Search the Community

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/

In a private message on Monday (2022-01-16), I asked about some patches. Then, I was asked why I waited until the second half of beta testing. My reply was "(1) I recently shared some config with Thief players and some expressed interest in TDM. So, I decided to write a guide. (2) I've been beta testing a mission, so I've uncovered these recently. (3) I don't know the beta release schedule, so I don't know where we are in the process." In a private message on Tuesday (2022-01-24), I was asked when I would be done with my patches for 2.11. I gave a list, and there was no definitive communication from the dev team that they would not be considered for 2.11. Just that patches would need to stop soon, because the dev team was deciding when to end beta testing. It seemed that I was given the go ahead. I didn't want to hold up the beta's (unknown) schedule anymore, so I put in extra time and effort to get all of my patches in no later than the next day (Wednesday) to give the dev team time. In a private message on Wednesday (2022-01-25), I told a developer, "I've submitted all the patches that I've planned: 6241, 6231, 5892. I'm ready for feedback and fixing any issues with those patches. That'll be it from me for 2.11." I was given some feedback about (5892), and there was no mention that my patches would be excluded from 2.11. This week's work getting into the next beta was going to be my personal triumph and moment to be proud of, because my hard work was going to be done for 2.11. My patches were already submitted, after all. Now, it's ending in a bust. After my post yesterday, I found out that one of my patches that had already been accepted in SVN for both code and assets will be reverted and postponed until 2.12. No reason given. I had checked SVN to make sure it was applied correctly and made sure the core assets were correct. I've been playing with the latest SVN code and haven't encountered any issues with that patch. Now, I don't know the state of that code. (As an aside, I don't have read access to the assets SVN, so I had to request the changed files from a dev.) The patch is for (6242). That patch fixes a bug that can be read about on (thread). Does the dev team think those players are going to be happy that this patch was reverted and won't be available for an entire year? I fixed that for the players, not myself. For (5892), a feature requested by Bikerdude. This was a reason given for not allowing mantle while carrying a body: On Saturday (2022-01-21), the "tdm_mantle_while_shouldering" cvar was accepted and merged into SVN. Bikerdude replied: Now, if I'm understanding right, that cvar will be removed and not included in 2.11. Bikerdude is one of the most prominent mission authors, is he not? Now, Bikerdude's feature is being taken away. A less prominent contributor, myself, is getting his contributions reverted. It's a shame, because my fixes and suggestions mostly come from listening to the community and dev feedback. Submitting patches is a lot of effort, and I could keep those changes to myself instead. My work is for the players, not myself. Usually, I don't propose something or act on something unless I see other players having the same issue as I've experienced. I think TDM is mostly fine as is. It's not like I'm suggesting new arrows, how doors work, rewriting AI, or something like that. I'm at a tipping point of losing trust in this project, because this situation is fixable. Miscommunication happens. How it's handled matters. I did my best to communicate and hold true to no more patches after this week. Also, the dev team could have told me something like "any patches submitted after X date will not be considered until after the beta cycle." From my point of view, the dev team suddenly changed course from Tuesday's "deciding when to end beta testing" to Thursday's "still unknown but sooner than before, I guess?", and the proposed solution from the dev team is "Tough. Deal with it." or "Don't like it? Fork it." instead of "Let's do one additional beta release" to get everything worked out (whether or not patches get included). I think one more beta release to get these completed or decided on is fair, because that's what the agreement seemed to be, as vague as it was. I'm doing this for free as well, and it sure doesn't feel good to see my work handled in this manner.

Theres still brainstorming how it would work hypothetically. Where would it be stored? I see 2 viable options: On the map file somewhere. Having a list on a server somewhere of all the maps and their tags. I think option 2 might be the best in the long run because it allows expansion onto the tags without having to go through each map file and update them if something comes up. How it will look in the client. Would the tags be in a drop down box in each section where you can filter out maps you want? (I think gamebanana had this way back) Would it be like steam tags where you can search certain or multiple tags? Where should the tags be? I personally think they should be out of sight unless you specifically click to see them so it's easy to go into the mission not knowing whats ahead if you like that.

It'd be great if there was a download counter on the missions page (https://www.thedarkmod.com/missions/), or ratings, to guide a newcomer towards which missions would be a good idea to try first. But hats off to everyone that contributed, as always!

@stgatilov Could you please take a look at this? It would be nice to get this in during the 2.11 beta, because I plan to include it in a "getting started with TDM for Thief players" guide I'm writing.

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.

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.

TDM has tons of textures from "free" texture resources that do not allow redistribution and cannot be incorporated into a commercial project. Someone would need to create a huge replacement pack of textures that do not break the look of existing missions and do not infringe on the copyrighted textures. Also, many artists who contributed to this project do not want 3rd party entities to use their work in commercial projects. They intended the models, textures, sounds, animations to be exclusively used for Darkmod content. You would either have to replace ALL assets or contact every contributor and ask them to re-license their assets. Many contributors are no longer active with the project and haven't visited the forums in years so it would be no easy feat. I cannot speak to Debian policy but I think that they treat installers that add non-free content the same as non-free content itself. One could argue that Steam is such an installer but I guess Debian would counter that there are a few fully Libre games on Steam. I think Debian, Ubuntu, or Linux Mint need to consider a repo that allows for games (etc) that include non-libre content but intentionally offer this content for free to the community with no stipulations other than "don't try to sell it as a product".

The gamepad implementation allows for a great degree of flexibility to personalize settings, aside from a few minor issues that I mentioned here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22337-gamepad-bindings/ I would say that playing TDM with a gamepad works very well, especially considering that it was implemented as experimental and hasn't been changed since then. If I could, I'd go back to 2021-you and congratulate you on buying that gamepad. I notice that your DarkmodPadbinds.cfg looks very different from mine...

It seems like more and more "thief" and "thief players" is becoming a short hand to dismiss community members earnest desire to improve the game - which happens to be a barely legally distinct "thief style" game which was made by thief fans for thief fans and is "designed to simulate the stealth gameplay of Thief". Who is the predominant player base of the game supposed to be beyond fans of the thief games? Is there some better avenue to find feedback for the game beyond this forum? FOSS and linux forums? I have seen maybe half a dozen posts from that segment. I am a thief fan, I play thief fms, my association with those games is what drives me to play and make things for this game. Are we supposed to pretend the original games are not a huge reason why most of us are here at all? TL;DR version:

Thanks! 1) Doing LONG_PRESS PAD_A (what I, for lack of knowledge, call "jump-mantle" or "_jumpmantle") differs from doing PRESS PAD_A ("_jump"). "_jumpmantle" differs from "_mantle", so they must be mapped to different button-calls. "_jumpmantle" differs from "_jump", so they must also be mapped to different button-calls. This appears to be the case, but it is not evident (or changeable) in DarkmodPadbinds.cfg. "_jumpmantle" seems to be hard coded to always connect to the same button as "_jump" but with a long press. It is as if bindPadButton PRESS PAD_A "_jump" is not actually just binding PRESS PAD_A to "_jump", but rather interpreted as "link PAD_A (regardless of button press time) to behave exactly like keyboard SPACE for short and long presses". I would have expected the default DarkmodPadbinds.cfg to explicitly read: bindPadButton PRESS PAD_A "_jump" bindPadButton LONG_PRESS PAD_A "_jumpmantle" bindPadButton PRESS PAD_B "_crouch" bindPadButton LONG_PRESS PAD_B "_mantle" ... but neither LONG_PRESS PAD_A or "_jumpmantle" is listed in the file. If there are actions "_jump" and "_mantle", I suppose there must also be an action "_jumpmantle" since it is possible for the player to do all those movements: * "_mantle" does the movements "crouch on the high surface, then stand up" * "_jumpmantle" idoes the movements "jump slightly forward, then land standing on the high surface" * "_jump" idoes the movements "jump up, then land exactly where you started" If the actions "_jump" and "_moveup" are not synonymous, then perhaps the action "_moveup" is what i call "_jumpmantle"? 2) Thanks for the link! It was useful in more than one way. I'll link to that page from https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Bindings_and_User_Settings#Gamepad_Default_Bindings if I can get an account on the wiki, which proved more difficult than i thought (https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22327-how-can-i-create-an-account-on-the-tdm-wiki/). However, it does not answer my question how to find out the name ("<button>") used for a button on my gamepad. Basically, I would need to press the button on my gamepad and some program could tell me "That button is called 'PAD_A'". In my case, I have a gamepad "Logitech F310" (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Logitech_F310_Gamepad.jpg) which has a "Logitech button" (see image) that I want to use. I was hoping to find out the "button name" for that button and then edit DarkmodPadbinds.cfg to map it to a function. 3) ... but if that button has an "unusual name" that TDM does not recognize, then it may perhaps not work. E.g. if that button is called "PAD_LOGITECH" and TDM cannot recognize that name, then I cannot map anything to it via DarkmodPadbinds.cfg. Using QJoyPad I can map any keyboard key to it instead, as a workaround, but I cannot map MODIFIER to it (since MODIFIER cannot be set to a keyboard key). If current implementation is still called "experimental", then I must say it works very well; @cabalistic: kudos for that! I may not have continued playing TDM had it not worked with a gamepad.

It is possible that this is a setting that needs to be activated to work: https://mantisbt.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23221

I got an HP Reverb G2, from HP’s site, they seem to run sales every couple of months for almost every holiday. Not wireless, plugs into my GPU and mobo so it’s processing power relies on my PCs hardware. Downside is it’s not portable and I can’t take it on vacation. The upside is better graphics than a Meta Quest 2 (which seems to be most users baseline for comparison, but then again I don’t understand AirLink since I don’t have to worry about that so perhaps that bypasses the onboard processor for graphics, idk) I’m running it with a Ryzen 7 3700X, GTX 1660Super (not great, but it gets the job done since the only other game I play in VR is Blade & Sorcery which is physics heavy and thankfully relies more on CPU) with 32gb RAM. So far it’s all worked beautifully for me and I couldn’t be happier, I just need more time to enjoy it. As far as suggestions on what to get: find a balance between resolution and refresh rate that works for you and your budget. I found IGN’s guide helpful for comparing tech specs.

DarkRadiant 2.8.0 is ready for download. Next to a considerable number of bugfixes and improvements, a nice amount of new editing features made it into this build. There's a new way to select items by filter, it's possible to retain grouping information when copy-pasting between DarkRadiant sessions, a new "Select Parent Entities" command has been added, and more. A new DarkRadiant User Guide is being worked on and available on the website https://www.darkradiant.net/userguide (also accessible through the About > User Guide menu option). Windows and Mac Downloads are available on github: https://github.com/codereader/DarkRadiant/releases/tag/2.8.0 and of course linked from the website https://www.darkradiant.net Thanks go out to all who helped testing this release! Please report any bugs or feature requests here in these forums, following these guidelines: Bugs (including steps for reproduction) can go directly on the tracker. When unsure about a bug/issue, feel free to ask. If you run into a crash, please record a crashdump: Crashdump Instructions Feature requests should be suggested (and possibly discussed) here in these forums before they may be added to the tracker. Changes since 2.7.0 Feature: Selection by Filter Feature: Preserve grouping information when copy-pasting between multiple open instances of DR Feature: Add Portable Map Format storing map and additional data in one single file Feature: Preserve grouping information in prefabs Feature: Model chooser now lists .md3 models Feature: The Dark Mod: Let DR look for either 32-bit or 64-bit TDM .exe's Feature: The Dark Mod: Added ability to edit difficulty names Feature: The Dark Mod: Add Move up/down buttons to Conversation Editor Feature: Add type-to-search ability to AI vocal set and head chooser dialogs Feature: Let DR remember the shader in ShaderClipboard after closing Feature: Add option to show "Other Materials" in Texture Browser Fixed: Edit Objectives dialog doesn't adjust its height when selecting a component Fixed: DR can't find materials whose names start with table Fixed: It's possible to delete the classname spawnarg through the context menu Fixed: All spawnargs with the same value as the "name" spawnarg iterate when the entity is cloned Fixed: Removing a Stim/Response entry can break the remaining entries Fixed: Loading error caused by non-Latin character in filename Fixed: Texture Tool: crashes on brush surfaces with texture scale 0 Fixed: Undo after thickening a cylinder cap along vertex normals causes crash Fixed: Readable Editor Crash Fixed: Python 3.8 does not get linked (Linux) Fixed: ConnectNamespacedWalker Warning when cloning selection containing links and targets Fixed: Show English difficulty names in the Difficulty Editor instead of the #strNNNNN IDs Fixed: 'Reload models' reveals hidden models Fixed: 'Show help' etc. checkboxes in entity inspector aren't remembered by DR Fixed: 'Show help' tooltip text updates incorrectly Fixed: Changing classname ties entity's visibility to 'Default' layer Fixed: Resized Models lose their scale in auto-saved maps Fixed: Autosaves don't save last camera angle & position Fixed ToggleFullScreenCamera command for Embedded and RegularLeft layouts Tweak: Removed/disabled close button from all dialogs Tweak: Allow fixed Subdivisions to go higher than 32 Tweak: Targeting projected lights: let the line point to the light source instead of the light volume's midpoint Tweak: Collapsing a folder in a treeview now collapses all child elements too The list of changes can be found on the our bugtracker changelog. Have fun mapping!

I am going to sort-of reveal that this is loosely like the nature of my upcoming mission. I noted it here when JackFarmer asked about things that are coming along in this post: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/profile/37993-jackfarmer/&status=3943&type=status It too is a builder church. The player is requested by a hopefully famous character in another mission to handle some business that is affecting the congregation. I am looking to invoke some info and history laid down in other missions as a hook story.

I created the page: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Lightgem In the source I placed the following text: <!-- Page text made by forum user Fiver: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22327-how-can-i-create-an-account-on-the-tdm-wiki/&do=findComment&comment=491145 --> Personally I think the page isn't really necessary because the info is already present under HUD.

Keep in mind also that mission size, and complexity have increased dramatically since the beginning. For a lot of veteran mappers, it can take over a year to get a map made and released. The last dozen missions have for the most part been pretty massive, with new textures, sounds, scripts, models etc. We seem to be long past the point of people loading up the tools, and banging out a mission in a few weeks that's very barebones. We still do see some of those, but I noticed in the beta mapper forums and on Discord, that mappers seem to make these maps, but don't release them, and instead use the knowledge gained to make something even better. Could just be bias on my part scrolling through the forums and discord server though.

D3 allows for some ingame editing, with commands to save things to the map file. Lets say you want to set up some moveables or ragdoll corpses just so. Editing these positions and orientations from the editor is often more difficult than manipulating them ingame, and sometimes impossible. For one thing, physics doesn't run in the editor, so you don't know if the stack of boxes you just made will be at rest, or if it will topple over as soon as the map is run ingame. I don't think there is a way to pose ragdolls from the editor, so that's impossible unless you manipulate them ingame and then save them. The save commands below all save things to the map file, and show what objects you can edit ingame: saveMoveables save all moveables to the .map file [NOTE: Will not save if any moveable is not at rest] saveRagdolls save all ragdoll poses to the .map file saveLights saves all lights to the .map file saveParticles saves all particles to the .map file saveSelected saves the selected entity to the .map file deleteSelected deletes selected entity (I believe it just deletes it ingame, not from the mapfile, but if you delete it ingame and then save, it should be deleted in the mapfile) Selected items are selected by turning on "g_dragentity 1" and clicking on the object. [Warning: g_dragentity 1 interacts badly with our object manipulation system, so you may want to save the game before doing this in case the grabber gets messed up.] Our object manipulation system (grabber) is quite useful for placing moveables and ragdolls, with some cheats enabled to disable the force limits. The following console cheats are useful for setting up moveables ingame: tdm_drag_limit_force 0 // allows instant translation/rotation of moveables tdm_drag_af_free 1 // allows picking corpses up all the way off the ground tdm_drag_damping 0 noclip 1 // it's easy to place things when you're flying around Then you can just use the grabber as normal to place things. A word of caution: since the force limits are disabled, you'll want to move heavy objects around somewhat carefully to avoid high energy collisions that may send things flying that you didn't intend to send flying. Fortunately, you can save/restore the game at any time during the time you are setting up objects. The following commands are also useful: killmonsters 1 // avoid pesky AI that may blunder into your carefully arranged objects g_dragentity 1 allows D3 "selection" of objects to save/delete an individual object. Can interact badly with grabber, see word of warning above. bindRagdoll binds ragdoll [to the world] at the current drag position. Useful for binding stuff like hanging chains from the ceiling, but cannot be used to bind to something other than the world (that you have to do in the editor). unbindRagdoll unbinds the selected ragdoll spawn <entityDef> Spawn anything ingame, with tab completion.

I have returned to TheDarkMod after a few years (I played it a lot around 2015-16, even tried making a map, it did not go anywhere so I donated those few assets). The missions are great. In this one in particular, the navigation is awesome. The city is very good. I have noticed a trend though: the puzzles are more complicated; a lever may open something *somewhere*. Do you think that large TDM missions are suffering from "puzzle creep", that the veteran and in-community players do not notice? [/spoiler] So you have to go *all the way back* to use the crystal key on the teleporter thingy? And I don't know how to deal with the burning crystals either. I ended up killing nearly all enemies in the mages' place, with sword and holy water, because, yeah, I need to figure things out and I can't be bothered to stealth from one place to another anymore, lol. I will try checking the readables and environment with a bit more patience and see. [spoiler] The old format for spoiler tags does not work, not does changing the '/'. Wow, what a way to advertise "I am dumb" XD IMO the best way is to place gradual spoilers in the forum thread. I know it's a bit of a burden on the authors but answering 20 questions disjointly from different users is one as well.