Search the Community

Now that Cryengine is basically free to use for community projects, and has proven itself to be ideal for large open worlds with stealth gameplay like Kingdom Come Deliverance, is there anything stopping anyone from porting TDM over with support for existing fan missions? I mean legally speaking of course, as I'm sure it would be a lot of work, but there seem to be fewer barriers than ever before. It's incredible what people have done with an engine that was built to accommodate tiny corridors on ancient hardware, but imagine an engine purpose built to render large open spaces... No more compromised visions when mapping, no more endless optimization to fit a square peg through a circular hole... And if the mission files were to be compatible with the new engine, people could just keep on mapping in DR as if nothing even changed. Cryengine Community Edition https://engine.pterosoftstudio.com/

https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134733

I just installed the cd-rom version of Thief 1 (not Gold) via Lutris (os: win98), it installed fine, but then did not work. Then I downloaded Tfix. Applied it to the directory and now it loads fine. Edit: Weird enough now the video's don't load anymore, so have to check that.. Edit2: This is fixed by simply copying all the movies from the cd-rom to the install folder. @JackFarmerI installed Thief 2 via Lutris now and encountered your problem, but got around it by removing the usb-cable of the portable dvd-drive an adding it again. It mounted correctly, but now it became the E:\ drive, but worked correctly and continued installation. Then I installed Tfix2 over it (without it it did not work). After closing the installer, Lutris Aborted, so I had to manually add the install again. But it works now. But anyway, I think you can just install it via the priviously mentioned tfix method. For tfix you have to navigate to the Thief install directory inside the wine c-drive. So for me that is: Games/thief2/drive_c/Thief2/ So Lutris installs all the files in thief2. Inside it there is a fake drive_c for wine and inside that via wine the game is installed into folder Thief2. When you use Tfix you have to navigate to that subfolder.

aye lutris has several problems handling physical cd drives it would seem. diablo II has the same problem so needs some mucking around copying files to get it going. The old thief before TFix(TFix is basically newdark) relies on dx6 so would need a somewhat old version of wine i reckon so no vulkan wrapper stuff eg. dxvk/proton wont work.

Hmm yeah newdark also works for both thief 1 and 2 and also the gold version it seems. https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141148 latest version seems to be from 2019.

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

Ah bah its a known problem with wine and some discs . It refuses to release the drive which leads to being unable to switch because even if you manage to swap the cd the explorer still shows disc 1. The reason why i havent run into it is that im using an emulator which seems to bypass wines problem with releasing the disc. As mentioned you could also just copy the content to your harddrive which should also work. Strangely not all discs are affected by this bug but call of duty is one such. And apperantly also thief it would seem.

thanks quite a few of them i have actually gotten to work on it but many of my other old games require non standard workarounds to run so im a bit afraid to even try . the worst offenders are probably my lithtech based games which can be a royal pain to get working on both linux and windows, i managed to get them working on windows 11 but it took quite some work so im not too keen on repeating that. hmm strangely i have no problem with system shock 2 which should be the same engine as thief 2 ? though i dunno if thief 2 also has access to the updated dark engine ?.

I've been told that there is a 50% chance that importing does not work correctly, till now, I had been lucky, but yesterday I got this: Is there a way to fix this?

This thread provides insights from some of the then DM coders and there are other threads as well with similar content.

should be possible to copy of steams workarounds for use with lutris in case someone does not have the game on steam. otherwise using newdark might help since it is somewhat more modern so should atleast work well with proton or dxvk (system shock 2 on newdark runs well with dxvk atleast). only problem is if you prefer thiefs old 16 bit gfx mode since im not even sure if it is supported anymore on newdark (it is not supported with system shock 2 atleast it seems ?).

I have no idea how that would work with DM/DR, but if it's anything like the AI projects I know from work, it will probably cause the concerned computers to explode and turn milk sour within a five-kilometer radius.

My old friend Andreas urgently needs my help. He asked if I could meet him at the Lion's Head Inn, our favourite retreat in a quaint part of the city called Mirkway Quarter. He’s got a small apartment nearby where he makes a modest living off paintings he sells to pompous nobles and the odd merchant. Not long ago, his wife Lily was hired as a servant at the manor of the local alderman, one Lord Marlow. Now she hasn't been home for days. Andreas went to the manor looking for her, but the guards shoved him into the gutter and warned him not to return. Andreas is certain that something bad has happened, and I don’t think he’s wrong. Gallery Authors’ Notes It all started many years ago when Shadowhide laid the foundation for a sprawling and convoluted city and worked with MoroseTroll and Clearing to create a macabre storyline to befit this medieval metropolis. At some point, however, the beast grew too large to handle, so he handed the keys to the City to Bikerdude and Melan. Together, the two worked tirelessly, passing the map back and forth, each playing to their respective strengths. Notably, Melan reworked the story concept, toning down many of its darker, R-rated elements. Eventually Melan, too, moved on in 2017, but by then large swathes of the community had become involved in this map’s development. Mapping work was contributed by Baal, Grayman, Fidcal, Ubermann, Skacky, and Flanders, while Destined, nbohr1more, and Obsttorte wrote story texts. Several scripts were provided by Grayman, Baal and Obsttorte, such as an elevator with scissor gates, a TDM first. Even after all this input, the daunting task still remained to transform what had grown into the largest TDM map ever made into a playable mission. Bikerdude hammered away at this for some more years still, on and off between other projects, until in early 2020 when he deemed it ready for public viewing. It was then that Dragofer and Amadeus joined in. In the months that followed, the trio reworked, finished, and polished the mission in nearly every aspect, fully writing out and editing the story as well as adding countless scripted effects and (with help from Bienie) many new readables. The good working atmosphere and pooled creativity brought forth several new secrets, of which the largest likely hasn’t been done before in TDM (hint: check the libraries). In the very end, the name “Fractured Glass Company” was drawn up to refer to everybody who was involved in creating this very special mission. Without the hard work of all these people, most of all Bikerdude and Shadowhide, this mission would likely never have seen the light of day, let alone become what you see here before you. The mission is, as Bikerdude puts it, a homage to Thief 1 & 2, and it’s our hope that you catch these vibes as you explore and enjoy this mission. Update 1.2 (released 04/04/2021) Update 1.1 (released 11/11/2020) Credits - Mapping: Shadowhide, Bikerdude, Amadeus, Baal, Dragofer, Fidcal, Flanders, Melan, Skacky, UberMann - Original Story Concept: Clearing, MoroseTroll, Shadowhide - Story & Readables: Amadeus, Bienie, Bikerdude, Dragofer, Destined, Melan, nbohr1more, Obsttorte, Shadowhide - Editor: Amadeus - Scripting: Dragofer, Baal, Grayman, Obsttorte - Voice Acting: AndrosTheOxen (Andreas), Joe Noelker (Player) - Video Editing: Bikerdude (briefing), Goldwell (briefing intro) - Custom Models: Bikerdude, Dragofer, Dram, Epifire, Grayman, Obsttorte - Custom Textures: Airship Ballet, Dmv88, Hugo Lobo - Custom Sounds: GigaGooga, Sephy, Shadow Sneaker, alanmcki, andre_onate, Deathscyp, dl-sounds.com, Dmv88, dwoboyle, eugensid90, gzmo, lucasduff, mistersherlock, qubodup, randommynd, richerlandtv, sfx4animation, Speedenza - Betatesting: Amadeus, ate0ate, Biene, Bluerat, CambridgeSpy, Cardia, Dragofer, Garrett(Monolyth-42), JoeBarnin, Kingsal, Krilmar, ManzanitaCrow, MikeA, Noodles, S1lverwolf, s.urfer Download Note: this mission requires TDM 2.08, which is now available for download. Please be aware that old saved games will no longer work after you upgrade to 2.08's release build. Note: it’s highly recommended to run this mission using the 64-bit client (TheDarkModx64.exe), since there've been frequent reports the mission won't load on the 32-bit client (TheDarkMod.exe). Both are found in the same folder. The mission is available from the ingame downloader. In addition to that, here are some more mirrors, as well as the official screenshots for anybody uploading this mission to a FM database: Mission: Google Drive / OneDrive Mission (v1.1, slimmed down version for 32-bit clients): Google Drive / OneDrive Official Screenshots: Google Drive / OneDrive Hi-Res Map: Imgur Links Secret loot & areas walkthrough by @Lzocast

Well, Unreal is generally trash without significant optimizations. Unity may be viable, as it's certainly shown promise in Daggerfall Unity. and yes there is a lot of work involved. I'm sure there was a lot of work involved in creating TDM in the first place, why not just stick with Dark Engine? It's not really about lighting, it's about making a contribution that everyone can benefit from. Doing the work now so that mappers can save a lot of time overall. Obviously cryengine has superior lighting techniques, but the more important aspect is being able to use more light and shadow casters without performance dropping off a cliff. Largely this is due to using modern gpu resources far more effectively rather than relying on cpu stencils or outdated hardware shadow maps.

============== -= IRIS =- ============== WELLINGTONCRAB TDM v 2.11 REQ Ver. 1.3 *For Maureen* -=- "Carry the light of the Builder, Brother. Unto its end." -Valediction of the Devoted "What year is this? Am I dreaming?" -Plea of the Thief Dear Iris, I am old and broken. When we were young it felt like the words came easily. Now I find the ink has long dried on the pen and I'm as wanting for words as coin in my purse. I can tell we are nearing the end of the tale; time enough for one more job before the curtain call... ============== -Installation- Requires minimum version of TDM 2.11 **Dev build dev17056-10800 (2.13) fixes several visual effects which have been broken in the mission since the release of 2.11. For that reason playing with that version or later is currently recommended** -Iris does not support mods or the Unofficial Patch- Download and place the following .pk4 into you FMs directory: Iris Download ============== *Thank you for playing. Iris is a large mission which can either take as quickly or as long as you are compelled to play. I hope someone out there enjoys it and this initial release is not completely busted - I tried the best I could!* *Iris both is and isn't what it seems. If commenting please use spoiler tags where appropriate. If you are not certain if it would be appropriate a good assumption would be to use a spoiler tag* *Support TDM by rating missions on Thief Guild: https://www.thiefguild.com/* ============== WITH LASTING GRATITUDE: OBSTORTTE - Whose gameplay scripts from his thread laid the foundation which made the mission seem like something I could even pull off at all. Also fantastic tutorial videos! DRAGOFER - Who built upon that foundation and made it shine even brighter! And whom also provided immeasurable quantities of help and encouragement the past couple years on the TDM discord. ORBWEAVER & GIGAGOOGA - For generously offering their ambient music up for use. EPIFIRE - Who lent me his fine trash and trash receptacle models. AMADEUS - Who was the first person who wasn't me to play the damn thing and provided his excellent editorial services to improving the readers experience playing TESTERS AND TROUBLESHOOTERS: AMADEUS * DATISWOUS * SPOOKS * ALUMINUMHASTE * JAXA * JACKFARMER * WESP5 * ATE0ATE * MADTAFFER * STGATILOV * DRAGOFER * KINGSAL * KLATREMUS - What can I possibly say? Playing this thing over and over again could not have been easy. Deepest thanks and all apologies. -=THANKS TO ALL ON THE TDM DISCORD AND FORUM=- ==SEE README.TXT FOR ADDITIONAL ATTRIBUTIONS & INFORMATION== HONORABLE MENTION: GOLDWELL - If I hadn't by chance stumbled into Northdale back in 2018/2019 I would probably still be trying to get this thing to work in TDS, which means it probably would not exist - though more details on that in readme. ============== Boring Technical Information: *Iris is a performance intensive mission and I recommend a GTX 1060 or equivalent. I find the performance similar to other demanding TDM missions on my machine, but mileage may vary and my apologies if this prevents anyone from enjoying the mission.* *Iris heavily modifies the behavior of AI in the game, how they relate/respond to each other and the player. So they may act even stranger than they do typically in TDM. Feedback on this is useful - as it can potentially be improved and expanded upon in future patches.* -=- This is my first release and it has been a long time coming! If I forgot anything please let me know! God Speed. 2.10 Features Used:

Finished this up the other day and enjoyed all the exploring. After misplacing myself on the map, (could of used a spyglass here lol), I explored the west side of the map before realizing where I wasn't headed - my apartment. So once I got my bearings I continued on my way over to my apartment and exploring the rest of the city. Thanks for all your hard work, I look forward to more.

This doesn't work. I get a black screen with a cursor and in the console I get an error stating it cannot find the file referenced in the first #include, although the file is present with that name in that location. I think maybe it's only possible to #include a gui from an external file if the file where you place the include already has some gui code?

On the upside this might make some people actually happy: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/profile/34053-xolvix/&status=4090&type=status

I think you vastly underestimate - the amount of work; the incompatibility with mission editors; the ability and availabilty of some sort of "conversion tool". But, nevermind, just go ahead, and lets us know about your progress. You pointed out the inferiority of TDM's engine often enough now. Time to port it to something superior. Good luck.

On a lighter note (and because my holiday started today, oh yeah!), let's have a new thread for music, that you just enjoy and probably is not so well known...or somehow obscure but does not sound as strange as the songs we report in @STiFU's progessive music thread. Here is one of my new favourites, a similar recording of this track by other artists has been used in an US show broadcasted last year ( @Amadeus: What is the name of the show? )

The Unreal engine and Unity engine are free to use for non-commercial projects as well, but nobody ever considered porting TDM to them. The work would just be too much for too little benefit! Also AFAIK the Doom 3 engine has some of the best lighting/shadow handling out there, even today?

I'm looking into it, no promises but maybe I can cobble together a proof of concept and get some other people on board. Mostly the benefit would be optimization and utilization of modern hardware. Modern engines have a lot more options to optimize large open spaces with high object counts. Currently mappers do a lot of extra work to get around this optimization problem using time consuming/outdated techniques that a modern engine can handle automatically, or by crippling their artistic vision to limit draw distances and object counts. Even with optimization, you can never really overcome engine limits without a massive performance hit. It would save experienced mappers quite a bit of time, and newbie mappers even more time and headaches, as they wouldn't need to pay as much attention to optimizing for engine limitations. There are some other fringe benefits, like access to more modern shading techniques. For example I recently hit a wall in trying to implement reshade for proper ground truth ambient occlusion and global illumination, as the Dark Mod's depth buffer includes some erroneous information around torches/fires. Having those shading techniques in engine would be quite an improvement, rather than hacking them in via reshade. Lighting in general should be a lot easier to program without tanking performance. I wholly disagree that TDM performs well enough. Claustrophobic mission design is the norm around here, with people who try to step outside these limitations encountering quite a performance train wreck if they don't know all the advanced tricks that Cryengine can handle much more efficiently. You can find examples of large open spaces with details, but these are the result of veteran mappers who know how to get the most out of very little, which just encourages gate keeping and fewer missions being made. There are plenty examples of TDM's pitiful default rendering of large areas, one in particular set on a bridge stands out...

No. Go right ahead. Yes, it would be. I don't even want to imagine how much. And, I also don't really see the benefit of all that work. TDM engine is solid. Might not be extremely well optimized, but, that's also not really to be expected, with a total conversion. It performs well enough for what it does.

....aaand I am too dumb to get the fracking poll work. Oh dear.