LDAsh

You should understand that DarkRadiant is just a variant (although undoubtedly the most advanced) of other "Radiants" out there, which could honestly also include "idStudio", and definitely the editors that shipped with Doom3 and Quake 4 (Prey, etc.), so the only limit is your imagination. DarkRadiant itself now allows you to completely export your geometry to other 3D model formats that can be thrown into any other engine, so long as you understand how to clean it up and some considerations while actually mapping, being that you won't have a BSP/PROC file that has been carved/merged (although that's also possible to do), so you need to understand that concept while actually mapping. In my opinion, Radiant is still very useful in terms of building environments efficiently because you can just drag out a brush, select a face and slap a texture on it. Literally that quick. With the project already set up, the textures are already there and what you've already used is displayed instantly when you load the map. Manipulating the texture on the surface is also really easy with keyboard shortcuts. For the sake of speed, I still insist on Radiant being used in the workflow and I don't see that changing. And here's another consideration for posterity - we have a script that allows automatic incrementing/decrementing of all patch-mesh tessellation values in an entire map, but only with values higher than 1. This means with 1 click, we can make every patch-mesh surface more or less rounded/smooth without even opening Radiant, which means LODing the entire environment is very easy - if you were to export to an engine that can handle that much "inline LOD" (kept in the vertex buffer), = not idTech4. If you make quality content that looks great, performs great and also provides a fun environment to play around in - you will find programmers to help you.

I stumbled upon this and thought it might be worth mentioning. http://neogeographica.com/site/pages/tools/meshtex.html It provides a lot of extra options for how textures can be mapped to patches, but currently I can only get it to work with Q3A maps. The source code is available so anyone with relevant chops might be able to tweak it so it would work with idTech4 maps and with DarkRadiant?

https://texturehaven.com/textures/

This might be worth looking into:- https://www.highrez.co.uk/downloads/xmousebuttoncontrol.htm

I was a staunch defender of Windows XP support previously, and still am in terms of tools and (even if limited) development capability, but in terms of running an engine as a final "experience" then I don't know what kind of machine would it be that is using XP and has any decent drivers available. Whatever I thought about XP applies to Linux support also, and these days I think that's way more important. Before, I was thinking about TDM in correlation to Doom3, but since BFG edition and 2.06, with all the performance and graphics enhancements, 2004 was really a very long time ago now. I have to think hard if it could even be considered strictly "idTech4" anymore, as I'd identify it. So, if anything, I'd like to see DarkRadiant still with XP 32bit support, but can't realistically expect TDM itself to be on the same level. Tools should always have higher compatibility, I believe.

A couple of others that may be worth browsing through:- https://www.c4dcenter.com/ https://3dtextures.me/

Might also find TDM-suitable materials at http://www.freepbr.com Most if not all are 2K with decent normalmaps.

I don't think so, because XP marks an era when a lot of "normies" saw how computers aren't just for geeks and there's this thing called "the internet" they'd all been hearing about. It was _years_ before the trainwreck Vista was released (2001-2007?) and because Vista was such a trainwreck, I think a lot of people (myself included) were hesitant to jump head-first into Windows 7 (2009/2010) the way we were when jumping from 98 (or ME, in my case) to XP. It was good and for the most part could be done with confidence. It was a different situation, and with all the time that passed, we're talking about an entire generation, pretty much a decade (a decade that contained the rise of modern social media as we know it) that XP was "Windows", and their first Windows for a lot of younger people. From what I understand, Microsoft is interested in a "OS as a service" business strategy, micro-transactions and making sure most people will only ever use certified commercial software from their marketplace, or whatever they are calling it now. They want free open-source software to (not go away, but) be seen as borderline malware, and we've been seeing this get worse ever since Vista. It's all in an attempt to prevent piracy and thus (in their theory) increase sales, and keep the majority of users focus on official commercial software and away from the slimy dirty diseased back-alley sluts known as "free and open-source". Unless you're willing to pay them as a certified developer, your programs will be treated like they are pretty much a virus, and if it's not being sold on their marketplace then it's just not safe to use. That wouldn't be so bad if they'd make it easier and more affordable, but instead are making it harder and more expensive? You know, people just can't take care of themselves (even you folks who cut your teeth on Windows 3.1) and Uncle Microsoft is only doing it for your own protection, because they know better than you what you should do with YOUR computer, right? The doomsday scenario, which I actually hope will go ahead ASAP, and finally destroy people's faith in this company completely, is that they'll be making you buy 'Calc.exe' from the marketplace, and then charging 5c for every button you click. That and much more will only work when you're online so it can "re-verify your genuine status" or whatever, to "keep you safe". Users will have access to about 1% of their own C:\ and no idea what's on their filesystem because Microsoft thinks they're not smart enough to go poking around in there, and will force you to keep your files in their "Libraries" so it's easier for them and others (government\advertisers, etc.) to sniff in at them through the back doors whenever they want to. I know it's not THAT bad, but, I think that's roughly the future they have their hearts set on, and fuck them for it. On a side-note, I think it also has a lot to do with the way the licensing has changed, if you want to use Windows in a commercial capacity, for professional development within a studio or whatever, 7-10 is a LOT more expensive than XP ever was and much easier for auditors to double-check, which goes hand in hand, I think. Killing off 7 ASAP is a good move to corner people into their newer (more profitable) licensing models and the marketplace nickel-and-diming they have schemed. As for Windows 8, I consider it a beta of 10 and trying to install 8 will just automatically give you 10 without even asking, because, you know, Microsoft know better than you. At the beginning of 2020 (just months away, when you think about it) I would not be surprised if it all coincides with some huge new threat like the Y2K bug (Y2K2, does that sound catchy?) or virus or whatever, neatly timed and publicised, with alarm bells about how y'all crazy if you're still using Windows 7. Get your Windows 10 today! Our new marketplace is glimmering with all these cheap deals on things like WordPad for only $1.99, and for an extra 50c we'll even let your save TXT files with it! [/speculation][/cynical-paranoia][/rant]

I've been noticing a trend to hate on Windows 7 and itch for it to die, so 7 is the new XP and it's the cool thing to hate on it, meanwhile pretending that there's nothing wrong with Windows 10 and its UI (Metro) is the most beautiful work of art to ever have been created. I just stopped trying to understand it because the confusion will give me brain cancer, and I'm trying to spend more time with Linux and try out all the different distributions on different systems, and plan my next computer purchase around a Linux OS that can do a lot of virtualisation of different Windows, because I gave Microsoft enough money in my life. I just hope software support will continue and increase into the future. There's so much to learn about Linux and not a whole bunch of free time, but it just has to happen.

I wasn't trying to bother anyone, and feel sorry it was perceived that way. I had a (clearly now false) assumption that these issues of mine might be shared among other mappers, especially considering how it's changed compared to how all other Radiants had always worked, since I first used QERadiant shortly after Quake II was released. I wouldn't waste bytes unless I thought it would also benefit others. The post I made with the big GIF on the previous page pretty much covers everything, you can see the button and its function, and how the texel scales are now inherited instead of automatically natural, but again, if I'm the only one who cares, then merrily merrily I deal with it and stop bothering people.

I think, if I'm the only person that seems to care or even notice, and I don't even use it for TDM anyway, then better for you to spend your time on other things. Maybe if others chime in about it, maybe, but I will just use the keyboard shortcuts and external software to browse textures.

I'm very sorry. I was just attempting to concern myself with silly things like texture memory and performance. I will learn to add extra keyboard shortcuts into my workflow while I'm lucky enough to enjoy it before it's needlessly removed. Compromise, workaround and STFU, that's my motto.

There also was a % setting which you could lower to see more textures in the browser, which is gone too, naturally. All I'm saying is - these things should still be an option, no matter what the defaults are, unless they are causing severe technical issues (which I'll just assume) it really confuses me why it changed. Seems counter-productive, you'll end up with inexperienced mappers using 2048* textures on tiny brushes. So Radiant becomes like Blender - multiple versions for varying levels of functionality. At least the custom keyboard shortcuts are still there, for now, so I can "Naturalise" the texel scales with one key, since I need to do it every time now.

I think it's pretty important to be able to see size and dimensions of a texture in the texture browser. Making everything a uniform size means you'd need to apply it to a surface before you could know how big it is. As I said, perhaps this isn't something most mappers miss, but for people who care about consistency of texel scales everywhere, it's important, not to mention it's the way all Radiants always worked before. Uniform scale in the browser is a DarkRadiant "feature", which was an option, but is now mandatory. I never used it, I never even minded that it was enabled by default, but I really miss it not being there now. As for the scaling issue of new textures applied, it has a lot more to do with proportions as well. The proportions can be seen even if the resolution can't, but they are not applied. So in the GIF I posted, the original surface is a caulk texture which is 64X64, which tiles 16X16 onto the faces, and when applying the new texture which is 1024X256, which should tile 1X4 (as it does on the left side of the GIF, a previous version of Radiant and infact all other Radiants) and not 16X16 which is happening on the right side. 16X16 of 64X64 at 0.125 = 1X4 of 1024X256, which is how it should be, I believe. It means every time I apply a new texture, I need to go into the Surface Inspector and click "Natural" to make sure it's correct. I'm just trying to figure out - is this just me or is this happening to everyone?

Thanks Destined, for the reply. So the button is missing for you? As for the setting, in both Preferences (Primitives) and Surface Inspector, the scale is set to 0.125 which is the default for my projects. The default of 0.5 has the same effect, just 4X bigger.

Here's a pic to demonstrate what I mean. The icon with the 2X2 red squares is missing, and the way textures are scaled when applied on the brush faces are not using the default texel scale as they should. Maybe people don't think the texture browser issue is huge (although I personally think it's critical) but the texel scales are. I'm thinking maybe this is not a wide-spread issue because I'd assume someone else would have already mentioned this... (Anybody???) I've tried uninstalling, deleting the DarkRadiant folder in "Application Data" and looking through the registry, but I can't seem to fix this

Is it no longer possible to disable "uniform texture thumbnail size" in the Texture Browser? It was always on by default but there was a button above to disable it, now the button is gone? Also, I seem to be having some trouble with the texel scale of textures applied to brush faces when the previous(original) texture was a different size/proportion. Instead of being "natural" to the default texture scale set in the preferences, it inherits the scale from what was applied before it. If there's a button/option to control that, I can't seem to find that either.

How about, maybe break all this off into a thread in "Off-Topic" named something like "Endless bickering over political issues"... This isn't only the wrong thread but entirely the wrong sub-forum, and this thread has been thoroughly beasted. Back on-topic - I'm thinking that the compass issue should probably be a main concern if it's going to prevent people from making playthrough videos, if it's possible to easily fix. It could have been that his chat window was the cause for the compass issue. Playthroughs on YouTube would really help people to realise what they've been missing out on. It's a shame RazorFist didn't check out some of the more recent missions, but hopefully he might come back to it for another video after checking out this thread:- http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/13323-pick-your-top-5-tdm-missions/

"Let's play the REAL fourth Thief game!"

I'd like to add that you'd still want to combine as much as possible based on where it all fits into the visibility and portals, to cut down on batch counts that will negatively affect performance. If the models use unique materials, all the textures should also be atlased as much as possible, also based on the "scene". Like any engine, it wants things in digestible chunks instead of a packet of crumbs, but not such a huge chunk that it chokes. There is a flag to make each model "inline" which means it will be baked into the proc file on compiling it, thus cutting down on batches as much as possible, but I just think it'd be easier to get them all together in Blender before exporting. (edit): I realised you can just select all your different func_statics and type in the key "inline" with the value "1" and it will flag them all at once. That's easy enough too.

This seems really awesome, although admittedly I haven't tried it, still wish to thank you for the efforts. This is something that could be insanely useful for more than just TDM, with a couple of simple tweaks. Just wanted to point out a typo on the webpage - "A pre-made material-texture list can be downloaded from here" = does the 404 dance. URL should be - http://catmanofiowa.com/RSoul/TDM/TDM_Material_List.zip

I don't know, man. I think there are essentially 2 main OBJ types, v2 and v3, but anyhow, we're now talking about a MilkShape issue here (I'm assuming MilkShape OBJ importer is expecting a v2 file), and Deep Exploration (while I have used it a bit in the previous decade) I don't remember much about. There are better more powerful tools in this decade - and they are actually free too! Formats like DAE and FBX make excellent interchangeable formats, so you might want to look into converting that way from ASE, instead of dealing with OBJ as-is. This is an issue with the MilkShape importer, not the Radiant exporters. If you really insist on it, I could recommend this for dealing with stubborn conversions:- http://3doc.i3dconverter.com/ It's not free but I've found it very reliable and worth it. It can wrap its choppers around some really obscure formats that Assimp can't. (edit):- I shamefully always forget to mention this one too:- http://richwhitehouse.com/index.php?content=inc_projects.php&showproject=91

I'm thinking, without access to these bigger maps, that's probably the best solution too, for use-case testing of how to optimise graphics settings and Radiant itself when loading maps that could possibly end up being 100s of MBs. I've had it outright unresponsive before, but I should have some notes to add to that wiki page after a day of some thorough testing on different systems.

Try Assimp and Blender. MilkShape hasn't been updated in several years now.

Using regions is also very handy, it's like viewport-clipping for the orthographic view, once a brush is selected and the orthographic view is zoomed in. With such a large map, this can take some struggles, because the orthographic view can chug just as much as the 3D view, in my experience. Layers are great but only provided the author has set them up and included the .darkRadiant file in there. I guess my advice would be to fiddle with the filters and set the viewport-clipping before loading the map, maybe turning off both brushes and patches, and once the map is loaded, zoom right in, set region and then toggle the filters back. The orthographic view shouldn't chug too much unless zoomed out significantly, as default. Anyway, I still have no access to the beta-testing forums, so unless someone wants to donate a huge-ass map by uploading it somewhere else, providing a direct link (PMing me) or suggesting something else... I will just keep digging through the released missions until I find one bigger than 45MB.