What new features would you like for the next NewDark update (Suggestions) - by Cardia
ZylonBane on 5/5/2018 at 03:29
Quote Posted by Yandros
Use your newfound superpowers judiciously
I think we all know he can't do that.
vfig on 10/5/2018 at 19:00
It would be fun if the (
http://backslashn.com/post/173632242812/thief-ii-the-vocal-age) speech callback issues were to be fixed in NewDark, so that the T2 facial animations could be used. Even more fun if the function for setting different visages (angry/smiling etc) were exposed to scripts. Not a very important feature, because how often in Thief are you looking at an enemy's face while they're talking away? But fun.
PinkDot on 10/5/2018 at 20:41
I think for any speech effect we need a proper animated mesh. Having blend shapes (morph targets) would be nice.
Or at least simple bone setup for opening mouth - similar to what they do in Dark Mod.
1) Speaking of characters and animations - it would be good to soft-code (as opposed to hard-coding ;) ) creatures types. Just about everything is data driven in Dark Engine, so could be the creature types.
If New Dark could support any arbitrary skeletons, we could add facial expressions. New tools for exporting skinned meshes would be needed, but that's a minor problem.
2) Oh, and please upgrade model's .bin format to support more polygons. It's really a bottleneck right now. (it's been mentioned by somebody else, I'm just up-voting it)
3) Please support transparency for shadow casting (think foliage etc...)
4) Please support pixel-shading (normal and specular maps). I disagree the community won't know what to do with it.
5) Please have brushes and models refer the materials - not the textures. Currently it's not possible (or extremely inefficient) to have one material referring to the same texture.
6) Please support more models in modelTweq. I'm thinking of hundreds, not of 5 or 6 more. This would allow us to cache some mesh animations in 3D apps and play them back in game with controlled rate.
7) custom actions triggered by keyboard or mouse.
8) and... or... if none of these are possible, please release the New Dark engine to the community, when you think You are not able to dedicate any more of your time to this project. (which would be pretty understandable).
---
I really wish there was some dialogue going on here between the New Dark creator and the community. Not that I don't appreciate the effort and what we've got already, but the thought, that we might be stuck with the current version of the engine forever seems a bit disappointing.
Cardia on 10/5/2018 at 21:04
Tannar, vfig and PinkDot i´ve added your suggestions to the Thief french forum , let's hope Le Corbeau will stumble upon it and consider to add some of the features you've suggested for the next NewDark update (assuming there will be another NewDark update).
Ryan Smith on 11/5/2018 at 20:19
An RNG metaproperty. Min and max range can be customized.
Nameless Voice on 11/5/2018 at 22:32
Quote Posted by Tannar
I'd like the ability to copy/cut and paste text into the command window instead of having to type it every time.
For pasting, you can write a simple AutoHotKey script to set up a type-clipboard key:
Code:
;
; AutoHotkey Version: 1.x
; Language: English
; Platform: Win9x/NT
; Author: Nameless Voice
;
; Script Function:
; Type-paste hotkey
;
; Remove the comment on the line below to disable the tray icon
; #NoTrayIcon
#NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
#KeyHistory 0
SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir% ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
^#v::
Send, %Clipboard%
return
Save as .ahk, run on system startup through AutoHotKey, and then use windowskey+ctrl+v to have it type whatever is in the clipboard. It will work in any program that doesn't support paste.
Independent Thief on 12/5/2018 at 05:15
Doesn't NewDark use the Dark Engine source code?
Isn't that a copyright violation?
PinkDot on 12/5/2018 at 07:41
Quote Posted by Independent Thief
Doesn't NewDark use the Dark Engine source code?
Isn't that a copyright violation?
It does use the original source code indeed. I don't know if that's the copyright violation, but I know that the New Dark is available for free and it increases sales of games that are 20 years old now.
Any attempts to shut down the project would be a completely wrong thing to do, from a business point of view and not only. It's like having an enthusiastic employee, who does the work for free and brings money for the company while making other people happy. What's wrong about that?
voodoo47 on 12/5/2018 at 07:50
Quote Posted by PinkDot
It does use the original source code indeed.
I think there's actually no way of confirming this - only the Raven knows how exactly the magic works.
Unna Oertdottir on 12/5/2018 at 10:34
Going back to 1.18 isn't an option, however. OldDark isn't even a NewDark feature. Topic.