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Interesting. Well I hope Vivaldi is able to flourish and continue its efforts at being the best browser it can. Unfortunately it's all too common in the tech industry, once you've grown to a certain size, to become the very thing you sought to destroy. But I guess the most important thing is that we continue to have options.

Very true, but if that's the case then Vivaldi is a bit of an oddity. Despite using Chromium the browser isn't actually open source, it's more of a hybrid between open source and proprietary code. Which is fine, except that if you consider ethics important, moving away from a pure FOSS browser (Firefox) to one that's part proprietary (Vivaldi) seems like the wrong direction... unless it's a compromise with features vs licensing, which I kinda understand. In the end though it's still a browser using Chromium as its rendering engine which means that no matter what position they have publically against Google, they're still relying on Google tech for the most important part of the browser. The browser monoculture keeps marching on...

After a long time and a lot of delays, I'm extremely happy and relieved to announce the release date for my first map; Lords & Legacy, on Friday the 30th of August, 2013! Lords & Legacy v.2.1 Resume: Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/Lj8UJ#0 Notes: Build time: 2013/03/30 - 2013/08/30 To install, simply put the .pk4 file in your fm folder and install from the in-game mission menu. It is a large mission with optional objectives, so make sure to save often. The ropes in the beginning have a 'slick' surface, to simulate being 'slack lines'. They are difficult, but once you get a hang of the slide they can be fun. A couple of the large areas can be a bit rough on performance, and can be improved by adjusting the LOD slider in video options. A few of visportals open only when you get close. This is to keep the frames smooth inside the respective building, due to early inexperienced design. If you find any bugs which affect the gameplay experience, then you're very welcome to post them here, but please use the spoiler tags. Big thanks to 'Obsttorte', 'Springheel', 'Greyman', 'Bikerdude', 'Sotha' and rest of 'The Dark Mod Team'for all the help, guides and tricks. Also thanks to the other TDM users who provided fantastic support and feedback during the build. Thank you for beta-testing: 'Bikerdude', 'TylerVocal', 'Simplen00b', 'nbohr1more', 'Briareos H.' Special thanks to: 'Danus', 'Dsx' & 'Stanleh' for testing, help and support. v.2.0.1 changelog: Bugs: -The "Master Thief" challenge was impossible to do for a while, due to incorrect values. Fixed. -Getting seen by "The Killer" now also fails the "Ghost" challenge. -The 3 cardplaying guards no longer float mid air, as their chairs are now nailed to the floor. -Fixed the sound of the furnace continuing after the flames were extinguished. -Fixed weird glittering on the power cables around the map. -Fixed some moonlight popping in and out. -Fixed openable windows in Commons, clipping into the frame. -Fixed a book dropping through a desk. -Fixed visportals closing too close in Lancel's Tower, slight hit on performance though. -Added more monsterclip to Service Tower and Robert's Tower's entrance. -Improved a few vis_portals with func_portals. -Replaced curbs in Slums and Commons with some more detailed versions and changed textures. And a lot more little unecessary tweaks. Gameplay: -Added new challenge: (Jack White) - Do not knock-out anyone. -Reduced the amount of starting gear, depending on difficulty. -Added cubemaps to most windows on the map. -Redid most func_statics in Commmons Quarter to reduce tris and increase performance. Draw count is still somewhat high. -Removed all transparent windows as they didn't have actual gameplay value, just a performance drain in exchange for glitchy visuals. -Lancel's safe can no longer be picked. Find the key! -Added a couple minor cosmetic details in the sewers. -Moved a coinpurse from a wealthy commoner's sleeping butt to his nightside table. Also adjusted his furniture so thieves can better move around. -Changed sounds for several doors across the map. Once again, a big thanks to 'Bikerdude' for taking the time help out and locate room for improvement! v.2.0 changelog: Bugs: -Fixed various textures and surfaces and a few minor tweaks. -Tweaked some sounds to be in line with TDM 2.0 changes. -Fixed 2 certain AIs being too sensitive rather than drunk. (Thanks to AluminumHaste!) -Tweaked LOD on some objects, to prevent windows "popping" in and out. Gameplay: -Added more monsterclip to the towers, so the AI can now run up and down stairs. Only the stairs in the small tower has issues still. -Added more monsterclip in the city so the guards can follow you up all stairs. -Added a few minor details. -Windows in the city now dims sound, resulting in less aggro from guards and more convincing soundscape. -Reduced 'draw calls' in all the large areas, increasing performance. The map is still heavy at certain areas. Another big thanks to 'Bikerdude' and 'Greyman', for taking time out of their own schedules to help optimize the map's draw count and other significant adjustements! v.1.0.3 changelog: Bugs: -Fixed 4 black chairs in one of the towers -Fixed a floating painting -Fixed several clipping objects v.1.0.2 changelog: Bugs: -Fixed zfighting in the library's bookshelves -Fixed a black window in one of the towers -Fixed several typos in readables Gameplay: v.1.0.1 changelog: Bugs: -Fixed an issue with the main objectives not being in "sync". -Fixed console spam from a script Gameplay: -Adjusted required loot for each difficulty from "3000, 4000 and 5000" to "2500, 3500 and 4500".

Welcome to the Dark Mod forums MarsManon! Thank you very much for the kind words about SLL, it's always nice to hear We all worked real hard on bringing Grayman's map to life and I'm glad you enjoyed it

I was so enchanted by this FM, I had to sign up to the forums the same day I finished it to come thank the authors Genuinely, truly incredible work! I was so overwhelmed in places that I resorted to just shouting joy at my monitor two, three, maybe four entirely separate times while playing. Exploring, puzzling, finding something new, trying to use it, and finding it does a whole new, separate, wonderful thing! There aren't enough words inside me to describe the feeling. It was breathtaking. I don't have any specific feedback that hasn't come through this thread before Thanks so much for making this, for all the inspiration and ingenuity and effort it took. If I never play another level this good, in any other game, in my life, I'd be fine with that.

This stuff is basically just resume bling... like an unpaid internship at a prestigious law firm... or a college diploma. Jumping on dumb "cutting edge" trends like this is a way for the people involved to establish themselves as "movers and shakers" in the tech world, which will make them a hot commodity for a) clueless corporate hiring managers who don't actually know anything about the business, b) tech illiterate con-artists "tech" entrepreneurs looking to make a lot of money by inventing the next dumb cutting-edge trend, and c) other would-be "movers and shakers" in need of some extra legitimacy for their own cutting-edge project (usually meant to pull the same trick). None of these project need to make any money, or even deliver a product to pay off for the people behind them. Ultimately they will collect at some point down the road thanks to the the generosity of lazy/elitist corporations and fraud victims. It's an entire global industry of wearing and selling the emperor's new clothes, continuously playing out on multiple layers. And it is one of the pillars of our entire modern technological civilization...

I just don't get it. While having more VRAM on the GPU is an easy solution to improve performance and resource issues, GPU architects have known for ages that the best solution is using some sort of hierarchy where you page out to system RAM once you are low on GPU RAM. AGP Aperture was designed around this idea. When PCIE came out, it was meant to have a flexible memory aperture natively but somehow IHV's never optimized that? Then Nvidia created PCIE "TurboCache" and AMD created HyperMemory. Issue solved? Apparently not? id Software pioneered the use of virtual textures in id Tech 5 and that became a standard graphic feature called "Partially Resident Textures" How in the world is a graphic shader hack more effective than hardware solutions like TurboCache? Anyway, it works but it seems to be cumbersome to implement so it hasn't caught on I guess. Then the AMD Vega architecture launched and AMD began touting how great it's Cache Hierarchy system worked? As if the same idea was not in play per all the above previous examples? Also when Vega launched, they made a branded version of "Resizable BAR" which conceptually is the same idea as PCIE's native flexible aperture but apparently even though we made a flexible specification somewhere in the bowels of the graphic hardware specification we still had harded coded limits that needed to be fixed? Then PS5 console proposed Direct Storage which also has a graphics memory hierarchy design. We have all these tools to use system ram and even SSD \ NVMe for video memory yet we are still designing game engines to front-load all data into VRAM and acting like it's "impossible" to have good performance when dedicated video RAM is below X amount. This should be a solved problem by now.

Ulysses 2: Protecting the Flock By Sotha The mission starts some time after the events of Ulysses: Genesis, and continues the story of Ulysses. It is a medium sized mission with a focus on stealthy assassinations and hostage liberation. BUILD TIME: 12/2014 - 05/2015 CREDITS The TDM Community is thanked for steady supply of excellent mapping advice. Thanks goes also to everyone contributing to TDM! Voice Actors: Goldwell (as Goubert and Ulysses), Goldwell's Girlfriend (as Alis) Betatesters: Airship Ballet, Ryan101. Special Thanks to: Springheel and Melan (for proofreading). Story: Read & listen it in game. Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwR0ORZU5sraRGduUWlVRmtsX3c/view?usp=sharing Other: Spoilers: When discussing, please use spoiler tags, like this: [spoiler] Hidden text. [/spoiler] Mirrors: Could someone put this on TDM ingame downloader? Thanks!

@datiswous, made that correction fm_test.subs --> fm_conversations.subs @stgatilov, about srt naming and file location, would you be OK with the following edit? New/changed stuff in italics: srt command is followed by paths to a sound sample and its .srt file, typically with matching filenames. An .srt file is usually placed either with its sound file or in a "subtitles" folder. The .srt file format is described e.g. [1]. The file must be in engine-native encoding (internationalization is not supported yet anyway) and have no BOM mark. It contains a sequence of text messages to show during the sound sample, each with start and end timestamps within the sample's timeline. It is recommended to use common software to create .srt files for sound samples, instead of writing them manually. This way is more flexible but more complicated, and it is only necessary for long sounds, for instance sound sample of a briefing video. It's a simple enough standard that it can be shown as an short example, demonstrating that subtitle segments can have time gaps between them. And the example can show correct TDM usage, without requiring a trip off-site and picking through features that TDM doesn't support. Specifically, the example shows how to define two lines by direct entry, rather than using unsupported message location tags (X1, Y1, etc.). And skips other unavailable SRT font markups like italics, mentioned in the wikipedia description. The example would also show the TDM-specific path treatment. The example could be inserted before the sentence "It is recommended to use common software...."

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.

Try Ctrl + Shift + Alt + D to get the Netflix equivalent of YouTube's "stats for nerds". https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/16-netflix-power-user-tips-you-should-have-your-back-pocket/

Author note: It's hard to believe it's already been a year since Act 1 came out! Well during this mission the player will be following Corbin into the Grimwood district to followup on a lead from last night (Act 1) .. the mysterious tablet! This mission is my first time including full EFX support as well as a HD briefing video file, additionally a new script has been added crafted by the talented Obsttorte which has loot flying towards the player when you pick it up. On a level design front I have tried to change things up a bit by really catering towards a number of play styles, this mission can be completely ghosted or you can use the tools at your disposal to wreak havoc on the citizens of Northdale. For the first time I have tried to create more sandbox environments which don't offer clear answers handed directly to you, so if you're having trouble figuring something out try a different method. This mission takes between 1 - 2 hours to finish depending on the difficulty you play on and how thoroughly you explore. I hope you enjoy your night in Northdale! - Goldwell Voice actors Fen Phoenix Goldwell Random_taffer Yandros Beta testers Amadeus Boiler's Hiss Cambridge Spy Chakkman Crowind Epifire Kingsal SquadaFroinx Custom Assets Andreas Rocha DrK Epifire Grayman Kingsal MalachiAD Obsttorte Sotha Springheel SquadaFroinx Purgator With special thanks to Epifire for creating a large collection of custom models, Grayman for helping out with coding, Kingsal for drawing the ingame map and Moonbo for his script revision on the briefing video. Available via in-game downloader MIRROR File Size: 417 mb EDIT: If you are having performance issues please consult this post by Nbohr1more which may address your issue http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/19936-fan-mission-shadows-of-northdale-act-ii-by-goldwell-20190320/page-2?do=findComment&comment=436271

I just submitted my game to Greenlight. It is made with the open source Id Tech 4 engine. I put a special thanks to the people of the DarkMod and the people who made Darkradiant in the credits of my game. But don't let that bias you Only vote for it if it looks like something you would actually enjoy: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785909840

If you really want to distill things down then sure, we are biological machines and AI's should be able to replicate whatever we can do, given time. Hell you could probably combine the various text and image generating AIs out there to create the assets for a map at this point, including the story. With enough time, probably the maps themselves could be created by AI. But if I know that I'm playing a map created entirely by an AI with minimal to no direct human influence... eh. It takes something away from it. There's a reason people enjoy practical effects like actual jets doing their shit in a movie like Top Gun: Maverick as opposed to a complete CGI fest. Not quite the same analogue I know but still. Otherwise it gets to the point where all content is synthetic and that feels incredibly stale. As a side note, we have enough AI tech to create fairly realistic fake articles that can be used to slander and manipulate to a degree not seen before. The issue of art being wholly created by AI is one thing, but the damage of this tech to manipulate society to a negative degree is much, much worse. Such is the progress of technology I guess. Maybe that's my bias to be cautious about it.

The whole point of this thread is that ChatGPT and related generative AI technologies have the potential to "change the game" of game making. If the TDM community seems dead to you, remember that is only because there are very few people in the world with the skill set or resources to make fan mission, or even to contribute productively to discussing them. A lot more people like stealth games than have the time or talent to make them, much less learn how to make them. If new technology can lower the threshold for them to participate or even create an entirely new population of participants, that could be revolutionary for us. But the first step of that process is recognizing what this new technology is, what it's capable of, and where it fits within the pre-existing human social/economic/legal ecosystem. How else are FM creators and potential creators to know whether it is worth investing their precious time investigating this tech and integrating it into their processes? Hence the discussion so far. Something that I don't think has been brought up about this is that if anyone wishes to publish works while forbidding their use for creating any sort of derivative work, there are legal mechanisms right now that allow you to do that: You just need to keep your work under lock and key and make every person you allow to see it sign a legally binding confidentiality and non-compete agreement. This is extra effort and will generally require you to make proportionate concessions to the other party to make the agreement both legally valid and economically enticing, but it can be done. In fact it is done. Frequently. What you can't do is nail your work to the church door for all to freely see, or give it to every merchant to sell on the open market, and then retroactively decide you want to reserve additional rights for yourself! Can you imagine if the world actually worked like that? I cannot imagine a more fertile ground for corporate oppression. Imagine if Disney had the right to ban anyone who had ever seen Snow White from ever working in animation! Imagine if Activision could ban anyone who had ever played a Call of Duty from developing a competing modern military shooter. The only angle to this argument I think has a shred of validity is that maybe we can and should hold industrial actors to different ethical and legal standards from actual human beings. However I don't think that finger in the dike would hold back the storm surge for very long. Crowd sourcing is a thing, and there are plenty of people who would be happy to donate their C/GPU time and internet connections for AI research. In terms of legal strategies against generative AI, the copyright angle is the weakest of sauces. Even if the courts are taken in by the fallacious claims of the plaintiffs (which would not surprise me), their rulings will be just as unenforceable in practice as the music and film industries' fruitless wars against piracy. Worse in fact, because with generative AI there could be an actual arms race between uncovering and concealing evidence of illegal copying.

@kano I think you are spot on with that assessment (unfortunately), at least for the next 10-15 years. As with pretty much everything tech I would love it if the commons could produce a viable non-proprietary competitor. Unfortunately the massive amount of work, data, and processing power it takes to train one of these bots simply necessitates major corporate or government backing. That may change as the field matures and people start figuring out what makes these bots work. Human infants are able to learn to speak with far, far, far, far, FAR less language exposure than it takes even the most primitive chat bots to approximate coherent fluency. That's because a human brain is not a single undifferentiated mass of neurons. Our brains come pre-divided into function oriented sub modules, pre-populated with effective neural configurations for their specific tasks. By contrast, an undifferentiated mass really is more or less how these bots start out. 99% of all that training they need is just getting them to the starting line of approximating any sort of receptive brain configuration. Once people start cracking the code though that whole process will become much more efficient. Assuming our current society survives, people will eventually be able to buy pre-configured bot-brain-parts to train and run on their home computers for a build-your-own AI companion experience. We are still in early days of this technology. Incidentally that's why I'm skeptical of any claims that the hallucinations these bots continue to exhibit are a feature to the people building them, rather than a bug. I'm sure we will see that eventually (truth by Google...), but for right now it is hard enough just to get these bots to stop spouting racial slurs. Teaching them to double think on top of that is too much work... for now.

How you can help depends a lot on what skills you have. I can Record Video Recording "Let's Play" videos or simple walkthroughs of existing missions and posting them to Youtube is great exposure for the mod (see example .) Be sure to let us know so we can link to them. If you have some editing ability, Video tutorials, where you explain how the mod works, or how to use specific tools, would also be great. Video trailers, showcasing interesting places and features, are also great for publicity. An example is . I can Write Writing reviews for missions are always nice, especially if they include good screenshots. Not only does it give us something to post on other forums, but it makes mappers feel good when their mission gets attention (especially if it's positive). We have a collective thread to post reviews in: http://forums.thedar...s-walkthroughs/ Writing reviews of the mod as a whole, targetted an an audience that doesn't know much about TDM, is also very useful. You could also try offering your services to mappers to create interesting readables, or to proofread for their mission. I can Act and Record Audio We are always on the lookout for good quality audio recordings for vocal sets. If interested, you can pick a few different lines from this script: http://wiki.thedarkm...t:_Average_Jack and send the recordings to Springheel, who then writes a script based on the type of voice you have. I can Translate We could always use translations of our menu/hud into more languages. Also, only a few FMs are aavailable in more than one language, so there is a lot of work there, see the I18N Translator's Guide in the Wiki. I can Model Great! Take a look at the model request thread:http://forums.thedar...-requests-here/ and pick something that interests you. Or just post a, "Hey, anybody want a model?" thread in this forum and I'm sure mappers will get back to you. I can Animate Fantastic. We can always use more good animations. Our current character rigs use a Maya skeleton. PM Springheel for more info. I know C++ Have a look at our coding section in the wiki, pick an issue or feature from the bugtracker of the mod or the leveleditor, download the recent sourcecode release (or better ask for an SVN checkout) and get cracking. Make sure nobody is already working on that specific issue and feel free to ask questions. I can Edit Images We can always use completely new textures and/or improved versions of older textures. How to get started and how to import them into the mod. I can Take Photos Good quality photos of useful textures (medieval-ish building facades, dirt, rocks, wood, etc) are always welcome. The fewer directional shadows and higher resolution, the better. I don't have any skills Even if you can't do any of the above, you can still help out. Talk about TDM in other forums; share your (preferably positive) experiences with other gamers you know. Last, but not least, compliment people when you like their work. Saying "thanks", to a developer or, "I really enjoyed your mission" to a mapper will make their day. -------------------- I'll update this further as more things occur to me.

Maybe a better alternative to ChatGPT, which in ocassions has a lot of fantasy in its responses, like also BingAI, which often links to inexistent codes and sites. I also use AIs, but mines don't invent nothing, create direct answers based on reliable resources, no account and anonimous use https://andisearch.com The first AI search, long before Google and Bing, of a small dev team, Angie Hoover and Jed White. https://www.perplexity.ai a very good AI engine, safe, reliable and private. https://www.phind.com similar to Perplexity, but more especific for Devs and Tech questions, maybe the most usefull for our builders All these also work fine as PWAs, even in mobile

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

(I apologize for the odd poll question layout. I wasn't able to add five yes-no questions, because polls are limited to three questions.) Hi everyone, I've recently been working on some patches for issues that I've read about from players on the TDM and TTLG forums — and Discord. My goal is to make it as easy as possible for players, especially new players and those who need usability/accessibility options, to find what they need in order to have a better TDM experience. I've already written the GUI and game engine code for these settings, which I've been using in my personal build. The reason for this poll and discussion is to both guide the finalization of my work and collect data to help inform the dev team. Which patches I submit depend on the outcome of this poll, discussion, and what the dev team agrees to accept. Once decided, I can coordinate with the dev team. I've attached screenshots of what the new settings menu would look like if all of the settings are accepted. Below, I have detailed each menu setting, so you can have an easier time understanding each one. Very important to keep in mind: None of these settings change TDM default behavior. They are all opt-in. If you are already happy with the behavior of 2.10, 2.11, etc. and these menu settings are accepted, nothing will change for you. Rename "Always Run" to "Run Mode" with options "None, Always, Toggle" After 2.11 was released, @i30817 requested that "toggle run" be added to the settings menu. Its cvar is already in TDM as "in_toggleRun" (same as Doom 3). I propose renaming the "Always Run" setting to "Run Mode" with options: "None", "Always", and "Toggle". None = in_alwaysRun 0; in_toggleRun 0 Always = in_alwaysRun 1; in_toggleRun 0 Toggle = in_alwaysRun 0; in_toggleRun 1 Show Blackjack Helper @Wellingtoncrab suggested that the new blackjack helper be added to the settings menu. Its cvar was added to 2.11 as "tdm_blackjack_indicate". More info: It's the new blackjack helper added to 2.11. When the game detects that the blackjack can be used for a successful hit or KO, the blackjack will rise slightly. I propose a "Yes/No" setting for this. Slider for "View: Head Bob" @ChronA requested a way to disable head bobbing, because a viewer watching him play was having severe motion sickness. Also, there was a bug in TDM that made setting the head bob in the console not stick after loading a saved game. (Even with 2.11, if a mission overrides the "tdm_player_thief.def" file and sets "pm_bobroll", "pm_bobpitch", "pm_bobup", and other cvars, it will override player preferences.) As far back as 2008, players have had trouble setting head bob. Another one from 2018. At the end of 2022, @Shadowex3 registered just to voice the need for a way to control head bob. I propose that a slider be added to adjust the amount of head bob. This would use a new "pm_headbob_mod" cvar with a value between 0.0 and 1.0 (default 1.0, no change). The "pm_headbob_mod" would be a multiplier for "pm_bobroll", "pm_bobpitch", and "pm_bobup". The advantage to this approach is that missions like Volta 2 and Hazard Pay would not need to adjust their "tdm_player_thief.def" files for head bob to work properly. And, the player can still adjust "pm_bobroll", "pm_bobpitch", and "pm_bobup" as they like. Slider for "View: Mantle Roll" This is similar to head bob for those who are sensitive to motion. Its cvar was added to 2.11 as "pm_mantle_roll_mod". A Thief player on Discord said, "2.11 will have a cvar to tune down the mantling animation at last." I propose that a slider be added for "pm_mantle_roll_mod". Auto-Search Bodies @Zaratul requested the "auto-search bodies" feature from Thief 1 & 2. Its cvar was added to 2.12 dev16783-10307 as "tdm_autosearch_bodies". I did a poll on the a Thief Discord server and roughly 20% of players there use the Thief auto-search bodies feature. I propose a menu setting for this, so that players coming from Thief 1 & 2 can easily find it.

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