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Have a look at Lords & Legacy by Kvorning and you will see room you can look into litte room dotted around the mission. Not he actually built the room I think, What Im proposing its to use EnvShot to create a cubemap textures that mappers can then use to create virual rooms that have no perf hit. A good example of an EnvShot is the the little book case world I created for The Painters Wife, where you can see how into the library etc.

Desired Results File with All Languages What is want to end up with from our AI (with any iterative fixup and manual integration) is an FM-only version of TDM’s UTF-8 all.lang. That file has 17 language sections in a particular order, which we will adopt too (in the prompt further below), although, other than English being first, it doesn’t really matter. Once we have our FM all.lang, we can easily generate all the required ISO-encoded *.lang files, e.g., french.lang. Strategy of Feeding the AI One approach would be to just feed the entire #str list in one gulp, with prompt engineering that covers all aspects. This would minimize the post-translate integration time. But the concern is that prompt engineering becomes more difficult. The AI might get confused about what restrictions and hints apply to which strings. While sometimes shared context across strings can be helpful, too much shared context could lead to overly-creative translations (e.g., hallucinations). [BTW, if accessing the AI through an API, there’s often a "temperature" value you can specify, from 0.0 to 1.0, from most-predictable to most-creative. We can use a few words in the prompt to approximately achieve similar ends.] So, to maintain more control, I’m going to batch-feed. The assumption is that translating #str_ in batches of related input groups will allow more focused guidance from prompt engineering, leading to better results. I’ll start with inventory items, that have the shortest strings and most dictionary-like lookup. An alternative/additional batching (particularly needed with large FMs) would be by "scene". In the case of Air Pocket, it could be thought of broadly as 4 scenes, based on timeline and location. The story, as driven by objectives, is fairly linear; larger FMs would typically have some randomization in scene order. Would batching by scene be useful (i.e., give better AI results) for some of Air Pocket’s #str_ s? Thinking this over. But for now, treat inventory items independent of scene. Prompt Engineering for Inventory Items A stab at a reusable template follows in blue. It describes the overall translation task, the desired tone, and input and output formats. Text specific to inventory items is shown in bold. Text that is specific to this FM, to clarify the context and the meaning of particular words, is in italics, with spoilers hidden. You are an expert translator between English and other European languages, including Russian. You wish to translate a list of inventory items, all inanimate objects, from English to these other languages. Each line of the list begins with a tab, then a word beginning with #str_ within double quotes, then another tab, then a phrase within double quotes. When you translate a line, in the output keep the tabs and the #str_ word unchanged, and only change the phrase to the other target language in UTF-8, keeping it in double quotes. Make the translated phrase reasonably short while preserving the formal meaning. Avoid modern slang. Old-fashioned wording is fine. At the end of each line, add another tab, and then add a back-translation of the previous phrase into English again. When back-translating, ignore the original English phrase. Most of the inventory items are keys, and the associated phrases describe locked doors to particular locations aboard a ship, or locked trunks or safes on a ship. The "Master Key" opens all locks. Following the input list of inventory items, append output lists in these target languages: 1. German 2. French 3. Polish 4. Italian 5. Spanish 6. Portuguese 7. Russian 8. Czech 9. Hungarian 10. Dutch 11. Slovak 12. Danish 13. Swedish 14. Romanian 15. Turkish 16. Catalan. List of inventory items: [... skipping 1 potential spoiler] "#str_fm_map_inv_key_captains_cabin" "Captain's Cabin" "#str_fm_map_inv_key_captains_safe" "Captain's Safe" "#str_fm_map_inv_key_galley" "Galley" "#str_fm_map_inv_key_master_key" "Master Key" "#str_fm_map_inv_key_mess" "Mess" "#str_fm_map_inv_key_sea_trunk" "Sea Trunk" Using ChatGPT As discussed at the outset, you can use this without signing in (it will nag you). Also, if you’d like it not to retain your input for training purposes, click on the circled question mark and change it under "Settings". As of this post, of you ask ChatGPT what model it’s using, it responds "You're currently chatting with GPT-4o, the latest model from OpenAI as of 2025. The "o" stands for "omni" — it's designed to handle text, images, and more, all in one model." Following up by enquiring about usage limitations, it says "Free users can access GPT‑4o, but with strict usage caps, which vary based on demand and time of day". More specifically, "usage falls in the range of 5–16 messages per 3–5 hours, after which you'll be limited or switched to GPT‑4o‑mini." The latter is a faster but lower-accuracy model. "We’ll notify you once you’ve reached the limit and invite you to continue your conversation using GPT-4o mini or to upgrade to [paid] ChatGPT Plus." Because I’m doing this at a leisurely rate (and reporting it to you in posts), the usage restrictions should not bite. About Input and Output Formats As you can see above, the input is the AI prompt, appended with content from english.lang, namely, the lines between the "{" and "}" brackets. For those lines, no change to tab-separation is done. The output is the same format, but with an added English back-translation added to each line. When ChatGPT generates the response, each requested language is enclosed in its own HTML response frame, with a separate "copy" link. So you have to copy each link separately, pasting them successively into your FM-specific all.lang file while adding headers, e.g., [French]. Also, the frame margin contains the word "vbnet". When I asked, ChatGPT indicates that’s the style of syntax highlighting applied to the results, based on source material, but it may be inappropriate and so ignorable. Which explains why the word "key" was always colored green. In the next post, I’ll discuss the specific results.

Maybe some of you have the same sort of situation and haven't found an aswer for the pointer appearing in the centre of your tdm game when switching to an other computer and back, and have to quit and restart the game for it to go away ... I just found a solution!: I hooked up another mouse (both logitech now, so maybe that matters .. dunno) to my game computer and just left it on top of the case .. only to keep saying to the game computer: I'm a mouse! Now I can play TDM and switch to mij low wattage internet computer, use my main mouse and keyboard, switch back and don't have the annoying pointer in the middle of my game : ) It will probably work for other games with the same issue.

sorry i didnt mean to throw mud , but the " to rob them without any disturbs !!!!!" part by bergante is spot on. I used flashmines to knock the lantern off the table to get all the coins, if you use water arrow it's very easy to raise the alertness of the guards(they even entered search mode).

Renaming the Strings What I describe here is a bit of a fib, reflecting where I ended up, not the iterative process. And some renaming was refined after the first trial AI run. Before doing the translation, I’m going to rename all the FM-specific strings. Why? It’s fair to say the #str_ system was never a hit with DR developers, so features that would support it are scant. A way to make it less painful for mappers to inspect a post-conversion FM in DR is to change the #str_<5-numbers> to #str_<meaningful string>. By convention, <meaningful string> is limited to ASCII alphanumeric characters plus underscore, with no spaces. This generally does not include a version of the full English string (and there are length limitations), but something that clues the mapper. And groups things helpfully. More specifically, I’m going to rename all the FM-specific strings from #str_2xxxx to: #str_fm_<file_source><grouping_and_ordering>_<unique hint> The <grouping_and_ordering> substrings are chosen with an eye to both viewing in DR and group translation. (Later, I’ll talk about batch-processing strategies. The group-naming here does not use a “by scene” strategy.) So this is done first in english.lang and then the altered assets (in .map, .xd). As I search for “#str_” in assets, I am aware that some strings are TDM-level defined, so I should not rename them. These have stringID numbers under 20000, or in theory beginning with #str_main_menu. There were 2 of these found in airpocket: items with inv_name or inv_category given by #str_10052 and #str_02381. Specific Renamings and Examples I’ll be truncating example strings here for brevity and to reduce spoilers. The categories (and an example or two of each) follow. Darkmod.txt and Readme.txt. As mentioned, TDM doesn’t really handle translations of these. Just for completeness... "#str_20000" ==> "#str_fm_darkmod_txt__title" "Away 1: Air Pocket" "#str_20001" ==> "#str_fm_darkmod_txt_desc" "On the run from her husband, me and my girl. With a bribe to a ship's captain, we're away. What could go wrong now? Oh, dammit." Notice that here (and elsewhere) I’ve added an extra “_” before “title”. This is so, when sorted alphabetically, the title comes first before the description (in this case) or body. Mission Briefing. This tells a story, so be sure that its titles (if any), bodies, and pages are well-order to present to the AI. Since the briefing text is long and complex, I’ve opted not to include a #str <hint> for it. "#str_20026" ==> "#str_fm_mission_briefing_xd_pg1_body" "Life is sweet! It's been 3 days since Emily ran away with me, leaving behind her bastard husband. He's miles away now, as our tradeship Esmeralda plies herself down the coast.\n [...] \nAnyway, Emily's set up a cozy bunk for us in the bow galley.\n" Readables. Like the briefing, a readable often tells a story and should be well-ordered to present to the AI. I’ve chosen to skip hints for these. "#str_20024" ==> "#str_fm_airpocket_xd_sheet_appointment_to_service_pg2__title" "Further Instructions\n" "#str_20025" ==> "#str_fm_airpocket_xd_sheet_appointment_to_service_pg2_body" "\n\n\n\nAs agreed, the 2 new crewmates will bunk in the galley, and share the sea trunk nearest the door in the mess.\n\nCaptain Riggs\n" Inventory (mainly keys). The hints for these are usually just the full text, in lower case with punctuation dropped. They could include info about item class or difficulty, but I didn’t find it necessary here. "#str_20021" ==> "#str_fm_map_inv_key_captains_cabin" "Captain's Cabin" (I’ve went with “...fm_map...” here instead of “...fm_airpocket_map...”. I hope that works out. Too bad “map” itself has multiple TDM meanings, e.g., “hungarian.map”; in-game map. Also, since the order in which these inventory items are discovered in the game is pretty variable, I decided not to embed a numeral to force ordering.) Objectives. The objectives as coded in the .map file (and so generated english.lang #str_ numbers) are generally not listed in objective number order. It’s helpful to so reorder the rows. Also, because there are more than 9 objectives, I added a leading “0” to those with a single digit, for lexical ordering. The “obj<num>” is the DR/.map-internal objective number, which loosely corresponds to presentation to the game player, although objectives come and go. "#str_20008" ==> "#str_fm_map_obj01_no_hurt_or_loot_crew" "Rile neither the captain nor crew. No assaults by me or gratuitous thieving... not that there's much to steal." Thought messages. The I18N.pl script did not catch these, so they are manually added (and there’s no #str_2xxxx to begin with). I included an ordering digit after “msg”, roughly reflecting game occurrence (though difficulty and player actions will affect which of these appear and when): "fm_map_thought_msg1_sword_stolen" "My sword's been pilfered... I'm not surprised. It's likely still on-board somewhere." Ordering the Strings The #str_ lines in “english.lang” are extracted and put into ASCII alphanumeric order. I used Notepad++ with Edit/Line Operations/Sort Lines Lexigraphically Ascending. Any full-line grouping comments (beginning with //) will need to be manually repositioned after this. Programmatic Ideas to Better Support Renaming This would be helpful: A program that took the original 5-digit #str form of english.lang, and the renamed-#str english.lang form, and did the surgery on <fm>.map and *.xd . Or alternatively you could make a version of english.lang with an extra tab-separated field; this is what I created manually as a reference for myself, with lines like: "#str_20003" "#str_fm_map_inv_key_sea_trunk" "Sea Trunk" Then have a program that took that and did the surgery, using the first 2 fields. Or most ambitious of all, a version of I18N.pl that created alphanumeric #str_ in the first place, instead of 5-digit ones. Using something like the naming scheme above, this is mostly straightforward. However, for strings that are long sentences, if you still wanted to automatically summarize them into a few words for the #str <hint>, you’d probably need to call upon AI. Next Up I’ll make a version of this data available a little later on. Next post: prompt engineering!

That's correct but many people just use the in-game mission downloader to check for new stuff without even looking at the forums, which is what I did. In the past a lot of missions that required a newer version of the game executable and assets would tell you this when you tried to start them up. I was just reporting on this and that you don't need to reinstall, just update via tdm_updater if you find this issue.

You should use a for that

Aight well if I'm poking around posting fm reviews, code change suggestions, and asking for tech help I might as well also put up my work. Putzing around with DarkRadiant is quite fun. Not sure when or if I will produce a full map but, considering that I haven't touched dromed or made maps for other games before, I'm really happy with what I've got so far. Kudos to the tooling designers for making something reasonably idiot-friendly. One of the first things the A-Z tutorial tells you is to not use 0 0 0 for ambient lighting, and I immediately said nuts to that lol. I'm really enjoying the harsh darkness and the contrast from light sources. I didn't intend for it to happen, but I've ended up with something that looks like it crawled straight out of TDS. It also makes traversing the level have an interesting trade off - you need light to see, but enemies can see you carrying it and if its in your hands you have to drop it to pull out the bow or mantle stuff. I'm trying to build a whole level around this "mechanic"/"gimmick".

@High John most of this I'll put in spoilers: In closing - my missions are designed to be on the challenging side. My favorite type of missions are ones where the challenge is in trying to progress to the next area (i.e. player vs architecture). I don't like key hunts hence the barred doors. Usually the path can be found with careful observation in all directions (including vertically, which people tend to forget), and use of your spyglass. Either way, I want everyone to enjoy my missions so the feedback is always welcome, and thanks for taking the time to play and comment!

Hrm I wasn't able to type on *after* the spoiler and accidentally already submitted the reply.. (Does this forum somewhere have a raw mode where you type text with tags around them or something instead of this broken WYSIWYG editor?) Anyway, what I was gonna add: This was a great mission and I already played Away1 - I'm really looking forward to Away2, want to see how the story goes on

This might be a thing we can do with modding! I went digging through the source again because this was hanging in the back of my mind, and there is no actual use of the cvars that are defined in the c++ code for how the player reacts to the flashbomb. Seeing that, I followed that cvar through the scripts in my TDM install instead. As it turns out, the white flash that occurs when you flash yourself is defined as a gui element in tdm_gui01.pk4\guis\playertools\flashbomb.gui. Most of the lines of this script are defining color values to fade from and to, as vector4's that presumably represent RGBA values. Everywhere in that script that says something along the lines of transition backcolor "1 1 1 1" "0 0 0 0" "4000"; , "1 1 1 1" represents fullbright, fully opaque white. Changing that to "0 0 0 1" would be fully opaque black, and doing that across the whole script might just solve the problem. The going-all-the-way solution would be to change this color value to a cvar that you can set through a menu accessibility option, but it'd probably be simpler to mod it out in the shorter term

If you're satisfied with what you have and it's not broken, there's no reason to upgrade, and that was true even in better times. Unless you can make an argument based on operating cost (electricity). RTX 6000 will definitely use a new node, so it will look much better. I think UDNA could be a good jumping in point on the AMD side since that will mark a huge shift in their driver strategy.

Apply a thin layer of nodrawsolid with your desired sound over the top. Another option: if there's a texture that you always want to have a custom sound, then modify the material definition and add or change the surface type. Example, if you want the "/darkmod/wood/boards/dark_redwood" texture to sound like stone, clone the default material definition to make a new one, and change it: textures/darkmod/wood/boards/dark_redwood_sounds_like_stone { stone diffusemap textures/darkmod/wood/boards/dark_redwood } If you use that texture it'll always sound like stone. No need for a nodrawsolid.

Apply a thin layer of nodrawsolid with your desired sound over the top. If you want to use custom sounds, you need to create a .sndshd text file that points to it, or just copy one from the base mod and change it to your file path. You can unzip .pk4s to edit the contents, just make sure you include anything you change under a different name in your mission .pk4 so it doesn't overwrite the base mod.

Are you sure you aren't turning your sealing geometry into func_statics, or using a non-sealing texture? I don't know about scripting a fade out, but you can apply skins to them like anything else, and make them use any texture you like.

Hi! I play The Dark Mod on Linux and I prefer to use a controller for most games, so for games that lack native support I use a program called AntiMicroX to map gamepad buttons from my Xbox One controller to keyboard keys. It works pretty well, and I've enjoyed using an identical setup for Thief, Thief 2, and TDM. I was pretty excited when TDM added native gamepad support, but for reasons I still prefer my setup with AntiMicroX. So I completely cleared my "DarkmodPadbinds.cfg", threw in"unbindPad" to completely disable the native controller bindings, and everything was fine. Either that was a fluke, or one of the most recent updates changed something, because I'm now finding that "unbindPad" no longer unbinds the control sticks in TDM. I can confirm this by running TDM with my config file and without running AntiMicroX; with a controller plugged in, the control stick bindings still function both on the menu and during gameplay. Some of the button bindings also still function in the menu. So my questions are: 1) Is it possible to completely unbind the gamepad (including the control sticks) in DarkmodPadbinds.cfg using "unbindPad" or another command? 2) Is it possible to add rebinding of the control sticks in a future update? (I realize this is probably a lot more work, but it would be nice to have!) Thanks for all the effort you guys put into this game, I've been enjoying it for many years.

i wasn't aware that happened to leutenant 3 too I was just experimenting again and it turns out you can use wooden crates to do the same thing

I need some help on where to use fishend key and also the place I killed Yardley looks like there is a safe on the wall. Is it openable somehow?

Throwable holy water bottles. So the idea is that you can throw holy water bottles, they break and if they hit undead, will damage them. It could also do splash damage in an are around where it breaks. It's more direct, faster and mostly easier, apart from the skill of throwing. An optional effect (I think of) could be that they can be thrown into pools, making the water in the pool holy. Alternative: holy water arrows. You don't need to apply the holy water to water arrows. In general I don't see the point of the holy water running out (shortly) making it very difficult to use effectively.

heres a much more updated port -> https://github.com/bibendovsky/ltjs work in progress but strives to make it multi platform. uses SDL2 And OpenAL soft to replace old win9x dx9 calls. old bink code replaced with ffmpeg like in RBDoom3BFG. a truely monstrous load of fixes to allow it to compile with newer compilers. should build with msvc clang and gcc. this port can use the NOLF2 assets

after plugging away finding a correct method to trigger this bug, I finally managed to trigger a somewhat strange glitch with a combination of sprint + broadhead arrow + lean forward (F). Somehow on the first try I could easily do it but the next day I had trouble doing the same thing (Perhaps The Builder saw that and decided to reduce its effectiveness /s) anyone knows what causes this ? you can use this to bypass a locked door The same thing also applies at one spot in the Fan mission titled imperial sword, you can ‘walk through the wall’ with this glitch

On the subject of hints, where on earth do we use the: # ANSWERED

Wonderful mission! I love the geometry - great design. Good use of all three dimensions. I suck at scaling/jumping moves, so lots of reloads lol. But that's just me. Thank you - that was good fun!

okay - I just had a look and indeed I forgot some monsterclip brush in the problem area. Thanks - will note for the next update. Also - I doubt I will ever optimize a map for supreme ghosters, but are they not allowed to use moss arrows?

The official releases of System Shock 1 & 2 and Thief 1 & 2 also include fan patches in them. Well typically these games have a clause buried in the license that they own modifications too, so that's gonna be the reason why, and they're going to quietly presume they own the whole thing without digging into it, which might not be really kosher, but nobody disputes it -- except I recall the maker of the SS2 patch Kolya was a little miffed that his patch was put into the commercial release, or rather that they restricted it's use outside of the product while integrating it, since he wanted to keep it freely available & not to make a company money, although he granted that they had the legal right to do it. TDM is a little special just because it's a non-commercial game, idTech4 was open sourced, or anyway GPL'd, and about the only thing we restrict is that assets are under a CC license. The disputes we sometimes get aren't really about the license so much as tact & courtesy, e.g., to not recycle or change someone else's map as one's own, or at least you should get their consent first.