Search the Community

Instead of that, you could, in that time period, start learning your own missions and in doing so become more active on the forums, learning from others. It's also great to understand how things work in the engine, when you play. It might spoil some immersion though.. Or learn to build games with other engines, like Godot for example.

Looks as wonderful as it gets! I take it we're using particles that don't face the camera, which is the best approach considering they're the least performance intensive option. Only issue I remember with particle grass was particles not respond to lighting accordingly... one of the videos shows a guard with a lamp though, the grass lights up properly so I take it that's been solved as well Only extra feature I'd say is needed would be a system to use patch terrain as the emission source. I take it that doesn't work yet and you can't get a particle distribution like the seed brush / entity... or does it? If not they'll have to be placed on flat terrain, or each entity aligned to bumps and holes in the ground manually.

Made 2.09b the default version. I hope at least a few people have installed and played it I'll finish the release process tomorrow (tags, source, pdb, etc.)

@Dragofer, I'm wondering what template tags to give to this page, besides the usual "Editing". I'm tempted to add "Physics", but are force fields really considered part of the physics engine?

There is no SS3, how can they do a remake? And thank god they got rid of unity, that engine is total trash garbage on anything over 60 fps. Just spend 5 minutes on steam forums for Unity project games, and there's just thousands of people complaining about poor performance, stuttering etc.

Fixed in Git revision a1f0c789f34b4bb11a132aaeb03a380da18fe6b5. I tested switching light textures in the Light Inspector and switching brush textures on the Media tab, and everything still looks fine so hopefully nothing is broken as a result of switching MaterialSelector to use a sigc::signal instead of an explicit selectionChanged callback.

Perhaps I'll try to make this more clear with another example. 1. This is a 256x256 DU brush with 2048x2048 px texture applied using 0,125 scale. The texture tiles once as it should. 2. Here I selected the brush and then selected gen_dark_rusted01 from the texture browser. This material uses 512px textures. As you can see, it also tiles once. 3. When I select the brush and click Natural, this happens: I think that LDash argues that this^ should be a default behavior when applying another material, and not what happened in the 2nd image. I'd expect that kind of consistency too, as I set this option in DR preferences: But again, I think more mappers should speak up.

Probably the .script file that's needed, but unfortunately can't be included with a prefab. Maybe there's a comment somewhere in the prefab (or in the wiki or forums) that says what script it needs and where to find it. (The similar combination setup I used earlier doesn't involve "slot", so clearly uses a different script that I what I have.)

I'm trying to fix the warnings on my end, but remodelling the models is out of my league, so you're going to have to fix the stairs model on your end: "WARNING:ConvertLWOToModelSurfaces: model 'models/darkmod/architecture/stairs/set01_stairs.lwo' has 17/8108 nontriangular polygons. Make sure you triplet it down" Edit Also there's this model, which is probably a modelling issue as well: "WARNING:ConvertLWOToModelSurfaces: model 'models/darkmod/misc/clipmodels/pickaxe_cm.lwo' has bad or missing uv data" I still have hopes for script-hotfixing the following warnings: "WARNING:Couldn't load image: tdm_tongue [map entity: atdm_ai_townsfolk_female_1] [decl: atdm:ai_head_female02_base_brunette in def/tdm_ai_heads_springheel.def] [decl: female_head02 in def/tdm_ai_heads_springheel.def] [model: models/md5/chars/heads/npcs/female_head02.md5mesh] [decl: tdm_tongue in <implicit file>] [image: tdm_tongue]” (Edit: I hotfixed this issue and attached the hotfix in the tech support forums. The "tdm_tongue" shader should simply be renamed to "tdm_character_tongue".) “WARNING:Couldn't load image: models/darkmod/wood/boards/wood_brown_dull01 [map entity: func_static_53] [decl: old_plaster in skins/tdm_models_architecture_modules.skin] [decl: models/darkmod/wood/boards/wood_brown_dull01 in <implicit file>] [image: models/darkmod/wood/boards/wood_brown_dull01]" (Edit: I hotfixed this issue as well - see the tech support forums - but I think you should still go over this file, because there are a lot of other suspect textures in there as well.)

Since it already has been mentioned in the forums, I'd like to announce a small project of mine. A few weeks ago I was playing Legend of Grimrock and it struck me that their level design is extremely simple and modular, and yet, the player can spend quite a lot of time in the game. And it looks pretty, too! So I wondered if it wouldn't be possible to create a modern "Dungeon Crawler" (solve puzzles, fight monsters, collect loot, progress your character, upgrade your equipment) type of game inside the TDM engine. The engine already supports a lot of things one needs for this, and the overal structure and assets work, too. And with prefabs, one might get the level layout done quickly. However, building a few test prefabs in DR is easy, but creating a full mission out of them is quite painful. Not only needs it a lot of planning, but you can also spend a lot of time "upgrading" things later on. For instance if you later want to add a grime decal to the walls, you have to revisit the entire map. Even worse is if you find out later that your block size must be bigger or smaller. So the idea was born to create a sort of framework that can assemble missions from prefabs. Preferable while getting the description of the mission from a text file. So far, this has been a lot easier than I thought. Here is what I got working so far: Overview: You can describe your mission in a (Unicode) text file. This contains overall options, different locations (each location can have its own ambient light, music,name, fog), and the connections between the locations. Each location can have multiple "floor levels", these are stacked on top of each other. The config file also specifies which symbol means "use this prefab". It is also possible to specify links (per location), which means you can say "this lever with the symbol A opens the door with the symbol D". The framework reads the prefabs, and then positiones them in the map. It also glues all the locations together, adds location_info entities, a player start, an exit, and an objective to reach the exit. The resulting map is then enhanced with script objects (all nec. assets are bundled together), and automatically dmapped via TDM. Everything then is packaged together into a working .PK4 file. My demo map takes about 20 seconds, where 15 are dmap. In addition to the "basic" stuff I also managed to get a few things working, like a pressure plate, portcullies, and also made some puzzles. Oh, and per location fog (fading from location to location). Different difficulty levels are also supported, one can specify "this prefab appears only on easy" etc. You can find more info and screenshots and demo here: http://bloodgate.com/swift/ There is also a developer diary where I will be posting interesting entries from time to time. Here is an DR shot of a sample level, consisting of small modular prefabs and one large (the large hall on the lower left): The next steps will be to add more randomness (either static at map generation, or at runtime, so the map is slightly different each time you replay it). Also, while it is already possible to "overlay" prefabs (e.g. "for this location, look first here before falling back to the default"), it is not yet possible to "reskin" prefabs. This would be something which is impossible in DR (you cannot really reskin worldspawn brushes, unless you live with the fact that it is all manual For now I'm quite excited!

I think that the existence of a dedicated bug tracker for this engine proves that I should somehow make it known when it crashes. I just figured that the tracker was an internal thing between developers, and that it was okay to instead report the bugs here, especially since I desperately needed help with it, and since you have two sub-forums mentioning that they're intended for reporting bugs. ...so why, when I report a bug, am I getting shamed for it? Why was the guy in the thread you linked getting shamed for not backing up his project, instead of the main dev acknowledging that there is a very deceptive button in the engine, that can remove fan mission folders when you press it? Blaming the reporter for not backing up his work, is certainly not how I would personally handle reports of entire projects disappearing, but I guess now I'm warned about how he sees these things, to the point where I'm wondering if it's a good idea to report any bugs I find in the future, at all, if I'm just going to be considered a bad person for it. "Hm, to my experience, crashes in free software is a regular thing. Try "Natron" and you will understand what I mean." I don't understand your point. If crashes happen frequently enough, should we treat them like Covid and just "try to live with it"? I'm pretty sure that the bind bug is easy to fix, but it's like you're saying that bugs have a right to exist too. "Lots of longtime DR mappers ask questions in the Newbie thread (myself included). Nothing to be ashamed of and by DR/DM standards you are a newbie (and you have not to be ashamed of that as well! )" So if I've programmed for 30 years, mapped for Dromed for countless years (since roughly the turn of the millenia), mapped for the Dark Mod for 1 year, but joined these forums just a few weeks ago, I'm a newbie. I think that by that definition, the word "newbie" has lost all meaning. Besides, reporting crashes are not the same as just asking questions. Anyone can reply to a question. It takes a developer to fix a crash issue. ...and it's like you don't expect the developers to even fix crashes, and I really hope that you're wrong about that. For example, since I updated to this year's version, Dark Radiant itself, hasn't even crashed once, and it used to crash all the time, and so I take that as evidence that development involves fixing crashes. "If you want to report a bug, then please use the Bug Tracker." Will do. I was just fooled by the subforum descriptions actually telling me to report bugs in them. "You wouldn't believe how many mappers lost WIPs because of defective hardware" Again: I don't see your point here, where you argue for not fixing defective hardware. When I'm told about a bug in my program, I just go "Thank you. I'll fix that.". I don't go "Well, weren't you a sucker for using my program.". That's not how I was brought up at all. "for somebody who expects Armageddon in the near future (and there are really good reasons for that), you have a pronounced need for communication. I think that does not fit, because: Why go on with communication when all hell will break lose the day after tomorrow?" Well, why not? Yes, I am so interested in mapping, that it's actually cutting into my apocalypse survival routines a bit, but that's just human nature, and a month's vacation from prepping, won't make that much of a difference. "I hope that you - despite of your own assessment - will finish your WIP and we all can enjoy a cool new mission in the future with your name in the credits." Well, for me, mapping is about pleasing myself - not others. Play The Beginner's Guide, and you'll see what I mean.

Thank you for a great puzzle fm! I'm having real trouble with the TDM v 2.10-64bit on Linux Mint 21.1 Link to the guide supplied by V-Man339 https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/15844-fan-mission-the-gatehouse-by-bikerdude-goldchocobo-updated-02112014/page/7/#comment-429405

I agree. I'm copying this idea over to the https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21741-subtitles-possibilities-beyond-211/ thread. Related: I'll probably do some more experiments with the current TDM font & size, to understand max char count versus field width.

I know this was already solved, but for the record the standard solution to this, the standard practice period, is that you need to always put down invisible clip brush (with the right material to get the step-sounds correct) for all non-brush walkable surfaces, bridges, uneven patch-made floors in caves and natural terrain, even uneven brush work if it's disjointed enough, etc. Just get into the habit of laying down clip brushes for anything like that every time, then AI will always be able to traverse it.

Ok, I see why this warning prints random numbers. When BSP tree is build from brushes, there are two types of brush splits by chosen plane: Splitting brushes from the map Splitting the "volume" of the BSP node In the first case, the split brush has entityNum and primitiveNum set, so it displays proper numbers. You get the second case. The "volume" brush does not come from the map (it's simply the whole space progressively split into smaller and smaller chunks), it does not have entity/primitive number set. So it prints uninitialized data. As for why this happens: as usual, the volume becomes too small, and splits start failing. I doubt it is fully fixable. The coordinates should still hint at the location which causes the problem.

Alright, onto a new question. I was going to make an unique thread for this one as it's a bit more complicated, but I seem to have some stuff figured out and only need help with the last part now. I'm looking into how to define an electrical light that flashes and flickers ambientally. The light source itself is no problem: I can create either a plain light entity or an atdm:static_electric_light_nomodel_lit (this works better for my use case) and with the following properties I can customize it to get precisely the desired result: light_center 0 0 0 light_radius 128 128 128 s_looping 1 s_shader light_flicker_104 texture lights/biground1_squarelamp_snd _color 0 1 0 But now comes the complicated part: I want to create the light surface out of brushes. You can think of them as the filament of the bulb, their purpose to provide a full bright texture synced with the light source. The brushes are converted to an entity (eg: func_static); How to make the faces appear fully bright, have the same color as the light, and flicker or turn off with it? First thing first: What texture do I even give the lit face(s) of the brush so it becomes a light surface? I noticed you can hack by giving your brush a texture from "light/", however the texture browser doesn't normally let you browse there when texturing geometry so it's probably not normal. There isn't a fitting texture there anyway, as all light textures are squares or circles fading toward the edge, what I need is a fully white texture which ideally has some spots like a neon. Once I were to solve that, the second and last question comes: How do I connect this brush entity to the light entity, so that it copies its color as well as the texture intensity while flickering with the light source? Would a simple "bind" do, or perhaps a "def_attach"? It should be noted that ideally, this is a light the player can turn off and the AI should notice it's out... therefore the brush texture also needs to respect that and become black if the light source has been triggered off. One last note: I tried to do everything in one entity, by converting my brushes to a func_static then changing the classname to light. However this seems to break stuff: Even after a dmap the brushes are moved and distorted, light entities clearly don't like being given a model. Thus I'll probably need two entities in the end (the brushes func_static and the light source) with the light source telling the brushes how to colorize their light faces.

Some years ago i succesfully downloaded the wiki with wget, for TDM dvd. I dont know if this method wikl work now. https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/19998-tdm-collection-dvd/#comment-437887

Hello, I'm having a big trouble with some brushs in a complex map, I've always used the "Brush Cleanup" feature in some old GtkRadiant versions (bobztoolz plugin) to fix degenerate brushes very quickly. Is there such a feature in DarkRadiant ? Best regards.

I guess the best image-to-normal conversions I've seen here in the forums are via njob. I am curious about this AI thing though: https://github.com/HugoTini/DeepBump has to be installed into Blender as a plugin?