Lux

By saying OpenAL I'm saying Alchemy. Apologies. As I understand it, Alchemy is just Creatives OpenAL package. EAX is not working in TDM so there is no point in using Alchemy with TDM. As I understand it, EAX does not work in TDM so whether the card supports EAX4 or whatever, it will not do anything. It would be a waste of time to install your X-Fi other than the fact that the audio fidelity may be a bit better depending on the Z series card you have. The issue of mono and not having 3D positional sound is some other issue. I would stick with your current setup and find out what the issue is, personally.

I have the TDM game set to Audio > Surround 5.1 and Sound Blaster Studio set to Speakers 5.1, Surround box checked on the SBX tab, and the Speakers/Headphones switch on headphones. If you have the game set to Stereo, you'll have to change the SB panel to 5.1 and relaunch the game to change it. Works great. EDIT: Unless you're running optical/digital out to a receiver. You're not doing that are you? Was curious about you saying it was "mono". No left or right either. That's really peculiar and maybe you have something else going on. I don't even have OpenAL installed for what its worth.

Pretty brief small mission and a good first effort for sure. The readables added a nice touch and loot clues, particularly the one in school room, helped to flesh out parts of the story that were irrelevant but added to the sense of place. I think you have a good foundation here to build on in future mapping iterations. For being as small as the mission was, the layout afforded the player some exploration and curiousity which was really nice. Interior guard patrol was challenging but surmountable. A bit more detail and a few more personal touches which I'm sure you'll develop, would be welcome. Overall a good first endeavour.

I have 3D sound emulation with a Z series card, you don't get the effects from EFX/EAX but you certainly have 3D positional audio and its actually very good. Is that what you're referring, PsymH?

I've uninstalled it or I could look it up. I was thinking defaults were like, right click, E, and maybe F/Q but can recall. Have you tried pressing every key on the keyboard and all mouse buttons. I also don't recall if the bodies highlight however it seems like they didn't because I remember having to crouch to get at them because standing up never seemed to be close enough to grab them.

I don't exactly recall but don't you have to hit E to use them vs. frobbing them or something. I thought it was a different key to grab bodies. There are like 3 different interact keys for different things, try the others.

From the screenshot, those hedges could also...maybe... be used as props in a marijuana farm? Maybe? (or some other illegal substance in the TDM world) A versatile model for sure.

++ on the last two video tutorials. Excellent information and process on creating custom light sources and custom loot items (custom items in general) and the things one needs to pay attention to and take note of. As you mentioned, looking forward to the particle video and as you also mentioned, it would be nice to see a custom item such as the goblet you've already created being used as an interactable item which: 1) Has its own inventory space (or inherited from ? item, and what parameters need changed in the .def file to make the item unique) 2) Can be dropped/dropped to hands and manipulated/thrown/placed to activate something, etc. These videos are GIGANTIC time savers for those mappers that are ignorant of DR/TDM and the intricacies of the file structure and workings of the engine. One can figure these things out on their own obviously, over many many hours, however your videos give mappers an excellent "jumping off" point from which to reduce frustration and increase results. I would also really enjoy a video on the Location System setup in a map. How it can affect lights/sounds and how it functions in general, pitfalls to lookout for (common mistakes), and things to pay attention to when setting it up. Mapping is a very time intensive process, particularly to those just starting out, and the amount of time these videos can save mappers is invaluable and really helps to reduce frustration dealing with some of these complex systems. I sincerely applaud your efforts in your video series. This is an invaluable resource for mappers. Excellent work!!

Man... 26. I think back and when I was 26 I had the best time I've ever had in my life. What a great age. Happy Birthday, Bikerdude! At a certain point, getting drunk looses its appeal completely. Glad to see you're not there yet! Cheers!

Congratulations on first mission release!

I believe that's the, "So, what are you working on now...", thread.

An excellent alternative to this would be to have old torches in place but extinguished and give the player at the start, a lighting stick (of have them find some near the beginning). This would add realism and immersive feel to a crypt having to light the long extinguished torches. It would also be neat when the player lights a torch to see what it lights up and the mysteries it uncovers. You could have the first unlit torch near the beginning where some light is creeping in and makes the first unlit torch seen. From there its just connect the dots. Obviously the blue flame is magical and therefore always lit but we don't see much of that either. Some have done this, though in favor of believability many don't favor the blue lit environment. I do like the idea of lighting the torches yourself though I'm sure many would be put off by the idea of having to do this extra work in the environment themselves. Many players I guess don't like getting a real sense of place from a game and just prefer to game.

Aluminum? in the ..what... 1300s? or 1600s? or whenever TDM takes place. Copper, maybe but I'd guess many old downspouts/gutters were either way to thick sheet metal or even cast iron/clay tile, and certainly robust enough for climbing particularly in this time period. Sure, current gutters would be ripped off the structure trying to climb them however I don't see that as being accurate back then. Its my feeling that any and every downspout should be climbable but that's only because of the time period when things were new/overbuilt/robust.

Now you need a bar sign that reads, "Queen's Head Tavern".

You're kind of exaggerating to the extreme here, yeah? The thing is, you can't please everyone. Some say it feels better one way, some say it feels better another. You can argue either side of the equation but there just isn't a "right" way to do "some" things. For me at least, I'd have to agree with New Horizon. I thought it all felt very intuitive and I keep my mouse sensitivity very low and have a large mouse pad to get more arm movement.

Oops! Forgot that was also an option but great workaround for sure. At least makes it usable with minimal intervention. There's an old saying that goes, "Give a dog a good name, and it will live up to its name." ...Haha. My computer's name is "Pandoras Box". I wonder what that holds in store

I also liked that in Thief. Drawer handles (not the drawer face), chest locks (not the whole chest or chest lid), door handles (not the entire door), etc. were the only thing that highlighted and that is what you had to frob to open the object. It feels more immersive especially in dark areas to have only the object that your hand is touching to frob highlight; door handle, drawer handle, chest lock, etc. Another possible issue we have with our dresser drawers is that there aren't actually handles because the dresser hardware is created in the texture and not modeled.

That's Texas, not Iowa. Iowa is a nice quiet place. Good luck, Diego, and Welcome to North America. Enjoy your stay. Please do not exit the ride until it comes to a full and complete, stop.

Could this also be used in some way to facilitate faster initial loading time?

If you have an electronics tech in your area, you can probalby take the disassembled laptop to him and, more than likely, he can replace any blown caps on the control board. Capacitors pop with power surges. It can cost ~75-100 bucks so that's something to consider. You can inspect them yourself looking for capacitors with rounded/bulged tops. If you know how to solder you can replace them yourself pretty inexpensively. It could also be that the CCFL is just blown and many times you can get replacement CCFL bulbs. 9 times out of 10, caps are the reason electronics stop working with power surges.

I get this when I open this forum page I'm posting on now, with your link on it... so open at your own risk. www.manic.org has been tagged as a malicious domain.

The principle is obvious but never thought you could use an old TV for this. Would be useful for many things.

++ Very excellent mission with great game-play, story, and verticality to boot!

I thought this was only AI related audio however, in beta testing your mission, Melan, on map load, the convo of the two guys above you (for me at least) was much more positional and audible. First thing I did was hear it and looked up and was thinking... was that convo there the first time I did this? (on 2.01). I'm sure it was but it seemed to stand out a bit more and I wasn't thinking about 2.02 anything at the time. Hmm.

Personally I don't understand all the collection and achievement bs in games these days. For me, Rated M for mature, doesn't mean, YAY! I walked around like an 8 year old at an Easter egg hunt and found 3/15 lost pages of the whatever. I don't know if Easter egg hunts are common across all races/religions/countries, etc. but I'm sure we all have some type of experience as a kid that functioned to serve the same purpose, arouse your curiousity. My issue is as an adult, I'm not curious about the same things I was as a child and I certainly don't feel a sense of reward from such things. I agree on the point of > filler. I sincerely appreciate when the player isn't treated as a child and is directly rewarded for their collection of anything in the game. I.e. it needs to have a point or objective to it, at least for me. SS2 was an excellent example of this, in my opinion. You collect nanites > upgrade cybernetic rig. You collect credits > spend on supplies. You collect weapons/tools > upgrade your characters ability to deal with combat/situations/traps. You collect codes > allow your character to access things needed to progress. All of these are geared toward progression. Aside from the "Game Pig" and its relevant games which is also an incentive to get your hacking skill to level 6, which was a game within a game that you as the player didn't play but your character that you played, played. So all of them were focused not on the player but on the progression of the stories main character and not the player. These days it seems giving stuff not to the main character but to the actual player is a trend and for me... its emmersion breaking, not story character focused, and childish. It really makes me wonder what the rated M for mature means.