Problems with The Dark Mod 1.04

[New Horizon]

I wonder which idtech4 they're going to open source - the original doom 3 version, the more advanced quake wars version, probably not the even more advanced prey version... hmm.

 

Only the Doom 3 version, as only the Doom 3 code belongs to id software. The others may make their way out in later years, but that would probably require approval from all the development studios involved.

[rich_is_bored]

Doom 3 is the only game in developed entirely in house. ETQW and Prey are third party titles and while they were developed using idTech 4 the source for those games is derivative and not id software's to give away.

 

The advancements are relatively trivial.

have already been achieved without the need for source code.

[eigenface]

More problems:

 

1. Overlapping health potions are not cumulative.

 

I had next to no life, and then I used 4 potions in rapid succession, and when they all finished healing me, I still only had half life. The difficulty setting was the lowest one (normal). If I had used each of the four potions after the previous one had finished healing me, the four of them would have been more than enough to restore me to full life. Healing potions should heal the same amount of life regardless of how their healing periods overlap.

 

2. Lantern light source gets clipped while crawling through vents.

 

When I crouch and crawl through a low tunnel, my lantern light cuts in and out as I bob up and down, I assume because the light source is passing through the ceiling. This could be fixed by lowering the light source coordinates when the player crouches. The light source also sometimes cuts in and out while I'm walking right up against a wall, I assume because the light source is passing through the wall. To fix this, you might need to make the light source a physical object held in place by a spring, so it will get pushed outside the wall rather than pass through. Or you could make the collision shape for the player bigger and put the lantern light source in the middle, so there's no way it can pass through a wall, but of course making the collision shape for the player bigger could adversely affect gameplay in other ways.

 

3. Items get used if you press "use item" to close a readable.

 

I can press any key to close a readable, but sometimes if I press the "use item" key, closing the readable simultaneously uses an item. For example, I was reading an immobile book, and I pressed "use item", and then the book closed and simultaneously I laid a mine.

[i30817]

I guess this is the best place.

 

When you select a fan mission to install (on that menu), if you highligh the mission name by hovering the mouse over the name, the font color changes to pure white instead of the normal high light in the other menus (that is not very legible too - but pure white is almost unreadable).

[maga]

I would like to cut my doom 3 just to be able to play darkmod. What is unnecessary here?

 

[New Horizon]

I would like to cut my doom 3 just to be able to play darkmod. What is unnecessary here?

 

 

Probably not a very practical idea at this point. Dark Mod has to share a lot of core elements from Doom 3 to work, and just because something isn't used right now doesn't mean a mapper won't use a feature or asset in the near future. You would run the risk of breaking a future mission.

 

Best to leave it as it is.

[nbohr1more]

The only thing I could imagine would be safe to remove are the map files. I don't recall which PK4 holds them though...

[id3839315]

Looks like somebody added hardware eating components in TDM 1.04.

I think the problem are light sources because the game is running smoothly but the frame rate slows down when candles or torches appear until they are doused.

[nbohr1more]

Doom 3 has always had a performance hit for dynamic light interactions.

 

That said, if TDM is comparatively slower than previous TDM versions with specific dynamic lights like candles or torches then perhaps the extinguishable light SDK framework has become a bit heavier. I think there are plans to revisit the performance of this feature... (I saw some source-code comments where Tels said such and such could be cached, etc...)

[id3839315]

[nbohr1more]

Yeah...

 

It looks like trackers 2546 and 2547 seem to be relevant to this concern...

[nbohr1more]

@id3839315

 

Do you have

 

seta r_useScissor "1"

 

listed in your DoomConfig.cfg ?

 

If not, please add this and post whether performance improves...

[grayman]

seta r_useScissor "1"

 

What does that do?

[nbohr1more]

It attempts to split geometry per-light and per-portal such that areas that are not in view no longer add to the light count. This optimization is often turned-off so that visportals can be properly tested but is widely advised for players for performance reasons. I was surprised that is wasn't in my DoomConfig.cfg but I think it's enabled by default so perhaps my perception of boosted FPS is placebo... (I went from around 6FPS to 10FPS in one mission unless I'm crazy )...

[id3839315]

If not, please add this and post whether performance improves...

I've added seta r_useScissor "1" to DoomConfig.cfg but the result is still the same frame lag.

[New Horizon]

Do you have tdm_lg_interleave set to anything other than 1?

[id3839315]

Nope.

[id3839315]

That said, if TDM is comparatively slower than previous TDM versions with specific dynamic lights like candles or torches then perhaps the extinguishable light SDK framework has become a bit heavier. I think there are plans to revisit the performance of this feature... (I saw some source-code comments where Tels said such and such could be cached, etc...)

I was hoping this problem will be fixed in 1.06 but the performance is still slow.

[Springheel]

I can't vouch for this, but these settings have been reported as helping to increase performance on lower end machines, with no visual degradation, though possibly longer load times:

 

image_usePrecompressedTextures "1"

image_useNormalCompression "2"

image_useAllFormats "1"

image_useCompression "1"

image_preload "1"

[New Horizon]

The weird thing is, those settings are supposed to be the defaults that ship with the mod. Not sure how or why they're being changed.

 

Also, if you're on a lower end system...make sure ambient lighting is set to 'simple' and your interaction shader is set to normal. You can also disable post processing if you have it enabled. I've tested 1.02 and 1.06 with these settings and saw no difference.

[nbohr1more]

The changed config settings were already explained to id3839315 in the RTTCv2 Thread here:

 

http://modetwo.net/d...post__p__250595

 

But Partol recently showed that F@FS and RTTCv2 consume 800MB of vram at his resolution and quality settings.

 

I suspect that id3839315 has less than 1GB of vram and is trying to operate at HD resolution or has AA and AF enabled.

 

(Edit: Yes 256MB of vram)

Edited June 23, 2011 by nbohr1more

[id3839315]

image_usePrecompressedTextures "1"

image_useNormalCompression "2"

image_useAllFormats "1"

image_useCompression "1"

image_preload "1"

I'm using these settings, Anti Aliasing is off and Post Processing is disabled.

The game works fluently when dynamic lights like candles or torches are dark.

The graphics card has 128 MB VRAM.