Oktokolo
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Posts posted by Oktokolo
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Hasn't freyk been working on such an installer?
However, I am not sure how beneficial it really is. Sure, using the downloader is different from the typical way of installing applications, but it isn't more difficult or such.
Don't know, whether anyone is working on such a beast or not.
But having a fully dialog-driven install process, would make the game playable by the growing population of casual users - people who only know how to turn the PC on and start properly installed programms or use a web browser.
A regular TDM installation as it is now, requires knowledge of the file system and permissions. That knowledge is techtree-locked behind the power-user perk. There are a lot of users who never consciously use a file system browser. But they can click through an installer accepting all defaults on the way. They also tend to never change any ingame settings - so better to review them before the installer goes live...
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That's debug dll and it should not be installed on an average PC.
The build is invalid. Solution clean and rebuild is necessary in this case.
I do have MS VC++ 2013 installed, both version 12.0.21005 x64 and 12.0.30501 x64. Maybe that's the problem?
Nope. Apparently, for x64 it's just a bad build.
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If it's not coming out on Steam, I guess I'll ask my uncle to help me install everything. He's a computer whiz.
Just download the updater, throw it into a fresh folder where it may write and run it. Then run the game and load additional missions using the ingame mission downloader. Generally you only need to download missions manually if you want to betatest stuff.
TDM might indeed profit from a proper installer on Windows though. It would need to acquire the needed rights (windows UAC prompt), create the game folder, make it writable for the user, drop the updater, run it to actually install the game, and then optionally create icons to the updater and game in start menu and on the desktop - and add an uninstall entry to the registry.
Maybe the updater itself could be extended to do that on first use (uninstall entry, folder structure, pk4s, and exes missing).
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Strange.
That DLL comes with the VC++ 2013 package. We typically include it in Dark Radiant portable.
There was a discussion about whether we would do the same with 2.06 or hard link the library.
http://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=4595
To my knowledge the plan was to include the DLL but recent SVN builds has worked without it until now.
If you don't wanna wait, you could download the portable Dark Radiant build and copy the VC++ DLL's to
your darkmod install directory. Or install VC++ 2013 redistributable. Though the latter would
hide any future changes\fixes.
My Windows 7 certainly lost its virginity some years ago. But i may indeed miss that redistributable as i use Windows for games only - so if no game ever wanted it, it probably is not there. But last package worked fine (at least the x64 version - never touched the legacy x32).
I will wait for the next package and report whether it fixes the issues for legacy and x64.
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Just updated my 2.06 installation and now get "The program can't start because MSVCR120D.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem" when running TheDarkmodx64.exe.
When running TheDarkMod.exe i get a "The Dark Mod has stopped working" window:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: TheDarkMod.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.1
Application Timestamp: 5a25afd3
Fault Module Name: MSVCR120.dll
Fault Module Version: 12.0.40660.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 577e0f1e
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 000ca4e5
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1031
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789OS is Windows 7 x64.
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You want to make a total conversion for TDM without coding? Good luck with that...
I would expect it to be possible to do a total conversion to another setting without touching the C code. It certainly would need its amount of scripting though. And, of course, the target game would be single player and feature mostly the same mechanics as TDM.
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Regarding player grunts: If they are internal (heart beat, eating, drinking...) they probably should indeed be no_efx. But external ones like shouldering bodies or movement sounds should be affected by EFX. Though they might need some polish if they end up too present.
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This plus every other terrible act in my life is why I provoke users on the internet (such as here) to dislike me.
So the plan for your expeiation is to increase the grief in forums on the internet? As a TDM forum user i obviously strongly dislike that idea.
Please search for a method to manage your grief that does not add more of it to the world.
As an example for a good start, you could complete your missions for 2.06
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Found some time to revisit the mission and shoot the promised screens.
In general, ramps and uneven terrain seem to attract the most bugs but modules featuring groups of stones could also profit from some clip. Would also recommend to avoid pitch black ambient lighting and fake water reflections.
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That's awesome. Possibly something short to type, like efxoff?
That would be called "no_efx" if i extracted the naming convention from the list correctly.
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Wow, that review really was a critical hit on the game. I like picky reviews. They give me more info than the usual upcheering.
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I guess, with EFX, sounds are like textures: They normally should not include any shadows or reverb baked in.
It should be possible to exclude sound shaders from EFX in sound shader files and by setting spawn args in DR. Mission authors will probably use both methods depending on whether they add custom sounds or recycle existing ones. Also might need to implement a way to disable EFX for sounds in GUIs.
A blacklist might be good for a temporary quick fix until the real solutions got built in.
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I would not even think about destroying squishy mushrooms with broadheads. Would use stones for that. There are plenty on the ground all over the mission and they always come in pairs of two...
Torches are always a good way to eat some performance (and they are fun of course). You would have to replace mushrooms with torches (totally fine, but atmosphere altering). Maybe some more static clutter could make it harder to navigate around AI in some "rooms". Then there do not have to be that much light sources and therefore you could replace some with dousable torches.
I killed everything for what i had the impression that i would have to pass it twice though (there are plenty of sniper points that are unreachable for AI)...
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Re: The spore bomb, I found it worked best if you hit the ground near the target, like a hard surface. That causes a decently sized cloud of gas to appear and knockout multiple enemies even. Also if you hold down the use key it throws the spore bomb further, I had no idea the throwing mechanics in TDM worked like that but it makes it a lot easier to throw knowing that.
I know the throw mechanics with holding it longer to throw further... just am really bad at timing the distance and guessing the arc - and it may be personal lazyness too (never trained that because i always had a lot of other options). I throw objects for distractions from time to time to spare precious equipment or reposition AI for easier blackjacking though.
To not discourage anyone else who is like me: This mission is perfectly playable without precision throwing.
- You wouldn't happen to have screenshots of the areas you got stuck would you? Because that would be pretty helpful.
- The stone door might be a 2.06 problem, but Ill take a look at it.
- The other stuff I may or may not address in an update.
Did not plan to report anything initially because of playing on unsupported 2.06 - so made no shots.
But i will notarget-noclip to the places i remember and do some shooting...
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Hadn't noticed that, but I have noticed shadows that turn on and off as you look around.
I noticed particle emitters, lights, shadows, geometry, and complete leafs (probably due to toggling visportals) turning invisible when approaching the edge of the screen while looking around - in 2.05 and latest 2.06.
Most of the time stuff gets drawn when it should though. I don't think, it got worse with 2.06.
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Played on 2.06 with soft shadows enabled:
The mission really feels a lot like dark project. And i like ruined underground cities. Also loved the maple syrup river and monster tree idea. My blackjack got dusty though.
Spent 5 hours until i found the drunken bastard and got him to the elevator (did a lot of sightseeing and target practice on the way in). I was so lucky that i am not a ghoster (but with a lot of patience and saves it might be ghostable).
Had some issues that might or might not go away as 2.06 gets out of beta:
I got stuck on geometry a lot. I had to spam the mantle key a lot of times and even needed to noclip on a dozen occasions.
Textures looked pretty washed out on a lot of surfaces.
The stone door does not open when i use the ancient key on the "rod" next to it. Tried attaching keys to the rods on both sides of the wall.
Spore bomb radius is rather short. Have to hit the target above the legs to actually affect it. And TDM hasn't the best throwing mechanics.
The fungus lights are brighter than street lamps and seem to have a comparable illumination radius.
There are a lot of locations featuring lights without a visible source.
Electric lights' mounts are invisible. They look like hovering midair.
Most streams that look like they should have some impulse do not seem to have one.
Sewer water reflects some reddish environment that is not there.
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No idea why "Version 1" is necessary, since no other version number is accepted
It is generally a good idea to add an explicit version indicator to such definition files. Future parsers will have an easier job in parsing different versions of that stuff.
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/* just read this: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17456-player-voice-over-spawnarg/page-4?do=findComment&comment=415258
gonna wait until those guys have finished doing whatever it is and see what happens - plus I don't like hearing her voice - it's painful.
I would not hold my breath until that sound channel assignment changes get into official TDM. They are only proposals now. 2.06 is freezed. So that stuff will likely be contained in 2.07 (expect a year wait time for that) or as part of the "minor" summer patch (because volume sliders are pretty useless as they are and that would fix that).
And don't worry about the voice acting. Most will probably like it - some not. And most players are more into visuals anyway. Nobody cared for that sound channel assignment and volume issues for a lot of TDM versions and look at how often there are sound propagation issues in missions or doors sound like chests...
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It obviously did not work that well, but thanks for trying.Please understand - I'm not trying to be a dick[...]
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I experienced scrum as the new agile philosophy-of-the-week that is used as an excuse to force coders to do tri- to bi-weekly feature updates in ever-repeating crunchtime segements that are called sprints. Are you really sure, that yearly updates are too much for something as big as TDM?Guess I'm just a little more used to working in a different way...
Scrum n sprint and working with a team is very different to how TDM seems to operate, which appears mostly solo ad hoc.
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Please, please, please stop updating the game and DR so often... it's like every time I get close to figuring something out - something is changed and, after going through a few dozen old maps... testing out and seeing what to do next on them (I paint a few pictures at the same time) things don't work any more. Shaders repathed, textures missing or depreciated or repathed, mechanics changed. I've ALWAYS used stock to avoid having to go through the lengthy process of including a whole bunch of stuff that is not necessary.
Yes, regressions are annoying. But the yearly update brings welcome improvements too.
Since 2.04 i am able to take a candle holder from a table without alerting the entire building. I did not manipulate objects often before that update. Now i do it all the time. 2.04 made TDM better.
2.06 brings soft shadows. I got the beta as soon as i heard of it. Will never go back to 2.05. Yes, that is just graphics - but it did already improved my TDM experience a lot.
TDM needs that updates. Sure, they add regressions and break some maps. But they also add new possibilities for mappers and they really improved the game for me as a player too. For me, 2.06 already made a lot of old maps new again...
Regarding the one night stands: When you find some mechanic you want to use, build a small quick mission that uses it. Betatest it in the betatesting board, publish it in its own thread on the fan missions board. Then there is an official mission that uses the mechanic and devs and testers can test updates against it.
Maybe, publishing a demo map featuring some use cases of the feature on editors guild board and pointing to it on each update is enough too (don't know).
Game engines are complicated stuff and full of undocumented behaviour (and bugs of course). Without regression tests, mechanics will get broken. For TDM it seems, like the missions are the regression tests (and that is okay, as they have to test the missions anyway).
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Hmm, this thread was at least a post longer last time i checked...
Skyrim was rather disappointing regarding loot (and its placement). But you could add some glass or ebony stuff to the display of some armour shop.
But i would like to see more diverse loot in general. More different gems, rings, pendants, coins, necklaces, staves, books, paintings (although we already got a lot of that), trinkets, representative weapons and armour.
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Mostly, it's for my own enjoyment - the only time I did link a complete mission pk4 (the one where you start off being set up and only option is to have to jump over the wall, far down into the river to escape and end up at a hidden village run by religious fanataics - the girl found a book on "paganism" and asked the woodsy lord for help with certain problem - that's where player comes in as "sneaksie / trickster / worming death)... It was ignored by everyone:)
I don't think, i tried that (completed all but a few and tried all missions available via ingame downloader though). Where can i get it?
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So how many autosaves must it make and retain? 2? 20? 200? All of them?
The minimum count to prevent bad luck mishaps is depending on the time between autosaves and how buggy or badly designed the game or mission is.
The autosave interval is upper bound to the maximum time, the player would try to replay in case of a crash or mission-breaking bug. Its lower bound is given by the annoyance of the interruptions because saving is not done in background in TDM.
A reasonable default could be ten minutes.
For a ten minutes interval, three slots would provide a coverage of the last thirty minutes. But storage is plenty today, so i go crazy on it and recommend an insanely large default of ten slots.
Players will probably configure it to anything from off and no slots to every minute and a thousand slots.
Please stop updating the game
in The Dark Mod
Posted
Nothing. The user will do exactly that. He downloads the updater, moves it to the new folder and runs it.
Then the updater may or may not work depending on whether the new folder is located inside a folder, where the user's account normally has write access (the user did not click away some warning while creating/moving the folder/updater) or not. If not (commonly "C:\Program Files" or "C:\games"), the updater just fails.
Non-advanced users are not able to detect the cause of the problem. They could just move the TDM folder into their downloads folder and everything would work fine. But we tell them to make the new folder somewhere, where they would have to set permissions for it to actually work ("C:\games"). We do not tell them, that they have to set that permissions. We also do not tell them how to do that in the currently most common Windows versuions (7 and 10).
Note, that the installation instructions where valid for Windows XP as back then any place the user could create or move something to would also permit later modification by everything the user runs.
They are just a tiny bit outdated (iirc since ten years).
A quick fix would be to recommend installing in a subfolder of the downloads folder. It would certainly be bad practice (as is not using user-specific folders for missions, configs and saves on Windows anyway), but the user has reliable write permissions there...