Submissions of any kind, prefabs, FMs, textures, models, and any other help

[Fidcal]

Contributions downloads are at http://fidcal.com/DarkMod/index.htm

 

Note that there is no dedicated beautiful sortable webpage list. I don't have time and also this means less delays. Just browse the folders and click on readmes and images and grab any zips. If anyone submits anything I can just upload it in a few minutes.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

If you wish to offer coding, modelling, or any other kind of help got to the I want to help forum for discussion.

 

If you have any extensive assets you wish to discuss also you can go to the I want to help forum.

 

If you simply want to share an FM, prefab(s), textures, whatever then post details in this thread (there are other websites for FMs too.) Generally these need to be zipped up with a description.txt plain text file and optionally an image, and uploaded somewhere I can get them such as a fileshare website like rapidshare. Any problem with that and if you have ftp I can arrange a direct upload to a private temporary folder on my website.

 

All submissions to this thread should be accompanied by a short description

summary to go on the download page and optionally a picture(s).

 

Such submissions will be placed on my website download page (wip) at fidcal.com. Anything suspect for any reason I reserve the right to delete. I accept no liability for downtime or even no-continuance of the download section or even the entire website for any reason. Downloaders: I accept no liability if you download anything you'd rather not: download at your own risk. Oh yes, and I am not responsible for global warming, economic depression, you name it; I'm not responsible.

 

From there, any mappers can download what they want. The Dark Mod Team may or may not assess some items for inclusion in future Dark Mod updates. FMs may be assessed for inclusion on the Dark Mod website.

 

Anyone feel free to mirror the download folder.

 

Any suggestions post in this thread too.

[aidakeeley]

I knew it! Something (or someone) told me you weren't very responsible. Now I find out from your own admission that you aren't responsible at all.

[demagogue]

Heh, well somebody is...

This is a good idea. Anything that encourages more fan-made assets is a good thing.

 

- Anyway, you should probably add that when someone contributes something, they are giving an implicit license for Dark Mod users to use the assets as they see fit. (If the contributor has an issue with that, they should mention it specifically to Fidcal first so he can put a note for that asset; but hopefully that won't ever be an issue.)

 

- At the same time, mappers should give credit for fan-made assets they use, because it's courteous and that's how it's always been done.

 

- Also, you (Fidcal or whoever) should probably ask permission if a fan *wants* their asset to be made "official" in the package before doing it. It may be that no one would turn it down, but when people spend hours and hours making something they might have all sorts of ideas towards it, so it's probably just a good idea to ask if everything is cool before you change its status, so everyone is on the same page.

 

- The other thing I thought about is having a wiki list for assets like the FM list, but that can happen later, or maybe it's fine to just have it centered on Fidcal's site.

[Fidcal]

Good points there. I'll update my first post later. Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out why my google ads all have a white background.

[Bikerdude]

- Also, you (Fidcal or whoever) should probably ask permission if a fan *wants* their asset to be made "official".

Er, wouldnt that be a given if a submittal is being made in the first place..? eg I don't mind what is done with my submittal, its there for everyone to use.

[Mortem Desino]

Indeed, but "that's a given" won't sway greedy people and their heartless lawyers.

[demagogue]

Well, I guess I'm thinking of the bigger picture. We (I think) want to encourage as much fan-contribution as possible. And if you look at what gets made for Thief 2, much of the stuff being made doesn't really fit the traditional look. And I just imagine it might be similar here.

 

I just wouldn't want to give the message that they're *only* looking for a particular kind of asset and not others... If a fan makes some kind of weird monster or anachornistic-thing or whatever, they should feel invited to go ahead and make it, upload it, and give us a link. And actually, I don't think it's a given that people assume they are contributing just so it can be official. I actually think in the end the majority of contributions won't go official (just a guess). So I think it's good to have the mind-set right from the start that fans should feel free to make stuff and contribute as they like. Then *some* of those things have a chance to be picked for inclusion (probably much more here at the beginning)... But the reason they should make it is for other fans to use it in FMs, and if it gets included, congrats, all the better.

 

Also, I think fans should feel encouraged to make non-traditional stuff from the start, too, new voice sets, AI or gameplay tweaks, mods of the mod, that they *know* can't be official. But we want to encourage those kinds of contributions too. So I like the message contribute as you like. But if you *do* want to be considered for official inclusion, you should make an asset with that in mind.

 

This kind of thing is what I was thinking with that comment, though it maybe doesn't sound like it looking back at it.

 

Edit: A better comment might be something like "We encourage fans to contribute whatever they might like to see in a Dark Mod FM, including things that aren't necessarily appropriate officially. But if you do intend to submit it for official inclusion, you should comport with the Dark Mod's artistic style and its needs, and realize FM authors can freely alter your work and won't give you specific credit for your work in their FM if it is officially included (like they would for a normal fan-contribution)." Something like that...

 

Edit2: Anyway, I'm sure it will all work itself out if things are flexible, so it's not such a big deal however things go.

[Fidcal]

It's definitely important imo to always make everything as clear as possible up front so there is no doubt. The web space will be a general upload/download for quick sharing. Contributors will be told that by default anything submitted is free to download by anyone and may be considered for inclusion in the main Dark Mod resources. Anyone who wishes to add any kind of special condition to that need only say so and that will be considered. I'll listen to anything reasonable but it's hard to think of a situation where anyone wouldn't want to share Dark Mod resources with the entire Dark Mod community. But there may be a case we haven't thought of.

 

We also need to decide what rights others have - for instance another mod. Personally I'd like everything on the planet to be public domain including Angelina Jolie but sadly the world cannot work that way always.

[SiyahParsomen]

bump!

 

The good thing that when you share some prefabs and some authors use them in their mission, you try to find and see where it is while enjoying the mission. And sometimes there may be nice surprise if author doesn't tell that he is going to use it.

 

I have many facades from my city map(failed to attemp Christmas Contest) that I hadn't release yet. Since I don't have time for building another fm, I'm gonna release them in a couple of weeks.

[Fidcal]

Thanks SP. Upload somewhere and post here when ready and I'll put them on my website and start a new downloads section.

[rich_is_bored]

I've been playing a lot of TDM (great work everyone) and Mount & Blade Warband and as a result have been working on a horse model in my spare time.

 

 

You can follow the progress here if you're interested...

 

WIP Thread

 

I will be releasing this to the public upon completion so you all are welcome to use it in your FMs or include it in TDM proper.

 

I'm not sure how far I'll go with it. I may stop with modeling. I may continue on to animate it. I may go so far as to write AI for it. Time will tell.

[aidakeeley]

Wicked cool.

 

What else can I say?

[Bikerdude]

oh yes, if we can have a moving horse with sound that will be also cool...

[aidakeeley]

What about an iron horse, cyberpunk of course the horse

[Melan]

I have got a question. I am working on new textures based on images from CGTextures.com. They have a lot of cool source images, but also a clause that prevents their distribution in texture packs - you have to put them in a level or a full mod to be able to use them:

It is NOT permitted to:

- Sell or distribute any of these textures in an unmodified form, or where the derived product you are selling or distributing is a Texture or a collection of Textures. IN OTHER WORDS: Do not sell or distribute any of these textures (modified or not) by itself or in a texture or scrapbooking pack!

My question is, since that would in one way be the easiest: would the TDM team be interested in new textures submissions? I have a lot of images I would eventually like to convert, mainly trims (a bit lacking in the base mod), but also windows, walls and so forth. Otherwise, I can of course just use the new stuff in a level, allowing people to remove them as they will.

 

Image examples:

 

Question number two, I have found this in the wiki article on adding textures:

When you upload textures, be sure to upload the files to the right spot. The Texture Folder Structure can help you finding the right folder for your texture. The .dds diffuse and specular go in the dds/textures/ folder structure. The .tga normalmap goes in the textures/ folder structure. Note that there is a peculiarity of the Doom 3 engine not being able to load DDS textures that are more than five folders deep. The deepest level allowed would be something along the lines of dds/textures/darkmod/door/metal/. This is something to be watched out for.

 

I have hit this, but in that case, if my TDM folder is E:\doom3\darkmod, how can I add DDS files for textures in a more finicky category like sculpted stone? The path would be E:\doom3\darkmod\dds\ textures\darkmod\stone\sculpted -- seven levels. I have tried it and all I get are black, missing textures. I think I do need the DDS files because the TGAs are pretty big and as I move in the environment, there is some "visual lag", probably due to memory allocation.

[Fidcal]

The full path does not count, only from dds

 

Anything submitted would normally go on my website for quick distribution and then considered for inclusion in TDM when anyone has time. But the ones from cgtextures are a special case so should not be uploaded as a texture pack. If you want to upload it somewhere privately and pm me the url then I'll make it available to the team for consideration.

 

Are you producing bump and specular maps and the material def files as well?

[SneaksieDave]

Those are yum.

[Melan]

Fidcal: what I have done so far has included tiled diffuse maps, normals (after some experimentation, it turned out SSBump is awesomely easy to use), the editor image, DDS files and the material defs. I will take a look at speculars if something that needs them comes up - by the wiki, they should not be too hard. Bump maps, I suppose, are another name for normals, but feel free to correct me.

 

I will work up a batch as I have time, test them in TDM and send you a PM when I am done. Is that all right?

[Serpentine]

Everything sounds quite correct.

Just remember to keep a copy of the source diffuse etc (i.e full res!, non DDS) - I find the best way to do this is to make a psd with the normal/specular/diffuse as layers. If you use a heightmap to generate your normal or any other strange mappings for alpha etc remember to add them too. This is just for archival use.

 

Bumpmaps in the context of TDM will be normals, yes (but technically slightly different)

 

I'm currently remaking some normals for the TDM trims, most seem to have bad crazybump ones or just look veeeeery flat.

[Fidcal]

Yes just use your judgement about whether speculars are needed.

[ungoliant]

mmmmmm... so good looking. I could really use some additional light gray / white stone trim textures for my own mansion mission, and that stuff look gooood.

[Serpentine]

Horse stuff

 

Great work there

 

And a question since you generally know strange doom3-centric stuff...

I've been helping Melan out with some of his stained glass windows, they present a bit of trouble because while you dont want them transparent; you do want them to look like glass.

Which seems to limit me to using cube maps, however I cant find a reasonable way to avoid the cube map from applying to the entire material. While you want the glass to have the cube map you dont want the lead filler to have it - the problem can be seen here and only gets worse closer up.

So I'm just checking with someone that knows doom3's materials better than myself before I go down the road of decals or playing with blend modes, what would be the simplest way to do this?

[aidakeeley]

You do The Builder's work, Serpentine. Those SGs look nifty neato to me. And if you strive to make them better? The Builder's good work!

[Diego]

About that inventor model.. good news: I have my own computer on my hands now! with the model and all that. Bad news: my connection is absurdly bad and the files are big.

 

I'll find a way to send it, though. Just to let you know I didn't forgot about it or anything like that

[rich_is_bored]

I cant find a reasonable way to avoid the cube map from applying to the entire material.

 

 

You should be able to mask out portions of the environment map using the maskcolor and maskalpha keywords but don't take my word as gospel.