Main Menu

[Tels]

Had a quick run through the menu and it seems nice and stable and I love the new settings menu.

 

One thing that I noticed is that still some keys are incorrectly labeled in the settings menu and some of the longer keys like "A apostrophe" run into the text on the left, making it unreadable.

 

Also, the texts in the settings menu are very faint, almost like medium grey, making it hard to read. Is this intentional?

[greebo]

A couple of minor suggestions: can the quit dark mod message override the quit mission somehow so we only get one quit confirmation to exit or maybe when exiting dark mod it could just call the quit mission? only then exit. So, if there is a game running you get a confirm message on exiting dark mod but otherwise no confirm at all?

This is implemented now. The quit dialog asks you now whether the confirmaton should come again.

 

The other suggestion is, can it be possible to Esc from the game to the last menu used instead of always the main menu. When tweaking settings etc one goes back and forth. Not critical but nice. mmm... deja vu ... think this was discussed already and not possible to eg go straight to objectives menu so I guess not. But why can't the main menu have a menu page variable with a conditional test - go straight to menu 3. The conditional test would work much like getting the user's keypress to go to that menu anyway.

I changed the menu states now so that the last visible page is remembered when switching back and forth between the game and the menu. When you leave the Objectives page open, you can go back to it by hitting ESC.

 

Oh one other, on entry into controls settings can one of them be made to show by default instead of just the headers?

Done.

 

Sorry, one more, I noticed a long pause on Esc (several seconds) from the game before the menu appears. Hope none of that is a deliberate delay?

No, this is not done on purpose. The only delay is there when the main menu is faded in from black, which occurs the first time the main menu is displayed 1) at startup and 2) when in-game.

 

One thing that I noticed is that still some keys are incorrectly labeled in the settings menu and some of the longer keys like "A apostrophe" run into the text on the left, making it unreadable.

The labels for the "special characters" are in strings/english.lang. We can change the apostrophe to something different to fix this.

 

Also, the texts in the settings menu are very faint, almost like medium grey, making it hard to read. Is this intentional?

Now that you mention it, yes it's been a 85% opaque colour, which I changed now to 100% opaque.

[Tels]

The labels for the "special characters" are in strings/english.lang. We can change the apostrophe to something different to fix this.

 

Ah very cool, then we could also technically add characters like the windows key, or Umlauts like "ö"? Can one enter Unicode into string/english.lang?

 

Edit: "RWIN" and "LWIN" are already in there, but they are not used in our menu. Just bind a key to "right window key" and see what I mean

 

Now that you mention it, yes it's been a 85% opaque colour, which I changed now to 100% opaque.

 

Cool thanx! Very good work and a lot of effort from your side!

[Flanders]

The settings menu looks good! One minor thing: I have mwheeldown and mwheelup for next/previous inventory item but the text overlaps, maybe a shorter description for mouse wheel up and down, mwup and mwdown.

 

That problem was sorted out by using tdmlauncher. I don't know if this is still in place as I've not used it for a few weeks but if you launch tdmlauncher instead of darkmod direct then it uses the arguments in darkmod/dmargs.txt.

I can't figure out how this dmargs.txt works. What exactlly should I add to it to set com_allowconsole to 1?

[Fidcal]

I confirm that overlap in next/previous inventory lines.

 

Here is my dmargs file for windowed mode with console. I think either set or seta both work...

 

# This file contains any additional or custom command line arguments to the doom3 executable.
# It is used when restarting Darkmod after installing a mission, or when darkmod is launched
# from the shortcut
+set r_fullscreen 0 +seta com_allowConsole 1

[greebo]

I've already been thinking about implementing a better way to preserve the command line arguments between sessions. Consider this not final yet.

 

I can change the descriptions for mouse wheel up/down. I can also abbreviate the "inventory" string with "inv.".

[greebo]

Ok, scratch my last post - I think the dmargs.txt is the only way to go for tdmlauncher. So in short: if you're editing your D3 command line arguments, just paste them into darkmod/dmargs.txt instead of editing the tdmlauncher shortcut.

[Fidcal]

It's worth adding that you can also have multiple dmargs with variations. Just rename it anything and add the filename as an argument for tdmlauncher in a shortcut. So, I have dmargs_Windowed.txt and dmargs_fullScreen.txt.

[SneaksieDave]

Have only taken a quick look at this point but it looks really good. Curious, is a scrollbar for the settings pages still not an option? I'm assuming it works on the Install Mission and Savegames pages (I hope?), so I'm confused if it wouldn't work for settings as well (since we're likely to need more space).

[greebo]

Have only taken a quick look at this point but it looks really good. Curious, is a scrollbar for the settings pages still not an option? I'm assuming it works on the Install Mission and Savegames pages (I hope?), so I'm confused if it wouldn't work for settings as well (since we're likely to need more space).

Please scan this thread, I explained the reasons against the scrolling stuff already. Basically, I'd have to code my own scrolling GUI code, which is a huge pain in the ass.

 

It's too late in any case, at this point I won't go back and change anything major in the menu, I'm pretty sick of GUI coding already.

[greebo]

Ok, now that the tdmlauncher is in place for both Windows and Linux, we can start testing the menu a bit.

 

I still have to implement the "Cycle Lockpicks" and "Cycle Keys" hotkeys but apart from that, it's pretty ok.

 

I also documented the FM Packaging process in this article: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php/...ck_your_Mission

 

@Fidcal: Maybe you could include this in your A-Z guide?

[Fidcal]

OK, I'll include a link and recheck what if anything I've already got on packaging. I'll check out the menus later.

[Fidcal]

Not had much time to test but I'll try again tomorrow.

 

tdmlauncher is not restarting after I install a mission. When I manually launch it again it has installed the mission though. Just tried again and this time it did. I'll see how it goes over the next few days. I wonder if this is a system thing? I never had this problem before but I think others did. This is the first time I've tried tdmlauncher on my new PC.

 

We could still use an UNinstall mission for mappers.

 

Sorry to be a pain but I still think the current install is not prominent enough and a selected mission dominates the screen. I would much rather see it like this...

 

[New Horizon]

Great work on the menus! They look fantastic.

 

I've been running into the same issue with TDMLauncher not restarting doom 3 when it says it will.

[Springheel]

I like the way you've allowed for a subtle image in the FM text.

 

A couple questions though. Shouldn't the "toggle" options (for crouch, run, etc) be under Gameplay rather than Controls?

 

Also, I'm not sure how successful the Carleton font is. While I think the size is ok (except perhaps for the gamma and brightness values), and it's clear enough, the font is very thin in spots, and the thin parts of the letters tend to fade into the parchment. Do we have a bold version we could try instead?

[Fidcal]

If you move the gamma/bright sliders to the leftmost 0 with the cursor keys then use those keys the sliders increment in neat steps of 0.1. But click with the mouse and one gets over-complex fractions. Can that be rounded down to the nearest tenth?

 

I've been looking for the default button on the scroller screens like stats and objectives. This always shows as black for me and I suspect there is a missing image file? When clicked then a true image appears. Maybe that image should show at the start? I can't even find the stats gui.

 

In addition to what I was saying earlier about moving the currently installed mission out to make it more prominet, this has the side effect of freeing up more room for missions. Many Thief players (myself included) have dozens of missions showing in Darkloader.

[greebo]

I like the way you've allowed for a subtle image in the FM text.

Thanks - I think it's also pretty easy to setup, just place the install_splash.tga in the fms/FMNAME folder.

 

A couple questions though. Shouldn't the "toggle" options (for crouch, run, etc) be under Gameplay rather than Controls?

I had to do some compromises in terms of where the options are located. IIRC I have room for 12 or 13 settings on each Controls page, and a bit less on the Audio/Video/Gameplay settings pages. If you want to rearrange the options feel free, but beware of the space available on each settings page.

 

Also, I'm not sure how successful the Carleton font is. While I think the size is ok (except perhaps for the gamma and brightness values), and it's clear enough, the font is very thin in spots, and the thin parts of the letters tend to fade into the parchment. Do we have a bold version we could try instead?

I don't have a bold version, but it's possible to alter the actual fonts images using Photoshop.

 

If you move the gamma/bright sliders to the leftmost 0 with the cursor keys then use those keys the sliders increment in neat steps of 0.1. But click with the mouse and one gets over-complex fractions. Can that be rounded down to the nearest tenth?

No, unfortunately not possible, at least not to my knowledge.

 

I've been looking for the default button on the scroller screens like stats and objectives. This always shows as black for me and I suspect there is a missing image file? When clicked then a true image appears. Maybe that image should show at the start? I can't even find the stats gui.

Screenshot?

 

In addition to what I was saying earlier about moving the currently installed mission out to make it more prominet, this has the side effect of freeing up more room for missions. Many Thief players (myself included) have dozens of missions showing in Darkloader.

I can move the installed mission part to the upper left, with a parchment background? Springheel, what do you suggest?

[Fidcal]

Here's a shot from the Load/Save menu. The black square looks like an error - like a missing button image.

 

[greebo]

Frankly, I think this look is intended. It turns atomic blue when you click on the square, doesn't it? It's the default D3 listDef stuff, I didn't see any option to change that slider graphic, I'm afraid.

[Fidcal]

Yes, not a serious problem. Maybe in doom that area is all black and nothing shows. When you move or click in that bar then, as you say, the atomic blue button shows.

 

I've checked out How to Package your Mission article more thoroughly and tested by building a basic room mission with the necessary in a pk4 and all is well. This is extremely clear and simple to follow. Made a minor adjustment by adding that the pk4 does not need to be the exact mission name - I wasn't sure myself until I tried.

 

Mmm... just occurred to me maybe we should add at the end:

 

You can include a readme.txt or similar for any extra info including credits etc.

You need only distribute your pk4 for others to play to your mission. They must, of course, have the Dark Mod resources.

[Fidcal]

I'm finding that when I install a mission that some of my doomconfig settings are changed in the install - for instance I get dumped into 640 x 480 I think it is. If I exit and copy my doomconfig from the darkmod folder into the mission folder then it is OK.

[greebo]

This is what the code tries to do when the user selects "Install Mission":

 

The new mod folder is created: C:\Games\Doom3\outpost

The PK4 files from darkmod\fms\outpost\*.pk4 are copied to c:\Games\Doom3\outpost

The currentfm.txt file is created and updated in C:\Games\Doom3\darkmod

The DoomConfig.cfg file from Doom3\darkmod is copied to Doom3\outpost (if not existing yet)

tdmlauncher is spawned.

Doom 3 exit.

[Fidcal]

Starting afresh with a test mission with no existing folder and no currentfm.txt I installed it. Comparing the two doomconfigs these are the lines changed (original from darkmod folder above, new line in FM folder below):

 

seta r_mode "-1"

seta r_mode "3"

 

seta image_ignoreHighQuality "0"

seta image_ignoreHighQuality "1"

 

seta image_downSizeBump "0"

seta image_downSizeBump "1"

 

seta image_downSizeSpecular "0"

seta image_downSizeSpecular "1"

 

seta image_downSize "0"

seta image_downSize "1"

 

seta com_videoRam "128"

seta com_videoRam "208"

[greebo]

Strange, especially the "videoRam" setting of 208, which doesn't make sense at all.

 

I notice that there is a config.spec file created in each mod folder as well - I wonder what that is?

[Fidcal]

Googling doesn't throw any light on config.spec. It's zero bytes. It is written in base and darkmod each time run I think.

 

Is doomconfig written by some doom process or something in the darkmod code? Is it possible to just copy over and overwrite it?