Incline True Thief 4 Dark Mod is released

[nbohr1more]

The Dark Mod 2.12 is out:

https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/the-dark-mod-212-is-here

With the new culling optimization, the last really heavy mission "Scroll of Remembrance" seems to be pretty tamed and should over over 30FPS for even the lowest-end players now ( at least in CPU bound scenarios, don't try to run it at 4K with High Quality Soft Shadows and 16xMSAA on an integrated GPU ).

Controls are smoother too with the new contextual frob to interact changes.

I plan on updating the article over the new few days.

If you have never played or haven't recently played "No Honor Among Thieves", "Alberic's Curse", or "Sir Talbot's Collateral" these have all been updated and polished during the 2.12 beta cycle so they are worth another play. Especially "No Honor Among Thieves" which now has Volumetric Light effects and has additional performance optimizations and LOD setting changes.. and subtitles too.

Final updates applied to the article. If anyone has a low-end PC and would like to try out the "Experimental Training Mission" at Moddb that would be of great assistance.

 

[Losus4]

Can those awful subtitles be disabled?

 

[nbohr1more]

Can those awful subtitles be disabled?

Yes, the Audio settings menu has the choice of "Off" , "Story" , "On". Story only renders subtitles for special dialogs whereas "On" makes a big mess and renders subtitles for every AI bark.

 

[nbohr1more]

Howdy!

We are getting ready to start a 15yr Anniversary Contest:

https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22394-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest/

Feel free to propose a theme and I'll bring it back to the core forum ( or sign-up and post there if you prefer ).

 

[Losus4]

@ nbohr1more

Whenever I try to run the DarkMod exe from my GPU control panel, the executable comes up as Netflix.... any idea why? I can 100% guarantee it's not actual Netflix as I've confirmed it to be the TDM exe, nor do I even have Netflix on my laptop as I've never used it, nor is it malware.

 

[nbohr1more]

@nbohr1more

Whenever I try to run the DarkMod exe from my GPU control panel, the executable comes up as Netflix.... any idea why? I can 100% guarantee it's not actual Netflix as I've confirmed it to be the TDM exe, nor do I even have Netflix on my laptop as I've never used it, nor is it malware.

Pretty strange? Maybe your "GPU Control Panel" is seeing the FFMPEG code in our project ( used for video briefings, etc ) and mistaking it for Netflix? Can you post a screen-shot of that?

 

[Losus4]

Sure, right at the top, I can guarantee this is TDM.exe, any idea how to fix? I can still run TDM but only via integrated card.

 

[nbohr1more]

Uninstall drivers. Use "DDU" to fully clean remnants of drivers. Uninstall Netflix App. Install the latest Geforce Drivers. Configure your Darkmod profile in the drivers. Install Netflix.

 

[Losus4]

The 2.12 update really feels great, all movement mechanics feel a lot smoother, can't quite pinpoint any specific thing, it's just everything feels much more slick and well oiled, and my FPS is improved. Great work. I think this might the best update yet.

Can anything be done to minimize eye strain for readables and the objectives screen? For a game set mostly in darkness, opening any readable is like shining a torch repeatedly in your eyes and causes headaches after a while. Would it be possible to make readables dependant on in-game light sources, i.e. if you read a book in a dark room, then it will essentially be unreadable. Make the player either read it by a light source, or use their lantern. I know that sounds like an incredibly complex mechanic to incorporate, but opening any readable more than a few times causes eye strain.

This also applies for the objectives screen. Would it be possible to make the objectives key show you the main menu objectives screen, rather than the one that pops up in real time? The real-time objectives screen is incredibly bright while the one accessed from the main menu version is much more subdued and easier on the eyes.

 

[nbohr1more]

The 2.12 update really feels great, all movement mechanics feel a lot smoother, can't quite pinpoint any specific thing, it's just everything feels much more slick and well oiled, and my FPS is improved. Great work. I think this might the best update yet.

Can anything be done to minimize eye strain for readables and the objectives screen? For a game set mostly in darkness, opening any readable is like shining a torch repeatedly in your eyes and causes headaches after a while. Would it be possible to make readables dependant on in-game light sources, i.e. if you read a book in a dark room, then it will essentially be unreadable. Make the player either read it by a light source, or use their lantern. I know that sounds like an incredibly complex mechanic to incorporate, but opening any readable more than a few times causes eye strain.

This also applies for the objectives screen. Would it be possible to make the objectives key show you the main menu objectives screen, rather than the one that pops up in real time? The real-time objectives screen is incredibly bright while the one accessed from the main menu version is much more subdued and easier on the eyes.

Glad to hear things are improved!

There is an open ticket to create a way to change readable brightness:

https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=1744

Thread:

https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index...different-gammabrightness-for-uireadablesmaps

We should return to this now that 2.12 is out the door.

 

[nbohr1more]

The contest has begun!

https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest

 

[udm]

Didn't realise Corbin was the most used character name until now.

More impressively, didn't even know there was a Wiki dedicated to the various protagonists in TDM missions. Pretty cool!

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Thief_Characters

 

[Losus4]

Playing House of Lost Secrets right now and I have to confess, I almost bailed on this map as I found the prologue too slow and imagined the map would be a series of puzzles in the monastery, but I stuck with it, and am halfway through the manor, and man this is immersive sim at its finest. The manor is very well designed and feels uncannily like the mansion from the first Resident Evil game. I've solved 2 of the mysteries so far and I can't imagine the work that went into this, coding alone, but the writing and storytelling are top notch. Not one but numerous lengthy books. Simply excellent and I'm not even finished.

 

[nbohr1more]

Happy 15th Anniversary TDM:

https://www.thedarkmod.com/news/

TLDR:

* 5 new missions released for the 15th Anniversary contest ( including Volta 3! )
* 2.13 Dev build has a mission search gui, Parallax shaders, better AI vision for objects \ bodies
* Hidden Hands: Blood and Metal ( 5 mission campaign )

Please join the celebration and vote in the mission threads

 

[Melcar]

Time to fire it up again. Hopefully Vulkan Zink works better now.

 

[udm]

Yep, time to boot it up and play new missions/replay old ones! Been a while.

 

[nbohr1more]

Happy Holidays!

Please vote for The Dark Mod at Moddb:

https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/happy-holidays-from-the-dark-mod

TLDR:

Contest Winner = Volta 3: Gemcutter
Summary of recent mission releases ( Gem of Souls, The Last Offering, A Winter's Tale, etc )
Details about the latest Dev releases

 

[nbohr1more]

THANK YOU!

The Dark Mod is now in the Top 100 list for Moddb's Mod of the Year!!!

Please vote again in the Top 100 rankings:

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

 

[v1c70r14]

Please vote again in the Top 100 rankings

Voted, but I have to wonder how this mod of the year contest works when all of the mods are old. I guess they are receiving updates or content, but won't the same few mods be selected each year if they're just the same ones as every year? With video games that is getting blurried too with all the remakes, live-service games and re-releases, but the concept I thought was to highlight the best of what was new each year.