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Hello and thanks for checking out this post. I'm delighted to announce that version 1.1 of my fan mission "Cole Hurst 1: Eaton" is now available to download and play. This post is spoiler free, so please don't avoid digging into the details below if you are interested. I'm just using the spoiler tags to organize this post a bit. Let me start by saying "thank you" to anyone who has either previously played - or is considering playing this mission. It really means a lot to me. I have been away for a while, but following a round of beta testing that took place some time last year, I've only just recently managed to finish this update. I'm slightly embarrassed by how long it has taken me to complete, but I wanted to make sure that the valuable feedback I received was all properly addressed. Mission description "Tonight, Eaton's wealthiest citizens will gather at Lord Mayor Zelmer's estate to celebrate the city's founding. Nobles, dignitaries, a famed musician, and even the Queen will pass through its gates. While the guests celebrate Eaton's future, Cole Hurst is looking for a way out." For those new to and/or curious about this mission: I guess I would describe it as a traditional heist-style mission - although with a couple of major plot twist along the way. It's a very large map and I think it should take most players at least a few hours to complete. Screenshots Changes in version 1.1 Countless additions and a large amount of smaller tweaks and changes have all made it into this release. I may have already forgot a few things, but here are what I consider to be the main highlights: * New secrets & optional side quests * Story tweaks and reworked readables * Subtitles * Difficulty tweaks and related changes * Stability fixes * Various cosmetic changes * Audio tweaks * TDM version 2.13 now required Contributions and acknowledgments A special thanks to all of those listed below. I'm sincerely grateful for all your contributions! Mission testers and technical support @nbohr1more, @stgatilov, @duzenko, @Acolytesix, @Dragofer, @JackFarmer, @Shadow, @Cambridge Spy, @wesp5, @madtaffer, @prjames, @suzy8track, @datiswous, @boissiere and @Bergante Story Kelly Hrupa Voice actors twhalen2600 (AKA @Benny_the_guard) and Kelly Hrupa

So TDM has a lot of textures with alpha, and an added level of detail I like to make this textures cast shadows. Where said textures are twosided this isnt possible, but when said texture is on a model you can remove the twosided line and still see both sides of the texture. And because you have remove the twosided line that textures with then cast a shadow. I have attached a stock fern that I have tweaked to cast a shadow. The issue I'm running into is I am trying to do the same thing on the palmtree leaf texture and for the life me I cant get the alphatest to work on the leaf texture. Its just casting a shadow of the whole patch, instead of the edges of the leaf... So any idea's on what I'm doing incorrectly in this instance?

I gave on that path fairly quickly after even increasing both to 32k made no difference. The custom shadow mesh for the model was the way to go.

For the people eager to play with the latest state of development, two things are provided: regular dev builds source code SVN repository Development builds are created once per a few weeks from the current trunk. They can be obtained via tdm_installer. Just run the installer, check "Get Custom Version" on the first page, then select proper version in "dev" folder on the second page. Name of any dev version looks like devXXXXX-YYYY, where XXXXX and YYYY are SVN revision numbers from which the build was created. The topmost version in the list is usually the most recent one. Note: unless otherwise specified, savegames are incompatible between any two versions of TDM! Programmers can obtain source code from SVN repository. Trunk can be checked out from here: https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src/trunk/ SVN root is: https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src Build instructions are provided inside repository. Note that while you can build executable from the SVN repository, TDM installation of compatible version is required to run it. Official TDM releases are compatible with source code archives provided on the website, and also with corresponding release tags in SVN. A dev build is compatible with SVN trunk of revision YYYY, where YYYY is the second number in its version (as described above). If you only want to experiment with the latest trunk, using the latest dev build gives you the maximum chance of success. P.S. Needless to say, all of this comes with no support. Although we would be glad if you catch and report bugs before the next beta phase starts

There's now an editable fan mission list on the wiki, for the sake of tracking missions made for The Dark Mod. Please read and follow the guidelines, and help keep the list up to date! Direct link, but also accessible from the wiki title page: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Fan_Missions_for_The_Dark_Mod Discussion of changes (format, policies, entries, etc.) can take place in this thread. --------------------------------------- There is also now a wiki page to track upcoming fan missions: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Upcoming_Fan_Missions Submissions, progress, and any discussion for missions under construction can take place here: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11639-upcoming-fan-missions/

Yes, it may be enough to just change the def_projectile spawnarg. The flashbomb might have some unique scripting that depends on player inputs, but in that case it would be possible to clone the rock projectile, give it a flashbomb model and make it cause a flashbomb effect when it hits something. Likewise, you can change the weapon and arrow projectile spawnargs. As long as the new entity can function as a weapon (the right spawnargs in its entityDef, a collision model etc.) it will work. We have a selection of non-standard weapons in the core assets already.

We have been collecting textures for 4+ years, by nearly a dozen different people. It is inevitable that some textures will not stand up well in terms of quality. This thread is the place to nominate textures you think are poor and should be either fixed or removed. The following process will be followed (we are currently on step 1):

also one gripe i had with all the 32 bit bashing was the buzzword that all current cpu's are 64 bit, no they are not and if you research it a bit you will see that i am right. they are 32 bit processors with a 64 bit register addition not the other way around. this came to be after AMD developed the x86_64 standard because of demand and forced intel to reevaluate the itanium. https://devicetests.com/difference-between-x86-64-amd64-64-bit and even they get it wrong... by pointing out that a 32 bit cpu cannot run 64 bit software when most cpu's today are indeed 32 bit with a 64 bit register . a 32 bit OS however cannot run 64 bit processes because the VM is not set up that way but it could be done. a real i686 or i386 cpu however cannot run 64 bit no matter what VM you have. It is all in the details x86_64 means its an x86 processor with a 64 bit register, if the reverse should be true someday it would have to be named something like x64_86. the only real (intel standard compatible) 64 bit cpu is the itanium which as you might guess can only run 64 bit software (vm's do not matter in that regard). i tried it many years back and it ran quite ok. the real gripe was that most software at the time was 32 bit so it was hell to get any work going on it. even worse the software had to be built for the itanium model... steam and wine for one just had a recent fallout with ubuntu because they wanted to scrap 32 bit multilibs completely. steam is 32 bit and they do not have any current plans for porting the client to 64 bit, wine also got hissy because it would mean most of they're userbase would dissapear as many use it for both older games as well as older but better tools than what is currently on offer. so ubuntu relented but it is only a matter of time before it becomes a hard target as the push to put the older arch's in the grave is massive.

So following on from the conversation here - Here is the first draft of a basic block-out of that church, if there is interest I will complete the creation info a flashed out prefab and model - church.pfbx

Ideally there should be entirely new player character model made for this.

So I have made discovery, I put the model inside another light entity with a smaller volume (500,500,600) and the palm tree leaves started casting shadows as expected. The light in other area has radius of 6000 6000 100. @stgatilov is there any work around for this issue..? I already have a custom mission config with the following lines set as I have other parts of the map with large trees and medium sized lights that cast shadows from thier leaves just fine -

I frankly would have been p***ed off if they would have changed the level geometry in the Tomb Raider remasters. Especially considering the controls and movements were made with fixed units in mind. They had a hard time implementing the modern controls because of that. There are some things which are not possible with the modern controls. I'm a bit split regarding the Thief Gold remaster though. I don't really think it is as necessary as the Tomb Raider remasters, for example. TFix works fine. For Tomb Raider, the fact alone that you are not restricted to 30 FPS like in the original games was a huge advantage of the remasters, not to talk about the graphical improvements, widescreen support, and a lot of bug fixes. You pretty much have that with Thief Gold and TFix already. In the Steam forums, they mentioned the advantage of having new people getting into Thief, but, I don't think it will be that many.

What are the steps for importing an obj model sucesfully into tdm, without converting it to ase or lwo? I tried it recently with a cat model, but it didn't show up well in tdm, while the lwo version did. (If obj support doesn't work properly after all it should be investigated, fixed, or support should be removed)

NTC should be used on everything next-gen, but it's up to the developers. You can use the old way of compressing textures alongside NTC in the same game, for example if there's some artifacts you're trying to avoid on a specific texture. Sony may also have a feature on its servers allowing the console to download only the set of textures/assets it needs. For example, a lower quality texture pack for the PS6 handheld vs. the PS6 console. NTC will work on RDNA2, Nvidia itself tested it, but it may be slow. And if you turned it off but the developer went big with it, maybe 24 GB VRAM fills up. I'm just speculating, we need to see some real world use to figure it out, and that will mostly be years from now.

How do I properly import an lwo model with skeleton and textures into darkradiant, so that it is the same as the existing AI? What I mean is, I want the head and body separated, and the model I made to use the existing animations etc. I've looked all over the wiki, and the darkradiatn and qeradiant user guides to see if I could find anything, but found nothing exactly as I needed. When I try to just import the model (without bones), he's laying flat, face up, and the textures are all screwed up. Here's an example of my model in lightwave:

Yep, you can switch between the old and new graphics with F1. Unfortunately, the old graphics only run with 30 FPS. And, texture filtering is deactivated, which makes it look even worse.

This updated version is now animated instead of crudely moving from side to side or up and down etc.

Just a new model pack and slightly improved textures? They didn't even try to improve level geometry... I expected more from them.

This might be a bit off-topic, but aside from privacy , change to service model and telemetry issues, Microsoft is now scrambling to optimize windows performance and resource efficiency for cheap low-end devices that will be competing with the MacBook Neo. I like to see that, they’re starting to feel the heat. this should be their expression now :

Elaborate what? There isn't more than install it and adjust the sound to your like, that is, intuitive and easy. The sound improve is inmediate. Both permits settings and effects which those from your OS don't have, apart of the few standard settings of your sound card. This maunly in laptops with little speakers or poor sound card isn't enough to filter and boost the sound, eg, improving voices, background, dynamics...... Both are OpenSource and free. I simply like to share it when find and use a good soft (always OpenSource)

@greebo I've been learning a lot from your code and the architecture of DarkRadiant. Never had a C++ unit test suite that ran so smoothly! Kudos to you for all the fine work on the project. I'm happy to help in any way that you guys choose to. I just added a nightly build to the repo, that should make it easy for you guys to try out new features as soon as they are pushed into master. Yes, I think the bug tracker is the best place. Since there is a lot of history there, it helps me understand why certain things were done in a way, so I can avoid creating new bugs or disrupting existing workflows. And then we can use the forums for discussions/ideas/etc. I already have an account, just need that editor status so I can mark things as closed. @kingsal @IZaRTaX the latest build should have the fixes so that user scripts can be loaded from the user folder, and attached to hotkeys. @Frost_Salamander I'm focused on https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6547 right now and it's been difficult for me to see what the "correct" alignment should be. Can you attach a .map with what the alignment should be? That would a lot.

Preface HUD-elements are often a technical necessity, to convey important information to the player that would otherwise not be available to them. A problem with such HUD-elements is that they don't belong to the virtual world. They make it painfully clear to the player that they are just playing a game, thereby reducing immersion. There are many genres, where you need to have such information available at all times, think fast-paced first person shooters, Mobas, or strategy games. However, especially for genres featuring free exploration, that information is simply not needed at all times. Some games (e.g. Dead Space or Metro series) have gone to extreme lengths to completely eliminate HUD elements by integrating all relevant information in the virtual world. While this is of course the most immersive approach, it is also the hardest to implement. A much easier solution is to rely on a dynamic HUD, where certain HUD elements are displayed depending on context. In recent years, I have become hyper focused on immersion. I can't stand a cluttered HUD ("sensory overload") or a map full of quest pointers ("feels like work"). I want to immerse myself in the world, not tick of pointers on a map. About a year ago, having played a ton of WoW in my youth, I played the alliance fraction on WoW Classic for the first time. Via interface addons, I had my UI completely disappear during exploration, but when I entered combat or clicked on an enemy, the UI would become visible. The minimap would generally only become visible during mouse-over. The same goes for non-combat-relevant action-bars. I paired that with a text-to-voice addon for the quest texts and some nice dynamic camera addons that would zoom in on characters when talking to them. Of course I also did not use any quest-GPS addons, so that I actually had to pay attention and search the world for the quests. It was super immersive and a glorious experience reminiscent of the 2004 release. So naturally, having played a lot of TDM recently, I am thinking about how we could improve our dynamic HUD in TDM for immersion-seekers. Current State of Dynamic HUD in TDM The HUD of TDM already has quite some dynamic elements Healthbar only shows if we are not at 100% health Breathbar only shows if we are not at 100% breath Weapon only shows if a weapon is selected and ammo text only shows if ammo is relevant to that weapon Inventory-Icon and -text only shows if an item is selected Pickup- and object-update texts are only displayed momentarily Ideas for More Dynamic HUD Elements in TDM So basically, with every HUD element, we should ask ourselves the following questions: Added information: Does this HUD element actually convey any information? Relevant when: In what situation is that information relevant? Let's start! (Please note that all proposals below shall be made optional under some "tdm_dynamic_hud"-cvar or something like that, so I am not planning to take anything away from anyone) I will update this list of ideas as we go. Weapon HUD Blackjack and Sword Added information: None. The player can see the 3d model of both weapons, so the HUD does not add any information. Relevant when: Never Proposal: Remove completely --> Very easy (already tested) Bow and arrows Added information: Arrow type and amount. Sadly, the 3d model does not show the type of arrow unless the bow is drawn. So, the icon and weapon text add information. Also, there is the ammo display. Relevant when: Player is equipping the bow Proposal: Investigate if we can alter the non-drawn bow model such that it already shows the arrow type. If that works nicely, remove arrowtype and arrow icon from HUD and potentially move the ammo display around and make it bigger. I would need support from a 3d modeler here! Proposal: Consider showing the arrow amount only briefly when the weapon is selected (and/or when the player presses "R"?) (and/or ammo amount changes) and then fade it out again. Healthbar Added information: Health Relevant when: Player is losing health. Player is likely going to loose health, e.g., when in combat or when breath bar is close to zero. Player is preparing to enter combat. Player has very low health Proposal: Briefly show after losing health; Show when equipping a weapon (possibly limit to sword?); show when breath is close to running out; show when health is below some threshold (like 20%) Breathbar: Already very dynamic. No action needed! Inventory HUD (Not the inventory grid) Compass Added information: direction Relevant when: When player equips it. Must not fade-out unless a different item is selected. Other items: Added information: Selected item Relevant when: Only during selection (or when player forgot which item is selected) or when the item can be used with the world Note: I had added the tdm_frob_item_selects_item to prevent items being selected when picking them up, thereby eliminating the respective HUD annoyance. However, I found that frequently, I wanted to use the picked up item right away (a readable, a key, etc.), so this approach is not working well. Proposal: Briefly show after selecting an item, then fade-out. Show item when it can be used on a world entity. For picking up items, consider selecting, but not showing them, so player can use them right away without HUD pop-in. When HUD is not shown, pressing next or prev item should not go to next / prev item, but just show the HUD element. Are there maybe other types of inventory items that need special treatment? Shouldering HUD Added information: Shouldering state Relevant when: Always when shouldering a body Proposal: It would be awesome if we could actually have the 3d model shouldered in view. Then we could get rid of the HUD, but of course, this would be very hard to achieve. Lightgem Added information: To some degree, visibility of player Relevant when: sneaking about or running to hide (so basically always) Discussion: It is actually debatable, how much information is really added, because the player can already tell how well illuminated they are just by looking at the environment. I would say minimalists simply disable the lightgem and all others keep it on all the time. Crouch-intent indicator Added information: Crouch-intent, i.e., while it is impossible to change crouched-state, the crouch-state that will be assumed once crouched-state is unlocked again. Current crouch state can be seen by looking at the 3d world. No indicator needed for that. Relevant when: Only while crouched-state is locked / cannot be changed. Proposal: Only show when crouched-state and crouch-intent differ? Any other UI elements I forgot? Another aspect of dynamic HUDs is HOW visibility is controlled. HUD elements might pop-in instantly or gradually fade in and out, like our FrobHelper. I would say, having HUD elements fade in and out looks generally more appealing, but I would need some advice on how to best control transparency. Should transparency be handled by the GUI scripting or dictated by the engine like in the case of the FrobHelper? What makes most sense here?

I've just added another copy of the map called 'paste-correct-alignment.map'. It has the correct texture alignment across all 3 faces on that right-most group of brushes.

Back in the day, Tels managed a squad of volunteer translators for TDM. I am not Tels, and could never do that. Nowadays, language translation using AI, either traditional machine learning (ML) models or large language models (LLMs), is common and increasingly fluent. It is often used as an adjunct to speed the work of professional human translators. By itself, AI translation can be imperfect but usually sufficient. Can this "sufficient" approach be used for TDM, to expedite translations? Let's see. I gave some initial thought to a bulk-translation daemon that might range across FMs and fill in all missing translations, without necessarily involving mappers. In the future, possibly AI could tackle that whole enchilada. I was at first visualizing something more modest: a backbone in a standard programming language (I sketched out C++ and C# projects, but lots of other possibilities) that would make calls to an API (I looked at those of Google Translate and ChatGPT). However, I changed focus due to certain concerns... Different FMs, and subsets with each FM, would likely have far better translations if they were properly grouped, ordered, and translated separately, with an appropriate context (e.g., phrase engineering) added. The FM's mapper is best placed to provide this grouping and context. I'll detail what I mean in the next few posts. The mapper would not be expected to know any TDM-supported languages besides English. Instead, each translated phrase could be back-translated to English and examined. Is the "round-trip" meaning OK, even if the English words have changed? Problematic translations could have their context tweaked and rerun. Many AI systems, particularly for API access, require a billing commitment (e.g., credit card). For a professional translator, this is no problem, and subscriptions allow access to more (and putatively better) models and higher quotas. This seems less appealing for TDM. A few paid AI systems have a no-subscription, pay-as-you-go account tier. The cost per translate is typically pennies. But it does introduce quota- and expense-management, and may exclude API usage. Access via API requires an API key (or at the higher end more elaborate security regime), with attendant key-security headaches. Which AI model is thought "best" for translation? Doesn't matter too much, because we can't afford the best. Furthermore, there's endless churn among AI models, with antidotal reports that a given model fluctuates in quality over time, and successor models can be worse than their predecessors. So, with these concerns in mind, I looked for public web-based AI sites that require no billing and provide low-quota but adequate AI. The mapper would enter and retrieve data manually. I will focus on ChatGPT in this exploration, after a quick preliminary test confirmed some promise. Also, as this exploration proceeds, I hope to propose changes to TDM to make it more viable for "sufficient" quality machine translation. Problem areas are incomplete fonts, space-constraints, and layout issues for translated strings. My proposals will likely surface as separate forum threads. That's enough for now. I'll be trying for 1 or 2 substantive posts per week, as I tackle a particular FM.

I don't think NTC will be a problem. All signs point to Neural Texture Compression being frequently used by game developers targeting next-gen RDNA5-based consoles. This could include a PS6 handheld with a relatively weak (checks notes) 16 CUs RDNA5 @ 1.2-1.65 GHz, and 24 GB LPDDR5X. But RDNA5 will have massive AI performance gains over RDNA2/3/3.5. My gut tells me the 6060 will be fine for most things, as long as they give it 3 GB GDDR7 modules for 12 GB on 128-bit bus.