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EDIT - Please note this is Work In Progress and there are more versions available further down this thread ------------------------------------------------------- Hey, A post about a handheld lantern met my eye and sometime later @RedNoodles shared the source files. I don't know who created the lantern in the first place but as per the below post @Dragofer, @Amadeus and @Goldwell were involved. EDIT: @Obsttorte is to be credited BIG TIME, according to Amadeus: I have since been toying with the files and made further improvements: Term "Lantern" replaced with "Lamp" to distinguish it from the former. Comprehensive code clean-up. Removal of unnecessary files. Adjustments here and there. There still is room for more improvement: Better looking inventory icon Better sounds (it currently uses Blackjack sounds) Sounds improved thanks to @Goldwell The lamp clips through walls when up close (no idea how to fix this) The lamp still makes use of def/tdm_player_thief.def and script/tdm_user_addons.script and therefore it isn't compatible with all mission or other mods. I would like this lamp to be truly standalone and compatible with everything but I am not sure how to proceed from this point on. If you ask me, this neat lamp should be properly integrated in the game for mappers to make good use of it. You can find my version attached to this post. Place the *.pk4 in your TDM folder and access the lamp by scrolling through your weapons. Remember: the lamp isn't compatible with other mods. Cheers! z_handheld_lamp_v0.1.pk4

EDIT - You can find a working external script with instructions in this post ---------------------------------------------------------------- Hi! First post in this forum. Greetings to all. I am a long time fan of T1 & T2 and I recently stumbled upon The Dark Mod while looking for some T2 Fan Missions and I immediately fell in love with it. Here goes a heartfelt thanks to the developers for having created this masterpiece and my recognition and appreciation to the TDM content creators and artists. Thanks. Back on topic. A couple of weeks ago I started playing Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. The game makes use of the mouse wheel to increase and decrease the speed of the character and while it took a couple of missions to get used to it, it felt natural from that point on. So much so that after beating the game and launching TDM again my first thought was: this game mechanic should be a must in the stealth genre. You can see it in action in the first minute of this video: I understand chances are this new mechanic cannot be implemented in TDM right away: we are currently limited by the 3 existing speeds / levels of sound (correct me if I am wrong) but regardless, if the development Team would allow us to use the mouse wheel to switch between creep, walk & run it would be a step forward in the right direction, in my humble opinion. Cheers!

Some folks have been asking about the new tdm_show_viewpos cvar and screenshot_viewpos command, so I thought I'd make an thread about it as a reference. The purpose of the cvar is to show the viewpos on the player HUD, and the purpose of the command is to add the viewpos to screenshots in order to help with troubleshooting and beta testing. Bug tracker: https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6331 tdm_show_viewpos tdm_show_viewpos is a cvar to show/hide the viewpos on the player HUD, which can be set to the following: 0 --- hide 1 --- gray font color 2 --- cyan font color screenshot_viewpos screenshot_viewpos is a command that takes a screenshot with the viewpos added to it. screenshot_viewpos screenshot_viewpos <gamma> screenshot_viewpos can be typed at the console or bound to a key. The "gamma" is an optional argument, which as of 2.12 Beta is the r_ambientGamma value. Some mission authors prefer to have screenshots (from players) that are brighter, so they can see what is in the screenshot more easily. Setting the "gamma" argument is a convenient way to temporarily adjust the gamma just for the duration of the screenshot. For example, I have the following bound: bind "F12" "screenshot" bind "F11" "screenshot_viewpos" bind "F10" "screenshot_viewpos 1.3"

The concern that newcomers and players that play the game occasionally don't know or cannot figure out some features looks like a recurring topic. Since we cannot rely on the training mission alone I propose a "global tip system". First, we need a setting: In-game tips: Yes/No This setting must be easily accessible and therefore it should be included in the main menu or stand out in the settings screen. Now, when the setting is enabled players will get tips in ANY and ALL missions when triggering a condition for the first time. Examples: Player frobs a (shoulderable) ragdoll for the first time: To shoulder a body frob it and press "Use". Drop the body by pressing "Use" again. Player frobs a moveable extinguishable light for the first time: You can extinguish a candle by pressing "Use" while holding it. Find fire sources to relight candles. Player frobs a moveable switchable lantern for the first time: Press "Use" while holding moveable lights to switch them on and off. Player unlocks a door (or object) with a key for the first time: You can lock it again by selecting the appropriate key and pressing "Use". Player shoots a water arrow for the first time: Did you know water can clear blood stains and make moss grow stronger? Player shoots a rope arrow for the first time: Press "Attack" while hanging on the rope to swing. ...

As usual this is mainly intended as a discussion and to hear opinions: It's not an expectation that the feature will happen soon or at all. Especially as this would be complicated to achieve, but if it could be done I think it may be a fun capability to consider. The idTech engine had several features that got removed since we aren't using them like multiplayer. One used to be the ability to record a demo of your matches, which makes sense in multiplayer DeathMatch games. Yet recently I started to wonder: How would it be like to have a demo capability designed for TDM? Imagine being able to record your playthroughs or share your recordings for others to watch, for when you'd like to relax watching a FM like a film instead of playing it like a game. You could fly as a detached camera, observing yourself wonder around the map and watching the things you did... or stay in 1st person and see the game play itself like in a Youtube video. The coolest thing would be the ability to see through the eyes of any NPC: Imagine being able to click on a guard in floating camera mode to embody them, seeing through their eyes as they patrol the area and at some point notice the player hiding in a corner through that guard's eyes (even if the AI didn't notice you). The biggest challenge would be a way to record store and reproduce every input from the player, with every AI decision and other entity actions just as they occurred, which includes preserving object physics to represent the exact movements of all entities: Parts of the demo system from Quake would likely need to be reimplemented, wonder how much it knows to handle on its own. Saves and loads would be another tricky one: Each demo should erase what you did after last loading to produce a seamless run... alternatively it could record that as an action and include reloading in the playback. There's probably other challenges but if it's within the realm of possibility, would anyone else use this and think it's worth thinking of?

I just submitted a new bug report: https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6292. In certain specific cases, projectiles don't collide with the player. I've got a test case where a atdm:func_shooter shoots an arrow right at the player, and it goes 'right through' them without damage. It seems to be related to the angle of the projectile (and whether the player is moving or not). This is new to TDM 2.11. It's the cause of the problem that @JavaGod reported playing my mission:

I wanted to bring this up for a while and am sorry I took so long. As such this thread is based on an old observation, I didn't retest recently but from what I know this limitation still exists with the latest code. If others confirm it and the issue is considered solvable I may post it to the bug tracker as well. EFX for spatial sounds are an amazing addition we had in recent years, however they suffer from a noticeable limitation: Reverb only accounts only for the location of the player and not that of sound. Sounds originating from a place with reverberation will not cause any echo if the player isn't standing in that room... oppositely sounds coming from outside will be heard with the full extent of the reverb effect in the room you're hearing them from, they should be echoing less due to not originating from the reverberating hallway. Example: Let's say there's a Builder church with a large hallway containing a reverb definition, inside there's an ambient sound of chanting. If the player is standing in front of the church door, they will hear the chanting without any kind of echo: Only once they step through the door and walk inside the echo suddenly makes itself heard. In a realistic scenario you'll hear the reverberation of any sound coming from a room that causes it, even if you're standing far outside that room hearing this noise in the distance. The simple solution would be a mixture between the location of the player's camera and that of the sound source: Each sound gets 75% the reverb defined in the room it's originating from, then on top of that all sounds being heard by the player anywhere have 25% the reverb of the room the player's standing in (current functionality). The more realistic but also more complicated option would be to use the portal tracing already implemented for sound attenuation and make each sound pick up reverb from each EFX room it passes through, accounting for the room of origin the room the player's standing in but also the rooms it's passing through; That way a noise emanating on one side of a building and passing through open windows in a corridor to reach the player on the other side would still echo, even if both that sound and the player are located outside in an area without reverb.

I want to present a screen at the end of the mission briefing that lets the player choose one of several starting points. I don't know of any missions that do this. Before I begin investigating how to make that happen, I wonder if anyone already has this working. I'm particularly interested in how to pass the result of a custom button press to the mission script. I couldn't find any clues in the Wiki. (I'm not interested in changing the starting point using the Difficulty settings.) Thanks.

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Briefing#Controlling_Where_the_Player_Starts On the section about "Controlling Where the Player Starts" there is a download link, but it's a dead link. Does somebody have this altered mainmenu_briefing.gui ? Or otherwise, is there a mission where it's used? I thought maybe it could be added to core, to the same file, but have that section editted out by default, or make a renamed version? Same for Button Controlled Animated Briefing and Timed Flowing Briefing (although maybe without the example images), I think they should be things in core. Doesn't take up much space and then they never get lost. Edit: Testmap: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YQQknGlVJE9TJyItE_H2KjggvrIAuhnf/view?usp=sharing (with working self-made test mainmenu_briefing.gui file) When you start normal startlocation is near sand-sack. When in last frame of briefing you klick on text, mission starts near bucket oposite of room instead. Currently only works up to TDM 2.09

As if you didn't already know. If there's a long section in a level that requires a lot of travel (eg, a tunnel without a teleport, beneath a building, those massively long grates, a section of swimming where the player will lose a little health, just to make them scared, etc..) the score, or lack of, the volume and several other factors come into play. It has a residual / lasting effect. This is also true for loading screens for levels that take a "long" time. How music (even foley) is used in level design is a subject I've had to research of late - here is an interesting study as an introduction, although I am sure there are more simple articles with less graphs: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3713348/ One trick to use on a corridor / whatever where nothing is going to happen, but it's safe for the player to move - is simply raise the ambient / music volume as this inspires confidence in the player and unconsciously cues them to run down that corridor a little faster than they might otherwise. // if it's locked - there's always scihub. also here's an article, rather than a study, for people who don't like words, but want info: http://nautil.us/issue/9/time/how-music-hijacks-our-perception-of-time

In Thief, I have the habit of double tapping "clear weapon" just to make sure I am less visible, such as when a guard is approaching. Otherwise, I tap it once. In TDM, that doesn't work well, because "put away weapons" will either holster the weapon or equip the last used weapon. I often accidentally make myself more visible at a precarious moment. The current TDM behavior was introduced in 2.03. Before that, the original TDM behavior was the same as the Thief "clear weapon" behavior. See https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=3747 I think other Thief players would like an option to use the original TDM behavior, which is to only holster the weapon. I have attached a patch that adds the following: "tdm_holster_weapon_behavior" default:"1" Which 'put away weapons' behavior? 0 --- only holster weapon (TDM original) 1 --- holster weapon or equip last used weapon when holstered (TDM 2.03+) Bug: https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6232 Edit Finalized version as of TDM 2.11 beta 7. This feature is included in TDM 2.11 beta 7 and above. (To be clear, the patch included in this post is no longer necessary, since TDM already includes the functionality.) "tdm_toggle_sheathe" default:"0" Which 'put away weapons' behavior? 0 --- only sheathe weapon (TDM original) 1 --- toggle between sheathing and equipping weapon (TDM 2.03-2.10) Menu In the "Settings->Weapons" menu, renamed "Put away Weapons" to "Sheathe Weapon". In the "Settings->General" menu, added "Toggle Sheathe" that can be set to "Disabled" or "Enabled". The default is "Disabled", so new players have original TDM defaults (also Thief defaults). r10247-tdm_holster_weapon_behavior-v4.diff

@duzenko I'm not sure if you've worked on the notes that appear in the upper-left corner before. The notes seem to have a similar behavior as this x-ray fade in issue that you just fixed. Is that something you could look at next? It's especially reproducible during the training mission, since there are many notes that show in that mission. When the note fades in, it will sometimes be at 100% opacity on its first frame and then fade in from a low (maybe 0%) opacity to 100% opacity. Visually, it looks like it blinks, disappears, and then slowly fades in. https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6117

EDIT: This mod is now part of the TDM Modpack. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear all, I always wondered why our protagonist makes as much noise as AI when manipulating doors. Shouldn't our thief be a little more graceful than the careless AI? I am trying to decrease the volume of open/close door sounds - when the sound is triggered by the player - and while I can get the current volume: float curOpenSound = door.getSoundVolume(door.getKey("snd_open")); float curShutSound = door.getSoundVolume(door.getKey("snd_close")); I cannot figure out how to alter the value returned. It would seem I can make use of setSoundVolume() only if I force a sound afterwards... Any ideas?

Тest: Thief's Den 3: Heart of Lone Salvation Settings: by default Version: 2.09 Bug description: While the player is moving, if he look at the floor, he can see a wave of light. This wave of light moves with the player, as if the player is the source of this light. Example. stand at the specified point, go forward till the next point and at the same time look at the area marked with a white line.

Quite the challenge in the title, right ? Well, as long as it is not difficult to implement into the base game, I think we should finally resolve this particular collection of missing assets. In recent years, I've come across several FM makers clamouring for being able to make an FM with a female thief protagonist for a change. If we find someone willing to do the female player vocal set, I think it should be someone who can affect a voice that sounds neither too youthful or too old. That's, IMHO, key. The player character's male vocal set already sounds like it could belong to any deeper-voiced guy between 20 and 50. I have started this new thread in order to finally organise an effort to create a female vocal set. That's one of the few stumbling blocks left for more original protag creation, IMHO. Some three, maybe even four years ago, Lavender took a brave stab at this - if memory serves me right, she actually finished her recordings for the entire PC vocal set, they just weren't processed and suitable yet for publication. However, as Lavender has left the forums, we're basically back to square one. I think we should look into contacting the female voice actors we already have here on the forums and doing an assessment of their voice acting samples. There's got to be at least two ladies with an appropriate voice range for the female vocal set. I think women voice actors in their 30s, with a wide enough voice range, would definitely suffice for what is needed in that vocal set. Bear in mind that the entire vocal set is actually non-verbal, so there is no need to articulate anything. The whole set consists of a voice doing sighs, or noises during physical exertion (e.g. climbing, lifting), and so on and so forth. Though there are dozens of these purely vocal "lines", it's not that long a list, so the vocal set can be completed in a fairly short amount of time. The selected voice actor could do the whole thing in a day or two (or several days), we could then filter through the various takes, select the best ones, have our sound guys help with cleaning up any audio issues, and we could then work on implementing the whole thing as an alternate vocal set. It would be a really nice (if relatively minor) addition for 2.08. Particularly for mission builders. I'd like to hear everyone else's thoughts on how we should proceed, who can provide oversight for the effort, and so on. Wikilink to our voice actor article: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Voice_actors Wikilink to our article on the script for the player vocal set: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Vocal_script:_Player

There is no easy way to make a luteplayer react to player's actions. Thus, an lute playing AI would be very helpful with the following properties: - variable skins - at a certain alarm level, lute player stops playing lute and so does the designated sound files...when alert level decreases, lute player, starts again playing the lute and the designated sound file start playing once again - at a very high alarm level, lute player drops the lute (and sound file stops) and runs away

I set FOV, but my view doesn't change to what I want until I pick something up (candle, fruit, etc.) I've set it to 130 here to demonstrate. The FOV doesn't change to 130 until I actually pick up the apple; then it just hard-cuts to that 130 FOV. As soon as I drop the apple, it reverts to basic/default FOV. I did some searches and didn't see this issue. If it's known, my apologies.

First off thanks to Dragofer and other users who helped with the scripting basics needed to get this done. As a detail for some FM's I plan to make in the future, I wanted to have it possible for friendly AI to be frobbed for idle chatter, causing them to say something random to the player. I first tried with conversation entities but the setup was too ugly and complex, so I decided to do this using one script function. I succeeded with pretty nice results, thus I figured I'd share this for other FM creators to use as well. The thing I like most is that it only requires one universal function to be added to your map scripts. Every AI can use it with a simple spawnarg and it doesn't require manually setting any sound shaders: It will automatically work on any character! This means you can use it on a pro guard, a builder priest, a noble woman... each will say the appropriate thing when frobbed. This is done with the power of the ai.bark() call which lets you make the AI speak any action defined in their vocal set (universal across all vocal sets). To get it working you only need to add two spawnargs to your AI, with a third optional one for customization (explained below): frobable 1 frob_action_script ai_frob frob_bark ... frob_bark is optional: If not set the AI will normally greet the player... if alert or having seen evidence of intruders, it will use other lines to inform the player depending on severity. This parameter can be set to the following values to get a custom result: "suspicious": The AI always acts as if it has seen indirect evidence of trouble and warns the player. "alert": The AI always acts as if it has seen an intruder warns the player. "angry": The AI is upset and curses at the player. "rambling": The AI rambles random things when talking to the player (idle lines). Finally here's the script itself. It's pretty tiny, most of the code is for choosing the voice to use. Put it on an AI and let me know if you like the result void ai_frob(ai self) { if(!self.AI_DEAD && !self.AI_KNOCKEDOUT && self.AI_AlertLevel < 3) if(self.isFriend($player1) || self.isNeutral($player1)) { string frob_type = self.getKey("frob_bark"); string frob_bark; // Pick what the AI will say when frobbed if(frob_type == "alert") { frob_bark = "snd_warnSawEnemy"; } else if(frob_type == "suspicious") { frob_bark = "snd_warnSawEvidence"; } else if(frob_type == "angry") { frob_bark = "snd_admonish_friend"; } else if(frob_type == "rambling") { frob_bark = "snd_relaxed"; } else { if(self.AI_AlertLevel > 2) frob_bark = "snd_warnSawEnemy"; else if(self.AI_AlertLevel > 1) frob_bark = "snd_somethingSuspicious"; else if(self.hasSeenEvidence()) frob_bark = "snd_warnSawEvidence"; else frob_bark = "snd_greeting_generic"; } float look_time = 1 + sys.random(1); self.bark(frob_bark); self.lookAt($player1, look_time); sys.wait(look_time); } } ai_frob.script

I must confess. that the guards see very well even in the shadows and it is not clear how to play with such opponents. in narrow corridors, they always find out....This is clearly seen in the training mission... I wrote this variable in the autocommand.cfg, but it doesn't work.... seta tdm_ai_sight_prob "0" The player can configure the ai of the enemies in the config?