DarkMod first impression

[maga]

So, first of all my config:

Its laptop alienware m11x with c2d 1600mhz and geforce 335 with 263.08 driver.

 

I have latest version of doom3 and darkmod 1.04. Via internal downloader i downloaded Thief Den III FM. I selected "Hard" difficulty and launched the game.

 

- it was loading for ages, it took about 3min to load.

 

 

- first thing i saw was 15 fps: http://dl.dropbox.co...1/darkmod01.jpg

wut? 2004year engine lags so much?

 

 

- then there was some weird lightning bug in center of screen:

http://dl.dropbox.co...1/darkmod02.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.co...1/darkmod03.jpg

 

 

- and last thing is boring, slow appearing, menu: http://dl.dropbox.co...1/darkmod04.jpg

 

P.S. mod is not optimized for 16:9 screens, menu is just stretched from 4:3 aspect ratio, that's cheap.

Edited April 1, 2011 by maga

[Springheel]

And? Do you want your money back?

 

(though I appreciate the irony in your registering in 2008, and just posting your "first impressions" now)

[New Horizon]

- it was loading for ages, it took about 3min to load.

 

Our textures are larger than Doom 3 textures, and by default the normal maps are compressed during map load to help with ingame performance. We're looking into including pre-compressed normal maps in a future update...but there are technical drawbacks to doing that.

 

Until we have the Doom 3 source code, there are limits to what we can do to optimize the performance.

 

- first thing i saw was 15 fps: http://dl.dropbox.co...1/darkmod01.jpg

wut? 2004 year engine lags so much?

 

There are many things to consider. Yes, we started with a 2004 engine, but we updated it. Doom 3 was a pretty simple run and gun shooter, with very limited AI, and lower resolution textures. The Dark Mod is rather heavily modified. The AI have much more 'thinking' to do, we also have to calculate the lightgem, sound propagation, the stim/response system, and not to mention the visuals in TDM are improved over those of Doom 3.

 

- and last thing is boring, slow appearing, menu: http://dl.dropbox.co...1/darkmod04.jpg

 

This will be fixed in an upcoming release.

 

P.S. mod is not optimized for 16:9 screens, menu is just stretched from 4:3 aspect ratio, that's cheap.

 

Sorry if you feel it's 'cheap'...we know it's not ideal...but quite honestly, it's not something we can easily fix until the Doom 3 source code is released. We could do a lot of unnecessary work to hack it together, or we could wait for the source code and do it correctly. We'll wait for the source code.

[Darkman]

stop! think first, post then!

yes, the engine is some years old, but for tdm it has been modified: of course the fps will even with the same amount of rendered polygons be (much) lower that in the original doom game! or did you think, that god himself (instead of your cpu) calculates f.e. the existing AI's or the stealth level? these two additional tasks allready require a lot of calculations (yes, doom surely also had AI's but they had only a simple intelligence and were only spawned in when needed)...

 

so don't wonder when your fps are lower than in original doom, where the hardware only had to render the pure visuals and (nearly) nothing else...

 

so, if you prefer pure high-end-graphics, then you are wrong here!

 

 

"ich habe fertig!"

 

 

[maga]

No problem, lets wait for source code

 

btw, does darkmode use both cores of cpu? or it prefers single core high-clock cpu?

[maga]

No problem, lets wait for source code

 

btw, does darkmode use both cores of cpu? or it prefers single core high-clock cpu?

[Bikerdude]

• Alienware m11x with c2d 1600mhz and geforce 335 with 263.08 driver, first thing i saw was 15 fps:?
  
• then there was some weird lightning bug in center of screen:
  
• And last thing is boring, slow appearing, menu:
  
• mod is not optimized for 16:9 screens, menu is just stretched from 4:3 aspect ratio, that's cheap.
  

 

Firstly I apologise for the comments youv'e had thus far, people forget they were once newbies themselves......

 

• The Geforce GT 335m in your AW11a is an OEM part (72cores, 233mhz_core, 1080Mhz_mem, 128bit GDDR3, DX10.1) whats limiting the performance is the very low core clock and the slow 128bit GDDR3. So what you need to do is go into nVidia control panel and make sure both AA, AS & VSYNC are turned off. Then when in game select 1280*720p as the game wont support 1366*768 untill version 1.6.
  
• This maybe be down to the driver version your running, have you updated to the latest from dell's website..?
  
• This slow menu has been fixed in 1.05.
  
• see above
  

[New Horizon]

Firstly I apologise for the comments youv'e had thus far, people forget they were once newbies themselves......

 

• 1366*768 untill version 1.6.
  

 

Hmmm? I've been using 1366x768 in the menu for several revisions. Do you just mean the scaling? There are no official plans to fix that until we have the source code.

[Bikerdude]

Ah ok,

 

I know Komag was having issues with this res, and also Tels is working on getting 'other' less used resolutions to work in the mod..

[New Horizon]

Ah ok,

 

I know Komag was having issues with this res, and also Tels is working on getting 'other' less used resolutions to work in the mod..

 

There was a problem with it initially due to the setting in the menu actually being linked to the wrong res in the def source files, but that was corrected some time ago.

 

Also, maga, if you go into the 'video / advanced' options in TDM's menu, what are your ambient rendering interaction shader and post processing set to?

 

Try 'simple', 'normal' and 'disabled' if they're not that way already. That will give you the best performance. If you feel that the game needs a little extra, then turn on post processing and try out some light bloom to give things a little extra pizaz.

[maga]

Firstly I apologise for the comments youv'e had thus far, people forget they were once newbies themselves......

 

• The Geforce GT 335m in your AW11a is an OEM part (72cores, 233mhz_core, 1080Mhz_mem, 128bit GDDR3, DX10.1) whats limiting the performance is the very low core clock and the slow 128bit GDDR3. So what you need to do is go into nVidia control panel and make sure both AA, AS & VSYNC are turned off. Then when in game select 1280*720p as the game wont support 1366*768 untill version 1.6.
• This maybe be down to the driver version your running, have you updated to the latest from dell's website..?
• This slow menu has been fixed in 1.05.
• see above

Well, i can run crysis on high settings with native res, so i can't agree that my card isnt sufficient. Its more like "not optimal optimization". Guess i should wait till source

Edited April 2, 2011 by maga

[maga]

Lets continue,

 

That's how doom 3 folder looks like before i started darkmod:

http://dl.dropbox.co...10402143017.png

and that's after

http://dl.dropbox.co...10402144015.png

 

+ fm folder - alchemist

+ Darkmod.log

+ tdmlauncher.log

 

And i guess there will be more folders after i install more fm. Any way to prefent it? Any way to keep everyting from dark mod darkmod folder?

 

Next,

 

http://dl.dropbox.co...dark/dark01.jpg

fm list, any way to add scroll bar?

 

http://dl.dropbox.co...dark/dark02.jpg

any way to apply mission without restart?

 

http://dl.dropbox.co...dark/dark03.jpg

how about to move NORMAL-HARD-EXPERT to top, this will free some more space for objectives and, maybe, some missions won't need to have scrolling. (god i hate when font is so much big so i have to scroll)

 

And some side thought:

http://dl.dropbox.co...dark/dark04.jpg

background looks much more detailed then mission itself

http://dl.dropbox.co...dark/dark05.jpg

Edited April 2, 2011 by maga

[maga]

Here, take a look, i made some sketch

 

 

 

 

 

http://dl.dropbox.co...ark/example.jpg

 

 

Edited April 2, 2011 by maga

[New Horizon]

Well, i can run crysis on high settings with native res, so i can't agree that my card isnt sufficient. Its more like "not optimal optimization". Guess i should wait till source

 

You know how I was explaining earlier that Doom 3 was a pretty simple shooter? Well, Crysis is also a relatively simple shooter. The AI, sound propagation and other supporting systems do what a shooter needs of them. It also doesn't have to do rather intensive visibility tests. So sure, you probably can run a game like Crysis on higher graphics with your hardware...but a game like Crysis still doesn't have all that extra computing going on.

 

As I said earlier. Reduce ambient rendering to simple, and interaction shader to normal. When we have the source code, then we'll be able to further optimize things.

[Baal]

So, first of all my config:

Its laptop with c2d 1600mhz and geforce 335.

If the 1600 is not a typo then your cpu is the bottleneck here. As far as I know the Doom 3 engine only utilizes one processor core and is more CPU dependent than the Crysis engine, which is a couple of years younger.

[maga]

If the 1600 is not a typo then your cpu is the bottleneck here. As far as I know the Doom 3 engine only utilizes one processor core and is more CPU dependent than the Crysis engine, which is a couple of years younger.

 

I see, ok then. Will try on my desktop with 3000mhz

 

And what about my idea of objectives interface?

[Flanders]

And what about my idea of objectives interface?

Stunningly brilliant really.

[New Horizon]

Stunningly brilliant really.

 

Yeah, that really does help.

[maga]

I can make few other sketches. All will be about fitting menues on one screen without scrolling or "many pages system"

[New Horizon]

I can make few other sketches. All will be about fitting menues on one screen without scrolling or "many pages system"

 

 

Well, lets not get too carried away. There are always going to be circumstances where scrolling is necessary. Feel free to post some suggestions, but it's not likely we'll redesign all the menus just to avoid scrolling in a few circumstances...especially if it's unavoidable.

 

If your suggestions are reasonable, then they could be taken under consideration.

[Tels]

Here, take a look, i made some sketch

 

http://dl.dropbox.co...ark/example.jpg

 

I like that idea. But it is not my decision to made.

[maga]

from my point of view animation is extremely slow in darkmod. this guard was trying to stand up fo ages:

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/rapurimanka#p/a/u/0/HOOV1e9Yi_Y

[Springheel]

It takes him precisely four seconds to get up. That seems reasonable to me, for someone who was sleeping.

[maga]

It takes him precisely four seconds to get up. That seems reasonable to me, for someone who was sleeping.

 

If there was a noise or smth else he should get up quickly. Any person would get up in a moment if there is some danger.

[swordbreaker]

I agree with d'spair. It could be 1 second lesser.