Snehk

Working on my own game was one of my biggest goals since I had started modding. I'd tinkered with many different engines, from id Tech 1 to Unreal Engine 4. About one year ago I wrote a design document for a slasher/rpg game with stealth elements and worked on it off and on since then. At first I wanted to develop it on Darkplaces (fork of id Tech 1), but then I moved to Storm Engine 2 (fork of id Tech 4 BFG). Coming from Half-Life modding and then older engines, working with numerous separate software, building levels with either brushes or models (or both) and having everything easily accessible feels much more natural for me than being able to do things only through an all-in-one editor. Sure it's convenient to have everything available in just one piece of software, but I prefer simpler interfaces designed for specific tasks. Back to the point, a lot of game mechanics suitable for my project is already in the Dark Mod engine: Excellent stealth mechanics.Stim-response system.Greatly improved AI.Climbing.Item manipulation.Readables.Grid based inventory.Interesting combat system.Porting it all to other forks would take much more time than developing on the engine that is already quite advanced, and which would get a huge boost with release of 2.06 stable version, so it seems to be a great base for my project. There are several things that I'd like to know first: TDM is mission-based, is level transition functionality still there or does it have to be brought back? What are the base assets required by the engine to run at all? Are they the same as for GPL id Tech 4? Would I be allowed to use base entity .defs and scripts from TDM? Not everything, but most of the world building entities. Would I be allowed to use TDM shaders as well?The aim is to release a completely free, open-source game. This is a hobbyist, one-man-team non-commercial project, and I'd want to get to working on assets as fast as possible (once I'll finish my FM). All things possibly taken from TDM would be referenced, and any help from the community will be appreciated.

I thought about making the whole ship using patches and brushes, but brushing out it's rooms and modeling out the exterior won't be a big problem.

Changed the layout and rebuilt the warehouse in Black Death. It's much larger and split into three sections now, and there's a second floor where offices will be located. The map is going to feature a fully explorable ship at some point. I think that plans of "The Northwind" would serve as a good reference for inquisition's ship, but I'm open for any suggestions.

This thread will be dedicated to asking questions, sharing ideas and suggestions, and uploading assets and WIP screenshots of my fan missions. All assets posted herein by me will be available for use in any fan mission project, as well as projects not related with The Dark Mod, with only restriction being leaving a proper reference to their author (me) in project's readme. Link to assets: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14OLDIzR3igIm-6-KEZfqKhcymp3MH2ML?usp=sharing

I'm getting back on tracks with this after quite a long while. I decided to change the layout of the mission and started working on buildings. Made a base for a small, short-term storage building. There are several things to improve and add, but it's already optimised for use.

I'm planning to work on a few models, not only for TDM but also id Tech 4 in general. I'm not sure how a rig for player or character model should look like, what differences there'd be between them and if model bones would require a specific name (e.g. for IK). I know that there is a series of videos on how to make such a model from scratch, but I prefer "traditional" tutorials over videos (and don't really have enough time to watch them). I also know about Arcturus' excellent rigs, but I'm interested in creating my own for any future project for TDM/Doom 3 engine. Can anyone provide me with vague information how to set up my own rig? A short explanation and a few screenshots will be greatly appreciated!

I think it should be possible with a few changes in the code. Full GUI functionality is still in the code and is used for world surfaces. Too bad I don't have enough time to tinker with it right now, and I guess I'll be busy until this weekend. I'll send a message to OpenTech Engine guys, they have changed Flash to CEGUI, so they should be able to give me a hint how to make the engine work on both. I, think that changing a few functions would only be required to make the engine use both (flash if gui files are not found and vice versa), but I'm not sure about it.

The base is still WIP, and I've got higher priority things over my head right now. You may want to use dark radiant for most editing though, and only use the GUI editor from the executable. Dark Radiant is excellent for most editing and has a nice particles editor. Geometry of player model is done, UV Mapping is not a problem. Texturing will be kept simple, like a flood fill. I'm considering giving it a shadow mesh as well. I'll have a few troubles rigging it, but I may simply export player rig from Doom 3 or Darkmod for reference. Next I'll work on example levels to demonstrate how entities work. I'll also work on some more assets, like more particles, water textures etc. Basic tutorials will be done in the future as well. Currently the engine (like any other BFG fork) uses Flash for menus, HUD and PDAs. I'm considering dropping support for it and getting back to old Doom 3 GUI files. Restoring GUI for HUD is a matter of few edits in Player.cpp but things get more complicated when it comes to PDAs and menus. The reason to replace Flash is that it's deprecated and uses old ActionScript, but most importantly: Only one person have ever reverse-engineered Flash menus on this engine. Motorsep spent half a year on it, and I really appreciate the effort, but I'm not really keen on spending just as much time on learning how it all works. When I started messing with Doom 3 GPL and made my base from scratch, I was able to make a simple screen with map launching button in a few minutes, using reference scattered across the web. I still haven't delved into Flash, but I guess that it won't be so easy. Ideally, there should be two branches - master with Flash, and a separate GUI branch for all those magicians, stubborn fools like me, or Doom 3 modding veterans.

I'll either fork the engine and upload Windows 32bit binary (tools have issues on 64bit, but that's the only problem with it), or simply add them with next commit. It'll be most probably today. There's also the issue that currently the base is more suited for developers generally familiar with Doom 3, Quake 4 or Darkmod, and that the quality of test level is not that good. I put it up quickly mostly due to not having too much time to work on stuff during week. But now that I've made the repository, I can slowly make improvements. I'll be working on player model right now to remove the need for coding hacks, then I'll work on example maps showing how all the entities work. EDIT: Added binary and source code with latest commit.

The link is in features section in point 1, where I mentioned minimal required assets. It's a link to Motorsep's repository. But I'll update the readme to make it clearer later this day. Once I'll get through early maintenance issues and add player model, I'll start working on entity demonstration maps (current test level is more like asset demonstration), and beginner level tutorials.

List of improvements is on the engine source code repo. There is a link to it in dev base readme. I'm working on test player model - geometry is mostly done, I still need to UV map and texture it. Then I'll add a shadowmesh, animate the model and rig it. Next I'll have to add defs for it. Adding a player model will completely remove the need for any coding hacks, so you'll only need a binary to use the base. It won't take that long to do simple test model, but I don't have a lot of time to work on it. I'm giving myself a deadline of two weeks to commit the model.

I'd still have to upload changed source code with it. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html#GPLRequireSourcePostedPublic

It's a simple base asset pack basing on minimum required assets shipped with Storm Engine 2. It's aim is to allow starting development quickly - a quick start base containing placeholder textures and simple assets that can be reverse engineered to see how to make something like this. It also provides entity defs, giving mappers entities to work with. I'm using Motorsep's engine. He's still around idtechforums, but I don't know if he's doing anything related to his engine, Doom 3 or development at all. The reason I haven't included binary is not to release the source code again (GPL - if you release a binary, you must release code) - there already is a repository for that, and the change that you need to do in Player.cpp is a minor hack, not a solution. The real solution would be providing the base with player model, which is something I'll do eventually. After some time I'll work it into base for general idTech4 engine. I can send you a binary I compiled myself if you wish to check it without any compiling.

Something I posted on idtechforums just a while ago. I hastily made some simple assets, defs, materials and a basic level to create a quickstart base for anyone willing to try Storm Engine 2. It lacks a player model, but there's a workaround I described in it's readme. Letting those files simply rot on my hard drive would be pointless, even if no one is going to use it. https://github.com/Snehk/SE2DevBase

Thanks for the tips! I'll probably start mapping this weekend, as college takes my time efficiently. I have enough time to plan the level though. I'm starting with general layout of streets - a bit simplified, but it should suffice for it's purpose. Once I'll be happy with the layout, I'll flesh it out more and start working on layouts of each buildings that player would be able to access. I'm using Inkscape for layout design part (vector graphics, exported into .png for this preview). There is no ship on the map yet, I'll add it later. Player would be able to take multiple routes during this mission, the wide empty area would be more built up with different objects, while some of alleys leading to docks proper would be barricaded and guarded due to quarantine.

Recently I've got an idea to start working on my own fan mission. Mixing elements of dark and grim dock area of T:DS, a good old warehouse mission and T:G Old Quarter. Black Death: Dead need no gold Story: You have been contacted by a client who wants you to steal some valuables that just shipped into Bridgeport's docks. A big load of golden items and a unique gem within them. They were about to be loaded next day, but ship of inquisition arrived, bringing a mysterious disease to city. Dock area was quickly overwhelmed by undead. This means that you won't deal with regular guards, and risks of contracting the disease are high. You may expect a squad of inquisition trying to reclaim a valuable item from their ship, as it costed them an expedition that lasted a few months. Objectives: Sneak into docks. Find a way to warehouses. Steal at least 500/1000/1500 out of 2000 gold. Steal the unique gem. Check the ship of inquisition for the mysterious item (optional). Escape docks. This'll be my first FM. I'm familiar with Doom3 mapping (a bit lacking on scripting side though), but any help will be appreciated.

I wasn't able to check Dark Mod's sources until today. Checked only Player.h and Player.cpp, but I can say that it's easy to identify changes made in the code, especially that they are well commented and the code is readable as well. It should take some time to learn the codebase, but it'd be worth it even if it'll be only for educational purposes.

Thanks for replies and information! Jumping right into the code and exploring is my preferred method, along with word searches. And since most of the id Tech 4 code is well commented and self explanatory (I hope I can say the same about DarkMod sources), you can get results quite quickly (like disabling spawnargs to load a map without need for player model, or how to change Flash Hud to GUI). As for AI, I'm thinking about porting it whole. I already checked how it works on wiki, and think that the implementation is just golden and any project or prototype could benefit greatly from using it. DarkMod sources are really great base for RPG, slashers and (obviously) stealth projects.

Hello! I'm new to the forums, and not sure if I should post this topic in this section... I'm interested in porting some of gameplay mechanics from The Dark Mod to Storm Engine 2 (or use as reference for recreating them) - namely AI improvements, movement, grabbing and manipulating objects, and combat. I already checked wiki and downloaded sources, but it would be much quicker if someone could point me in some direction or which files I'll need to modify. This is for general tinkering with code and building project prototypes. I already have minimal base assets required to load a level (minimum requirements for engine to launch at all was provided by developer, but building on that still took a while). While I'm at development side of things - after getting through some fan missions, I'll most likely make my own. I really love Thief series and The Dark Mod and appreciate the effort you put into this game!