Post news Report RSS The Dark Mod 2.0 Standalone!

After 9 years in development, The Dark Mod is now a standalone release. Doom 3 is no longer needed to play.

Posted by on

THE DARK MOD 2.0 STANDALONE


Penny Dreadful: The Grail of Regrets (Images)


We at Broken Glass Studios are happy to announce the release of TDM 2.0, a free, open-source, completely standalone stealth game!!


Standalone:

First and most importantly, The Dark Modis now completely standalone, which means you no longer need to own Doom3 to play it! We have spent a tremendous amount of time and energy replacing all the sounds, textures, particle effects, and models that we had been using. Hopefully this will open up a whole new audience of people who didn’t want to have to purchase a different game in order to try The Dark Mod.

In addition to going standalone, the following improvements have been made:

AI Improvements:

There have been lots of additions and fixes to AI behaviour; characters will now greet each other more regularly, and will properly call for help when they’re in trouble. Guards can now hear slightly better, and we have included a new AI Vision slider to the menu, so the player can adjust how sensitive they want AI vision to be. Characters react to bodies in more varied ways now. A bug that made AI very easy to kill has been fixed. Archers will draw melee weapons if the player gets too close. Guards will turn towards doors that open unexpectedly. There are new vocals for specific situations, like when guards are getting shot at and can’t see their opponent. Searching behaviour has been improved. Plenty of old bugs, like the one where AI would sometimes attack with an empty fist, have been fixed.

New Gameplay:

AI can now hear collapsing bodies, especially if the body is wearing plate mail and falls on a hard surface. No longer will a guard stand oblivious while his friend collapses to the ground two feet behind him. The player will have to give some thought to where they take down opponents if there are other guards in the area.

Audio Improvements:

In addition to replacing dozens of Doom3 sounds, two new vocal sets have been added to the game. Footstep sounds have been improved. Big changes have been made to the sound propagation system that will allow mappers a lot more control over how players hear sound; for example, mappers can now make doors block different amounts of sound depending on their thickness, or can control how much sound passes through windows or small holes.

Graphical Improvements:

You should notice a number of improvements to some character models, especially the skeleton, townsfolk, and beggar characters. Arrows will now leave blood-stains. There have been plenty of other bug-fixes, like removing the ability to hide in the shadow of an object you’re carrying (no more sneaking under a crate umbrella). Doom 3 modder "7318" contributed his Skybox fix so now TDM can have Half-Life 2 style skyboxes. See the full change-log here.

Updates to Missions:

Because of the removal and replacement of Doom3 assets, some missions that used them are no longer compatible with TDM 2.0. About two dozen missions have updated .pk4s to fix these issues. New players can ignore this, but if you’re playing missions that you downloaded before 2.0, you may have trouble trying to run them. Most are fine, but a few missions will just crash while loading, and others will load but will have odd visual problems. It is highly recommended that you delete all previously downloaded missions after updating to 2.0!

Going standalone has been a mammoth undertaking.

There were literally hundreds of assets that needed to be replaced, and around seventy maps that had to be checked to see whether any of those replacements broke anything. We’ve been testing for months, but it’s almost certain that we missed something, somewhere. If you see a black texture, a model buried in the floor, or something else unusual in a map, please let us know. If it was caused by 2.0 changes, we’ll make sure we fix it in the next update.

To update your TDM installation, simply run the tdm_update.exe file in your darkmod folder. Your darkmod folder no longer needs to sit under Doom3, and you can move it wherever you like (though make sure it is still called “darkmod”). (If the updater fails to start, check to see if a _tdm_update.exe file (note the underscore) has been created in your folder. If it has, rename _tdm_update.exe to tdm_update.exe and run it.)

To download TDM 2.0 for the first time, please follow the download instructions on the website here.

Direct download link from AluminumHaste:

Docs.google.com

The Dark Mod 2.0 Standalone Full Installer

Full Download.

Dark Mod 2.0 Standalone torrent
Torrent Download.

Not sure what TDM is? Watch an introductory video here.
Enjoy!

Experimental Native OSX Build:

Forums.thedarkmod.com


Other News:

The Dark Mod has not remained idle in the months leading up to the 2.0 release. Many high quality missions have arrived as either part of the "Unusual Contest" or simply with new members arriving to completely blow our minds with high quality releases...

Unusual Contest:

Here are the entrants to our Community Unusual Contest:

Jesps: Mission "The Builder's Blocks"

Builders Blocks

Jesps has thrown us for a loop here. This missions is unusual yet also quite familiar. It's a technical achievement to be sure... Can't say much without spoiling the surprise..

Sotha: Mission "The Lich Queen's Demise"

The Lich Queen's Demise Images

Sotha took this opportunity to add yet another entry into his acclaimed "Thomas Porter" series. He also decided to debut new modular mapping methods and the use of colored dynamic ambient lighting. And lots of zombies...

Fieldmedic: Mission "Not an Ordinary Guest"

Not an Ordinary Guest Images

There's no two words about it, this mission is HUGE! You may need to use the image_downsize cvars in Darkmod.cfg just to get this one to load. It has 3 play modes: Thief, Assassin, and Saboteur... I haven't even begun absorbing this mammoth...

Sir Taffsalot: Mission "Vengeance for a Thief Part 2: The Art of Revenge"

Vengeance for a Thief: Part 2 Images

Sir Taffsalot gives us a massive museum heist mission with neutral civilians and bizarre TDM history exhibits.

These missions include elements that make them in some way unusual compared to typical TDM missions whether it be game-play, architecture, story, etc. Every mission here has custom scripts for innovative game-play.



(non contest missions)

Penny Dreadful: Grail of Regrets

Penny Dreadful: The Grail of Regrets (Images)

Master author "Melan" took some time away from his work on the Crucible of Omens campaign project to finish a speed-build mission he was tinkering with. While he refers to this as "nasty, brutish and short"... obviously his standards are very high when you consider the amount of custom textures, new models, and the pitch perfect atmosphere. A worthy (highly acclaimed) entry in Melan's stellar mission release catalog by anyone's standards. It seems that the author intends to release a few more of these little missions. I say "PLEASE DO!"


Lords and Legacy:

Lords and Legacy Images

New author Kvorning gives us a Tour de Force mega-sized mission with fantastic architecture, wonderful story elements, and enough roof-top action and mantling to win over a mountain climber. What did we do to deserve this?


Requiem

Requiem Images (2.0)

What's this? Another "new" author produces a jaw-droppingly good mission? Moonbo can be forgiven for his facetious "new guy" thing with such a praiseworthy mission. The story is of the caliber you'd expect from this Amazon published book author. What you wont expect? A moody custom music score, animated cut-scenes up the wazoo, balanced game-play, well crafted architecture, thrilling finale sequences... Many are giving this one a 10 out of 10.


Solar Escape 1

Solar Escape 1 Images

Not to be left out, Tr00pertj's mission "Solar Escape 1" is a nice short mission from a new author with a few interesting twists like hidden rooms and a warehouse sized sewer sanctum.


Post comment Comments
Berserkr
Berserkr

One of the greatest mod projects of all time finally going standalone, that is simply brilliant news. Thanks a lot for your hard work, I too hope that this attracts many more players to this game – it deserves it!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+31 votes
CodenameMalleus
CodenameMalleus

GLORIOUS!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+10 votes
qeloqoo
qeloqoo

Torrent link would help so much...

Reply Good karma Bad karma+12 votes
7ty7
7ty7

Congratulations Broken Glass!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+8 votes
zeep
zeep

Congrats! Never played TDM before. Can't wait!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+7 votes
Awesomium
Awesomium

Man, this is great news! Unfortunately, there's so much traffic on your website that I can't reach it :(

Reply Good karma Bad karma+6 votes
GamesAreFunOk
GamesAreFunOk

same...

Reply Good karma Bad karma+5 votes
Count_Crapula
Count_Crapula

Yeaah!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+5 votes
myxale
myxale

Congratulations. Didn't expect this one when I logged onto Moddb.

Worlds of awesome!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+6 votes
CodenameMalleus
CodenameMalleus

Torrent for TDM 2.0:
Thepiratebay.sx

Another source:
Docs.google.com

Reply Good karma Bad karma+10 votes
bigfutus
bigfutus

Great news!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+5 votes
MortemDesino
MortemDesino

Greatest...release...ever!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
SonofX51
SonofX51

So are missions bundled with the game, or do i have to download them in game or externally? I'm "new" :P

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
MortemDesino
MortemDesino

There's a training mission, and "Tears of Saint Lucia" bundled with the game. All other missions can be downloaded in-game.

If that fails (like right now, when the server is down due to TONS of traffic), you can also download the FM .zip files elsewhere and plonk them into the folder "darkmod/fms". Future proof!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+5 votes
SonofX51
SonofX51

Okay, thank you! Still trying to download the game via torrent.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+2 votes
Mr.Birds!
Mr.Birds!

Darn your website has collapced!

but you know what, i'm glad, i'm glad because that means you guys made a brilliant job, because it means there's a lot of happy people out htere downloading the dark mod, so dont be mad about the this delay guys, lets celebrate it as the birth of something beautiful that is the dark mod, and just in time for the reboot as well =D

PS. sorry for the spelling mistakes i' just too lazy to correct them (:

Reply Good karma Bad karma+8 votes
Rus[T]
Rus[T]

Pff, who needs Thief 4 if we have this! Partymode activated, wooho, congrats guys!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+6 votes
Psychomorph
Psychomorph

One of the greatest mod projects ever made, indeed.

Good job guys!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
Bentraxx
Bentraxx

Congratulations! Fantastic work guys!!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
zeep
zeep

More torrent mirrors please. Piratebay is banned here by the government taffers :( :(

Reply Good karma Bad karma+2 votes
zeep
zeep

Non-banned-piratebay link:

Tpb.unblocked.co

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
nbohr1more Author
nbohr1more

Hey folks, we're doing what we can to offer more download options. That said, one way to speed up the process is to download the TDM 1.08 installer hosted here and use the tdm_updater to upgrade it to TDM 2.0. You don't need to have Doom 3 installed to do this, simply create a darkmod folder anywhere on your hard drive and copy the contents of the zip package into it then run the updater. It will still probably take awhile as the change from 1.08 to 2.0 is probably a few 100mb at least and you guys are still killing our servers :)

Reply Good karma+4 votes
PytoX
PytoX

Wow Grats guys !

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
Sashh
Sashh

Congratulations to the whole Dark Mod team! Thi4f looks like utter crap, so I'm happy that the real Thief legacy will be continued this way.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
Rakym
Rakym

Does it run on Linux Mint 13?
And why is this not already on Steam Greenlight?

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
nbohr1more Author
nbohr1more

I believe we have TDM players on mint. I know that the Linux build can be a bit finicky because of the whole boost library mess. There are some plans to remove boost if possible as I recall.

Reply Good karma+2 votes
nbohr1more Author
nbohr1more

Decided to add a little to the article. Hit the character limit...

Reply Good karma+3 votes
nbohr1more Author
nbohr1more

Heh, got past it. Full story up.

Reply Good karma+4 votes
keawet
keawet

Nice ! I will download it.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
Timberdrop
Timberdrop

This [Free] standalone is a great opportunity to test this genre.
And to therefore judge whether to buy thief 4...

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
JimmyCognitti
JimmyCognitti

Never been a fan of the thief series but I must say this mod is definitely outstanding.
Congrats!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+5 votes
medve
medve

fap

Reply Good karma Bad karma+5 votes
myxale
myxale

The Torrent saved me lots of waiting! Kudos Guys!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
VikCleDoom
VikCleDoom

pretty great!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
Beez-one
Beez-one

Eat this THI4F or whatever you called!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
FlippedOutKyrii
FlippedOutKyrii

First time I've heard of this mod, and all I can say is... I'm blown away by the amount of detail, effort and time put into this.

I should give this a gander when I have the time to do so :)

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
Singaporean
Singaporean

Let wait for Hexen: Edge of Chaos to be standalone. That will be even more awesomeness as we living the world with the advance technology do not requirement of anything now. Just download, install and play without any charge. Anyway, if this work at Win 8 ? I know is a stupid question. But I really hope have an answer. Because, in three day. I am upgrading my OS. Also, good luck for the upcoming project. If you guys announced.

Stoudemire

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
nbohr1more Author
nbohr1more

I've got it installed on Windows 8... So "yes"

Reply Good karma+2 votes
nbohr1more Author
nbohr1more

Windows 8.1 Preview:

Thus far, on Intel HD graphics, TDM will not start unless it is started in Windows 7 compatibility mode:

Right click "TheDarkMod.exe" choose "Properties", click the "Compatibility" tab and select Windows 7 from the dropdown
list.

This may not be representative of other graphic hardware and may be due to early Windows 8.1 driver support.

Reply Good karma+2 votes
vIE888
vIE888

Hurrah! Gonna Check it soon!
Nice work You guys, have a beer on me!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
Executor-64-
Executor-64-

sh*t just got real

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
Jam3s007
Jam3s007

Bravo guys!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+2 votes
Guest
Guest

It recreates the atmosphere from the original series perfectly. This certainly is one of the best mods I have ever played.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
rage_killerz
rage_killerz

why dont u get it greenlighted on steam?

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
Chriz_86
Chriz_86

Finally tried it. Played the mod ages ago and I was amazed by how it turned out, congratulations!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+2 votes
Taquito
Taquito

Oh yes!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
D1rkGER
D1rkGER

You guys are genuises. This mod/game shows how normal guys can pull an awesome gaming-experience out of nowhere... Some developers should learn a lesson from you. Thumbs up !

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
sbseed
sbseed

looking like a real thief game...
impressive.

cant wait to check it out.
last:
are you guys considering moving onto professional game making? and if not why not?

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
ComradeMiggy
ComradeMiggy

why do downloads of missions take so long, i wish it was faste :(

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
Post a comment

Your comment will be anonymous unless you join the community. Or sign in with your social account: