nbohr1more

1) 3Dc decompression is supported in hardware so there is no performance hit for using it. 2) 3dc compresses much more data than DDS so the amount of video ram (and file size) are significantly reduced 3) That extra RAM can be used for more Geometry data (bigger missions) or Post Processing buffer space...

I always felt that Aida was an exaggeration, an online persona intentionally created to imbue some imagined character personality. I'm sure we all project these theatrical impressions of our intended personality whether we play "tough guy" or "too cool for school" or "sophisticated intellectual", Aida just seemed to be an extreme form of that. I would be highly amused if Aida and April are some game cooked-up by Springheel or... oDDity...?

If you could combine this with the 4GB patcher that LEGION provided (and helped to create St Alban's) that would be a nifty tool. Would incorporating an executable patcher in the mod be problematic legally? What other support might be patched-in this way ... hardware instancing ? This would be the ultimate prototyping method for your GPL wishes...

Thanks Rich! If I understand correctly, smoothing groups essentially use their geometric relationship to one another to enhance the accuracy of the Vertex positioning in a scheme somewhat akin to AA sampling (or, more apt, "cubemap normalization"). It would be interesting to know the ballpark percentage for how many vertices that method saves but I suppose it's all academic (and GPL will grant Doom 3 modders better things to enhance than "fixing smoothing group support" anyway...)

That's a good clarification Springheel. That mean's that a cave level made of LWO models (like Mad's Mountain) could be even further visually enhanced with the illusory curvature of smoothing (Vertex Normals).

If this article is correct then no smoothing works with LWO... (unless the bullets are part of the MD5 converter reference): http://www.modwiki.net/wiki/LWO_%28file_format%29

I have a fuzzy (but fairly certain) recollection that LWO doesn't have as many smoothing group options or the import doesn't retain them... I will double-check my modwiki references...

Either Patches: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Patches ...or imported ASE (preferable due to smoothing groups) or LWO models.

Is this one on the Upcoming Missions wiki or is it newer? ... Does it have a tentative name? Thanks...

Wikified! also De-Wikified (from the Upcoming wiki) also Posted a "News" item at Moddb (but it will probably be until Monday or Tuesday before they "authorize" it... )

Terrific work! I can't wait till I'm sneaking past this one in candle-lit room.

They consider any mainstream (commercial) publication "notable" so that should keep them from outright insta-deleting the article.

Yep this is an interesting matter. I wonder if Demagogue or someone with more legal understanding would say about having TDM listed on the Thief series wiki. Could that be used in a body of evidence to "prove" infringement? A standalone wiki entry would be cool but Mods do have problems with their notability requirements. The talk page has a Mods and Total conversions inquiry but nobody has responded to it. I suppose if no legal problems are imagined we can just bulldoze an entry into the Thief general series article and see if it gets edited into oblivion... ?

Double Post

Again, the interview would be quite a Popcorn munching affair... The opportunities for absurd humor, red-herrings, non-sequitors, conspiracy theory, and plain ole rivalry drama are almost endless. "Amidst our brood of diverse mission authors we have a habitual dissenter. He comes from the other side of the internet in a Russian forum, Darkfate.ru where members regularly share their antipathy towards our project. Shadowhide is his name and he has anointed himself with the task of showing other mission authors how to "properly" make a Dark Mod mission (...or prove that this task is impossible?). It's quite an enigma why someone would flaunt this goal in such a confrontational way. Most mission authors who feel that their peers are lacking would simply satisfy their own need and build their own mission rather than throw down the gantlet and provoke the mission making community..." It's such a great read. The interview could be complete nonsense. The answers could be nonsense.

That is looking fantastic! Another modeler contributing soon too!

I can't see it from work but a patterned specular map would be perfect for snow too...

Nope... Blocked at work... No problem, you can just email 'em and I'll update this evening...

Yes. Unless you have a nifty plus symbol on the Images section for The Dark Mod profile, I can just modify (or worse case) download and re-upload from your profile.

We need: Somewhere Over the City, The Rift, and The Builders Influence (Somewhere being prime to accompany the interview) Thanks!

Methinks AH wanted to change this thread rather thank the Moddb site. I was thinking of a gratuitous Top 100 "news" article but I need some screens to go with it mang... AH, can you upload some screens to your Moddb profile (can't touch webmail when @work)...

I have this strange impression that Shadowhide just wants us to be ruffians like the TTLG Comm Chat folk or like those crazies over at Quake3world where it's all confrontation all the time. Most of us are too polite to lend that flavor to this place. (It sure would be an interesting interview though: "Shadowhide, The TDM mission author who doesn't like TDM") ...

I remember some time in the late 90's there was a series of mysterious deaths for a bunch of top tier Scientists. (So a smear campaign is a light sentence for someone offending the powerful in comparison...) I agree however, simply an accusation of "Sex Crime" is too powerful a tool. Some bot-net infection could deposit "illegal photos" on my PC and I would be up for a Federal sentence for "hosting" them. Wikipedia was starting to get some of this heat because some Politicians were claiming the media sections had "child porn"... but then WikiLeaks drew attention away from them (for the moment). The idea that an enforcement agency could plant a photo or even illustration (cartoon etc) in your possession (or maybe even just claim that you possessed it), and that would be enough "evidence" to jail you is a scandalous subversion of the "Presumed Innocence" mechanism for modern western justice systems. When I saw a report on WikiLeaks on CNN this morning, you could actually sense some fear in the news anchor's voice when they brought-up the "Sex Crime" aspect of the story... as if they were under pressure to report it as a "real and serious investigation". It's a damn farce! If your job is to keep secrets secret then own-up to your short-comings with regard to these leaks rather than trying to stop the press. Yeah, WikiLeaks is often irresponsible journalism but the hysteria is all about the fact that this is happening on the internet rather than on paper. Thomas Paine would probably be in the same boat if he had a Blog. The war on real free expression and information continues.

I fiddled with the formatting options there but could only get the text in two sizes. I was thinking of fiddling with HTML sizing tags but site seems to chronically reject standard HTML or CSS code (even though there is a "Code" tool). I can't claim to be an expert in HTML so I won't knock things too badly. HappyCheeze (probably wisely...) didn't grant me the ability to edit other members' "edit permissions" so if yours are missing you will likely need to ping him.

At lease one more of Humus's concepts has been tried in Doom 3 Ambient Aperture Lighting Sikkpin claimed to have tried it in one of his Id Tech 4 shader packs but found it required a very specific normal map to work (too finicky): Sikkpin shaders (not the Test 5 stuff) Not that this is a technique I have any big concern about, I just think it's cool to know that this stuff can be done at all. (Plus the pack has a nice library of lighting models to play with...) I'm sure that folks like rebb and JC Denton have played with this stuff so it's kinda old hack but to me it's an interesting find anyway just for the Humus\Sikkpin connection.