nbohr1more on 18/10/2024 at 20:24
Happy 15th Anniversary to The Dark Mod!As of October 17th. 2024, 15 years have passed since the TDM 1.0 release!
In that time, we evolved to most or all of the features that players were asking for since the concept of TDM was first mooted in the TTLG forums in late 2004. Campaign Support, Soft Shadows, EFX Reverb, Multi-Core Rendering, Uncapped FPS, Ambient Occlusion, Subtitles, are among the roster of perennial requested things that have been brought to life by the development team in addition to the core Thief 1 \ 2 game-play items like the Lightgem, Rope Arrows, Swim-able water, lock-picking and ( of course ) advanced AI enemies.
To commemorate this occasion, please join us in celebrating the Release of 5 missions for our 15th Anniversary Contest!
The Imperial SwordInline Image:
https://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/4/4000/imperial_sword1.jpgBikerdude was encouraged to reclaim an abandoned version of his older mission and rework it into a new one. Now the formerly lost work is a glorious new experience with scripted dialog, special events, and a decayed imperial cityscape!
The Wizard's TreasureInline Image:
https://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/4/4000/wizt_splash.jpgTheBigH has made yet another bite-sized mission with a focus on quality game-play and challenge. The mission is extra impressive for the scope and visuals achieved since his decision to join the contest was fairly late compared to other entrants.
You Only Fly ThriceInline Image:
https://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/4/4000/yoft3.jpgDeTeEff has continued his progression of high quality and complex releases. Another relative late comer to the contest, this mission is a tour-de-force of excellent game-play ideas and is quite handsome with excellent volumetric lighting and modular asset usage.
Volta 3: GemcutterInline Image:
https://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/4/4000/gemcutter2.jpgKingsal has decided to release his long awaited Volta Series sequel to be included in the contest. DO NOT MISS THIS MISSION!
Pinnacle: A Test of TalentsInline Image:
https://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/4/4000/pinnacle2.jpgUncertainTitle and TwilitWitch decided to risk their first mission release to be included in the contest roster. The use of both modular assets and many custom models give this mission a familiar yet refreshing visual appeal.
Please join the celebration and vote in the forum threads for each respective mission based on their contest criteria
( Game-play, Story, Visuals ).
The Dark Mod 2.13 “Developer Build”The Dark Mod 2.13 is still a few months away from release but we wanted to highlight the fact that a few more of the long requested changes have been added in the upcoming release!
[video=youtube_share;PTnLJPS9jkM]https://youtu.be/PTnLJPS9jkM?si=enj9IMi3apLDTK6b[/video]
Parallax Occlusion Mapping!In the above video, you can see a that TDM has finally incorporated the long requested effect. This wont be applied to all textures since there may be some problems with visual anomalies and performance but we are already preparing for a future where lots of textures use this new and more three dimensional surface effect.
Better AI sight!While the AI have always been good at seeing the player due to the lightgem ( sometimes “too good” so we had to nerf their sight ), AI have had various challenges seeing things like bodies, missing objects, opened doors, weapons, blood, etc. This is because it is not practical to give all entities \ objects their own lightgem. Instead we have used very simple math to represent lights which don't match shadow and light textures. In 2.13 a new sampling approach aims to improve this so that AI can better see ( or not see ) items and bodies in a way that better matches the actual lighting in the mission.
Mission Search!There is now a search window where you can specify the mission author or title to help you find your preferred mission rather than scrolling through over 170 missions. You can also change how mission titles are rendered with either the original title or the title with prefix words like “A, The” moved to the end.
Improved Training Mission!The Training Mission has been upgraded to include a Vine Arrow tutorial, a Slow Match tutorial, EFX Reverb, Volumetric Lights, and some performance optimizations!
Translation Packs!Between TDM 1.06 and 2.0 Tels and the translating community started translating many missions but these translations required that the original mission be altered in a way that made it harder for the mission authors to revise. The meant that translation packs were in limbo being hosted by 3rd party sites \ forums along with their orphaned old missions. The translators over at the Darkfate forums came up with an solution by including not only the translation strings in the translation pack but also the altered map files, GUI defs, etc that had translation work done to them. This would leave the original mission untouched but allow translation packs to override some parts. We have gone through the old archive of these translations and have reworked them to work with the latest version of TDM (and the associated missions). Most of the translations are Russian ( due to the continued work of the Darkfate people ) but many of the early TDM missions also have German, Italian, French, etc translations too.
Hidden Hands: Blood and Metal CampaignInline Image:
https://www.thedarkmod.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/hhbam2.jpgJust before the 15th anniversary entries were starting to arrive, JackFarmer released an enormous 5 mission campaign that continues his well regarded “Hidden Hands” series!
New Horizon on 22/10/2024 at 15:48
Wow, I'm shocked nobody has chimed in to comment. Surely, congratulations are in order. I am no longer active in the Mod but this all sounds incredible.
Excellent work!!
demagogue on 23/10/2024 at 00:02
I was gonna send my congrats on the Dark Mod forum, but here will do just fine as well.
Congrats all around!
A new contest is always welcome too!
The Concrete Age on 23/10/2024 at 03:40
Time flies and it's crazy that TDM is 15 years old and still receives engine update, congratulations!
voodoo47 on 23/10/2024 at 10:12
geez I really should go play this sometime.
Vae on 24/10/2024 at 19:59
Congrats to everyone who has contributed and supported The Dark Mod!...:cool:
Darkness_Falls on 27/10/2024 at 02:50
Very cool! Look like some great updates, and nice new missions! Look forward to trying
I really enjoyed Volta 1 and 2, too, so look forward to playing 3!
And the news even brings Vae out of the woodwork? Awesome! Long-time-no-THI4F, Vae!
vurt on 3/12/2024 at 09:40
Big congrats, incredible and important work to keep the Thief vibe alive and thriving!
Fingernail on 3/12/2024 at 17:57
Always amazes me that what began with me (a then what, 16-ish year old) attempting to muster interest on these forums and get a team together with little more than some hastily produced textures and a dream, not only materialised where so many projects fizzle and die, but turned into what must be one of the best free community games ever created, and with a still-growing repertoire of missions to play. A testament to thousands of hours of work over all these years (not mine!) by some truly dedicated and talented people! Cheers!
