peter_spy

That's great, thank you!

Tested it with 2.12, it's renamed to absence_alert_increase now, but seems like it works as described in the wiki. Nice, thanks! I updated the name here: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Alert_%26_Suspicion_Triggers#Controlling_AI_Reactions_to_Missing_Objects One more thing though. Since the theme of my FM is dungeon/ruins, I also tested it on zombies and skeletons – and it doesn't seem to work. Was it designed to work on humans only?

I managed to work out the obj workflow for 3dsmax exporter -> TDM, but there are a few problems I've found. 1) It seems like TDM parses comment lines as normal lines, e.g. it complains about newline characters or dots in dates, e.g.: # 3ds Max Wavefront OBJ Exporter v0.97b - (c)2007 guruware # File Created: 13.03.2025 12:15:16 mtllib column01_96.mtl # # object column01_96 # results in an error: The error goes away and the model is loaded correctly when I delete that whole section, so the file starts with just vertex(?) coordinates. 2) Even after getting exporter settings right in 3dsmax, models have no collision ingame. Regenerating .cm and .proc files didn't help. I'm on TDM 2.12 btw.

I wonder if DR could have this interesting feature I found in UE called Entity Piloting. It basically enables you to set an entity position and rotation with 3d camera view. It's very convenient for things like lights, and spotlights in particular, as you can place them pretty quickly without fiddling with rotation axes. https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/pilot-actors-in-the-viewport?application_version=4.27 https://youtu.be/a59m6klDeag?si=CX-QT2jDyl5hrdEL&t=801

Very cool, I remember my ex had something like that in her house, but it was a much smaller box, kind of like a portable seamstress kit, I think? It had a carrying handle in the middle. I should have photos of that, buried in depths of my drive somewhere

Yeah, having it directly in DR would be brilliant.

I think I have an idea for a really useful feature this thing could have: you could parse the .map file for e.g. models and material names, and you could compare them against a list of files found in a given FM folder. You should be able to find a way to exclude models, textures, and materials that didn't make it to the final version of a map, which would be very useful for people making custom stuff. Hunting for that stuff during final stages is a chore, and may end up with unnecessary pk4 bloat when you miss something.

I think this matches what idtech4 uses pretty well, and it's been a fairly common knowledge among asset creators from mid 2000s: http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Specular_color_map This is not exactly correct, as e.g. the wood grain shouldn't really be white, but the base color for the wood can be inverted for that purpose. I got plenty examples of materials I made for TDM over the years, so I can give you more specific examples and comparisons if you want to

Unless idtech4 works in linear space instead of gamma space (which I don't think it does), then not really. Grayscale works well for selected surfaces only, like silver, water, glass, and perhaps a few others. For conductive surfaces (e.g. raw metals), you need specular color map similar to your diffuse, to fake the effect of the specular hotspot being colored by that surface. For dielectric surfaces, you can use the trick with inverting the diffuse and playing with saturation to get both proper specular power amount and white specular hotspot. Unfortunately this is rather difficult to pull off due to unnecessary math added to specular calculations (like pseudo fresnel term). Using greyscale speculars on all surfaces regardless of their purpose and color values makes them look wet or like plastic.

You can do it in many different ways: use 3d modelling app only, do base image and add effects in 2d editing software, you can export it to modern engines like UE5 or Unity and apply materials there, you can use each of them to make cinematics (although with realtime engines it should be easier than with offline renderers). You don't need to obsess about one particular way of making things, as it would depend on experience of a person doing such task (their favorite tools and ways of work, etc.).

I think at this point it might be useful to rework the logo as a 3D model, so you can render it in any resolution you need. You could do the same for the TDM starting video too. Either that or maybe using vector app like Corel or InkScape, whatever is easier for you. This could be a fun little project in itself

You are assuming way too much, and you're creating artificial pressure. Nobody in the public forums knows whether TDM team even considered including this feature in TDM core, regardless of its completion state or quality. Obviously you have right to have a personal opinion on the modification itself (which I think is cool too). Sorry for the offtopic here Jivo, you're doing great, and don't let this little side note distract you from your work

While the feature itself looks great, and kudos to Jivo for making it, aren't you overstepping the mark here a bit? You can't promise anything like that to anyone, only TDM dev team can make such decisions.

Save rooms probably need a level designed around them, it's hard to think of them as something universal that can be retroactively used anywhere. Checkpoints could work on the top of your manual saves and/or quicksaves, you'll just have more options to choose from when loading