SneakyJack's TDM review

[Springheel]

Holy crap, that was fast.

[SneakyJack]

Its christmas eve and I've got a few days off from work

 

Dark Mod missions are the perfect cure for winter boredom.

Edited December 24, 2009 by SneakyJack

[SneakyJack]

Also added: The Parcel

[Tels]

Thanx a lot, appreciated!

[SneakyJack]

Newest mission Trapped! has been added!

[greebo]

Thanks for the quick reviews, SneakyJack. Am I allowed to use your screenshots on our thedarkmod.com FM Download Section?

[SneakyJack]

Of course, use them wherever you like.

 

Edit: Just be sure to host them on the server for the site or whatever so that my photobucket account doesn't get hammered for bandwidth once the mod gets more popular, haha. But im sure rehosting them was your plan anyway.

Edited December 31, 2009 by SneakyJack

[Springheel]

Am I allowed to use your screenshots on our thedarkmod.com FM Download Section?

 

Thanks for keeping the missions page up to date, Greebo.

[SneakyJack]

Just added: Living Expenses

[greebo]

Thanks for keeping the missions page up to date, Greebo.

No problem, you're welcome. It's not much effort anyway, I designed the FM Admin Area just for that.

 

Thanks to SneakyJack for shooting the screens, this saves a lot of time.

[SneakyJack]

All the screens I take have to be brightened and adjusted in photoshop one by one - and I noticed recently that after I changed my gamma settings slightly my screenshots now come out super-contrasted and I have to crank the contrast way back in photoshop. Anyone know how I could fix this?

 

For example:

 

 

Unedited screenshot - far too dark and saturated with contrast, looks nothing like it looked when playing the mission.

 

 

Edited version with a metric ton of contrast removed and brightened a bit.

 

I'm not sure if changing gamma settings in game changes how the screenshots look when they are captured (obviously not capturing what is being displayed, my screens now are much darker when they are captured than before I fiddled with my settings unless I'm imagining things) but it seems much harder to get screens looking as they did while I played the missions now than before.

 

Anyone know anything about this part of the mod?

[Fidcal]

No, I've always accepted that screenshots need tweaking before publishing; cropping as well as brightness and resaving as jpgs. Moreover, I find each varies individually and some need a massive boost.

 

It might be possible to bind a key to toggle the bright/gamma in game as well as take a screenshot and restore after all in one or an exec file can do multiple commands. But as I say, I find there is no single setting so this would only approximate the brightness needed. Though perhaps it would be good enough for 95% of them.

[SneakyJack]

Ok, thanks! I was just wondering if the actual in game gamma settings were responsible for how the screenshots turn out. I'm sure video cards and things of that nature add variables as well - I just didn't know if someone that had intimate knowledge of how TDM works knew for sure

 

I just want the screens to look the best they can to show off the work these authors put into the missions.

Edited January 5, 2010 by SneakyJack

[Serpentine]

d3 has always ignored contrast/brightness when taking screenshots, I'll have a dig around and see if theres a cvar for changing that. There are a few other cvars for changing what format and quality they are saved in.

[STiFU]

Screenshots are exported without any gamma information from doom 3. Try it yourself. Your screenshots have more contrast than ingame because the dark places become a lot darker without the gamma correction. If you use a gamma value greater than 1, dark places will be brightened a lot but bright places only a little. With a gamma value lower than 1, the opposite is the case.

 

So in order to get the original ingame image back, you just have to perform the gammacorrection, probably with the same value as in doom 3. (In PS: Image -> Adjustments -> Exposure -> Gamma Correction). Raising the brightness will actually reduce the quality of your image sometimes, because of clipping and it can also look "washed out". But Combining both methods can also result in good images, but I'd really be careful with brightness.

[Baddcog]

I never knew about gamma correction in PS, thanks

 

But I've always adjusted levels/brightness/contrast in screens from T2 also, so nothing knew for TDM.

[Ishtvan]

@STiFU: There exists beer for all?

[STiFU]

You got it!!

Edited January 5, 2010 by STiFU

[SneakyJack]

Just added:

 

Sons Of Baltona Part 1

 

Return To The City

[7upMan]

SneakyJack, what you could have mentioned for Sons Of Baltona is, that the guards are alerted if doors are opened that should be closed. I loved that part the most, and only a few FM makers seem to have used this feature so far - which is a real pity, because it makes playing so much more immersive IMO.

[Springheel]

that the guards are alerted if doors are opened that should be closed. I loved that part the most, and only a few FM makers seem to have used this feature so far -

 

Is this actually working properly? Last I heard it was not.

[SneakyJack]

I didn't notice it working at all during my playthrough so I haven't a clue.

[Carnage]

Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. It's certainly not solid yet but the Lord will notice it everytime. Everytime I left his door open he said something like 'this should be closed' and started to look around for trespassers. As long as you keep the lights on of course. Thanks for your review, it really motivates me to continue the series. It will probably take one year before the next one will be released, because I'll be on a backpacking trip for about 6 months but it will be released. I hope I'll have an even better package to work with by then .

[_Atti_]

I experienced the guard noticing the door being open, but i thought i might have just heard it wrong and thought it was me being there that lured the guard.

[Serpentine]

The issue is still there, I will add a note on the tracker. It is by far more noticable if the NPC gets close before noticing the door, if that happens he will try to close it and then re-alert himself that it is open and will try to open it... after a while you have a cluster of guards having a dorgy. Not to mention what happens when one of them gets stuck in the way of the door