What Does Standalone Mean for Mappers?

[Springheel]

There has been a lot of activity lately preparing TDM to go D3-free sometime this fall. That has required an awful lot of asset replacement--models, textures, particles, sounds, etc. You can see the continually shrinking list here: http://wiki.thedarkm...g_assets_by_map

 

There are two categories of assets that need replacing:

 

Mod Assets: These are TDM-specific entities that use D3 assets. For example, the TDM zombie entity uses the D3 zombie mesh. The fire arrow uses a D3 explosion sound and particle effect.

 

Replacing these assets is our job, and we'll do our best to make sure the changes to existing maps are minimal. With a few exceptions (mostly to do with zombies), mappers won't have to worry about these changes at all.

 

D3 Assets used by maps: These are D3 specific assets that mappers selected for their maps. For instance, many maps make use of D3 steam particles, or sound effects. Some use specific D3 textures. The team will NOT necessarily make replacements for all these assets.

 

In some cases, when the asset is widely used, we will. There is a particular steam particle used by half a dozen maps, for example, so we will make a TDM replacement for that one.

 

In other cases, when the asset is something only one or two maps have selected, or it is easily replaced by existing TDM assets, we will leave it up to the mapper to replace them. For example, "The Thieves" uses a wood texture from D3 that could easily be replaced by a TDM wood texture. It will be up to the mapper to modify the pk4 to replace that asset.

 

If your map needs adjusting, here's what will happen:

 

1. We will PM the map author with a list of the assets that need replacing, along with possible suggestions of existing TDM assets that could do the job.

 

2. Once the author has fixed his pk4, we will keep it until standalone is ready, at which point updated missions will be released all together.

 

3. If mappers do not respond to the email, or do not have the time/desire to modify their pk4, or they respond but are not ready to replace their pk4 by the standalone release date, we will either A ) update the .pk4 ourselves, or B ) remove the mission from the download list when standalone is released until it can be fixed.

 

This seems like the best way to make sure Standalone TDM happens in a reasonable amount of time, and that we don't have a pile of broken missions leaving a bad impression when it does happen.

 

Does this seem reasonable?

[grayman]

Most reasonable, and excellent. Thanks for this.

[Sotha]

Perfectly reasonable to me.

 

In terms for of many indicators, standalone will be one of The Most Important Things that ever happens to TDM.

 

So... TDM firearrow explosion particle is D3 asset? I just made a derivative modification of that for my WIP, which is not releaseable with standalone. Damn. Gotta remember to fix it. May I ask someone who makes D3 free the replacement to send me the particle once it is ready, so I can create a legit derivative?

[Springheel]

Well, what did you change? The particle values, the material shaders they reference, or the image files the material shaders reference? Only the latter need to be changed.

[Sotha]

Just a simple change (I'm not proficient with the particle editor.)

 

I noticed the standard arrow explosion does not play on a func_emitter. I made a copy of the standard one and made it have zero cycles, so that it repeats forever. Thus it now works in a func_emitter. So no special action required?

[Springheel]

That should be fine.

[Melan]

It sounds fair (although I still don't know what I will do with the textures I used from the Hell family). It may become an issue if the FM creator is no longer active in the community, although I assume there aren't many people like that.

[nbohr1more]

As I recall, Wulfen's latest Doom 3 texture pack had a number of Hell texture replacements and wasn't merged into 1.08?

 

That said, I believe you mentioned that some of the Hell textures Wulfen made were too coarse compared to the "greasy" looking

stone. Still, having those merged-in might help in a few of these cases.

[nbohr1more]

It's probably a bit late for this but I figure it might still help...

 

We should probably create a wiki with a matrix of Doom 3 textures and close equivalent TDM versions.

 

I imagine (for example) all the Doom 3 wood textures can be replaced with TDM woods as TDM seems to

have a larger asset library of those... etc.

 

Anyone have a short list of go-to replacement textures I can use to start the wiki?