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Ru-running updates shows the mod is up-to-date. I'll check some other missions too - maybe it's just this FM, that got corrupted somehow. Thanks,

Hi, I'm trying to update my Darkmod from version... 1.00 to the latest and I get checksum mismatch after downloading file tdm_sound_vocals07.pk4. Expected: 26c7661 but got 026c7661. It tries another mirrors but all fail. The process never ends... I guess the file is OK, but somehow the expected value is missing '0' at the beginning. Can I skip this file somehow? Or download the latest version from somewhere else maybe? Or better - could you fix the expected value, so the error does not appear? (if this is the cause of the error, of course) Thanks! EDIT: OK, It actually skipped after going through all the mirrors. Rest of the files is OK. But I have another problem. I launched Alberic's Curse and got loads of missing entitie's warnings. The most apparent issues are some textures - one of the tree leaves, some stone texture in the crypt - it shows as glowing and transparent yellow. Then all zombies have builders' head attached around neck in some random angle plus the transparent revenant have the builder's head instead (attached correctly though, but not transparent). Anyone has experienced these issues? Should the latest version of TDM not be backwards compatible with earlier ones?

Screenshots look nice! There could be maybe some more junk/details on those streets though, cause currently they look a bit empty. Also bricks in second shot are too big. (for some reason people usually make bricks larger than they are.) But I like the atmosphere - fog always help. As for the fog not affecting the background - I've noticed, that if fog light bounds ends just before the skyportal texture, then background is affected by fog. This little trick can be used only if your gameplay area is more or less squarish, of course. (that won't work with L-shaped map layout, nor even more complex, cause fog light will extened beyond the skyportal texture. In that case you have to alter your skybox, so it looks like fogged. Maybe create some simple greyish overlay material and apply it to some cube inside the skybox?)

Oh, come on, Mortem - I believe Capela meant "nowadays" instead of "knows days". @Capela - I use Photobucket, btw.

Yes, I also confirm that Aero doesn't like Dark Radiant, so I turn off the first one.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. As for the ground texture - it won't stay as it is. I'll make a new texture - just haven't decided how many textures I want to blend together for the ground. And it will be scaled down - you won't see it from a distance anyway, as ground will be covered with plants, trees and other stuff, so it should look OK. I haven't thought of using detail texture. I don't like the way they try to cheat me, but I always disntiguish between base texture and detail anyway. But if anyone can come up with some nice method of blending them in a believable way, then I could try them.

Time for me to show up something. Currently I'm working on a pagan forest setting. I'd like to have really large and wild forest. What you see below is a forest map at its very beginning - more like a model test map, but it gives an idea of the direction I'm going. As you can see, most of the forest is not dressed yet and not populated enough with trees. I hope engine will manage.

Climbing sound is one thing but another thing is collision sound. While rope is quiet enough to have no impact sounds, chain is expected to produce sounds when hits a wall or some object. Is it possible to implement?

It used to happen to me as well. It was quite random - sometime my water entity worked, sometimes not, but after a while problem disappeared and now water works as it should always. I don't really know what has helped but try playing with brush dimension (extend it a little bit into solid brushes, or alter water surface level slightly and see if it works or not.) You can change water entity brush by clicking TAB - this take you into brushe edit mode, rather than entity edit mode. TAB once again, when you're finished.

Unfortunately I never tried a workflow with .3ds format for modelling for Doom3. I would actually avoid it, as it has some limitations. (one of them is that 1 vertex in the mesh can have only 1 vertex in UV coordinates, so quite often textures appear badly stretched unless you break the mesh, which result with a visible seam on the model). Another possibility is that some information (like material name) gets lost during convertion process. I would stick to .ASE and .LWO. Try to get Deep Exploration, if you're having problems with ASE. Just select the text you want and press 'Insert quotation' button in Reply panel (third from the right) That's not really relevant to Doom3 engine. I heard that T3ed tends to crash, when too detailed brushwork is done. In Doom3 engine you can go as detailed as you want. Although some things are not possible to model with brushes, especially organic and soft shapes, so modelling skills are very useful when mapping.

I do the modeling in 3ds max, export to ASE and then use Deep Exploration for coverting from ASE to LWO. Works great, cause you don't have to change anything in ASE text file. All you need to do is to name your material in MAX - but you don't need to apply any textures. (though you usually do to see model textured before you export, but it's only the name of material matters). I know it's confusing the fact, that some material names (those used for brushes) look like a path, but it's actually a name. But if you create your own textures and own material, you can use whatever name you wish. (well, sometimes Doom3 refuses to take some name, saying that material was already defined in file:0 or something like that - that seems like a bug and the only workaround is to make up another name). Sometimes I use ASE files as well, as I wasn't able to convert models with vertex colors to LWO. But they work fine as well. The workflow is as follows (I may repeat something which was stated already, but it doesn't harm, I think): 1) apply Standard material to your model and put ANY bitmap texture into Diffuse slot. (even blank works) - that makes BITMAP keyword (and the rest) appear inside ASE file. 2) In your ASE, change bitmap name to the one like this: *BITMAP "//base/tdm_docks_terrain" or if you're using existing brush/patch material, it may look like this: *BITMAP "//BASE/textures/rock/skysandnew_sharprock_dark" so the name of material comes right after //BASE/ thing - no matter whether it looks like a single name or a path. 3) Place your model ANYWHERE in darkmod/models folder and textures ANYWHERE in darkmod/textures folder. (You may have some folder structure for your convenience) 4) Then create a file for your materials with ANY name (.mtr) and place in darkmod/materials folder. 5) Write your material declaration (f.e. tdm_docks_terrain) somewhere in the above file. Just keep the map paths appropriate (starting with textures/ 6) And that should work. Remember that having Doom3 open, you can reload assets without restarting the game. ReloadDecls - reloads definitons (incl. materials) ReloadImages - reload textures and images ReloadModels - reloads models and you can check model without placing it in map using TestModel models/....path/model.lwo or .ase It will appear in front of you. I hope you finally make it. I had quite a bad time at the beginning with all those typos, wrong paths etc. but once you get it, it will be easy.

I also think this one is better than the current one. The only thing that doesn't look OK to me is the pelvis staying on the same height for all the time - it should move up and down. And it's too fast as as for the search animation, but you've mentioned various speeds. (it's more walking to searching spot, rather than searching itself).

Great! That was quick Greebo. I also noticed you resolved the entity def reloading issue. Many thanks!

OK, I got it working now. The problem was a VRay material assigned to the model (instead of Standard one).... I was experimenting with terrains: There are three textures blended in one continous surface, but in fact there are two meshes. I would be careful with using that technique for common objects, as what it does basically is rendering all light interacting stages: diffusemap, bumpmap and specularmap twice. It may have an impact on the performance. yeah, eporting to lwo is a problem. I think only PolyTrans does it, but it's not cheap...

Hi, could any modeler help me? It's mainly for 3dsmax users but maybe somebody else may know the solution as well. I'm just having a problem with exporting models to ASE format. First symptom was DR crashing, when selected in Model Viewer. Then I tried testmodel command in Doom and I got message: Joint 'spine2' not found for 'head_joint'. I've no idea where is it coming from, as I am exporting only simple mesh. It doesn't want to work even with simple boxes. Here's my export options: I've tried all possibilites, but with no success. I changed to Max 2009 instead of 2010 and I got some success. Model appears in doom engine (using testmodel command), but I still get that weird warning message. And DR doesn't crash, but shows nothing in Model Viewer and only a cube in Orthoview. Then, to make things even more confusing - seagull.ASE model, which I made about one week ago works fine... Theoretically I could use LWO, cause Deep Exploration converts those models to LWO with no problem and I actually never needed to use ASE files before. The only thing is that LWO models doesn't contain vertex colors information. Or maybe it's just Deep Exploration which looses that information during conversion. If anyone knows how to convert ASE to LWO and keep vertex color information that would solve my problem too and I would be more than grateful.

I don't understand what's the relation between "model" spawnarg and spline's offset...

I've encountered some problem with displaying NURBS func_splinemover. Spline is moved from the origin, although in game it works fine, I mean the bird does the same route, as before the issue appeared, so the engine sees it properly. on the first pic you can see that seagull and func_splinemover's origin are at the same spot, but the spline is offset. First (and last) vertex should be where the origin is. And another aspect of this issue - when I drag vertices, they move twice as much as a mouse pointer. See pic. 2 and 3: I don't know whether it's relevant or not but spline's origin coordinates have fraction numbers (1736.68 369.855 1056.89).

Done.

That's right - entity didn't appear on the list. But it did after restarting DR.

DR didn't find my new entity added - that's for sure. I'll double check the other ones.

Having any sort of softer shadows, even faked area shadows would really help to achieve medieval-like atmosphere. Current shadows are so sharp, that I often take them as a geometry edge. I think there is even a base in the renderer code for area shadows support. AFAIR, there was a way to turn them on, when recording a demo, but they didn't really work well, when I tried that. Anyway - I hope renderer will get open source soon, cause in a few years time soft shadows and global illumination in games will become a standard.

I don't know whether this one has been raised already - Reloading commands in Dark Radiant reload only models/defs/scripts used in the map or maybe present at the time of launching DR (not sure about that). But they won't find any new assets added. The only way to add new asset to map is by restarting DR, which takes time for any medium or large map. Could that be changed, so apart from reloading, DR also looks for new ones?

Is it only me having problems with blackjacking? Those guys always notice me or just get alerted, when I try to KO them... I had to give up this mission cause it got too boring, really... Are those guards any harder to BJ than other ones?

Oh, yes, folds and seams around the edge are definitely improvement. It's not a rocket science - it's all about some darkening in corners, and in occluded areas, which suggests that two objects/surfaces are next to each other. You can either bake it or paint it. The former is always more accurate, but the latter may be quicker for simple situations. a quick example:

If I may suggest something... that white cloth looks really plain, with no folds - pretty unrealistic. And if UVs are not shared (overlapping), you could bake/paint some sort of ambient occlusion/soft shadows under saddle and other gear to give a sense of of relative position. Apart from that it's a quite good model and will be a great addition to TDM.