Oktokolo
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Posts posted by Oktokolo
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At Very Low LOD you get 4300-4500 Drawcells, and at Very High you get around 5000-5500 Drawcells.
On my computer, I get a small drop in FPS between Very Low and Very High, maybe 10 fps, but that
might be enough for a low end computer to handle it ok.
"Allowing drawcalls to get higher than 4000 is usually a bad idea." (source)
As it is the outdoor area, that has performance problems, maybe the SEED system for foliage distribution might help.
Also "But the Shadowcasting calls (shdw) are far more significant to performance. In general, trying to keep the shadows below 80k is desirable." (source)
So disabling shadowcasting on small stuff might help too.
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Stopping the player getitng past the steward when he opens the Library door. Still working on that
one. As it blows the scene that's been carefully setup.
The script reference mentions setOwner with "Sets the owner of this entity. Entities will never collide with their owner."
Try to place a solid but transparent func static blocking the door frame and executing $funcstaticname.setOwner($steward); before the steward should enter the room. Then, after the scene, $funcstaticname.hide(); or $funcstaticname.remove(); should let the player enter.
Maybe the physics engine interferes with the steward as it did with the flying key (although it should not) - then adding $steward.disableAFPush(); and $funcstaticname.disableAFPush(); before entering and $steward.enableAFPush(); after entering could potentially solve that.
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I think that's the nicest dropkey method around, cause all the other methods seem to cause the same problem I had.
So looking at the map, there's very little different other than the bind which I don't need. So what part of the script is handling
the drop key? Just the procedure of the drop key?
The cause for the random bounciness of the other methods is the physics engine. I guess it adds impulse to colliding entities based on speed and weight and does that in a somewhat simplified way leading to absurd acceleration on small entities (in this case a key) bouncing off of heavy entities (in this case an AI). That effect is also observable on keys lying on the floor that get kocked around by skeletons...
The method i showcased depends on disabling that part of the physics engine for the (potentially) colliding entities so that they just slide along each other taking only collision meshes and gravity into account. As written, disableAFPush() and enableAFPush() switch the "bouncing" calculations off and on.
So could you paste your version in to my copy of the script and see if it works every time as it does on yours? I'm no scripter, so I really wouldn't know where to put it.
Just insert the following two lines before "$key_foyer2.setOrigin(keyDropOrigin);" in your dropFoyerKey():
$steward.disableAFPush();
$key_foyer2.disableAFPush();
And then insert the following three lines after "$key_foyer2.setOrigin(keyDropOrigin);":
sys.wait(0.5);
$steward.enableAFPush();
$key_foyer2.enableAFPush();
It does not matter, whether the key gets positioned inside the AI's collision mesh as long as it is outside before the sys.wait timeout has passed (so if you experience any bounciness just increase that timeout). You could also skip the three lines at the end. But others might see that as a sign of sloppy coding style and it might render the AI unable to move obstacles out of the way.
P.S.: There might be a PlayerClip missing somewhere. Stumbled upon that thread while searching for bug reports related to the physics engine.
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How to check, whether an entity is currently contained in any inventory?
I scrolled through the TDM Script Reference but did not found a suitable event. -
I finally may have found a solution for the key-drop issue. It works with any entity that has been bound to an AI and is also somewhat forgiving about player collisions.
The method does not need any spawn args on the entity serving as item to be dropped or as carrier.
You can find a minimal setup with a patroling AI that continously drops a key next to a barrel and gets it back at a later path corner in aiitemdroptest.pk4.
The interesting stuff starts at line 62 in maps/map1.script.
Most important is calling of disableAFPush on both, the carrier and the item to be dropped, to disable a part of the physics engine that otherwise may cause the well-known flying-item effect.-
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If i understand nbohr1more correctly, the fix has been applied to the version in development. I would expect it to be contained in the next official release.I think it should be fixed, either in the downloader or the mission
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As stated, my assumption is, that the flying effect is caused by the physics engine when the key's geometry somehow collides or overlaps with the steward's. That should never be the case with your original, my tweaked or your tweaked values. So we might have found a bug in the engine. But it could also be caused by overly spacious hitboxes around either the AI or the key - or other things i do not even know about (i started using Dark Radiant yesterday and have no experience in engine dev or the 3D arts).
There also has to be a better (more reliable and better reusable) method for implementing the dropping of an item by an AI than empirically measuring "safe" offsets for a given drop point in the editor and confirming them with extensive ingame testing.
I played most of the released fan missions and AIs dropping items are indeed a rare case (i can't remeber another case so maybe you are the first to do that). And maybe we just found the cause for that. But if we find a reliable solution that might change...
I suggest further investigation and will also do so myself to find a more generic way of dropping an item regardless of environment and AI or player positioning. I am a coder and the generic solution for that problem is likely a script.
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I think you are working with version 1.2 rather than current 1.3.
The darkmod.txt claims to be version 1.3.
As for the bottom of the basement stairs walls being wood vs stone, I did that deliberately, as the house gets more expensive as you move through it, which it should do.
I meant the lower part of the wall that is wood at the corridor side and stone on the side below the stairs.
You should ask for access to the beta test forum, ur really good at it, though it would be a spoiler though. Probably Bikerdude, or grayman is
the one to ask.
Already got access to that forum of course. But i did not visit it for some months
I installed Dark Radiant and inspected the steward's AI settings. He has an audio acuity of 0 but a visual one of 100. I changed that to 0 and that stopped him reacting to the presence of a visible player character. That also stops him interrupting his schedule because of seeing the player. As he is not able to react to player presence in a meaningfull way anyway it should be ok to reduce bug-out potential that way.
He still stops for a while after colliding with the player though. That might happen but is not as probable as seeing a player. I managed to reproduce the bug where the key drops with a crazy velocity that sends it flying through the room by delaying the stewards movement a few seconds by exploiting that behaviour.
It seems like that the interruption changes the further movement of the AI in subtle ways leading to the key overlapping the body as it gets dropped. I replaced "keyDropOrigin_x = keyDropOrigin_x - 24;" with "keyDropOrigin_y = keyDropOrigin_y + 24;" and that seems to fix it by ensuring, that the key drops behind the AI instead of to the right.
I did not know where to look for the hardcoded delay between dropping the book and playing of the voice acting. But that voice acting should probably be triggered by the same trigger that triggers the actual key drop instead.
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You definitely will not get lost in this mission.
Difficulty-wise it is extremely hard if you are going for a ghost run. But blackjacking your way through is rather easy. There are enough good places to stash bodies and only one non-patrolling guard on noisy surface in a well lit room that might be difficult to blackjack. You also start with much more equipment than you will probably need.
Waiting for an update would not hurt. But if you safe before entering the Steward's room, the only possibly game-breaking bug can't ruin your playthrough. If you get stuck, try rereading the readables and/or the appropriate spoiler in this thread.
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@Abusimplea, I crouched walked the level countless times lol... I've never seen any floating objects. I went through it with
a fine tooth comb to find just that, and fixed all the ones I found. If you could list what is floating, I'll fix it in the next update.
The following is a dump of what i and my screenshot folder remembers:
Outside:
Near the spawn point, there are multiple patches of floating dead leafs (best seen when moving because of the parallax effect). One of the standing torches in front of the new part of the manor also floats (easy to see because of the shadow, that looks somewhat displaced).
Also the brick support near the lobby entrance is displaced or has broken geometry as it looks "detached" from the wall.
Stables:
In the corner with the ladder, there is barrel hovering over a pile of straw. There is also a zfight at the dirt patch directly under the hatch.
Chute and official cellar:
There is a geometry leak at the outer ramp visible when exiting the official cellar. The lower board of the chute hatch frame is partially transparent from the outside and misses the upper geometry surface.
When sliding down the chute at the left is a support beam that is stone from two and wood from the other side.
In the cellar there are some hovering boards leaning against the wall. There is also a seemingly water-filled barrel you can get in but you do not get the oxygen bar if crouching down inside that barrel. The wall below the stairs is stone from the one and wood from the other side.
In the servant's bathroom is a hovering bowl slightly above the dresser.
I forgot where that was, but it was a room containing a lit fireplace and it was not in the last part of the manor. There is a stone bowl containing pears. Some of that pears defy gravity (or have been pinned to other pears somehow). In the same room is a cup slightly above a small round table (found it because the shadow was detached from that of the table).
In the floor leading to the lobby the wall panels look like there should be some railing on top of them (geometry and textures are technically fine but it looks odd).
The red lobby guard's key was floating infront of him (but he also had his sword drawn, so maybe the floating has to be triggered by raising the alertness level first).
In the private amusement room there are a candle that keeps looking like it is lit when doused and one that can not be doused.
In a room with tile flooring and red wallpaper the burning wood in the fireplace seems to float a bit over the ash pile.
In the family bathroom there is a candleholder sinking through the board its standing on when doused.
In the library there is a golden candle holder that can not be looted.
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The serious issues have already been mentioned. I liked blackjacking my way through the manor regardless.
A hint for the next betatest: Walk through the entire level always crouched and look for levitating things - there are a lot of them and they are most visible when playing crouched.I liked the story and how it did not boil down to some necromancer and the undead. I wonder how the child molester managed to not getting eaten by that huge spider that guards his body disposal well.
I also wonder what the rope arrows where for. I climbed to the roof and only found missing parts of geometry only to be noticed from above. Also the visual artifacts resulting from the fog interacting with the skybox are much more visible there than at ground level.
Also disliked the keyhunt aspect and think it would have been perfectly fine if we just could have freed the child and placed that diary anywhere in the stewards room.
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Nice little mission. It is fun to blackjack through on medium. Also one of few missions where i found all the loot.
Now that we know, that pro mappers can create enjoyable missions in less than a day i expect em flooding this forum. Looking forward to the "best mission of the week" contests...
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Just finished it on hardest and enjoyed playing it. The mission is a somewhat odd mix of cave exploration with mansion robbery in a somewhat mystic setting. I found no gamebreaking bugs - only a lot of holes in the geometry (but not big enough to fall through), some zfights, an AI that got stuck on a door frame, misplaced items (including trinkets falling through a table, chairs sunken in the floor and statues hovering centimeters above ground). I would really suggest walking through the whole level - crouched with activated lantern and god mode enabled - at least once before releasing it. None of the things i found would have passed that test (especially not the slopes in the mines where one sinks in below ground level when crouched).
The real difficulty was to get the loot. The debriefing screen says something about 4k+ to be found. But i barely got the required 2.4k and even had to systematically search the mines for the last few hundreds. The AI was easy to dispose or avoid (there where some skeletons with simple patrol routes). It would be hard to ghost though - and it might be impossible to ghost without using tools or throwables because of the well lit throne room one has to pass for the main objective.
I really liked the water columns, mines, builder garrison at the elevator and the upside-down rooms in the mansion.
I was disappointed as i saw the first undead in the mansion - until then i thought, someone had overcome the cliche and made an underworld setting without the undead (i did not found any undead before entering the mansion because i entered via a water column in the mines). Speaking of the undead: they sound like living people - even if it would make sense when knowing the plot, i would consider that as a bug as the plot does not get revealed in any way (that might as well be considered a bug, but seems to be intentional).
The spiders, elementals and survivors (wonder how the humans made friends with the undead, but the level featured a space section, so i guess its just magic...).
I was disappointed by not finding anything after following one of the water columns all the way up (nearly drowned, used up all the potions, and had to reload to get back).
I think, the level really needs some (ton of) storytelling. It is a nice experience as it is. But understanding (and interacting with) the plot would improve it.
Hope i did not sound too harsh - i enjoyed playing and would definitely play your next mission (*hint*).
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Played version 3 and like how the early version i betatested evolved to the experience it is now. Story, gameplay, visuals, and all that new content made it an unexpectedly pleasing - and long - "replay". It is a good multimission, that does not feel too easy when going on a knockout spree on the 3rd difficulty.
I encountered only one bug:
In the church level the game froze when shouldering any body. I repeated that with different bodies multiple times and it froze each time. Other levels where not affected by this bug.
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Bug: if I knock the maid, she falls in the sacks and *dies* -> mission failed
That most likely is a TDM issue as i encountered it in almost all missions when knocking out someone who is asleep or sitting in a chair. You have to be quick to grab the body or get the person to stand up before knocking it down.
Yep, usually my missions have been quite difficult. To break the trend, I deliberately made this mission to be beginner/newbie friendly.
This was a relaxing mission to play on medium indeed.
It is the perfect example to teach new players the "wait'n pile" method: The start room is just perfect to store all the knocked-out bodies in, is visited by only one guy regularly and also allows calling in a maid and a guard seperately by just using the one extremely obvious switch. You can conveniently dispose three inhabitants that way before even leaving the first room.
I too prefer to just trigger the traps instead of disabling them - much safer to not trust the switch. I wonder, if there ever will be a mission out there where using the switch would actually trigger the trap instead of disabling it >:-)
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Just played The Caduceus of St. Alban again. I am not sure whether it is in the list of the top ten (there are so much missions i last played years ago that might or might not be better). But in any case it is a solid mission with good visuals (it is from 2010 but from Bikerdude - so while not as fancy as some newer FMs its geometry/details/lighting is well made), nice AI placing and patrol routes, difficulty settings that really make a difference...
...and it is a Vertical FM Contest entry featuring absolutely smooth and natural vertical game play.
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Possible reasons to use the source:
- Getting the version compiler-optimized for the user's CPU
- Getting the thing running on a 64.bit-only rig (its 2016 - some hardliners dropped 32-bit-support on their Linux boxes ten years ago)
- Ensuring that you really only get, what is in the source (yeah, not that much - but it is one of the foundations of FLOSS)
- Getting the latest unstable with all the shiny new features that did not make it in the last release (okay, not that relevant today, but i guess it was for some people a few months ago)
- Trying to implement own features or patches making the great thing even better
- And the most obvious one: For religious reasons (and don't get me wrong on this one - it is a valid cause)
Possible reasons to keep the build instructions up to date and dependencies well managed:
- Someone from outside the inner circle might start helping with development, fixing bugs or even implementing new features
- There may be more but that one above should be anough to make it worth the work
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Now that was a hunt for keys and loot. I did not unlock all the doors and certainly missed a lot of places.
The town looks great and is immersive.
The tons of readables tell a lot of stories about how bad all the people in the city are. That really added to the feel, that i am the good person there - even while killing the almsmaster and poisoning Grunt's food (as usual i spared the lives of the non-targets). The amount of readables was a bit overwhelming. But they read well and i like the stories they tell.
Performance-wise there where minor FPS-Drops at the veginning. But as the AI count got reduced, the FPS drops vanished.
But i am getting old and can't get the jumps and rope climbs right anymore (updated to 2.04 and did not play for some months too).
I did not found enough of the good stuff without consulting this thread, noclip and tdm_show_loot. It was a bit like the ole point'n'click advantures in that regard: Spare one inch in your search or miss a subtle detail, and you're stuck. That made it frustrating at times and i would have given up if there would not have been the cheats.Gerald needs a new pair of shoes now...
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I really used some truckload of noclip but did not find...
- The stash for wich the pipe is the key
- That mentioned Pagan ritual
- How to get rid of that captain without killing him
- The bone's place where i may meet King
- The room above the kitchen that marissa must not enter
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It definitely is not the default electric buzzing sound. It is more "pure" - like a synthetic low frequency (somewhere around 500 Hz i guess) sine.
When is 2.04 expected to arrive in the updater?
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I tried it - and it is great.
But in some missions i hear an annoying continuous beep sound around some electric lighting. Anyone else experienced that? How did you fix it?
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Great mission despite i had to
noclip around the red light into the kitchen vent because that bastard decided to camp at the vent and i already spent my noisemaker to evade the red light on the appartment building's second floor.
Was i supposed to "kill" em somehow?
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I am still using CTRL+ALT+DEL bringing up the task manager and force minimizing from there. Me too would appreciate TDM behaving properly on ALT+TAB.
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Thanks everyone.
I can see the testing forum now, so hopefully you all can too, and we can continue this here: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17860-in-the-black/I'm missing the permission to see that forum.
Turn off blood? Soften the insults?
in The Dark Mod
Posted
In almost all missions there is only blood to be seen if you draw it from an NPC. Just use your blackjack instead of the sword to avoid that. Also what the others said...
But: In most missions you play as a professional criminal. You aren't allowed or just don't want to see/hear blood/insults. If there is a moral or ethical background to this, it might be the better solution to avoid playing this game.