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In case of stencil shadows, there are two parts: computing shadow volume (on CPU) rendering shadow volume (on GPU) Shadow volume computation is cached in interactions table for each light+entity pair. It is recomputed only when at least one of them changes. Rendering shadow volume cannot be cached because it depends on camera too much. So with stencil shadows it is already good. Yeah, it is possible to skip shadow volumes computation for distant lights. In case of shadow maps, there is also some CPU filtering and actual rendering on GPU. CPU filtering is also cached and only recomputed on light or entity change, but on GPU shadow maps are rendered from scratch every frame. And this is not good: at the very least, static light which has static set of shadow casters should not have its shadow map recomputed every frame. Perhaps it is also good to have shadow map of static entities saved persistently, then every frame copy it and render only dynamic entities on top. I have this issue in my mind for some time already. There are some issues here, since shadow maps which are not recomputed must not change their location in shadow map atlas, and thus they can block other shadow maps from taking proper space (basically, typical memory allocation issues). Also if we try caching only static portion of shadow map, then we have to create another shadow atlas for them, which raises memory requirements dramatically. Right now it is not possible to skip anything for shadow maps at all. It might become possible after I implement reusing shadow maps in static cases. Overall, I can't say I like this idea. Even if light is distant, it is still ugly when shadow does not move in sync with shadow caster. But shadow maps should definitely be optimized for static cases.

Cheers. Initially I was thinking of this for lights... later thought to include animated models too, mesh deformation isn't that expensive so I can see why there's little benefit. Especially as I realized per-pixel lighting would still be recalculated each frame, specularity also depends on camera angle not just model movement... technically we could frameskip that too but I'm getting way ahead of myself for what would likely be a tiny benefit Could this still work for lights though? Recalculating shadows when something moves in radius of a light is a big cost, even if it's gotten much better with the latest changes. A shadow recalculation LOD may give a nice boost. We could test the benefit with an even simpler change: A setting to cap all shadow updates to a fixed FPS. This would probably be a few lines of code so if you can give me a pointer I may be able to modify my local engine clone to try it. If it offers a benefit it can be made distance-based later. Another way would be to make a light's number of samples slowly decrease with distance, the furthest lights dropping to just one sample like sharp / stencil shadows: Shadow samples also have a big impact. What do you think of this solution as a form of light LOD, maybe mixed with just a shadow update LOD? These actually sound like they make sense; If you think it's worth it I can post those two on the tracker so they're not forgotten.

Okay, I had no idea, I have googled it up now and you are right, to my own surprise. Done, I´ve put some paragraphs which were previously not in spoiler tags into spoilers.

Thebigh is right. The pronunciation tripped me up too, but that is apparently how Leicester is pronounced. Also @TarhielI'm glad you are loving the FM but do you mind putting spoiler tags on your post please

Announcing: Closemouthed Shadows: Dark Vendetta (working title) Big Edit: Due to some confusion here is some clarification. Is this a complete mission yet? - This is not nearly finished. Why did the briefing suck? - My english grammar is bad as hell. (I would like you to go over my text when it's finished Springheel, thanks in advance ) Will this have a good briefing when it's finished? - I hope so. What is this mission all about? - This is a sequel to the (2008) first mission (see storyline). Why am I doing this? - Mapping is great fun. The Dark Mod has evolved and so have my mapping skills. So I'd like to see what is possible with the current Dark Mod and what haven't been done so far (see goals). I was so proud of my first TDM mission and I want to be proud of a TDM mission again. What's the storyline? - Won't spoil too much but you stole Lord Julians scepter in "Closemouthed Shadows (1)" and he is hunting you down now and killed your friend. Revenge! What are the goals for this mission? - Include cool stuff like: Alternate endings (I think that hasn't been done so far), go to an island by boat (I think that hasn't been done so far), "deep" story with changing objectives, variety in places (river, houses, caves/ruins, island), nice visuals... Aren't that very high expectations? - Worst thing that can happen is that in ends in the "Abandoned Works" thread . Why a thread for this? - To say: "Hello I'm still here" and as a warning: "I may ask a bunch of questions and report some bugs soon" .

TDM was never meant to be fully realistic, it would become impossibly difficult were that the case. None the less I still find myself wishing more could be done to make AI feel less like AI, especially when handling hostile encounters (usually the player). While like most aspects this could never be truly perfect, one area feels like it could be noticeably improved: Giving AI some form of long term memory, rather than just one alert level which goes back to zero after a short time. Here is the reason why I'm saying this: Walk inside your average heavily guarded mansion and step into the bright lights, making all the guards clearly see you and chase after you to attack. Once you've had enough fun repeating the process, hide somewhere and give everyone enough time to cool down. At the end of it all, hide somewhere in the shadows where you can barely be seen and let a guard walk past you: The guard will just say "is there something over there", at best waiting a few seconds and saying "probably just the shadows" before walking away... the same man that may have chased after you for 30 minutes and should by any logic know an intruder is still in the house, I mean come on Now I'm aware we have a basic persistence system: If I remember correctly an AI that's encountered the player and was alerted enough to draw their sword will have its acuity permanently increased by a slight amount. This however makes no noticeable difference as the AI behaves mostly the same. They'll keep telling fellow AI an intruder is in the area, this definitely helps but it's only a dialogue change not accompanied by noticeable modifications in behavior as you'd expect. Obviously massive modifications might be hard to do now without upsetting existing players since it would make everything harder. As such any such attempt would likely be an experiment and, if successful, a new menu option for the difficulty settings. Still I felt like suggesting my imagined solution just in case there's a point in considering tackling this. My idea: Replace the one-time bump in acuity with a paranoia level independent from the alert level... think of the existing alert system as short-term alert and the new one as long-term alert. The standard alert level of guards is slowly added to their paranoia level, thus the more time a guard spends being alert and the higher that alert is the more fear increases. Paranoia level may be allowed to decrease over time but at a far slower rate than the alert level: If an alert guard will typically take 3 minutes to fully calm down after losing track of the player, the paranoia level should take at least 30 if not 60 (real life) minutes to fully go down to minimum... even then it shouldn't drop below a certain degree after that point was reached, for instance just 50% of the maximum paranoia. This long-term fear level would have several effects on an AI as they patrol on their normal route... the ones I've thought about are: Increased acuity as they'll be more alert. This system would replace the existing simple bump we have in that regard, with a more fluid effect and also stronger effect. Increased playing of voices and idle animations: Due to being afraid the guard may talk to themselves or others a lot more frequently and babble excessively. Walking could be replaced by running for a while, even on path nodes that don't have the run flag. The AI would still patrol that same route just at a faster pace. As a map feature set by FM's: Some path nodes can be filtered by fear level, may already be possible with the simple system but I never tried it. An AI paranoid the player is still around but having resumed their normal patrol route may choose to patrol a more sensitive area it normally wasn't going to, which would be a fair way of punishing the player for being seen by having that AI start guarding a sensitive location from then on. If the paranoia level is allowed to slowly decrease, the guard may decide to go back on this decision... the player could then do something else for 15 minutes around the map till the guard abandons the paranoid patrol route. Here's an idea I like: AI randomly getting scared for no reason, thinking they see the player in every shadow even when there's nothing there. A scared guard normally walking on their patrol route would randomly become alert for no reason, typically when walking through a dark area, causing them to draw their sword or randomly run around for a second. The problem here is this effect would be random: Imagine you're hiding accordingly but a guard randomly freaks out and bumps into you, most players would find this unfair.

Good work! I enjoy short missions because things are nice and focused - you get in, you get out. Also I tend to do better with the loot amounts and I was able to get all the loot without too much trouble, which is rare for me. If I were to make a suggestion though - I found the intro briefing sequence a bit distracting because it was so obvious the narration was pitch-shifted to make a deeper voice. If you felt the original voice wasn't deep enough for your needs, I would either get someone on the forums to record it for you or just leave as is. That's my only real complaint and it's not even about the mission itself, so pretty good first start!

The implementation of volumetric lights in 2.10 uses dithering to reduce performance impact. What you show here is exactly the dithering effect: the image looks good in large scale, but on small scale it is a mess of pixels. Moreover, the more high-frequency details you have, the more apparent the dithering artefacts become. So there are only 2 explanations why scene looks better with stencil shadows: Because when you use stencil, volumetric light is disabled --- that's default behavior of volumetric lights in 2.10. Because when you use stencil, volumetric light is used without shadows. This makes dithering artefacts hardly noticeable, since the light itself is very low-frequency, while shadows are high-frequency. With new dev builds, you'll have dithering artefacts as you see in 2.10 with shadows maps, but now you'll see them regardless of your choice. And the reason for that is that now volumetric lights always take shadows into account if mapper wanted them to exist. We plan to add blur and thus remove dithering artefacts: 5850

We will look at some of this stuff, but SPOILER tags, please!!!

The issue with the bounds of visportals "glowing" has been quite apparent in my WIP: If it is helpful in resolving the issue they are only visible when soft shadows are enabled. Using the "Maps" lighting mode also seems to reduce how visible they are. The performance improvements are quite significant so it would obviously be good to keep as many of the optimizations as possible.

How you can help depends a lot on what skills you have. I can Record Video Recording "Let's Play" videos or simple walkthroughs of existing missions and posting them to Youtube is great exposure for the mod (see example .) Be sure to let us know so we can link to them. If you have some editing ability, Video tutorials, where you explain how the mod works, or how to use specific tools, would also be great. Video trailers, showcasing interesting places and features, are also great for publicity. An example is . I can Write Writing reviews for missions are always nice, especially if they include good screenshots. Not only does it give us something to post on other forums, but it makes mappers feel good when their mission gets attention (especially if it's positive). We have a collective thread to post reviews in: http://forums.thedar...s-walkthroughs/ Writing reviews of the mod as a whole, targetted an an audience that doesn't know much about TDM, is also very useful. You could also try offering your services to mappers to create interesting readables, or to proofread for their mission. I can Act and Record Audio We are always on the lookout for good quality audio recordings for vocal sets. If interested, you can pick a few different lines from this script: http://wiki.thedarkm...t:_Average_Jack and send the recordings to Springheel, who then writes a script based on the type of voice you have. I can Translate We could always use translations of our menu/hud into more languages. Also, only a few FMs are aavailable in more than one language, so there is a lot of work there, see the I18N Translator's Guide in the Wiki. I can Model Great! Take a look at the model request thread:http://forums.thedar...-requests-here/ and pick something that interests you. Or just post a, "Hey, anybody want a model?" thread in this forum and I'm sure mappers will get back to you. I can Animate Fantastic. We can always use more good animations. Our current character rigs use a Maya skeleton. PM Springheel for more info. I know C++ Have a look at our coding section in the wiki, pick an issue or feature from the bugtracker of the mod or the leveleditor, download the recent sourcecode release (or better ask for an SVN checkout) and get cracking. Make sure nobody is already working on that specific issue and feel free to ask questions. I can Edit Images We can always use completely new textures and/or improved versions of older textures. How to get started and how to import them into the mod. I can Take Photos Good quality photos of useful textures (medieval-ish building facades, dirt, rocks, wood, etc) are always welcome. The fewer directional shadows and higher resolution, the better. I don't have any skills Even if you can't do any of the above, you can still help out. Talk about TDM in other forums; share your (preferably positive) experiences with other gamers you know. Last, but not least, compliment people when you like their work. Saying "thanks", to a developer or, "I really enjoyed your mission" to a mapper will make their day. -------------------- I'll update this further as more things occur to me.

This may make sense in that the performance impact of the volumetric effect can scale with how much of the effect is filling the screen. We shipped with a “performance mode” but had to setup the entities by hand to do it (so it’s not perfect). If you change the LOD detail settings to “Low” or “Lowest” this will disable certain lights, particles and such that can be very heavy to render. You can try these settings and see if you notice an improvement. If not sending us some pictures of heavy areas (with spoiler tags please) will be helpful with tuning these “performance modes” in subsequent patches. Thanks for playing!

Hi, I need to know what the code is to use Spoiler Tags. I am using my tablet and I don't have the options to use anything, like spoiler tags, quote tags, text changes etc. Thanks

I'd like to better understand what you want. The design of dragging bodies is to hold frob (key down) to drag and release frob (key up) to let go. That way it's impossible to walk away while unintentionally dragging a body. Plus, it's quick to grab and move several body limbs in rapid succession. This is thought to provide a better experience, especially for new players. Towards the beginning of this thread, I created a "tdm_frobhold_drag_body_behavior" cvar. https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22198-feature-proposal-frob-to-use-world-item/&do=findComment&comment=487580 "tdm_frobhold_drag_body_behavior", default:"1" Which drag body behavior? 1 --- on frob key up, drop body (limb). 0 --- on second frob, drop body (limb), TDM v2.11 (and prior) behavior. That cvar was removed shortly afterwards, because it was said that it wasn't needed. With that cvar set to 0, a second frob would be required to let go of the body. Is that the behavior that you want? If so, I can add that cvar back. Also, I saw elsewhere that you want the ability to revert back to the old way. If you mean that all of the controls match TDM 2.11, that can be done with "tdm_frobhold_delay 0" and there will be a menu setting to disable it as well.

"TDM cannot use the Deadly Shadows resource pack." There is a Deadly Shadows resource pack for TDM?

I upgraded to latest dev earlier due to what I wrongly perceived as a bug with 2.10. Decided to test this and I'm glad I did: Enabling r_softShadowsMipmaps breaks stencil shadows and causes them to stop working! Stencil shadows work once setting the cvar to 0, whereas map shadows always work fine. I'm on Linux (Manjaro / KDE) using the default amdgpu driver, I know some issues are specific to it so it may be why. Here's two comparison screenshots, first being normal and the other broken. Note that when I pressed F12 to take it, I was in reality seeing the the scene just with no shadows... only now noticed everything came out black with only the HUD and entities showing! Will share it here anyway in case it helps.

For the menu setting, maybe we could re-purpose the "Show Menu Tooltips" setting. Who would want to not see the tooltips? They aren't intrusive! As for examples, two come to mind. Player frobs some junk item: Don't let everyone think an elephant entered the room. Hold down the 'Creep' key while you move objects to avoid making a ruckus. A guard starts searching the player: A guard is searching for you. If you dare blackjack them, get the drop on them from behind. Forget about bashing from a side or upfront, you'll only make things worse. First one has been a thing for a while if I'm not mistaken and should be communicated; thought we had to rely on the TDM Modpack... The blackjack effectiviness is known to cause confusion, especially on Thief players, since Garrett seemingly knows just the right spot to bash no matter the alert level of a guard. And I don't believe adding the Deadly Shadows-like animation to TDM was a proper solution; players should be able to read the situation instead of focusing on the blackjack, which sometimes you can't even see because everything is pitch dark. Of course, the second example should take in mind a previous standard explanation on blackjacking under normal circumstances when you equip the blackjack, for example.

Laptop specs: OS: Manjaro Linux / xfce & i3 CPU: Intel i5 6300HQ @ 3.2 Ghz (Underclocked 8%) RAM: 12 GB DDR3L, 1 x 4GB + 1 x 8GB Samsung DDRL 1666 Mhz GPU: Dedicated Gtx 960M 4GB (Propietary Nvidia Drivers) Storage: 128 GB m2 SSD + 1TB HDD Resolutions: 1080p / 900p Monitor: Integrated no glare FHD screen @1080p 60hz / 5 ms, Docked via DP to MSI Optix gc27hq @1080p 144hz / 3 ms. Audio: Logitech G pro + USB DAC / OpenAL + custom 48000 hrtf profile Running TDM @ 1080p, medium-high settings, disabled post-processing effects and AA disabled, at 55~60 fps, dops to 45~50 fps on dense areas. Desktop pc specs: OS: Windows 10 pro 64 bits MOBO: MPG B550 GAMING PLUS PSU: Corsair RM750 80+ Gold CPU: Ryzen 7 5700G + AIO Balamrush Hydrox RAM: 32 GB DDR4 XPG (4x8) @ 3533 Mhz (RAM Boost from stock 3000 Mhz) GPU: Gigabyte RTX 3080 10GB Windforce [update from gtx 1080 8GB] (undervolted 200mhz @ 1920 mhz : 875 mV baseline, overclocked 1000mz. Storage: Windows: 256 GB Xpg spectrix M2 SSD Mass storage: 4x 1TB ADATA green SSD in RAID Games: 1TB Samsung 980 pro 1TB NVME PCIE SSD. Monitor: DP to MSI Optix gc27hq @1440p 165hz / 1~2 ms Audio: Logitech G pro + modded DCH realtek SB Xifi MB5 drivers + OpenAL + Creative Alchemy + custom 48000 hrtf profile Benchmark stress test settings: Running TDM @ 1440p, fps uncapped set at 300 in game Object LOD: Very high (Huge fps impact, no difference between High setting) Fov: 130 Shadows: Maps Shadow quality: Very high (Huge fps impact, no difference with High setting) Shadow softness: Maxed (Performance hit, shadows look unnatural, recommended 3 - 4 ticks max) Color precision: 64 bits Bloom: on & maxed (slight performance hit, lights look bright and surfaces too saturated, recommend 3 - 5 ticks for best quality-performance balanced). Ambient Occlusion: High (High performance hit, medium gives the exact same results with less performance hit) Frontend acceleration: On Anti Aliasing: 16x (Most fps hog setting, 8x gives no visual difference against this, and does not impact performance as much) Texture Anisotropy: 16x (little difference between 16x and 8x on high resolutions, 4x is also good but mipmap shimmering becomes apparent on big areas). Vsync: Off Result: 90~95 fps on small areas and indoors, 65~60 fps on exteriors and entity / render heavy scenes, 1% lows 45 fps. Gameplay settings: Running TDM @ 1440p, fps uncapped set at 170 in game Object LOD: High (Medium is also acceptable, but objects become low slightly less detailed at a distance) Fov: 90 (anything above introduces a little fish eye effect). Shadows: Maps (Stencil is also good but some dynamic shadows that the lantern and other dynamic lights cast look odd) Shadow quality: High (Medium looks almost the same, except for some shimmering artifacts at shadow borders from dynamic casts) Shadow softness: 3 ticks Color precision: 64 bits Bloom: on & 2 ticks Ambient Occlusion: Medium Frontend acceleration: On Anti Aliasing: 4x Texture Anisotropy: 8x Vsync: On @ 165 hz Result: 165 stable fps everywhere, 1% low 155 fps. Alternate: 250 fps with vsync off and fps limiter set to 300, 1% lows to 165 fps, too unstable.

Not to be a nag, but I was thinking about the columns problem. If you go to the view source tab in the wiki article: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Fan_Missions_for_The_Dark_Mod&action=edit The raw table data is accessible directly: |- !align=left|{{TDM-FM|written|Written in Stone}} |Bikerdude, Amadeus, Dragofer |{{Forumlink|https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21265-written-in-stone-beta-210-only-20220128/}} |2022-01-28 |338 |Yes |Yes |CCC 22, Elixir |City Missions |Undead, Horror Themes |- Each pipe character represents one of the columns.

After a long time and a lot of delays, I'm extremely happy and relieved to announce the release date for my first map; Lords & Legacy, on Friday the 30th of August, 2013! Lords & Legacy v.2.1 Resume: Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/Lj8UJ#0 Notes: Build time: 2013/03/30 - 2013/08/30 To install, simply put the .pk4 file in your fm folder and install from the in-game mission menu. It is a large mission with optional objectives, so make sure to save often. The ropes in the beginning have a 'slick' surface, to simulate being 'slack lines'. They are difficult, but once you get a hang of the slide they can be fun. A couple of the large areas can be a bit rough on performance, and can be improved by adjusting the LOD slider in video options. A few of visportals open only when you get close. This is to keep the frames smooth inside the respective building, due to early inexperienced design. If you find any bugs which affect the gameplay experience, then you're very welcome to post them here, but please use the spoiler tags. Big thanks to 'Obsttorte', 'Springheel', 'Greyman', 'Bikerdude', 'Sotha' and rest of 'The Dark Mod Team'for all the help, guides and tricks. Also thanks to the other TDM users who provided fantastic support and feedback during the build. Thank you for beta-testing: 'Bikerdude', 'TylerVocal', 'Simplen00b', 'nbohr1more', 'Briareos H.' Special thanks to: 'Danus', 'Dsx' & 'Stanleh' for testing, help and support. v.2.0.1 changelog: Bugs: -The "Master Thief" challenge was impossible to do for a while, due to incorrect values. Fixed. -Getting seen by "The Killer" now also fails the "Ghost" challenge. -The 3 cardplaying guards no longer float mid air, as their chairs are now nailed to the floor. -Fixed the sound of the furnace continuing after the flames were extinguished. -Fixed weird glittering on the power cables around the map. -Fixed some moonlight popping in and out. -Fixed openable windows in Commons, clipping into the frame. -Fixed a book dropping through a desk. -Fixed visportals closing too close in Lancel's Tower, slight hit on performance though. -Added more monsterclip to Service Tower and Robert's Tower's entrance. -Improved a few vis_portals with func_portals. -Replaced curbs in Slums and Commons with some more detailed versions and changed textures. And a lot more little unecessary tweaks. Gameplay: -Added new challenge: (Jack White) - Do not knock-out anyone. -Reduced the amount of starting gear, depending on difficulty. -Added cubemaps to most windows on the map. -Redid most func_statics in Commmons Quarter to reduce tris and increase performance. Draw count is still somewhat high. -Removed all transparent windows as they didn't have actual gameplay value, just a performance drain in exchange for glitchy visuals. -Lancel's safe can no longer be picked. Find the key! -Added a couple minor cosmetic details in the sewers. -Moved a coinpurse from a wealthy commoner's sleeping butt to his nightside table. Also adjusted his furniture so thieves can better move around. -Changed sounds for several doors across the map. Once again, a big thanks to 'Bikerdude' for taking the time help out and locate room for improvement! v.2.0 changelog: Bugs: -Fixed various textures and surfaces and a few minor tweaks. -Tweaked some sounds to be in line with TDM 2.0 changes. -Fixed 2 certain AIs being too sensitive rather than drunk. (Thanks to AluminumHaste!) -Tweaked LOD on some objects, to prevent windows "popping" in and out. Gameplay: -Added more monsterclip to the towers, so the AI can now run up and down stairs. Only the stairs in the small tower has issues still. -Added more monsterclip in the city so the guards can follow you up all stairs. -Added a few minor details. -Windows in the city now dims sound, resulting in less aggro from guards and more convincing soundscape. -Reduced 'draw calls' in all the large areas, increasing performance. The map is still heavy at certain areas. Another big thanks to 'Bikerdude' and 'Greyman', for taking time out of their own schedules to help optimize the map's draw count and other significant adjustements! v.1.0.3 changelog: Bugs: -Fixed 4 black chairs in one of the towers -Fixed a floating painting -Fixed several clipping objects v.1.0.2 changelog: Bugs: -Fixed zfighting in the library's bookshelves -Fixed a black window in one of the towers -Fixed several typos in readables Gameplay: v.1.0.1 changelog: Bugs: -Fixed an issue with the main objectives not being in "sync". -Fixed console spam from a script Gameplay: -Adjusted required loot for each difficulty from "3000, 4000 and 5000" to "2500, 3500 and 4500".

Terrific! The beta test thread is up: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22238-beta-testing-the-spider-and-the-finch/

I'm talking about leaves on trees, bushes, etc. Thoughts?