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IPB (Invision Power Board) 2.1 Final was released 15 minutes ago. I'm going to upgrade this 2.0.4 forum to version 2.1, as this will get us loads of new cool and reworked features. However, we will have to re-do the skin as there are so many template changes. Just keep that in mind, the forums might look a bit odd the first couple of days. I'm not sure when I will have time to perform the upgrade, might happen tonight or tomorrow. You can discuss this here.

Just curious, based on this discussion: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/19239-soft-r-gamma/?p=427350

https://www.pcgamer.com/intel-boot-guard-private-keys-have-reportedly-leaked-compromising-the-security-of-many-computers/ All I want for Christmas is the ability to lock down the firmware on my motherboard with a write-protect jumper or switch so that it cannot be changed or hacked by random software without me knowing. Firmware is a very special thing; it should be as small and simple as possible, not easy to change unless absolutely necessary, and the user should have assurance that nobody can mess with or reprogram it but them. But instead, we are moving to a world where you have to upgrade firmware every time Netflix or Disney say so, and if the power goes out half way through the process and your equipment gets wrecked as a result, "here's a quarter, phone someone who cares".

Did anyone test the Deus Ex: Invisible War ESRGAN Pack? Appart from enhanced textures: Same guy also created a similar upgrade for Thief 3.

Ever since I worked on "Chalice of Kings" with Bikerdude, I have wanted to get flame particles with new particle glares into the core mod. My reasoning was that the candles have glares and the un-glared torches look mismatched. This proposal was met with mixed reactions, so (knowing the history of TDM feature proposals...) I have created a technical demo. You may download it here: zzz_flameglare.pk4.txt (fixed) Just rename without the .txt extension at the end and place it in your Darkmod directory. Here are some screens. Using particles for this is probably the wrong way to go now that Duzenko has an emissive light feature in his branch: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/19659-feature-request-emissive-materialsvolumetric-lights/

"...to a robber whose soul is in his profession, there is a lure about a very old and feeble man who pays for his few necessities with Spanish gold." Good day, TDM community! I'm Ansome, a long-time forums lurker, and I'm here to recruit beta testers for my first FM: "The Terrible Old Man", based on H.P. Lovecraft's short story of the same name. This is a short (30-45 minute), story-driven FM with plenty of readables and a gloomy atmosphere. Do keep in mind that this is a more linear FM than you may be used to as it was deemed necessary for the purposes of the story's pacing. Regardless, the player does still have a degree of freedom in tackling challenges in the latter half of the FM. If this sounds interesting to you, please head over to the beta testing thread I will be posting shortly. Thank you!

I've just completed the upgrade from IPB 2.2.x to 2.3.6, the newest official release of IPB. This was done to stay ahead on the IPB version 3 that is currently in the beta stages. Please post any comments, bug notices, etc in this thread. PS: If you have any issues with the new forums, please try to refresh/remove your Internet browser cache. Thanks, ~m2

Evening Thought I would share this recommend build spec I did for Grayman - Bikerdude recommends: Gfx $179.00 Gigabyte GTX465 "352core" 607/1215/3200 1GB 256bit 3yr warranty NewEgg Link Cpu $140.00 Amd Phenom II X4 955 Black edition NewEgg Link Mobo $140.00 Gigabyte GA-890GPA, 6xSata 6, 2xUSB 3.0 NewEgg Link Ram $99.00 Kingston HyperX DDR3-1333 8Gb kit, 4GBx2, Cas7, KHX1333C7D3K4/8GX (v.low timings w/stock voltage) NewEgg Link HDD $86.00 Samsung F4 HD322GJ 320GB, put the these in raid-0 and get over 300MB/s read and write NewEgg Link DVD $18.99 ASUS Black 24X DVD+R ... SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM NewEgg Link Snd $99.00 Soundvlaster X-fi Titainium PCI_E NewEgg Link OS $99.00 Windows 7 X64 Home premium OEM NewEgg Link PSU $85.00 Silverstone 700W, single 12v rail. (single big 12V rail is the way for good stability) NewEgg Link Case $89.00 Cooler master Storm Scout Black (better than the Antec 900 in every way, $10 cheaper) NewEgg Link $1043.99inc tax. (I haven't calculated the shipping, as you should get combined shipping etc from NewEgg). So I have improved his overall system: performance, reliability, desirability and saved him around $200! Ok reason for my choices - The Galaxy is almost as fast as the evga card he specced just cheaper and has the neat feature that allows the use to clean the dust bunnies out of the fins on the gpu cooler. The Phenom II X4 955 is just as fast in most situation to the i5-750 that GM originally speced, but the AMD chip is much cheaper. Also this chip is unlocked and good for over-clocking. The motherboard was a simple and basic choice, it has the latest AMD mobo chipset (890) it has big number of SATA6 and USB3, and is cheaper than the Asus. The ram choice was educated, most situation and game WILL NOT benefit from insanely fast ram, so why waste money?! So the best bang for buck is to get mainstream speed in this case DDR3133 with really low timings, in this case "Cas 7". And its $60 cheaper than the shit arse ocz ram. I actually use 4x of these Samsung F4 320 drives in Raid-0 and get 640/600MB read/write speeds. But more importantly these drives are better than any other mechanical drive on the market on small file(4k etc) read and writes - its 4x faster than the nearest competitor (the WD black drives) The Silverstone PSU was another easy choice, good reliable make of PSU, Single 12v rail provides seriously stable voltages, and the 700W should be fairly future proof. And lastly there is ABSOLUTELY no point buying retail versions of windows for ANY reason, when the only thing you need is the CD and the key!

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2021/08/31/windows-11-available-on-october-5/ It seems like a mostly incremental upgrade to Windows 10 along with some newer tech like Auto HDR and DirectStorage that wouldn't help me much since I play mostly older games on an older monitor. That said, it's a free upgrade and the plan is to start offering it via Windows Update to eligible machines in mid 2022, so you don't need to worry about waking up one day to find Windows 11 suddenly running after an unexpected update. Maybe worry about it in 2025 once Windows 10 reaches EOL. Anyway, just a news update for anyone who cares. I'm still not sure what to think of Windows 11 so far, based on what I've seen/heard. I use a start menu replacement in Windows 10 anyway so any limitations arising from missed/changed functionality should hopefully not be too bothersome, but we'll see. I have a TPM on my motherboard but it's currently disabled in the BIOS, so it seems like I can probably prevent Windows 11's installation entirely if I want until I'm ready. Then again I might end up moving eventually to Linux, who knows. I've been threatening to do that since Vista, but it's never happened for longer than a week.

I have decided to chronicle my foolish attempts to get a P4 3.4Ghz (Northwood) CPU without my wife closing in on my activities. In my previous caper, I wanted the ability to play the Ghostbusters game and was below specification in several key areas: RAM: 512MB (needed to be 2GB) Video Card: Radeon 9500 Pro (Needed SM 3.0 capability) Hard Drive 120GB (needed more space or there would be conflicts about Photos verses Games... ) So I first tried to lobby for the additional RAM as it would improve Photo editing performance. But this was always delayed. Then I was struck with the "luck" of hardware problems in the Hard Drive. I was able to convince my wife that the RAM upgrade would go great with the new Hard Drive. (Phase 1, complete) So then I begged for the Video Card as a combined Birthday/X-mas/Fathers Day gift. I was given a paltry $65 limit. I found an HD3850 AGP at Mwave for just above my allowance and ordered it. When the card arrived, I found that is was wrongly labeled and was in-fact a PCI-E card. This setback was after all kinds of harrowing arguments about how I waste too much time and money on video games (my dusty ole Gamecube begs to differ). A co-worker got wind of my predicament and offered his 7300GT for $45. After looking at reviews I found that the card was just shy of a 6600GT performance-wise and decided to jump. The new card allowed me to crank-up the IQ in HL2 and Doom 3 (and thus TDM Saint Lucia) and I was even able to play the Batman AA demo (at very low resolution). (Phase 2, complete) Now I needed the Ghostbusters game! I had to wait 'till the year rolled around again and traded my Best Buy gift cards for permission to buy the game on Steam. It ran like a dog. After tweaking and fussing for over 2 months, I found some nVidia beta drivers on nvnews that pepped it up to playable at 800x600. But I was bothered that the Stay Puft level was still so slow. (Phase 3, complete) Now I had my sights on a better video card and decided I would have to take more drastic measures. I told my wife's friend's husband about my need to complete this objective and all my secret plans. He must've relayed this to his wife because she informed me that her co-worker needed PC repair! I arranged meetings before and after work to collect and return the infected laptop. After two secret trips to the bank to convert the personal check, I had accumulated $65. . So back to square 1 sorta. (Another set-back) My wife found the money and discovered the scheme. (she took all the money). (Back to work) My father-in-law secretly gave me a gift of $100 (he must've intuited my tortured life). I took this as Karma and secretly transferred the cash to a cash-card. I ordered the HD4650 online and had it shipped to my Grandma's house. When it arrived I was able to justify my late visit to Grandma and sneak the card into the house, AND... install the card, all in the same evening. I even had enough money left on the card to order HL2 EP1 and EP2! My wife had no idea that a new video-card was screaming away in that old case! Ghostbusters was still sluggish but seemed more playable at higher resolutions. But there were unbearable intermittent lockups!!! I was afraid that I had wasted all that effort. I was using the latest Catalyst AGP Hotfix so I decided to try older drivers. I found that 9.10 was the last version with SmartGart (so I could do stuff like disabling Fast-Writes if necessary...). This driver smoothed out all the lockups and left me with only slowdowns (which was acceptable). I was able to tour the Ghostbusters' HQ at 1280x1024 very smoothly. The Stay Puft level is still slow and now I pine (a little) for a faster CPU as some forum posters claim that 3.4Ghz is enough to get over the hump on that level. (Mission Complete?) So, somehow my wife became suspicious a couple of months later. She wouldn't stop badgering me about some secret she claimed I was hiding. I finally relented (needed sleep) and revealed my caper. So I am in the dog house. (Mission Fail? ...or setup for a Sequel!) So I got back around to putting The Dark Mod back into Doom 3. This time it was MUCH slicker and there a bunch of Fan Missions to complete. I was happy again! But then the NHAT campaign arrived. I was looking forward to wandering that Forest level in the screenshots!!! After much acrimony, I found that my poor old CPU was (yet again) defeated by a modern game. So now I have decided! I must find a way to get enough dough for a Northwood 3.4ghz CPU!!!!! I hope you will laugh along as I fumble my way to better computer hardware. (or pity my worthless soul).

Welcome to the New Mappers Workshop! This is a communal workshop for new mappers who have never made a TDM mission before. Each week or two I will make a tutorial video and help to guide everyone through the process of creating a small, complete mission. I'm hoping the participants will feel free to ask questions, no matter how small--we're all here to learn from and encourage each other. Since I expect this thread to get fairly busy, I'm going to be heavy-handed about removing off-topic content. ====================================================================================================================================================================== Lessons often include links or other written instructions; direct links to the lessons are collected below: Lesson 1: Planning http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/?p=407999 Lesson 2: Visportals http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/?p=408253 Lesson 3: Your First Room http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/?p=408484 Lesson 4: Decorating Your Rooms http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/?p=408785 Lesson 5: Connecting Your Rooms http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/?p=409215 Lesson 6: Outdoor "Rooms" http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/?p=409322 Lesson 7: Creating Doors http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/?p=409547 Lesson 8: Functional Props (ie, entities) http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/?p=409731 Lesson 9: Immersive Details (sound/particles) http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/?p=410258 Lesson 10: Advanced Brushwork (ladders/water) http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/?p=410667 Lesson 11: AI http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/?p=411192

Welcome to the forums Ansome! And congrats on making it to beta phase!

Had a problem with the web server yesterday that led to a crashed table in the forum database. This has now been repaired and things seems to work again. I was on travel so it took a while before I was able to fix it. Merry Christmas!

Hi I'm thinking of buying a new pc. Or at least mobo+cpu+memory (and possibly cooler). Last time I bought this combo was 10 years ago, so I thought maybe it's time for an upgrade.. I was thinking of going for AMD Ryzen, do you think it's currently really worth it to go for an AM5 cpu? All in all I find it kind of expensive and AM4 cpu's are still good performing, so I'm not sure I need the newest tech. On the other hand going for AM5 is more future proof I guess.. Also, I was first thinking of going for an X3d processor, but then gathered I'm actually not gaming that much (and not high demanding games) and the gpu will stay midrange anyway and thus be the bottleneck ? I wonder if the price of the 5800X3d will go down when the zen4 variant arrives. Currently thinking about Am4 combo: Ryzen 5700X 32 gb ram (3200mhz) Asrock B450 Steel Legend My current (Cooler master) cpu cooler is good enough I think, but I don't know if I still have the needed AM4 attachment (curently using it on an Intel cpu).

I can get on the main forum now but still get an error when trying to load posts. Anyone else?

I used Win7 till 2019 and then I switched to Manjaro Linux xfce. A user friendly fast rolling distro. I still have win7 as backup in multiboot, but I almost never use it. Btw. why did you upgrade to Win 11? Is it better than Win10?

Use something else? Seriously, Microsoft basically declared war on their customers a wile ago. Probably when they did this. https://www.extremetech.com/computing/241587-microsoft-finally-admits-malware-style-get-windows-10-upgrade-campaign-went-far Anywho, the point is that anything you do to make the modern Windows computer work for and serve you, will be undone by their updates. Designing interfaces to abuse and manipulate users and "wear them down" until they just accept what a company is pushing has become a literal art form; this practice is widely referred to as a "dark pattern". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_pattern One example of a dark pattern, is giving you a "yes" and a "not now" selection of buttons, as opposed to a "yes" and a "no" button, perhaps with a "and don't ask me again" checkbox like we had in software in the 1990s. Hint for any software developers out there, how do you know when your interface is abusive? If you wouldn't put those moves on the opposite sex, then you shouldn't pull them on your customers. "Hey sweetie, would you prefer to go out with me today, or next week?"

Let's say, hypothetically, your body was mangled in an accident. But, by stroke of luck, Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or someone decides YOU are the lucky bastard that they'll spend high-tech charity on. They can remove your brain and put it in an immobile canister to keep you alive, with a face screen to see out of. You can still talk to visiting family or watch T.V., but that gets boring. So Elon/Jeff/Smartypants Whoever decides to give your life machine a great upgrade: You are able to have video games uploaded as actual Virtual Reality worlds you can inhabit. So, what games would you guys choose if you had such an option to live in them? Personally? I would choose the original spyro trilogy, probably reignited for the better graphics, followed by the original Thief trilogy, the 2014 Thief, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Gex 3 Deep Cover Gecko, the Sly Cooper series, the inFamous series but especially Festival of Blood, Borderlands series especially Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, the Uncharted series, Left 4 Dead and Half Life 2, Vermintide series, Resident Evil series because I'd love to own a badass mansion full of monsters, the House of the Dead Overkill, Starcraft Warcraft and Diablo series, the Ratchet and Clank series, Elder Scrolls series, Fallout series, I'd love to live in these worlds as long as I wasn't in danger of actually dying. At least as long as I'm not stuck without any actual human interaction, it would be cool!