“It’s a tremendous achievement – a detailed tribute to the Thief series…. Projects like The Dark Mod are a way for those fans to say “if you won’t make it, we will” – to deftly lift what was good and meaningful about the games that inspired us years ago and run away with it.”
– PC Gamer
“this is splendid….it’s basically Thief…but in Doom 3.”
–Rock, Paper, Shotgun
The Dark Mod world can be viewed as an alternate version of our own. It is a mixture of several historical periods, with architecture ranging from medieval castles to Victorian mansions. In this world, steam and clockwork technology were discovered much earlier in history, allowing for odd inventions and industrial warehouses to exist side-by-side with Gothic cathedrals and sword-wielding city watch.
We also maintain our own mission editor, called Dark Radiant. It is an updated version of GTKRadiant, and has a lot new features (Python scripting support, many bug-fixes, new Particle preview, Texture Tool etc.) and comes with a number of Dark Mod related plug-ins like an Objectives or Conversation editor.
Example Editing:
Try it yourself!
The 2.12 development cycle introduced many large code overhaul projects. Most of these were to lay the groundwork for future fixes and optimizations. The final release is yet another leap in performance over the already impressive 2.10 and 2.11 releases.
The culling system has been extensively overhauled to ensure that your CPU and GPU are not wasting resources rendering unseen geometry, lights, and shadows.
Culling discussions have a long history in The Dark Mod forums and gained more interest when it was revealed that DOOM 2016 used Umbra Technology rather than it's own home-brew idTech based solutions. Every so often mappers would show up in the editor threads complaining about performance struggles in their designs and be shown that lots of unseen geometry was rendered. Sometimes clever Visportal placement would cure these issues and other times entire areas would need to be rebuilt to better match the way that idTech4 handles culling. Dragofer tried to alleviate some of the pain associated with map optimization by introducing the areaLock entity flag in 2.08 that ensured that lights and entities only render inside their associated areas. This feature looked very crude to our lead designer stgatilov so he moved forward with a plan ease mission design, reduce the need for areaLock, and improve overall performance by making the culling behavior better match mapper expectations and less reliant on the counterintuitive Visportal behavior in idTech4.
Some of our best map optimization experts have achieved similar performance gains to what this new culling system does but it is a rare skill and we have even managed to improve performance on missions that were generally regarded as “well optimized”. Mission authors both new and old can follow standard mapping practices with no need to dive deep into sophisticated optimization techniques even for some pretty challenging scenarios such as wide open areas and long views.
Players will immediately notice many missions that have made their system struggle with FPS now may be running much more smoothly!
This new change is not without it's caveats. Some of the techniques used by mappers to enforce region enclosures don't match the expected design that the optimization is tailored for. As such a few missions have encountered minor light leaks due to this change. The ones we've identified have been fixed with either small map edits or global keywords added to the missions ( depending on how many leaks were found ). The leaks only impact Stencil Shadow mode so if you've stopped using that mode long ago in favor of the beauty of "Contact hardening shadows" then you wont see any changes other than improved performance. For players who prefer the clean look of Stencil Shadow mode, we ask that you look for any unusual lighting in any missions that our 2.12 Beta testers might have missed and report the issue here:
Also during the 2.12 development cycle, work has been done to make controls more seamless and accessible.
Frob can now use hold or click contextual actions to use items. Once you get used to the mechanic, it will be hard to go back to using a separate “use key”.
Mantling is now smoother, faster, and less prone to cause the player to clip through geometry. You can also carry objects and bodies while mantling depending on mantle height!
Leaning is now more subtle and less prone to cause motion sickness.
To reduce the tedium of shuffling knocked out AI around to search for loot, you can now configure TDM to automatically loot any frobbed AI.
Over the course of 2.12 development, Geep has created subtitles for nearly all AI barks along with developing testing tools and procedures for this gargantuan task! You can see these changes in action by changing the Subtitles setting to “On” ( rather than “Story” ) on the Audio settings page.
Geep also provided substantial feedback for our GUI and subtitle design process and edited font data to improve text quality overall.
Datiswous has complimented the massive work by Geep (to create AI subtitles) by creating mission story subtitles for a large number of missions. Thank you!
Brand New!!! Turrets are now natively supported in The Dark Mod C++ code and can be paired with Security Cameras!
The Turrets also operate on completely new logic and assets. There was nothing like them before 2.12 ( Thanks Dragofer ! )
The addition of Turrets entailed an enormous amount of work including extending multiple areas of game logic, creating the Turret asset and animations, and designing the particle and projectile effects.
Improved Banner Normal Maps
Improved brick texture aligned to Normal Map:
Fixed Grandfather Clock asset:
Pinkdot's old forest assets have been fixed and updated then added to the core project:
This feature has been around since 2.07 but was broken because it didn't respect the noSelfShadows flag. It has now been fixed and is enabled by default ( r_shadowMapSinglePass 1 in Darkmod.cfg ) so Shadow Map mode should run much smoother too. ( If you choose to "Restore Darkmod.cfg" after upgrading to 2.12, it may revert back to disabled so you will either need to edit your config file or delete darkmod.cfg and configure your settings anew. )
There were a few physics bugs that caused players to float or stick to ceilings when jumping. These only happened at very high FPS values ( over 250FPS ). These issues have been addressed so you can raise the Max FPS to 300 in the Advanced settings ( or set com_maxFPS to any preferred value in Darkmod.cfg ).
Note: The classic "capped FPS mode" uses the same logic as Doom 3 vanilla and thus causes the same low performance and stuttering for Linux players. If you are a Linux player we advise that you go to the Advanced Video Settings Menu and enable Uncapped FPS and configure a preferred Max FPS value.
In TDM 2.08 we introduced 64-bit color depth and this has cured most color banding artifacts but a few still persisted. In 2.12 we added dither to Fog lights and added dither controls to the postprocess shaders.
Add-On \ Mod creators can now integrate their changes alongside other mods that impact player scripts as "Multi-Addon" support has been added!
Amadeus joined the project during the middle of the 2.12 development cycle. He has contributed many high quality assets over the years and released the excellent mission "A Good Neighbor"
Wellingtoncrab was invited to join shortly after Amadeus and has been a powerhouse of asset development. While 2.12 does not include some of his newest creations, we are expecting 2.13 to be a big release for new textures, models, and materials. He is also responsible for the widely acclaimed mission "Iris".
Daft Mugi has contributed most of the movement and control changes during the 2.12 development cycle!
During the 2.12 beta, Bikerdude volunteered to assist with updating the Training Mission with a new section about the use of Vine Arrows ( long overdue as they were introduced in v1.07 ). He also added details about all the new control and movement changes in 2.12. Finally, he also visually enhanced the mission and added EFX reverb. Unfortunately, some last minute problems were discovered so this update was held-back to avoid delaying the 2.12 release any further and to ensure that it is given more time in testing and quality control. The Training Mission in 2.12 has been given some new text explaining the new controls but is largely the same Training Mission from TDM 2.0. If you wish to try out this new Training Mission version you can get a copy here:
Download Experimental Training Mission update - ModDB
FenPhoenix, the popular "Let's Play" streamer has added Darkmod support to his "AngelLoader" tool for mission management. You can now sort missions by multiple categories, makes notes, check ratings and have access to all the AngelLoader features that Thief players have been using:
Download The Dark Mod 2.12 FULL - ModDB
For many users, the full download may be too inconvenient due to the sheer amount of time it takes to download.
The tdm_installer can be run to install The Dark Mod and if you need to shut-down or lose connectivity you can re-run the tdm_installer and it will pickup where it left off.
Download Official - The Dark Mod Installer (Windows 64-bit) - ModDB
As a final parting gift, Grayman donated his last in-progress mission "Seeking Lady Leicester" to the TDM community to be finished by any qualified mission author. Bikerdude, Amadeus, Dragofer, and Wellingtoncrab all worked tirelessly to flesh out this mission and bring it to the public. Do not miss this release! It is a large, visually arresting, and endlessly clever treat of puzzle solving and supernatural horrors. Further, due to the scale and complexity of the mission, it has seen at least 3 major bug-fix and polish updates since it's release in March 2023. You should have a pristine and professional play session now that our community has smoked out every last rare issue they could find.
Frost_Salamander has followed up his excellent "Lieutenant 1: In Plain Sight" with a much larger and visually impressive follow-up. This mission is so good we almost forgot how much we wish that "Hare in the Snare Part 2" would soon be released.
New mission author "cugzkani" starts out in good standings with an excellent harbor themed mission with interesting vertical designs and wonderfully realistic scaffolding. This one has rather large draw distances so players with low-end hardware may be advised to turn down settings when playing this mission.
Author "thebigh" continues his "Duncan Lynch" series with an excellent Horror themed mission!
New mission author "Jnon" has crafted a small mission about collecting extortion money from a local theater owner. Some excellent attention to detail lends a little more historical accuracy to this bite-sized mission.
Yet another new mission author "GrodenVR" has brought us a wonderful new mission. This time it is a manor heist with an island theme.
Joebarnin continues his streak of creating clever missions with lots of technical polish. Folks who enjoy navigating mazes will find some welcome surprises in this one...
What do we have here? Yet another new mission author "Skaruts" has created a very handsome little mission about stealing a recipe book.
A number of missions have seen either small or large fixes or changes over the 2.12 development cycle. Here are a few standout examples!
Frost_Salamander was given permission by the original author Fieldmedic to fix and improve this mission. Other than mapping changes and optimizations, Frost_Salamander has replaced triggers with stims to make the antagonist of this mission more reliable and challenging.
Bikerdude has been busy using the new map diagnostic tools introduced in 2.11 and 2.12 beta to identify leaks, broken portals and other things that might be stealing performance or reducing reliability in his old missions. The first to see fixes is "BCD". Many leaky areas have been fixed, so performance should be improved. Also, the canal water has been upgraded with help from Wellington crab, it uses SteveL's depth base murk shader program introduced around 2.05.
Baal and Bikerdude have polished this mission beyond it's already excellent state. Again, map diagnostic tools were used to improve the integrity of the map and a few visual upgrades as well as improved EFX reverb effects have been added.
This mission had a long-standing stutter bug that would intermittently appear when wandering too long in the lower basement. The cause has finally been identified and fixed. Along with the fix, the mission has been tuned and visually enhanced. It features a few "Volumetric Light" effects and finally has EFX Reverb. The "Curse" objective in this mission now triggers a script event that will match the player expectations.
Bikerdude decided to give this campaign the deluxe treatment and has fixed both new and old bugs as well as enhancing the visuals with Volumetric Lights and new Water shaders. The performance drop in the first spiral staircase has been addressed. There are more LOD based effects in the campaign so try changing the Detail setting in the Advanced Graphics menu to compare the highest and lowest detail levels. The main-menu background will change depending on which mission you previously completed. Finally datiswous supplied story subtitles for this mission!
As of this writing there are two missions getting ready for release.
New mission author ( another!?!?! ) Ansome is currently working to complete the beta test of his upcoming mission The Terrible Old Man. UPDATE! This is now available in the Mission database!
JackFarmer is getting ready to release a 5 mission campaign! Beta testing will be starting soon!
Download Fresnel Mod 2.12 ( Unofficial ) - ModDB
You won't have to wait for this lovely shader mod. It has already been updated to be TDM 2.12 compliant
The Dark Mod 2.11 arrived to refine the improvements made in 2.10 as well as fix lots of longstanding old bugs and game-play issues. This is primarily...
After a year of constant development, The Dark Mod 2.10 arrives!!! This is a landmark release with one of the most requested improvements: FASTER MISSION...
The latest TDM release brings some significant performance gains thanks to significant OpenGL feature updates.
Setting a new baseline in performance and visuals, TDM 2.08 casts off almost all the legacy Doom 3 OpenGL features in favor of modern OpenGL 3.1. New...
The entire Darkmod 2.12 download in one archive. No need to run tdm_installer.
The new tdm_installer tools is the intended replacement for tdm_updater. It can install, upgrade, or downgrade TDM to any Standalone 2.x version.
The new tdm_installer tools is the intended replacement for tdm_updater. It can install, upgrade, or downgrade TDM to any Standalone 2.x version.
The entire Darkmod 2.11 download in one archive. No need to run tdm_installer.
The entire Darkmod 2.10 download in one archive. No need to run tdm_installer.
The entire Darkmod 2.09b download in one archive. No need to run tdm_installer.
can i run this mode with amd 3000 (builtin graphics card)?6 gigabyte ddr 3 ram.i tried your mod last year and it crashes during mission.
Not enough detail? Ryzen 3000 series? What driver version?
amd fx-4300 quad core processor.3.80 GHz
ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics
Driver Version: 8.970.100.1100
6 gigabyte ram ddr3.
Terrascale 1 architecture is so old that not even modded drivers like NimeZ \ Amernime support it. We tried to get it working in 2.09 but the drivers are too broken. Still it's worth a shot to try it out. I would update to the latest 13.x drivers here: Amd.com
Driver Version: 8.970.100.1100 is the latest for ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics.
I am already using Catalyst Software version 13.9.
and its Display Driver ver. is 8.97.100.11
No guaranties but that GPU does support OpenGL 3.3 so it "should" work. You may need to use image_downSize cvars to reduce memory usage.
It's absolutely great that fan missions can be downloaded right in the game, but I wish there was a mod for the main menu music that would change it to something much less annoying and much more fitting for the Thief series in style, because the music we have doesn't fit at all, it sounds like it was made for some fairy tale from Tim Burton and the more I hear it while downloading another mission the more it becomes unbearable. Too bad that turning it off is the only solution we have...
Congrats on the release. This is a great one! As good as the last one.
Anybody have a list of must play fan missions? or just go down the list and play all of them?
There's a lot soo i was curious is some are hit or miss?
The following wiki has a few details:
Wiki.thedarkmod.com
There is a Top 5 thread referenced there that has people posting favorites.
I can personally vouch for Goldwell's Accountant Series, Northdale Series, Lord Edgar's Bathhouse, and Noble Affairs, Kingsal's Volta Series and Hazard Pay, Moonbo's Requiem + House of Locked Secrets ( Shadowcursed Series ), Grayman's William Steele series and The Black Mage, Melan's Penny Dreadful series, WellingtonCrab's Iris, a few "team created" missions like No Honor Among Thieves v4, Painter's Wife, Crucible of Omens: Behind Closed Doors, Written in Stone, Amadeus A Good Neighbor, Springheel's A Score to Settle and A Reputation to Uphold, Baal and Bikerdude's Sir Talbot's Collateral, Fidcal's Thief's Den 2 and 3, Spoonman's Full Moon Fever.
It's probably almost easier to name "no so great missions" than list all the great ones but I am not one to hurt feelings that way.
I also enjoy Sotha's "Thomas Porter Series" but am hesitant to recommend it since many complain that it's too difficult\hard-core.