[Darkmod: Inspiration thread]

 

 

Matt Easton paying a visit to the Weald and Downland open-air museum.

Some really interesting observations on period buildings (these are mostly early modern era rural buildings, so right up TDM's alley).

[Model types that can be imported to TDM]

There are Blender plugins for idTech4 game models, including one(s) for the .md5 format. I've recently downloaded the md5 plugin, installed it, and opened a TDM player character limb in Blender. No problem with it, and I might use it for comparisons if I attempt to make a melee weapon addon.

[Newbie DarkRadiant Questions]

Just some quick questions about the direction visportal brushes should be oriented in, as I'm testing their basics for the FM map I'm building:

 

Which side of an already created VP brush should be facing outwards ? Is it the reddish placeholder texture "Portal" ?

 

Will a duo of VP brushes not work properly if the sides with the above mentioned texture aren't facing away from each other ?

[A-Z Beginner Guide Improvement (dmap part)]

Since the location system is super useful for ambients and I think a majority of FMs will want to use the system, would it be a good idea for me to write a part setting up the rain ambient under the location system. Then perhaps I can change a speaker for something else. The catch is the location system kind of complicated.

 

I think you could add it as an optional bit of advice for level building.

[A-Z Beginner Guide Improvement (dmap part)]

Wow. It sounds like the guide is quite out of date. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Some pages haven't really been updated with newer or more detailed info since 2010. As I learn DR, I can get by with the manual's current state (as it's still very, very helpful), but I'd also welcome some potential updates to every page.

 

Ok, I have added a comment that parts of the "Folder structure" section overlap with the "Dmap" section, I have added bullet points to the section, and while I was at it, I updated the Doom.exe to TheDarkMod.exe.

 

@mikulabc: If you are currently working with the A-Z Tutorial, would you be so kind and tell me which other parts are outdated or confusing? I will try to update them, when I find the time. This was already suggested in another thread, but it is best, if someone new could report, as more experienced people often can not say which parts are confusing for someone new...

 

If you don't mind, I'd also like to contribute to helping you finding stuff that might need updates. I'm still learning to work with DR, so if I run into anything weird or contradictory to TDM's current state, I'll let you know ASAP.

[Newbie DarkRadiant Questions]

 

You can test it yourself using either brush stairs or slopes, but generally sticking to 22,5° is mostly fine (e.g. stairs that are 128u high and 256u long). You could get away with 45°, at least with sloped surfaces, but the way AI bends their knees looks rather jarring at that angle.

 

Thanks, Judith, this is an awesome answer. Exactly the sort of advice I needed on this.

 

Yeah, I can imagine that at 45°, AIs can start getting a bit too bendy in the knees.

 

I think the VP number has a negligible effect. What matters I think is that leafs are opening and closing efficiently. There's a sweetspot of areas opening and closing as you walk around, and I think you don't need any more VPs once you've hit that spot as they don't have added value. Eg, you don't want a line of sight through 3+ VPs if you can help it.

 

Thank you very much for this answer. I've asked about VP in the first place because the FM I'm working on has some fairly big outdoor spaces in addition to interiors, so I want to add at least a few VP at entrances to lighten the load while the player is inside the building complex. I suppose that if I just add a two-way VP to one or two entrance doors the player will use, it'll prove sufficient.

[Newbie DarkRadiant Questions]

@petlike - the height of stairs can be worked-around so they don't sprint off the top step and fall all the way down by making the stair case into a sprial.

 

I meant walking up the stairs as well as down the stairs. I want NPC animations to fit the stairs and not come across as hideous or buggy.

[Newbie DarkRadiant Questions]

I have several areas I'd like to ask about:

 

- I've studied a few discussions on moonlight, but I'm none the wiser. I'd like to make a few simple in-door windows, with moonlight entering the interiors, but only slightly. Do I need to add special entities if I want to have simple cones or rectangles of moonlight coming through the windows ?

 

- I've read that visportals should be used in reasonable numbers, despite being very helpful (especially for transitions between exteriors and interiors). Is there an agreed-upon upper limit to the number of visportals you can have on a single map ?

 

- What's the steepest set of stairs an NPC can traverse before things start going wonky ? I'd like to know if there's a sweetspot, in terms of stair height and length, that suits AIs and their animations the best. I'm worried I'll build an elaborate interior map with stairs, only to then find out that the NPCs get themselves killed or cause serious bugs while moving on stairs.

[Darkmod: Inspiration thread]

It's been a while since I've last posted images of manor houses for inspiration. Here's another, larger batch. Some of these are defunct or not fully reconstructed, but the basic shape and appearance can offer plenty of ideas for layouts.

 

 

Šarišské Michaľany (older, standing)

 

 

Šarišské Michaľany (newer, defunct)

 

 

Uzovce

 

 

Pečovská Nová Ves

 

 

Šarišské Dravce

 

 

Galanta-Nebojsa

 

 

Krivany

 

 

Betlanovce

 

 

Horná Ves (defunct, detailed cutaway drawing here)

 

 

Bretejovce

 

 

I think these are rather eclectic choices. This last one is even in Empire style, which is probably as far into the 19th century as I'm willing to go, before it stops fitting TDM's setting.

[Battlefield 2142 is now free (from fans)]

"It's free to download and play, and even though it isn't officially sanctioned, Electronic Arts so far seems content to let it slide. "

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/battlefield-2142-revive-brings-back-eas-cult-classic-online-shooter/

 

So basically it could be stomped at any moment?

 

We shall see...

[Steam Greenlight: TDM is ranked #1 atm.]

The main technical objection then that I recall was the possibility that we wouldn't have control over FM distribution, that we had to integrate Steam into our game and distribute FMs via their DLC system instead of our in-game downloader (we might even look into doing that separately, but we don't want it exclusively). Then I understand that that restriction was either changed or clarified so we don't have to do that after all. So that cleared up that objection.

 

After that there aren't really technical objections AFAIK, just things like differences in gamer culture and covering all the foreseeable questions we might get bombarded with like why "mod" is in our title, why we don't take money, why won't we drop everything and add XYZ feature someone really wants, etc. Those might be annoyances, but I think the benefits outway the annoyance... We're going to get our game to a lot of people out there that understand what we're doing and can start contributing FMs and content that could never have known about it otherwise.

 

Great news.

 

And yes, I broadly agree. As long as the people behind the creation of TDM don't get overwhelmed by the notion they should pander to the users of a digital distribution service like Steam, and if they keep the project's vision on-point, I don't think TDM will be straying away from its atmosphere, design philosophy and development goals.

 

If anything, I find the idea that TDM could carve out a small community of niche genre fans over at Steam to be rather appealing. Steam has loads of problems nowadays (especially due to lax or murky administration), but when a well-working, civil community of players gets its start over there, it usually works fine. I hope this will be the case for TDM's fans on Steam.

[DarkRadiant 2.2.1 released]

There's the portable 32 bit version: https://github.com/codereader/DarkRadiant/releases/download/2.2.1/darkradiant-2.2.1-x86.portable.7z

It's still kind of supported, although I don't know whether anyone is still using that around here, since everything has been 64 bits since almost a decade now.

 

This is what the log says:

 

2017-03-03 23:17:58 (5172) ModuleLoader: Loading module 'C:/Program Files/DarkRadiant/modules\archivezip.dll'

2017-03-03 23:17:58 (5172) GetProcAddress failed: 'RegisterModule'

2017-03-03 23:17:58 (5172) GetLastError: 00710F18 WARNING: Could not find symbol RegisterModule in module C:/Program Files/DarkRadiant/modules\archivezip.dll:

 

This is unusal. Either the DLL files are entirely corrupt or something is preventing DR from accessing the modules.

 

Do you have any chance of running the x64 version instead of the 32 bit one? What OS type are you running?

 

Ouch ! My pride has taken a hit.

 

It's ironic, really. I originally wanted to buy a 64-bit Win 7, but someone talked me out of it and I've been saddled with a 32-bit ever since. Given that no new licenses are on sale, I'm stuck with 32-bit for the foreseeable future. (I have my qualms about moving to 10.)

 

I'm glad we've found the issue, though.

 

I've uploaded a fixed x86 build for you, grab it here: https://github.com/codereader/DarkRadiant/releases/tag/2.2.1

 

You're the best ! Thank you. Glad to have been part of this little investigation.

 

I've just tested the x86/32-bit installer version of 2.2.1, and it's working like a charm.

[DarkRadiant 2.2.1 released]

No, the modules have been there from the beginning.

 

The map files are not touched until you load them through the menus, your DR instance is crashing far earlier than that.

 

Does the portable version work for you?

Can you show the contents of your darkradiant.log file after it crashed? It's in the AppData\blah\Roaming\DarkRadiant folder.

 

All right. I'll try to find the portable version if this one keeps failing.

 

For the time being, though, here's the download link to that apparent log of my DR crashes.

 

Maybe I need a new Visual C++ redistributable ? Is that the issue ?

 

Here's a screenshot of my current modules folder in DR:

 

Hope it helps.

 

Is 32-bit still supported ? I downloaded and installed the 32-bit (x86) version of 2.2.1. I can't find a portable version for 32-bit, only 64-bit.

[DarkRadiant 2.2.1 released]

I think I might have had a similar problem when I was trying to get 2.0.2 to work back in the day. However, this time, it seems to be less surmountable than when I was fixing 2.0.2.

 

What I know:

- when I uninstalled 2.0.2, it didn't seem to leave anything behind, the whole DarkRadiant folder was gone from Program Files

- removing the DR folder in AppData/Roaming after installing 2.2.1 does nothing to get DR going

- the wavefront.dll doesn't appear in either modules or plugins.

- loading of DR fails at "initialising modules"

 

What I don't know:

- are the modules a brand new feature in DR ? I haven't worked on maps in DR for a while, so I don't remember.

- whether my existing map folders and map files (in darkmod/maps) are messing with 2.2.1 in one way or another

 

Here's what my DR poster looks like now:

[DarkRadiant 2.2.1 released]

No wavefront.dll.

 

Does it make a difference if I have 2.2.1 installed in Program Files ?

[DarkRadiant 2.2.1 released]

I've uninstalled my previous DR version (2.0.2) yesterday and installed 2.2.1. When I click the launch icon, it gets to "Initialising Modules" and then displays the warning "An unhandled exception occured. Press "Abort" to terminate the program, "Retry" to exit the program normally...", etc. When I Abort, it tells me "***Caught unhandled unknown exception; terminating".

 

Any thoughts on where I messed up ? Maybe the previous map folder is clashing with the new content and I need to nuke my old maps ?

[TDM Updater stuck in loop]

Just checked it. Everything went by fast, finished itself normally, things seem to be fully updated and fine. Off to test 2.05...

[TDM Updater stuck in loop]

Probably just the size of the files that need to be checked for bad date encoding. Run it once more and if it does the same thing, I will suggest that you are done.

 

Sound advice. I'll run it once more to check it. Be right back.

[TDM Updater stuck in loop]

A possible related problem: I'm at the end of the whole updating process.

 

"Performing cleanup setups.". etc.

 

More in the following picture:

 

 

"Your TDM installation is up to date."

 

But the green "working on it" bar still isn't at the end. And I already have a "Show Log" and "Close" button available, not to mention the size (388.6 MB) fitting the update size.

 

Is something wrong ? Should I run the updater again ? Besides this one issue, everything ran absolutely fine.

[Darkmod: Inspiration thread]

Not really a visual bit of inspiration, but a good bit of narrative/plot inspiration to mission makers nonetheless. Recently, I stumbled upon the following article on archaeological and ethnographic research conducted in Poland:

Apotropaic Practices and the Undead: A Biogeochemical Assessment of Deviant Burials in Post-Medieval Poland

These are one of those archaeological finds where contemporary scientists can clearly see the influence of period folk culture and folkloric superstitions even on burial practices. Throughout European history, there was a bit of a recurring fear in many cultures about deceased people becoming undead and haunting the living, either physically or in semi-ghostly form. This was doubly true for individuals suspected of dabbling in magic, cursing others, etc. Some of the latest examples of such public hysteria occured in the early 18th century in central Europe, including Poland. In fact, despite the medieval period often getting a bad rep about being all obsessed with witchhunts.

Here's an intriguing excerpt from the beginning of the paper's abstract:

 

Apotropaic observances-traditional practices intended to prevent evil-were not uncommon in post-medieval Poland, and included specific treatment of the dead for those considered at risk for becoming vampires. Excavations at the Drawsko 1 cemetery (17^th–18^th c. AD) have revealed multiple examples (n = 6) of such deviant burials amidst hundreds of normative interments.

 

I suppose this could work in a mission where the protagonist arrives in a village or small town where locals desecrated the freshly or already burried, just to "make sure they won't become undead and eat us in our sleep" or something similarly morbid. Maybe the author could add a plot twist, where some suspected deceased person really is just a red herring and victim of the locals' superstitition, all the while real undead/vampiric/beastly/whathaveyou monsters lurk in the surrounding wilderness. Given the esthetics of TDM's setting and society, an idea like this could be worked into a mission's plot fairly easily.

[Using Springheel's 2.05 Modules [download in OP]]

Just finished watching the video. I love all the new object variety that's now available for modular building !

 

This exact style of piecing together smaller sceneries reminds me a lot of what Frictional did with their level editors for Amnesia and SOMA. I have experience in both, so I welcome we'll now have further accessories like this for smaller-scale building in Dark Radiant. I always fret creating bigger buildings from scratch, after already mucking about with the base level. This will help alleviate that minor "wish I could do this a bit swifter" annoyance.

[Builder Voices?]

It seems like a long-shot but I've heard FenPhoenix do some great builder voices in his videos. Perhaps you could ask him?

 

I'm definitely in favour of this, as long as Fen expresses interest now or in the near future.

[Darkmod: Inspiration thread]

I live near the complex of a Pschiatric Hospital named Costiujeni in Chisinau.

It has a an impressive array of buildings reminaing from the end of the XIX-'th century and twin water towers built circa 1904. A despaired gasp of failed and much too late attempts at reform inside the falling Russian Empire.

 

Quite an interesting semi-industrial design. I especially like the two water towers.

[Darkmod: Inspiration thread]

Crumbling building surrounding a gloomy courtyard. Rooftops. Thick, climbable pipes. Windows you can peer through to spy on people. A tucked away terrace high above, leading into someplace interesting.

 

Whoever lives there, needs to repair that poor facade. At least on the terrace.

[Fan Mission: Requiem by Gelo "Moonbo" Fleisher (2013/10/6)]

Finished it, on Easy difficulty. Really, really excellent and thorough design, with some great use of ambient music, a well-paced gradual revealing of the narrative, plenty of originality in the environments, new types of adversaries and their weaknesses. It deserved its win in that SE/Eidos official contest you sent it too.

I think the mission only has two flaws (subjective from my point of view):

 

1.) The cursed warriors guarding the citadel that turn invisible in the dark are a conceptually very neat enemy, but by the end of the FM, I realised evading them is also very difficult and demanding. It started seeping out the fun from my experience and even got me seriously annoyed at one point. I think the issue is that TDM doesn't have much directional audio, so other than rough distance, it's hard to estimate what direction the enemy is approaching from.

2.) The puzzles were a bit tricky to figure out. Lighting the coloured flames confused me at first, because I didn't realise they're also located on some of the side platforms that were accessible via a bit of lucky mantling. I also felt the readables I've found (I read every single one) didn't adequately explain or hint at what the player has to do in order to destroy the Soul Jar. At first, I wasn't even sure where to locate the furnace and it took me a few minutes to realise I need to visit the adjacent wing and try my luck there. Also, that's when I ran into the most problems with the invisible warriors.

 

Also, P.S.:

 

The epilogue parts of the FM are phenomenal, from the background music to the short cutscenes, it just comes together so perfectly. Once the peaceful music kicked in, it felt like a genuine relief, after all that effort to defeat the curse of those necromancers. True story: To further the catharsis factor and deal with my previous frustration from the temple parts of the FM, I actually gathered all the deceased undead warriors and threw them in the lava furnace, then locked it again. Might seem pointless and excessive, but I felt they needed a burial of some sort now that their souls had found peace.

My stealth score for this mission wasn't exemplary by a long shot, but after having finally finished it, I'm sure I'll do a bit better when I retry it some time in the future.