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I was just giving this another go, and it seems neither fs_game nor fs_game_base set the actual engine's path. This is the problem I was having before. Looking at other game types in the drop down menu (in the Game Setup window), some of them show that fs_game sets the "Mod" (Mission ) and fs_game_base sets the "Mod Base", and not the "Engine Path". (fs_game is actually useful for Dark Mod mapping, though, for working on multiple projects. Thanks a lot for that. ) What I really need is to launch DR with an engine path (and no Mod or Mod Base at all). Is there a parameter to do that?

I use hotkeys for filters, yes. If I had to access the menus every time I wanted to hide/unhide things I'd go insane. I wouldn't toggle them on/off nearly as much as I do, and my workflow would be slower and more limited. As an example, I very often toggle visportals on/off for adjustments, or func_statics for inspecting world geometry. And sometimes I have to turn off all filters so that I'm 100% sure I'm copying or moving geometry properly, without leaving behind hidden clips, triggers, visportals, nodraws, etc. And then I have to re-hide all the things I like to keep hidden. I don't know about your workflow, but 99% of the time, I keep collisions, shadows, sky, visportals, triggers, nodraws, and also caulks, all hidden and out of my way. With hotkeys I just press alt and a bunch of keys in succession, and it takes me seconds. With menus it would take a while. There's no way I could ever not use hotkeys. I'd go completely nuts. No, I'm saying they require more work than just simply creating a layer and putting stuff in it. And if you don't put a hotkey on it, it's also more work to use. I'm not saying you can't use them for that. I'm saying they're not the right tool for it. EDIT: Keep in mind that the example above is just one example. There's all sorts of things you might want to use that functionality I suggested for. And again, layers are map-specific. If you setup filters for layers (is that even really possible?), then your filters menu will grow, and become polluted with junk that only works on certain maps. And the more you do it, the worse it gets. Back when I could used that in Hammer, I always had quite a few layers per map that controlled visibility of specific groups of objects. When you can just go wild with it, you go wild with it.

I think that's just your specific assumption. You can use filters for very map specific things. It's not difficult or a lot of work to make them. So you're saying you use hotkeys for layers? I never use hotkeys for filters. Accessing them in the menu is just 2 clicks.

It's arguably quite a bit more work than just creating a layer and adding stuff to it. And then you'd have to also add it to a hotkey, to make it practical. Filters are good for things you want to keep as groups forever, not really for temporary or map-specific groups. One other problem with filters is that you can only have so many hotkeys. Any filters that aren't attached to hotkeys aren't practical to turn on/off, because you need to access the menu. (Ideally, filters and layers would be unified under the same system, because they are actually the very same thing. I went into this in more detail here. I'm not expecting that to be done in DR, though. It might be a lot of work. But I could be wrong.)

New script for mappers: my flavour of a fog density fading script. To add this to your FM, add the line "thread FogIntensityLoop();" to your map's void main() function (see the example in fogfade.script) and set "fog_fade" "1" on each foglight to enable script control of it. Set "fog_intensity_multiplier" on each info_location entity to change how thick the fog is in that location (practically speaking it's a multiplier for visibility distance). Lastly, "fog_fade_speed" on each foglight determines how quickly it will change its density. The speed scales with the current value of shaderParm3, using shaderParm3 = 1000 as a baseline. So i.e. if shaderParm is currently at 1/10th of 1000, then fade speed will be 1/10th as fast. Differences to Obsttorte's script: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/14394-apples-and-peaches-obsttortes-mapping-and-scripting-thread/&do=findComment&comment=310436 my script uses fog lights you created, rather than creating one for you. Obsttorte's script will delete the foglight if entering a fogfree zone and recreate it later more than one fog light can be controlled (however, no per-fog-light level of control) adding this to the map requires adding a line to your void main() script, rather than adding an info_locations_settings entity with a custom scriptobject spawnarg in my script, mappers set a multiplier of fog visibility distance (shaderParm3), while in Obsttorte's script a "fog_density" spawnarg is used as an alternative to shaderParm3 smaller and less compactly written script fogfade.scriptfogfade.map

Now that I've finished The Black Parade, I'm definitely open to checking out more NewDark era missions. I want to see what other ideas are possible now that the Dark Engine has been unchained.

@The Black Arrow

Regarding worldspawn "forceAllShadowsBehindOpaque" set to "1", it doesn't seem to get restored on game load. To reproduce (works with any fixed mission using "forceAllShadowsBehindOpaque"): Add "forceAllShadowsBehindOpaque" "1" to the worldspawn in the map file. From main menu, "Start this Mission" or "Restart Mission". setviewpos Notice that the light leak is fixed (not present). Save game. Load game. Notice that the light leak is present (not fixed). Example 1. From main menu, "Start this Mission" or "Restart Mission". 2. Run setviewpos. 3. Save game. 4. Load game.

I like to imagine that Tasteless Bert is at least acquainted with the guy in The Black Mage with the ... unique... taste in cakes.

Here's my first FM. A small and easy mission, inspired by Thief's Den and The Bakery Job, where you must find and steal a cook's recipe book in order to save a friend from going out of business. Download: Mediafire (sk_cooks.pk4) TDM Website's Mission Page The in-game mission downloader Thanks to: The people who helped me get this far, both in the forums and on Discord. The beta testers: MirceaKitsune, Mat99, Baal, wesp5, Cambridge Spy, jaxa, grodenglaive, Acolytesix ( Per the author in the beta testing thread. ) Skaruts has given permission to the TDM Team to add Subtitles or Localization Strings to this mission. (No EFX Reverb.) If anyone from the Community or TDM team wishes to create these we will gladly test them and update the mission database.

With TDM 2.12, after the credits finished, the "Mission Complete" screen did not display. I found that the screen was black and I could hear my footsteps when I tried to move around. I think the reason for the mission not completing successfully was that the "Do not kill or harm allies" objective was never marked as "1 = STATE_COMPLETE" instead it was left as "0 = STATE_INCOMPLETE". Note, I didn't use noclip throughout the mission. Same as: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/18054-fan-mission-the-accountant-2-new-in-town-by-goldwell-20160509/&do=findComment&comment=458491

How about using TDM automation framework (and maybe pcem/qemu)? More info see: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/19828-automation-features-and-discussion/

Thanks. Linux user and I play TDM at least weekly: Never noticed any physics issues myself, whatever happened in the FM must be a relatively rare scenario... that's a FM I haven't revisited so I was lucky to miss the bug then. There is in fact a little problem in latest Beta, though it's so small I didn't bother to document it carefully, but I'll share the idea of it at least: If you climb into a tight space between an object and the ceiling and turn on the flashlight, jumping may cause the light to phase through the floor and disappear temporarily. Say you have a crate pressed against a ceiling where you can only climp and go in while crouched... if the surface is high enough to allow a jump but just low to force you to be crouched, you'll see the light source of the lantern disappear temporarily in mid air. Think I saw it in The King Of Diamonds, if it's important I'll boot it up again and noclip to get a viewpos. Just to make sure you've seen my mention: Please check my message a few posts above where I attached a log, we have a crash where killing AI with a broadhead arrow can cause the engine to go down with a "tried to free uncached trace model" error... not even a main menu crash but one to the OS. It's pretty rare but if you fatally shoot AI often enough it will occur eventually.

I can see that as a design choice, but the practical problem is pretty striking: If you're looking at a readable and an AI mutters something nearby, the subtitles will cover the text on your readable. It's the game's equivalent of someone putting their palm in front of your face while you're reading a book. Since subtitles are secondary, layering behind readables would make sense... or even better, disable subtitles while readables or the inventory menu are open.

An issue worth mentioning I'm sure others have observed: When reading a readable, subtitles of nearby AI can cover it and make it harder to read the text. Can be quite annoying, would definitely layer them behind readables and the inventory menu and so on.

What do you mean by 'transparent'? You mean filter them out? If so you can already do that from the 'Filter' menu item at the top of the screen.

New version is up. Here's what's new: A high quality version of the intro video Subtitles made by datiswous Kingsals new footstep sounds (from his excellent Volta missions) are included (with his permission) Background image and ambience (music by Gigagooga) in the main menu The climbable vines were made more noticeable Removed the absence markers from all the loot. Guards wont be seemingly randomly alerted anymore Better textures in a few selected places Some model updates/improvements made by Bikerdude 3 new hidden loot items A lot of unnecessary files where removed from the package A lot of smaller fixes

I'm thinking a mission that is really as small as possible: one-room, one-puzzle, one single environment, indoors, no guards. Maybe something like get-the-candle-out-of-the-box in the Training Mission. Maybe some boxes and barrels to try some climbing and mantling. If by "menus", you refer to the Main menu GUI, then I'm thinking as basic as possible there too: white text on black background for a start.

People who don't like them can disable them and leave only Story subtitles On. I think we should move all the "(sign)" and "(clear throat)" to Effect level and add one more level to the menu. I definitely don't need to see them on my screen. Finally, some volume cutoff is needed I think. The problem with implementing it right now is that the engine does not determine effective volume. If you look at alpha of location ring (which is volume based), it is very different in the New Job conversation (about girls behind inn). I hope to fix this in some future...

To cater to both audiences. I mentioned LibreGameWiki as one example. nbohr1more mentioned other uses. Explicitly allowing reuse and spread will help TDM reach a wider audience and would hopefully attract more volunteers. More volunteers which can help improve both TDM versions. There are several benefits for a project of being in the Debian repo. One is that TDM Debian-users can report defects on any package directly to Debian (no need to register on separate forums). Debian may then fix the issue themselves (in their "TDM-libre" package) and will offer the patch upstream to TDM, who can then choose to accept or reject the patch. I envision "TDM-libre" to have the same capability of downloading any mission as regular TDM. The only difference is that "TDM-libre" would come packaged with the regular engine (which is GPL+BSD) and an included mission that has libre media/gamedata. When I play TDM by myself, I want the unlimited-play and can accept commercial restrictions. But if I were to promote it somewhere, or charge for a stream when playing online, or make a video, I would want a version without commercial restrictions (and can temporarily accept limited-play) to make sure I don't violate anyone's copyright. Perhaps. That's what I'm trying to find out.

Got to try it out with an older FM: Very nice stuff to see! Looks good for the most part: If anything I think there are a few issues with certain punctuation making sense... other than that, only change I'd like to see is a more stylized dialog box instead of a flat background, still black and transparent and subtle but better themed and maybe using a more appropriate font.

I think it should be a menu option, or else someone will open a new bug report in a few months asking that we switch back again.

I suggest you use the term "I", to make clear that it is something YOU want, and that you speak for yourself. But, as wesp5 mentioned, I don't really know what this is about, at all. And, I'm also wondering about all the newly registered people lately, who just arrived at this forum, and already want to revolutionize this mod. This is a thing I noticed 2 or 3 years ago, and which hasn't been present in the 15 years I play this mod and frequent these forums now. Really seems like a common thing these days, to not knock on the door, but kick it in, and stomp right in.

When talking about a possible libre version of TDM (https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22346-libre-version-of-tdm/) it seems we believe all media/gamedata included in TDM is licensed CC-BY-NC-SA. I am not familiar with how the process of adding new media/gamedata works today; I have seen files uploaded to the bugtracker which developers then commit to SVN, but I don't know if there are other ways. It may be a good idea to implement a process that when new components (media/gamedata included in TDM) are added, the contributor is asked to be explicit about the license (a choice which may defaults to their previous preference, for usability). It won't fix the past, but it may help in the future. This will make it easy for contributors to add future data under a more permissive license if they choose. Libre media can be added and its license can be tracked, rather than assumed to be CC-BY-NC-SA. I suggest looking at how Wikimedia Commons has implemented this: the contributor state the source and license at the time the data is uploaded. This can be done either by providing urls or by saying "It's my work and I choose this licsense". The first step could be to add a way to keep track of each filepath in SVN, author, license, sources. Start by setting the value for each file's license to "(default/legacy CC-BY-NC-SA)". Possible implementations for a user interface for new additions are: * Use our own wiki, which runs Mediawiki (same as Wikimedia Commons). I see several benefits of this, but we also need a way to accept uploads of batches, not just single files. * Look at how other open source projects have solved this. There may be more appropriate solutions available. ... but I'll leave the implementation open. Suggestions are very welcome! If the author of each file already in SVN can be tracked, then it may be possible that the author is willing to give a blanket permission for all their past files in one statement, and all their files in SVN can be updated in one commit. A productive contributor willing to release some of their work under a more permissive license could make a big change. If Dark Radiant would support letting mappers search media/gamedata by license (does it already?), it would make it easier for mappers to create a completely libre mission, which would help facilitate a TDM-libre release. If I understand things correctly. This post does not address all details and it may contain misunderstandings or assumptions, but it's a start. Also relevant: * Is there a compiled and maintained list of recommended or deprecated resources for mappers to use? * https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20311-external-art-assets-licensing/