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TDM Pre-Release Testers Wanted


greebo

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I'm looking for a hand full of people who like to test the upcoming TDM version 1.02. In the past we've been testing a new release package internally but we'd like to check out a new approach this time.

 

Basically, you'll get your hands on the most recent release candidate package, and your job is to playtest some of the existing FMs to spot anything that might be breaking the mission in the new version, like objectives problems, missing models, broken textures, black boxes. Nobody needs to play all released missions, that's why we want several people to share the "workload".

 

This is nothing for newcomers or players who just want to enjoy the game. Ideally, testers are familiar with TDM's mechanics already and can tell when they run into something which hasn't been in the previous releases. Testers should also be familiar with their TDM setup - people who have problems to get TDM to run on their systems in the first place won't have fun setting up the new version in a side-by-side installation (something you might want to do). Testers should also have the nerves to play through a mission multiple times to test whether an issue is there on more than one difficulty setting or whether a problem has been fixed in a new release candidate package.

 

So in short, if you're...

 

- ...interested in doing some playtesting and bugreporting for us.

- ...familiar with setting up TDM (or even multiple TDM installations)

- ...have the necessary bandwidth (a few hundred MBs at least)

 

please let me know.

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So in short, if you're...

 

- ...interested in doing some playtesting and bugreporting for us.

- ...familiar with setting up TDM (or even multiple TDM installations)

- ...have the necessary bandwidth (a few hundred MBs at least)

 

please let me know.

 

I tested 1.01beta on my current map and will be happy to do so again with 1.02 and DR 1.2.2 etc.. hopefully the bugs I listed back then will have been fixed etc. I have a 19/1.3 mb connection so can seed/peer an already existing torrent for the testing group.

 

-_-

Edited by Bikerdude
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Thanks, Bikerdude, I'll post some instructions in the next few days, when a couple more people have answered.

 

Keep in mind, people, the sooner we get 4 or 5 testers, the earlier TDM 1.02 will be released and the sooner I can go ahead and do further work on the mod.

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I'll be happy to try it. Let me know.

 

ETA: The above means:

 

I'll give it a go. I'll check back here for instructions.

Edited by aidakeeley

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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Bikerdude reported that the geode light entities give him an "crystal_light" missing error from D3. Can't look into this atm, sorry, until monday.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

 

"Remember: If the game lets you do it, it's not cheating." -- Xarax

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Thanks people. That makes three, so I'll just go ahead and post the instructions. If anyone wants to join in he or she can do so by following the instructions here.

Disclaimer: This release candidate is for testing only, not for "regular" players. The actual TDM 1.02 is not yet released. I cannot really support anyone with setting up their release test environment, I just don't have the time for that, you understand. Also, I'm not going to help if anybody chooses to mess up their regular TDM installation. Just saying.

 

Now for the instructions:

 

To test this package, you'll need a special tdm_mirrors.txt file plus the command line parameter --keep-mirrors to run the tdm_update.exe.

 

  • I recommend creating an independent D3 installation for testing. Don't use your regular TDM player installation for testing the release candidate.
  • Uninstall your FM in your regular TDM setup (you're going to copy it).
  • Copy your 1.01 "darkmod" folder to that new Doom 3 directory, such that you end up with a standard D3 + TDM 1.01 setup.
  • (Optional) Create a backup copy of that darkmod folder, copy it somewhere safe in case you want to test the tdm_updater again after rolling back the changes.
  • Download the tdm_mirrors.txt here: http://www.fidcal.co...tdm_mirrors.txt
  • Save the tdm_mirrors.txt into that test darkmod folder, overwriting any file with the same name.
  • Open a DOS box (Start > Run > cmd)
  • Head to that test darkmod folder and type: tdm_update --keep-mirrors
  • This should initiate the update sequence and download about 510 MB of files. (Thanks go out to Fidcal for his server bandwidth.)

  • (Optional) Create a handy shortcut to the tdmlauncher in your test darkmod folder and name it so that you can't confuse it with the "regular" one.
  • Launch and make sure you see the "TDM 1.02" version string in the main menu.

Next, copy/install the FM you want to test and play it. Post the FM and difficulty you're testing before rushing off to play, to prevent that everybody is testing the same mission on the same difficulty. Try to balance the workload across testers. Play-test the FM and watch out and keep track of the difficulty levels you're playing on.

 

Post the results here - did the updater work correctly? Is it possible to complete the objectives and the missions? Any broken models that were ok in 1.01 and are missing in 1.02? Any textures missing?

 

Additional note: you can't load 1.01 savegames in the 1.02 release candidate, they're not compatible.

 

I hope the instructions are sufficient. Let me know if I missed a crucial step, I'll try to adjust these instructions then.

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greebo,

 

I don't really want to make a separate install of D3. Wouldn't it work if I just copied my current darkmod directory somewhere safe (basically, really, right there in the D3 folder with a name that wouldn't conflict) and then tdm_updated? Then I could switch back and forth if I wanted to by just renaming each darkmod directory as needed?

 

It seems to me it would make less of a conflicting mess than trying to have 2 D3s?

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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Excellent. Thanks. Let the downloading commence.

 

...

 

steambots01

 

'Citing!

 

...

 

Initiating update sequence for tdm_update: Downloading tdm_update_win.zip

Unfortunately, this routine is not yet written.

done, need to download 1 files totaling 2763886 bytes.

 

Getting tdm_update_win.zip from ... (1/1)

Done 0/1 files. Cur: 449.4 KByte/s, 99.91% All: 385.9 KByte/s, 100.1%

tdm_update_win.zip integrity ok - download ok. 2704.2 K

bytes in 6s (450.7 Kbyte/s) so far.

Extracting files from tdm_update_win.zip:

Detecting update for tdm_update.exe. Preparing upgrade script. Extracting _tdm

_update.exe

Removing tdm_update_win.zip.

 

Applied 0 maintenance steps.

 

Downloaded 2.64 MB.

 

All done, your TDM installation is up-to-date. Enjoy! :)

 

 

D:\Games\Doom 3\darkmod>TDM Updater executable has been updated.

Re-launching TDM Updater executable.

 

...

 

Downloaded 503.42 MB.

 

All done, your TDM installation is up-to-date. Enjoy! :)

 

Press ENTER to end the program.

 

Seems to have gone okay.

 

...

 

Yikes! I was going to rar up all my old savegames and then delete them... I had 64GB!

 

Just deleting.

Edited by aidakeeley

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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I'm going to give 'Politics' a go because this is the mission where I had the most problems.

 

Difficulty : Medium / Playstyle: KO the guards which annoy me most, no reload if an alert is started.

Edited by Briareos H
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I'm doing mission 3 "forest" (No Honor Among Thieves) on medium difficulty.

 

I'm inside and I've killed, ko'd, disturbed, and generally messed with all the AI so far; leapt and bounded; thrown my flashbombs (did they even go off? couldn't tell, don't care, don't use 'em normally); moved this and that; used a key I hadn't even found last time;

 

 

Even finally got a forest guard to attack a zombie; and even went ahead and used some holy water to kill me one!

 

 

No problems with all that.

 

Like I say, lotsa fun even, because I'm just wreaking havoc, not worried about ammo conservation, and only on one small quest (see other thread).

 

Until now.

 

Like I say, I got inside and have now been killed myself twice... and upon reloading... crash. Both the same mild "Send / Don't send" followed by 2 "Memory couldn't be written"s....

 

Also, a weird thing is that it seems my "Next Weapon" key bind is doing nothing and my "Previous Weapon Key" is not cycling around as I thought it did. It just stops once it get to a blank. Something seems wrong, unless I've got it wrong, I really only "use" the keys to quickly take inventory and see how much ammo I have of each type. I use the actually selection binds to draw my weapon, if you get me. Anyway seems a strange thing to have been broken?

Edited by aidakeeley

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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I was testing "The Thieves" Medium difficulty, and had something weird happen.

 

First, can anyone confirm that unalert AI being killed by arrows go into T-Pose before going to ragdoll? I've noticed this on three separate occasions now.

 

The second thing that happened was very strange. I was killed in a fight, and the death menu came up. I hit f9 to load a recent quicksave, and when the game reloaded, things I had done AFTER the quicksave were still active. An AI I had killed after the quicksave was dead, and AI were running around on full alert looking for me, even though the quicksave I just loaded was before going into that room.

When I did go in and engage them, the game slowed to a complete slideshow--I would have thought it froze except I could still hear occasional barks. I had to leave the room, and when I came back, I was on the death menu again.

 

I was not able to reproduce this by reloading the quicksave from the main menu, and I'm out of time to play with it tonight.

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I haven't tested the same as you but i am seeing weird things happeing in my mission -

 

 

# upon dmaping my mission I got the following error: Joint 'hips' not found for attachment position 'hip_sheat_l' on entity 'blah'. Said Ai was fine under 1.01. Deleted and recreating all entities had no effect.

# I'm getting lots of stutter when opeing or closing doors with VPs on.

# got a missing texture error: models/darkmod/props/textures/bc_hinge03_ao

# a noticable drop in FPS, in this case 10-15

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A bit off topic, maybe, but maybe not.

 

I do want to help. Problem is I don't believe I have any particular skills that will add anything*.

 

But I might actually be able to something. I notice that a lot of the warnings and such are related to texture and models not being found. Especially after updates (well there's only been these 2 that I know of; 1.01 and 1.02).

 

So, there is a bit of an editor and a "systematizer" in me.

 

I was wondering if the entities, textures, prefabs -- assets! -- don't have a systematized naming scheme. And if not, would it be beneficial (and doable) to put together a team to come up with a system and then implement it? Or would such a thing require much more than what might be equated with simple text editing? Or would it actually be way too much to take on? Could it be done in phases? And in the end (going forward) be something that could be self-maintained?

 

The reason I ask is I have poked around in DR a little and wanted to take a look at dropping in one of those exciting ('citin'!) new bots... but I'm always at a bit of a loss as to where exactly to look for this entity or that texture. Probably could have found it and will later, but it brought this all to mind.

 

Not that it's a huge mess, I'm sorry to even imply that, but it seems to me (from out here, understand) that the naming scheme is not "as one".

 

ETA:

*This post may prove that statement perfectly, because I only vaguely think I know what I'm referencing here with regards to "prefabs, entities, textures" and etc.

Edited by aidakeeley

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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@aidakeeley: got a savegame of that crash for me?

 

@Springheel: This could be related to the "Enable Death animation for Spiders" issue, I had to reorganise the Killed/PostDeath routines a bit. I didn't test any blackjackings myself, as this is not my playing style.

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# upon dmaping my mission I got the following error: Joint 'hips' not found for attachment position 'hip_sheat_l' on entity 'blah'. Said Ai was fine under 1.01. Deleted and recreating all entities had no effect.

Which entity is causing this error?

 

# got a missing texture error: models/darkmod/props/textures/bc_hinge03_ao

Can you pinpoint the model causing this missing texture error?

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I'll attach a rar of the save, txt, and tga here. If I can. Else I'll be ETAing...

 

I can get this to work after a relaunch of TDM.

 

Then, the couple of times I have played and had the crash:

 

  • I run on down towards the window that opens (and get ready to KO the guard who is coming (and he is coming!).
  • Move him out of the light slightly back up the hall just a bit because...
  • Another guard is coming too.
  • Him I shall slay!
  • ...but alas I have failed twice now and he gets me and killses me...
  • So, I press F9 (and I don't even think this is necessary to get the crash, but I did do it both times -- I wanted to get that 2nd bastard)
  • ...F9, my Quickload key.
  • And crash.

ETA: Nope, rar is too big... hold on... will up to here

Edited by aidakeeley

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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I've started getting other missing files now, so Im downloading a fresh copy of 1.01 and will then update to 1.02 to see whats what.

 

Ok just did a dmap and I have attached a copy of my condump, still getting lots of errors and these are different to one I got last time - is it possible that some of the PK4 files are corrupt or have corrupt files..?

 

I dont know WTF is going on because now I am getting dmap errors with 1.01 on the same map that was fine with 1.01 before...FFS.. And now when I clock on the doom3 window (I run tdm in a window when mapping) the sound stops, yet it didn't before.

 

baaa, ive just done dmap again and now I got no errors...

condump.txt

condump101.txt

condump101_2.txt

Edited by Bikerdude
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This could be related to the "Enable Death animation for Spiders" issue, I had to reorganise the Killed/PostDeath routines a bit. I didn't test any blackjackings myself, as this is not my playing style.

 

I haven't noticed it with blackjacking, or even killing AI in combat. The three times I can confirm seeing it have all been when shooting unalert AI with an arrow. I'll do more testing and see if I can confirm it's limited to that.

 

Can you pinpoint the model causing this missing texture error?

 

That's something I added to the door hinges. I'll have to see if maybe I forgot to upload one of them.

 

would it be beneficial (and doable) to put together a team to come up with a system and then implement it?

 

Trying to change the filenames of all textures after the mod is released would be a massive undertaking.

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I could locate the crash aidakeeley was running into - kinda rare situation: you'll need an AI with an attachment within a water entity. During map shutdown, it can happen that the water entity is removed before the AI and on unbinding the attachment the AI is trying to refer to the destroyed water entity, triggering a memory violation. I've fixed that in SVN, I'll push out a new code PK4 during this weekend. Thanks to aidakeeley for the savegame.

 

I'll have a look at the T-pose issue next, but I don't know if I'll have much time over the weekend.

 

edit: new windows PK4 has been uploaded, please re-run tdm_update --keep-mirrors. Note: this update will refuse to load your savegames as the code has been changed. If you want to load any other 1.02 savegames, you'll need to open your console and set the CVAR tdm_force_savegame_load to 1.

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After some more testing, I have yet to see the T-pose from blackjacking or sword combat. But it seems to happen nearly every time I kill an AI with an arrow.

 

Also, may just be a fluke, but this testing session, I had 3 AI in a row that left their held objects (two weapons and a torch) floating in the air when I killed/KOd them. I'll keep an eye out for that.

 

I was able to finish the mission with no other problems, however. I'll move on to another mission.

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Trying to change the filenames of all textures after the mod is released would be a massive undertaking

 

Yeah. I imagine it would be. But sooner rather than later? An agreed upon nomenclature system would be of great benefit to all and every mission building, no?

 

The idea would be to tackle it ASAP and (also ASAP) hammer out a lasting methodology; then use an ever open team of volunteers to do what each of them can manage over however long it might take.

 

I appreciate your reply, Springheel, and won't push the idea any further if you guys don't think it'd be something that in the end would make every mission build easier.

 

...

 

need an AI with an attachment within a water entity...

 

deadinthewater.jpg

 

Oh, I go that bastard. IOW, I think I know who you are talking about (even took a screenshot from my vantage at the time). Wish I could have known he was the problem and given you some heads up, but I'm impressed you found him anyway.

 

And more impressed that you diagnosed and fixed the problem!

 

...

 

Is T-posing the model reverting to it's "pure" state; that being a Da Vinci like pose that I imagine most models are built in? I can't say that Ive seen that.

 

I did knock one of the princely brothers right through a 6" narrow gap between his four-postered-bed and a jutting bit of arch-wall once with an arrow. Powerful, it was.

 

...

 

Also, may just be a fluke, but this testing session, I had 3 AI in a row that left their held objects (two weapons and a torch) floating in the air when I killed/KOd them. I'll keep an eye out for that.

 

I do get a lot of this IIRC -- in a lot of missions. Pretty sure it goes back to 1.00. But it doesn't "bug" me much for some reason. Sorry to not have reported it.

Edited by aidakeeley

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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