Beta Testing 2.09

[Xolvix]

I'm tentatively excited about doing this update, although I will have to wait until I get home. Only reason I'm tentative is due to the massive number of under-the-hood changes, but I guess that's what the beta testing is for. Couple of questions though:

(1) As per the changelog, "The additional color correction that got included into 2.08 has been disabled". What is the reasoning for the reversal? I'm fine with how 2.07 worked and I'm happy I won't have to tweak postprocess settings again, but I'm curious what the official reason is for walking back the code.

(2) There's a sharpening feature available now and it's enabled by default. I figured it would be useful if one's render scale is 100%, but if it is at 100% then does the sharpening still have value? Normally games that use sharpening are doing so because modern shaders and AA often cause blur that requires sharpening to compensate, but I wasn't aware that the Doom 3 engine (even with enhancements) suffered from this.

Anyways, should be all good!

[nbohr1more]

1) Water uses a GUI \ HUD effect and in 2.08 we disable postprocess effects on those. Doing so caused the water to remain dark when gamma and brightness are increased ( these are now postprocess effects). Reverting to the 2.07 behavior has made water respond as expected at the cost of menus that can look "blown out" if you crank any of the "color curve" post process settings. We will probably want to look into a better solution in the future.

2) Even if you render at 100% render scale, some textures in TDM are very old and low resolution so the sharpening enhances them. The effect feels much like enabling a new mode of AF. Of course it's biggest benefit is improving lower resolution scales.

[Xolvix]

I apologize but I'm still a little confused. The changelog suggests the color correction stuff has been disabled in 2.09, yet you also say the menus in 2.09 may look blown out if the "color curve" post process settings are modified (i.e. color correction).

As for sharpening, I'm curious to see what it'll look like even at 100% render scale. I just hope the default scaling setting isn't too dramatic and doesn't cause artifacts.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Xolvix

[nbohr1more]

All the old settings exist. Most of them default to 0 now.

You can restore your preferred settings just expect the menus to look a little "off".

 

Older TDM versions used hardware brightness and gamma which would cause your Desktop settings to change if

there was an unexpected exit of something went wrong with your graphics drivers.

For years folks have been begging us to move to "soft gamma" so it was finally added in 2.08 but it seems that it also brought along some additional downsides...

[Jedi_Wannabe]

7 hours ago, nbohr1more said:

No problem.

Please attach your darkmod.cfg.

In addition, please launch TDM and attempt to open your console ( CTRL + ALT + ~ ) the invoke "condump blackgfx.txt" and post the resultant file to the thread.

Also, try locating and deleting your shader cache. I believe it should be under C:\Users\You\AppData\Local\AMD

Ok, deleted my shader cache. Attached also are the two files you requested.

Darkmod.cfg blackgfx.txt

[stgatilov]

11 hours ago, Fieldmedic said:

Don't know if this is the right place, but I have some problems with both updaters...

Most likely some TDM files were locked by someone. Like running TDM/DR process, or some ghost like antivirus.
Perhaps I should implement preliminary touch of all files to avoid such issues.

On the other hand, I don't understand how it could produce the error which is shown on the first page. No idea why it is trying to delete base pk4 at this stage. I'd be happy to look at the log, but if you ran installer again after that, then it is already overwritten.

[stgatilov]

28 minutes ago, Jedi_Wannabe said:

Ok, deleted my shader cache. Attached also are the two files you requested.

Could you please change FM to something more standard, e.g. open "currentfm.txt" and write "stlucia" there (without quotes) or "newjob".

I see some menu GUI errors in console. Did you mess with main menu GUI in the FM you have installed currently?

[Jedi_Wannabe]

.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Jedi_Wannabe
Double post, apologies

[Jedi_Wannabe]

10 minutes ago, stgatilov said:

Could you please change FM to something more standard, e.g. open "currentfm.txt" and write "stlucia" there (without quotes) or "newjob".

I see some menu GUI errors in console. Did you mess with main menu GUI in the FM you have installed currently?

Oh dear, I did have a custom GUI for the main menu, among other things. I changed currentfm.txt to “stlucia” (without the quotes), saved it then relaunched TDM. Still black. Do you need a new condump of blackgfx.txt and latest darkmod.cfg?

Edited February 16, 2021 by Jedi_Wannabe

[DeTeEff]

I finally managed to update via the old method, because I couldn't get the new one to work. But is there a difference between the two game versions, on the user side? The new method is to optimize the work for the programmers right? 

[Bluehawk]

I had what sounds like the same black screen menu with working sound and an apparently functional cursor hidden from view that Jedi_Wannabe had after I updated my old 2.08 installation to 2.09. I tried deleting the config and other obvious things and it didn't work, so I put the updater in an empty folder and downloaded a fresh install of Dark Mod 2.09 to see if it would work on its own, and it did, so it's not driver-related on my end.... but now I need to download all the FMs again and rebind my controls. Rather than be foresighted and keep the old install intact for further testing, I unfortunately deleted everything but the screenshot folder and ported it over. Now I feel silly for being unable to help.

If you can't find out what's causing the conflict, consider this brute force solution (deleting everything and downloading a fresh install) as a last resort. 

[stgatilov]

21 minutes ago, Bluehawk said:

I had what sounds like the same black screen menu with working sound and an apparently functional cursor hidden from view that Jedi_Wannabe had after I updated my old 2.08 installation to 2.09.

Which of the two updaters did you use?

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I tried deleting the config and other obvious things and it didn't work, so I put the updater in an empty folder and downloaded a fresh install of Dark Mod 2.09 to see if it would work on its own, and it did, so it's not driver-related on my end....

Normally, you can run tdm_installer with advanced checks "Force scan" and "Bitwise exact zips", and you will get exactly the same zip files as on the server. Of course, it won't delete non-game files. So e.g. if you have some additional pk4 files which are not part of TDM, they will remain.

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but now I need to download all the FMs again and rebind my controls.

You can copy the fms directory from your old installation to the new one. Do the same for DarkmodKeybinds.cfg to copy controls.

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Rather than be foresighted and keep the old install intact for further testing, I unfortunately deleted everything but the screenshot folder and ported it over. Now I feel silly for being unable to help.

Yes, the problem is that if you ignore this problem, then all the other people will keep experiencing it.

[stgatilov]

35 minutes ago, Fieldmedic said:

I finally managed to update via the old method, because I couldn't get the new one to work. But is there a difference between the two game versions, on the user side? The new method is to optimize the work for the programmers right? 

TDM 2.09 is the same, the updaters are different.
The new tdm_installer allows being flexible with versions. Having developer builds, easier hotfixes, downgrading to old versions. All that with compact storage and little bandwidth on version switch.

The problem is that the old updater is going to be deleted. This is the last version available of TDM via it. If the new one does not work for you, better not delay the inevitable and try to fix it now.

[stgatilov]

To everyone for whom tdm_installer does not work.

 

There are several things which can help to diagnose the problem:

1. tdm_installer.log. Unfortunately, it is overwritten on every launch. So if something fails, better rename it to make sure the problematic log survives.
2. manifest.iniz. This file describes precisely the state of your installation (only core TDM files).
3. Contents of .zipsync directory can matter too, especially lastinstall.ini and lastscan.ini.

Also, please write your exact OS.

 

As a troubleshooting approach, you can try running tdm_installer with advanced checks "Force scan" and "Bitwise exact zips". But please save the aforementioned files before trying it: if it will help, there would be something to look at at least.

[DeTeEff]

Stgatilov, ahh but now that I already have updated, how can I verify that the newer version is going to work? Isn't it just gonna say "You already have the newest version, no update will be made" or do you suggest I downgrade and then try to fix the new method? 

[stgatilov]

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Stgatilov, ahh but now that I already have updated, how can I verify that the newer version is going to work?

If tdm_installer is buggy, then it's hard to be sure in anything.
If you share your manifest.iniz, I can inspect it manually, and see if your files are correct (although it is not 100% right approach).

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Isn't it just gonna say "You already have the newest version, no update will be made"

It does not know which version you have now (well, almost), so it cannot detect that you already have the newest version. It remembers checksum of every file in every core pk4/zip, and stores this info in manifest.iniz. And if you set "Force scan" or simply delete this manifest.iniz file (better delete .zipsync directory too in such case), then it will forget it and rescan your whole installation.

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or do you suggest I downgrade and then try to fix the new method? 

This is also an option, and it won't need much time/bandwidth to try. But better try "Force scan" on the "Bitwise exact zips" checks too.

[Bluehawk]

19 minutes ago, stgatilov said:

Which of the two updaters did you use?

Ah, this might be the problem actually. I followed the link on the official release announcement to download the new 'tdm_installer' linked here under Windows (32-bit) - https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20460-new-tdm_installer-and-dev-builds/

...But when I extracted it to my folder, the file had a "date modified" of 01/01/2000 (a little strange considering its "date created" is in 2021), so it got lost in the directory and looked like an old file. I absentmindedly used the older "tdm_update.exe" from 17/06/2020 which looked comparatively newer. That might be what caused the conflict in the first place.

 

[stgatilov]

12 minutes ago, Bluehawk said:

Ah, this might be the problem actually. I followed the link on the official release announcement to download the new 'tdm_installer' linked here under Windows (32-bit) - https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20460-new-tdm_installer-and-dev-builds/

...But when I extracted it to my folder, the file had a "date modified" of 01/01/2000 (a little strange considering its "date created" is in 2021), so it got lost in the directory and looked like an old file. I absentmindedly used the older "tdm_update.exe" from 17/06/2020 which looked comparatively newer. That might be what caused the conflict in the first place.

It is obvious that you used old tdm_update, but it still does not explain why it did not work for you.

[DeTeEff]

Stgatilov, I just extracted my custom files (maps, xdata etc) into another folder, removed the whole game and did a clean install. It works and I hope I'm all game for future updates! Thanks for contributing with your hard work!

[Xolvix]

Well I tried it out. Did some comparison between 2.08 with my customized settings and 2.09. It inherited my settings and looked identical (as expected), so I renamed my config and allowed the game to recreated a fresh one for comparison. It was brighter until I remembered gamma was still set to 1.2 by default even though the color correction was now disabled - setting it to 1.0 made it look better and similar to what I had set before.

Which leads me to a question - the default in 2.09 are now as per this post (which is also where I got the idea to reduce gamma to 1.0). I don't have 2.08 anymore to test, but if hypothetically I applied those same values to the settings in 2.08, would that have also resulted in the same 2.07 look? If so... what was the point of those colorCorrect/desaturation settings in the first place? I always assumed it was due to modifications in the renderer that required such compensation.

Again I apologize since this seems like I'm obsessing over colors too much, but I just want to know how things work.

EDIT: Well well, seems like tdm_update has been dropped in favor of tdm_installer, which can install an old version of TDM for reasons such as this. All hail tdm_installer!

Edited February 16, 2021 by Xolvix

[TheUnbeholden]

Anyone notice that the compass is really bright now?

[wesp5]

11 hours ago, TheUnbeholden said:

Anyone notice that the compass is really bright now?

It looks fine to me, but I remember an old bug due to which it was almost white. The command r_useFBO 1 was supposed to fix that and I would have thought that this was set to default because of this bug. If it wasn't, it should be in 2.10, no?

Edited February 18, 2021 by wesp5

[cabalistic]

4 minutes ago, wesp5 said:

It looks fine to me, but I remember an old bug due to which it was almost white. The command r_useFBO 1 was supposed to fix that and I would have thought that this was set to default because of this bug. If it wasn't, it should be in 2.10, no?

It is, in fact, not just default, but mandatory. The option doesn't exist anymore, FBOs are always active.

[wesp5]

2 hours ago, cabalistic said:

It is, in fact, not just default, but mandatory. The option doesn't exist anymore, FBOs are always active.

Good to hear :)! But what is his issue then? Has the brightness changed over time? I don't remember...

[Jedi_Wannabe]

Any more suggestions for my black screen issue? Let me know what additional info I can provide.