scripts that rely on CVAR values. We now automatically detect the number of CPU cores and allocate Jobs based on the detected specifications. Level loading has been given more parallel execution optimizations including optimizations for loading audio samples in parallel. Uncapped FPS is enabled by default so Linux players will not have a poor first time experience and many audio and video playback timing bugs that occur only in classic capped mode are avoided. Finally, Linux vsync support has been greatly improved.

Improved Training Mission!

The Training Mission is supposed to help players understand the basics of Dark Mod game-play and controls. It was created to coincide with The Dark Mod v1.0 and was not significantly altered until TDM v1.08 ( when Bikerdude did some texture replacement for 2.0 standalone and improved the overall visuals ). As such, many new game-play features that were added since 1.0 were never included in the mission. Now the mission has been upgraded to include more game-play features such as the Vine Arrow as well as getting further visual upgrades and EFX Reverb!

Drunken AI!

Now that the AI have better visual accuracy, Amadeus decided to balance things out by fixing many of the broken behaviors of Drunken AI so that they are more reliable and consistent for use in missions by default ( no need to extensively customize the defs or use scripting to improve them ).

Potions!

Dragofer and Amadeus have completed the work on the Slowfall potion originally prototyped by VanishedOne. They also incorporated the invisibility potion by Kingsal ! These now have pre-defined slots in the gameplay menu as well as the default shop menu design.

Assets Galore!

Along with new POM textures, we now have:
A new modular pipe set
A new Lampion entity
Some new Factory Machine entities
Ornate wood and stone relief textures
A new AI praying animation
A new AI smoking animation
And many fixes or improvements to existing assets

EFX Reverb Location Preset!

Frost_Salamander took some time away from his continued work on the excellent “The Lieutenant” series missions to make EFX reverb setup easier for himself and other mission authors. You can now add EFX preset spawnargs to location entities rather than having to use the EFX def file.

Translation Packs!

Between TDM 1.06 and 2.0 Tels and the translating community started translating many missions but these translations required that the original mission be altered in a way that made it harder for the mission authors to revise. That meant that translation packs were in limbo being hosted by 3rd party sites \ forums along with their orphaned old missions. The translators over at the Darkfate forums came up with an solution by including not only the translation strings in the translation pack but also the altered map files, GUI defs, etc that had translation work done to them. This would leave the original mission untouched but allow translation packs to override some parts. We have gone through the old archives of these translations and have reworked them to work with the latest version of TDM (and the associated missions). Most of the translations are Russian ( due to the continued work of the Darkfate people ) but many of the early TDM missions also have German, Italian, French, etc translations too.

Also Nolok contributed a brand new Catalan menu translation!

Subtitles!

Datiswous has been creating story subtitles for many of the existing missions in the TDM mission database. Most authors have incorporated these into their official releases, otherwise players can still add them to the FM folder.

A detailed list of changes can be seen here:

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=What's_new_in_TDM_2.13

To UPDATE, simply run the tdm_installer.exe file in your darkmod folder.

Note that tdm_update.exe is no longer supported, but you can download the new installer from the Downloads page if you don’t have it yet. Please be aware that old saved games will not be compatible with 2.13, so finish any missions you might be in the middle of first! 

Also, some missions created prior to 2.13 may need to be updated so they will be playable in 2.13.

Before upgrading, set TDM to use one of the built-in missions ( Training Mission, A New Job, Tears of St Lucia ) then

use the in-game mission downloader to check for updates

The Dark Mod 2.12 !

The 2.12 development cycle introduced many large code overhaul projects. Most of these were to lay the groundwork for future fixes and optimizations. The final release is yet another leap in performance over the already impressive 2.10 and 2.11 releases.

A full changelog can be viewed here, but some highlights include:

The Dark Mod 2.12 is a major step forward for mission designers!

The culling system has been extensively overhauled to ensure that your CPU and GPU are not wasting resources rendering unseen geometry, lights, and shadows. Some of our best map optimization experts have achieved similar performance gains to what this new culling system does but it is a rare skill and we have even managed to improve performance on missions that were generally regarded as “well optimized”. Mission authors both new and old can follow standard mapping practices with no need to dive deep into sophisticated optimization techniques even for some pretty challenging scenarios such as wide open areas and long views. Players will immediately notice many missions that have made their system struggle with FPS now may be running much more smoothly!

Smoother controls for players!

Also during the 2.12 development cycle, work has been done to make controls more seamless and accessible. Frob can now use hold or click actions to use items. Once you get used to the mechanic, it will be hard to go back to using a separate “use key”. Mantling is now smoother, faster, and less prone to cause the player to clip through geometry. Leaning is now more subtle and less prone to cause motion sickness. To reduce the tedium of shuffling knocked out AI around to search for loot, you can now configure TDM to automatically loot any frobbed AI.

A special thanks must go out to community member Geep!

Over the course of 2.12 development, Geep has created subtitles for nearly all AI barks along with developing testing tools and procedures for this gargantuan task! You can see these changes in action by changing the Subtitles setting to “On” ( rather than “Story” ) on the Audio settings page.
Geep also provided substantial feedback for our GUI and subtitle design process and edited font data to improve text quality overall.

Datiswous has complimented the massive work by Geep to create AI bark subtitles by creating mission story subtitles for a large number of missions. Thank you!

Turrets are now natively supported in The Dark Mod and can be paired with Security Cameras!

Finally, the nasty 2.11 bug that caused AI to allow arrows to pass through them at certain angles was fixed by Joebarnin! Your assassin style play-throughs should be far less frustrating.

See also, our 2.12 Feature discussions:

To UPDATE, simply run the tdm_installer.exe file in your darkmod folder.

Note that tdm_update.exe is no longer supported, but you can download the new installer from the Downloads page if you don’t have it yet.

Please be aware that old saved games will not be compatible with 2.12, so finish any missions you might be in the middle of first!

Also, some missions created prior to 2.12 may need to be updated so they will be playable in 2.12. Use the in-game mission downloader to check for updates.

The Dark Mod 2.11 !

The Dark Mod 2.11 is primarily a bug-fix release. The majority of development time was dedicated to fixing or improving long-standing bugs or problem areas with the project rather than focusing on new features.

That said, some of the improvements that were introduced to address these issues could very well be classified as new features in terms of the amount of changes required to bring them to life.

A full changelog can be viewed here, but some highlights include:

Major gameplay improvements!

For players, Stealth Score and AI alert behavior has been improved to better detect tactile contact with AI and proximity.
An older TDM release introduced a grace period feature that was overly broad and made some AI ignore players that were right in front of them. This has been substantially improved so stealth scoring and AI reactions should be a lot more consistent and logical.

Players will also have a new Blackjack experience with better cues about whether a blackjack attack will succeed and improvements to the way that the blackjack attack is executed.

Players can more smoothly transition from climbing as the player is now permitted to be crouched during the climb.

There is a new multi-loot feature which allows you to pickup multiple loot pieces by holding down the frob button!

Performance Improvements!

The new volumetric light feature has been improved via a new blur phase. This means that you no longer need to increase the samples to reduce or remove banding and performance should be substantially improved.

Before 2.10 ( dithering and low sample count):

After 2.11 ( blurred and higher default sample count )  :

Soft Shadows now utilize scissors and tile-based evaluation in stencil mode so that Anti-Aliasing no longer need be applied to the entire shadow buffer.

Shadow Maps have improved mipmap, LOD and texel utilization. There should be fewer artifacts and better performance.

Large models are now evaluated via a BVH structure so that they can be split for lighting and culling optimizations.

AI think cycles have been optimized and perform less work per-frame.

GLSL programs have been rewritten to have better performance on AMD graphic cards.

Included mission improvements!

Mission 1: A New Job now features subtitles!

Mission 2: Tears of Saint Lucia has been improved with EFX reverb and a few bug fixes!

Asset fixes and additions!

Dragofer has fixed hundreds of assets that were missing setup definitions or other components that would cause the console to flood with errors on TDM launch or on the launch of missions. In addition, he has added hundreds of new and old assets from both TDM team members and members of the TDM community.

Improvements for Mappers!

The Engine now supports Obj model format

Material Shaders no longer require you to add frob stages. Frob is now auto-generated. You can still add custom frob effects to materials if preferred

Missions can now include decls that override those in the core TDM without using an override file to replace the entire core file.

GUI scripting has been overhauled with better syntax and error reporting

Dmap precision has been increased and Dmap T-junction performance has been optimized

Please see our Moddb article for the full developer blog entry:

https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/the-dark-mod-211-is-here

To update, simply run the tdm_installer.exe file in your darkmod folder. Note that tdm_update.exe is no longer supported, but you can download the new installer from the Downloads page if you don't have it yet.

Please be aware that old saved games will not be compatible with 2.11, so finish any missions you might be in the middle of first!

The Dark Mod 2.10 comes with considerable improvements to loading times as well as a slew of new visual and gameplay features for mappers to experiment with, such as volumetric lighting ("god rays") and more advanced security cameras!

Many of these new features are prominently on display in the six new missions released for the 2.10 Connections Contest that are now officially available in the mission downloader!

A full changelog can be viewed here, but some highlights include:

PLAYERS

Loading Times
Considerable effort has gone into streamlining how textures are loaded, making more effective use of multiple CPU cores, and removing artificial delays. This even includes new handwritten algorithms for normalmap compression and mipmap generation so that TDM no longer relies on graphics card drivers.

Performance Improvements
As part of ongoing performance improvements, soft stencil shadows with anti-alising will be faster to render.

Object Handling
Afraid to grab a candle near a sleeping guard? Handling objects will now produce less noise, or none at all if holding down the "creep" button. You can also now control how far an item is thrown based on how long you hold down the "throw" button. Lastly, dragging unconscious bodies should feel better now (even if rats did their best to spoil the fun a little).

Main Menu Interactions
Tooltips have been added for many of the items found in the settings menu: a long-awaited feature! We've also reorganized the procedure for switching between missions to make it more intuitive for newcomers.

Window / Input Changes
The Linux build now relies on the GLFW library to create windows and handle the keyboard & mouse (thread), eliminating many of the issues with OS integration on Linux.
On the Windows side, some minor changes were made to fullscreen/borderless modes.

MAPPERS

Entity limit is no more!
What was once the bane of TDM's most ambitious mappers, the entity limit has now been raised eight-fold to 65,536. No longer will mappers need to spend long hours merging entities.

Compilation Times
To complement the faster loading times, compilation times have been brought down too. Optimizations were made all over the dmap code, adding new algorithms and data structures to improve both speed and precision.

Advanced Security Cameras
Security cameras have been reworked from the ground up with the aim of bringing them to the same level of polish as TDM's AIs, both in stealth gameplay and customizability. Most importantly, security cameras in new FMs will track the player or AIs and react to bodies. Wiki

Volumetric Lights ("God Rays")
Unlike adding fake translucent geometry around lights, volumetric lights automatically match their source light, including light volume geometry, projection & falloff textures, and even shadows. Note that shadowcasting currently only works in "shadow maps" mode.
Wiki

Xray Screens
Xrays are a Doom 3 feature that has been reintroduced to TDM and developed further. The screens are able to change the appearance of entities seen through them, even making them appear or disappear if desired. Look out for them in future Inventor's Guild or magical-themed FMs. Wiki

Subtitles
Subtitles can now be assigned to sound files and have been added to the pre-bundled mission "Tears of St. Lucia". Note that we did not consider localization of subtitles yet. Wiki

Tracking Secrets
Secrets are now easy to designate, with no custom scripts required. They'll also be shown on the mission statistics screen at the end of the mission if the FM uses the new system. Wiki

Main Menu GUI Customisation
Mappers can change much of the main menu from a single purpose-built "customisation" .gui file instead of having to replace core files. You can find more details in guis/mainmenu_custom_defs.gui inside tdm_gui01.pk4.
Since several missions had to be updated to this new system, their customisations will no longer work in 2.09 or earlier versions.

Location Diagnostics During dmap
Location overlaps should now be much easier to find and fix thanks to new console output and pointfiles created during compilation.

Image Formats
As a compact alternative to TGA for uncompressed images, PNG images can now be used in materials. Note that loading PNG images may be slower than TGA.
DDS images can now be used in image programs, although doing so is discouraged because of the additional quality loss due to compression.

New Script Events
The mapper's scripting repertoire has been expanded by new script events for dealing with vectors and bounds, setting solidity, detecting surface type via trace, and reading more properties about entities and the player, such as "notarget" or the calibrated light gem value.

ASSETS

Fancy Wooden Furniture
A whole new suite of fancy wooden furniture pieces including prefabs has been contributed by Wellingtoncrab. They can be viewed in the release thread.

Automaton AI
The semi-robotic AIs from Sotha's Ulysses mission have been added to the core mod, together with new prefabs for cosmetic recharging stations to include in patrol routes as well as a camera screen showing what the automaton sees.

PROGRAMMING

Tracy Profiling
TDM's rudimentary GL profiling has been replaced with the Tracy profiler, which has its own cool viewer. It has already greatly helped the TDM development team in their optimization efforts.

Mission Database
The mission database has been moved to an SVN repository which automatically synchronizes all mirrors and makes backup copies of old versions of missions.

More Technical Stuff
A generic hash table has been added. "Clear" in the idlib method now works as most programmers expect and unit test integration has been improved.

To update, simply run the tdm_installer.exe file in your darkmod folder. Note that tdm_update.exe is no longer supported, but you can download the new installer from the Downloads page if you don't have it yet.
Please be aware that old saved games will not be compatible with 2.10, so finish any missions you might be in the middle of first!

https://www.thedarkmod.com/posts/the-dark-mod-2-09-has-been-released/

TDM 2.09 marks a new phase of performance improvements aimed lowering CPU overhead in the graphics engine.

A whole new graphic backend has been created by Cabalistic which uses modern OpenGL features to eliminate the need for the CPU to constantly issue commands to allow the Graphic Processor to render scenes.

This gives TDM some of the performance advantages of rendering using a low level API like Vulkan.

Stgatilov has been very busy this release cycle. He has put heroic efforts into improving the way that TDM upgrades and hosting operate in addition to the vast improvements to TDM itself. (He also refactored the entire particle engine and created a link system to connect TDM to Dark Radiant.)

A full changelog can be viewed here, but some highlights include:

Better performance:

A brand new Backend that uses UBO, Persistent Mapping, Bindless textures, and Multi-Draw has been added.

“Frontend Acceleration” (Multi-Core job based rendering based on Doom 3 BFG) now works as expected.

Normal Map compression now uses RGTC resulting in lower storage, VRAM requirements, and less artifacts ( load times should improve in future TDM versions when pre-compressed RGTC textures are added )

Background texture loading has improved. This should shorten load times and reload.

Better visuals:

A new Sharpening Filter has been added. It can make 70% Render Scale look almost like native resolution (more performance).

( It also cleans up some blurry textures for all Render Scales. )

Bumpmap lighting is smoother, so that lighting does not instantly flip to off when getting close to edges of occluded objects.

Particle physics have been substantially improved for both accuracy and performance.

Borderless Fullscreen works properly on Windows.

Water and other GUI effects that did not respond to Gamma now brighten properly.

AMD and Intel fixes have been added for SSAO rendering

Better gameplay:

Experimental Gamepad support has been added.

Creep works in alway-run mode

Better mapping:

A new linking system allows The Dark Mod to act as a real-time preview of Dark Radiant

The redesigned particles now have improved setup and configuration.

Automated fixes have been created for “rotation hacked” models

Prefabs have been seen numerous fixes and reorganization to make them easier to use

Better Sound:

Conversation and other sounds are no longer stopped by saving or going to main menu.

EFX reverb has been added to “Mission 1: A New Job”

Extinguished gas lamps are no longer noisy when doused

New Assets:

Dragofer, LDAsh, Kingsal, Bikerdude, Dram have all added substantial asset updates ranging from updated Werebeast animations, animation of the steam engine, fireflies and new furniture.

More stable:

A huge number of fragile code areas have been overhauled to either fix crashes or prevent likely crashes due to risk of divide by zero, uninitialized values, or dangling pointers (leftover settings) on entities and functions.

We recommend that you upgrade using the new “tdm_installer” available here. Please be aware that old saved games will not be compatible with 2.09, so finish any missions you might be in the middle of first!

TDM 2.08 Released!

We are proud to announce the release of The Dark Mod 2.08! 

Long in development, many fixes related to Multi-Core, Uncapped FPS, and the 64-bit migration are now available. TDM 2.08 goes further with the process to modernize coding standards in TDM, replacing legacy OpenGL functions and ARB Assembly shaders with modern techniques. 

Mappers will be pleased to see many new quality assets as well as enhancements to rain, fog, skylight, AIs and visportal diagnostics.

For the eye-candy crowd, new Bloom, 64-bit color mode, and SSAO options have been added!

For Linux users, the project can now be compiled via CMake.

A full changelog can be viewed here, but some highlights include:

Better Visuals: Cabalistic has finally added the much requested SSAO feature to TDM. Using a method called Scalable Ambient Obscurance, now areas with flat ambient lighting come alive with new detail! He’s also implemented a new Bloom method, and brightness and gamma will no longer interfere with desktop brightness.

Better AI: Grayman has refined the AI yet again, for instance ensuring that sitting and lying aren't thwarted by obstacles.

Better Gameplay: The player’s ability to move and interact with the environment has been improved thanks to fixes to mantling as well as climbing ropes and ladders. Ragdolls are easier to handle and shouldering them is accompanied by an animation.

Better Mapping: The mapper’s toolkit has seen several enhancements. A new X-ray surface and new spectrum spawnargs modify how objects are perceived. Rain is much less taxing and uses static collision detection to limit its fall. New visportal diagnostics make it easier than ever to track down notorious internal leaks.

Better Performance: The dev team has as always been hard at work making improvements to performance and laying the groundwork for even more improvements in the future. Multi-Core’s stability has been enhanced and is no longer listed as an “Experimental” setting.

New Assets: Many quality textures and models were added by both Team members and community contributors. Especially of note is the inclusion of Kingsal’s manbeasts and Springheel’s new zombies, and expect to catch glimpses of the werebeast. If you are a mission author, please take a look here.

New Sounds: The player’s movement is now accompanied by new sounds when mantling, swimming and sliding down ropes and ladders.

To update, simply run the tdm_update.exe file in your darkmod folder. Please be aware that old saved games will not be compatible with 2.08, so finish any missions you might be in the middle of first!

In addition to greater stability, there are a few new gameplay features, including a new frob helper that can be turned on in the Gameplay menu.

Mantling low and medium-sized obstacles is now faster and smoother, and further mantling improvements are already in the works for the next update.

There are a few new assets included in the update, including some new architectural module pieces, new chain models, and several trap prefabs (along with videos on how to set them up).

For a longer list of changes and additions, see the 2.07 wiki page, or the full changelog.

To update to this version, simply run tdm_update.exe in your darkmod folder.

edit: Nbohr has posted a lengthy, illustrated description of the changes here: https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/the-dark-mod-207-stability-release

The Dark Mod has undergone a lot of reorganization under the hood. A substantial amount of work was done to improve rendering performance and overall framework tech. Legacy OpenGL methods have been replaced with their equivalents in modern OpenGL. This is also the first TDM release to offer a native 64-bit build.

A full changelog can be viewed here, but some highlights include:

Better Visuals: Duzenko and Stgatilov have implemented a Soft Shadows option that finally removes the sharp edges of TDM shadows. This has a huge impact on the visuals of TDM missions. This option is currently labelled “Experimental” in the menu as we have had reports of issues on certain hardware. See here if you are experiencing flickering or other problems.

Better Sound: EFX audio now allows users without Creative hardware to enable EAX in the menu—a feature that processes reverb data and changes sounds based on the surrounding environment. Currently, only a few maps, like Volta 2: Cauldron of the Gods, by Kingsal, are set up to use EAX effects, but since all users can now benefit from it, mappers are encouraged to use this feature going forward. Interested mappers should see here.

Better Menus: The TDM menus have also been given a visual update, boosting the resolution and adjusting the graphics for widescreen monitors. Durandall has added scrollbar functionality to the mission menus, and Obsttorte has implemented a new menu option that allows users to customize the size and opacity of HUD elements, complete with a visual preview.

New Assets: A new set of Springheel's architectural modules is included in this release--a set of 50 models for creating church interiors. A number of new models have been added to other sets. Also included is a huge number of new prefabs, allowing mappers to quickly and easily create detailed map sections, as demonstrated in Springheel's Speedbuild series.

Better Mission Intros: This is the first TDM release to offer video codec support other than ROQ. TDM 2.06 allows for FFMPEG video support, which means that mappers will now have an easier time adding video briefings to their missions.

Better Gameplay: An error that kept food from restoring health has been fixed, and all food will now restore a certain amount of health when eaten. Guards can now sleep and wake up while seated.

Better Performance: Finally, experimental multi-core support is included for the first time, via patches from Cabalistic's VR branch. While this can cause performance enhancements, it is currently in "Experimental" form as some users may experience random crashes with this option enabled. Uncapped FPS is also now an option for users after this update.

To update, simply run the tdm_update.exe file in your darkmod folder. Please be aware that old saved games will not be compatible with 2.06, so finish any missions you might be in the middle of first!

Additional info -

There have been no changes to the mod itself.

• bind t _impulse30

Pickup up stuff without clunking:
In previous TDM versions, players would often create unintentional alerts by clunking candles, bowls, or other moveables against the table-top when trying to lift them. This became so frustrating that Sotha and Goldwell began using stationary snuff-able candles in their missions to avoid this scenario. Now the grabber more smoothly moves objects into manipulation range and with a middle-click centers them on the screen directly in front of the player for easier manipulation.

Improved Breakables:
While developing breakable display cases for an upcoming mission, it was discovered that the whole breakable system was in poor shape. Crack decals would disappear after a small amount of time, rotated models would spawn pre-fractured, objects thrown through glass with zero-health would simply pass through without shattering it, and the fracture code itself caused a memory leak and save-game crash. SteveL spent a great deal of time sorting out these problems and updated the glass shader rendering as well.

Better looking Glass:
Along with SteveLs rendering fixes, AluminumHaste repaired or improved many of the stained-glass materials. Finally, I improved the flask glass shader (using fixes discovered by Obstortte and Arcturus).

Decal Fixes :
One of the oft-mentioned visual annoyances has been decals that seem to pop over distant objects rather than staying on their associated surface. This was tracked to OpenGL depth offset range behavior. It seems that Doom 3 has this set to an absurd 600 units (probably to work with DepthHack particles, which are a precursor to soft-particles in modern engines). 2.04 changes this range to reduce or eliminate this problematic behavior. This will also reduce the likeliness of z-fighting in missions and save on some overdraw.

Quicksave Backups:
A new quicksave safety system has been implemented. Save files are now written with alternating filenames rather than repeatedly overwriting the existing file. For a variety of reasons, the host OS has run into problems with rapid requests to write and overwrite these files leading to either corrupt or lost saves. The new system should be far less prone to this. It currently alternates between two files but can be set to any number you prefer with the com_numSaveGames console argument.

Improved Load Times:
While not a huge jump, it was found that particle bounds were determined via a lengthy Monte Carlo simulation. This has been scaled back to a simpler bounds calculation resulting in shorter map loading.

Sound Fixes:
Sound values are now prevented from being sent to the audio device with negative volume (invalid values) causing popping sounds. A new override system allows mappers to replace the ambient sound easily with another sound of their choice.

Russian & Romanian language improvements:
Thanks to the hard work from folks at the Darkfate Community, we now have better Russian translation and fonts.Similarly, the Romanian translation has been fixed to remove characters which do not have associated fonts yet for a more legible Romanian interface.

(Coming Soon) FREYKS INSTALLER
For the past few releases, freyk has been creating an installer tool to assist users who are not good with portable file setup in Windows or address dependency issues in Linux. We are now adding this tool to the official installation page as an alternate option.

Bug Fixes:
As with any release, general bug fixes have been addressed. Of major note is the Card Player savegame crash, breakable savegame crash, AI scooting themselves out into the void, and a fix for a memory leak in the SEED system. Logspam has been significantly reduced in both the LOD\SEED system and in DMAP compiling leading to dramatic performance improvement in the latter.

Discussion:

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18205-the-dark-mod-204-is-here/

Thanks for your patience everyone...hope it is worth the wait!

This version includes a number of new features and bugfixes for The Dark Mod. Several exploits have been dealt with, such as a fix for the bunny-hop exploit by SteveL, and new behaviour that allows AI to notice if you blatantly grab onto a door they're in the process of closing, by grayman.

A fix of a sound bug that was causing sound to drop off too quickly in large spaces (resulting in AI frequently ignoring noise arrows and calls for help) has also been fixed by grayman, and a new AI Hearing slider has been added to the main menu.

New Horizon has adjusted our blackjacking detection so that players are less likely to fail by being too close to an AI.

AI may notice that they've been pickpocketed, and will add that to their evidence of an intruder if you cause a mild alert while snatching something from their belt.

In addition, Springheel has added a new AI and vocal set (acted by Goldwell) for mappers to play with: The Moors.

For a more detailed look at the changes and improvements, see here: http://bugs.thedarkmod.com/changelog_page.php?version_id=65

To get the new update, simply run tdm_update.exe

Members of the TDM forum are expected to act like grownups and if they repeatedly demonstrate that they can't they will be asked to leave. This means:

1. Do not engage in name-calling or other personal attacks.

Attacking ideas, even vigorously, is fine. But don't attack the person.

"You're stupid." -- personal attack

"Take your stupid comments and go away." -- near enough to being a personal attack

"That's a stupid comment" -- snarky, but not a personal attack

"I think you're completely wrong and here's why" -- preferable reaction

The flip side of this is that if someone attacks your opinion, don't react as if they've attacked you personally. If you share your opinions publicly you are consenting to have them challenged.

2. Don't harass other members.

This generally refers to continually posting messages that boil down to nothing but "I don't like you" when talking to a specific forum member. This gets boring quickly, even if you're managing to do it without breaking rule #1.

3. Life's not fair.

Neither is this forum. Not every infraction is going to be dealt with equally. Members who are generally positive and helpful build up social credit that makes it easy to forgive the occasional slip. People who are continually negative and offer nothing to the community will get far less leeway.

A small update, TDM 2.01 fixes several issues surrounding combat and makes some graphical improvements to character models.

Some technical fixes have also been added: Taaaki has fixed the issue with TDM failing to reload missions if your folder was not named “darkmod”, and grayman has solved some save/reload crashes. The player was taking double damage from weapons in 2.0; grayman has fixed that, and Springheel has made several other minor modifications tocombat, including making it harder to avoid weapons by running backwards. The end result is that combat has been made slightly more forgiving at lower difficulty and harder at the higher difficulties.

This update improves the appearance of several female character models, as Springheel has worked on improving the meshes, as well as adding a few new heads.

Lastly, a physics bug that made the map “The Swing” unplayable, has now been fixed.

To get the update, simply run your tdm_update.exe file. Bear in mind that saved games may no longer work after updating, so be sure to finish any missions you’re playing first.

(also, we’re in the process of moving our server, so bear with us if you encounter any connection issues)

Summary

TDM 1.07 has quite some new stuff in it, next to the usual slew of bugfixes there are a lot of improvements to AI and mission localisation. Last but not least vine arrows make their first public appearance and are now available to mappers.

- Added fonts for foreign languages like Russian and German.

- Vine Arrows

- AI are noticing ropes

- Improved AI door handling and behaviour.

- Adjustments to mines

- Steam users: Fixed FM not staying installed and Saved games not running

- ...and more, the full changelog can be found on our wiki: http://wiki.thedarkm...new_in_TDM_1.07

Note: While missions are fully compatible with this release, you can NOT load any previously saved games after updating to 1.07. If you're in the middle of playing a mission, you might want to finish it before updating.

Note 2: This release does not take advantage of the recent Doom 3 GPL source code release yet, the requirements to run this game are still as with previous releases.

No torrent? Since the differential update mechanism has been activated, the torrent download stats have been more and more decreasing, therefore no 1.07 torrent is available at the moment. Please let us know in the forums if there is a need for a torrent.

Summary

TDM 1.06 not only fixes a bunch of issues, it also comes with new characters and features. This is also the first TDM release to include Mac OSX support.

- Like in the previous releases, a lot of AI code fixes and improvements were included, thanks to grayman's work. Special emphasis has been put on AI behaviour when re-lighting extinguished lights.

- New AI and animations

- Support for setting up campaigns

- Mac OSX binaries for tdm_update, tdmlauncher and the mod itself. Please refer to the wiki for further instructions, as the support is still somewhat experimental.

- The game is now presenting a "Click when ready" screen after the mission is loaded.

- The main menu background music can be switched off now.

- More aspect ratio options added to the menus

- An optional bow aimer mod has been integrated.

- Mission Downloader fixes and other stability patches.

- Savegames compression

- More portable lightgem code, removing the need for named pipes and tmp files.

- tdm_update.linux doesn't leave a corrupted tdm_game02.pk4 behind after a differential update

- ...and more, the full changelog can be found on our wiki: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=What%27s_new_in_TDM_1.06

Note: While missions are fully compatible with this release, you can NOT load any previously saved games after updating to 1.06. If you're in the middle of playing a mission, you might want to finish it before updating.

No torrent? Since the differential update mechanism has been activated, the torrent download stats have been more and more decreasing, therefore no 1.06 torrent is available at the moment. Please let us know in the forums if there is a need for a torrent.

Summary

TDM 1.05 is a bugfix/maintenance release to stabilise the code and fix crashes with existing FMs, few art assets have been added.

- A whole bunch of AI code fixes and improvements are included, thanks to grayman's work.

- An alert entity has been added (as another tool in for mappers).

- Crashes when starting some FMs have been fixed (e.g. in The Thieves mission).

- Blackjacking should be more reliable now.

- The key-brightener add-on has been added to the main mod

- Plus some smaller fixes, tweaks and changes behind the scenes.

The full changelog can be found on our wiki: http://modetwo.net/d...new_in_TDM_1.05

Note: While missions are fully compatible with this release, you can NOT load any previously saved games after updating to 1.05. If you're in the middle of playing a mission, you might want to finish it before updating.

A torrent is available here, although it will take a little while until it's been registered on Kolya's tracker: TDM 1.05 Torrent

@thedarkmod

or

our facebook page. We'll be aiming to keep everyone up to date with the latest updates.