Search the Community

The "external argument about exact duration" is not removed with double click. There is a setting in OS preferences for setting double-click speed, is there not? The challenge of setting the exact duration is the same for both long-press and double-click frob. Therefore, the confusion is not removed with double click. I tuned the long-press frob to be somewhere between "unintentional long-press frob" and "it being too sluggish." Early player feedback guided the current default value of 200ms -- it was originally 300ms. During more play testing, if players are having trouble, the default can be increased and tested. We need to follow the data from actual play testing. The player can adjust the tdm_frobhold_delay cvar to their liking as well. It's more likely that a player will hold frob while moving an item, because for most items, nothing different or bad happens. It's less likely that a player will unintentionally double-click frob an item during pick up, because they know that would cause them to drop it. Therefore, players are more likely to discover long-press frob to extinguish than double-click frob to extinguish, which is a good thing. We want the player to discover it (if they didn't read the manual or play the tutorial mission). Also, long-press frob is used in other games, such as Fallout 4. Getting double-click frob to extinguish to work well along with drop item would be troublesome, because there would always be a double-click delay before a single-click drop initiates. Long-press frob does not have a drop issue, because the player can long-press frob until they see the candle extinguish or quick-press frob to instantly drop it. To be clear, long-press frob also "does not change existing controls, only adds new meaning for" a longer frob press. This long-press frob proposal has already been play tested and agreed to be a good control scheme by several players. Double-click frob would need new code written, would need to be play tested, and would need to be fine tuned based on player feedback. Another rewrite of the code would be a distraction and may not bring us closer to the goal of "providing a better experience for new players as well as longtime players," especially since one has already been found and proven: long-press frob. For longtime players who are not satisfied with this new control scheme, "tdm_frobhold_delay 0" restores TDM 2.11 behavior. After 7 months of player research, code experiments, early player feedback, adjustments, rewriting code, and more player feedback, I believe long-press frob is good enough, given all of the compromises, imperfections, and its iterative design. It solves the problems stated in the proposal on the first page, and its design goals are met.

OK I think I've got to the bottom of this. I've created this forum thread (with bug report): https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22221-bug-drowning-ai-in-shallow-water/ I can apply a workaround, although it won't be perfect and the bug itself needs fixing in the engine. There are a few other things that need fixing so will put an update together soonish.

If any mappers have encountered weirdness with kill objectives not working with drowning AI, I think I've found out why. I don't think it would be a particularly difficult one to fix either. I've raised this bug report: https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6323 Some context here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21837-fan-mission-the-lieutenant-2-high-expectations-by-frost_salamander-20230424/&do=findComment&comment=487316 I think this is a bug, but just raising here in case some people think otherwise.

I dom't use it, i found it here with the filter set to OpenSource. the TOS and PP isn't excluding for an OpenSource app, if they use ads mean that they also need to pay an server for this online service. OpenSource is not synonymous with free either, perhaps after the beta phase it is no longer free, so perhaps you can take advantage of the fact that it is still free to create a series of textures that can be used or search another one in Futuretools. AI generated textures and assets, by definition, don't have any copyright, so you can use them as you want. https://www.futuretools.io/?pricing-model=free|open-source&tags-n5zn=gaming

Hello TDM-ers. I am encountering an issue where textures seem to partially disappear. I tried searching the forums, but, I don't know what to search for. The missing textures are a worldspawn brush acting as a roof with {for now} flat iron texture. There are other worldspawn brushes right below to create an attic ceiling with roof framework board texture. These gaps appeared a few edits ago. I can't "undo" to get back before whatever edit did this. The gaps are only visible during play and are not visible during editing. Closing and reopening DR and TDM do not fix anything. Some of the brushes overlap in areas behind the play area but I have never seen an issue doing that. The attached image has the effect I am now seeing. Ideas on where to start debugging this? Very much appreciated. Clint

In W10 it works flaeles without patch. Its somewhat strange, it was a game only for WinXP and never works well in W7, even with a patch. But in W10 I never had problems. And now you say it needs again a Patch in W11? Very strange. Anyway, yes, it's a real Gem which I like a lot. Amazing image quality and playability for so few resources it need.

I started with OpenShot but kinda abandoned it due to issues like @thebigh mentioned. Seems like every new version has some weird bug that causes problems or is just annoying and you wonder why it's there. Sometimes I tried using nightly builds in the hopes it would fix things but it wasn't sustainable. Nowadays I'm a big fan of Shotcut. It's a more mature project and also has more regular releases. You do need to learn how to use it of course but even a dummy like me was able to edit videos with transitions and other effects.

Awesome! Post is up! https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22200-beta-testing-the-house-of-delisle/#comment-487365 Thanks!

Complaint From Players The player must pick up candles before extinguishing them, and then the player must remember to drop the candle. The player must drag a body before shouldering it (picking it up), and the player must remember to frob again to stop dragging the body. The player finds this annoying or easy to make mistakes. For players who ghost, some of them have the goal of returning objects back to their original positions. With the current "pick up, use item, and drop" system, the item might not return easily or at all to its original position. For example, a candlestick might bounce off its holder. (See player quotes at the bottom.) Bug Tracker https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6316 Problems to Solve How can the "pick up" step be eliminated so that the player can directly use or interact with the item where it is in the game world? How can so much key pressing and mouse clicking be eliminated when the player wants to directly use an item? How can candles be extinguished and lanterns toggled off/on without first picking them up? How can bodies be shouldered without first dragging them? Solution Design Goals Make TDM easier for new players while also improving it for longtime players. Reduce tedious steps for common frob interactions. Make it intuitive so that menu settings are unnecessary. Do not introduce bugs or break the game. Terms frob -- the frob button action happens instantly. hold frob -- the frob button is held for 200ms before the action happens. (This can be changed via cvar: 200ms by default.) Proposed Solution Note: Some issues have been struckthrough to show changes since the patch has been updated. Change how frobbing works for bodies, candles, and lanterns. For bodies: Frob to shoulder (pick up) a body. Second frob to drop shouldered body, while allowing frob on doors, switches, etc. Hold frob (key down) to start drag, continue to hold frob (key down) to drag body, and then release frob (key up) to stop dragging body. Also, a body can be dragged immediately by holding frob and moving the mouse. For candles/lanterns: Frob to extinguish candles and toggle off/on lanterns. Hold frob to pick it up, and then frob again to drop. Frob to pick it up, and then frob again to drop. Hold frob to extinguish candles and toggle off/on lanterns. For food: Frob to pick it up, and then frob again to drop. Hold frob to eat food. For other items: No change. New cvar "tdm_frobhold_delay", default:"200" The frob hold delay (in ms) before drag or extinguish. Set to 0 for TDM v2.11 (and prior) behavior. Solution Benefits Bodies: New players will have less to learn to get started moving knocked out guards. With TDM v2.11 and earlier, some players have played several missions before realizing that they could shoulder a body instead of dragging it long distances. Frob to shoulder body matches Thief, so longtime Thief players will find it familiar. Second frob drops a shouldered body. Players still have the ability to both shoulder and drag bodies. Compatible with the new auto-search bodies feature. Dragging feels more natural -- just grab, hold, and drop with a single button press. There is no longer the need to press the button twice. Also, it's no longer possible to walk away from a body while unintentionally dragging it. Set "tdm_frobhold_delay" cvar to delay of 0 to restore TDM v2.11 (and prior) behavior. Candles: New players will have less to learn to get started extinguishing candles. With TDM v2.11 and earlier, some players didn't know they could extinguish candles by picking them up and using them. Instead, they resorted to throwing them to extinguish them or hiding them. Hold frob to extinguish a candle feels like "pinching" it out. Once a candle is picked up, players still have the ability to manipulate and use them the same way they are used to in TDM v2.11 and earlier. For players who ghost and have the goal of putting objects back to their original positions, they'll have an easier time and not have to deal with candles popping off their holders when trying to place them back carefully. Set "tdm_frobhold_delay" cvar to delay of 0 to restore TDM v2.11 (and prior) behavior. Solution Issues Bodies: Frob does not drop a shouldered body, so that might be unexpected for new players. This is also different than Thief where a second frob will drop a body. "Use Inv. Item" or "Drop Inv. Item" drops the body. This is the same as TDM v2.11 and earlier. This is the price to pay for being able to frob (open/close) doors while shouldering a body. Patch was updated to drop body on second frob, while allowing frob on doors, switches, etc. Candles: Picking up a candle or lantern requires a slight delay, because the player must hold the frob button. The player might unintentionally extinguish a candle while moving it if they hold down frob. The player will need to learn that holding frob will extinguish the candle. The player can change the delay period via the "tdm_frobhold_delay" cvar. Also, when the cvar is set to a delay of 0, the behavior matches TDM v2.11 and earlier, meaning the player would have to first "Frob/Interact" to pick up the candle and then press "Use Inv. Item" to extinguish it. Some players might unintentionally extinguish a candle when they are trying to move it or pick it up. They need to make sure to hold frob to initiate moving the candle. When a candle is unlit, it will highlight but do nothing on frob. That might confuse players. However, the player will likely learn after extinguishing several candles that an unlit candle still highlights. It makes sense that an already-extinguished candle cannot be extinguished on frob. The official "Training Mission" might need to have its instructions updated to correctly guide the player through candle manipulation training. Updating the training mission to include the hold frob to extinguish would probably be helpful. Similar Solutions In Fallout 4, frob uses an item and long-press frob picks it up. Goldwell's mission, "Accountant 2: New In Town", has candles that extinguish on frob without the need of picking them up first. Snatcher's TDM Modpack includes a "Blow / Ignite" item that allows the player to blow out candles Wesp5's Unofficial Patch provides a way to directly extinguish movable candles by frobbing. Demonstration Videos Note: The last two videos don't quite demonstrate the latest patch anymore. But the gist is the same. This feature proposal is best experienced in game, but some demonstration videos are better than nothing. The following videos show either a clear improvement or that the player is not slowed down with the change in controls. For example, "long-press" sounds long, but it really isn't. Video: Body Shouldering and Dragging The purpose of this video is to show that frob to shoulder a body is fast and long-press frob to drag a body is fast enough and accurate. Video: Long-Press Frob to Pick Up Candle The purpose of this video is to show how the long-press frob to pick up a candle isn't really much slower than regular frob. Video: Frob to Extinguish The purpose of this video -- if a bit contrived -- is to show the efficiency and precision of this proposed feature. The task in the video was for the player to as quickly and accurately as possible extinguish candles and put them back in their original positions. On the left, TDM v2.11 is shown. The player has to highlight each candle, press "Frob/Interact" to pick up, press "Use Inv. Item" to extinguish, make sure the candle is back in place, and finally press "Frob/Interact" to drop the candle. The result shows mistakes and candles getting misplaced. On the right, the proposed feature is shown. The player frobs to extinguish the candles. The result shows no mistakes and candles are kept in their original positions. Special Thanks @Wellingtoncrab was instrumental in improving this feature during its early stages. We had many discussions covering varying scenarios, pros, and cons, and how it would affect the gameplay and player experience. Originally, I had a completely different solution that added a special "use modifier" keybinding. He suggested the frob to use and long-press frob to pick up mechanics. I coded it up, gave it a try, and found it to be too good. Without his feedback and patience, this feature wouldn't be as good as it is. Thank you, @Wellingtoncrab! And, of note, @Wellingtoncrab hasn't been able to try it in game yet, because I'm using Linux and can't compile a Windows build for him. So, if this feature isn't good, that's my fault. Code Patch I'll post the code patch in another post below this one so that folks who compile TDM themselves can give this proposal a try in game. And, if you do, I look forward to your feedback! Player Complaints TTLG (2023-01-10) Player 1: TDM Forums (2021-03-13) Player 2: Player 3: TDM Forums (2023-06-17) Player 4: TDM Discord (2021-05-18) Player 5: TDM Discord (2023-02-14) Player 6: Player 7: Player 8:

well this turned into quite the project, the case had no problems with the 4790K heat wise so i bought an offhand asus rog gaming x99 board with a xeon 8 core 16 threads with HT and 64 gb ram and yanked that into it. the xeon is a haswell as well but a high end model with more cores and pcie lanes (40 to be exact) so i can now use my nvme without sacrificing half my lanes to the gpu so yay!, this also allowed me to use a slot for my thunderbolt card so im ready for some NAS action :) (or a whole slew of monitors 24 to be exact). cpu stays at a livid 35 degrees when idle and does not go much higher when i really start kicking in the doors, the gfx card does get a little hot but its an older model and rated for far higher than the 60 degree temps im seing so im not to worried. it runs quite well actually :), the lightshow on this board is kinda wasted though as the cabby has no glass panels but i dont really care about the flashiness anyway . Had some people go wtf when they saw how fast it was because they assumed it to be an old PC hehe.

I did at some point wonder if the same shader could be used to achieve both effects. My idea was we could have a single blur post-process: Its minimum range would be something like 0.5 pixels to anti-alias sharp edges (both geometry and alpha textures) on top of which the depth map may increase it to also achieve distance blur. Would be a neat trick to solve two problems at once, but it surely won't work the way I imagine it and either not be effective or blur too much. Thus DOF should probably be its own thing, with antialiasing done as a separate shader if and when that happens... at best they may share and inherit from a single component if that's optimal.

The *DOOM3* shaders are ARB2 ('cause of old GeForce support) carmack plan + arb2 - OpenGL / OpenGL: Advanced Coding - Khronos Forums

[posted a lot of text, that it doesnt make sense] Edit: those are some classic problems, but apparently not solved. Look at the file organization and the installers code, try to discus about it in this topic and change it. More info, see compilation guide and tdm installer source.

I am trying to install the latest version of TDM, I think the last version I played was 2.09a. I am installing to a new folder My user created the folder and has full write access to it I am running the extracted .exe file in this new folder Problem 1: Why is the installer using the .exe filename as the URL for updating? This is absolute nonsense. I name my installers by the date or version number of the installer. This wasn't a problem in the past for TDM, or for any other thousands of installer I've used over the past 35 years. Never once have I seen an app look for a local file or external URL based on the name of the installer executable! According to https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Tdm_installer_and_zipsync#tdm_installer about the installer "The config file is automatically downloaded from hardcoded URL. It describes all official versions of TDM and mirrors used to download them." Clearly this is not the case, it is literally using a URL based on the executable name! I should not be forced to keep a stupid name like tdm_installer.exe that doesn't even specify the version number (in this case v1.11). I have the previous installers in my downloads folder named/dated appropriately. The installer won't even work if you change the case of the executable to title case "TDM_Installer.exe"! It's ridiculous. Problem 2: Why is the install directory listed in red? My user created the folder and has full write permissions to it. The installer has no difficulties creating log files in the folder, so it obviously has write permissions. Problem 3: Why does the installer not provide any way to specify a new folder to install to? There is no "New Folder" button anywhere in the GUI. I'm not sure if typing in a folder name works or not, because it remains red either way, and won't let me continue the install with permission problems. But regular users should not be required to know this hack. Also, when you select a folder, the installer does not add "The_Dark_Mod" or whatever as a default folder name like most apps do. It is left entirely up to the user to create an install folder beforehand. Kind of defeats the purpose of an installer being quick and easy. Problem 2 - Follow Up: I am still unable to install TDM after renaming the .exe to the original lowercase name. It still complains that I don't have permissions to the folder, but obviously I do! tdm_installer.exe is creating log files in the folder while telling me that it doesn't have permissions to write to that very same folder! It's beyond absurd. Why is the installer lying? I have solved the issues by changing Security settings so ALL LOGGED IN USERS have full write permissions to the folder, but that is not desired -- why is that necessary? My user already had full permissions to the folder when creating it, and the installer had write permissions to the folder. Possible Solution For Problem 1: The installer should never use the name of the executable for anything to do with local filenames or external URLs. Update the installer so it does what the Wiki says it does -- uses a fixed URL to get the list of TDM versions. Possible Solution For Problem 2: The installer should be updated so it automatically changes permissions to the install folder as-needed. Requesting UAC privilege escalation if needed to alter the folder permissions. At the very least it should tell the user what permissions it needs for the folder (it already had full write permissions!). Heck, just make the installer ATTEMPT to create a file to see if it has permissions. Clearly it is checking permissions incorrectly and misinforming the user about it, then refusing to continue. Possible Solution For Problem 3: Have a way to create a new folder from the installer GUI, such as an "Add Folder" button or a right-click menu with "New Folder".

Some time ago I was looking for a good app to share files, since I wanted to become independent from the famous Imgur, which I find with so many trackers and privacy problems not at all reliable. In Windows I use ShareX, which is perhaps one of the best screen recorders with a huge amount of functions and tools, but it also uses Imgur as an image sharer by default, but allows you to change it. At first I replaced it with vgy.me., an excellent imagehost and sharer, with good privacy, although only limited to images. But a few months ago I found File Coffee, which can be called the definitive solution, because it allows you to host and share any type of file, be it images, documents presentations, texts, multimedia, videos of any extension, it is 100% free, encrypted and private (Made in EU, GDPR norm) safe, blazing fast and stable. It admits without registration 15 Mb per file, with free registration, 30 Mb, being able to control the uploaded files. With this you can forget DropBox, GDrive, Imgur and a lot of other solutions, well, except for PK4 bigger than 30Mb. The best, it also had a own config app for ShareX, which with one click make all the needed settings in ShareX to be used in this tool. Screenshots linked with filecoffee, given image, multimedia and video links can be inserted or, in case of document's or other, they open in a new tab and can be downloaded from there.

Seems to confirm: https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=5718 does it happen in the latest dev build: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20824-public-access-to-development-versions/

Written In Stone: X-Ray Glasses Script Update I have fixed & simplified the "Magic Glasses" (or X-Ray Glasses) script for "Written in Stone" (current official version) by @Dragofer, @Amadeus, @B1k3rdude. 1) With the glasses on, if we use the inventory grid we currently get: I have changed: overlayHandle = $player1.createOverlay(getKey("gui"), ZOOM_GUI_LAYER); with: overlayHandle = $player1.createOverlay(getKey("gui"), -1); And now the inventory grid shows up in the proper layer: 2) There's a "Cooldown period" going on when you use the glasses that prevents players from getting the glasses on and off instantly. I personally find it a little unnerving that I am forced to wait when, in example, I put on or remove the glasses by mistake. I understand the reasons why this was done but it isn't well executed (lack of graphical context) and I find it at times a little frustrating and I have removed all references to "xrayGlassesCooldown". For this to work I also had to edit written_misc.script. 3) There's a "loot_loop()" method that prevents the glasses from moving away from the inventory while (wearing the glasses and) picking up items. Once again, I understand the reasons why this was done and while this script is better than the one found in "Iris" it has its problems: if you pick up an item (other than loot) while wearing the glasses you cannot tell which item you just picked because the inventory quickly switches back to the glasses. Find attached to this post the *.pk4 which includes old and new versions of the xray_glasses script and written_misc.script. Download it and place it in "/fms/written/". Please note this script will not work in any mission other than "Written in Stone". zzz_written_xray_glasses_script.pk4

I just read@motorsep Discovered that you are able to create a brush, then select it and right click "create light". Now you have a light that ha the radius of the former brush. Just read it on discord and thought it may be of use for some people in the forums here too.

Ah, ok, I don't found it before, searching with the old Title "Yan's test.pk4". I think it won't be a bad idea to use it at keast as base of a mision, maybe changing somewhat the map if there are copyright problems because of the Quake map. Quite old and still not released in the oficial TDM List, I thought that it was an abandoned (test) Mision.

I never had problems looting paintings, but I often pick up goblets hoping they are loot and they are not. But I don't think we have an outline option differentiating between Frob and Frob Loot in the first place, do we? Also I will try your outline idea later, thanks... P.S.: Your outline solution works fine, I will update my patch with it :)!

In the meantime, I played the first level, which means I was able to activate the first elevator. I don't know the original game, I only know System Shock 2, and I have to say that this one is damn close to the latter, but looks and sounds considerably better! Absolutely traditional, nothing is explained here, you have to figure everything out yourself. I like that. As has benn said before, I also had problems recognizing if you can interact with certain objects: Anyways, great game.

I just found this thread on ttlg listing Immersive Sims: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151176

Recently revisiting the forums after a longer period of time I wanted to check the unread content. I don't know if I am doing this wrong since.. ever... but on mobile (visiting the unread content page on my smartphone) you have to click on that tiny speech bubble to go to the most recent post in a thread. If you don't click correctly you'll hit the headline and end up at post 1 in the beginning of the thread. It's terrible on mobile, since not only the speech bubble is really small and was to miss. But also the thread headline is just millimeters away from it so you go right to the first post that was ever made instead of the most recent ones. Am I doing it wrong? I just want to go through u read content a d the to the newest post from that topic.

A@datiswous Ah yeah, well sorry, I was quiet busy and only visiting discord. First time here on the forums since months now I think.. Thank you for the subtitles. I encourage everyone who is interested in using them to download it from here as I'm not sure when I'll be able to implement them myself into the mission. Again, thank you for your work.

Thanks for taking your time. I just tried it (to be sure, I don't have to delete the cauldron_v2_2.pk4 after unpacking, right?), and, it doesn't seem to make a difference. Did a little video to illustrate my problems: https://drive.google.com/file/d/109NEYxgZTlrqD2rt65PY4jQ0KUhpC-PT/view?usp=sharing On the first attempt, I might have been too far away. On the second attempt, the beast might have been in a state of awareness due to me running towards it (even though that worked in the past with guards in other missions). The third attempt felt perfect, no idea why I didn't succeed there. Same on the fourth attempt. The fifth attempt was successful, and I have no idea why, as the former two attempts seem to have been almost exactly the same. I have the A.I. hearing to "forgiving", by the way, as that works better for me, as the A.I. can't hear your footsteps from a mile away. It's still much more sensitive than in the original Thief's (talking about sensitivity...), but, it works alright for me. That video is pretty much exactly what I experienced throughout the whole mission with the beasts. Every time I tried a K.O., i had to try several times to succeed. As I mentioned above, blackjacking is a general issue in the mod, but, it seems to be even more of an issue with this type of enemy. Oh, and the guy wearing the mask (the king? ) was the hardest to knockout. I needed at least 10 or 12 attempts to knock him out. Edit: Sorry, just fixed the permission for the video.