Loader GUI

[New Horizon]

Doh! I forgot about the forum access limitations! I thought I was being so clever (i.e., lazy) to simply reference my previous note. Thank you so much Crispy for summarizing this.

This is correct, as long as you run tdmlauncher.exe, which is found in the \Doom3\darkmod directory. tdmlauncher starts doom3 with all the right command line args to enable this. So presumably we will need to create a desktop icon pointing to the tdmlauncher executable as part of the TDM install process.

 

Really? I've never started it like that. I just start Doom 3 and start the already installed mission from the menu. I only ever have to restart if doom 3 needs to switch FM's. I just tried launching the mod through TDM launcher and I got the doom 3 error console.

 

I used Thiefs_Den as my test case.

 

Current search path:

D:\doom3\darkmod/thiefs_den

D:\doom3\darkmod/darkmod

D:\doom3\darkmod/base

game DLL: 0x0 in pak: 0x0

Addon pk4s:

file system initialized.

--------------------------------------

Unknown command 'vid_restart'

idRenderSystem::Shutdown()

Shutting down OpenGL subsystem

...shutting down QGL

Couldn't load default.cfg

 

looks like TDM launcher is trying to execute the vid_restart command, even though doom 3 isn't running. I think it's just as simple to run from a regular doom 3 executable and select the already installed FM from the menu.

 

Just to clarify:

 

I start Dark Mod through the regular means of a shortcut pointing to the doom 3 executable with +fs_game darkmod.

 

I go to the mission selection menu, and select Thiefs_Den. I choose to install the mission. Dark Mod restarts.

 

Thiefs_Den appears in the 'currently installed' mission list. I choose to start the mission.

 

Any time I start Dark Mod after this, Thiefs_Den will already be loaded and ready for play, there are no restarts required, nor do I need to use tdmlauncher directly.

[Springheel]

Same here. It's all really quite transparent--you just select the mission you want from a list and TDM does all the rest.

[joebarnin]

Well, I'm confused (which is not big news ). I'm not in a position to check this out right now, but I'll look into it tonight. That's great that it works like that -- I'm just surprised that it does!

[Dram]

Well, I'm confused (which is not big news ). I'm not in a position to check this out right now, but I'll look into it tonight. That's great that it works like that -- I'm just surprised that it does!

 

No there is actually an error in that the objectives don't show up (at least for me) when you just start Darkmod normally.

 

Also, I get same error with the tdm_launcher.

[potterr]

I take it that the tdm_launcher wasn't in the thiefs den demo as I can't find it on my pc.

Anyway I did a slight adjustment to the code in GL and it will work now on the thiefs den demo (seen as a mod in itself) and hopefully any future mods of TDM (seen as an expansion pack), using the command details joebarnin mentioned.

 

I'm just finishing off some of the help files in GLs help and then I'll post a link to a download of a test version of GL (it will just be a patch rather than a full install).

 

I'm curious as to the folder structure of TDM. If I was to take thiefs dens files and move them about (obviously not randomly) could I create the same folder structure as TDM uses? If so which files and where should they go?

The reason I ask is I would like to see how the actual final version will be laid out and how the FM zips will be structured (I'm guessing that not all the required files were in the TD demo) and indeed if there were any other test FMs available if they could be installable and run via GL.

[Crispy]

Team members have a "darkmod" folder which is in the root Doom 3 folder. It has the standard layout for a D3 mod; maps are in maps/, textures are in textures/, sounds are in sounds/, etc. This is, I imagine, how we'll distribute the mod when it comes out.

 

Thief's Den is essentially a copy of this folder, but with most of the assets (anything not used in TD) removed and with changes to the GUI to hardcode the starting map and so on. The mission loader code is bypassed since we didn't need it. For example, tdm_launcher.exe is missing, as you've noticed.

 

You probably could create a "mod of a mod" using TD; obviously you'd need to restrict yourself to the assets used in TD since no others are yet available. And the GUI is hardcoded, so you'd have to use the "map" console command to start a map rather than clicking on buttons. But as a proof of concept for the purposes of testing GarrettLoader I don't see why it shouldn't more-or-less work. Just rename the thiefs_den folder to darkmod, and place the FM in its own subdirectory of D3 as I described earlier.

[potterr]

For info: Its taken a bit longer than I was expecting (I wasn't happy with the update mechanism), however the test version of GL that runs with The Dark Mod FMs is nearly ready. I'm finishing off the help content and a few minor bugs I spotted and I'll have it ready in a few days. I'll give some more details of what's changed and how it works with the Dark Mod nearer the time.

For the moment, you will need GL 1.41 already installed as this will just be a patch file to it. It will have the THE CHECK FOR UPDATES setting enabled and running so that it will offer to download the updated help files at start up (this saves trying to explain where the files should go). It will also offer to download any other updates (GL patches, Skins, Loot Lists and Game Reference Files), all of which you can choose to download or ignore.

Edited June 23, 2008 by potterr

[Fidcal]

Let us know when that is available. I'd like to check it out.