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It is probably the shadow maps for VLs that cause the performance drop. But thanks for the advice. I decided to not use them in the update, but will try them out in the future.

Hello! Tracking down information on software and plug-ins that work with D3 / TDM can be a tough. So I have created a thread here where people can post what software/ plug-ins/ tutorials or other references they've had success or failure with in TDM. 3DS MAX 2013 64bit .ase - Default .ASE model exporter works. However you have to open the .ase file in text edit and manual change the *BITMAP line on each material to read something like: "//base/textures/common/collision" which allows the engine to read the correct material path. md5.mesh / animation - Beserker's md5 exporter/importers for 3dsmax. http://www.katsbits.com/tools, Importing and exporting works. The model must be textured, UV'd, with a skin modifier attached to the bones to export. PM me (Kingsal) for help with this. Imported models using the script will not be weighted appropriately, so this is not recommended if you are simply trying to edit existing tdm content. (Use blender instead) MAYA 2011 32bit md5.mesh - So far I've not had any luck with Maya 2011. I am using Greebo's MayaImportx86 for Maya 2011. I've got the importer working however I get a "Unexpected Internal Failure(kFailure)" and the import fails. This could be due to something finicky in Maya that I am not doing correctly. Will keep trying.. Blender 2.7 about - Blender is commonly used and pretty well supported on the forums/ wiki. Various versions may work as well - https://www.blender.org/download/ md5.mesh / animation Blender MD5 importer/exporter (io_scene_md5.zip): https://sourceforge.net/projects/blenderbitsbobs/files/ Sotha's guide Blender Male/ Female rigs by Arcturus - Here Edit by Dragofer: more links found in this post.

I did play Thief and FMs, but I don't play it any more, except for major things like Black Parade. The clunky movement and antiquated Dromed editor is what discouraged me from interacting with it over the years. I regularly play and sometimes make content for TDM, because it has much better movement model than Thief. I know that most missions don't use it well, but if you construct your geometry (gaps, ledges, distances) using power of two measurements, movement and mantling feels fast and snappy. There's no need for regression in that regard, in my opinion, there's a need for assets and missions made with the movement model in mind, to showcase its strengths properly. Even if TDM originally intended to "simulate the stealth gameplay of Thief, many things will be familiar to veteran Thief players" the actual mod history was a bit different. The team came up with a mission platform that has its own identity when it comes to mechanics. The way assets were made might have been a huge mistake, but that didn't prevent the platform from growing. Since you like anecdotal evidence, noone other Skacky once said that TDM movement model was super clunky, after playing The Painter's Wife. It was really hard to convince him that if a mapper places geometry this poorly, and isn't aware what spatial measurements play to the strengths of a movement model, no movement model will save his mission. And there is no fixing of this problem on the engine side, although it's not the first time when TDM team tries to address the asset problem with engine changes, which I suspect will ultimately lead to even more problems down the line. In game development, things like core mechanics and player tools are locked-down first, in one of the pre-production phases, because all the levels will be constructed around them. Making changes in core mechanics in a project this mature is very risky, I assume you don't plan on going through all playable spaces in all released TDM FMs to check for errors. Instead of making incremental changes in fundamental mechanics, I'd encourage you to create a fork, or some kind of major version bump candidate, like 3.0, where all things could be revamped: movement, player tools, UI, new frob mechanics, perhaps with UI contextual icons, new training map to incorporate all that, etc. Once all new elements fall into place and create something new, with a map or maps to back it up as relevant changes, it will be easier to convince existing player/author base that it was worth it. I assume the existing fanbase is already fragmented, as a result of all those heated discussions around the topic. But with multiple versions available for download, the transition to hypothetical "TDM 3.0" should be easier. It could be similar to UE2 and UE3, and you could also use this as an occasion to draw the line for backwards compatibility. I know there are old systems and variables kept in place just in order not to break existing missions. This way you could e.g. redo the LOD system, implement lights using math functions instead of textures, etc.

Hello everyone, a few weeks ago I stumbled upon the dark mod by sheer accident and I'm so glad I did. Then realizing that there is an easy way to create your own maps was what really got me hooked since I have some experience with sourcegold and worldcraft / hammer for which I build a lot of maps back then, nothing published though. Just for me, putting my creativity somewhere. And since sourcegold and idtech are relatives I figured that they maybe share some of the same techniques to optimize your maps. I watched a youtube introduction / tutorial series from Nico Autia and realised that he was doing some stuff that i did way back then when I first started designing levels for half-life but relatively quickly got rid of, since this was scoffed at by the HL mapping community, due to having a huge impact on performance, especially on bigger maps. Like using carve out / hollow tools, the best way to connect 2 walls in a corridor for example having a 90° corner was not to give them flat contact but rather move the inner vertexes so they have a 45° angle of contact, like most wodden window picture frames do, or for example dont use carve out to make a cylindrical hole / tunnel and rather use the vertexes of a prefab cylinder to manually manipulate the vertexes of the "tunnel"brushes while minimizing the amount of them (triangle brushes gave best performance in sourcegold. Also, I switched rather quick to do all the brushwork with trigger/invis textures that weren't rendered and only texture paint the surfaces you could actually see, is this important here? So the big question since I haven't started working with dark radiant is, are those techniques still a thing? Is it even comparable to sourcegold? Is there a comprehensive best practice list on how to do actual brush work for maximum performance? Sorry If I have trouble in making clear what I want to say, english is not my native language. Feel free to ask right away if my questions aren't as clear as I hope them to be / understandable. Thanks in advance

No. The Aeden's staff optional objective is the hardest of the game. To point out directions here, though, is getting into an area of heavy-duty spoilers ... so I'm constrained in my response just as I was constrained in my responses to the "endless keyhunt" complaints because to show the rather simple direction would be a huge spoiler. So I had to bite my tongue and take it. Aeden's staff is different, though - harder. I've never tried a no-KO ghost playthrough. Because I'm clumsy and have slow reflexes. I think it might be possible to do a stealth no-alerts playthrough. Are you allowed to KO? I think I've gotten the staff a few times in my playthroughs without alerting the builders in that room. The only switchable lights in the FM are table lamps. The cylindrical style wall lamps aren't extinguishable. The other fire and gas wall lamps are extinguished by water. In the Ox all waiters and commoners in the common room and outside are friendlies - except for the waitress in the upper lounge which is filled with enemies. You need water arrows. Moss arrows. Rope arrows. I've never used a gas arrow in a playthrough of the FM but one would make things easier, for sure. I'm going to replay the area and check through the locations that you mentioned - the loop etc. - then if it's OK with you I'll PM you with some info, tho' I'll ask you if you want the info first. So's not to spoil it for others who get that far in the game (few and far between!). I find it almost impossible not to click the "reveal spoiler" tags and read the info ... and, y'know, spoilers do spoil the real deal.

I am pleased to announce the release of our new fan mission, The Hare in the Snare: Part 1 Mission type: City Missions + Inn/Tavern Description: People are being abducted off the streets and a Watch Captain requires the services of a thief to help him find out why. Download link (v1.0.2-release): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HYvM_u56wDB16uIlb7qgS_q3P24V69MO/view?usp=sharing Credits: Mapping and original characters: @Frost_Salamander Story, readables, custom models, voices and cinematics: @Kerry000 Menu title track produced and mixed by @JackFarmer with selected gigagooga sound samples Beta testers: @Cambridge Spy @Zerg Rush @Amadeus @Acolytesix @Lzocast @wesp5 @nbohr1more @Kerry000 @ate0ate @Wellingtoncrab @prjames Additional thanks: @Dragofer, @nbohr1moreand @peter_spyfor technical help @Springheel for the modules and tutorials @kingsalfor allowing @Kerry000to abuse his manbeast everyone else on Discord and the TDM forums who offered assistance Requirements and notes: This mission requires TDM 2.09. Earlier versions will probably work but you might see one or two missing models. You may experience some FPS drops in some areas with lower-end hardware. Mid-range and above should be fine. If you have issues, I highly recommend you use shadow maps instead of stencil (settings -> advanced -> shadows implementation). It makes a big difference. For 'Hard' and 'Expert' the light gem sensitivity has been increased by '1' (meaning easier for AI to detect you). Screenshots:

Yeah, that is the intent. After stepping away, maybe this could be USE or FROB: 1) Select item in inventory, then highlight the target entity and FROB (right click). Or... 2) Select item in inventory, then highlight the target entity and and USE item (enter key). I would prefer not scripting at this time, if possible. I was looking for examples of this type of action in existing maps to see what techniques could be used or copied.

Hello all. I have a hopefully easy question. I just can't seem to search it properly. I want the player to select an item in the inventory (not drop to hands) and then USE (frob and then use key) on an object in the map. But, the frob should only happen when that object is selected in the inventory and not just general frob. If I am confusing this with triggering, I apologize. Is there an example in an exiting map that I can study that does this type of thing? I don't recall from any maps about this. Or, what is the general way to do this? The intent is to have the player find this inventory item and then go to various objects in the map and USE this item on the map objects. Advice? Thanks Clint

This sounds like something that could be scripted into (more) Tutorial missions / maps... ..or perhaps some more 'Advanced' Training maps that show off 'Master' level taffer tricks? How to deal with Undead (Holy Water, Mines, Fire-arrows, ect...) Sneaky tricks (Trapping guards in locked rooms, mis-uses of heavy crates) Spider Hunting 101 (Best sword Stabbin' angles, Use of Arrows on Arachnid weak-points) Distracting troublesome Mercs (Noise makers, regular arrows, thrown stuff..throwing even)

That is the point,, the adblockers get a new definition which works, but a few time later the YT adblock detector also is updated. Only the mencioned userscript works (until now) without issues and if needed, there are also a lot of others which blocks the YT adblock detector or make the adblocker invisible. For this there isn't any extension in the official stores which works. Even the front-ends are working one day and the other not, needing to switch continuously between different instances. It isn't because YT is loosing money, I think that in the future more and more people will switch to Odysee https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts?q=youtube On the contrary, the profits are the highest this and last year than in their entire history and are around 35 million dollars net. Obviously these measures are more aimed at satisfying shareholders than being a product of necessity.

Just wanted to point it out, as you said that it's not encouraging you to disable your adblocker. When Youtube decides to block adblockers, there's nothing to encourage or discourage you anymore. The site simply won't display content if you have your adblocker enabled.

I don't know if you've read, but, Youtube will block users with adblockers soon.

There's a group of players who have meticulously tested and adjusted ghosting rules for The Dark Mod. Please see: Official Ghosting Rules: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148523 Ghost Rules Discussion: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148487 Why alienate an established group of dedicated players?

@kingsal Thanks for the interest. In Hazard Pay you included "script/tdm_user_addons.script" to load @Dragofer's Stealth Statistic Tool and that prevents players from using this file to load additional add-ons. script/tdm_user_addons.script #include "script/tdm_statistic_message.script" void user_addon_init() { statistic_message_init(); } "script/tdm_user_addons.script" comes with a useful "user_addon_init()" that gets called automatically but unfortunately we don't have an equivalent in "script/tdm_custom_scripts.script" so we cannot use "script/tdm_custom_scripts.script" and we must think something else. Unless it is decided to do without the add-on, I propose we make use the map's own script "maps/hazard_night.script" since it comes with a "main()" that gets called by the game automatically, as explained in the Wiki: #include "script/tdm_statistic_message.script" void main() { statistic_message_init(); // rest of your code } Once we do this we can safely delete "script/tdm_user_addons.script". In addition to all this I suggest deleting "script/tdm_frobactions.script" since it is not doing anything other than preventing other mods from working. ----------------------------------------------- Summing up: Replace "maps/hazard_night.script" with the one attached to this post (*). Delete "script/tdm_user_addons.script" Delete "script/tdm_frobactions.script" (*) For this exercise I downloaded a fresh copy of Hazard Pay from the built-in downloader. Happy to discuss further. hazard.zip

i use invidious and newpipe on android so i don't have to endure with the uptick of creeping ads on youtube.

Slightly offtopic, but I've been tinkering with differend UE engines lately, and it occured to me that current version of TDM is actually fairly close to UE 3/UDK in terms of rendering and graphics features. Have you ever considered adding lightmapping as an optional way of lighting maps? Given the way most TDM assets are made, it could provide a big boost in performance, while offering much better look. And that, potentially, would be a much, much smoother transition into a new level of visual fidelity than PBR, which requires remaking all textures, materials, and lights. Edit: I forgot that models would need to be re-saved with a dedicated uvw channel where faces are unwrapped in 0-1 space in order for lightmaps to work correctly. So, it looks like any effort to get to next level of visual fidelity will require significant artist effort...

Looking at the code, the originals were "pm_mantle_pull 750" and "pm_mantle_pullFast 450". The new "pm_mantle_pull" value is "400". A "pm_mantle_pullFast" value of "450" would be slower than regular pull, not faster. With both being set to "400", they are at least similar. Other than that, it's subjective and the feedback from playtesters was positive. Also, referenced internally here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22256-movementcontrols-settings-in-main-menu/&do=findComment&comment=489158

That sort of tone doesn't fly in our forums.

DarkRadiant 3.8.0 is ready for download. What's new: Feature: Support new frob-related material keywords Improvement: Mission selection list in Game setup is not alphabetically sorted Improvement: Better distinction between inherited and regular spawnargs Improvement: Silence sound shader button Improvement: Add Reload Definitions button to Model Chooser Fixed: Model Selector widgets are cut off and flicker constantly on Linux Fixed: DarkRadiant will not start without Dark Mod plugins Fixed: GenericEntityNode not calculating the direction correctly with "editor_rotatable" Fixed: RenderableArrow not drawing the tip correctly for arbitrary rotations Fixed: Light Inspector crashes on Linux Fixed: Models glitch out when filtering then showing them Fixed: Skin Editor: models not centered well in preview Fixed: "Copy Resource Path" includes top level folders Fixed: Skin Editor: internal test skins are shown if Material Editor was open previously Fixed: Changing Game/Project doesn't update loaded assets correctly Fixed: Model Chooser: initially hidden materials aren't revealed when enabling them Fixed: Choosing AI entity class 'atdm:townsfolk_commoner_update' causes crash Fixed: Sporadic assertion failure on shutdown due to LocalBitmapArtProvider destruction Fixed: Prefab Selector spams infinite error dialogs on Linux Windows and Mac Downloads are available on Github: https://github.com/codereader/DarkRadiant/releases/tag/3.8.0 and of course linked from the website https://www.darkradiant.net Thanks to all the awesome people who keep using DarkRadiant to create Fan Missions - they are the main reason for me to keep going. Please report any bugs or feature requests here in these forums, following these guidelines: Bugs (including steps for reproduction) can go directly on the tracker. When unsure about a bug/issue, feel free to ask. If you run into a crash, please record a crashdump: Crashdump Instructions Feature requests should be suggested (and possibly discussed) here in these forums before they may be added to the tracker. The list of changes can be found on the our bugtracker changelog. Keep on mapping!

I would use this massive list for any fan missions, it includes campaigns too: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148090 There are a lot of Fan Missions for the picking, I myself go for the lesser known ones and the short variety, because sometimes they hide a gem or two. Just like jaxa, I'm a bit outdated after the temporal retirement, but I do remember some amazing campaigns like "The Black Frog". If you intend to play The Black Frog, you should play the first two of the L'Arsene series missions, it's how I did it myself. Also, yes, L'Arsene are a fantastic series. The first mission of L'Arsene is a "rough draft", author was a bit new to Thief level making, but still great either way, after the 3rd you will see how his skill increased by a massive amount.

Unfortunately, TDM forum deletes the separator between the numbers. So I have to guess where one number ends and the next starts Also, user can rename screenshot manually, or push it through something that would rename it automatically. Thenwe won't see coordinates on screenshot address on forums.

tdm_show_viewpos cvar and screenshot_viewpos command: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22310-212-viewpos-on-player-hud-and-screenshots/

This is something I'm working on currently. I'm having isues with stencil shadows (beta212-03, maps work correctly in this case). The left edge does not cast a shadow, while the right does. Edit: The problem went away after further work on the map. But I guess I need to look closely for issues like this. They are easy to miss.

...then there are people who play the first five minutes of a mission, then quit and give a lousy rating. I could well imagine that the inhibition threshold is much lower here because the missions are free. Maybe a rating system for missions would be ok if two requirements are considered: The reviewer in question provides a video link of his playthrough and Mission authors and other players can rate the reviewer's playthrough. This of course means that anyone rating a reviewer has to verifiably view the full playthrough of that video.

Relax @Näkki, it's great to hear you enjoyed the game. My personal expectations were just a bit different when I read the Steam page, although the various trailers should have been a warning that stealth maybe wasn't the biggest priority of the devs. From the Steam page: "Weird west legends meet eldritch horror in BLOOD WEST, an immersive stealth FPS." Also "Blood West is a stealth FPS inspired by the genre classics such as the Thief series (whose fans will be happy to hear the voice of Stephen Russell, the actor voicing the master-thief Garrett, returning here as the protagonist), S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, or - from the contemporary catalog - Hunt: Showdown. The gameplay rewards the careful approach: scouting the area, stalking your enemies, and striking from the shadows. Can you figure out a way to clear a fort full of ghouls and monsters without raising an alarm?" From my personal experience I think the game is predominantly Hunt: Showdown, a bit of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and a very small portion Thief. Stealth is very unforgiving and makes it almost impossible early game when there are various enemies around, but hey maybe I just suck at it. I don't see Deus Ex in it, unless the skill leveling is the Deus Ex part for you and then I have to disagree with you, as that seems like the trait system in Hunt: Showdown. Edit: What I also understood from the Steam forums is that the original VA was dropped close before the release of the full version and replaced by Russell with no real explanation from the devs why this was done.