Add-On: Black Light (AKA "Pimp My Visuals")

[Tels]

Moin,

 

since Dram released the Bow-add-on (angled/straight bow), I thought I'd wrap up my past arrow modifications and tweaks and release them as add-on, too.

 

This is an unofficial add-on for players that enhances TDM visuals. It does not provide anything for mappers.

And please, no discussion about new features like smokebombs in this thread!

 

Without much further ado:

 

http://www.bloodgate.com/mirrors/tdm/pub/add-ons/

 

Here are a few excerpts from the README:

 

Black Light v1.02 - Beauty enhancement for The Dark Mod by Tels © 2011

 

This mod enhances the visuals of The Dark Mod in a few places. None of these

changes affects gameplay - weapons do the same damage, propagated sounds are

not changed etc.

 

The effects are intended to be subtle, but good looking.

 

What has been changed

 

Arrows:

• Fire arrow now fume when idle, and also trail smoke in flight. When they explode, they show an air warp, and there is now longer lasting smoking.
  
• Gas arrows have a small green fume, and show a faint trail in flight. They also have a very faint light that represents the ambient light catched in the glas vial as caustics.
  
• Water arrows drip a bit, and have a also very faint light representing the ambient light catched in the crystal as caustics. When in flight, they also trail a drip-pattern.
  
• Broadheads and rope arrows now shower wood splinters, show a small puff of dust and a leave tiny mark when they break (on stone/metal etc.)
  

Mines:

• Show a longer lasting smoke when they explode.
  

v1.01:

 

Flames:

• Torch and fire flames show upwards-flowing sparklings, as well as some distortion caused by the heated air.
  

 

v1.02:

 

Flames:

• Sparks and heathaze now follow world gravity, so they look correct (and much better) for moveable torches or torches attached to AI
  
• Candle flames now have a small heathaze simulating the hot, rising air distorting the view
  

 

That's it for now

 

Installation/Deinstallation

 

Just copy the file tels_tdm_black_light.pk4 into your /darkmod folder. To deinstall, simply delete the PK4 file.

 

Bugs

 

• Mines do not show the blackening decal. (This is the same as in TDM)
  
• Due to the overriding of entity definitions, the console will show a few warnings about "a_tels.def" overriding things. This is normal and can be ignored.
  

Further Ideas

 

Enjoy!

[Aprilsister]

Kick ass. Thanks.

[Xarg]

Any chance of this being added to the core TDM build, maybe toggled on with some quality setting?

[Jesps]

Neat.

 

(I thought this would be about "negative light")

[Fidcal]

Neat.

 

(I thought this would be about "negative light")

Ditto. I was hoping for the fabled dark bomb - a reverse of the flash bomb so the player can create a dark area for 20 seconds to get through a difficult area with no alerts. So what is it Tels? A kind of shadow decal? And how does it differ from a shadow texture?

 

[EDIT] Ah - I see I'm under fan missions not editing so this is strictly an enhancement to the overall lighting for the player not the mapper?

[Xarg]

How about a smoke bomb instead of a dark bomb?It could be an alert modifier, level 6? I think is the highest, it could be a flat level 5 modifier, alerting anyone below level 5 that some shenanigans are going on, while taking a level 6 active pursuer to level 5 due to losing line of sight on the player?

Edited February 21, 2011 by Xarg

[Berny]

Wow, a smoke bomb or a dark bomb sounds very cool!! I like new stuff!!!

[Sotha]

Sounds cool, gotta try that next time I've have time to PLAY tdm..

 

Wow, a smoke bomb or a dark bomb sounds very cool!! I like new stuff!!!

 

Howsabout fixing existing stuff first before adding new stuff?

 

The mines, for example, should have some kind of proximity trigger and they should be defusable. They're pretty useless atm imho.

[Berny]

you're right, I can't use the mines - They don't explode when a enemy comes nearby.

 

A smoke grande would be cool, cause it's not for killer players (I play on hard so most of the time I can't use mines

 

EDIT: The discossion about new stuff go on here:

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11058-things-that-could-be-improved/page__st__850__gopid__248734entry248734

 

 

Edited February 21, 2011 by Berny

[Springheel]

Howsabout fixing existing stuff first before adding new stuff?

 

But adding new stuff is so cool! And fun! And new! And shiny!

[ocn]

But adding new stuff is so cool! And fun! And new! And shiny!

 

Like a pack of new crayons:)

[Springheel]

(If it wasn't clear, I completely agree with Sotha.)

[Springheel]

It was said that if you pluck an arrow (broadhead/rope) sticking in wood etc, that there should be a small shower of splinters. This is needs code support and will not be possible before v1.05.

 

I've pulled arrows out of wood before and have never noticed a shower of splinters. I'm not sure why anyone would expect there to be one, either.

 

I can think of lots of places that new particle effects might be useful though, like splashes when you drop cups or bottles.

[Tels]

Ditto. I was hoping for the fabled dark bomb - a reverse of the flash bomb so the player can create a dark area for 20 seconds to get through a difficult area with no alerts. So what is it Tels? A kind of shadow decal? And how does it differ from a shadow texture?

 

[EDIT] Ah - I see I'm under fan missions not editing so this is strictly an enhancement to the overall lighting for the player not the mapper?

 

Duh! I edited the first post to make this clearer.

[Ishtvan]

I've pulled arrows out of wood before and have never noticed a shower of splinters. I'm not sure why anyone would expect there to be one, either.

 

I can think of lots of places that new particle effects might be useful, but that's not one of them.

I put in a request way long ago for a wood splinter effect when you hit something wood with the sword. But I agree it's not a high priority compared to other things.

 

Re: Black Light, I thought this was going to be about UV lights and using D3's "spectrum" lighting effects to make certain things flouresce under UV light. AFAIK that is possible right now with light/material keywords. It seems a bit modern, but might be fun for all those "investigate crimes by finding evidence of bodily fluids" FMs, or undead rave parties.

[Tels]

I've pulled arrows out of wood before and have never noticed a shower of splinters. I'm not sure why anyone would expect there to be one, either.

 

I can think of lots of places that new particle effects might be useful though, like splashes when you drop cups or bottles.

 

Someone in the internal thread said this was the case for T2, and while I agree that A: we don't want to blindly copy T2 and B: it is not realistic, it is nonetheless C: cool and new and shiny, and fortunately for me, I don't need to pay attention to what other people want, as this is my personal, unofficial add-on

 

Anyway, currently the code of TDM does not support this, so this discussion is moot until someone adds the possibilty to start an FX when an object is picked up. I think having this possibility itself is useful, whether we use that immidiately, or not. There are lots of people who can create and use FX, but there are only a handful of people who can add the code to TDM.

[Tels]

Re: Black Light, I thought

 

I do not know whether I should weep or laugh that the name is the first and foremost thing people notice and speculate wildly what it does, instead of just reading the few lines of description... Some of them even spent more time posting speculations than it would have taken them to read the description

 

this was going to be about UV lights and using D3's "spectrum" lighting effects to make certain things flouresce under UV light. AFAIK that is possible right now with light/material keywords. It seems a bit modern, but might be fun for all those "investigate crimes by finding evidence of bodily fluids" FMs, or undead rave parties.

 

Oh, no, not another "this might be a cool feature" idea... *sigh*

[Midnight]

Re: Black Light, I thought this was going to be about UV lights and using D3's "spectrum" lighting effects to make certain things flouresce under UV light. AFAIK that is possible right now with light/material keywords. It seems a bit modern, but might be fun for all those "investigate crimes by finding evidence of bodily fluids" FMs, or undead rave parties.

Hmmm, you know blood stains appear under UV light, so even mopping up visible blood with water arrows wouldn't be enough. To restore balance to counter this new added difficulty you would also need our thief to have an arsenal of industrial strength cleaning fluids at his disposal.

 

Ahem, back on topic. Sounds like a really cool mod Tels, I look forward to trying this out.

 

 

[Springheel]

I do not know whether I should weep or laugh that the name is the first and foremost thing people notice instead of just reading the few lines of description

 

Why IS it called "Black Light" out of curiosity? The description doesn't really explain it.

[Tels]

Why IS it called "Black Light" out of curiosity? The description doesn't really explain it.

 

Because I am crap at names I wanted "black" or "dark" in it, and the only thing that came to my mind "black beauty" is trademarked and used all over the place. "Black Light" was the second next bet. It wasn't supposed to make sense

 

Can anybody think of a better name? One that doesn't restrict it to arrows or particles, tho. I imagine there would be other visual options that I'd change later.

[ocn]

I'm not sure why the name should have to be descriptive. As Tels pointed out, the description takes care of that part. I would imagine that you'd quickly run out of elegant options if you had to restrict your naming in that way. A certain degree of association between the name and the function is obviously a plus, but not needed in my opinion.

[Springheel]

It wasn't supposed to make sense

 

So I guess "Tel's Visual Enhancement Pack" is out, then?

[Sotha]

So I guess "Tel's Visual Enhancement Pack" is out, then?

 

TelsVEP sounds cool!

(I was gonna suggest something similar but -as usual- I got beaten to it^_^)

[Aprilsister]

Effron Borgnino is a perfectly good name.

[Shadowhide]

Effron Borgnino is a perfectly good name.

 

how clever !