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Sogi-Ya: That sounds pretty cool actually. Just build general aesthetic sets for each different location. That combined with the district maps on the wiki can provide a good resource for the mapmakers. I still feel some of the "main" areas could probably be built by mappers (e.g. the bridges, city squares etc.) which mappers could use as a hub for exploring the parts of the maps left grey (the "Here be Dragons" areas that plasticman mentioned). Mapping the whole City would be counterproductive to imagination, keeping it an entirely blank slate would do, but a general hub map of the city would be a great resource to those who wish to write whole FM campaigns. My 0.02USD.

Have you seen this page? http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Path_Nodes#path_turn path_turns are "behaviour" nodes.

Rantako: Yes, you have to extract the prefabs for now. The big square on the right - you may have to zoom out to see the prefab (mousewheel I think) But if its only showing the screen below it then there's some problem. I do recall someone mentioning a problem with Aero and you may have to turn it off. Melan: You'll get there in the end. Don't worry about some things be non-intuitive. Not everything is; you have to learn it. The same was true for Dromed. Also, some things like that gothic window may indeed be easier in Dromed but we can show you lots more that are easier in Dark Radiant and even impossible in Dromed. What I'm saying is I wouldn't bother comparing the two to see how DR measures up. You are looking at relatively ambitious non-obvious concepts that many of us would have to scratch our heads for a while to figure out. You will have a ball when you learn a bit more. And you cannot easily make one of those in Dromed like you can in DR. Hope you also browse the wiki - on patches for instance. I look forward to see what you come up with in the future.

I posted a new build (0.9.8pre1) in the public TDM Editing forums, you can use that one.

It might be fun if people did some "inspired by" FMs, where they use a familiar setting, but they had a different story and some surprises. But honestly, I think I'd be happier if authors concentrated on completely original work. The re-makes people even made in Dromed generally sort of fall flat as missions (some were good, the ones that had new stories), and no one ever did it with TDS (did they?). But original FMs are always fresh and just the fact you're venturing into unknown territory makes them exciting. Even if it isn't the best FM, you want to know where it's going. Edit: What I was really thinking about, also, is that The Dark Mod has its own setting, too. It's set in the city of Brigeport with its own districts and factions and intrigues you can read about in the wiki. Authors can do as they like. But what I really hope for is that they get inspired and start filling out a new canon and giving life and breath to this new world that's ours for the taking. It's basically our responsibility to give this new world life, and I hope authors take up the challenge.

If you read the Game Universe entry in the wiki, there is quite a bit of information about the city of Brigeport, which is the central city in which Dark Mod is supposed to take place. There are some districts already described. And all the released FMs should be consistent with it all. My thinking is we should wait for a lot of FMs to come out, and when we have a good base of missions we can have our own "mapping Brigeport" project to actually fill out its map. I wasn't part of the Dark Mod discussions early on, so I don't know what any plans were on the deeper details of the city. Maybe some fans could put some things together even with the information we have now; but they should do their homework to make sure it's consistent.

I know this is in the off topic forums, but you do realize this is more of a Dark Mod/Thief oriented forum...right? I haven't seen anyone on here who quite shares your level of enthusiasm for Deus Ex.

Don't know if this is the problem but first check this article to be sure your configs are synched and one is not overwriting another... http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=DoomConfig.cfg

Also see http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?search=doomconfig.cfg&go=Go It is most important that you follow that or one doomconfig can overwrite another.

Hey guys, I've been following the mod for a while now and finally decided to get off my lazy ass and register for the forums. I most likely won't be an active member but I just wanted to tell you that you're all doing an awesome job and I can't wait to see a release! Good luck and keep up the great work

There is a FAQ entry on your problem, which is presumably due to IE8 renaming your files without your agreement: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=FAQ#FM_downloaded_but_won.27t_play

Too lazy, to register at the wiki... =) OS: Windows 7 Professional CPU: Intel Core2 Q6600 RAM: 4 GB DDR2 GFX Card: GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB Driver: 191.07 WHQL Performance: Playable at 45 to 60 fps at 1680x1050, 16xAF, 2xAA and maxed out detail-settings including bloom. Under water only 14 fps. (That blurred vision seems to hit performance really hard) Notes: Doom 3 crashes on me every now and then, but it's rather rare (3 to 4 hours until crash). Once it crashed during a save-operation, which destroyed that savegame.

I have added these install problems to the FAQ about tdmlauncher, IE8 changing the name to zip, wrong placement of the pk4 whatever all at http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=FAQ#FM_downloaded_but_won.27t_play so we can point players to that with these repeat problems.

I did try that many times and still no-go, I just had to get it to work and check it out, thats why the folder got put there, nothing else seemed to work and yes I used the tdm launcher. I didn't want to do that but it was the only solution unfortunatly. heck I even had to repack the zip into a pk4. after that chalice and outpost worked perfectly this is the only one I had trouble getting started. also the first page of objectives is blank and there are no purchases after that, thats if there is one? example:the tutorial level is in its own folder in the fms directory with a pk4 in it. the other missions I had to do the same or else it wouldnt work I don't know why. but the pk4 solution seemed to make it work. it wouldn't read as a .zip I shouldn't have to change anything really, but should anyone have trouble that might help. I'm just telling you what my first experience with all this has been like so far, the most important thing is that the darkmod WORKS! functions well enough to enjoy it. It is an amazing labor of love, just incredible. more wiki to read..... so far the darkmod toolset is well done, F3 is the magic button for rendering lighting and textures. looking foward to more FMS definatly, and will make one myself too. .......

Our FAQ says this: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=FAQ#Does_it_run_in_Linux.3F Does that help? Just made that its own entry in the FAQ so it is more visible.

Is there a known bug list other than the one on the wiki? I'm sure you guys have an internal list of all the technical problems, but I'm thinking something player-oriented, so you don't get people saying, "Flowerpots are nigh-frictionless!" over and over.

None have been created so far other than the wiki you mentioned. A bug reporting and tech support forum would be nice.

THE DARK MOD STARTPACK 3 by Fidcal The Mappers' Startpack is a set of components that can be used as the start of any Dark Mod map. it has all you need to both start and finish off your FM. It is a complete, installable, finishable pseudo-mission already packed in the correct TDM FM format. It does not include any useable terrain but sets up other elements that are common or essential. Instead of developing from new the mapper can simply modify these which is far easier. The mapper can thus begin with this seed FM and focus on building. The entire startpack can be customised by the mapper to form a nucleus for all their future FMs. Full details including download link at: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Startpack_Mappers%27_Guide

This smells like the temp. folder issue some people where having. Could you clean out the directory "C:\Use rs\***\AppData\Local\Temp\par-***" (with the right username, of course and try again? Guess we need a sep. FAQ with tdm_updater windows issues on the wiki...

Here's the relevant thread that explains the issue: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?s=&am...st&p=162282

Someone might add this to the wiki entry on hardware and TDM performance, so it's part of the public record that others with the same card can refer to when they have the same problem.

I agree that old games were more interesting, but, as Crispy said, some Indy games today are not so bad. I found Penumbra series made by 2 young sweden guys, very interesting, or the indy Portal (acquired by Valve) a very original game, or, to say some addictive casual game, i like a lot Numpty Physics (or the commercial version named Crayon Phisics deluxe). However, if we are desperate, there is always the Interactive Fiction (IF) ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_fiction As you say, mature gamer, like you and me and i presume all the taffers, normally wants a more complex e deeper level of play. But today blockbuster game, like in other media (music, cinema, literature, etc etc), are alwyas more and more immersive, but less complex and deep. That's the mass market, my friend.

Well, I can't give you a 'professional opinion' But this might help. I'd do 2 things. First, the polys on the inside of main body. they are made of a skinny row, a wide (middle row) and a skinny row. Get rid of that and just make them 1 row. Then 'float' those trim pieces top/bottom. No need to waste polys building around the trim. It'll also give you fewer polys so easier to uv and less trouble shooting. You can also save uv space by putting those trims inside the window holes (just turn 'em sideways and leave some space). You got a lot of wasted space in the uv, you could get better resolution by moving stuff around. Then I'd take both the hi and low poly models, select all of the faces on the 'flaps' and detach them. Basically make 2 objects, 2 normal maps. Then you'll render the outer frame as one, and render the flaps as another. That'll get rid of the weird overlaps I bet. Then just put em back together (or just save the original) and copy/paste the textures together in photoshop. Since you have them uv'ed in one piece everything will line up. (But I'd compact the uv'es more first. I know alot of guys over at polycount forums (and excellent place for modelling help) that do very details models and characters do them in several pieces.

The actual model feedback I have is consistent across all of them (and part of the gripe is due to my nature, so take it with salt): polycounts, polycounts, polycounts. There's no reason a small cylinder (e.g. panflute) can't be a rectangle. Or a larger one (an organ pipe), an octohedron. We do this with patches in the map editor all the time, using square cylinders. Rounded sides and tapered edges can be achieved with smoothing and materials. Sometimes it's okay for a scene to contain an item or two with a high count, but they do add up, and reduce a mapper's ability to add map detail. I'll reference a bell I made back in the stone age: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?s=&am...ost&p=83650 It's only got 12 sides (I could've, and maybe should've gone higher), but unless you're looking specifically at the edge, it looks round. All of the detail -- the trimming, the rivets, the scrollwork -- is in the material, none of it is modeled. Now imagine that on a much smaller scale; it wouldn't matter at all if a panflute pipe was 4 sided, maybe even 3. Look at the heads of the original Doom3 characters. They're a pretty extreme example, and I think id should've bumped it up. But still, unless you're looking for it, you don't really notice. Edit: Almost forgot: also, they appear faceted (e.g., the cauldron), though I haven't seen them for myself in game besides screenshots yet. Are you enabling smoothing? ASE supports it, and I believe LWO does as well. With it, most of the roundness detail and poly cost isn't needed.

I think we've always made it clear that there will be Linux support. In fact there are many descriptions on the wiki on how to get the demos (thiefs_den, saintlucia) running in Linux. Plus, DarkRadiant has always been cross-platform. I myself am occassionally developing in Linux, Tels and OrbWeaver are Linux-only developers.