Xolvix
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Posts posted by Xolvix
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OK, after further investigation I think my GPU either has a problem with it, I've got a dodgy setting in my TDM config, or the engine just scales poorly when it has to render at 4k. Which isn't that surprising, it's quadruple pixels compared to 1080p after all. But I've seen commercial games using say the Unreal 3 engine rock solid at 4K without any need to tweak too much if at all. Admittedly it's unfair to compare a AAA game to a community effort so it's worth keeping perspective.
I loaded an older FM (Penny Dreadful 3) and found that in certain areas I was getting less than 50 FPS in certain interior rooms when my render scale was still at 1.0. LOD had no effect here because I don't think newer effects were implemented at higher LODs in this mission, or at least in the areas I were testing. Shadow quality definitely has an impact (I use Maps). But it's hard to tell if I'm GPU bound or CPU bound at this point. The Doom 3 per-pixel lighting might be killing it or it's something else. In any case if the GPU is being dodgy I might be in a position to get something newer, but I wasn't expected to do so for The Dark Mod of all things! Oh well.
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OK, so you're basically saying that with higher LOD values you actually include non-object specific details like that lighting you see. Hopefully you can understand my confusion, I don't expect the lighting to change on an Object Details (LOD) setting. Maybe that setting needs a name change so it doesn't sound like it's just about the poly count on distant objects.
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I feel a bit out of the loop. Isn't LOD (especially on a setting that's specifically about object detail) just a determination of how close you need to be before the game swaps a low-poly model for a high-poly one? Why do map designers need to consider LOD, isn't that just an feature handled by the engine? Or this this more about tailoring for performance?
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OK so this is what I found. Run the Training Mission (nothing special, just what's bundled with TDM 2.14). Open the door to the "Jumping & Climbing" section and go outside, through the hole in the wall. Staring at that wooden structure in the middle I had a bit of an FPS drop, so I used it to test various settings. This is where I discovered the LOD quirk. Hopefully this is fully reproducible for anyone to check.
Object Details (LOD) set to High:
Object Details (LOD) set to Normal:
See how in normal the background areas have darkened. In particular some of the cast shadows don't seem quite defined or are even lost, even though I didn't touch any direct shadowing options. I have the max FPS set to 144. Note the major drop when set to High (which I'm fine with if it retains the intended visuals).
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It's a 4070. I used to run with 4x antialiasing at 1080p, I know it's that necessary at 4k but still wanted some AA so I left it at 2x. Most other settings I left because I liked them the way they were, but I absolutely had to leave Object Details (LOD) at High. Better would have probably worked, but anything less and I noticed in the training mission that some areas lost lighting detail for some reason, even though I didn't think LOD should have affected it. All good though.
With this card I'm a bit worried about running future games at 4K, but then again I'm kinda burnt out on a lot of newer AAA titles these days. Plus I've got plenty of older stuff to catch up on with far less time as an adult, so meh.
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Finally got me a 4K monitor (Gigabyte M27UP). I had to upgrade since the previous 1080p monitor had developed a visual defect that couldn't be fixed, so figured I'd jump to 4K since the GPU was reasonably capable and 4K is the way things are going anyway.
It's quite nice, although it's one of those things where after a while you get so used to it, you almost think 1080p looks the same (it doesn't, but you acclimate to changes in your environment after a while). Tons of games look nicer without doing anything different due to the extra details, and fortunately I play a lot of "older" titles such that I don't need to worry about performance issues... except with The Dark Mod. For some reason the training mission was showing slowdowns in certain areas when 1080p was fine, and I wouldn't have thought such an old engine (despite the upgrades) would have such issues. That said I found the "render scale" option to be quite useful and setting it to something like 0.8 eases things just enough that I don't need to drop more important settings like LOD or shadows. Plus 0.8 of a 4K resolution is still a rendered resolution of 3072 x 1728 which is miles better than what I had before.
Saves me from having to buy a new GPU at least. The cost of a decent GPU these days, seriously.
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In Kubuntu I disabled snap entirely. Never needed it, and simply replaced Firefox with a mozilla PPA (and a blocker to prevent the snap version from being installed accidentally). Avoids multiple reported issues with the snap version of the browser. As for the store I never used it, always figured it was not as useful as synaptic. I'm guessing KDE's Discover is the base Ubuntu equivalent.
Guess my point is the distro (and especially desktop environment) you spend time experimenting with can radically change your perception of Linux a LOT. If Gnome was all I was exposed to, I'd never have switched. But others think otherwise so I'm not going to say they're wrong. That said, when you spend your life in Windows you can easily ignore the rough edges in that OS as well, often without even realising you're doing it. So long as people don't insult one another for their OS choices however.
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GLIBC 2.42 (Ubuntu 25.10)
As for Linux being a bunch of bullshit at times, that's absolutely true. But then again, Windows can be a bunch of bullshit as well. You just have to settle for which bunch of bullshit you can live with daily, and unfortunately I'm just tired, so tired of Microsoft's abuse of its userbase that I'm done. I had to move, but it took years of learning Linux until I was at a level I was satisfied I could maintain it comfortably. Not everyone is willing to do that and I get it.
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I liked it, pretty cool for a first mission. Sad to say I also got the foyer lights bug, but I figure it's something which should be solvable even if it requires a different light implementation. Can't think of many other things to say except that (and I get it's needed for gameplay) Sally must really be bored if she insists on checking an empty (as far as she knows) dining room on a regular basis.
Maybe give her a chair in the kitchen or something just to break up the actions she takes.
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Got around to playing this mission. I enjoyed it for the most part, although I did have to deal with some pretty terrible frame rate issues as already mentioned before. I was a fool for trying the expert difficulty with all 16 cheese locations - should have left that for a replay and tried something easier, so that's on me. I did enjoy the dynamic hostility system and appreciated how it was clear when it started and ended. But yeah, those frame rate issues were very annoying. Still liked the exploration though, just wish I chose an easier skill level first.
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Maybe. I'd think to think it's more that Wayland has matured to the point where enough of the essentials work, that the larger desktop environments like KDE and GNOME can now simplify matters and streamline their work on supporting just one session type. There's still plenty of things that need improvement (remembering window positions without workarounds being an obvious example) but it seems like the idea is that if people are only using Wayland from now on, improvements should come around much, much faster compared to when it was optional and people weren't using it because X11 was more mature. KDE's announcement certainly motivated me to move to it for example.
On 12/6/2025 at 1:21 AM, jaxa said:I'll probably try Thief 3 for the first time in forever after snobel finishes making a Linux version of Sneaky Upgrade.
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138607&page=82
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153010Interesting. The Sneaky Upgrade was basically all I needed with the installer defaults. But anything that improves Linux supports is always welcome, since I've only tested it a bit so far to make sure it works.
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It took absolutely ages of puttering around until I was comfortable but I think I can finally say I've moved to Linux for good.
My current distro is Kubuntu 25.10. I was using 24.04 but when I heard KDE was going to be moving to Wayland exclusively I figured I should experiment with a newer version of KDE and get used to how Wayland works as well as its quirks, which I've mostly got a handle on now.
It really does help that I only play singleplayer games these days which Proton handles really well. I use https://github.com/Open-Wine-Components/umu-launcher so I can run anything including GOG games without needing Steam along with my own game launching scripts, because that's how I roll. And of course native TDM works great.
EDIT: For what it's worth the old Thief games (via GOG installers) along with their respective fix patches work really well without any issue.
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I'm getting older and more conscious of this fact. Stupid muscles.
Oh and my experimentations into Linux for a primary OS have been rather productive.
Oh and somehow I've been so absent from TDM that I literally didn't notice the return of certain members... which is good! (that they returned, not that I've been neglecting my TDM).
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Yeah dhewm3 is probably the definitive way to play Doom 3 on modern systems these days I think. The high frame rate build is still under development (https://github.com/dhewm/dhewm3/pull/585) but even with occasional glitches it is so much nicer on a high refresh rate monitor than being stuck at 60 Hz. Also I never played the BFG edition so I'm not in a position to compare audio, but the switch to OpenAL in dhewm3 did at least improve the audio from the original game which had an issue in occasionally skipping playing a sound sample in certain situations (e.g. firing the machine/chain gun).
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Oh man I've just started continuing this mission after a leave of absence. I got distracted by shiny AAA titles for some reason and have now gone back to classic TDM, something I was intended to do anyway.
Unfortunately this distractionary phase seems to have lasted for... a while, since the last played date for the mission was apparently February 2023. It also appears I'm out of date as there are a ton of new missions I've been ignoring. It's almost embarrassing, but now I'm ready for it and I'm reminded just how epic in scale this mission actually is.
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True, I have nothing but respect for Ross for at least giving it a go.
I remember seeing in one of his videos how he said he didn't really want to necessarily spearhead this project, but he had to at least try something because he was getting more and more frustrated about seeing games die with no legal recourse for those who purchased them. His motivation was that no-one else was pursuing anything similar so he wanted to try himself and chose a particular window of opportunity (discontinuation of The Crew) as being the time to do it.
He's also stated how even if the whole thing ends up going nowhere, he's at least satisfied he gave it his best go. Ross said he'd be more bothered if he didn't try something, basically. Even if the law doesn't change, this whole process might help provide some clarity in terms of what rights people have (or don't have).
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On 7/13/2025 at 3:23 PM, revelator said:
I post for the first time since January with a detailed response about an important(ish) topic and I get a laugh reaction.
Oh xolvix the laugh was a bit selfironical
i do agree for the most part.
Nah it's OK, I'm not that sensitive.
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if much happens. I assume with the extra votes it'll probably hit the threshold for the number of real legitimate votes required to progress, but I have concerns it'll not be treated by lawmakers as a serious topic due to the focus being on gaming, despite it actually being more about consumer rights.
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I post for the first time since January with a detailed response about an important(ish) topic and I get a laugh reaction.
In all seriousness though, if one doesn't like DRM they have to be careful posting nowadays since a lot of people have a lot of time invested in games and platforms with DRM of various sorts, and any issues you raise with the game/platform these people will take as personal attacks against themselves, even though it was never intended. Not so bad here, but reddit and Steam forums? Good God.
1 hour ago, thebigh said:That's all fine in Germany, I suppose, where you can generally trust the authorities. But where I live I don't really trust cops not to falsify, doctor, or creatively edit the footage, or conveniently "lose" all the exculpatory stuff. That'd go double if I lived in America. My enduring image of the California "riots", which were actually mostly peaceful marches that avoided where all the paramilitary goons were hanging out, was of cops shooting an unarmed reporter in the back.
Bruh we both live in Australia, it's not that bad here with regards to the authorities most of the time. I mean it does depend where you live (I'm in SA) but comparing our cops to those in the US is like using a cheat code.
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11 hours ago, chakkman said:
Frankly, if it allows for companies to survive, and offer games at a reasonable price, then DRMs are a good thing, from which everyone benefits. Nobody "likes" DRM, not publishers nor buyers, but, nobody likes locking home doors or cars either. It's a necessity, because some people aren't decent enough to pay working people what they deserve and need to make a living. Or they just rob them blind.
I don't know if I'd call it a necessity given places like GOG exist. I might tolerate some DRM so long as it's crackable or there's a plan in place to remove it at some point. I read somewhere that Denuvo has moved to a subscription model which has motivated publishers to remove it after a while once its value has diminished beyond a certain amount. I think this is the reason why games sometimes release an update that removes Denuvo after a while - most of the bulk purchases would have been made by that point so there's no value in continuing payments for it.
14 hours ago, Skaruts said:That's actually the real problem. Most people are ok with DRM.
Unfortunately it's taken a lifetime for me to accept that I have very little influence in most matters and ultimately the only decisions I can make are those for myself. If I wish to boycott a company or product or anyone that is doing something I disagree with, that is a personal decision and I cannot expect others to do the same. Even if it means your hobby or interest ends up going to shit because of the indifference of others, it sucks but all you can either do is navigate the shit or do something else.
We must follow our own value systems, even when there's an incredible amount of money invested in an industry that is continually pressuring us to not do so (you MUST play this game, you MUST buy this console, you're missing out! FOMO, etc).
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6 hours ago, cavador said:
This mission is crashing for me with an "error during initialization; file/script/tdm_report.script; line 22 unkown value "get Persistent Float." I can't even start the mission with Dark Mod version 212.
If you downloaded the mission via the in-game downloader recently, you probably acquired the version that was updated to work for the 2.13 beta. It's one of the few missions for which the update is known to break in 2.12. As per all the discussion above, look at @stgatilov's post for the previous version known to work with 2.12.
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Quick question - I notice the majority of missions seem to have updates now. I'm assuming this is to support 2.13 in some way, but will updating the missions cause them to have issues and become incompatible whilst still running 2.12?
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Since I'm bored and haven't posted in a while and yet still finished Thief 4 a few times, I feel compelled to post.
In response to a number of observations @Rio_Walker made:
- Seeing your hands and all the animations newGarrett would do was fun... at first. But given all the looting and environmental interactions the game has it really did slow things down a lot, especially when the game would occasionally realign the player just perfectly before playing an animation to open a drawer. If they had an option to disable these animations or speed them up significantly I'd have been happy.
- I've played using the Custom difficulty with the option to disable focus and the experience is kinda mixed. While it does make things a bit more traditional without the superpower ability to find loot more easily, it does seem like the game is designed very much for focus and disabling it can hide things you never even knew were present. If it weren't for the focus for example, I would never have noticed the "special" candles hidden around the city that talk when you light them.
- This game reminds me of a movie that has been reshot several times with footage from separate reshoots blended together with bad editing. It's painfully clear the story has been chopped and changed over the many years of its development and there's assets in the game that clearly had greater importance in a previous iteration but for which their plot points were cut. The most obvious example is the automatons. There's a dude who provides missions on obtaining pieces for one he's building, but apart from that there's also signs in other areas they had more importance (e.g. you see rooms full of them when going up an elevator, the Baron has disassembled ones on tables in his cutscene, etc.) Some plot elements just feel not fleshed out because they had to cobble together something to create this Frankenstein's monster of a game from so many elements.
- The ending sucks and is incredibly abrupt. Do we even know what the deal is with that half-built ship? Probably another abandoned plot point.
With all of its problems, I still kinda like it in so far as its general gameplay. But it doesn't have the longevity of something like TDM or the classic Thief games especially with all the user missions available for them. Oh well, maybe I'm just pining for what it could have been in the hands of a better developer.
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I like how this has essentially become a Linux thread despite it not being the intended focus.
I play around with Ubuntu MATE because I like Ubuntu and the MATE variant has an environment I prefer with a bunch of changes I like, a good compromise between old and new. That said, TDM behaves a bit oddly in Linux. For some reason in TDM it misses the occasional mouse click - if I happen to click fast enough there's a chance the event won't register. It seems to be something inherent to the Doom 3 engine in Linux - even in dhewm3, if I make a really fast click on the mouse it can sometimes ignore that mouse event and not fire the weapon. Generally you have to be really quick on the down/up event for it to happen, but it happens, it's reproducible and I can't just accept having to consciously be aware of my mouse behaviour and remembering to click long enough to guarantee the event is registered. I'm sure many won't notice this issue, but I'm pretty fussy about such things so it annoys me.
This doesn't happen on anything else in Linux, just Doom3/TDM. Not surprisingly Windows doesn't have this issue, and it's a good example of the reasons why I don't bother moving entirely to Linux. I can't stand odd quirks like this and there's odd quirks EVERYWHERE in Linux. There's quirks aplenty in Windows too of course, but I'm used to them.
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9 hours ago, OrbWeaver said:
I can't say for sure that it's 100% impossible, but I've never heard of anybody doing it and would have no idea how to go about it.
Sure you can, it's called cross compilation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_compiler
In the Linux VM you'd install something like mingw-w64 and use that as the compiler, the output being a Windows exe. Of course the project would have to be set up to support it so I don't know if TDM is already set up for that.
Poll: Why don't you use Linux?
in Off-Topic
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Some people seem to define their personality/self-worth from their knowledge and skill at something that's niche (in this case, Linux). I've been there, I grew up. Some people don't and they're incredibly exhausting and infuriating to talk to. However I feel like as Linux has become more and more palatable an option and genuine improvements have been made in usability and utility, other people are finally starting to stand up towards these obnoxious types and tell them to give it a rest. It's still a problem unfortunately in certain areas of the Linux community who wear such behaviour as a badge of honour, but in many places it's now considered poor form.