plasticman
-
Posts
268 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
3
Posts posted by plasticman
-
-
Funny. I also hopped into Dark Forces for the first time, just a few days ago. Can't remember what gave me the Idea, maybe the humble bundle... (I remember seeing the advertising).
While I spent much time on Jedi Outcast and Academy when those were new, I did a godmode run through Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight and tried the DF Demo only biefly back then. No lightsabers...
Technically Dark Forces is interesting. It's a Doom-Clone (no licensing, engine built from scratch, afaik) with a few enhancements: the player can jump (and it feels somehow thief-like) and it seems they found a way to stack a few 2.5D-levels on top of each other. This means -- unlike Doom -- floors above floors are possible.
Although these features enable a more vertical gameplay, the lack of restriction may also be the reason why the game did not age so well. Mouselook was not invented back then. No way to change the keyboard controls, and the defaults are terrible.
This is sort of fixable when playing with Dosbox. You can change keymappings with CTRL+F1 and at least get WASD working.
I have been looking for a decent modern way to play it, something like what zdoom or doomsday is for doom. Closest thing I found is the XL Engine, but it is still too alphaish and unfinished. Compared to the original I found content to be missing, some NPCs not appearing at all.
Any hints that point me in the right direction are welcome.
Dark Forces Mod for Jedi Academy does not count.
-
Some redlettermedia guys did a not so friendly review. Enjoyed watching it. Thief comparison ftw.
-
-
The end is the best part. :-)
(2:06 onward)
The later part is likely frum Quake Done Quick With A Vengence:
see
https://archive.org/details/QDQWAV
or, in a more recent rendering with hd and stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_3WyzcdEx0
-
Stumbled on this one:
They call it the Linux Action Show. I don't think the guy actually played TDM.
-
The Phoronix guy seems to be knee deep into it right now...
It is mentioned you can use Gnome Shell outside the Steam client. Phoronix also reports there is a customized compositor that is based on xcompmgr. I don't get how this is supposed to get along with having Gnome Shell at the same time. Doesn't Gnome Shell depend on Mutter or whatever it was called?
Anyhow, the OS is based on Debian, which is a good thing. Good for Debian and therefore it will benefit the future of mankind in broader terms. I like it how completely uncool (meaning conservative) Valve is about the latest flame wars: by choosing Debian Wheezy it is neither upstart nor systemd, just plain old system v init. It is neither Wayland nor Mir, Xorg will have to do for now.
At the same time they seem to spare no effort where it is neccessary: a customized compositor may help to draw pixels on the screen more reliably -- Xorg is known to have issues here. Also the kernel is said to be heavily modified and borrows a lot from the realtime kernel patches. Propably good for reducing latencies, which is a must for the planned "stream windows games from your pc on your steam machine"-feature.
I hope this whole thing will gain momentum. Next year will be the year of the linux desktop.
-
What's the word, if any, on the prospects for the Occulus Rift support being ported over?
There is no native Rift support in D3 BFG. Carmack's initial hack only works with the early prototype, not the developer kit.
Community efforts to add support seem to be happening, there is a fork and a thread. I guess it's going to happen once more interested developers get their hardware.
Then: copypasta => win!
-
Windowed mode is possible in Linux.
You can type r_fullscreen 0 in TDM's console, but it needs a vid_restart to take effect. Console needs to be open or the mouse is confined to the game window.
It may be possible (but I am to lazy to try it) to bind those commands to keys in the Darkmod.cfg. Something like
[button x] does
r_fullscreen 0
vid_restart
[button y] does
r_fullscreen 1
vid_restart
to bring you back.
But srsly: Checking mail while playing TDM doesn't really add to the gameplay experience.
-
Voted "immune" like in "really really minimal damage".
I'm with the Quake 1 / Thief crowd -- normal weapons should send them to sleep after a while, blowing them up (or HWA) resolves their contradictio-in-adjecto life-style (death-style) for good.
Also, T2X did an awesome job here (though I didn't like the vomiting). You could cut a zombie's limbs off with the sword. Without the head and the arms it no longer posed a threat.
-
-
In my case I've set s_alsa_pcm to sysdefault:CARD=PCH, as doing my aplay -D $card $file test produces no sound at all
Try "front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0" for your front speakers.
-
Nice thinking, but it doesn't translate well. Full dynamic lighting would require to separate the real from the "mirrored" area via a invisible light-blocking material AND duplicate all the light sources. How would one duplicate a torch that's hit by a water arrow? Moving a lit candle? -- Don't even think about it.
But from what I remember from playing with mirrors (in D3) a few years ago, it is non the less a very good idea to keep the "mirrored" space clear of any geometry. It tends to confuse the engine. Mirrors in Doom are error prone.
You could look it up in modwiki.net if it still were among us.
...
Oh well, archive has it.
-
1
-
-
The latest issue of german magazine c't features the Rift in a nice, informative article. The editors were among the first in Europe to receive their dev-kit, so they can report from a few days hands-on experience.
According to the article Oculus plans to ship a second, improved development kit in Q3 2013 with the consumer version following a year later.
There's also a concept I didn't see before:
It illustrates a possible consumer version with a pair of cameras. This would open up the possibility to "see through" to the real world. Source says "Oculus", so that's where the picture is from.
-
Slowly failing to restrain my curiosity...
Does this NewDark thingy work on Win7? 64bit? Or even Linux? Multicore?
Should I try it?
-
Any knowledgeable team member may correct me, but: I think there's no point in using dmargs.txt anymore.
Ever since TDM 1.08 the mod brings its own executable, so you can pass arguments directly in the command line. Like this:
> ./thedarkmod.x86 +set s_alsa_pcm hw:whatever
When it works, quit the game and the setting will be written into Darkmod.cfg.
The intended behaviour of this workaround is bypassing PA, by plugging TDM directly into the sound hardware. So from the list aplay -L gives you, you can scratch any device that does not start with "hw:" -- those are virtual mixing devices (dmix, plughw etc.) and PA will hijack them.
Adressing "hw:" however will not always work. In those cases it should be sufficient to temporarily disable PA.
Those "broken pipe" error messages are likely the real culprit here. It looks (and sounds) to me like buffer underruns. PA is -- wisely so -- designed to increase buffer size on it's own end automatically. Unfortunately it repeats that with every "broken pipe" so latency adds up until we get the known increasing sound lag the longer we play.
Using alsa does not give lags, but you will hear little klicks and pops instead.
The bug that needs fixing is somewhere in doom's -- now TDM's -- code.
-
(Die Rede war von Trockeneispfeilen).
But replacing an old item [...] just because it's cool
Makes sense! Replacing water arrows with ice arrows actually increases coolness!
-
1
-
-
(BTW, activate_airpump_02.wav shows up in DR as 'Error: file not found'. Am I doing something wrong?)
Nope. It's natively missing in doom. The shader definition is in machinery.sndshd.
activate_airpump_02.wav was meant to be a one shot lead-in sound followed by the loop. In case anyone used this shader in doom, it would simply play the loop without the lead-in.
There are plenty of "missing" assets in doom. I think it was about shrinking the game to fit on one DVD before shipping.
-
Lighten up! The article says rope arrows will be back.
-
So in other words, we could play as a scouting orb? --
The Wii has a Wiimote so there is at least something to grab and hold on. But I am really just guessing. I never tried any of this Wii or Kinect stuff myself.
All I do is close my eyes, imagine I was wearing a Rift and playing TDM with it, seeing the environment in 3D with lag-free head-tracking... ...then I just move my arm pretending I had a blackjack and see how it feels.
-
Really nice and playable. Thanks for the mission!
Things that came to my mind while playing and have not been mentioned:
I thought I always prefered movables over static furniture and crates. This mission made me reconsider -- picking the purse off a guard who is sitting on a movable (thus, frobable) chair is overly complicated.
Another general issue is the default door sound. Does it really have to be on every door and any object with a moving lid?
-
But the end-effect is the same - it doesn't work together.
Quoting Shacknews: "This announcement doesn't mean it isn't coming at all, just not for launch."
There's been no mention from the devs about a custom control system, but something that would work quite well would be the leap motion controller (https://www.leapmotion.com).
That leapmotion thingy looks quite responsive and precise. Something like this is the key to get your hands dirty in VR.
Imagine swinging the blackjack, bringing the spyglass up to your eye or drawing a bowstring by imitating those exact actions, this would work very well with the Rift to avoid breaking immersion. One obvious downside is that you would probably need to have gestures for player movement (or use one hand for WASD and another with the leap).
...requires nothing less than a complete redesign of these weapons and tools. Also I guess the lack of tactile feedback actually breaks immersion, more than the abstract method using a mouse and keyboard.
It's a little bit like when you play a real guitar and compare that to a Guitar Hero controller. While the controller sucks big time, it is still better than playing a virtual guitar by tracking finger movement in nothing but thin air.
-
Unfortunately, the D3 BFG edition will no longer be supported by the Rift,
You have that backwards: the BFG edition lacks support for the current version of the Rift.
There have been some necessary changes in hardware and it looks like noone at id had time to implement that yet.
That has become a minor problem for Oculus since the BFG-Edition was part of their Kickstarter pledges (a Rift DK + D3 BFG ready to rumble). They just prefer shipping the Rift without waiting for id to deliver. Eventually it will happen.
I do not expect any TDM hacker to touch this before the Rift consumer devices become available.
-
Think you're right here. Like they say in the panel (I linked in #40) games don't simply transfer to the Rift, the challenge for devolopers is to design a specific game concept around the Rift. The average fast paced ultra violent FPS seems to be the worst candidate.
TDM could really shine here with a focus on exploration and adventure-like aspects of gameplay. The difficult part would be handling the keyboard input. At the moment I need to see my keyboard to play (dedicated keys for lockpicks, lantern, spyglass (wait -- spyglass! how would that transfer to the rift? it's not binocular, so shouldn't it turn off the left eye?) lean forward, use, etc.); but maybe this can be simplified, haven't tried.
The best fit for the Rift are games that simulate anything where you sit in a chair. An application for the masses would most likely be a racing game. The plus is, racing games can be quite simple in terms of user input and I think there are already controllers out there (steering wheels and such).
The other thing would be flight/space sims like Chris Robert's upcoming Star Citizen. But handling the input in one of those generally more complex games is a problem that really needs to be sorted out first. I remember the X-Wing series used to depend heavily on several layers of keyboard input.
My best guess is still they will bundle the Rift with some sort of Kinect-like device to track your hands. Allthough there would be no tactile feedback, it would still be a very direct way of interacting with the simulation, without being limited to just one game or genre.
-
TDM: Thief Duck Mod
TDM Thief Duck Mod is a Mod of the Dark Mod where you play as a guard who got robbed of his beloved rubber duck by an insensitive thief. Swimming through the vast river of Bridgeport he hopes to finally reunite with his favourite and only ducky.
Free DLC comes with full armor, so you inevitably drown. Payed DLC allows swimming naked and is therefore adults only: TDM Thief Duck Mod XXX.
Windows 10: Why you should NOT upgrade...
in Off-Topic
Posted
I just finished an Ubuntu-Install (Budgie 18.04 dev) on my new Thinkpad E480. Browsing Gnome Software>Games I spotted DarkRadiant – cool thing it's in the repo (didn't check version though).
As you might have guessed the Laptop comes with Win 10 preinstalled and there was no way to opt out. It's really astonishing what a major crap load of insane bullshit this has become. Home edition of course.
I spent a few hours with the system. Had I been a non tech-savvy user it would have annoyed the crap out of me. How are normal people supposed to do their stuff (email, browsing the web, watching youtube) on a computer that's constantly nagging about shit?
I don't get it. At this point the Linux Desktop would be a more useful choice for average people. But average people do not install their OS, I know...
Sadella stated, he wants you to love MS. Looks like the Stockholm syndrome was already factored in.