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NiGHTMARE

The Dark Mod

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No, it's not a mod to make Doom 3 even darker :rollseyes:.

It's an attempt to create something similar in style to the Thief series of games - i.e. a gameworld which is a hybrid of fantasy & steampunk, with far more emphasis on thieving, stealth and storytelling than random killing. For legal reasons it isn't set in the actual Thief world, just one that's extremely similar.

The website already has several rather fantastic looking screenshots available, as well as various pieces of concept art and models.

I for one am looking forward to this more than any other Doom 3 mod :).

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JUNE MEGA UPDATE!

The Dark Mod version 1.06 has been released.

Notable additions:

Multi-Mission Campaign Support
Mac OSX support
New Inventor and BlackSmith AI
AI now relight Torches, Candles, and Electric lights
Savegames are now compressed
More support for Multi-Monitor configurations like Eyefinity

Also...

The final "Seasons Contest" entries have been released!!!
With these releases there are now over 45 available missions to play!

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/june-mega-update

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NiGHTMARE said:

I for one am looking forward to this more than any other Doom 3 mod :).


I didn't know that any other Doom 3 mods were in progress still... I mean, is that HeXen one still around?

Anyways, this looks pretty nice. Never heard of Thief before, but this could be a neat setup for it.

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Hexen Edge of Chaos has a demo now, and they are continuing to add levels:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/hexen-edge-of-chaos


Phobos Mod is still in-progress but they hope to release this year:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/phobos

Escape from Enemy Mountain has a newer demo:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/escape-from-enemy-mountain

The "Ruiner" mod has a public beta of their final release:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/ruiner


Arx - End of the Sun still posts progress reports:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/arx-end-of-sun


Finally, for the graphics whores out there, Sikkpin is still updating his advanced "Sikkmod" which includes such features as Real HDR, Soft Shadows, SSAO, Motion Bluf, DOF:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/sikkmod

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I have a problem with this mod...every time I start it I get a runtime error and I'm pretty sure I have the correct patch (1304) any tips?

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Do you have an ATI video card?

If so, is Catalyst AI enabled? (We recommend that you disable Catalyst AI or disable "Surface Format Optimizations" depending on your video card version and driver version.)(I have heard that recent ATI drivers can produce crashes if the CCC is not enabled.)

Do you have mods applied in your Doom 3 base folder? (They may conflict).

Where is your darkmod install directory?

(Mine= C:\Program Files\Doom 3\darkmod)


Try deleting any spare or random gamex86.dll files and let The Dark Mod and Doom 3 rebuild them.

Post a console dump if possible.

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Belated news. (My apologies).

Here are the results for The Dark Mod community's 2011 Seasons Contest:

Winner: Alberic's Curse (by BikerDude)

Scoring:

I used an average of points (x out of 5 voted) for each category then weighted the categories Gameplay x 3, Aesthetics\Story x 2 and Season Theme x 1 ... This is to match the weights for previous contests.

Ranks:

1) Alberic's Curse 81.4%
(weighted average = 4.07 out of 5 )
Author: BikerDude

2) Rake Off 79.62%
(weighted average = 3.981 out of 5)
Author: Jesps

3) Mandrasola 78.5%
(weighted average = 3.925 out of 5)
Author: Sotha

4) Reap as you Sow 70.28%
(weighted average = 3.514 out of 5)
Author: FieldMedic

5) Winter Harvest 57.12%
(weighted average = 2.856 out of 5)
Author = ShadowHide

Moddb article:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/2011-seasons-contest-results

Further details at The Dark Mod forums:

http://modetwo.net/darkmod/index.php?/topic/13019-community-seasons-contest-2011-results/

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yellowmadness54 said:

This is just too cool, and the ammount of work that looks put into it is simply amazing.


Thanks!

Right now a huge task to get the mod internationalized (and possibly Closed Captioned) is under way. The Thief community has lots of fans and mission authors from Eastern European nations so this will (hopefully) expand the pool of mission contributors. That's in addition to reworked Mine behavior, new Vine Arrow feature, better combat animations, fixes to wasted events at map launches, new male and female AI/NPC characters, etc.

Then... with Id Tech 4 going Open Source, those guys will be kept busy for quite awhile. :)

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Stop crying!

Halloween is not over yet!

All the Halloween Speed Build Contest entrants have released their missions.

Samhain Night on Bone Hill (Author: PranQster)
House in Blackbog Hollow (Author: Stumpy)
A Night to Remember (Author: Fieldmedic)
The Creeps (Author: Mortem Desino)
Dragon's Claw (Author: Bikerdude)

Plus, a bonus creepy mission outside the contest:

Let Sleeping Thieves Lie (Authors: Sir Taffsalot and Bikderdude)

Stop by Moddb and check-out the details and screens!

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/halloween-speed-build-contest

Stop by The Dark Mod forums to vote for your favorites.

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/

Now get back to celebrating this important fall occasion!

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AirRaid said:

Hopefully it'll turn out better than Thief 3 did. :P


Not sure I understand. Thief 3 was awesome, receiving almost universally positive reviews.

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Vordakk said:

Not sure I understand. Thief 3 was awesome, receiving almost universally positive reviews.


Many Thief 1 and 2 fans felt that the crippled first-person mechanics, loss of rope-arrows and swimmable water, and the many physics bugs and performance anomalies in Thief 3 were all hallmarks of an inferior (console port) edition.

The Dark Mod was conceived at a time when it was unclear whether Eidos would even make a mission\level editor for Thief 3 and the Thief Fan Mission community was up-in-arms about the fact that the editor did not ship with the game.

The Dark Mod has set-out to make the next-gen Thief mission platform that mission authors wanted. I think if you compare Thief 3 fan missions to The Dark Mod fan missions you will find that The Dark Mod is the more enjoyable play experience and looks better as well.

Try Sotha's "Thomas Porter Series" missions or Melan's "Talbot Series" missions and see for yourself.

(That said, I commend the authors of the mini campaign for Thief 3 "The Cabal" for their valiant struggles with the platform and the excellent production of their work.)

One of the Team Members from The Dark Mod made a fix mod for Thief 3 that also addresses many of the usability grievances called "The Minimalist Mod".

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nbohr1more said:

stuff


I do agree that Thief 3 could have been better. I think the game's plot was very strong, but you raise some very solid points about the gameplay lacking things when compared to Thief 1 and 2. If what you say about The Dark Mod is true, then chances are I'm going to love it. I'm gonna download it tomorrow when I finally get some time. I'm excited!

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Let me know if you have any trouble getting the mod to run. It seems that some Steam changes have caused troubles and we have some workarounds for that.

v1.07 with those fixes integrated will be here very soon... (internal alpha testing now).

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The Dark Mod v1.07 is out!



http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/the-dark-mod-v107-is-out

thedarkmod.com/main

Notable changes:

* International language localization support for missions.
* Translated HUD, GUI and Menus.
* Vine Arrows !!!!
* New combat animations and sounds
* Different Melee damage depending on weapon class
* Un-lockable Mines !!!
* New textures and compression of existing textures to DDS
* New models including Jack-o-lanterns, water tower, cloth doll, custom keys (with skins)
* New AI "waif" models
* Steam fix for problems with game saves and installing missions
* Stealth Score fixes

* Vastly improved AI behavior:

"It’s hard to describe all the ways our AI have become more sophisticated in 1.07, mostly thanks to grayman. AI will now properly notice and comment when suspicious doors are left open. They’ll notice rope arrows left dangling in lit areas, and will come over and look up or down the rope to see if anyone is on it. AI will notice if arrows are left sticking out of things (and will no longer call them “weapons”, or comment casually after getting shot with them). AI will do a better job of warning each other about suspicious events now too... If an AI sees the player but fails to catch him, he’ll warn all his friends that there is a thief in the area. If he sees a dead body, he’ll start warning people about a murderer. This causes the friends to start patrolling with their weapons out, ready for trouble. All the new interactions make the AI seem even more believable and challenging."

****

Folks... Please stop by The Dark Mod's Moddb site and place your vote for Mod of the Year.

(For your vote to count, you need to register at Moddb, otherwise your vote will only be used as a tie-breaker.)

Those hard-working developers deserve some recognition for all they've done and continue to do:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod


Thanks,

nbohr1more

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[size=200]A Campaign for The Dark Mod[/size]







We are pleased to announce that we are working on The Crucible of Omens, a full-length campaign for The Dark Mod, the moody Doom 3-based stealth game by Broken Glass Studios. Playing as the thief and adventurer John Welland Hadley, you will embark on a quest to find a powerful artifact inherited from a shadowy past. You journey will take you throughout The Dark Mod universe, discovering new and exotic locations and meeting new and interesting factions and characters. The Crucible of Omens spans multiple large missions and is being worked on by many well-known TDM mappers and team members.

Features Include:

* A wealth of different environments from the smoke-darkened city of Bridgeport to the icy northlands, from opulent mansions to the cobwebbed depths of forgotten catacombs.
* Gameplay centred on stealth, the pursuit of in-game clues and open-ended exploration, utilising the technical possibilities of The Dark Mod to create a complex, interactive game world.
* New opponents and characters. What drives the pirates of Wrecker's Reach? Who are the mysterious Urielites? And what lurks in the mind of Lord Blackstone?
* AI conversations and player character comments.
* A unique story experienced through in-game actions, animated briefings and dynamic objectives.

No official release date has been set; updates will continue as the campaign development progresses. Be sure to keep an eye out for future updates.

How can I help with the project?

We are currently looking for skilled individuals to help contribute to the project in the following areas:

* artist and animator (cutscenes and in-game animations)
* modeller (campaign-specific models)
* mapper (scripting, bugfixes, testing)
* voice actors (various)
* music composers

Main Mappers:

Angua, Bikerdude, Dram, Fidcal, Greebo, Jdude, Melan








(Note: Images have been reduced to fit board standards. Full-sized samples are available on the TDM boards.)

Finally, please remember to register (free) and vote for The Dark Mod in Moddb's Mod of The Year Contest. (Top 100)

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod


(Note: Unregistered votes will only count towards tie-breaker conditions.)

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I have no interest in this mod, but I'm really impressed by the screenshots. The Doom 3 engine is what, a decade old now? And yet these mod looks very modern, in some cases better looking than some of the games coming out now.

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nbohr1more said:

JUNE MEGA UPDATE! ...


Haha, was that a six-and-a-half year bump? :)

Awesome work and commitment to this mod though guys. Not played it, visit your website now and again to check out the updates simply because I'm amazed how polished this mod looks and the amount of work gone in to it is incredible. I remember reading some of the docs for the Dark Mod Radiant / editor; someone has put a massive amount of time in to that!

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Time to poke the bear again?

 

The Dark Mod 2.10 is out!

 

iris.jpg

 

We are proud to announce the release of The Dark Mod 2.10!


 

Quote

 

The Dark Mod 2.10 comes with considerable improvements to loading times as well as a slew of new visual and gameplay features for mappers to experiment with, such as volumetric lighting (“god rays”) and more advanced security cameras!

Many of these new features are prominently on display in the six new missions released for the 2.10 Connections Contest that are now officially available in the mission downloader!

 

 

A full changelog can be viewed here, but some highlights include:

 

For Players


Loading Times

Quote

 

Considerable effort has gone into streamlining how textures are loaded, making more effective use of multiple CPU cores, and removing artificial delays. This even includes new handwritten algorithms for normalmap compression and mipmap generation so that TDM no longer relies on graphics card drivers.

Performance Improvements
As part of ongoing performance improvements, soft stencil shadows with anti-alising will be faster to render.

 

Object Handling

Quote

 

Afraid to grab a candle near a sleeping guard? Handling objects will now produce less noise, or none at all if holding down the “creep” button. You can also now control how far an item is thrown based on how long you hold down the “throw” button. Lastly, dragging unconscious bodies should feel better now (even if rats did their best to spoil the fun a little).

Main Menu Interactions

 

Tooltips

Quote

 

Tooltips have been added for many of the items found in the settings menu: a long-awaited feature! We’ve also reorganized the procedure for switching between missions to make it more intuitive for newcomers.

 

 

Window / Input Changes

Quote

The Linux build now relies on the GLFW library to create windows and handle the keyboard & mouse, eliminating many of the issues with OS integration on Linux.
On the Windows side, some minor changes were made to fullscreen/borderless modes

.

For Mappers

 

Entity limit is no more!

Quote

What was once the bane of TDM’s most ambitious mappers, the entity limit has now been raised eight-fold to 65,536. No longer will mappers need to spend long hours merging entities.

Compilation Times

Quote

To complement the faster loading times, compilation times have been brought down too. Optimizations were made all over the dmap code, adding new algorithms and data structures to improve both speed and precision.

Advanced Security Cameras

Quote

Security cameras have been reworked from the ground up with the aim of bringing them to the same level of polish as TDM’s AIs, both in stealth gameplay and customizability. Most importantly, security cameras in new FMs will track the player or AIs and react to bodies.

Volumetric Lights (“God Rays”)

Quote

Unlike adding fake translucent geometry around lights, volumetric lights automatically match their source light, including light volume geometry, projection & falloff textures, and even shadows. Note that shadowcasting currently only works in “shadow maps” mode.

Xray Screens

Quote

Xrays are a Doom 3 feature that has been reintroduced to TDM and developed further. The screens are able to change the appearance of entities seen through them, even making them appear or disappear if desired. Look out for them in future Inventor’s Guild or magical-themed FMs.

Subtitles

Quote

 

Subtitles can now be assigned to sound files and have been added to the pre-bundled mission “Tears of St. Lucia”. Note that we did not consider localization of subtitles yet. Wiki

Tracking Secrets

 

Secrets

Quote

 

Secrets are now easy to designate, with no custom scripts required. They’ll also be shown on the mission statistics screen at the end of the mission if the FM uses the new system. Wiki

Main Menu GUI Customization

 

Menu

Quote

Mappers can change much of the main menu from a single purpose-built “customization” .gui file instead of having to replace core files. You can find more details in guis/mainmenu_custom_defs.gui inside tdm_gui01.pk4.

Since several missions had to be updated to this new system, their customization will no longer work in 2.09 or earlier versions.

Location Diagnostics During dmap

Quote

 

Location overlaps should now be much easier to find and fix thanks to new console output and pointfiles created during compilation.

Image Formats

 

Image formats

Quote

As a compact alternative to TGA for uncompressed images, PNG images can now be used in materials. Note that loading PNG images may be slower than TGA.
DDS images can now be used in image programs, although doing so is discouraged because of the additional quality loss due to compression.

New Script Events

Quote

The mapper’s scripting repertoire has been expanded by new script events for dealing with vectors and bounds, setting solidity, detecting surface type via trace, and reading more properties about entities and the player, such as “notarget” or the calibrated light gem value.

New Assets

Quote

 

Fancy Wooden Furniture
A whole new suite of fancy wooden furniture pieces including prefabs has been contributed by Wellingtoncrab. They can be viewed in the release thread.

Automaton AI
The semi-robotic AIs from Sotha’s Ulysses mission have been added to the core mod, together with new prefabs for cosmetic recharging stations to include in patrol routes as well as a camera screen showing what the automaton sees.

 

Programming

Quote

 

Tracy Profiling
TDM’s rudimentary GL profiling has been replaced with the Tracy profiler, which has its own cool viewer. It has already greatly helped the TDM development team in their optimization efforts.

Mission Database
The mission database has been moved to an SVN repository which automatically synchronizes all mirrors and makes backup copies of old versions of missions.

More Technical Stuff
A generic hash table has been added. “Clear” in the idlib method now works as most programmers expect and unit test integration has been improved.

 

To update, simply run the tdm_installer.exe file in your darkmod folder. Note that tdm_update.exe is no longer supported, but you can download the new installer from the Downloads page if you don’t have it yet.
Please be aware that old saved games will not be compatible with 2.10, so finish any missions you might be in the middle of first!

 

Moddb article:

 

https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/the-darkmod-210-is-here

 

 

 

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Thanks for the update! It's been a long time since I checked out The Dark Mod, it's great to see that the development is still active and it looks really promising. 

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Curious why a 17 year old Nick Baker post got necro bumped. This looks ridiculously cool, will definitely check out. 

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I would have posted here about the other updates but I got really busy working on the code and neglected my promotional responsibilities.

 

I figured it was time to bump things since we have finally solved one of the biggest complaints "Loading Times".

 

Maybe someone working on another Doom 3 project will copy our code vanilla Doom 3 will also benefit some day.

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