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I've been involved in the TDM community now since before we had a game, since way back when we were arguing over lock picking methods lol Finally, I'm finished with Briarwood Manor - my first Fan Mission for The Dark Mod. I've been hatching this for a year so I'm wrapped it's finally done. Briarwood Manor Crowind - made the Briefing for the mission: This is the HD version. Briarwood Manor is a old manor house built and added on to over the years which gives it it's design. The family part is the original home, and two other parts were added on later. Inspiration came from an image in the TDM Editors Inspiration thread. Available through in-game downloader. - available also in the link below. Update Version 1.93 - Fixed a few issues that surfaced, and added a sign to the Armory because people were missing it and thinking the mission was very thin on resources. Remaining Issue: - DO NOT BE SEEN BY THE STEWARD AT ALL! Update Version 1.91 - Removed an erroneous LARGE file that had accidently been in the mission blow the mission size up dramatically other assorted bugs fixed that were pointed out by the Community. Thank you Also replaced the missing script file that controlled the Drop Key which I accidently deleted. LOL Update Version 1.9 - Fixed a bug caused by roof projecting into the sleeping maids room upstairs. Update Version 1.81 - Fixed a bug caused by a faulty newspaper readable that I couldn't fix, so I converted it to a static model that is no longer frobbable. Update Version 1.8 - Fixed a problem with a patch that somehow got misaligned in the previous version of the level creating a ceiling shadow. Update Version 1.7 - Fixed some brush splitting, and a problem with the stairs. Also fixed a readable problem, and a few other minor problems. Added little more detail around the woodshed. Update Version 1.6 - Fixed problem with Crowleys Diary, and a screwed up shadow in the old well. Update: Version 1.5 - Resolved the problems with the Steward and the Dropkey. They should never be a problem again. Unless you decide to hit him, then you are going to break him from his route lol. Fix an sound issue, and fixed a problem where the player could get into places he shouldn't until the right time. lol Improved the performance for the garden area. It should be playable for low end PC's now. If you get stutter issues, drop your video settings, especially the LOD setting. With LOD set to Very Low, Fog will be gone, and detail will be dropped a lot at a distance. The higher you raise your LOD the more you get. ie at LOW LOD Fog comes back. Experiment so you get a setting your PC is happy with. You can use the console command com_showfps 1 to see what FPS you are getting. 30 and above are acceptable. Enjoy. Update: Version 1.4 - Resolved (partially the drop key issue - save before you go into Stewards room, fixed many other minor problems picked up by Abusimplea. Added a new room, made the map a bit more open, solved some of the difficulty issues people had. The map should now be ghostable. I hope. Should be added to the in game downloader within a day or so depending. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I_-ZJDGUtK7P4-b5zsGsEcYAH0vYdgnw/view?usp=sharing If you download from this link, top right arrow pointing down, is how you download it. Click it. A few things to note: 1+ Hour of gameplay - Easy Difficulty is intended for new players. Hard/Expert for most of the TDM Community. This is a challenging map for new players. Use your tools Features a custom intro (above) and a few custom sounds, and some voice acting. Warning: This mission is not for low end PC's. The house is fine, but the garden will make lower end PC's grind. The map has been made sensitive to LOD settings. So if it's grinding you're PC drop you're LOD settings for it, then you can return them to normal once you've finished. On my Medium PC gtx 760 with Normal LOD I get 30 to 60 fps in the garden. I upgraded to GTX 1070 and get pretty good 60 fps in the garden. Briefing Video made by Crowind and I can't thank him enough. He did an amazing job of this. I was so lucky to have him do this. Cast: Voice Actors (Intro) : 1St Merchant: Crowind, 2nd Merchant: Mykel19XX Corbin: Goldwell Voice Actors (Mission): Corbin played by Goldwell, Morgan Crowley played by V-Man, Giles MacCadie (Steward) played by myself Thank you to my Beta Testers: Cambridge Spy, OldJim, V-Man, Jaxa, duzenko and Bikerdude. Cambridge Spy and OldJim did most of the hard grind in finding problems, so thank you both so much. If you are stuck or need help, fastest way to reach me is message me on my youtube channel (link bottom of this post). Use the resources you were given and you should have no problems. Otherwise post spoiler free in this thread. TIP: Don't be seen by the Steward, or he might glitch out. Credits: Crowind put my briefing text into a more thiefy style for Goldwell to voice. He also helped with refining the trailer for the mission. Bikerdude (did the coal door for me and let me use his moonbeam method) and sorted the performance side of things out and thereby taught me how to do performance., grayman for providing a script to handle the drop key (Abuseinplea for fixing it from bouncing) and grayman for solving some conversation problems. EHR+ or showing me how to do the double secret door and Fidcal for his Fidcal's A-Z tutorial for Dark Radiant. Without this starting point I would not have started. Changes 1.2 to 1.93 - Added a second way to get into the building - Dining Room and Parlour doors now pickable, to make it bit less linear - Electric Light in Lobby dropped it's luminosity from 240 to 220 Little bit darker. - Door on the landing (catwalk) is now unlocked - Spider no longer walks down to the ladder, or clips into the floor. - Opened up the level more so you can choose more how you want to tackle it; except for family rooms (top of stairs) - Fixed a graphical bug with the back stairs caused by TDM upgrading to 2.06 - Added some plants around bottom of garden wall alongside cart. I don't like seeing planes meeting. lol - Made some changes to the fog in the garden. - Fixed a problem with the newspaper that was allowing the no frobbing bug to occur. Enjoy Neon PS: Why does TAB key no longer tab? It drops to the bottom of the page. I have to say I hate this editor.

http://k.min.us/jCfGA.jpg "At night, they say, the Builders' hand comes loose from his mighty hammer and creatures wander out from their hiding places while he slumbers. But tis this night, above all others that unholy vapours cloak the land with gloomy curtains and night creatures dance and sing in the twilight. I can't say I'm looking forward to my endeavors this night.... I've been given a job by a Priest to retrieve two holy artifacts from an abandoned cloister in Eldin woods north of the city, simple job I thought, but the priest failed to mention the placed was haunted." Build Time: - version 1.0 was about 5 weeks, but we are now upto version 3.11. Thanks: Respect to the Dark Mod team for putting up with all my questions and knocking up the various updates in short order!. Special thanks to Flanders and Springheel for their models and my testers for helping me squash all the bugs etc. Testers: Flanders, Jaxa, nbohr1more, Aluminumhaste, Baal,l Oldjim, Cookie, Obsttorte, lux, Mat99, AluminumHaste, thebigh Readables: Darkangel/Flanders/b1k3rdude with special thanks to Flanders for his original story.. Resource: Flanders/Springheel - art direction and models. Misc: This is a homage to the original Thief2 mission from 2001 (The Cathedral of the Damned) Download: - The latest version is now available via the in-game downloader. Info: This version has been heavily updated from the original, this came about as a result of need to be compatible with TDM 2.10+ Repeat after me, "Read and explore, Read and explore" The mission is fully l10n ready. (thanks Tels) The mission now has EFX Reverb The mission now has Volumetric Light effects The mission now uses LOD settings for different detail levels There is now a script event related to the "Curse" A few new surprises... Known issues: This mission will have less than optimal fps at a few points on the map, but most of my testers with lowish end rigs (P4/HD4650) are getting 30fps+ at the worst spots) For very low end PCs I recommend the following settings: V-sync is off, AA is off, Aniso is 4x or lower, advanced settings are simple/default & Post processing of disabled and as a last resort the command line arg ' r_skipFogLights 1 ' (turns off the fog)

Type of mission: Mansion/Estate/Horror Story: Lord Blackgrove recently purchased a rare expensive artifact. The whole family has now disappeared leaving the manor empty. Time to check out the manor and see if the artifact can be found. Build time: My first map ever, 300 hours (5 months). Credits: Kingsal - Breaker script for light switches and elevator Dragofer - Ambience Track 'Intent' Springheel and Sotha - Video Tutorials (those videos really helped) Feedback and testing: Cambridge Spy, Dragofer, nbohr1more, Acolytesix, wesp5, Shadow, Zerg Rush, AluminumHaste, prjames The whole community. Download (1.03): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wZc_nqHoX7kQvzfg08EpoRy2hyuH7mw3/view?usp=sharing Edit: Version 1.02 provides large performance improvements in the outdoor areas. Be sure to set TDM Object Details (LOD) to Normal (or lower) to take advantage of some of the optimizations. Edit: Version 1.03 further improves performance around hedges thanks to HMart's alternative hedge model. I’ve had a mission like this in mind for years. My main influences and inspirations are: Deus Ex - Chateau DuClare (https://youtu.be/9QLT_l8aH78) Clive Barker’s Undying - Main Mansion (https://youtu.be/t8PyXhCQB3Q?t=90) Thief Deadly Shadows - Shalebridge Cradle (Almost everyone should be very familiar with this one) (https://youtu.be/Rw4YZuRUgXA) In case anyone gets stuck and needs help, I’ve listed some questions and answers below that will hopefully help. FAQ

I suppose option 5 would be to edit the mission itself to patch the caulk. Something like this was done to In a Time of Need to fix the LOD on some torches that a TDM update had turned into game-ruining proximity detectors. I'd be very wary of making changes to other peoples' missions though. Does the stray light in WS1 affect the light gem if you walk on it? If not, I'd say just leave it. It's a minor cosmetic issue.

There's a lighting issue in "William Steele 1: In the North" at -1153.92 3523.22 -955.75 29.8 -145.6 0.0 There's a candle on the other side of the wall. In 2.12 dev, that candle's light leaks through the wall at the base of the door as seen in the video, comparing 2.11 and 2.12-r10451.

The light coming from the windows was actually added in the very last update before release. Originally, only the windows facing the moon were lit up and projected moonbeams, but Dragofer remarked that following purely realistic lighting practices often results in an under-lit mission. Although I also find it a bit strange that such stark moonbeams are coming in from all the windows, I think the lighting of the pre-escape sequence is all the better for it. Thanks for playing my FM, Hightide, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

So, I just retextured the caulk brushes to shadowcaulk and this seems to be working fine. Suitable fix??? However, I did find another light leak right next to this one:

Not sure if it's a bug in DR or (most likely) TDM but I've been hit with this issue where a light ends up having different frustum vertices in TDM than it was set up in DR Map attached. Look at light_1 Its "far" corners seems to have the X coordianate of -125 When the light loads in TDM, the frustum corners can be rebuilt using different methods: R_PolytopeSurface gives -147 idRenderMatrix::GetFrustumCorners gives -213 This really messes up my volumetric shader Which one is supposed to be correct? idRenderMatrix::GetFrustumCorners is much farther from DR but R_PolytopeSurface's output is not even air-tight @stgatilov? @greebo Where can I find the code that calculates frustum vertices in DR? Maybe I should just copy-paste it in TDM and relax. volumetric.map duzenko.mtr

this was a nice little mission, though just long and twisty enough to create a sense of dread! next Dark Mod update needs I fully expected the bottles to become important later, and they did. The layout was a bit tubular, especially coming back - having some new pathways open up and others close at the big trigger would have been interesting. I didn't try to get onto that first balcony because I figured I would reach it later. Well, I did but I did find it a little strange that the moon was low on one side of the house, but there was such strong light coming in windows from both sides even on the lower floor. It added atmosphere, but I kept wondering where it was coming from (since the surround area has been built up, and probably overshadows the house).

The devs didn't title this thread, and @datiswous said they're attempting to mislead people by using Russell's name and a retro style to make it resemble Thief, which is cynical. I grew up on forums like I'm sure anyone who likes a game from '98 did. I actually left the Discord immediately after joining it because it was more off-topic doom-posting than anything relevant to the mod. I thought the forums might be better, but it's mostly just grown men yelling at clouds and telling strangers how mature they are, and a few brave souls actually developing anything. Depressing place, I'll just stick to enjoying new missions every 6 months without an account.

Thank you for this gem, Kingsal. Played it on Easy and thoroughly enjoyed it, just wish it was longer! A beautifully designed mission with a pleasing atmosphere, reminiscent of the buried city of Karath-din in the Thief series. I'm sure to replay it on Expert eventually.

True, but, 1. this thread is called "Western stealth FPS with Stephen Russell", and, 2. nothing you said changes anything for me. The gameplay still doesn't look like something I'd enjoy. And, if you really think this forum is cynical, then you don't visit forums much. Actually, the majority of the users are are pretty mature, unlike in other forums.

I'm afraid the light leaks persist even in dev16854-10518 with a change I understand should fix them on old maps. Just replaying Chronicles of Skulduggery 3: Sacricide and found an area where they're even worse and a light in another room shines straight through the wall. A view from the back of the light shining through: Even from this angle you can see it light up the room through the door.

I'm not sure if this should go here or in the Tech Support section, so If this is the wrong place, please let me know. As a hobbyist game developer, I'm curious about how the Light Awareness System works in The Dark Mod. I've been poking through the source code, but haven't found any definitive math explaining it, or code comments mentioning on how it's calculated. If anyone could point me to exactly where to look, or could explain what steps and/or math it's using to calculate how visible the player is, I'd greatly appreciate the insight. For reference, I'm trying to implement a similar system in my own stealth game I'm working on in Unreal Engine 4.

If in DR in light properties I set the light type to blamplight or blamplight2 and make it switchable via some switch, it does not go on or off via the switch. When I use blamplight_cv for example I can do that. I also found that if I change the color of the light, I don't see this in-game, there it's still white (if I've set it to yellow). Maybe this is normal for this type of light, but it should be in the description what it can and cannot do.

The lit-up light gem isn't caused by the nightvision light directly (I put ai_see 0 on it) but by its interaction with the dynamic ambient lighting. The dynamic ambient lighting adds a bit of extra ambient to a room depending on the brightness of the light sources that are in it, so that a flickering fireplace will also cause subtle variations in the brightness of shadowed corners, not just the areas that are directly illuminated. If you set ambient_light_falloff to something other than zero, the strength of this dynamic effect also depends on your proximity to the light sources. The wiki says this looks better than the default, and I agree. I've really been working hard on lighting in my latest level. Specifically I want deep shadows punctuated by smallish light sources and generally low ambient to avoid that milky, washed-out look you get with high ambient. In the darkest areas I want to use the nightvision to stop the player getting lost in pitch blackness. Obviously if I have a faint light strapped to my head, an ambient_light_falloff that brightens the ambient for nearby lights is going to defeat the purpose. What I really need is a spawnarg that tells the nightvision light not to contribute anything to the dynamic ambient. Is there anything like that? I also think ambient_light_falloff is a bit bugged. There's supposed to be a cap, by default rgb(0.1, 0.1, 0.1), on the absolute brightest the dynamic ambient can get. However, I'm routinely exceeding that for my setup.

Thanks. Linux user and I play TDM at least weekly: Never noticed any physics issues myself, whatever happened in the FM must be a relatively rare scenario... that's a FM I haven't revisited so I was lucky to miss the bug then. There is in fact a little problem in latest Beta, though it's so small I didn't bother to document it carefully, but I'll share the idea of it at least: If you climb into a tight space between an object and the ceiling and turn on the flashlight, jumping may cause the light to phase through the floor and disappear temporarily. Say you have a crate pressed against a ceiling where you can only climp and go in while crouched... if the surface is high enough to allow a jump but just low to force you to be crouched, you'll see the light source of the lantern disappear temporarily in mid air. Think I saw it in The King Of Diamonds, if it's important I'll boot it up again and noclip to get a viewpos. Just to make sure you've seen my mention: Please check my message a few posts above where I attached a log, we have a crash where killing AI with a broadhead arrow can cause the engine to go down with a "tried to free uncached trace model" error... not even a main menu crash but one to the OS. It's pretty rare but if you fatally shoot AI often enough it will occur eventually.

I dom't use it, i found it here with the filter set to OpenSource. the TOS and PP isn't excluding for an OpenSource app, if they use ads mean that they also need to pay an server for this online service. OpenSource is not synonymous with free either, perhaps after the beta phase it is no longer free, so perhaps you can take advantage of the fact that it is still free to create a series of textures that can be used or search another one in Futuretools. AI generated textures and assets, by definition, don't have any copyright, so you can use them as you want. https://www.futuretools.io/?pricing-model=free|open-source&tags-n5zn=gaming

why not go al the way up and give the ambient light a screen space reflection term, so the fresnel affected pixels would reflect what is behind them (at grazing angles) instead of a static term? this means that if what is behind them is way darker then the fresnel won't reflect anything, and if what is behind is is way lighter then the fresenel would take a portion of that reflected light, i guess you could use the specularity term of every texture to derive how much those fresnel effects do gather from the SSR term.

I think only in your last mission it could be useful though. In Plain Sight doesn't have a map I think. It's interesting, I might give it a try. It's not actually so hard it seems. You just have to create a layer for every location that you paint over the map, making it semi-transparant in a specific color (in fm A House Of Locked Secrets it's light-blue), or maybe that isn't need, because it could be specified in the gui file I think. Then you have to export all layers as seperate files. Krita has an export command for this and Paintdotnet a plugin. Then you have to specify all the files with the correct (info-)locations in a gui file. I wonder if this could be scripted.. Edit: So it's not very difficult, but just a lot of work.

@stgatilov I found that volumetric lighting passes through walls and illuminates the light gem when using stencil shadows. This doesn't happen with shadow maps. To reproduce, play "Iris" and go to 6817 -568 -637.66. The volumetric lighting from the fireplace in the room above that location causes the light gem to illuminate. Summarized: light gem - dark r9853 stencil r9853 maps r10183 stencil (r_volumetricEnable 0) r10183 maps ------------------------------------- light gem - illuminated r10183 stencil (r_volumetricEnable 1)

Apologies, this is where I went wrong. It happened to be a volumetric light shadow I was looking at

Mandrasola is a small sized map in which aspiring thief Thomas Porter steals some herbal products from a smuggler. The mission was created by me, Sotha and I wish to thank Bikerdude, BrokenArts and Ocn for playtesting and voice acting. Thanks goes naturally to everyone contributing and making TDM possible. This mission occurs chronologically before the Knighton's Manor, making it the first mission in the Thomas Porter series. Events in chronological order are: Mandrasola, The Knighton's Manor, The Beleaguered Fence, The Glenham Tower and The Transaction. The winter came early and suddenly this year. Weeks of strong blizzards and extremely harsh cold weather hit Bridgeport hard. With the seas completely frozen, a rare occurence indeed, most of the City harbor commerce has stopped completely. Vessels are stuck in the ice and no ship can leave or enter the City, resulting in the availability imported goods declining and their prices skyrocketing. One of these imported items is Mandrasola, a rare herbal product, which is imported overseas from the far southern continents. Mandrasola has its uses in alchemical cures and poisons, but mostly this substance is used for its narcotic qualities by commoners and even the nobility. The problem with Mandrasola is that excessive use is extremely addicting and the withdrawal effects are most grievious. Many are utterly incapable of stopping using Mandrasola and are transformed into quivering human ruins if they do no get their daily dose. And now this expensive and rare substance is running out from the whole City. Me and my fence, Lark Butternose, would love to grab this monopoly to ourselves: selling the last few doses in the City would probably be worth a fortune. According to Lark's sources, there remains only one smuggling lord who still has Mandrasola in stock. The problem is that this individual maintains an exclusive clandestine operation and only supplies a few nobles. Despite our best information gathering efforts we couldn't learn who the smuggler is and where he or she operates. Luckily we have an alternate plan. While searching for Mandrasola related information, we learned that a noblewoman called Lady Ludmilla is addicted to the substance and has paid high prices for small amounts of it. We also know that she has visited frequently someone in the Tanner's Ward waterfront, and since she goes to the area personally we believe she is visiting the smuggler. The plan is simple: I must monitor Ludmilla's most likely entryway to the Waterfront and then follow her to the smugglers hideout. I'd better be very careful around Ludmilla. She must not realise I'm following her or she probably won't lead me to her dealer. Hurting her is also out of the question. After she leads me to the smuggler's hideout, I can take my time to break in carefully and steal all the Mandrasola I can find. While I'm there it wouldn't be a bad idea to grab some loose valuables as well. I've now waited in the blistering cold for a few hours already. Looks like there are a few city watch patrols in the area to complicate matters... I think I heard a womans voice beyond the north gate. That must be lady Ludmilla, I haven't seen many ladies in these parts. I'd better get ready.. Links: Use the ingame downloader to get it. WARNING! Someone always fails to use spoiler tags. I do not recommend reading any further until you've played the mission.

There was a mechanic like that in SOMA, where one of the monsters could detect you more easily if you were looking at it. I hated it and I don't think I'd like to see anything like it in TDM. Anyway, there is one case where moving the mouse can affect the light gem and that's when you're leaning.