Dark Mod Pre-Beta Download links and discussion.

[god_is_my_goldfish]

Arg, damn all you people who's games are working, im crashing horrably!

The game loads up perfectly fine and i can look around, fire arrows, swing my sword,e ect but the moment i take a step forward i hear the clicking of my heels and the game either crashes and tells me there has been a serious VPU crash or freezes my computer and emits a awful screech from my headphones untill i restart. I own a legal copy of doom 3 and my system far surpasses the minimum specs.

Any ideas

 

I'm experiencing this same exact game (and system) killing bug. Unfortunately my system locks up and has to be hard-rebooted , so I can't grab a bug report or anything (if that's even possible.)

 

My system

 

Win XP pro w/SP2

DX 9.0c

2 gig ram

AMD 64bit X2 3800

ATI 1950xt

 

Running from a separate drive than win install, shouldn't matter though. I'll see if I can get it to work on my laptop tomorrow. Might be sound related, as it crashes when player footsteps would be generated/heard.

 

 

UPDATE!!!!

So it seems that i needed the absolute latest video drivers to get it to work right. Odd that 2 month old drivers would crash it, but what can ya do...

[Komag]

Hmm, latest drivers fixed a bad game crashing issue...

 

A lot of folks are having problems with the patch, some with the dll, others with a Firefox plugin, others with Steam, others with God knows what, but people who have relatively recent drivers are unlikely (just as you were) to think they need new drivers.

 

This should probably be listed somewhere in the instructions for the mission, that if all else fails, a very VERY recent set of drivers is recommended!

[Ishtvan]

@TheDorkProject:

 

Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback. Even if some things are known issues, it still helps to see which ones people complain about the most, because that helps prioritize which ones to fix first with our limited time.

[OrbWeaver]

Note that in some cases it may be the act of re-installing drivers, not the new drivers themselves, that solves the problem.

[Denny]

Am I the only one who didn't use a single rope arrow in the demo?

[Scope]

Well, I reinstalled my copy of D3 through steam... And it runs perfectly!

 

Only thing D3 on steam does is change the .EXE for no-cd and validation purposes, and one file here and there for CD auth.

 

You can actually copy the files from a D3 retail install into the steamapps folder and it will work no problem so I believe.

 

 

Anyway... its confirmed, It definately works with steam.

 

Other than that I must say what an EXCELLENT, SUPERB, BEAUTIFUL mod this is when you look past the minor things such as AI and animations... can I look forward to seeing other sneak alpha demo's in the coming months? While its time consuming its going to keep people interested

 

My opinion:

 

I was unsure about the blackjack at first as I thought it was bugged, but I appreciate how hard it is now. Its an acquired skill and you have to learn to blackjack all over again! It's actually rewarding to get a KO now I feel as there is real tension to be caught IMO.

 

My only minor niggle right now is that it doesn't seem to use the full graphical capability of the D3 engine, especially not shadow wise.... Its all rather grey like a higher-poly TUT - but im going to chalk that down to the map composition and the way its ambience is compiled over anything else... Maps with similar dark shadows to D3 Itself would be really sexy looking.

 

Other than that I REALLY enjoyed this sneak peak, the objective to put the letter in the box was quite clever, as was the key appearing under the door, and it was fun to find the basement

 

I'd say its almost on par with many mod beta builds, when the AI is sufficiently stable it will be so much better though

 

Thanks for sharing guys,

Edited January 21, 2008 by Scope

[SneaksieDave]

Excellent, thanks for the report.

[Komag]

Well, I reinstalled my copy of D3 through steam... And it runs perfectly!

 

Only thing D3 on steam does is change the .EXE for no-cd and validation purposes, and one file here and there for CD auth.

 

You can actually copy the files from a D3 retail install into the steamapps folder and it will work no problem so I believe.

Anyway... its confirmed, It definately works with steam.

 

Can you be more specific - which files? Do you know the absolute minimum file changes needed, or did you just copy a whole directory? This may be very helpful for others with Steam!

[phide]

Nevermind.

[Tels]

Anyway... its confirmed, It definately works with steam.

 

Thanx, I added a FAQ entry to the wiki page - good to know!

[STiFU]

Who is responsible for the beautifull pictures fading in the background of the mainmenu, by the way? They look very professional. I also wonder whether you guys got highres versions of the concept arts shown on your front page. Some of them could possibly serve as beautiful wallpapers...

[Scope]

Edited to save confusion:

 

TDM works perfectly well with the Steam release of Doom3, Just install to the following path -

 

"C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\common\doom3"

 

You will most likely need to launch the game in doom 3 from the mod menu, I couldnt get the shortcut to work through steam.

Edited January 21, 2008 by Scope

[Fred_31]

Hi everybody,

 

The mod is really magic, I found what I liked on Thief. Thanks a lot for the good work you did.

I am looking forwrd the next maps... harg, please gimme gimme gimme!

 

see ya

Fred

[JamieSI]

http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/doom3/mod/20875.html

 

Please add Strategy Informer's download link to your mirror list! Thanks guys.

[Ishtvan]

@Scope:

 

I'm confused about why copying any files is necessary. Are you reporting how you confirmed that the files were identical, or are you giving people advice to do this every time they use a steam install? If it's the former, that's cool, if it's the latter, they probably shouldn't buy it on steam if they need to also buy it on disk and copy over the files. I'm probably misunderstanding.

[Ishtvan]

Dealing With Possible Load Game After Quit Bugs:

As it states in the readme, crashes sometimes occur if you save, quit Doom3, start again and load. This is not good, but if this happens to you, the following can be used as a temporary workaround:

 

Supposing you saved the game and quit, and want to load the game without crashing:

1. Start Doom3

2. Start a new mission on the same map as the savegame that you want to load. (Thief's Den is loaded just by hitting new mission, third party maps can be loaded with the console command "map <mapname>")

3. Load the savegame

 

This doesn't add much extra time as the Doom3 save loading system is fast once the map is already loaded.

[Komag]

Scope, unfortunately as you've described it it's completely unhelpful to people with the Steam version and having trouble.

 

Basically you're saying you copied ALL the files from the disc install (except for a couple - the exe and the keys) and now it works.

 

What we need to know is, if someone has the full game installed from a Steam version, what specifc file or files need to be copied over from a disc install. If it's only one file for example, then maybe we can host that one file for download for those people with only a Steam version, and they can copy it into their Steam install and it will now work for them.

 

But just the fact that you have it working one way or another gives hope - we can hopefully get to the bottom of it.

[Scope]

@Scope:

 

I'm confused about why copying any files is necessary. Are you reporting how you confirmed that the files were identical, or are you giving people advice to do this every time they use a steam install? If it's the former, that's cool, if it's the latter, they probably shouldn't buy it on steam if they need to also buy it on disk and copy over the files. I'm probably misunderstanding.

 

Was really just an explanation at komags request I think I missunderstood... oops.

 

I was just explaining that there wass NO problem for me installing TDM on a steam release of doom3, I jst explained that i used my old disk to save time (lost cd key, came with a gfx card ) all thats needs to be done is to change the path for install and it works perfectly. if anyone has any problems with steam feel free to message me and ill help any way i can

 

Original post deleted to save confusion.

Edited January 21, 2008 by Scope

[Komag]

okay in this case we just need some confirmation from two or three others with Steam version, that it works fine for them.

 

Although you DID patch before doing the copying, so that might be something...

Current Steam users with Doom 3 should check the version (Ctrl+Alt+~)

[Diss]

Hej,

 

some technical feedback first:

 

- walking speed is exactly right. I can do all the fine-graned speed controls (creeping while crouching, running while crouching etc.) that I'm used to from Thief. Walking by default is so wonderful again, so relaxed, so Thief-like... :-) It is like it used to be in Thief. Keep it that way!

 

- performance, yes, well, it's hard to drop from 60fps in Doom3 to 30fps in TDM, but as it is a slow-paced game, it is ok. It runs on my 2GHz Intel Dual Core with Radeon X1400 at a similar speed as Thief 2 did on my old Pentium III/500Mhz with a Rage LT Pro.

 

- in 640x480 the font is very hard to read, in the menus and in maps/letters. It should be a little sharper, so that you can read things in 640x480 as well as you could in Thief or Doom3.

 

- the white font when selecting a menu item is almost impossible to read on my laptop tft. E.g. I can't tell which resolution I selected when clicking on it twice. That should be a different color.

 

- chosing keys for items would be a nice feature. I used to have healing potions and flash bombs on specific keys, because that's what you might need without delay when running from the guards.

 

- give us the bow-sight, pleeeeeeease :-) Yes, because I'm used to it. It was in Thief and I want everything to be exactly like in Thief! Hit me for that, but I still want it back! (You could make it a buyable bow-upgrade :-D)

 

- maybe this part of the FAQ is outdated, but I had no problem with my path "C:\Programme\Doom 3" containing a white space...

 

 

Two questions:

- does Doom3 make use of a dual core CPU anyway? I thought I read somwhere that it was using only one core.

 

- about the high/medium/low quality settings: I missed that? Just found the resolution, anti-aliasing etc. Can I set this in the config file?

 

 

And now my game-play impressions... I've been playing Thief for many years (the real Thief, not T3) and finally came to a playing style of "play as in real life". That means I tried to avoid dying and acted as if that game was real life (and you cannot reload in real life, can you? :-)) I made it through T2 with 2 reloads and T1 with only one reload. That style of playing took me about 15-20 hours per level because I spent a lot of time watching, waiting, planning escape routes etc. (You play very different when you think you cannot reload when you are dead :-)) Playing it that way was only fun because even with the low-quality graphics (compared to other games) the Thief games felt so "real" concerning atmosphere, the sounds, the places etc. Hard-core Thief players might understand what I mean. You sit on a roof with the wind noise around you and watch the guards walking down at the streets for 15 minutes to learn their routes. And it feels like you were really there, on that roof, in your real life and not in a game.

 

I never got that feeling in any other game again. In Thief I could sit somewhere for 15 minutes and just enjoy the atmosphere of a place without doing anything.

 

Playing Doom3 was cool because it was so dark and creepy. But I always felt like I wanted to hide in the shadows like I was used to doing from Thief ;-) Until I stepped on your project two weeks ago.

 

Honestly, I think you really fully caught the atmosphere of Thief. I just walked through the first street, listened to the sounds, climbed up to the roof and stayed there for a while, listened to the rain and looked around and watched the guards.

 

And everything felt exactly like Thief! Just like I had found the secret addon level in T2. I thought this was impossible to do, but you really re-implemented the Thief universe. And there's no higher compliment that I can pay you :-)

 

Now I just hope that someone will use your implementation to write a mission set at the quality of T2X.

 

Thanks a lot for this project and keep it going :-)

cu,

Diss

[Tels]

Hej,

 

- in 640x480 the font is very hard to read, in the menus and in maps/letters. It should be a little sharper, so that you can read things in 640x480 as well as you could in Thief or Doom3.

 

640x480 is quite a bit of a low resolution and I don't think we can do anything for this as the menu is rendered by doom. (You antialiasing might also effect it)

 

- the white font when selecting a menu item is almost impossible to read on my laptop tft. E.g. I can't tell which resolution I selected when clicking on it twice. That should be a different color.

 

I guess this is because the background itself is also quite bright?

 

- chosing keys for items would be a nice feature. I used to have healing potions and flash bombs on specific keys, because that's what you might need without delay when running from the guards.

 

Healing potiens and flash bombs are not really done yet

 

- give us the bow-sight, pleeeeeeease :-) Yes, because I'm used to it. It was in Thief and I want everything to be exactly like in Thief! Hit me for that, but I still want it back! (You could make it a buyable bow-upgrade :-D)

 

It should eventually be an option, because half the people say "I want it!" (count me in and the other half says "I don't want it".

 

- maybe this part of the FAQ is outdated, but I had no problem with my path "C:\Programme\Doom 3" containing a white space...

 

We were not really sure if it causes problems.

 

- about the high/medium/low quality settings: I missed that? Just found the resolution, anti-aliasing etc. Can I set this in the config file?

 

No, as there is no support for different "quality settings" yet. All textures come only in one size and we use pre-compressed textures to keep the size small.

 

It is not yet know if this will be in v1.0.

 

Thanx for testing and liking it

 

Also, please note that TDM is not Thief. It is not even planned to be "exactly like Thief". It will be different. And we hope it will be better

[Norsu]

We've been hearing this a lot, despite that the movement speeds were carefully timed to match Thief. There's been some speculation that either people aren't aren't aware of the run key or that something (perhaps footsteps, head-bob or field of vision) makes movement feel slower than it is. Any comments?

 

I may be repeating myself, but I think it's mostly the head-bob. We are used to Thief head-bob & speed which works perfectly fine. Now that we have only the correct speed left in TDM, the missing Thief style head-bob really stands out (e.g. gives impression that the player is slower) for those who remember it well. But as always with games a minor change like this is quickly forgotten by players and they get used to it soon. Finding the correct bob is hard but I'm sure you'll manage it .

[New Horizon]

I may be repeating myself, but I think it's mostly the head-bob. We are used to Thief head-bob & speed which works perfectly fine. Now that we have only the correct speed left in TDM, the missing Thief style head-bob really stands out (e.g. gives impression that the player is slower) for those who remember it well. But as always with games a minor change like this is quickly forgotten by players and they get used to it soon. Finding the correct bob is hard but I'm sure you'll manage it .

 

Yeah, it's definitely something we're aware of. We'll get it tweaked in the future, but that's for much later in development.

[Springheel]

Healing potiens and flash bombs are not really done yet

 

Actually, both of them are working just fine (they may need some slight graphic and sound tweaks, but nothing major). It's something we've talked about doing--to be able to bind keys to specific inventory items--but I don't know if that's going to be done or not (time issues, don't ya know).

 

- give us the bow-sight, pleeeeeeease :-) Yes, because I'm used to it. It was in Thief and I want everything to be exactly like in Thief! Hit me for that, but I still want it back! (You could make it a buyable bow-upgrade :-D)

 

You're not going to get everything exactly like Thief, as this isn't Thief. Our official stance on the bow sight is that it won't be included by us, (and frankly, isn't needed...once the "lobbing" issue is fixed and you get used to aiming without it, you'll have no problems). But I'm sure someone will mod one in so you can add it to your game if you want.

[SneaksieDave]

In Thief I could sit somewhere for 15 minutes and just enjoy the atmosphere of a place without doing anything.

Kindred spirit.