Search the Community

I don't think this is the issue; you can easily make a mission that is tailored around cameras and you use the briefing/a readable in inventory to explain them. What I could foresee is the first thing you mention, the fact that practically no missions exist with cameras currently, so there literally is no way for the player to know what the "standard" behavior even is, other than projecting their Thief knowledge. Picture this: A bank heist. A briefing includes all the usual stuff and also mentions how the building is equipped with these awesome cameras, but it just happens they break if you throw a pebble at them. Then give the player some pebbles and maybe a note from the informant or whoever that re-affirms that you should indeed use these pebbles to take out the cameras. Now that's fine, and should work for that mission, but then another author releases a mission with cameras. They look the same as the cameras in that other guy's mission, but only this time there is no mention of pebbles. So the player scours the map looking for pebbles, doesn't find any, gets mad, and comes to the forums to rain down divine punishment. Or even worse, he finds pebbles, but they just don't do anything this time. In Thief 2, I know how a standard Watcher works, so any FM that adds/subtracts from that is not a big deal, if it's explained (although to your point, I don't think that has ever happened, and I've played about a billion fan missions). But I gained that knowledge through the campaign; TDM doesn't have one, and the current missions that come prepackaged understandably don't include cameras.

Man, I really ought to spend more time on the forums, people around here are really helpful and full of good advice. Speaking of which, I was just about to re-read your post about getting in touch with a closed group of mappers for feedback, but it seems you edited your answer and replaced everything with a dot?

Done here https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/16091-fan-mission-breaking-out-the-fence-17032014-by-kyyrma/&do=findComment&comment=457768 I've only changed the entity that removes the lockpicks, I could not at all say for sure whether it was also safe to permanently delete the AIs. It appears they are sometimes teleported (back in?) to locations in the playable map area.

The Painter’s Wife v1.2 is ready for beta testing! Compared to previous versions, this is a more modest update: One of the main features is that the FM archive has been cleaned up thoroughly, resulting in a much lighter mission that now weighs in at just 160 MB without compromising on content. The level has been tweaked and polished all over the place with an aim to improving lighting and performance. In particular the secret chapel is worth another look. The console has been used to track down numerous bugs that went undiscovered until now, in addition to some “regular” bugs that were reported. As always, a handful new locations have been added, such as a tiny roof garden on Kings St. Also note that the loot in the secret spider cave counts as the 14th secret now. A more detailed changelog can be viewed here: Anyone who’s interested in trying this out would be very welcome to do so by downloading from this link: Google Drive For providing feedback, please use the FM’s betatesting server on Discord (channel beta-v1-2-b1) or send me PMs on these forums.

I'd never heard of BRDF until I got on these forums, so didn't know where to begin. I came across the OpenGL theory page that talked about BRDF, and, while it gave code snippets, they didn't put it all together the way urho3D did. Urho3D's version was the first complete version I stumbled across that was simple and straight-forward when random googling. Their implementation of BRDF was easy to understand and plug-n-play in-a-day. Right now I'm just doing some quick-n-dirty messing around to see if BRDF teamed with the fake AO/spec maps does anything magical. I'm looking at Disney's a bit and it's ... pretty complex. At least for me. They've got GLSL mixed in with C code to do a whole application to explore things. Would take time to dig in and figure out what parts to use. If real BRDF / PBR was being implemented in TDM, it'd be good to look at Disney's version. But, for now, I'm just messing around. (I'm killing time farting around on this while I'm looking for a job, so I don't go stir crazy.) Disney's license looks pretty open, though. TDM has a LICENSE.txt file. Could just chuck the 3rd-party licenses into that as sections, then in the code make comments like "this code pulled from (web-site), and has license in TDM's LICENSE.txt file, section XYZ". Didn't mean to derail the topic talking about licensing. Just something I suddenly thought about after pasting in and using tons of code I found and going "crap, this is pointless if there's going to be a license issue."

For the people eager to play with the latest state of development, two things are provided: regular dev builds source code SVN repository Development builds are created once per a few weeks from the current trunk. They can be obtained via tdm_installer. Just run the installer, check "Get Custom Version" on the first page, then select proper version in "dev" folder on the second page. Name of any dev version looks like devXXXXX-YYYY, where XXXXX and YYYY are SVN revision numbers from which the build was created. The topmost version in the list is usually the most recent one. Note: unless otherwise specified, savegames are incompatible between any two versions of TDM! Programmers can obtain source code from SVN repository. Trunk can be checked out from here: https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src/trunk/ SVN root is: https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src Build instructions are provided inside repository. Note that while you can build executable from the SVN repository, TDM installation of compatible version is required to run it. Official TDM releases are compatible with source code archives provided on the website, and also with corresponding release tags in SVN. A dev build is compatible with SVN trunk of revision YYYY, where YYYY is the second number in its version (as described above). If you only want to experiment with the latest trunk, using the latest dev build gives you the maximum chance of success. P.S. Needless to say, all of this comes with no support. Although we would be glad if you catch and report bugs before the next beta phase starts

Got a pm from a user asking me how to install the shaders. I took it for granted folks staring at this part of the forums would know the source code break down and where to stuff them. So, here's some instructs for folks that don't know what to do with the files... For Dark Mod v2.09, do the following... 1) go to your dark mod game folder (where you installed TDM, and where the .exe executables are) 2) make the following folders / folder path (this is important, b/c it changed for 2.09) glprogs\stages\interaction\ 3) if you have those folders, and there's stuff in the "interaction" folder, then either zip up the original files there as a backup archive, or make a sub-folder like "\original" or something to put the following files... interaction.ambient.fs interaction.ambient.vs interaction.common.fs interaction.common.vs If you don't have those folders or those files, then no big deal. It just means you don't have them (which means the game has been using whatever's in the pk3 resource files that come with it's install). 4) after making that folder structure and/or backing up your original 4 files, unzip the files from the zip in this thread into that "interaction" folder 5) start the game The game should override pk3 resources with whatever loose files it finds in same folder structure and file name. So, firing up the game with those glprogs sitting out in that folder structure, it'll use those instead of what it has in the pk3's. You should be good to go. If you notice the torches don't emit light (pitch black) or the shadows are pitch black, it means something's borked up in the shader files and they're not compiling. (When the game notices a borked up shader file, instead of just crashing like a lot of DX HLSL stuff does, it skips it instead. Since those shaders handle lighting, pitch-black means they're being skipped and not doing the lighting.)

Re. Sketchfab, free assets there are typically CC-BY, occasionally with additional NC and/or SA. (Edit: having checked my downloads, I did find at least one ND.) If you've bought anything then yes, check the licence terms. Re. dubiously sourced textures, here's an earlier thread: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20311-external-art-assets-licensing/

I see, I did almost ask if there was some forum event that happened in the past. Considering there will be a vocal minority to defend almost anything, it doesn't particularly surprise me. I would imagine a majority of TDM players don't visit the forums, though. Btw, it wasn't Bikerdude was it? I've only recently started following this forum with any regularity, so I'm not very familiar with most anything, but I do remember reading old threads about drama of years past. As for the unreleased mission bit, I did notice the posts in the beta testing forum. Could be just a bored player, without any malicious intent, albeit not exactly tactful. A leeching mapper is another story, but there seems to be a precedent for shutting that down at least.

FYI, I just got asked via Discord whether I could share the unfinished and unreleased mission by Ubermann: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/19045-merchant-by-the-canal/page/2/&tab=comments#comment-456963 Not sure whether this was a player or mapper, but yeah, that's the decency and trust. As long as we have new maps to play, everything fucking goes

Hi all, As the title suggests, I cannot run the dark mod. After installing, I run the 64 bit exe (there is no 32 bit exe) and the game freezes just after the cursor appears. Windows 10 then says the program is not responding. Have tried looking around the forums and changed various cfg values and tried using compatibility settings to no avail. My machine is a Lenovo Yoga 2 laptop with the standard Intel HD onboard graphics card and 4gb ram. I have tried updating and reinstalling to no success. Any thoughts? I have pretty standard hardware and can't understand the issue.

Ah, this might be the problem actually. I followed the link on the official release announcement to download the new 'tdm_installer' linked here under Windows (32-bit) - https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20460-new-tdm_installer-and-dev-builds/ ...But when I extracted it to my folder, the file had a "date modified" of 01/01/2000 (a little strange considering its "date created" is in 2021), so it got lost in the directory and looked like an old file. I absentmindedly used the older "tdm_update.exe" from 17/06/2020 which looked comparatively newer. That might be what caused the conflict in the first place.

@Zerg RushOfficially it's probably going to stay as it is (at least by default), but for yourself you can always download this .pk4 and place it in your base install. It'll turn the loot counter into a current/total counter as well as your current stealth score. Got to be logged in to get it. https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20245-view-stealth-score-during-gameplay/&do=findComment&comment=443437

2021 should be quite a good year, as a glance into the betatesting forum and various other places on the forums and Discord would suggest.

Hi all! I've just built my first FM and would like to invite some people to beta test it. It's a small, traditional city/mansion style mission. Once I have a few replies I'll start a thread in the beta testing forums. Note: I am also on Discord, but my username there is Frost_Salamander. Admins: is it possible to get my username here changed to that? @greebo @taaaki ?

I've recently started looking into the security camera after noticing that core TDM's version of Epifire's camera doesn't work, while there is a useable .pk4 in circulation. Ticket 0004731 and this thread show that there are also some issues with the coding, such as skins and the spotlight being hardcoded and therefore not customisable by mappers. There is also room for improvement, such as making the camera follow the player once he's been sighted or detected to make escape less trivial. Having recently looked into the source code, C++ seems familiar enough to me now that I may be able to address such points, in addition to fixing the core assets to make it possible to use in FMs without external downloads. I've compiled everything that I have on my radar currently after investigating the camera and reading the forums & bugtracker: Early issues, fixes required for adequate function and customisability: - restore outdated/missing defs and scriptobjects in SVN - hardcoded: spotlight properties and texture - hardcoded: sparks particle when the camera is destroyed - hardcoded: names of skins - colour switches handled inefficiently by the scriptobject - add a script event to check the camera's state (done: getSecurityCameraState(), returns 1 to 5) - can't be switched off properly and STATE_PAUSE is immediately dropped - camera can be destroyed by broadhead arrows. (make immune, or see stretch goal for making lens the vulnerable spot) - camera is destroyed too easily by far away fire arrow splash damage (increase health) Intermediate issues: - allow adjustment of visual acuity - make the time taken go to full alert depend on the brightness of the lightgem - make the camera follow the player once sighted/detected Stretch issues: - make the lens vulnerable to broadheads. Probably requires the camera to be an md5mesh with a bone for the lens. - detect AIs hostile to the camera's team Maybe someone would like to comment on or add to this list? A complicating factor is that a camera with an older model and entityDef is already in use in FMs. Ideally all changes would be backwards compatible, but in the worst case some FMs may need to be repacked. In any case, anything done here would be for 2.10 at the earliest, though testing could be done by downloading a custom build via the tdm_installer.exe.

DarkRadiant 2.11.0 is ready for download. Next to bug fixes and GUI improvements (also to the recently added TDM Game Connection plugin) this build enables users to manage their favourite resources like materials, entities, sound shaders. The search function of resource trees has been improved too. It's recommended to prefer this version over any previous release. See the pre-release testing thread for a few feature highlights. Windows and Mac Downloads are available on Github: https://github.com/codereader/DarkRadiant/releases/tag/2.11.0 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 2.10.0 Feature: Managing favorite resources like entities, textures and sound shaders Feature: Extended/improved the search feature of resource browsers Feature: List model definitions in Model Chooser Feature: Initial GUI improvements to game connection plugin Fixed: Collapsing a brush while undoing cannot be undone Fixed: Skin Chooser starts with expanded All Skins root folder Fixed: Projected lights don't rotate around their origin anymore Fixed: Default scale & natural function producing stretched results Fixed: Script dialogs don't scale when window is resized Fixed: Material parser doesn't recognise materials with no whitespace between name and block Fixed: Treeview search box can overlap with the search result Improved: Prefab Chooser preview has better initial view origin and angles Improved: Imported prefabs are now created at the cursor Improved: Added option for "ai_see" spawnarg to Light Inspector The list of changes can be found on the our bugtracker changelog. Have fun mapping!

Can't use spoiler tags, so here's the file I'm using for beta4.

I have created a thread in the beta testing forums for those who want to check it out. https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20742-blackgrove-manor-work-in-progress/

@Zerg Rush: Any further clues or suggestions or strategy should be wrapped in spoiler tags, please.

I'm autistic and don't really have anyone who could walk it through with me. Most I can do online is sign up to forums and watch porn lol

In ImgBox registration is also not necessary, but if necessary in both (only Nick, Mail and Pasword), if you want to save your photos there and to create albums, this without registration is not possible, with this you only have the function of Image Sharer. That's why I have an account in both, Imgur for its apps and extensions that it has and ImgBox for its comfortable and fast use, both are the best and most reliable image hosts that I have tested over the years. Using only as imagesharer, without account, ImgBox is better, especially for animated gifs, since Imgur then only offers the link like webm or MP$, difficult to share in many forums., in addition ImgBox supports up to 10Mb per image.

Certainly Google always had the limit of 15 Gb free in your account, but not in Google Photos, as long as you save the photos in compressed form, but this is what ends now with the new regulation, Google Photos will not store in an unlimited way either in compressed form, including the 15 Gb in the total of services, which was not the case before. That is, from June 1, if the services you use, Gmail, Gdrive, Google Photos, etc. add up total to 15 Gb, uploading more photos would no longer be free. This yes, the photos that are already uploaded previously do not count in the calculation. Anyway, I personally do not use these services, I have had my photos in albums (privat and public) since years in my accounts in the aforementioned Imgur and ImgBox, they offer free and unlimited hosting, also much better to share, with the necessary codes (ImgBox include with BBcodes, ready to copy-paste in forums, selecting several photos also the bulk codes, for paste all fotos with one click, as thumbnails or fullsize) and not the kilometric links that Google Photos offers. More codes in Imgur, but no bulk post

DarkRadiant 2.10.0 is ready for download. This version adds a couple of interesting features for mappers, like welding/merging patches, opening maps from PK4 files and adjustable light colours and orthoview font sizes. It's recommended to prefer this version over any previous release. It's recommended to prefer this version over any previous release. See the pre-release testing thread for a few feature highlights. Windows and Mac Downloads are available on github: https://github.com/codereader/DarkRadiant/releases/tag/2.10.0 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 2.9.0 Feature: User control of font size of "size" numbers on ortho screen Feature: Merge patch / connect patches Feature: Allow DR to open .maps that are inside .pk4s Feature: Expose LayerManager interface to Python scripts Feature: Light colours in the ortho view can be overridden by the colour specified in the scheme Feature: DarkRadiant now warns before saving in case the map file has been modified in the meantime Coding: Linux build has been switched from automake to cmake, refer to the project readme for updated build instructions Improvement: Add dropdown list of all map entity names when editing a "Name of single entity" of an Objective component Improvement: Double-clicking an objective will open the editor. Objectives Dialog will automatically select the first objective entity now. Improvement: Sound and prefab choosers now start with folders expanded Fixed: Creating a model entity creates a "phantom light" near the world origin Fixed: Automatic map saving can crash DarkRadiant Fixed: Layer toggle controls can get out of sync (showing wrong icons) Fixed: Up/down strafe movement not working in camera free look mode Fixed: Can't build Radiant on current arch due to pybind breaking change Fixed: EntityClassManager vs. VirtualFileSystem initialisation order might prevent .def file parsing Fixed: World geometry is blue and cannot be changed when no worldspawn entityDef is defined Fixed: 16-Bit PNGs and 8-Bit Greyscale PNGs with Alpha channel can be loaded correctly (again) Fixed: Creating/renaming/deleting a layer didn't flag the map as modified Fixed: Selected light bounds not updated when editing light_radius spawnarg Fixed: Brushes were not selectable in orthoview when none of its faces were facing upwards The list of changes can be found on the our bugtracker changelog. Have fun mapping!

Wiki series: A to Z Scripting For a long time, scripting has been something of an elusive topic in TDM. Those who were already familiar with programming would analyse existing scripted setups in TDM, gradually deducing how things are done around here. Those with no prior knowledge had a handful of basic tutorials to look at, but they only went so far. As a result, a lot of basic scripting questions have been asked and answered on these forums over the years. Here is my offering: the A to Z Scripting series, aiming to cover all things scripting in TDM. It should cater to anyone, from absolute beginners to more knowledgeable users looking to familiarise themselves with TDM's methods for employing scripts. Special thanks go to Obsttorte for providing feedback on the entire guide, as well as Kingsal for providing some material to work with. (Don't mind the timestamps, this thread has been stitched together on Dec 27 2020 from another discussion.)