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I'd like to ask a (hopefully) easier favor from the DR devs on this, considering it's such an issue and making me struggle to keep mapping normally. I know the root issue seems to rely on WxWidgets and may not be solvable on our end, but at least one part of it I consistently run into should be. Like I said I can initially avoid the problem by exporting the "GDK_BACKEND=x11" variable in my shortcut, this makes it go away for the 2D and 3D viewports and only persist in the model viewers which I can care less about. There's just one exception: The moment I press X to use the clipper tool and cut a brush, the 2D view starts experiencing the issue and becomes impossible to drag normally. Because of this I need to avoid using the clipper as much as possible, and whenever I have to in order to get a triangle brush I must restart Radiant immediately after. Would it be possible to figure out what the clipper does that's so unique to triggers this? Does using it reset the 2D views and somehow gets them reloaded by Wayland? If yes could this be avoided so in the meantime it doesn't break that workaround? If at least this can be solved and the GDK_BACKEND workaround keeps otherwise working, it will be a lot easier to wait for the proper full fix. Sorry for the annoyance with this... just want to make some good FM's and using DR this way is running on a handicap that makes the already complex process of mapping even slower.

First off, at the creation stage it's just "let's create great art", or "let's think of ways to express ourselves and communicate our ideas". GDC presentations are a byproduct of that work. Then, at some point, the PR department steps in and talks about high sales. But historically, games in the Thief era had much more leeway in that regard. So framing it like it was a modern AAA title is misleading. The question of hobby vs. professional framed the above is something that I've seen several times already, and TTLG and here would be the only places in the world that I've seen people frame it like that. There is no hard line between hobbyist and a pro, as your post implies. People do pick up creative hobbies because of pros in the first place. Like you pick up an instrument, because you heard something recorded by pros. And you imitate them, then you try to find your own style, etc. You learn whatever your curiosity and taste leads you to, and as much as you are willing to spend your free time on this. But no one says: "ooh, I'm not learning that, this is for the pros only". "I'm not learning it right now, because I have to work on my technique first" – sure. In the end, the difference between hobbyists and pros is mostly that the latter earn money for it. Not how far someone goes in their learning or skills. That is perhaps one thing we can agree on. Also don't want to continue this, because to me it seems like a discussion for sake of discussion, with walls of text, and not in order to get somewhere interesting. @Dragofer you forgot to move this last post from the conversation to the gear thread.

Hey, Every time I've try to use the Full Editor when PM'ing someone, and every single time I get an error. Whoever is in charge of the forum, is it possible that this could be fixed? Thanks Neon

In 2.12, the placing of two objects in the kitchen need adjusting: * The cauldron is floating to the left of the stove at coordinates (246.74 523.07 30.25 -6.1 179.2 0.0). * A bowl is sticking out from the bottom of a shelf at coordinates (229.17 696 30.25 -15.9 -174.3 0.0). I otherwise enjoyed this mission which is well crafted in both mapping and story. Things I particularly liked: * That it was possible to get an overview from the roof tops. * Multiple entry and exit points. * Evenly distributed keys and notes with hints resulted in driving the story forward in a good pace. * The setting and story elements: The rationale for builders patrolling the streets and the city hall. The chilling descriptions of the inquisition in books and notes, and how the city had invited this evil (or possibly even been tricked into doing so). Things that could improve: * I agree with thebigh's comment that it would have been nice if it was possible to enter some other building. Perhaps a room of a relative, or friend, of a victim of the inquisition and with a diary where they describe the victim's innocence and the fear of unfounded accusations keeping the larger public from ending the panic by coming forth with questions or as an alibi. Partly for additional story (mood) but also partly because it makes the surrounding accessible area appear more of an actual city than a scenery flat. Both OMs, A New Job and Tears of St. Lucia, have one such room each.

@nbohr1more Update: As the leaking occurs in a corner I tried to add two separate slivers of shadowcaulk (turned into func_static). It leaks. But if I combine the two into a single L-shaped func_static, the leak disappears. I didn't add forceShadowBehindOpaque 1. So I guess I'll try the method of adding shadowcaulked func_statics to the problematic sections... Not a clean solution, but who said mapping should be a clean affair?

So giving it none of those tags, but making the AI invisible, silent, non-solid, and on a team neutral to everyone would not work? Oh well, it was a horrible inelegant idea anyway.

Cool fm. Very fine mapping with the way the different areas fit together. I like the architecture, which is a nice change from the usual Bridgeport environs. I'm a little stuck though, I can't seem to find

Maybe you can do something with the animated grass demo: Topic https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/12985-animated-grass-test-map/ Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRCzWOeYxd0

I started working on my first TDM mission a few months ago, which I estimate is only a bit larger than the average map (excluding quickies in mapping contests). So far I'm slowly getting close to finishing the geometry and object placement... though the more I add to my map, the more I feel still lies ahead of me. Although I knew DarkRadiant doesn't do things magically, mapping is a lot more tedious than I first predicted. It's not the total amount of work that upsets me either... rather that if things were easier, missions could be released sooner, and we could create more content altogether! Now I'm not posting this to complain aimlessly; During my time mapping, I've kept track of the steps that seem to be most time consuming, and thought of how they could be reduced. I wanted to suggest a few ideas that came to mind, which should make mapping faster and less of a repetitive process. Disclaimer 1: I know that even if they're good suggestions, these ideas require someone to code them. I'm not demanding them or expecting that they happen tomorrow. Disclaimer 2: Some of these might already exists, as less obvious features or plugins. I can't know everything, so I discuss them as new ideas. - Model / Entity / Prefab placement: The first thing to stand out as time consuming and more difficult than it needs to be is entity placement: To put something on the map, you first right-click somewhere in a 2D viewport. A menu pops up, from which you browse a large selection of assets and choose the one you want. After inserting it, you first notice it's at an incorrect distance on the axis not addressed by that 2D viewport, so you must reposition it in one of the other two 2D viewports. To properly locate it in 3D space, you must find it in all 3 of the 2D views and drag it around until the object is at the right spot. Once that's done, you frequently want to rotate it too... which currently requires opening the rotation menu, introducing the number of degrees you want to rotate by, then clicking a button. I believe this could all be made easier with the following features: * Ability to click on a surface in the 3D viewport, and add an object with its origin located at the nearest point on the grid. That way there will be no need to find and reposition everything in the 2D viewports, just click directly on where you want them to appear and voila! The object should be facing toward the camera at either 0* / 90* / 180* / 270* of rotation. * I work a lot with Blender 3D. One thing that makes it easier to setup a scene is that you can move / rotate / scale objects via simple shortcut keys, whereas there are also fields in the sidebar where you can easily edit these numbers for the selected object. For example: If you want to move an object by 50 units on the X axis, you simply press "G" (grab) then "X" (the axis) then type in "50" (the amount) and press "Enter". No mouse needed, which makes it easier to move things around compared to dragging them in some circumstances. * A better way to find the assets you need: TDM has a lot of models and textures and sounds that mappers can use, which is a great thing... but unless you learn in which directory structure each is located, you'll waste a lot of time looking for the perfect model or texture to place somewhere. The first and easiest solution would be a "last # used" section, in which the last say 10 entities you placed are listed... making it easier to go back and forth between the last few things you're placing in a given area. A similar idea is a customizable favorites / bookmarks menu, where the user can create their own directory structure and order entries in a way they can easily learn... similarly to bookmarks in web browsers. Beyond that I think making better use of previews would be helpful, such as showing the 3D model of all entries in the selected directory rather than just the selected entry. Here is a great example: - Flexible camera movement in the viewport: Camera movement has always been a pain in all Radiant editors, as you can only take control of the 3D viewport in a 1st person perspective: Right-click to engage, use the arrow keys and mouse to move, right-click again to disengage. This is a bit slower than the movement in other 3D programs, and I believe it could be improved. * Allow a combination of keyboard shortcuts with mouse dragging to move the view. In Blender for example, you middle-click to rotate, shift + middle-click to move, control + middle-click to zoom (or mouse wheel, DarkRadiant has this one). Why not the same system here, with FPS control moved to a different shortcut? * A few other engines (such as Second Life) have an even better approach: You can control + alt + click on any spot of any surface to focus the camera there and change the pivot point. This makes it a lot easier to move around through space, which would be a great feature for DarkRadiant as well. - Random generators for simple map structures: Another inventive way to help mappers get more work done would be to offer the possibility of the software doing part of the work. Of course this isn't possible when it comes to creating complex structures, but it could be used to simplify a few basic tasks. What I'm thinking about precisely includes: * Terrain generator: Just select a patch mesh with enough columns and rows, and its vertices are randomized to create a nice heightmap terrain! * Room generator: The user creates a single brush representing the body of a building. The plugin then asks the user for the following data: The texture(s) to be used by the floors ceilings and walls, the thickness of the floors / ceilings / walls, how many floors there should be, how many rooms there should be. The plugin automatically generates a mix of walls that align against each other, producing the basic interior structure. The artist can next modify the layout as they see fit and start placing the decorations! Taking the idea further, the plugin could automatically place doors and windows, create stairs between floors, and even add various entities correctly to rooms. * Random entity placement: Another plugin that could be useful is randomly scattering a set of models / entities across a surface (similarly to particle systems). The user selects the brushes or faces that should be accounted, a list of entities (with configurable probabilities / counts?), then the entities are randomly spawned and distributed across the surface. This would be especially useful in outdoor areas... where you can then select the terrain, a set of trees and rocks and foliage models, and let DarkRadiant generate a forest for you!

So I've been on-off working on various missions of some description or another, and during the course of doing this I've been thinking about the process of bringing an FM together from start to finish. That is, maybe less the technical side and more: how does one go from an idea, to a fleshed-out concept, to a final product? There is some good stuff on the "Mission Design Tips" wiki page (http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Mission_Design_Tips), but I feel there's more to the mapping process that can be explored and expanded upon. So I was wondering, how does everyone here do it? Is there a particular mapping method(s) that works for you / that you'd recommend? Some things that might be nice to learn more about, just to start the ball rolling (provided this thread isn't redundant): 1. Where do you draw your inspiration from? How do you tend to come up with a mission idea? 2. What building techniques do you utilize? Free building? Planning everything on paper first? Bare-bones architecture first? Modular? Creating major areas, then linking them all up later? Something else? 3. What do you do to keep morale up / keep progress going, particularly when you've been working on the same mission for a long time? 4. What are some of the most important things to keep in mind when creating a mission? 5. Are there any particular mapping practices you'd argue for/against? 6. What are some of the most common issues you run into when creating a mission, and what are some ways you can overcome these issues? 7. Would something like a GDD for missions be useful? What about something like a cognitive model of TDM players?

Currently if you are implementing EFX in your map, you need to maintain an .efx file: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Setting_Reverb_Data_of_Rooms_(EAX) If you are using presets only, all this is is simply a 1:1 mapping of location entities to an EFX preset. Doing this in a file is kind of tedious and error-prone, as you have to check each location entity in your map, and then check the file to make sure you got the location entity name correct, or didn't leave one out, etc. Would it be a worthwhile feature request to be able to just set the EFX preset with a spawnarg on the location entity itself? Something like: "efx_preset" "WOODEN_SMALLROOM" Also, the location entity has other zone-related information, like ambient sound, ambient light, etc. It would just make sense to have the EFX here as well. This would only make sense for the presets, since you just need the preset name. If you wanted to do anything more complicated, the file could still be used. If both are used for the preset, one could take precedence over the other (the spawnarg pehaps). I don't think anything would need to change in DR either, as it's just a new spawnarg on the entity.

Any Tutorials about this topic in particular? I'm interested in learning this.

As detailed above (see hidden content), 2 characters may be chosen to replace duplicate characters in the existing TDM codepoint map. Since I didn't hear any feedback here, I have chosen: Ğ/ğ, with breve (cup), where Ğ uses TDM codepoint 0x88 ğ uses TDM codepoint 0x98 Why these? Because they are reasonable language-wise, and easy to bitmap-draw. At the moment, I will be doing Stone 24pt glyphs and DAT entries for these characters. I intend to add a bugtracker entry (for assignment to me) for additional work needed to fully support this new mapping

I was looking at this video about creating a gui in Godot and thought: OMG whould it be nice if TDM whould have something like this for GUI's... Although since this creates GUI's, I wonder if you could build a visual GUI editor for TDM GUI files in Godot.. People have already made other editors, like a pixel art sprite editor for example. It's a nice motivation point to get back to learning Godot at least.