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If the "mission fails as soon as stealth score turns non-zero," that would not be good for ghost players. They might need to find out "how" they failed and experiment to avoid alerting guards. They might need to take those score points as a "bust". They might need to take those score points to complete an objective. Then, mission authors would need to encode exceptions into their missions, which would be a lot of work (if they decide to do it at all). However, part of what makes ghosting challenging and fun is when mission authors do not create their missions with ghosting in mind. Please see: Official Ghosting Rules: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148523 Writing code for these rules would be a huge undertaking. Ghost Rules Discussion: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148487 Creating an official mode could alienate these dedicated ghost players, because it would clash with what is considered ghosting in the community. Including the Stealth Stat Tool mod in the official release would be more useful. Or, making the audible alert states of guards quick and easy to recognize could help as well. For these reasons, I don't agree with an official "Ghost" mode. If the dev team were to do it, we should consult with @Klatremus so we get it 100% correct or not pursue it at all. (This ghosting bit should probably be in its own thread.)

I don't think they aren't delivering better hardware. 8700G is obviously much better than 5700G, Nvidia seems to be pushing top-end by at least 60% per gen. AMD might stagnate with RDNA4 but deliver 4080-ish performance at much lower $400-600 prices. Most of the reviewers are testing without upscaling or are being transparent about where they are using it. It's a must to turn-on only with raytracing it seems. AMD's APUs are clearly kneecapped by the memory bandwidth, and from the leaks we've seen there is no solution in sight for the mainstream APUs (next one is Strix Point). Strix Halo on the other hand will have a doubled memory bus width, but I wouldn't count on a mini PC with it to beat CPU+dGPU combos in price/performance unless we see some really generous pricing. They could work magic with it if they wanted to, particularly a cheaper 8-core model. Strix Halo is presumably using up to 2x 8-core Zen 5 chiplets, so 6/8/12/16 is planned according to leaks. https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-8000-zen5-apus-leak-strix-halo-with-rdna3-5-igpu-to-compete-with-up-to-rtx-4070-max-q That leak is almost a year old, but from what I can gather we'll probably see this: 16-core Zen 5, 40 CUs RDNA3.5, 256-bit memory (270 GB/s) 12-core Zen 5, 32 CUs RDNA3.5, 256-bit memory (270 GB/s) 8-core Zen 5, 24/32(?) CUs RDNA3.5, 256-bit memory (270 GB/s) 6-core Zen 5, 20 CUs RDNA3.5, 128-bit memory (135 GB/s) All coming with a 45-50 TOPS XDNA2 AI engine. Sometime in 2025. Those memory bandwidth figures may be assuming around DDR5-8200 to DDR5-8400, not sure. A 7600 XT has 288 GB/s and 6700 XT has 384 GB/s, so there's still starvation but doubling that memory bus should greatly alleviate the problem.

Yeah, I wanted to implement some kind of testing framework on top of automation but did not.

Since it's a one-off problem, only for the first ambient at game start, then the way you fixed it is really the right way, because the system-level alternative would be whole a little subsystem (a specialized fidelay and mandatory _z soundshader) just to handle the first 0.1 seconds of game start, and then the old system for all the maps already out there, which is a bit much. And I think it's not even that common because many ambients start quietly to begin with. That said, there might be an easy bit of code that could make sure the fade in always works for the first ambient that doesn't mess with anything else in the system, like a hardcoded initial 0.1 sec. delay only for it, and that may be worth doing. But it'd need experimenting and testing to make sure it works as intended and doesn't have unintended consequences. Anyway, it's good we have this documented for now as the way to fix the problem for other people in the future that run into it searching for a fix. In fact it'd be good to put in the wiki to make sure the fix doesn't get lost.

File Update for Improved Subtitle Font As requested a while ago, to address the stray marks and other problems seen with current subtitle font, Stone, I am providing a short-term fix for characters in the printable ASCII range 32-126, using corrected metadata: fontimage_24.dat This is intended to replace tdm_fonts01.pk4\fonts\english\stone\fontimage_24.dat No change is needed in the related .dds files for this. Briefly, problems with stray marks found to the left of a character were due to picking up pixels from an adjoining character in the glyph bitmap dds files. Adjusting the location of the source box and related metrics fixed these. Affected were: % C E T W Y | The | character also got improved spacing, as did J Finally, the entirely screwed data for the angle brackets was corrected. This coming month I hope to work up a wiki page with diagrams to better explain what I learned about the mysteries of the idTech4 font .dat and .dds files. To see what the results look like with corrected fontimage_24.dat in place (as an override), here is my testing FM: testSubtitlesASCII.pk4 A longer-term fix (beyond 2.12 release) would also address ANSI and TDM-specific-mapped charaters in the range 128-255. To look at that, I have a similar experimental tester for ANSI (unripe to release). It shows substantial issues in that range. And then there's also consideration of fontimage_12.dat and fontimage_48.dat. And the russian-character variant.

The subtitles of The Wench vocal set are now available for eventual incorporation into TDM Two versions, created earlier in the year, are released today with just-revised names. The first (created on Apr 21) was fully QA tested under April's 2.12dev: testSubtitlesWenchOriginal.pk4 But it was noticed at the time that some of the voice clips do not correspond well with their TDM event categorizations. So, the second testSubtitlesWench version (created on Apr 24) is designed to be used with corrected voice clip names and categorizations, as detailed in bugtracker 6284. It was hoped that this bug report could be addressed in a timely way, so that this patched version could also be given final testing. But waited long enough; released now without final testing: testSubtitlesWenchPatched.pk4 CAUTION: If you run this version with current 2.12dev and step through the subtitles, at some point it will fail with a console error. It will only fully succeed with a future 2.12dev with bugtracker 6284 changes incorporated. EDIT: Since this was posted, progress has occurred on 6284. The result is reportedly a bit at odds with "Patched". Expect a 3rd, fully-aligned version of testSubtitlesWench to be forthcoming. About The Wench The Wench character is described as "uneducated, saucy and bold. The wench has been around the block; she is confident and flirty." She is further characterized in the wiki as "a low-class woman with something of a foul mouth". This vocal set comes with slightly different versions for soft-spoken women and "barmaids, whores, and female thieves". Statistics Original: In file fm_root.subs there are 535 inlines, including: 50 with an explicit linebreak, intending 2 lines 485 without Patched: In file fm_root.subs there are 533 inlines, including: 48 with an explicit linebreak, intending 2 lines 485 without None of these needed explicit duration extensions. For both original and patched, there are 20 SRTs, including: 19 with 2 messages 1 with 3 messages Of the 41 total SRT messages, there are: 13 with an explicit linebreak, intending 2 lines 28 without In all, in this vocal set, there are: Original: 555 voice clips with subtitles, showing 576 messages. Patched: 553 voice clips with subtitles, showing 574 messages. Corresponding Excel Spreadsheet WenchOriginalSubtitles.xlsx This spreadsheet was organized with an early "v1" barks template.

No exact ETA but early February was the initial target. As i know, there is only 1 major regression but we have a lot of testing yet to do because the new light optimizations produce shadow leaks for a few rare scenarios. ( Would be cool if we had an automated tester / screenshot comparison tool like Dolphin Emulator uses to automatically test if engine updates affect visuals in multiple games. )

To cater to both audiences. I mentioned LibreGameWiki as one example. nbohr1more mentioned other uses. Explicitly allowing reuse and spread will help TDM reach a wider audience and would hopefully attract more volunteers. More volunteers which can help improve both TDM versions. There are several benefits for a project of being in the Debian repo. One is that TDM Debian-users can report defects on any package directly to Debian (no need to register on separate forums). Debian may then fix the issue themselves (in their "TDM-libre" package) and will offer the patch upstream to TDM, who can then choose to accept or reject the patch. I envision "TDM-libre" to have the same capability of downloading any mission as regular TDM. The only difference is that "TDM-libre" would come packaged with the regular engine (which is GPL+BSD) and an included mission that has libre media/gamedata. When I play TDM by myself, I want the unlimited-play and can accept commercial restrictions. But if I were to promote it somewhere, or charge for a stream when playing online, or make a video, I would want a version without commercial restrictions (and can temporarily accept limited-play) to make sure I don't violate anyone's copyright. Perhaps. That's what I'm trying to find out.

I suggest you use the term "I", to make clear that it is something YOU want, and that you speak for yourself. But, as wesp5 mentioned, I don't really know what this is about, at all. And, I'm also wondering about all the newly registered people lately, who just arrived at this forum, and already want to revolutionize this mod. This is a thing I noticed 2 or 3 years ago, and which hasn't been present in the 15 years I play this mod and frequent these forums now. Really seems like a common thing these days, to not knock on the door, but kick it in, and stomp right in.

TDM has tons of textures from "free" texture resources that do not allow redistribution and cannot be incorporated into a commercial project. Someone would need to create a huge replacement pack of textures that do not break the look of existing missions and do not infringe on the copyrighted textures. Also, many artists who contributed to this project do not want 3rd party entities to use their work in commercial projects. They intended the models, textures, sounds, animations to be exclusively used for Darkmod content. You would either have to replace ALL assets or contact every contributor and ask them to re-license their assets. Many contributors are no longer active with the project and haven't visited the forums in years so it would be no easy feat. I cannot speak to Debian policy but I think that they treat installers that add non-free content the same as non-free content itself. One could argue that Steam is such an installer but I guess Debian would counter that there are a few fully Libre games on Steam. I think Debian, Ubuntu, or Linux Mint need to consider a repo that allows for games (etc) that include non-libre content but intentionally offer this content for free to the community with no stipulations other than "don't try to sell it as a product".

The gamepad implementation allows for a great degree of flexibility to personalize settings, aside from a few minor issues that I mentioned here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22337-gamepad-bindings/ I would say that playing TDM with a gamepad works very well, especially considering that it was implemented as experimental and hasn't been changed since then. If I could, I'd go back to 2021-you and congratulate you on buying that gamepad. I notice that your DarkmodPadbinds.cfg looks very different from mine...

It seems like more and more "thief" and "thief players" is becoming a short hand to dismiss community members earnest desire to improve the game - which happens to be a barely legally distinct "thief style" game which was made by thief fans for thief fans and is "designed to simulate the stealth gameplay of Thief". Who is the predominant player base of the game supposed to be beyond fans of the thief games? Is there some better avenue to find feedback for the game beyond this forum? FOSS and linux forums? I have seen maybe half a dozen posts from that segment. I am a thief fan, I play thief fms, my association with those games is what drives me to play and make things for this game. Are we supposed to pretend the original games are not a huge reason why most of us are here at all? TL;DR version:

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

I was testing some missions with all the ai barks on and the issue I see is that for a lot of the subs I see on screen I can't hear the sound. Maybe I should only hear the sounds in a specific radius? Also, I think ai barks shouldn't show when story subs are on screen? Some subs have sugestive text, like what the tone of the voice is. Is that something that could be added as an option?

Thanks! 1) Doing LONG_PRESS PAD_A (what I, for lack of knowledge, call "jump-mantle" or "_jumpmantle") differs from doing PRESS PAD_A ("_jump"). "_jumpmantle" differs from "_mantle", so they must be mapped to different button-calls. "_jumpmantle" differs from "_jump", so they must also be mapped to different button-calls. This appears to be the case, but it is not evident (or changeable) in DarkmodPadbinds.cfg. "_jumpmantle" seems to be hard coded to always connect to the same button as "_jump" but with a long press. It is as if bindPadButton PRESS PAD_A "_jump" is not actually just binding PRESS PAD_A to "_jump", but rather interpreted as "link PAD_A (regardless of button press time) to behave exactly like keyboard SPACE for short and long presses". I would have expected the default DarkmodPadbinds.cfg to explicitly read: bindPadButton PRESS PAD_A "_jump" bindPadButton LONG_PRESS PAD_A "_jumpmantle" bindPadButton PRESS PAD_B "_crouch" bindPadButton LONG_PRESS PAD_B "_mantle" ... but neither LONG_PRESS PAD_A or "_jumpmantle" is listed in the file. If there are actions "_jump" and "_mantle", I suppose there must also be an action "_jumpmantle" since it is possible for the player to do all those movements: * "_mantle" does the movements "crouch on the high surface, then stand up" * "_jumpmantle" idoes the movements "jump slightly forward, then land standing on the high surface" * "_jump" idoes the movements "jump up, then land exactly where you started" If the actions "_jump" and "_moveup" are not synonymous, then perhaps the action "_moveup" is what i call "_jumpmantle"? 2) Thanks for the link! It was useful in more than one way. I'll link to that page from https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Bindings_and_User_Settings#Gamepad_Default_Bindings if I can get an account on the wiki, which proved more difficult than i thought (https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22327-how-can-i-create-an-account-on-the-tdm-wiki/). However, it does not answer my question how to find out the name ("<button>") used for a button on my gamepad. Basically, I would need to press the button on my gamepad and some program could tell me "That button is called 'PAD_A'". In my case, I have a gamepad "Logitech F310" (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Logitech_F310_Gamepad.jpg) which has a "Logitech button" (see image) that I want to use. I was hoping to find out the "button name" for that button and then edit DarkmodPadbinds.cfg to map it to a function. 3) ... but if that button has an "unusual name" that TDM does not recognize, then it may perhaps not work. E.g. if that button is called "PAD_LOGITECH" and TDM cannot recognize that name, then I cannot map anything to it via DarkmodPadbinds.cfg. Using QJoyPad I can map any keyboard key to it instead, as a workaround, but I cannot map MODIFIER to it (since MODIFIER cannot be set to a keyboard key). If current implementation is still called "experimental", then I must say it works very well; @cabalistic: kudos for that! I may not have continued playing TDM had it not worked with a gamepad.

It is possible that this is a setting that needs to be activated to work: https://mantisbt.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23221

Time ago it was discussed here about Hearing Impaired and Hearing Unimpaired modes. Nothing was decided back then and now we have everything. This actually turned to be a good move because code-wise we now have lots of tools at our disposal but, in my opinion, by firing everything at all players we may end up alienating many / most. I want the average player - interested in subtitles - to keep subs enabled and have a good time enjoying the good work done here and elsewhere and I keep working on an alternative: Alt Subtitles for 2.12 v0.1 Background replaced with a (fake) font outline Widget removed (too many things to focus on) Text transparency based on distance (imperfect) Story subs can take up to three slots Barks limited to a single instance Yellow color for story subs (intensity reduced a little from previous attempts) Light grey color for barks It is far from perfect but it may lead to other ideas. Download the pk4 attached to this post and move it to your root folder. I suggest taking the Braeden Church mission for a spin. Delete the pk4 once testing is complete. z_alt_subtitles_v0.1.pk4

Hello, Bikerdude and I updated the mission. The new version is ready for testing.

Announcing the release of Braeden Church. Summary William Steele: In the North introduced us to some memorable characters: Lord Harckoff, Lieutenant Trumble, Father Grimmore ... The setting was a renovated Builder church. But what was that church like, back when Father Grimmore was alive and the Harckoff family was nowhere to be seen? This mission takes place on one very nasty night back then, when a gang of murderers and thieves raided the church. You happen to be in Braeden on the same night, and you decide to visit the church, with a goal that's quite different than what the gang had in mind. Download This mission requires TDM 2.06 or later. Available through the in-game mission downloader. Build Time Who knows? This was an idea I had after releasing In the North, and it got built in bits and pieces over the years. Its time has finally come. Thanks to ... Bikerdude, Amadeus, Cambridge Spy, Ubersuntzu, s.urfer, and AluminumHaste for beta testing. Bikerdude and Mortem Desino for the conversation voices. I18N Initially, this mission is not ready for translation. I intend to deal with that in the future. Recommendations 1. If you haven't played In the North, I recommend you play it before you play Braeden Church. (Braeden Church is NOT a Steele mission.) 2. For those of you inclined to race past conversations, I suggest you don't in this case. The opening conversation is an important part of the mission. Enjoy!!

Dear mappers, please be aware of this decorative light option introduced in upcoming 2.10 It aims to highlight the light volume and produces something like the existing fog particle with the intended effect of better speed and arguably better visuals It looks like this in game The test map we have been testing recently is courtesy of Bikerdude: download To enable this effect you will need to mark your light material with the volumetricLight keyword, like this lights/test_mansion01_window04_vol { description "volumetricLight for mansion01 window04" volumetricLight { map lights/mansion01_window04 colored zeroClamp } } Volumetric lights use projection and falloff textures to generate the volumetric effect. With shadow maps on, they also take shadows in the account. There's also an optional parameter after volumetricLight that toggles max speed vs decent look mode. Credits: @peter_spy for the original test map and direction @Bikerdude for great support during the reintroduction effort this year @stgatilov for taking the implementation on a completely different quality level @all for being cool and awesome

You can't imagine how it feels to me I am testing the old missions that I played many times (like Saint Lucia and New Job), and I learn so much new! I believe those people never said this stuff before Maybe it was some hidden bug which prevented them from saying all those interesting things before, and now all of a sudden it is unlocked?! I underestimated how hard it is for a non-native speaker to understand stylized English speech.

I am going to sort-of reveal that this is loosely like the nature of my upcoming mission. I noted it here when JackFarmer asked about things that are coming along in this post: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/profile/37993-jackfarmer/&status=3943&type=status It too is a builder church. The player is requested by a hopefully famous character in another mission to handle some business that is affecting the congregation. I am looking to invoke some info and history laid down in other missions as a hook story.

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.