Petike the Taffer

D'oh, should have known it was that one option ! I'm now having issues with grouping the four lock brushes and the door brush, turning them into door mover, then trying to move the centre of the mover entity. Moving the centre (to the corner of the door) doesn't work now, whereas it had previously, when I only used the main door brush. But I can't leave the door brush without the lock brushes attached. The door without them looks unconvincing and they'll just float in the air if I don't couple them with the main door brush. Is there no way to merge the brushes into a single door and then set this composite door to work together as a single entity ?

Is it possible to remove a door mover entity from a brush door once you've added it ? I have a separate lock element to my door and I forgot to group it with the door brush while I was making said brush into a door entity. And now I'm not sure how to remove the entity from the brush and add it to all five brushes that the door consists of, sans handle. Also, where does one find the Bind function in DR ? The tutorials describe it as if it was the easiest thing in the world, but the interface of the editor barely has any mention of a Bind function. Not even the Entity Inspector, where I'd expect it, nice and handy. It's rather frustrating trying to find the control for something as basic as attaching an entity handle to the brush door. A really weird thing to get stuck on.

Thank you both. I was thinking primarily of typical, right-angled stairwells, but that spiral staircase tutorial will also come in handy whenever I need to build the interior of a tower or such.

It's been some two years, and even the base game has now been expanded quite a bit, but I'm still working on finding some time to update and finally finish my translation. Most of the GUI stuff was already translated in-depth by the beginning of 2016. Ever since I've gradually updated to new versions of TDM, I've also expanded the translation accordingly. My main bugbear is starting anew each time a new version comes out - I can't use the same language file, so I have to copy the existing stuff anew every single time TDM gets a new version. Me and Anderson have also struggled a bit with finding certain lines in the more recent versions. I can't seem to find the line that has the title of the inventory grid (and obviously, I wouldn't like to leave a single control key untranslated in the settings menu). At this point, the missions need the most work, especially the newer one that now precedes The Tears of St. Lucia in the mini-campaign. I'll attempt to find some time for working on (and if all goes well, finishing) the translation in November. Hopefully I'll be able to meet a deadline at least by the time TDM 2.07 rolls around.

I've heard good things about DCE. Might try it once I finish other TMA FMs I'm currently playing.

I'd like to ask for tips about building convincing staircases faster. I'm still trying to get the hang of it and not sure if I'm doing it right. What are some size limitations for a single step, especially in terms of its height ? I wouldn't want to build a staircase that the player or NPCs can't walk on.

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).

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.

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 ?

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

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. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

We shall see...

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.

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. 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.

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.

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:

No wavefront.dll. Does it make a difference if I have 2.2.1 installed in Program Files ?

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 ?

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

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

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.