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After playing various Dark Mod FM’s, I become hooked to the game, like I was with Thief (and its FM’s). So, like I do to all games I love, I tried to find ways to improve it. Since my first contact with DM and after playing T1 and T2 with the fantastic “HD Mod”, it became apparent that graphically, TDM struck me strange. Of course, it is clearly a BIG improvement over T3 and it’s not worse then Thief 2014 -- if you remove all those post processing effects, the textures are actually very bad for today standards – but it could be a little bit better. So I started to change a texture here, a texture there, whenever I found a texture that could be improved. Initially, I made this for my own amusement, while i was playing, but as the changes increased, I started to think I it would only be fair to share it with the community. As a note, I really appreciate the amount of work done by the contributors to TDM. It’s amazing how an open source project of a game whose genre is unfortunately condemned to target a niche player base could attract so many talented people to work together and create what essentially is the Thief 4 we never had. So this is in no way a mean to disrespect the contributors and their work. What changed and how Currently, around 530 files were changed. The changes end up in one of the following categories: NOTE: “texture quality” noted below is subjective and represents only my point of view. Again, It is in no way a mean of disrespect for the original author and its work. The texture is good but is in a low resolution – upscale it using AI image enhancement methods. The texture is poor and low res, with poor AI upscale results – try to replace it using various free PBR or raw Image sources (1) or create my own. If necessary, adjust the image using (colors, saturation, contrast, …) The texture has a good resolution and its not quite good but can be improved – improve using gimp (ex: on textures with bur, use sharpen, noise reduction or/and other features) (2) The texture depicts an horrible stew – change it to a decent and delicious stew, because my Portuguese roots forced me to do it. Additionally, specular and normal maps were added to some textures. (1) Free textures and PBR sites already discussed on this forum (texturehaven.com, 3dtextures.me, cc0textures.com and so on). (2) Finding the right texture is not always easy. I always tried to follow the same “feel” and appearance of the original image, but i confess that this is not always the case. Again, very subjective. New version 2021.01.08 * Around 170Mb of textures processed Some tree barks enhanced Stucco change more enhancements on doors, paint paper, fire places, ground textures, curtains .. and much more Screenshots and Comparisons It’s obviously undoable to show the comparison for all changed textures, so keep in mind that the following screenshots are just a very small example of the whole project. Also, very important, keep in mind that there is so much you can do with screenshots and in game the differences are much more clear than what is shown below. Sir Talbot's Collateral https://imgsli.com/MTI2NDE https://imgsli.com/MTI2MzY https://imgsli.com/MTI2Mzc https://imgsli.com/MTI2Mzg https://imgsli.com/MTI2Mzk https://imgsli.com/MTI2NDA WS3: Cleighmoor https://imgsli.com/MTI1OTE WS1: In the North https://imgsli.com/MTI2MTY https://imgsli.com/MTI2MTc WS2: Home Again https://imgsli.com/MTI2MjM https://imgsli.com/MTI2MjQ https://imgsli.com/MTI2Mjc https://imgsli.com/MTI2Mjg https://imgsli.com/MTI2Mjk https://imgsli.com/MTI2MzE https://imgsli.com/MTI2MzM New (version 2021.01.08) Briarwood Manor https://imgsli.com/MzUwNDY https://imgsli.com/MzUwNDg https://imgsli.com/MzUwNTE https://imgsli.com/MzUwNjc The Builder's Influence https://imgsli.com/MzUxNjM https://imgsli.com/MzUxNjQ No honor among thieves: forest https://imgsli.com/MzU0ODE https://imgsli.com/MzU1NTQ https://imgsli.com/MzU1NTk How to install 1) download the pk4 file from here 2) drop it on your TDM game folder (where all the other pk4 files are) 3) Play! Uninstall Just remove z_TDM_HD.pk4 file from your TDM install folder. Disclaimer If you are a purist, please don’t use this texture mod. Don’t bash it for not being “exactly the same as the original ones but hires”. If you find some texture that is copyrighted, please let me know and i will replace it. Fell free to suggest changes, but please don't make requests. Understand that i am doing this while playing and if i start feeling that i'm working instead, i will probably start to loose my interest. PS: I really don't know if this is the right thread to make this post. Let me know if i need to change it to another thread.

We have been collecting textures for 4+ years, by nearly a dozen different people. It is inevitable that some textures will not stand up well in terms of quality. This thread is the place to nominate textures you think are poor and should be either fixed or removed. The following process will be followed (we are currently on step 1):

I spent the morning aligning my windows inside and out with the wall brick textures, but after saving and dmap, it still looks off in-game. It's quite bizarre. I tried deleting the .cm and .proc, and running dmap again (several times) but it didn't help. I don't have any dmap errors either. Any ideas what is going on? additional info: rather than adjusting the textures I edited the brushes, grabbed all the relevant vertices and adjusted the height of the window recesses. On the outside of the house I moved the window facades. Everything is appears to be aligned perfectly in DR, but is way off when I run the game.

Is it possible to export ASE mesh as CM collision model (and then somehow view it to visually confirm if it's good or not) ? If I select my model and then go to File > Export Selected as Collision Model, I get model selection dialog window popping up and when I select model there and hit Ok, nothing happens (window closes and I am back in the Editor). No .cm file gets saved.

The latest dev build (dev16629-10139) supports Wavefront OBJ format for static models. Some details: Model must consist only of triangles. Quads/polys will produce warnings and won't work properly. NURBS/lines/etc are ignored. Normals and texcoords are mandatory for all triangles, otherwise model loading will fail. Widely used extension for RGB vertex colors is supported (standard OBJ does not support vertex colors). TDM materials are referenced by "usemtl textures/test_obj/rock". Standard MTL files are not supported yet. Unlike LWO and ASE imports, which try to automatically merge close vertices, no postprocessing is done for a model in OBJ format. As far as I understand, it means less suffering with smoothing groups for instance. Also it means that loading OBJ model is very fast, even for a large model. The only downside thus far is that zipped LWO file can be smaller than zipped OBJ, but I don't have exact numbers yet (I'd be happy if someone can help me with it). Speaking of OBJ format, there are several pending questions: Should we support MTL format (common subset) in TDM engine? Or as import plugin in DarkRadiant? Should we support referencing part of OBJ file as model in TDM map? Is it common to export several LODs into one OBJ?

DarkRadiant already offers a lot of features to make things easier for mappers by simplifying and automating certain tasks. Even so creating a map takes a huge amount of time due to how much there is to do overall. When mapping I noticed a huge amount of time is spent on positioning stuff: You right-click in a 2D viewport, go in a menu to spawn your entity, then need to find it and drag it around from at least two different views to place it where it needs to be in all three dimensions... often having to search in a mess of overlapping lines to even find the selection you're working with. Some shortcuts like "floor selection" offer limited help afterward, but even then you usually need to select the wall so you can see the red outline and be sure on how much you need to move that item so it correctly rests against the surface. I was thinking of a method that could make this a lot easier: Allow placing entities from the 3D viewport as well, based on the distance and direction projected from the view to the spot where you clicked. So let's say you're looking at a brush wall: You click on its surface and get the same menu as in the 2D viewport (eg: Create entity). Once you insert that item, it's automatically positioned so its back rests against that wall (total bounding box), the item also rotated to face toward the camera (in 90 or 45 degree increments). Every wall will need to be accounted for if you're placing your item over an edge or in a corner, ensuring the object fits neatly against all brushes its model's box intersects. This could help a lot by not making the mapper need to move and rotate everything manually except for small adjustments. In the 2D viewport it's difficult to guess where an item will appear since you don't know its size, plus you still need to go in another 2D viewport to position it in the 3rd dimension not covered by the viewport you spawned it from. This will require math to do line tracing as well as calculating surface / box intersections, but I'm hoping it's doable and some of the code may already exist. One obvious thing worth pointing out: A normal right-click in the 3D view is used to grab the camera and go into mouselook which we wouldn't want to change. This would need to be implemented as a combination, prolly either control + right-click or shift + right-click. What do you think about this idea?

To assign the rotation point of a func_static made into an atdm:mover_door I go into vertex mode, select the axis of rotation (the only selectable vertex) and move it to the right spot. When I export that same func_static as .ase, import the .ase and make it an atdm:mover_door everything works, except the axis of rotation isn't selectable. When exporting as .ase I check the option 'Center objects at 0,0,0 origin', and the axis of rotation is now centered at exact center of the model. If I leave this option unchecked (default) the axis of rotation is centered at 0,0,0 of the DR grid - so when I put the cursor at a point of the grid and 'create model', that's where the axis of rotation is created while the model itself is offset accordingly. In neither case is this center, or axis of rotation, selectable or moveable independently of the model. eta: A kludge is to extend the door to be exported as .ase with a nodraw brush so the center of the combo is at the axis location desired. This works but is an abominable kludge which only gets worse since for double doors kludged versions of both L and R are required. Likewise for every other axis adjustment that needs to be made.

Hey all, I just noticed on the TTLG forums that Xorax released a large (1600+) set of textures for public use. I browsed through them and they match well with TDM. While they don't have normal maps, I'd still recommend giving them a once-over. Here's the TTLG thread: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151606

I'd be very happy if DarkRadiant offered the menu option "Select all with model" in the Edit menu, under the exiting "Select all of type" entry. I found there are cases when I need to modify every func_static (or other entity type) with a certain model, yet after a point you have too many instances of that model (some grouped) to manually select all. I often need this to replace a given model with a similar one, or more importantly reconfigure the LOD settings for all instances of that model on the map (eg: set the hide_distance spawnarg). I need to do this right now in the FM I'm working on, but have so many copies of every model I simply couldn't select each one manually, thus if this isn't implemented I'll have to leave them as is and abort those changes. This seems like an easy one to implement so I hope it's doable and we can see it soon. Thank you.

I loaded up a mission I haven't worked on for a while, dmapped it, and tried to play it. As soon as I did, my frame rates zoomed to about 0.5fps and my console was filled with error messages telling me that the clip models for player1, the guards, and all the rats were outside world bounds. The map worked fine a month ago when I tested it last and I haven't modified it since. All I've done in the meantime is update to the latest 2.10 build. What is going on?

I want a potion with holywater properties, but applied to a DR made model that looks more appropriate for my FM (with no crucifix). I've made several objects to grab, put in inventory, then drop at a location to complete objectives before, so that's not a problem. But how do I apply the properties of entityDef atdm:playertools_holywater to a model? One required property is that it can be applied to a waterarrow. I copy/pasted the holywater entitydef to myfm/def subfolder with appropriate name changes, but that didn't work at all... Does anyone know of an FM that has done this, or something similar enough with playertools, so I can copy that procedure?

Following on from Springheel's thread for Poor textures I figured we should have thread for models, so what do we mean buy poor models, if we use the model below as an example - models/darkmod/fireplace/fireplace_wooden.ase Whats needs fixing - mis-aligned textures - on the model above you can see on the front of the mantle face where the brick textures isn't aligned.mis-scaled textures - the brick textures are blurred up close - which us highlighed by a patch I placed at the back of the firebox to cover part of the wall-model poking through.The poor texture on the upper mantle face - that even in direct light is very dark and show little detail.Whats not to do - change the dimensions - as this may break existing maps that have used that model.radically change textures - for the same reason as above, but if unsure ask the team.remove hidden/internal shadow mesh - as this directly effect model performance with lit, but if the shadow mesh is poor, ask the team.

I have a map, with a stone texture. I want to replace it with a new texture I made. However, there's 4,430 faces with this texture. I can use the find and replace to swap the textures, however, now the scale is wrong. How can I select all faces with the same texture? EDIT: Solved, check solution on next post

All I want to do is import a basic, static model into the editor. The model is in .lwo format, the polygons are all triangles, the UV's are all mapped correctly. I am not a modelling noob. The textures are all square, and in .dds format. The model does not need a collision mesh or a shadow mesh. It is just a small teddy bear. The problem is that I do not know how to associate a material with this custom model in DR. And in the wiki, which is so out of date now, there is a page that specifically deals with this issue but the example images do not load! Does anyone have the example images from this page? https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Model/Texture_Guidelines Because I see that I need the path info for the model textures to be embedded in the .lwo mesh file, but the example of the path I'm supposed to use does not load in the wiki. Or maybe someone could please just give me a short description of how to import custom models into DR? I am an experienced modeler and texture artist, so no need to ELI5, it's just associating the custom model with a material file in DR that I cannot find any info on. EDIT: Is it something to do with entity .def files? https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=DEF_Files

Another thing, this time about models. It seems like there are two sections for exporting models, one in File and the other in Scripts. IIUC, the latter is redundant so it can be removed. Second thing is a bit more controversial I guess, but IMO exporting model geometry should be disabled. This way you can use DR to e.g. export .ase to .obj and modify otherwise unchangeable models (ase can be exported, but not imported into any modeling software). Artists have no control over how their assets can be used, and this way they can be spliced, hacked, and bashed by mappers. Even if you copyright or otherwise restrict the usage, you'll have hard time tracking down those who don't give a crap about modellers. This is also related to use of other models, or derivative works from other models. There are many free models that are not entirely CC0, but they're free / allow derivative works, but on a condition of, e.g.: "you may not use the asset in a way that allows others to use or access the asset as a stand-alone" – this is a standard license quote from a popular 3d hosting platform. So having DR as an .ase -> .obj exporter makes such terms impossible to follow. Exporting brushwork or patches is obviously fine, if anyone works this way.

Would it possible to tweak or add to the model (.LWO and .ASE) export function the ability to reduce the amount of textures, or better still to export a single custom texture for the exported model..? For example atm if we take a bunch of Springheel's modular models, or just random models and brushwork and export that collection to a single model there is X number of textures which as I understand it increases the draw call count by the number of textures used. With Springheels modular models the texture count is lower due to the way he created them, due to the small amount of and similar textures used. But for maps like the one Im working on, I'm taking .ASE, .LWO and exiting brush/patch work and exporting to a single model.

This issue has been occurring in the last few weeks, and my first thought was that it is due to a regression that happened during the code reorganisation and the necessary changes to GL context handling. In my Ubuntu 20.10 machine I walked back the git history up to the point of the DR 2.8.0 release, but as it turns out, the problem is happening there too. When switching between Media and Texture tabs, the GL widget is not refreshed, unless you resize the tabs using the splitter between cam and orthoview: So I launched my other VM running Ubuntu 19.10 and was rather surprised that this problem does not happen there, even with the latest git checkout: I'm not sure where this behaviour is coming from all of a sudden. While I can't rule out that DR is doing something wrong in terms of context handling, there sure seems to be a difference between the two Ubuntu 19/20 setups. Any suggestions on how to go ahead and find out where the problem is rooted? The one idea I have: Since Ubuntu 19 is using wxGTK 3.0.4 and Ubuntu 20 is using the latest wxGTK 3.0.5, I will try to compile the older wxWidgets 3.0.4 release from source and use that in the newer Ubuntu 20 version, to see if the problem goes away.

EDIT: EVGA 980ti on latest drivers, if that matters. I've been plugging away at my cave map, but I keep running into issues so it's taking a long time. Now, the skybox isn't working. Basically the sky texture is just transparent. I fixed it by deleting the brushes, creating new ones and texturing just one face as sky. After DMAP that worked. So I then textured the other 3 sides and then it was broken again. Changing the other 3 sides back to regular textures didn't fix the broken sky rendering. Now, even deleting the skybox prefab, the offending textures/brushes etc, won't fix it. I created a test map, and copied and pasted the same brushes and prefab and it's also broken there. Deleting the prefab and readding it, and texturing new brushes with sky, won't work. In 2.08: In SVN: You can see the prefab is very close to the sky texture. I've also tried moving the skybox prefab outside the map and at various places, even to 0,0,0 but that didn't help. The skybox looks fine in game, I can noclip into it and see all the little details. I've attached the map file, you'll have to rename the file from maps.zip.txt to maps.zip to extract it. skytest.zip

To our modelers: I've created a statue of the Werebeast for my current WIP. It works fine, except if you look at it and start look up, it disappears. Looking down, left or right doesn't cause the problem. What aspect of the model causes this to happen? I suspect I have to increase the size of something, but I don't know what that is. Thanks.