No Honour Among Thieves v4 - EFX Edition

[nbohr1more]

After several months of hard work, we are proud to announce the latest edition of "No Honor Among Thieves"!!!

 

EFX EDITION!!!

EFX reverb has been added to all missions! NHAT has never been more immersive. From the dry woody reverb of the local pub to the sonorous and lofty echo of the Cathedrals, prepare your ears for a auditory treat!

PERFORMANCE!!!

Several major sore spots that impacted performance in v3 and older have been substantially optimized. Players with less capable hardware will now be less frustrated traversing caves, courtyards, and forests.

VISUALS!!!

Many areas have been visually overhauled!!! Improved lighting, new scene geometry, new textures, new water effects ( thanks @Arcturus !!! ),

more vertex blended terrains, and more. Some areas have been visually redesigned to better match the story and convey the key characters.

GAMEPLAY!!!

Some new play areas have been added. A little more rooftop action is available for climbers. A few new readables for side characters expand the lore of the mission. Improved AI scripted events in the final mission escape sequence!!!

Other things:

The ROQ videos have been converted to MP4 to make them more compatible with the latest TDM versions.

This mission still uses 2.09 style API controlled videos, we will rework the menu gui to be 2.10 (beta) compatible shortly so that "Dev Build" players can enjoy the additional performance and improvements available in those builds.

Credits:

@Bikerdude for the majority of the mapping work in this overhaul

@Dragofer for assisting with scripting and def setup

@nbohr1more new cathedral textures and improved water material def setup, a few readables

@Arcturus MD3 animated water and water textures

Original crew: @Goldchocobo @RailGun @Mortem Desino who created the original version along with updates to versions up to v2.0.

Thank you for permission work on this update!

V4 Beta testers:

@AluminumHaste @JackFarmer

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hotfix release:

 

Should fix two minor issues:

 

Spoiler

Blacksmith "Trinket Shipment" objective restored

Chalice puzzle now damages the player again

 

Newest Hotfix:

 

Gdrive - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e_LHa4RdZ0a1AD3FhgLq7OwvBmWUchJZ/view?usp=sharing

Onedrive - https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuwAFc1gTZzehn0z9PsAVEIH0iFn?e=Gj0p6O

 

( Some additional performance optimization to the forest and fixes to other items found by Biker and Aluminumhaste in another round of testing.)

 

For those of you who are testing the Dev Builds ( 2.10 alpha ), here is a 2.10 compliant version:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xyPwDQjMQH1TAH98Vd29UUiB0Nki1-7j/view?usp=sharing

[AluminumHaste]

@nbohr1more I posted a bunch of stuff in the beta thread.

Not sure it's ready for release.

[nbohr1more]

Gonna verify further. You were playing with SVN vs 2.09

[AluminumHaste]

Yeah SVN

[nbohr1more]

So, the major things I saw were:

 

Spoiler

2.09 testing confirmed:

 

The optional Blacksmith Trinket objective.

This doesn't even render for me in 2.09? But I suppose it should render and trigger.

 

No damage in the optional Forest Manor trophy room. I guess that Biker may have seen all the hate for this puzzle and

decided to make it a decorative loot room? If so, he probably needs to revert that.

 

[AluminumHaste]

Yeah those were the big ones

[nbohr1more]

I don't think the mission needs to be pulled for these.

They are both optional and one isn't even shown in 2.09 so a new player would never know it was missing.

I pinged Biker about a hot-fix to address them though.

[AluminumHaste]

Ok

[SeriousToni]

Oh wow that's really cool! As I'm trying to update my mission too in the near future and currently re-learning Dark Radiant I am especially curious to read what we're the obstacles you've encountered and if you've got some tips how to avoid them in the process.

[nbohr1more]

Hotfix links added to the first post.

The updater will see these fixes later this month.

[lowenz]

Thanks man!

[AluminumHaste]

On 8/19/2021 at 2:56 AM, SeriousToni said:

Oh wow that's really cool! As I'm trying to update my mission too in the near future and currently re-learning Dark Radiant I am especially curious to read what we're the obstacles you've encountered and if you've got some tips how to avoid them in the process.

Iterate iterate iterate. Don't expect to go from point a to z in one go.

Don't be afraid to throw away hours of work if not it's working out for you.

[Oktokolo]

Thanks for the update!

All three levels feel more immersive now - even though there are a lot of hovering objects and some z-fights (the biggest is the elevator platform in the warehouse in level two).

For best detectability of hovering objects, turn on ambient occlusion and crouch.

[nbohr1more]

3 hours ago, Abusimplea said:

Thanks for the update!

All three levels feel more immersive now - even though there are a lot of hovering objects and some z-fights (the biggest is the elevator platform in the warehouse in level two).

For best detectability of hovering objects, turn on ambient occlusion and crouch.

If you see any remaining issues in the hotfix release, please post screen-shots to the beta thread:

Thanks!

[nbohr1more]

Newest Hotfix release added to the original post:

Gdrive - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e_LHa4RdZ0a1AD3FhgLq7OwvBmWUchJZ/view?usp=sharing

Onedrive - https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuwAFc1gTZzehn0z9PsAVEIH0iFn?e=Gj0p6O

( No critical fixes in this hotfix, just very minor fixes for small visual issues along with some further optimization )

[darksilence]

Thanks for this! I love this campaign and will probably replay it soon

I do want to report a little issue I saw while taking a look at the first mission: there's a crate floating in the air, right outside the waterworks. Here's a screenshot: https://imgur.com/YrYUQes.

[nbohr1more]

The latest hotfix has now been committed to the mission database. It should show as a new mission update.

[JackFarmer]

Awesome to the max.

One of my favorite missions is shining in new splendor, and now that it's also equipped with EFX, it's more atmospheric than ever.

Thank you guys for your hard work.

[darksilence]

6 hours ago, nbohr1more said:

The latest hotfix has now been committed to the mission database. It should show as a new mission update.

Crate still floating in the air though.

[nbohr1more]

2.10 compliant version added to the original post

[SuaveSteve]

It would be nice if the game did not pass the lockpick sounds through the EFX. You can learn to accept that the guards can't hear the lockpicking, but when you hear it echoing across an entire courtyard, you are asking the player to learn an additional level of handwaving.

Have you considered a non-diegetic light for these doors (see attachment)? Even at 1.3 gamma, they are extremely dark and hard to spot.

[SeriousToni]

On 9/24/2021 at 8:41 PM, SuaveSteve said:

It would be nice if the game did not pass the lockpick sounds through the EFX. You can learn to accept that the guards can't hear the lockpicking, but when you hear it echoing across an entire courtyard, you are asking the player to learn an additional level of handwaving.

I was wondering if I could be the only person who always found this to be so strange.

[nbohr1more]

On 9/24/2021 at 2:41 PM, SuaveSteve said:

It would be nice if the game did not pass the lockpick sounds through the EFX. You can learn to accept that the guards can't hear the lockpicking, but when you hear it echoing across an entire courtyard, you are asking the player to learn an additional level of handwaving.

Have you considered a non-diegetic light for these doors (see attachment)? Even at 1.3 gamma, they are extremely dark and hard to spot.

 

1 hour ago, SeriousToni said:

I was wondering if I could be the only person who always found this to be so strange.

Tough call with this one. There is a no_efx keyword we could add to the sound shader:

 

lockpick_pin_00
{
    description "Made by phide"
    //sound/sfx/tools/lockpick/lockpick_pin_00.ogg

    sound/sfx/tools/lockpick/lock_pick_chain_short_1a.ogg

    no_efx
}

but that will make take away awareness of the environment.

I guess the solution is to lower the lockpick sound?
 

lockpick_pin_00
{
    description "Made by phide"
    //sound/sfx/tools/lockpick/lockpick_pin_00.ogg
    sound/sfx/tools/lockpick/lock_pick_chain_short_1a.ogg

   volume -12

}

If you want to try either of these, create a sound subfolder in your "darkmod/fms/nhat3" and copy tdm_sfx_tools_lockpick.sndshd

into it then edit the definitions as above.

tdm_sfx_tools_lockpick.sndshd

( same file exists in your tdm_base01.pk4 I believe )

[New Horizon]

It would make sense to not pass lockpicking sounds to EFX.  They're not THAT loud that they should be echoing to that degree. lol

[thebigh]

19 minutes ago, New Horizon said:

It would make sense to not pass lockpicking sounds to EFX.  They're not THAT loud that they should be echoing to that degree. lol

I agree. They're as much an auditory cue for the player as a sound in the environment, so they shouldn't echo for the same reason the thief's internal monologue shouldn't echo. Unless he has a big hollow skull or something.