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Hello folks, I wanted to share some work in progress comps for the main menu visual updates. (these were done a while ago) These are working in game, but are still just examples. I haven't looked into any of the more complicated menus (settings, mission downloader, slide show mission briefings, ect) Right now I am not planning on changing the UX, these are purely visual updates. EDIT: In-game menus have a requirement that we use the same text color. (so we dont break custom guis in-game) I'll post some mock ups of those soon. Let me know what you think! Using custom missions screenshot (curtesy of @Spooks) Btw this NOT volta 3 (i wish), its just a comp Using the default background art: Mock up of the store (needs some work to make more legible):

I just made an interesting discovery. In my FM that's in beta I have custom main menu music, but it doesn't always work. Basically it works: When you first start the game (whether the FM is currently selected or if you change to this mission and the game restarts) during the text briefing It doesn't work (i.e. you only get silence) When escaping back to the main menu while in-game After quitting a mission and it goes back to menu As far as I know I had all the correct settings in mainmenu_custom_defs.gui: /// Menu music after startup (not in-game) #define MM_MENU_SOUND_CMD "music fs_muslim;" /// Played in main menu when in-game (ESCaping out of the game) #define MM_INGAME_MENU_SOUND_CMD "music fs_muslim;" /// Played during non-video briefing #define MM_BRIEFING_SOUND_CMD "music fs_muslim;" It turns out the problem was I had this line set in the sound shader: leadin sound/ambient/ambience/silence.ogg Commenting that out on a hunch fixed the problem. So you might be saying to yourself 'that's all very interesting but who cares?'. My point is: Just an FYI in case someone else runs into this I don't think there is anywhere on the Wiki that covers menu customization? @Geep you've done a whole bunch around GUI scripting recently - is there somewhere you can recommend I can stick this?

For the people eager to play with the latest state of development, two things are provided: regular dev builds source code SVN repository Development builds are created once per a few weeks from the current trunk. They can be obtained via tdm_installer. Just run the installer, check "Get Custom Version" on the first page, then select proper version in "dev" folder on the second page. Name of any dev version looks like devXXXXX-YYYY, where XXXXX and YYYY are SVN revision numbers from which the build was created. The topmost version in the list is usually the most recent one. Note: unless otherwise specified, savegames are incompatible between any two versions of TDM! Programmers can obtain source code from SVN repository. Trunk can be checked out from here: https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src/trunk/ SVN root is: https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src Build instructions are provided inside repository. Note that while you can build executable from the SVN repository, TDM installation of compatible version is required to run it. Official TDM releases are compatible with source code archives provided on the website, and also with corresponding release tags in SVN. A dev build is compatible with SVN trunk of revision YYYY, where YYYY is the second number in its version (as described above). If you only want to experiment with the latest trunk, using the latest dev build gives you the maximum chance of success. P.S. Needless to say, all of this comes with no support. Although we would be glad if you catch and report bugs before the next beta phase starts

It's true, there's no real place on the Wiki for menu customization... it relies on comments in the mainmenu_custom_defs.gui. So I'd guess I'd recommend you do a bug report, to either add a comment to that .gui file about it, or, if it's really a bug, fix it.

Thanks! I am guessing that other fixes need to be done to "Shadows of Northdale: Act 1" ( launches to a black screen ) ?

Thought I would compile a list of tweaks & fixes from multiple sources for this game in an effort to help people get a playable experience, I will update this OP as we go. Minimum Requirements - Processor: Dual Core or Quad Core CPURAM: 4 GBGraphics: AMD Radeon 4800 series or NVidia GTS 250DirectX: Version 10Hard Drive: 20 GBRecommended Requirements - Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows 8 (32nit or 64-bit)Processor: AMD FX 8000 series, Intel Quad i7 Core or better CPURAM: 4 GBGraphics: AMD Radeon HD R9 series, NVidia GTX 660 series or betterDirectX: Version 11First recommened tweak for ALL 64bit Windows users - (dont know if this applies to linux users, yet) The latest update (1.2 b4116.4) fixes the slowdown issue but if people still having issue or have lower end systems there is not a tick box to force the use opf the 32bit exe.Second Recommended Tweaks for ALL 32/64bit Windows users - Enable "Exclusive FullScreen", this should improve your framerate across the board. - for me my FPS (min/max/avg) jumped from 32/62/53 to 41/64/58Graphics tweaks to Make the game run better - First things first - If you are experiencing bad graphics on a machine that can easily afford to run it better/smoother, set SSAA ‘Super Sampling Anti-Aliasing’ to low or off. The higher you set this setting, the more lag you will encounter in the game.Don’t take things for granted - The problem is the optimization of the game, even if your PC can handle everything max'd out, try keeping SSAA to low if you want a smoother gameplay experience.Flickering shadows, glichy graphics & disappearing menu buttons - If you are experiencing flickering shadows, glitchy graphics & disappearing menu items, make sure you are running the game on updated or the latest drivers for your gfx card.SLI/Crossfire fix - For now, make sure you run the game on a single GPU as SLI/Crossfire may be causing the disappearing graphics and flickering shadows.Framerate issues - There are a few things you can try to improve your FPS for thief. Firstly make sure that your GPU drivers are up to date and your system is not overheating or running hot. If you are running SLI/Crossfire, try disabling to see if there is a difference in performance. If you are using a laptop, make sure that your power adapter is plugged and your power setting in windows is set to performance.Common sense - It goes without saying that your system should be good enough to handle the game’s processing and rendering needs. If you are running any third party applications in the background like Dxtory, Shadowplay or FRAPS etc, your going to see a perf drop.Crashes after loading a stage - If Thief crashed after loading, make sure you verify the integrity of the game cache in Steam especially if you pre-loaded the game and tried to start it as soon as it unlocked.You may have to verify the files twice to make it work! If that doesn’t work, there is another workaround. I am not sure about this fix but it has helped a few to get rid of the crash, so I think it’s worth of a shot.The game crash can be associated with the virtual memory size. You should increase your virtual memory page file size to fix the issue.Game crashes to desktop and reboot - Make sure you have latest patch for the game installed. It fixes these random crashes and loading issues. If you pre-loaded the game, make sure you verify the integrity of the game cache. You may have to verify the files twice to make it work!Blackscreen when launching thief - can be one of two things - is associated with the missing files of the game. Verify the game cache and re-verify if the need be to get it running.Make sure Windows pagefile is enabled (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/w...#1TC=windows-7).Can’t Hear sound? No voices? (no, not the ones in your head) - Verify the integrity of the game cache. Download the language packs if need be. Make sure you have voices/music volume up in the sound settings of the game.You can also trying changing the advanced sound settings in Windows. Open Playback Devices, click on your Speakers and go to Properties. Now in enhancement levels, select CD/DVD quality and see if it helps.Thief won’t start? - Try logging into Steam after having logged out. It will help!Thief config tweaks - Disable motion blur - you will find relative file to edit in: Steam\steamapps\common\Thief\Engine\Config. You need to open the file by the name of “BaseEngine.ini” and then set the following values as such: "motionBlur=True" to "motionBlur=False""motionBluPause=True" to "motionBlurPause=False"Save the file and set it to "read-only".How to skip Intro Videos - Go to Thief\ThiefGame\Config and then Locate ThiefEngine.ini file and edit the following line"StartupMovies=PROG_GUI_Video.StartupVideoPlayer" to ";StartupMovies=PROG_GUI_Video.StartupVideoPlayer"Save the file and set it to "read-only".How to fix ‘Timed Fade’ option for HUD - While health, focus, inventory and ammo set to ‘Timed Fade’ option in game and HUD menu, the fade remains just 50% opacity. To fix this problem, go to ThiefGame\Config\ThiefUI.ini and find the lines- "mInvSelectionAlphaMin=XX" "mHealthAlphaMin=XX" "mFocusAlphaMin=XX" (XX being the default values) to "mInvSelectionAlphaMin=0.0f" "mHealthAlphaMin=0.0f" "mFocusAlphaMin=0.0f"Save the file and set it to "read-only".How to reduce Mouse Lag - The quick and easy fix to reduce mouse lag, run your game in Exclusive Fullscreen mode, go to graphic options and enable it. In case you don’t want to use this mode, then you must find BaseEndinge.ini and edit the following lines -"OneFrameThreadLag=TRUE" to "OneFrameThreadLag=FALSE"Save the file and set it to "read-only".Disable framerate smoothing - Go to Thief\ThiefGame\Config and then Locate ThiefEngine.ini file and edit the following lines"bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE" "MinSmoothedFrameRate=XX" "MaxSmoothedFrameRate=XX" (XX being the default values) to "bSmoothFrameRate=FALSE" "MinSmoothedFrameRate=0" "MaxSmoothedFrameRate=0"Save the file and set it to "read-only".Fix stuttering - can be done one of two ways -This tweak requires starting a new game, as changing the level streaming value will result in a crash upon loading if the save game file features a different level streaming value (such as starting the game with it on TRUE and changing it to FALSE along the way - switching from FALSE to TRUE will also result in a crash, so it's best to change this value only when starting a new game)! However, this should help eliminate both in-game and benchmark stuttering, as it does for the other games based on the UE3 engine.Go to Thief\ThiefGame\Config and then Locate ThiefEngine.ini file and edit the following lines -"bUseBackgroundLevelStreaming=XX" "UsePriorityStreaming=XX" "OnlyStreamInTextures=XX" to "bUseBackgroundLevelStreaming=FALSE" "UsePriorityStreaming=FALSE" "OnlyStreamInTextures=TRUE"Save the file and set it to "read-only".Improve texture streaming - Go to Thief\ThiefGame\Config and then Locate ThiefEngine.ini file and edit the following lines -"MipFadeInSpeed0=0.3" "MipFadeOutSpeed0=0.1" "MipFadeInSpeed1=2.0" "MipFadeOutSpeed1=1.0" to "MipFadeInSpeed0=0.0" "MipFadeOutSpeed0=0.0" "MipFadeInSpeed1=0.0" "MipFadeOutSpeed1=0.0"Save the file and set it to "read-only".Disable in-game fog - Go to Thief\ThiefGame\Config ThiefGame.ini and then find [Engine.WorldInfo] andgo to line 66And then change mbEnable=TRUE to mbEnable=FALSE and then save the file as read only.Reducing choppyness, aditional fix - Some users have reported that disabling Vsync the game is noticeably more fluid when compared to the default setting of double buffered.Game file hacks - (found on https://www.deadendthrills.com/forum/discussion/137/thief-tools-tweaks) 1. Goto Steam\steamapps\common\Thief\ThiefGame\CookedPCNG\ 2. Make a backup of thiefgame.u just in case 3. Download this utility: decompress.zip and unzip decompress.exe, put it anywhere. 4. Drag thiefgame.u onto decompress.exe you should now have a new thiefgame.u in \Steam\steamapps\common\Thief\ThiefGame\CookedPCNG\unpacked\ 5. Open \Steam\steamapps\common\Thief\ThiefGame\CookedPCNG\unpacked\thiefgame.u in a hex editor. (For example HxD) Disable Shroud and white flash - Goto Steam\steamapps\common\Thief\ThiefGame\CookedPCNG\Make a backup of thiefgame.u Download this utility: decompress.zip and unzip decompress.exe, put it anywhere.To disable shroud: Search for Hex-value: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CD CC 4C 3F 36 3D 00 Replace with Hex-value: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 36 3D 00To disable white flash: Search for Hex-value: 3E 9C DE F4 3E 9C DE F4 3E CD CC CC 3E A4 3D 00 Replace with Hex-value: 3E 9C DE F4 3E 9C DE F4 3E 00 00 00 00 A4 3D 00Tweaking "in shadow" proxy light: - disabling this is not recommended, so I added tweaks to reduce the range of the light instead. Search for Hex-value: 00 00 00 00 00 B4 43 14 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 28 for half range (180), Replace with Hex-value: 00 00 00 00 00 34 43 14 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 28 for 1/4 range (90), Replace with Hex-value: 00 00 00 00 00 b4 42 14 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 28To Disable "in light" proxy light: Search for Hex-value: 00 00 00 00 00 96 43 14 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 28 Replace with Hex-value: 00 00 00 0A D7 23 3C 14 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 28Save and fire up the game. Dxtory and other tools not working - Fps monitoring/benchmarking tools cause the game to crash - For the time being, may I suggest that you try running the game without these tools. And if you have any fix of your own related to the issue, please post your finding.Trainer with NOCLIP mode - tbc

The Black Mage ============================================================= Title: The Black Mage Filename: black_mage.pk4 Authors: Grayman, Jack Farmer Testers: datiswous, joebarnin, Shadow, Amadeus, madtaffer, wesp5 Release date: 24.12.2021 (version 1) - 05.03.2022 (version 2) - 23.12.2023 (version 3) Version: 3 (available via in game downloader) ============================================================= Grayman - Mapping, scripting & text for briefing video JackFarmer - Additional mapping & scripting, drafts for readables, conversations and in game comments Amadeus - Revision & editing of all readables, conversations and in game comments Dragofer, joebarnin, datiswous - Troubleshooting ============================================================= Voice Talents (in alphabetical order): AndrosTheOxen - Worried father / Counsel Lester Morlan (fincancial advisor to the lord) Bikerdude - Sami "Sausage" McNulty (the castle's chef) BoyLag - Percy Lockhard (the castle's chronicler) Goldchocobo - Robert (the son of the worried father) / Colton (a fallen Builder) Jedi_Wannabe - Friend of the worried father / Bennett (a fallen Builder) Malasdair - Lt. Godric (chief security officer) New Horizon - Lord Ewan Davenport (the Black Mage) Purgator - The Thief ============================================================= Paintings: New paintings provided by OGDA Grayman avatar painting created by Zerg Rush ============================================================= Assets: New kitchen equipment models provided by STRUNK ============================================================= Geometry: Selected cave architecture orginally created by Bikerdude & Dram for "Blackheart Manor" and later modified for "The Gatehouse" (rearranged with the orignal authors approval) ============================================================= Sound: Wind_rusting trees sound (main menu) taken from freesound.org produced by funwithsound "Madrigal" (briefing video) performed by Anthony Holborne Pub audience sound (briefing video) taken from freesound.org produced by yap-audio-production Footsteps sound (briefing video) taken from freesound.org produced by Nox_Sound Stand up from chair sound (briefing video) taken from freesound.org produced by kupp2 Tape-deck-startup sound (phonogram recording) taken from freesound.org produced by soundjoao Short metal scrape sound (phonogram recording) taken from freesound.org produced by Timbre Chains sound (phonogram recording) taken from freesound.org produced by arnaud-coutancier All other new ambient and sound fx recorded and produced by JackFarmer sometimes with altered sound effects/ambient sounds orginally produced by Gigagooga ============================================================= Video: Story board and sound arrangement by JackFarmer Briefing video produced by SirSmokeALot ============================================================= Known bugs: If you quicksave too soon after killing a fire elemental (within 4-5 seconds), the quickload crashes. (2.09 and 2.10) ============================================================= Production notes: Graymans's son gave this work in progress to the Dark Mod community according to grayman's will in June 2021. After discussions with Dragofer, I overtook this mission in June 2021 and started working on it in September 2021. Since I didn't know what else Grayman had planned, I made up my own story from the end of the briefing. The voice actors did an incredible job. Everyone I asked immediately agreed to complete this work of Grayman. This has now led to a fabulous eight voice actors taking part in this mission - from England, Ireland, Canada and the USA. ============================================================== Let's raise our glasses in Grayman's honor. Otherwise I wish you all happy holidays. Take care of yourself, your loved ones, and all of your friends.

============== -= IRIS =- ============== WELLINGTONCRAB TDM v 2.10 REQ Ver. 1.2 *For Maureen* -=- "Carry the light of the Builder, Brother. Unto its end." -Valediction of the Devoted "What year is this? Am I dreaming?" -Plea of the Thief Dear Iris, I am old and broken. When we were young it felt like the words came easily. Now I find the ink has long dried on the pen and I'm as wanting for words as coin in my purse. I can tell we are nearing the end of the tale; time enough for one more job before the curtain call... ============== -Installation- Requires minimum version of TDM 2.10 -Iris does not support mods or the Unofficial Patch- Download and place the following .pk4 into you FMs directory: Iris Download ============== *Thank you for playing. Iris is a large mission which can either take as quickly or as long as you are compelled to play. I hope someone out there enjoys it and this initial release is not completely busted - I tried the best I could!* *Iris both is and isn't what it seems. If commenting please use spoiler tags where appropriate. If you are not certain if it would be appropriate a good assumption would be to use a spoiler tag* *Support TDM by rating missions on Thief Guild: https://www.thiefguild.com/* ============== WITH LASTING GRATITUDE: OBSTORTTE - Whose gameplay scripts from his thread laid the foundation which made the mission seem like something I could even pull off at all. Also fantastic tutorial videos! DRAGOFER - Who built upon that foundation and made it shine even brighter! And whom also provided immeasurable quantities of help and encouragement the past couple years on the TDM discord. ORBWEAVER & GIGAGOOGA - For generously offering their ambient music up for use. EPIFIRE - Who lent me his fine trash and trash receptacle models. AMADEUS - Who was the first person who wasn't me to play the damn thing and provided his excellent editorial services to improving the readers experience playing TESTERS AND TROUBLESHOOTERS: AMADEUS * DATISWOUS * SPOOKS * ALUMINUMHASTE * JAXA * JACKFARMER * WESP5 * ATE0ATE * MADTAFFER * STGATILOV * DRAGOFER * KINGSAL * KLATREMUS - What can I possibly say? Playing this thing over and over again could not have been easy. Deepest thanks and all apologies. -=THANKS TO ALL ON THE TDM DISCORD AND FORUM=- ==SEE README.TXT FOR ADDITIONAL ATTRIBUTIONS & INFORMATION== HONORABLE MENTION: GOLDWELL - If I hadn't by chance stumbled into Northdale back in 2018/2019 I would probably still be trying to get this thing to work in TDS, which means it probably would not exist - though more details on that in readme. ============== Boring Technical Information: *This mission makes use of volumetric lighting in several scenes. While optional if you wish to see this feature enable the "maps" lighting model and I recommend you also disable image sharpening. If you do not like the effect or are concerned about performance use stencil shadows* *Iris is a performance intensive mission and I recommend a GTX 1060 or equivalent. I find the performance similar to other demanding TDM missions on my machine, but mileage may vary and my apologies if this prevents anyone from enjoying the mission.* *Iris heavily modifies the behavior of AI in the game, how they relate/respond to each other and the player. So they may act even stranger than they do typically in TDM. Feedback on this is useful - as it can potentially be improved and expanded upon in future patches.* -=- This is my first release and it has been a long time coming! If I forgot anything please let me know! God Speed. 2.10 Features Used:

For the FM? For beta 1 it's here: https://drive.proton.me/urls/H1QBB04GA0#oBZTb1CmVFQb I've already done around 100 fixes though, so you might want to wait for beta 2 which should be ready in a couple of days hopefully. All links are in the first post of the beta thread here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22439-the-lieutenant-3-foreign-affairs-beta-testing/

Does this look like sorted? Does a true A-Z sorting look that bad? Technical: to get these examples I just commented out most of the stuff in MoveArticlesToBack() in file \framework\I18N.cpp

Thought it would be a good idea to collate a useful list for new and old mappers alike and this post will update as we go. Abandoned works: Any WIP projects that were abandoned by the original author - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12713-abandoned-works/ Darkradiant & Darkmod shortcut settings: Some example settings for new mappers - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/15152-darkradiant-and-darkmod-shortcut-folder-settings/ Darkradiant howto, must knows, tips and faqs - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12558-usefull-important-editing-links/?do=findComment&comment=272581 Info for Beginners: Newbie DarkRadiant Questions - http://forums.thedar...iant-questions/ Dark Radient Must Know Basic Intro - http://wiki.thedarkm...now_Basic_Intro Editing Tips for Beginners - http://wiki.thedarkm...s_for_Beginners Editing FAQ (Troubleshooting & How-To) - http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Editing_FAQ_-_Troubleshooting_%26_How-To Sotha's excellent Mapping Tutorial series: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18680-lets-map-tdm-with-sotha-the-bakery-job/ Springheel's New Mapper's Workshop: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/ Inspiration: Collection of screenshots and images people have found online - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11610-darkmod-inspiration-thread/ Mapping Resources: List of Voice actors available for voice recording - http://modetwo.net/d...6-voice-actors/ Lengthy collection of city reference pictures - http://modetwo.net/d...rence-pictures/ Collection of texture resource sites - http://modetwo.net/d...ture-resources/ Free Ambient Tracks - http://skeksisnetlabel.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/10-songs-for-free-download-vol-10-full-moon-over-noricum/ Mapping Tools: 3 useful tools for texture creation - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18581-must-have-tools-for-the-descerning-mapper/ Modular Building: What is Modular building - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/14832-modular-building-techniques/ Working example tutorial on modular building - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18680-lets-map-tdm-with-sotha-the-bakery-job/ Springheels new modular models - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18683-using-springheels-205-modules/ Some related mapper recipies - Easy Vaults - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/14859-easy-vault-recipe/?hl=%2Beasy+%2Brecipe Easy Outdoors - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/16159-easy-outdoors-recipe/?hl=%2Beasy+%2Brecipe Easy Caverns - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/14469-quick-caverns-recipe/?hl=recipe Easy Alert Ai - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17157-easy-alert-ai-recipe/?hl=%2Beasy+%2Brecipe Easy Alert Ai Custom Behavour - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17160-easy-alert-ai-custom-behavior-recipe/?hl=recipe Tutorials: Collection of video tutorials for DR - http://modetwo.net/d...in-darkradiant/ Using Lighting and detail effectively: - http://forums.thedar...l-and-lighting/ Voice Actors list: List of available voice actors - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12556-list-of-available-voice-actors/ Usefull Console commands: A list of console commands for testing in-game - http://wiki.thedarkm...Useful_Controls

Any news about this project? I really like those changes for the Main Menu.

I created discussion here and mentioned authors (maybe I missed someone though). Unlike the previous thread about main menu GUI overrides, I think the new one does not look aggressive . The main question there is why this was done, and how to adapt to avoid this problem now and in the future. Indeed, all the missions will be fixed by 2.13 even if some authors don't respond. Dev builds regularly break something, although usually it is done unintentionally. I added "known issues" point on the dev build, which happens pretty rarely. I apologize for the negative emotions this change has caused. Sometimes I am too rough in communications. Moreover, I am not a creative kind of person, I'm more a technical type of person. Thus I believe in interface boundaries, so in my mind the blame for breakage is always on the side that violates these boundaries. Anyway, I know I'll have to fix the breakage, probably myself if necessary.

On Debian (testing) dev17035-10724 runs very "laggy" for some reason (even the menu). Last time I experienced the same "laggyness" was on a non-accelrated VNC connection to another machine.

There's been talk over the years on how we could improve texture quality, often to no avail as it requires new high-resolution replacements that need to be created and will look different and add a strain on system resources. The sharpness post-process filter was supposed to improve that, but even with it you see ugly blurry pixels on any nearby surface. Yet there is a way, a highly efficient technique used by some engines in the 90's notably the first Unreal engine, and as it did wonders then it can still do so today: Detail textures. Base concept: You have a grayscale pattern for various surfaces, such as metal scratches or the waves of polished wood or the stucco of a rough rock, usually only a few highly generic patterns are needed. Each pattern is overlayed on top of corresponding textures several times, every iteration at a smaller... as with model LOD smaller iterations fade with camera distance as to not waste resources, the closer you get the more detail you see. This does wonders in making any texture look much sharper without changing the resolution of the original image, and because the final mixture is unique you don't perceive any repetitiveness! Here's a good resource from UE5 which seems to support them to this day: https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/adding-detail-textures-to-unreal-engine-materials Who else agrees this is something we can use and would greatly improve graphical fidelity? No one's ever going to replace every texture with a higher resolution version in vanilla TDM; Without this technique we'll always be stuck with early 2000's graphics, with it we have a magic way of making it look close to AAA games today! Imagine being able to see all those fine scratches on a guard's helmet as light shines on it, the thousands of little holes on a brick, the waves of wood as you lean into a table... all without even losing much performance nor a considerable increase in the size of game data. It's like the best deal one could hope for! The idTech 4 material system should already have what we need, namely the ability to mix any textures at independent sizes; Unlike the old days when only a diffuse texture was used, the pattern would now need to be applied to both albedo / specular / normal maps, to my knowledge there are shader keywords to combine each. Needless to say it would require editing every single material to specify its detail texture with a base scale and rotation: It would be painful but doable with a text injection script... I made a bash script to add cubemap reflections once, if it were worth it I could try adapting it to inject the base notation for details. A few changes will be needed of course: Details must be controlled by a main menu setting activating this system and specifying the level of detail, materials properties can't be controlled by cvars. Ultimately we may need to overlay them in realtime, rather than permanently modifying every material at load time which may have a bigger performance impact; We want each iteration to fade with distance and only appear a certain length from the camera, the effect will cause per-pixel lighting to have to render more detail per light - surface interaction so we'll need to control the pixel density.

Our friend Skacky ( and his team "Feuillade Industries" ) has released a full sized Thief expansion \ campaign "The Black Parade": https://www.moddb.com/mods/thief-the-black-parade t is finally here! After 7-ish years of development, The Black Parade is finally released. So, what awaits you in this campaign? - 10 huge, open-ended and meticulously crafted missions with varied themes packed with content. - A brand new protagonist thrown into a dark, intricately woven story of crime and conspiracies. - 4 new tools happily supplied by the undermarket, at a price. - Many tweaks to the AI to make the game a bit more challenging but still fair. - A brand new "banter" system where AIs greet each other during their rounds and nightly life. - 28 voiced characters totaling roughly 1,800 new lines of dialogue. - 30 minutes of gorgeous hand-drawn briefings and cutscenes. - Brand new AI motions making the denizens of The City look more alive. - Full English subtitles. In The Black Parade you play the character of Hume, a hardened criminal who was sent into exile as a punishment for his crimes. The year is 833, you are now back in The City, a sprawling metropolis of soot-caked brick, greasy fumes and noisy machinery, with many a sinister conspiracy whispered behind closed doors. Lost and without a penny to your name, you are back to your life of thievery and must find your old associate Dahlquist. Shadows and silence are your allies. Light is your enemy. Stealth and cunning are your tools. And the riches of others are yours for the taking. The Black Parade aims at being a love letter to Thief: The Dark Project, and we hope we succeeded! It is recommended to have played through Thief: The Dark Project and/or Thief 2: The Metal Age at least once beforehand, since these missions are overall tougher than the base game. The Black Parade also comes with a few tweaks to the classic Thief gameplay formula: - Hume is not a Keeper and thus never received Garrett’s training: AIs will now notice you if they bump into you or vice versa, sometimes even in a perfect shadow. Be careful! - Hume can move banners aside instead of having to slash them. - Hume has additional footstep sounds for chains and pipes; these are metal sounds that aren’t as noisy as regular metal (about as noisy as stone/wood). - Water arrows can now be used to expand moss patches. - Servants will re-light extinguished torches on higher difficulty levels. - Servants may clean moss on the floor if they notice it on higher difficulty levels. - Zombies now smash wooden doors open instead of simply opening them. - Electric lanterns carried by guards can be turned off. - A few guards in the campaign are outfitted with heavy armor and helms so they cannot be knocked out using the Blackjack. - Hume can pick up small creature corpses such as spiders or sweels. DOWNLOAD (912 MB) MIRROR 1 MIRROR 2 Here is a very handy guide by nicked on how to set up Thief Gold for Fan Missions. !!!IMPORTANT NOTES!!! The Black Parade requires NewDark 1.26 or above! Make sure you use the latest version of TFix/TFix Lite before playing! The Black Parade should be launched with FMSel, NewDarkLoader or AngelLoader. It is not recommended to launch this campaign with DarkLoader or GarrettLoader. Note that mods such as Thief Gold HD Mod, NecroAge or Enhancement Pack are not compatible with this campaign. Remember that this is a campaign for THIEF GOLD, not Thief 2! Known issues: - Due to the complexity of the missions, there can be cases where some NPCs might get stuck walking against walls. There is unfortunately not much that can be done about this. Happy 25th anniversary to Thief: The Dark Project, and have fun taffers!

In considering my possible upcoming TDM projects, such as upgrading some fonts to Latin-1 or "TDM Latin", I reviewed the current status of support for European Latin-based languages. Basically, for FMs, the translation system has fallen into disrepair and disuse (or perhaps kicked into the grave). Neither "converted" (i.e., #str using) FMs nor Language Packs are now being maintained and distributed by thedarkmod.com. As to other sites, for Cyrillic/Russian, DarkFate provides such resources. Are there any such sites in native Western European tongues, say, German, French, Italian, that likewise offer translated TDM FMs? So, turning back to thedarkmod.com, questions - - is Western Language support (outside the main menu system) officially dead? - if so, maybe it's time to stop pretending otherwise. - if not, should the converted #str system be revived, with better infrastructure? - or an alternative translation system be devised... if so, what? I'm just trying to identify work worth doing. (I started to draft a doc with a litany of problems with Western language support, and possible sub-projects to address them, but TL;DR. And really, not pertinent if support is considered dropped.) Thanks for your thoughts.

Since due to the nature of this forum, file/image sharing is used quite frequently, I thought to present some alternatives to the widely used Gdrive, which I don't like so much, especially since the last TOS change. File Sharing To share large files there are several options that also do not require registration. The first is File Hosting Online, which supports files up to 25 Gb, encrypted and also includes a Virus Scan that ensures safe use Another good option is Gofile, free to use, privacy focused and unlimited Bandwith. No refistry needed. While the files are accesed or downloaded at least one time a week, they are never deleted, otherwise inactive files are deleted after 10 days. If you prefer to use P2P, that means to share files directly from PC to other, without a hoster in the middle, there are also very good options, which permits to share files and folders without limites of type and size. The most easy to use is O&O File Direct, a small Desktop app (sadly only Windows), very easy to use 1 Open the app and drag the files/folders you like to share in its window 2 Optional adjust the days and amount of permited downloads and if you want a password 3 Share the link which apears in the app Done The only limits are, that the receptor only can download your files, when your PC is online, on the other hand this permits that you can stop the download in any moment, going offline or shutting down the PC. The other limit is, that the files to share can't be in a protected folder. Her are an Example with a list of Search Enines (Html file 423,56 Kb). While I am online, you can download it https://file.direct/f/pmjVFnjfkjFTKTt5 Videos One of the best options is Streamable (need a free account, inactive videos are deleted after 90 days in the free version) Alternatively you can use Streamja, a simple Video sharer with good privacy, free account optional (nick, mail) Images Ok, there are a lot of Image sharer, most used the known Imgur, because of this I add only one which offers some advantages over Imgur. ImgBox (free account) is a reliable platform to share and host images like Imgur, but it make it very easy to upload and post dozend of images simultaneous, selecting all the images you want and drag them on the window, offering coresponding bulk codes from the selected images to post them with one click for forums (BBcode), Html and others, fullsize or thumbnails. More since Imgur used since some time the hated webm formats for gif images, hardly accepted in most forums.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but just a historical note: the existing i18n.pl conversion script expects only a numeric value after #str_ in its pattern matching regex (and possibly method of hashing). I do think @datiswous's idea to have key/value pairs with values like: "#str_Nobody crosses me! Must get back Frothley's scepter Creep stole off me." is a good way forward. Maybe with this version, DR could actually choose over time to provide some .lang support. And probably the engine would have to create hash tables to avoid slow string matching with these long non-numeric strings. (Oh, one other thing, since we're talking about The Outpost. When I played it earlier the month under 2.12, my screen would periodically go black for a second or two, every minute or two. I wonder if anyone else sees this, or just my odd Intel graphics chip?)

The TDM Unofficial Patch is a personal project of mine to modify some small details that annoyed me in the core game. It wouldn't be possible without many others, so thanks to the whole TDM community for discussions and help, but especially to friendly modders who directly contributed code for it, like Obsttorte, Dragofer, Kingsal, Goldwell, Destined, and snatcher! You can find it under the link below and while over the years there was little progress, in recent times many things have been improved that I never even thought of when I started and some might be worth to be included in the core game. https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/addons/the-dark-mod-unofficial-patch Version Changelog: ------------------ v1.7 20.08.2022 ---- Made loot icon change right back to last tool icon, thanks snatcher. Added new whistle player skill to distract NPCs, thanks to snatcher. Made more lights extinguishable and added info for 4 beta missions. Corrected container bottom fix messing up drawers, thanks Dragofer. Improved unlit behaviour of moveable light sources, thanks snatcher. Corrected lit lamps set to extinguished in maps, thanks to Dragofer. Changed western empire maps so the location of Bridgeport is vague. Added several major city names to the small map, thanks to Kukutoo. Fixed frobing animation not working with bound and carried entities. v1.6 23.07.2022 ---- Improved extinguishing oil lamps, thanks to Dragofer and Obsttorte. Added frobing animation, thanks to Obsttorte, Goldwell and snatcher. Fixed container bottoms and training mission chest, thanks Dragofer. Made doors open faster when running, thanks Obsttorte and snatcher. Added more player tools to training mission and improved text there. Fixed Holy Water doing no damage and Hazard Pay not starting at all. Made all five oil lamps in Sotha's "The Bakery Job" extinguishable. Added blow player skill to snuff out small flames, thanks snatcher. Changed Unarmed icon to make clear that the player always has a bow. v1.5 02.07.2022 ---- Created Invisibility Potion out of cut Speed Potion, thanks Kingsal. Increased arrow head shot damage to both living and undead enemies. Replaced slow matches with easier to handle flints, thanks Kingsal. v1.4 10.03.2022 ---- Replaced Frob Helper with dark Frob Outline and updated to TDM 2.10. Made electric mine stun elite guards too and improved mission names. Renamed mission installation/selection UI mishmash to "activation". v1.3 21.02.2021 ---- Changed flashmine to stunning electric mine and updated to TDM 2.09. Edited more mission names and made threefold candles extinguishable. v1.2 26.08.2020 ---- Updated to TDM 2.08 and fixed custom holywater script compatibility. Added Numbers Scroll showing stealth and loot info, thanks Dragofer. Edited more mission names to avoid truncated descriptions in menus. Added default keys info to training mission and repaired cut lines. v1.1 03.02.2019 ---- Moveable candles can be extinguished directly by frobing the candle. More blackjack immune enemies and inextinguishable candles modified. The key frob distance has been decreased to be that of lockpicking. Holy Water bottles must be thrown directly, but they do more damage. The controls settings menu additions have been updated for TDM 2.07. New mission names have been fixed to fix format and spacing issues. Added looking up and looking down controls for people without mouse. Pointed bad prefabs container open/close sounds to existing effects. Added version info to starting screen and edited some new missions. v1.0 06.05.2018 ---- Many enemies will not become immune to blackjacking when alerted. Oil lamps can be snuffed by frobing, thanks Destined and Obsttorte. The controls settings menu lists that "use" can work on held items. Mission names were syncronized between download and online lists. The controls settings menu lists that "frob" can get or drop items. Astericks were added to official missions to move them to list top. Minor text and format bugs have been fixed in some mission infos.

A famous painting is on display at the local museum. Steal it, of course! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ An update, version 2, is now available: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ciesyfcqu1ct6pj/nowandthenv2.pk4?dl=1. This fixes many of the problems found by those who played version 1. Besides general clean up, the primary goal of this version is to Special thanks to Bikerdude, whose did a quick beta test of this version and whose suggestions I mostly (but not completely) implemented. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title: Now and Then Filename (version 2) : nowandthenv2.pk4 (download) Author: joebarnin Date of release: 08 September 2020 (Version 2: 25 January 2021) Version: 2 EFX: Yes Requires: TDM 2.08 Author: joebarnin Custom ambients: JackFarmer Gameplay notes Thorough investigation is encouraged. Scary AIs: No spiders, skeletons, undead, or ghosts. One live rat and one dead one. Makes use of the 'peek' ability, allowing the player to peek through a keyhole by leaning forward. The use of this ability is optional (it is never necessary resolve the mission). Thanks to: Beta Testers: Cambridge Spy, thebigh, JackFarmer, Amadeus, Kerry000, wesp5 Voice actor: Mike Components: Builder Compound models & textures - Peter Spy (dr.judym81@gmail.com) Museum painting lights - Grayman Gramophone with record - Goldwell & Epifire Custom ambients - JackFarmer Main menu screen & music - JackFarmer Ambients - Orbweaver Many many modules - Springheel https://freesound.org/people/LucasDuff/sounds/467697/ https://freesound.org/people/humanoide9000/sounds/422245/ Thanks to Springheel, Sotha, and Fidcal for their tutorials. I keep going back to them and I always learn something new. Notes Slight spoiler: Fun fact: I have released 3 missions, each almost exactly one year apart: Mission of Mercy - September 14, 2018 The Heart of St. Mattis - September 10, 2019 Now and Then - September 8, 2020. Not by design, it just worked out that way. So I guess look for my next mission in early September next year! Hints (contains spoilers)