http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=858048394
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The team here at Broken Glass Studios is very pleased to announce the latest update to TDM!

The update to 2.04 is primarily a bugfix release but has over a year's worth of fixes. Some changes will be noticeable right away, while others will take a while to appear in new maps.

To apply the update, simply run the tdm_update.exe file in your darkmod folder. (Note that saved games from earlier versions will not be compatible with 2.04, so finish any missions you are playing first). Some of the improvements are listed below. To see the full changelog, see below -

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=What%27s_new_in_TDM_2.04

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so3hPDySfxw

Better Coordinated Searching:

The changes in 2.03 caused AI to develop a choke-off pattern to more accurately reflect how people in groups would coordinate a search effort. It was found that this change often caused AI to remain stationary around the last known whereabouts of the player (causing the player to wait endlessly for the cooldown process). 2.04 now prompts isolated AI to move around more and investigate hiding spots within a radius of the alert region. This will give players more opportunities to make daring escapes or maneuverability to better reach a point of advantage to the AI.

Ai now noticed dropped weapons!

Even the TDM team developers were surprised to find that no prior release had code support for AI noticing dropped weapons. This has been added so now all your weapon hiding antics are meaningful as expected!

Grid Based Inventory option:

We were fortunate to gain a new mouse navigated grid-based inventory manager thanks to a new forum contributor, Durandall.Thank you! To activate, bind a key to _impulse30 in the console or Darkmod.cfg. For example -

bind t _impulse30

Pickup up stuff without clunking:

In previous TDM versions, players would often create unintentional alerts by clunking candles, bowls, or other moveables against the table-top when trying to lift them. This became so frustrating that Sotha and Goldwell began using stationary snuff-able candles in their missions to avoid this scenario. Now the grabber more smoothly moves objects into manipulation range and with a middle-click centers them on the screen directly in front of the player for easier manipulation.

Improved Breakables:

While developing breakable display cases for an upcoming mission, it was discovered that the whole breakable system was in poor shape. Crack decals would disappear after a small amount of time, rotated models would spawn pre-fractured, objects thrown through glass with zero-health would simply pass through without shattering it, and the fracture code itself caused a memory leak and save-game crash. SteveL spent a great deal of time sorting out these problems and updated the glass shader rendering as well.

Better looking Glass:

Along with SteveLs rendering fixes, AluminumHaste repaired or improved many of the stained-glass materials. Finally, I improved the flask glass shader (using fixes discovered by Obstortte and Arcturus).

Decal Fixes :

One of the oft-mentioned visual annoyances has been decals that seem to pop over distant objects rather than staying on their associated surface. This was tracked to OpenGL depth offset range behavior. It seems that Doom 3 has this set to an absurd 600 units (probably to work with DepthHack particles, which are a precursor to soft-particles in modern engines). 2.04 changes this range to reduce or eliminate this problematic behavior. This will also reduce the likeliness of z-fighting in missions and save on some overdraw.

Quicksave Backups:

A new quicksave safety system has been implemented. Save files are now written with alternating filenames rather than repeatedly overwriting the existing file. For a variety of reasons, the host OS has run into problems with rapid requests to write and overwrite these files leading to either corrupt or lost saves. The new system should be far less prone to this. It currently alternates between two files but can be set to any number you prefer with the com_numSaveGames console argument.

Improved Load Times:

While not a huge jump, it was found that particle bounds were determined via a lengthy Monte Carlo simulation. This has been scaled back to a simpler bounds calculation resulting in shorter map loading.

Sound Fixes:

Sound values are now prevented from being sent to the audio device with negative volume (invalid values) causing popping sounds. A new override system allows mappers to replace the ambient sound easily with another sound of their choice.

Russian & Romanian language improvements:

Thanks to the hard work from folks at the Darkfate Community, we now have better Russian translation and fonts.Similarly, the Romanian translation has been fixed to remove characters which do not have associated fonts yet for a more legible Romanian interface.

(Coming Soon) FREYKS INSTALLER:

For the past few releases, freyk has been creating an installer tool to assist users who are not good with portable file setup in Windows or address dependency issues in Linux. We are now adding this tool to the official installation page as an alternate option.

Bug Fixes:

As with any release, general bug fixes have been addressed. Of major note is the Card Player savegame crash, breakable savegame crash, AI scooting themselves out into the void, and a fix for a memory leak in the SEED system. Logspam has been significantly reduced in both the LOD\SEED system and in DMAP compiling leading to dramatic performance improvement in the latter.

By way of introduction, Penny Dreadful is a fan mission series dealing with the exploits and misfortunes of Gerald Foxley, lowlife and common opportunist. To stick with the theme of lurid and disreputable pulp literature, these missions were planned to be nasty, brutish and short, which sort of worked in PD1, was not entirely working in PD2, and went out the window with PD3, which ended up much bigger than I ever expected. The series also allows me to experiment with gameplay ideas which do not completely fit TDM standards: Foxley is slightly worse at stealth than the TDM baseline, and can't pick locks: you will need to find different ways of getting into places.

In the first episode, The Grail of Regrets, what started out as a routine case of extortion ended with Gerald in the possession of the eponymous Grail. In the second, All the Way Up, these newfound fortunes proved to be shorter than anticipated, as Messer Montrose, a corrupt nobleman, and his ally, the local Bailiff conspired to rob Foxley of the prize to further their own ends. The Grail is now in the hands of Archibald Flint, a powerful crime boss ruling from a mansion on Fiddler's Hill, an infamous den of thieves. However, to get close to him, Foxley has to remove a few obstacles in the way...

Erasing the Trail

"Kill a man and take his life; wound him, and restore his pride." -- alleyway proverb.

"In a city where every window is an eye and every doorway a whispering mouth, it is hard to keep a secret. When I learned of crime lord Archibald Flint's involvement in robbing me of the Grail of Regrets, I knew I'd have to strike quick, and strike first. But I failed.

By the time I got near his place on Fiddler's Hill, every gate to his hilltop mansion was locked, every alley patrolled by thieves eager to kill. Two days later, I watched my tenement go up in smoke and flames. The hunt was on, and it wouldn't be over until they'd have their quarry dead or captured.

Flint's main enforcer is a man named Grunt, known to communicate in written orders after his throat was cut in some altercation... a real bloodhound. I will have to deal with him one way or another to get the heat off of my back, and allow me to reach Flint himself...

Flint is also looking for my dead body, and I'm planning to have it delivered right to his doorstep. Another underworld figure, Almsmaster Quandt, lives a few streets from Grunt's mansion, and he is said to be my spitting image, an uncanny resemblance. Wonder if Flint will recognise the difference... well, time to find out.

Sometimes the only way to deal with a hornet's nest is to kick it over. This night, I am back in the middle of it. I have already run into a pair of sentinels, but I slipped into a small garden and jammed the lock behind me with a bit of wire. Hope they don't raise the whole neighbourhood, or this will be over real quick. Time to get moving."


Download links:

- mission downloader!

***Performance warning***: as usual, this mission pushes the limits a bit (although less than PD2). The hardware requirements exceed the TDM baseline, and the loading time is fairly long. Optimalisation should be credited to Bikerdude, while the remaining problems are all mine.

Notes:

Erasing the Trail is intended to be an open-ended city exploration mission, where you can approach your objectives from multiple angles, and discover multiple solutions to complete them; some more straightforward, some more obscure.

Gerald Foxley is a rank amateur who can't pick locks. You will have to find alternate means to break into places. There is no poll to rate the mission because I do not believe in them. Your comments are welcome in writing, however!

You can find my concept art in the PK4 file. These images obviously contain heavy spoilers. This mission series predates, and is thus unrelated to the Penny Dreadful TV series.


Special thanks:

- To our testers: Aluminumhaste, Kingsal, Nbohr1more, Oldjim, Skacky and Premier.
- Gigagooga for several new ambient sounds, and sound conversions
- Fabrice Hautecloque from Ishar III, tension loops from Golgo 13: the TV series
- Yandros, Bikerdude and Goldchocobo for voice acting.
- Epifire! for custom models
- The Canon Texture project for texture work.

Story
"The job in question was simple enough. All I had to do was break into some guy’s house and steal a ledger and then get out without being spotted. But that’s where my problems started, the house was owned by one Einrich Friedt. And unbeknownst to me at the time, was a usurer under the protection of the local thieves' guild. When word spread that it was me who pulled off the job, the guild leader who goes by the name of Lazarova gave the order to have my head on a spike. Naturally two leg breakers were dispatched, which meant I had to make myself scarce and lay low for a while.

After things had died down a bit I got in contact with an old fence of mine. He informed me that Lazarova is a wealthy and successful figure in undermarket circles. But what was unusual is that Lazarova is a woman, which belies her brutal and ruthless reputation. it’s likely she got where she is through wealth, meaning its possible she is of noble blood. My fence did a check of the Bridgeport registers and there is no noble family going by the name of Lazarova. So using an alias means she is someone who at the very least doesn’t want to see her dirty laundry aired in public.

The Thief’s guild hideout is rumoured to be located near the Old Mill somewhere in Langmillers Ward, Geoffrey's Wall separates the slums of Langmillers and Mirkway from the more wealthy parts of Becksgate. I will make my way there and see what I can uncover, but I will have to be careful. The City Watch don't venture much into the Tanners, and the Tagwell boy’s aren’t known for being as polite as the watch. Locating some information regarding Lazarova's whereabouts is my first task and with some luck I should find some incriminating evidence to use as leverage. Becksgate is like a rat’s nest, so there's bound to be a hidden stash or two to make tonight's endeavours worth my trouble.."


Build Time:
- About 2 years


Credits:
- Bikerdude - Allodric/Balakin manors, Canal walk, Builder warehouse, various apartments and brought all of this into a working mission.
- Melan - The Great Stairs, Geoffreys wall, Rattlebones way, street signs, readables and main story!
- Noelker - the voice of Hadley - Saturnine (Rose Cottage) said Noel was the perfect 'Garrett'
- Grayman - Fingrim & Cull st, Balakin manor, readables.
- nbohr1more - alpha/beta testing, readables, and main story!
- Flanders - Canal Walk, textures and objects
- Obsttorte - Briefing video, Auto-map and various scripts
- Skacky - Shingles Plaza, readables.
- Serious Toni - loading screen & misc.
- Tels - The Oldmill (base spec)
- Fidcal - Horders
- Springheel - models
- Necrobob - textures
- Dragofer - models
- Baddcog - misc
- Mortem Desino - misc

Thanks:-
- Beta testers: Oldjim, Deadlove (Uber testers), and above, also anyone else who I missed off the list.

Download:-
- An updated version is now available via the in-game downloader - v1.3

Info:
- This is the prologue mission to the Crucible of Omens, work on the next mission in the series will start in the new year.
- This map is challenging by design, but is more forgiving on lower difficulties.
- The mission is fully l10n ready.
- TDM 2.03 is required.

Known issues:
- This mission will have less than optimal fps at some locations.
- For very low end PCs I recommend the following settings: V-sync is off, AA is off, Aniso is 4x or lower, advanced settings are simple/default & Post processing of disabled.
- A few people with very low end machines have had an issue with loading the mission, so we suggest the following -
" try backing up your TheDarkMod.exe, gamex86.dll, and Darkmod.cfg then delete them and run your tdm_updater to replace them. "
- Try these image downsize changes to reduce the GPU impact -

seta image_downSize "1"
seta image_downSizeLimit "1024"
seta image_downSizeBump "1"
seta image_downSizeBumpLimit "256"

Full post is here:
http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17627-crucible-of-omens-behind-closed-doors-by-bikerdude-the-crucible-team-updated-18122015/

Well, I took quite a hiatus from TDM. Pretty much a final hiatus but I will post this announcement. The team was very busy as of late, and even though this post is late, and has updated TDM to 2.0.

This is a Stand Alone update.

Best to wipe out Doom3 and old installation and start fresh I guess.

Be sure to put the updater.exe into a darkmod folder and start it to DL the new package.

Many maps might have bugs/crashes if they are old and had Doom 3 resources. They have been updated so wipe them too and DL fresh updated maps.

--------
Seeing many requests for Greenlight in the chat log. I will bring it up with team as I have been out of touch and and have no idea what their plans are.

I don't see why not, in fact it might take a load off the DL servers wihichg would be a great blessing to those who have paid out of their pockets for them for years...

Stay tuned.