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Cyberpunk mod: Plans & Contribution feedback


MirceaKitsune

Contribution feedback  

22 members have voted

  1. 1. How interested are you in the project, and would you be willing to contribute? Please read at least the paragraphs in red before voting!

    • I'm interested and willing to contribute, both by creating new content and porting existing assets.
      4
    • I'm interested and willing to contribute, but only by porting existing assets.
      1
    • I am interested but not willing to contribute.
      10
    • Not interested.
      7


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I've been wanting to post this topic for many months now. It's a continuation to ideas I posted a while back, regarding my wish to create a total conversion for TDM, adding a cyberpunk theme alongside the original steampunk world. The reason for making a new thread is that I have a plan laid out by now, but will need help from the community with it. I wish to know how many people would be willing to help out, so that I may know whether I should start laying out the foundation of this project. I will explain exactly what I plan to do in the form of a FAQ below, so that I can easily cover every aspect. This is going to be long, so make sure you have some time before diving into it! If you want to go straight to the points about what I require and skip the rest, read the titles in red which cover the essential paragraphs.

  • What is this all about?

The idea is in part inspired by one of the favorite games in my childhood, DeusEx - The Conspiracy. I used to spend weeks playing through it every few months, drawn by its adventurous story and its dark yet appealing environments. Since the last few years, it's been a dream of mine to create a FOSS cyberpunk stealth game with RPG elements, that would be entirely unique (similarly to how TDM is unique from Thief) yet have the same feel and atmosphere I loved about it (once again like TDM has the same atmosphere as Thief).

 

My earliest thoughts were on trying to achieve this in Xonotic, which is a GPL licensed arena-type shooter I've been a long time contributor to. Of course I eventually abandoned the idea... mostly given that Xonotic has no features for single-player mechanics, such as saving / loading or any kind of AI except bots treated as real players. Then more than two years ago, I finally discovered The Dark Mod. After playing it for some time, I quickly realized it's by far my best option to making such a project come true.

  • Why The Dark Mod, instead of building the game from scratch? It was designed to be a steampunk stealth game after all!

The first reason why I want to use TDM as a basis is that it already has every crucial mechanic I need, in terms of AI and interaction and world programming. It does of course lack a lot of the features I ultimately hope to include, although most are optional and I could attempt scripting them at a later stage... for now little to no game code chances would be required. The most significant features are the AI (very advanced and intelligent), carefully balanced gameplay plus other common ideas, as well as the mapping system with its intelligent area portals. It should also be considered that while I'm usually a competent contributor, I'm terrible when it comes to programming something from the ground up, so there's no other way this could happen as a FOSS project unless I hire an entire team. The project aims to be a stealth game that works the same way after all, so why not?

 

To exemplify what I mean: You can open DarkRadiant and build a medieval town with a tavern, then add a guard patrolling the tavern with a bow and a sword. In the conversion, you'll be able to build a futuristic city with a club, and have a guard patrol that club with a knife and a rifle. In both cases, the AI will do exactly the same things with equally correct results: The guards take the same patrol routes, chase after the player the same way, vocally alert one another in the same fashion, and search rooms and hiding spots as efficiently once the player disappears from view. There is no "medieval patrol style" versus "futuristic patrol style", the choices and decisions are exactly the same! The only considerable difference will be the assets and animations and settings.

 

The second reason is that I'm a fan of the idTech engines as well as gtkRadiant based editors. idTech 4 is in fact one of my favorite engines in the line, due to how intuitively it was designed at its core and how much it pulled off during its day. Its only problem is that it hasn't had as many developers forking and modernizing it, unlike idTech 3 with say Daemon engine (for Unvanquished)... that is of course not its fault, and in part due to being open-sourced much more recently in comparison.

  • How exactly would the mod work? Are you thinking of creating your own TDM fork?

I don't plan to create an actual fork of TDM, which would be impossible to maintain on my own and only divide the community and its efforts. My plan is to create a mod that will run on top of vanilla TDM, adding new content without affecting any of the existing functionality. The mod would be distributed as one or many pk4 files, which are simply dropped into the main directory next to the stock pk4's! Its assets will be grouped under the mod's own name, so that they're always distinguishable from the normal ones... just like every default component is listed in a "thedarkmod" directory inside DarkRadiant, they would be listed in a "howeverthiswillbecalled" group. Once you have the pk4(s) of the mod inside your TDM installation, normally download any mission using them it in order to play it!

  • So missions will be able to use entities and assets from both stock TDM and this mod?

My plan is to allow that, and nothing should prevent maps with mixed assets. Keep in mind however that I ultimately want the mod to be independent, and encourage relevant missions to only use textures and entities included with it rather than a mix! If you take out every single stock TDM asset (excluding md5anim's which will be reused) the mod will be expected to work on its own.

  • Will the new assets also be non-commercial?

Unlike vanilla TDM, I don't wish to include any CC-*-NC and CC-*-ND assets with the mod. That's primarily because I find them limiting, and feel that they ruin the openness of the project.

  • Is there a name for the mod yet?

I've been thinking about it but haven't fully decided so far. I want it to be something familiar and related to TDM; Initially I wanted to call it The Dark Modern, but that sounds rather silly. The name I'm considering now is The Dark Machina, which retains familiarity with TDM and is also more theme relevant... further suggestions are appreciated.

  • What is the benefit for the community? Why should anyone put any effort into this?

The project is targeted to everyone in the TDM community who alongside a steampunk stealth game, would enjoy a cyberpunk stealth game of equal or greater visual fidelity... with exactly the same base gameplay and core functionality, but an entirely different world and atmosphere. The project will be publicly available on a Git repository of its own (most likely Gitlab), and anyone will be able to easily install it on top of vanilla TDM. Simply put: If you help and things go according to plan, you'll have a triple-A scifi game inspired by the look and feel of the DeusEx series, just as you currently have a triple-A game victorian game inspired by the look and feel of Thief.

  • What do you need help with exactly? What would others have to do?

Obviously I'm not asking others to do the work for me. But at the same time, it's not something I can just go ahead and do on my own either! For this reason I've come up with a plan, which would allow contributions to happen gradually whenever someone willing to dedicate their time to helping adds something new. This is mainly a call to existing TDM developers, who know best how to export and define new assets. If the project takes off, based on the answers I get in this thread, the starter plan is as follows:

 

I will be creating two Git repositories. One will be the official repository of the mod, which will contain assets in working format and condition... the other will contain images, sounds, blend files, and other resources in their native format. This will include freely licensed assets I find on the internet, which I will hand pick and tweak to make sure they're in the readiest state possible, then sort them in a way that's easy to work with. Most will be taken from http://opengameart.org and http://www.blendswap.com and I'll likely use a few things from Xonotic altogether! The assets included in this repository are to be exported and / or converted to TDM compatible formats, then included in the real mod repository. A list will be maintained in order to keep track of which assets have already been ported. Every ported asset can be issued as a pull request, or sent to me personally in case the contributor doesn't have access to the Git service that will be used.

 

The rigging, exporting, and conversion processes are what I require the community's help with! As far as models textures and sounds go, no new content will need to be created... I plan to use freely licensed resources which are already available and plenty, enough to create a full mod out of. Obviously I'll be doing some of the exporting and definition writing myself, but since there will be so much new content I can't do it all on my own... unless I dedicate every waking hour of my life to it for over an year, which would be more than I can handle :unsure:

 

TLDR: I'll be compiling a repository of game-ready assets, such as textures and models and sounds. Anyone who wishes to help is only asked to pick them up, adjust the TDM specific necessities (exporting to md5, creating material definitions, etc) and publicize the results for inclusion.

  • So no new content is going to be needed?

For the most part, no. There is only one exception to this rule: Voices. As they're something TDM specific, they have to be created to match the world and what's happening in it. They are however not a priority, and can happen at a later stage in the project. Until then we can live with a few cyborg troops saying things like "in the name of the Lord Builder, you shall go to the gallows, you heretic" :P

 

Other than that, I will eventually want to add new functionality. Including a Minecraft type inventory system, computer chips the player can install into their suit or body in order to gain enhancements (modules / augmentations / whatever), and most importantly a re-implementation of the interactive touchscreens in Doom 3. Those are however even more distant needs in comparison, and not what this thread will focus on at this point... I plan to look into such once I'm sure there are enough contributors to be certain this is happening altogether.

  • What do you need done for each type of asset explicitly?

Here is a list of every new asset type the mod is going to introduce, and the steps I estimate to be required for each:

  1. Characters: I will be offering the blend files of all characters scheduled for inclusion. They will contain the mesh, textures, as well as the rig that the character comes with (if available). Steps to be taken include: Rigging the character to the TDM animation skeleton after using the original rig for initial posing (including face rigging), generating the shadow mesh, making sure polygon count is within acceptable limits, and finally exporting to md5. Lastly, generating and tweaking the character definitions (stats, team, social status, voice, etc) and the material definitions for the character's textures, which should be all that's needed for the model to become a working character. Notice: I'll be preparing a blend file containing the simplified / optimized TDM rig in order to ease the process, including the face rig which I remember had to be extracted from existing characters.
  2. Models: A similar process would be needed with static models and simple entities: They will be distributed as blend files which include the model and texture, and need to be exported to ase / lwo, with entity and material definitions in place.
  3. Textures: Most will likely be distributed as jpg and png, and will need to be converted to dds and tga. The material definitions will need to be created as usual.
  4. Sounds: Will be distributed as wav or ogg, which normally don't need to be converted. Sound definitions need to be created however.

As far as specific TDM functions go, this is how I intend the modifications to work per component:

  1. Weapons: The plan is to keep each weapon the same in terms of purpose and functionality, and mainly modify the models animations and sounds. The same core code will therefore be used by each, but new entity definitions should be made in order to not affect maps using the existing items while the mod is installed.
  2. Menu: When a mission intended for the mod is installed, the main menu will use different textures and a different background song... no modifications to the entries or functionality will be made otherwise. I'm uncertain as to how this can be achieved, although it is lower on the priority list.
  • What will be the modern equivalent of existing TDM items, as well as new content?

Like I said, I plan to keep the functionality and purpose roughly the same, at least for a while. Therefore items will serve the same goals, and work almost exactly like the existing ones in TDM... it will be basically the names and appearances that change. The important replacements I currently have planned include:

  1. Weapons: Blackjack becomes Police Baton or Taser. Sword becomes Knife. Bow becomes Crossbow or Sniper (arrow types and behaviors unchanged).
  2. Items: Lantern becomes Flashlight or Keychain Light. Telescope becomes Binoculars. Compass remains Compass. Snake and Triangle lockpicks become Physical and Electronic lockpick (mechanical doors are unlocked with the first, electronic doors with the later). Potions become Medkits, Syringes, or special types of enhancements.

As far as completely new content goes in regard to items and entities, here is a rough list so far:

  1. Books & Notes: Alongside the existing books and notes, laptops / smartphones / tablets will be added. They are unrelated to future plans for interactive screens, and simply refer to new types of visuals for readable items found throughout the world.
  2. Lighting: The replacement to existing candles and torches will mostly consist of desk lamps, particularly neon and LED based ones.
  3. Characters: A similar structure of factions will be followed, compared to the existing guards + thieves + civilians + beggars + nobles. In this case the main categories will be: Police (ideally different suits for various units), gang members (once again different clothing for each gang), with modern looking civilians of various classes. There will also be entirely new outfits covering jobs existent in modern times, such as scientists or industrial workers.
  4. Robots: The existing code behind the Steambot will be used to implement multiple kinds of security drones patrolling an area. Especially in early stages before new scripts are considered, they can have the same function of only sounding an alarm when the enemy is spotted.
  5. Props: There will be various modern props added throughout the world, depending on what content I find. This will include: Flaming barrels for poorer areas, futuristic cars and bikes parked on the sidewalks, televisions that play videos (in case itTech 4 allows video textures), and the list goes on.
  • Closing thoughts:

First of all, thank you for reading this enormous post, regardless of whether you wish to support the project or not. This is something I've dreamed of creating for a while now, and I really hope at least a few artists out there are willing to support it! Please leave your thoughts if you want, as well as voting on the pool so I can more easily estimate the help I may expect.

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I guess whole thing comes down to execution - Thief 2020 is idea that can catch up if fleshed out well. Only you know how it should look, so you need to catch this mood in upcoming missions and infect people's minds with this virus. You could even make it a TDM spin-off with H.G. Wells time vehicle - intertwining medieval wilderness and collapsing future, meeting each other in new unknown branch of time.

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I guess whole thing comes down to execution - Thief 2020 is idea that can catch up if fleshed out well. Only you know how it should look, so you need to catch this mood in upcoming missions and infect people's minds with this virus. You could even make it a TDM spin-off with H.G. Wells time vehicle - intertwining medieval wilderness and collapsing future, meeting each other in new unknown branch of time.

 

Making a mission to promote the mod before it happens is a paradox, since I don't have the assets to make it with :P But although this was kept a secret till now however, I have a FM in the works that uses the vanilla assets but takes place in the future instead... no idea when it will be finished I'm afraid, but I figured it's relevant enough to mention here.

 

Also, regarding my short lived attempt at creating a city hub in Xonotic: I just remembered I still have videos of the map I made at the time! There is also a thread on the Xonotic forums where I posted more screenshots. What I did was obviously just a simple demo, but it strongly captures the mood and feel of what I hope to achieve... please take a look and let me know what you think!

 

 

 

 

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http://forums.xonotic.org/showthread.php?tid=2369

 

If this gets anywhere, I might in fact port this very map to TDM. DarkRadiant can open NetRadiant maps and vice-versa, so only the texturing and entities would have to be redone.

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Well you probably need to specify some distinct style, for now its just Hells Kitchen and it looks even more empty than original. Thief is more claustrophobic and more ominous, like cemetery at night. You need to establish some world history, who the protagonist is, what and why he is doing something and what polarities rule the city, or people in general. I don't think many people would be charmed by generic cyberpunk, you should start with some decent story or general road map that make this whole thing unique and intriguing.

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MirceaKitsune, you can join/combine my experiment: The Dark mission. (Project startpost)

Current Files for the public are on the project's google drive (public folder).

 

(to install tdmis: download the zip file, create a folder in the fm folder named "darkmission", extract the pk4 to it. open tdm, install the mission)

(for version 20170205,ignore the blue overlay)

Edited by freyk

Info: My portfolio and darkmod graphical installer
Amnesty for Bikerdude!

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Whatever you do, start with something small but viable. There are tons of people in misc gamedev forums who want to make their first game, and they start with ideas for an MMO ;) Besides, I feel we still need more high-quality missions for TDM, and we should focus on that first, but that's me.

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Thank you for the feedback and thoughts so far! I'll gladly give that thread a read as well, the experiment mentioned sounds pretty fascinating :D The thread already mentioned some of the texture packs I plan to use, such as philipk's works. I might use parts of it, depending on how much I feel each fits the environment I'm envisioning.

 

Indeed, I wish to start with something small. Ideally just enough to get something people can experience, and let that attract even more users interested in further improving it (snowball effect). There does however need to be enough usable content to do something interesting: If I just replace the bow with a rifle or add a a robotic trooper in the current TDM, it will only look silly and off... it won't offer much idea of the final feel I'm aiming to achieve, but rather something among the lines of "cool I guess, someone managed to mod a robot into TDM". So I imagine there needs to be enough work done to create an original FM out of it, be it a small one... that alone will require quite a bit of content to have been done however.

 

Regarding a distinct style: It should be kept in mind that while assets play a huge role, they don't always define the style, and instead the map itself does. My example map from Xonotic was indeed inspired by the Hell's Kitchen area in DeusEx, though it's an original location I came up with... in its case it's a more open map with only a few tighter areas, but every map can be more desolate or claustrophobic. We already see this with current FM's, where every mapper has a style of their own and every city feels completely different from any other, even if the textures and models are the same. In other words, the assets I plan to make the mod with don't guarantee a one unique feel, as that will depend on what each FM creator will do with them.

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..the experiment mentioned sounds pretty fascinating :D

It looks/plays fascinating too. :P

It has the things you mentioned in the startpost and other posts in this topic.

So lets use this for a start.

 

Indeed, I wish to start with something small.

if you want to start-with/do something, just help me with this project.

For starters, download and run the dark mission file.

Edited by freyk

Info: My portfolio and darkmod graphical installer
Amnesty for Bikerdude!

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It looks/plays fascinating too. :P

It has the things you mentioned in the startpost and other posts in this topic.

So lets use this for a start.

 

if you want to start-with/do something, just help me with this project.

For starters, download and run the dark mission file.

 

I will gladly consider helping with that! Although at first, I want to be sure we're trying to achieve exactly the same thing. To quote the important parts from my post on that thread earlier:

 

 

Just like vanilla TDM, I want my mod to ultimately be of AAA quality... meaning only high quality models with high-resolution textures are targeted. The mod must work on top of stock TDM, without in any way altering existing FM's but only adding new content which missions can choose to use. Also, unlike stock TDM, I don't want any non-commercial assets in the mod as I find them restrictive and less in the spirit of Free Open-Source Software... therefore nothing CC-BY-NC-SA or CC-BY-ND will be included. Lastly, the assets are aimed to represent a period in the near future, such as roughly the year 2050... I'll be focusing less on mundane bullet weapons or computers, and more on plasma guns or holographic displays, as well as the familiar idea of augmentations.

 

From what I've seen of your work at a quick glance, there are mainly three things I'm unsure about:

  1. You mentioned that your mod is itself a FM. What I'm trying to make will not be distributed as a FM, but instead a plugin for TDM that FM's are built on top of, installed by dropping a pk4 inside the root directory next to the stock ones. Are you planning to convert the new scripts and assets into something that works like that, and only leave the example mission as a FM?
  2. Hosting in places like Google Drive won't do long term, in my opinion we need a Git. I planed to have this on a Git repository, most likely Gitlab since they offer more space for free accounts than Github... on it the contents of the pk4 would be hosted, and contributions can be made as pull requests. If I create such a repo, and ideally make us both admins plus any trusted TDM developer interested in being one, would you consider keeping what you did so far on it? If so I can download the zip you linked and put it there, after I give it a try and think about the details.
  3. Are all of the assets explicitly freely licensed, without any CC-BY-NC-SA or CC-BY-ND ones? Can the new scripts also stay (L?)GPL like the rest of TDM's game code? I know that some mods offer their assets with an "you're free to use this how you want" disclaimer, but to be extra safe I only use explicitly licensed stuff in any serious project.
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I have to start somewhere, with my experiment:

  1. I picked up the FM-method (so i can ride the Fanilla TDM-developmentwave, for now).
  2. I picked Google drive, just to quick setup a project-environment.
  3. I use existing freely licensed/noncommercial assets,
    because i dont have the knowledge to create several things and didnt find people who are willing to help me. So i use these assets to start somewhere.

But i dont know if i want to "commercially" branch out of tdm, like the creators of gunman chronicles did.
To me, this is just-for-fun-but-serious noncommerial hobby-project. And we need games like tdm and this.

Edited by freyk

Info: My portfolio and darkmod graphical installer
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An additional sneak peak into my plans: One of the models I plan to include is my modification of the Erebus / Nyx player model from Xonotic, called Terminus. They are the only characters I'm planning to port myself for now, granted I worked with and am familiar in their regard... since they wear helmets I don't need to worry about the face rigging either. They will obviously be troopers of sorts, likely an advanced police force or army. Original thread and a few screenshots, showing both the male and female versions:

 

http://forums.xonotic.org/showthread.php?tid=4464

 

 

 

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Sorry for the multiple posts in a row: There's a limit to how many images you can embed per post, so I made one explaining each character I'm planning to start with. I wonder if there's some way to automatically convert all Xonotic characters to TDM, by converting the weight groups of their existing rig... it will definitely take its fair amount of work in any case.

 

I have to start somewhere, with my project:

I picked up the FM-method (so i can ride the Fanilla TDM-wave, for now).
I picked Google drive, just to quick setup a project-environment.
I use existing freely licensed/noncommercial assets, because i dont have the knowledge to create several things and didnt find people who are willing to help me.
So i use these assets to start.

But i dont know if i want to commercialy branch out, like the creators of gunman chronicles did.
I love the opensource community.

 

I understand. Would it be alright in that case if I was to create a Git repository and upload the latest version of The Dark Mission to it in my suggested modular (non-FM) format? I didn't get around to trying it just yet, so I need to decide whether I will do that altogether... for now I'm only asking if that would be alright with you.

 

As for licensing: Is every asset in the mod credited in a text file, with its license also clarified? Once again I'm sorry if I'm a little paranoid about such things, I just seek to do everything right :)

 

And about branching out commercially: That is of course your decision if you'll be continuing a version of the mod separately... the one I'm making will always be FOSS though. Personally I wouldn't advice it for two reasons: One is that, although our mod(s) are composed of non-NC assets so legally it would be fine, TDM has a stronger non-commercial culture around it, which I'd like to respect at least as thanks to those who made TDM possible... even taking donations for creating FM's is frowned upon last I checked, and I will need to ask about some of those aspects later. The second is because like you said, FOSS is awesome, and the charm in such a project is precisely its openness... commercially there are already way better games available, and what I wish to do is offering something special to the open-source gaming community exclusively.

Edited by MirceaKitsune
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First you have to agree to the tdm's CC-BY-NC-SA-license, because the defs/scripts/etc i use/changed for the dark mission, are under this license and others:
https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src/trunk/LICENSE.txt
Only If you agree to this and other licenses and ready to follow, then you may upload it to git.

(but in fm format, because its highly adviceable)

If you look in the pk4 file and source files, you will find license proof files.

Edited by freyk

Info: My portfolio and darkmod graphical installer
Amnesty for Bikerdude!

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First you have to agree to the tdm's CC-BY-NC-SA-license, because the defs/scripts/etc i use/changed for the dark mission, are under this license and others:

https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src/trunk/LICENSE.txt

Only If you agree to this and other licenses and ready to follow, then you may upload it to git.

(but in fm format, because its highly adviceable)

If you look in the pk4 file and source files, you will find license proof files.

 

 

Hmmm... that might be just a little bit tricky. Like I said the aim of my mod is to steer away from anything CC-BY-NC-SA, and break free from non-commercial dependencies. Obviously this means I will be writing all definitions from scratch, whereas the assets themselves will only be CC-BY-SA at most. Scripts should be okay since they're software and as that file describes, they're covered by the GPL license, which is what I plan to go with for my code too. Of course this is mostly a technical thing for my own conscience... I have no legal fears here, and concerns are mostly related to not disappointing the creators of TDM.

 

In any case, it could mean that I might have to rewrite a few things in my version to be sure the defs and scripts are original. Then again, original is a tricky concept when it comes to code; If you say have the line "for(i = 1, i == 2, i += 1)" but another code has a line exactly like that, who's to say whether you copy-pasted it or it just happens to resemble something existent? Just something I'll need to be careful about in this case, though compared to other things it's lower on my list of exaggerated worries :P

 

Anyway I'll be giving The Dark Mission a try soon, then maybe looking a bit at how it's structured and your code changes for inspiration. Still need to take time to think on what the best approach is, so I don't end up starting something that will never draw any interest and die off soon.

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Why do you see the CC-BY-NC-SA limiting, and feel that they ruin the openness?

To me as an almost-nonartist at several fields, data-combiner and amateur, its "open" enough.

(And "artists love to see their work in games, because we artists are not gamedevelopers" said the tdmis-logo creator personal to me.)

To be open, its easy. Explained in https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/:

If you use something, be noncommercial, mention the creators name in the credits(file) (and send them a postcard...)

(for example: read them by running tdmis, clicking on the credits button in the mainmenu)

And if you change something, just mention the authors name and place the file under the same license.

 

 

I hope that ourproject/experiment not going to die off soon.

I havent seen a project/experiment like this, coming from this forum or elsewhere.

So please give it a change.

Edited by freyk

Info: My portfolio and darkmod graphical installer
Amnesty for Bikerdude!

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Why do you see the CC-BY-NC-SA limiting, and feel that they ruin the openness?

To me as a non-artist at several fields and data-combiner and amateur, its "open" enough.

(And "the artists love to see their work in games, because we artists are not programmers" said the tdmis-logo creator personal to me.)

its easy, explained in https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

If you use something, be noncommercial and mention the creators name in the credits(file).

And if you change something, mention the authors name and place it under the same license.

 

We could say I was raised more in Xonotic's all-GPL environment :) I don't have anything against the NC license of course, just prefer avoiding it when possible as NC and ND are the most restrictive. Most FOSS projects do this as well, which further got me in the habit... Tuxemon for instance has some NC licensed music and assets, and the community has a pull request I watch about finding replacements to them. As for crediting, I always like to do that, even when something is Public Domain.

 

Anyway I gave the mod a try. The only differences I noticed were the main menu skin and music, the HUD, and the screen having blue tint. Those are very helpful examples, as both the menu and the HUD will of course be remade. In my case however, I might want a cvar or other kind of variable to control them, so that the menu and HUD are only modified when a mission using the modern mod is active.

 

Also I believe some of the screenshots showed some kind of warehouse map, as well as a pistol somewhere. Is a version of the mission containing those available?

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Tuxemon was in luck, because there were people that want to create new things for it.

(I want to create/remake things for something when its popular)

 

But you and i are in early development and needs traction of people. (or you have do it your-self)

I was sick of asking people to help me, so i started my own project.

And i have seen in my experiment, if you can show something is working, people are willing to share their creations.

I am happy to replace the things that i use, only if some can find/make a replacement.

When you use my experiment, you (that avoiding na-licenses) have to find people who are willing to create new things for it and replace them.

(at this moment i dont see any posts of other contributors in this topic)

 

You can walk with me, to see where it ends (and you are in a running cyperpunk project).

And you find other people who are willing to help with our ideas (creating new things and replace stuff).

 

At this moment my FM is just an my experiment and its a (for now) one-man-project-with-object-contributors.

Yes, Its a small portion i added to the fm, that that are the things i had envisioned it.

I learned much of tdm development and it helps when i'm a allrounder with little experience of all the things that needed to make a fm.

The map is just the trainings-map, standard included in TDM.

I had to, because im not a mapper and could not find a small map to test things. (but cannot use genetics map, because its to dark)

The weapons are from the rwm-packs.

For more information and to follow the early developmentsteps i made, browse trough the my start-topic, from the projects openingspost.

For example you as a people modeler, you can try to import xonotic models. (i dont know how to see your beast models in a scifi mod)

how about creating (or changing) a model (like) of human enemies from blade-yautja.

etc, etc

 

 

I added a new version of my fm yesterday, where i disabled the blueisch overlay and added some more licences external (and in the pk4)

Edited by freyk

Info: My portfolio and darkmod graphical installer
Amnesty for Bikerdude!

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I definitely understand what you mean. And I better understand now something I didn't consider at first: People will gain real interest once there is something to actually show in action.

 

Also it should be noted that I've already ported a player model of my own into TDM, for which I was able to tackle all of the challenges and add all needed features (shadow mesh, face rigging, etc). Therefore I have the knowledge as to how and what needs to be done in order to get new characters in. I've also worked with gtkRadiant over the years and have my own FM's in the works.

 

For now I'm thinking of using The Dark Mission as something to look at for inspiration. Especially since there isn't much new content in terms of new assets, and said new content is what I'm planning to start with, I'll probably initialize the project with my own planned asset ports. Starting with the Xonotic player models re-rigged for TDM, and ports of popular texture packs such as philipk or ex or track#. If I can throw some automation into play (such as a bash script to automatically generate all materials per texture set) I should be able to handle this on my own and produce something usable.

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A heads-up: I have begun working on porting ALL of the Xonotic player models into TDM, which will be the first step in the creation of my mod! This not only includes the stock models, but also custom player models I've made based on the originals over the years. A total of 18 new models are going to be included as part of the package :)

 

Z0NmXen.png

 

Unfortunately it will be a few days until they are ready; Blender's automatic weighting isn't always that smart, and the TDM armature doesn't help it either. The arms and legs bend incorrectly by default, and each model needs its weights carefully balanced. Once that's out of the way, the low-poly shadow meshes should be a cinch to make and they should be ready for export.

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Do you mean these AI will be able to use our skeletons, so basically you could spawn a guard and substitute these models, and they'd follow the guard animations properly? That would be excellent.

 

Actually I gather we'd make new def files for them as a new AI type. We'll need to eventually anyway since we'll probably want some different animations and behaviors.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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