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Fan Mission: Blackgrove Manor by ddaazzaa (2021/03/14)


ddaazzaa

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23 minutes ago, datiswous said:

Is hibernation eating memory in Win10 (I don't see how)? This wasn't the case in Win7 afaik.

If it is due to the operation of hibernation itself. You open an application with hibernation activated, then Windows will create a copy of this program so that it loads right away when you hibernate the PC and take it out of it again. You will have the program open where you left it. It can be useful, but it invariably consumes resources.
With indexing something similar happens, you occupy the system with recording each change and file activity to update the index, which in traditional HDs accelerated the search somewhat but which today, especially with SSD disks, is practically meaningless.
They are two of the services that can be perfectly dispensed with, adding the other services and drivers for non-existent or unused peripherals, which has Windows activated by default and not to mention certain telemetries and services (Cortana) to 'improve the User experience (?) '.
Removing this can increase Windows performance by 10-30% and provide the missing resources to play TDM fluently.
I have always do the mentioned and on my previous PC with even fewer resources (4Gb RAM 1 Gb GPU) I have always been able to play TDM, DOOM III and the like with a more than acceptable FPS..

Windows has always had the need for a general entrance cleaning to put it in shape, it's like a Porsche that comes by default with a trailer full of junk.

Edited by Zerg Rush
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Sys Specs Laptop Lenovo V145 15AST, AMD A9- 9425 Radeon R5 - 5 cores 3,1 GHz  RAM 8Gb, GPU 1+2 Gb -Win10 64 v21H2

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Congratulations on your first release. A huge achievement. We all know just how hard it is 

to get your first map out, but deeply deeply rewarding on so many levels. Downloading now. :D

Neon

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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An excellent mission. The atmosphere was awesome, especially creeper were doors opening

behind you. Loved that bit. Was a bit of a key hunt, never did find the study key or a way

into the chapel or the tree. 

[spoiler] Would've been better if it had been a little more populated, with say a few revenants. As it was,
I just turned all the lights on and ran around with my lamp lit once the zombie was killed. Mansion
mansion was very well done, beautifully decorated and detailed. The outside grounds though seemed
a little sparse, some hedgrows could've improved that n made the outside a little maze like. [/spoiler]

Loved this mission, thanks a lot. Look forward to more from you :)

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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Elsewhere in this thread it was mentioned that the Chapel Office Key

Spoiler

was located on top of the note beside the corpse in the Grand Hall.

I never approached the note until later after the

Spoiler

corpse re-animated (the note was there but the key wasn't).

Is this supposed to happen ?

 

"Just Minutes Later"

Spoiler

I found it a distance away beside the carpet....must have jumped from shock when the corpse aroused

 

Edited by CountMorillonite
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On 3/28/2021 at 11:41 AM, duzenko said:

Guess what?

  Hide contents

tdm_show_keys

 

My goodness, thank you, you saved my playthrough!

This is exactly the reason why I couldn´t find the chapel key and couldn´t progress with a story!

Spoiler

 

After I turned on the lights, the corpse started walking and must have kicked the key away, I haven´t yet managed to check that location up to that point!

If not for the command I would have to ghost through the door, so thank you! :)

 

 

Edited by Tarhiel
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20 hours ago, CountMorillonite said:

Elsewhere in this thread it was mentioned that the Chapel Office Key

  Reveal hidden contents

was located on top of the note beside the corpse in the Grand Hall.

I never approached the note until later after the

  Reveal hidden contents

corpse re-animated (the note was there but the key wasn't).

Is this supposed to happen ?

 

"Just Minutes Later"

  Reveal hidden contents

I found it a distance away beside the carpet....must have jumped from shock when the corpse aroused

 

@ddaazzaa seems several people have left

Spoiler

the key next to the corpse causing him to kick it away when waking up making it hard to find.

 

if you're making an update to this mission consider adding the spawnarg "notPushable" "1" to the key to keep this from happening.

My Fan Missions:

   Series:                                                                           Standalone:

Chronicles of Skulduggery 0: To Catch a Thief                     The Night of Reluctant Benefaction

Chronicles of Skulduggery 1: Pearls and Swine                    Langhorne Lodge

Chronicles of Skulduggery 2: A Precarious Position              

Chronicles of Skulduggery 3: Sacricide

 

 

 

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On 4/16/2021 at 7:05 PM, NeonsStyle said:

[spoiler] Would've been better if it had been a little more populated, with say a few revenants. As it was,

I just turned all the lights on and ran around with my lamp lit once the zombie was killed. Mansion
mansion was very well done, beautifully decorated and detailed. The outside grounds though seemed
a little sparse, some hedgrows could've improved that n made the outside a little maze like.[/spoiler]

 

Spoiler

Surprisingly when I was adding the zombie I kept going back and forth about including a couple of revenants at a later stage in the mission but ended up deciding against it. I've changed my mind, see 1.01 down below and let me know your thoughts.

 

On 4/20/2021 at 8:17 AM, Bienie said:

@ddaazzaa seems several people have left

  Hide contents

the key next to the corpse causing him to kick it away when waking up making it hard to find.

if you're making an update to this mission consider adding the spawnarg "notPushable" "1" to the key to keep this from happening.

I didn't know about that spawnarg. Since that issue is happening to multiple people I've fixed it.

Can a few people please test this release to make sure I haven't introduced any bugs and maybe give feedback on the NPCs I have introduced. I want to make sure this release is good to go before replacing the original.

1.01

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wZc_nqHoX7kQvzfg08EpoRy2hyuH7mw3/view?usp=sharing

Changes:

* Fixed Chapel office key getting kicked around and lost.

* Made a couple of changes to starting inventory.

* Accounted for a 'sequence break' pointed out by tapewolf.

* Added a couple more NPCs.

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@ddaazzaa

There's an obvious performance problem at the spawn location

It's too many triangles to draw.

I used a debug cvar r_maxTri but it's broken in 2.09. I can provide you with an svn build if you're willing to look at it.

My tests (radeon 550 64-bit, getviewpos -722 -4500 -105 0 90 0)

  • regular render - 2.7M tri - 21 fps
  • MT=1000 - 1.5M tri - 54 fps
  • MT=100 - 470K tri - 85 fps

Draw call remained the same at ~7K

Do you understand what's causing this many triangles to draw?

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18 hours ago, duzenko said:

@ddaazzaa

There's an obvious performance problem at the spawn location

It's too many triangles to draw.

I used a debug cvar r_maxTri but it's broken in 2.09. I can provide you with an svn build if you're willing to look at it.

My tests (radeon 550 64-bit, getviewpos -722 -4500 -105 0 90 0)

  • regular render - 2.7M tri - 21 fps
  • MT=1000 - 1.5M tri - 54 fps
  • MT=100 - 470K tri - 85 fps

Draw call remained the same at ~7K

Do you understand what's causing this many triangles to draw?

I tracked it down to the map wide fog. At the spawn location with fog it has around 7k draw calls. If I delete the fog light entity, it drops draw calls to around 5k. Is there any particular spawn args I can use on the fog to reduce it's performance hit?

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1 hour ago, ddaazzaa said:

I tracked it down to the map wide fog. At the spawn location with fog it has around 7k draw calls. If I delete the fog light entity, it drops draw calls to around 5k. Is there any particular spawn args I can use on the fog to reduce it's performance hit?

I believe that lights now respect the lod_bias args:

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=LOD_Bias

so you can configure the fog light to only render if the LOD setting is medium or higher

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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6 hours ago, ddaazzaa said:

I tracked it down to the map wide fog. At the spawn location with fog it has around 7k draw calls. If I delete the fog light entity, it drops draw calls to around 5k. Is there any particular spawn args I can use on the fog to reduce it's performance hit?

I believe the fog only scales the underlying issue up

If the scene is already slow on triangles, universal fog will surely make it further worse

Ideally you should fix the scene so that it's under 300K triangles before fog

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Very nice first mission!

 I was surprised how well the manor itself was designed, that must have took a lot of time. And the tension! I was genuinely scared. I had to stop playing the mission during the night, and play during the day. That happened to me also with only one mission so far - Shalebridge Cradle.

Readables are very nicely written and I liked how you can systematically open every room in the house.

The only one I didn´t know how

Spoiler

was the secret room in the chapel. How do you open it? Is there a switch in the chapel somewhere?

Just as others have said, I also would like to see a resolution to a story:

Spoiler

if there´s a way how to destroy the stone and the pesky dark voice, player should be able to learn it and do it.
If we are able to find a dewdrop, we should be able to put it to some use (bring to the burial place of Mary?) to let her spirit rest at ease?

I have only one gripe with this mission - that it was too large. It has too large spaces with nothing goin on in them. Manor itself could have been shrunk down to at least half of its size and still could contain this story.

If it´s so big, why not populate it with some enemies? i have expected such a big place will be swarming with them after certain events.

And I have one question, which I wasn´t able to resolve:

Spoiler

How will you find out where the girl was buried?
I think it is the big withered three at left front side of the manor, near the polytunnel place, but I have no proof, I scouted it´s environment, I haven´t found any clue about it.
 

I even climbed it, as it seems climbable, thinking, maybe there is something in the topmost branches, but I haven´t found anything.

 

 

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I forgot to mention this but the narrator at the beginning sounds like the narrator of the Doom 3 Mod "Serengrove":

https://www.moddb.com/games/doom-iii/addons/sp-serengrove-tudor-town-of-doom

 

  • Like 1

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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8 hours ago, Tarhiel said:
  Hide contents

was the secret room in the chapel. How do you open it? Is there a switch in the chapel somewhere?

 

  Hide contents

if there´s a way how to destroy the stone and the pesky dark voice, player should be able to learn it and do it.
If we are able to find a dewdrop, we should be able to put it to some use (bring to the burial place of Mary?) to let her spirit rest at ease?

I have only one gripe with this mission - that it was too large. It has too large spaces with nothing goin on in them. Manor itself could have been shrunk down to at least half of its size and still could contain this story.

If it´s so big, why not populate it with some enemies? i have expected such a big place will be swarming with them after certain events.

And I have one question, which I wasn´t able to resolve:

  Hide contents

How will you find out where the girl was buried?
I think it is the big withered three at left front side of the manor, near the polytunnel place, but I have no proof, I scouted it´s environment, I haven´t found any clue about it.
 

I even climbed it, as it seems climbable, thinking, maybe there is something in the topmost branches, but I haven´t found anything.

 

 I've got an FAQ in the original post. I've edited a couple of the questions.

Spoiler

Where is the hidden room in the Chapel?

In the chapel under the table there is a switch that opens a hidden door on the balcony of the chapel.

Where was Mary buried?

Directly east of the pond in the front yard, you will find a green tree with a wooden cross and a patch of dirt.

There's no way of destroying the stone.

That's a nice idea of taking a posession to grave to let spirit rest.

Yes, the manor and outer grounds are quite large. It was a design choice to make it large although I might have made it a fraction too large. Kingsal pointed that out early on and it was too late at that stage to make it any smaller without a massive overhaul.

17 hours ago, duzenko said:

I believe the fog only scales the underlying issue up

If the scene is already slow on triangles, universal fog will surely make it further worse

Ideally you should fix the scene so that it's under 300K triangles before fog

I've tracked down another optimization that will help quite a bit. I use quite a lot of hedges and I didn't realise that each hedge is over 5000 polys. I use heaps in both the front and rear yards so I will be using the LOD system for those hedges. I'm not too sure why those models were made with so many polys considering hedges are most likely to used in rows and in larger quantities.

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I have completed optimizing the outdoor area. There are some very large performance improvements.

Set TDM Object Details (LOD) to Normal (or lower) to take advantage of some of the optimizations. Thanks to everyone who helped with performance suggestions.

1.02:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wZc_nqHoX7kQvzfg08EpoRy2hyuH7mw3/view?usp=sharing

I picked a few of the heavier areas and did some spot checks to compare the difference.

Before: Draws 4.3k | Tris 1.98m | FPS 143 After: Draws 3.6k | Tris 0.64m | FPS 202

Before: Draws 7k | Tris 2.8m | FPS 107 After: Draws 2.4k | Tris 0.44m | FPS 208

Before: Draws 4.4k | Tris 1.87m | FPS 139 After: Draws 3.4k | Tris 0.50m | FPS 188

Before: Draws 5.8k | Tris 2.56m | FPS 102 After: Draws 4.5k | Tris 1.04m | FPS 139

Before: Draws 7.8k | Tris 2.89m | FPS 91 After: Draws 5.6k | Tris 1.03m | FPS 137

Screenshot comparisons with stats:

Spoiler

c9Q5mYD.jpg

Chsy70p.jpg

2J9Bx6R.jpg

tbP0hTe.jpg

KqFF4Ge.jpg

1tYepYd.jpg

rO5rxxS.jpg

ZBxKOrl.jpg

9p3LfIF.jpg

0t7hHQk.jpg

 

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Thanks! I went from 50FPS to about 100FPS in the opening area. Pretty nice improvements!

Let me know if you want me to add this update to the mission database.

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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28 minutes ago, nbohr1more said:

Thanks! I went from 50FPS to about 100FPS in the opening area. Pretty nice improvements!

Let me know if you want me to add this update to the mission database.

It should be good to update in the mission database, I don't think I did anything that would have introduced any bugs. Thanks.

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2 hours ago, ddaazzaa said:

I have completed optimizing the outdoor area. There are some very large performance improvements.

 

Set TDM Object Details (LOD) to Normal (or lower) to take advantage of some of the optimizations. Thanks to everyone who helped with performance suggestions.

1.02:

 

 

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wZc_nqHoX7kQvzfg08EpoRy2hyuH7mw3/view?usp=sharing

I picked a few of the heavier areas and did some spot checks to compare the difference.

Before: Draws 4.3k | Tris 1.98m | FPS 143 After: Draws 3.6k | Tris 0.64m | FPS 202

Before: Draws 7k | Tris 2.8m | FPS 107 After: Draws 2.4k | Tris 0.44m | FPS 208

 

Before: Draws 4.4k | Tris 1.87m | FPS 139 After: Draws 3.4k | Tris 0.50m | FPS 188

 

Before: Draws 5.8k | Tris 2.56m | FPS 102 After: Draws 4.5k | Tris 1.04m | FPS 139

 

Before: Draws 7.8k | Tris 2.89m | FPS 91 After: Draws 5.6k | Tris 1.03m | FPS 137

Screenshot comparisons with stats:

  Reveal hidden contents

c9Q5mYD.jpg

Chsy70p.jpg

2J9Bx6R.jpg

tbP0hTe.jpg

KqFF4Ge.jpg

1tYepYd.jpg

rO5rxxS.jpg

ZBxKOrl.jpg

9p3LfIF.jpg

0t7hHQk.jpg

 

R550/64: 21->79fps, with just the 1/4 of old triangle count

Spoiler

heart-eyes-26.gif

 

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5 hours ago, ddaazzaa said:

It should be good to update in the mission database, I don't think I did anything that would have introduced any bugs. Thanks.

The mirrors have been updated.

Thank you!

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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9 hours ago, duzenko said:

@ddaazzaa

Can't the big copy-pasted hedge issue be helped at all?

From the looks of it, the entire hedge side can be replaced with a single rect and grass texture

It's more than 1M triangles that don't really serve much purpose

I could use the low poly version which is mostly a rectangle with texture but it looks considerably worse. The hedge is currently using lods so it's only an issue when close enough. A low-mid poly hedge that joins multiple hedge pieces together as a single model would be ideal. At the moment having small hedge pieces joined wastes polys on the interconnections that aren't visible.

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