DarkPlaces questions

[Nicholas Steel]

1) How do I enable RT World Shadows but disable the main character shadow? The main character shadow is both very low resolution and renders/distorts weirdly as well as snaps around the place bizarrely and stuff. It just isn't a very nice shadow to hang around with.

2) Initially when playing the game, I'd configure the controls but when quitting the game the controls would be appended to the next time I started the game (Mouse settings appended to direction movement). After a few restarts of the client and fixing the controls each time, it finally saved the correct controls... what the hell was wrong?

3) Why is bump mapping really slow? I've got an alright computer...
r_glsl_offsetmapping 1 (Noticeable yet minor performance hit)
r_glsl_offsetmapping_reliefmapping 1 (Huge performance hit)

- Latest stable DarkPlaces x64 (I have no clue what the difference is between the SDL and normal version of the game other than the SDL version using a different back-end (SDL, duh) for... "reasons".)
- Intel i7 920 @ 2.66GHZ
- Nvidia Geforce 560Ti (345.20 drivers)
- Windows 10 (9926) x64
- 6GB DDR3 RAM
- ASUS P6T motherboard

4) Disabling "Always Run" doesn't seem to work?

5) The world/item re-texture/re-model projects are quite brilliant, however the revised menu/hud/font elements included in the item re-model project seems completely different (And horrible) to the original content which seems incredibly bizarre considering the projects goal to maintain the games original aesthetic. Anyone else feel the same? Thankfully you can edit the Pk3 file with your favourite compression utility and delete the offending TGA files.

6) Enemy models and some other models like large solid objects that are fired as part of a trap tend to appear all speckly like a out of tune analog TV (The snowy effect) at certain distances/angles from them, dunno why. Any ideas?

[Henry]

1.) Can you handle configuration files? Then use cvar cl_noplayershadow 1. Can you handle qc? Then use DP_EF_NOSHADOW on the player. Can you handle shaders? Then use dpnoshadow on the player.
Be aware that there are also several cvars to adjust the shadows properties available.

2.) Expect these things to happen when using dpx64 with win10x64. You should wait for win11 or use standard dp with a better OS if you dont know why.

3.) What benefit do you have from r_glsl_offsetmapping_reliefmapping ? Your hardware is too weak to sacrifice, so turn it off or use a better coded engine to have better fps.
sdl: adds support for Simple Direct Layer (media library). For SDL supported operating systems.

4.) See point 2. You can always manually set cl_forwardspeed and cl_backspeed to 200 to get the same result.

5.) Did you make better ones? Where is your download link?

6.) Use a shader to get rid of that for your externals. Use the search button for good externals which brings the correct shader with them or make your own if you want.


Seriously, consider changing your engine if you are not happy with it. There are others that suit your needs better.

[Nicholas Steel]

1) Edit: I figured it out, I just need to copy/paste cl_noplayershadow 1 in to the console window.

2) Okay.

3) Well yeah, but I mean does the SDL version work under Windows 9x and the normal version doesn't? It just seems weird to include 2 Windows executables. The included readme for the graphics mods state that r_glsl_offsetmapping_reliefmapping 1 results in even better Bump Mapping effects when used with r_glsl_offsetmapping 1, so I tried both r_glsl_offsetmapping 1 with and without r_glsl_offsetmapping_reliefmapping 1 and am just curious about it having such a dramatic performance impact. Is the entire levels graphics rendered regardless of what is visible to the player? I can imagine that being why.

4) Okay.

5) Fair enough, I was being pretty critical of it but its still pretty weird. I'll stick with my solution of just deleting what I find offensive from the graphics mod.

For your reference, I downloaded http://icculus.org/twilight/darkplac...ly20140513.zip

[Henry]

Nicholas Steel, I do not know if you are one of the persons who jumps in, ask a question and then disappears forever. There are several of these in this forum recently.
Anyway, here are some things for you.

In your last post you wrote: The included readme for the graphics mods state. So this means you are using one of the all-in-one Quake compilations. OK. If you had mention this earlier it would have been clear where all your issues come from. Worst example is the epsilon compilation. It really screws up your configs, has a lot of bugs, uses old mods and brings issues with more recent dp builds. Just to name a few.
If you use another compilation, you might have the chance to exchange single replacements without dealing too much damage.
Anyway, all of them are using autoexec files which may be the reason for your config issues.

About the hud textures, that you especially mention. There are a lot of different replacement hud texture styles available. See if you can delete the ones in the compilation and exchange them with one of the many others. Good places to start are these links, all of them have preview screens=
Moon[Drunk]s Quake Graphics
:: Quake Revitalization Project :: Quake Retexturing Project ::
QuakeWorld GFX - HUD

And skip that reliefmapping feature. It is too subtle to sacrifice so much fps. Especially together with the all-in-one compilations and your hardware.

[Nicholas Steel]

Nicholas Steel, I do not know if you are one of the persons who jumps in, ask a question and then disappears forever. There are several of these in this forum recently.
:: Quake Revitalization Project :: Quake Retexturing Project ::

Yeah I'm only using the world and item re-texture/re-model projects from that website at the moment, no other mods are installed. There is a Normal-Map file available on that website as well for use with the world textures and the readme for that file mentions the computationally expensive bump mapping option, suggesting to enable it for an improved experience compared to the standard bump mapping method.

Currently I'm just curious about why that feature is so computationally expensive and demands such high system requirements to achieve decent FPS, does the Darkplaces engine render the entire levels graphics, even stuff the player isn't currently looking at?

I might not hang around the forum/become a regular, but I do tend to monitor threads I've created/things that interest me if a forum makes it easy to do (Such as email notifications of responses to subscribed threads for example).

I've been in email contact with I assume the/one of the developers of Darkplaces regarding the keybindings issue, if you want to see if you can diagnose the issue here is some information for ya to look at.

Image of in-game bindings after starting the game: Steam Community :: Screenshot
Below is a copy of the contents of the Configuration file located at C:\Users\%user%\Saved Games\darkplaces\id1

bind TAB "+showscores"
bind ENTER "+jump"
bind ESCAPE "togglemenu"
bind SPACE "+jump"
bind + "sizeup"
bind , "+moveleft"
bind - "sizedown"
bind . "+moveright"
bind / "impulse 10"
bind 0 "impulse 0"
bind 1 "impulse 1"
bind 2 "impulse 2"
bind 3 "impulse 3"
bind 4 "impulse 4"
bind 5 "impulse 5"
bind 6 "impulse 6"
bind 7 "impulse 7"
bind 8 "impulse 8"
bind 9 "impulse 225"
bind = "sizeup"
bind BACKSLASH "+mlook"
bind BACKQUOTE "toggleconsole"
bind a "+moveleft"
bind c "+movedown"
bind d "+moveright"
bind s "+back"
bind t "messagemode"
bind v "+moveup"
bind w "+forward"
bind z "+lookdown"
bind TILDE "toggleconsole"
bind UPARROW "+forward"
bind DOWNARROW "+back"
bind LEFTARROW "+left"
bind RIGHTARROW "+right"
bind ALT "+strafe"
bind CTRL "+attack"
bind SHIFT "+speed"
bind F1 "help"
bind F2 "menu_save"
bind F3 "menu_load"
bind F4 "menu_options"
bind F5 "menu_multiplayer"
bind F6 "echo Quicksaving...; wait; save quick"
bind F9 "echo Quickloading...; wait; load quick"
bind F10 "quit"
bind F11 "zoom_in"
bind F12 "screenshot"
bind INS "+klook"
bind DEL "+lookdown"
bind PGDN "+lookup"
bind END "centerview"
bind PAUSE "pause"
bind MOUSE1 "+attack"
bind MOUSE2 "+forward"
bind MOUSE3 "+mlook"
bind MWHEELUP "impulse 10"
bind MWHEELDOWN "impulse 12"
"cl_beams_instantaimhack" "1"
"cl_noplayershadow" "1"
"cl_particles_quality" "4"
"cl_particles_smoke" "0"
"cl_particles_sparks" "0"
"cl_stainmaps" "1"
"crosshair" "2"
"gl_texture_anisotropy" "16"
"m_pitch" "-0.022000"
"r_bloom" "1"
"r_bloom_resolution" "640"
"r_coronas" "1"
"r_hdr_scenebrightness" "1.500000"
"r_lerpsprites" "1"
"r_shadow_realtime_world" "1"
"r_shadow_realtime_world_lightmaps" "0.500000"
"sensitivity" "4.500000"
"vid_height" "1080"
"vid_refreshrate" "0"
"vid_samples" "2"
"vid_vsync" "1"
"vid_width" "1920"

Note: I can't locate any other configuration files on my computer that Darkplaces has either generated or is using.

Edit:

6) Enemy models and some other models like large solid objects that are fired as part of a trap tend to appear all speckly like a out of tune analog TV (The snowy effect) at certain distances/angles from them, dunno why. Any ideas?

Video supplemental: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFSk...ature=youtu.be
Happens with and without graphical mods installed. The graphical garbage is present pretty much everywhere in the game. If this only happens in the x64 version of Darkplaces than let me know.

To me it looks like z-fighting or maybe mipmapping is broken.

[Henry]

Nicholas Steel, the file you pasted seems to be the config.cfg.
Be aware that this file does not save ALL cvars. That is why some needs to be set via autoexec.cfg.

What it should save is the r_glsl_offsetmapping cvar. Which in your case isnt set. Isnt set means that it has its default value, wich is 0.
You said you are using the r_glsl_offsetmapping, so it must be visible in your file.

What you shoudl do to keep all config files in familiar places is to use this shortcut command: -nohome
So, start your darkplaces with darkplaces.exe -nohome.
And all the configs that are used and written will be in your id1 folder.

The reason why save and config files in newer windows builds use different locations is the rights issue. As you know Windows prevents files to be edited or created in unsafe folders. And nobody knows where you installed your quake.

Once you have an overview where your configs are saved, you will get rid of all those issues. In my opinion it is best to have them all inside the quake folder itself. And that is what you force with -nohome.


About the offsetmapping: The scene scope is rendered with or without reliefmapping the same. It only does a lot of more calculations and things we dont know to create the texture offset visual itself.
I think it is comparable to render a scene with and without realtime lights. It doesnt change the scene scope, but it has to do a lot more calculations to add the shadows and lights with realtimelightning enabled. And this consumes performance.
For more details you should ask the engine devs of course.
Be aware that you have a lot of cvars to adjust even the reliefmapping calculations. So you can finetune the visual and performance impact by using these. Defaults are set to be changed, right ?


EDITED:
About your last post with the youtube clip: Use 347.09 or newer drivers. Issue seems to be fixed. At least that has been posted somewhere here in this forum. Good luck.

[Nicholas Steel]

Nicholas Steel, the file you pasted seems to be the config.cfg.
Be aware that this file does not save ALL cvars. That is why some needs to be set via autoexec.cfg.

What it should save is the r_glsl_offsetmapping cvar. Which in your case isnt set. Isnt set means that it has its default value, wich is 0.
You said you are using the r_glsl_offsetmapping, so it must be visible in your file.

What you shoudl do to keep all config files in familiar places is to use this shortcut command: -nohome
So, start your darkplaces with darkplaces.exe -nohome.
And all the configs that are used and written will be in your id1 folder.

The reason why x64 builds use different locations is the rights issue with win64bit. As you know it prevents files to be edited or created in unsafe folders. And nobody knows where you installed your quake.

Once you have an overview where your configs are saved, you will get rid of all those issues. In my opinion it is best to have them all inside the quake folder itself. And that is what you force with -nohome.

Note, I have edited my last post with some extra stuff at the end. Edit: Oh, well, that's unfortunate as the 347 series of drivers tend to cause a TDR error to happen which is why I'm not using them.

Well, I tried it, but I'm not using it now because it drastically decreases the performance of the game. I've set the value back to 0 via the console window which seems to have deleted it from the configuration file (I just now tested this interaction between client and configuration file). So it's okay that neither bump mapping setting is visible in the configuration file I posted because I've turned them both off.

Edit: Darkplaces is installed to L:\Quake

[PrimalLove]

@Nicholas Steel

Darkplaces reliefmapping can be tailored to help with performance issues. Using both realtime world lighting/shadows and reliefmapping together can create some issues in performances. Here are some cvars you can use to adjust it and perhaps get better performance.

r_glsl_offsetmapping_reliefmapping_steps: This defaults to 10. Which is basically 10 passes. Reduce this to half and you will get some performance boost.
r_glsl_offsetmapping_lod : This setting will alter detail level based on distance // Only going to be helpful on larger maps. :/
r_glsl_offsetmapping_lod_distance: default 32
Use apropos command in console to search for additional commands. You can even alter the depth of the reliefmapping. If I can recall, the earlier versions of DP used 14 passes by default

As for Epsilon and Quake HD pack, It seems strange they get such a bad rep. I use both most up to date versions myself and they work rather well out of the box. I've noticed nothing buggy with them. And its nice to have a compilation already ready to go. The newest Epsilon update uses the newest Darkplaces engine release and has some very useful scripts to change between various detail levels. Quake HD Pack is older but works well with the latest Darkplaces as well out of the box. Both uses an older version of SMC but that's not necessarily a bad thing as it has less of the additional stuff some might not want from SMC. Tho i can confirm both work well with the newest SMC 5.1 wihout any shader issues, etc. You may run into some problems using multiskin monsters but otherwise nothing is likely going to get messed up unless you mix it with other things. Everything in these packs comes from the same supplied links in talisa's hd thread. Ideally creating your own compilation is likely better, but I just find it strange these two packs get such a bad wrap. i can confirm they work quite well.

"My documents/My Games/darkplaces/id1" (windows) or "~./darkplaces/id1" (linux) is where it will save the config.cfg information by default. That is where it will load the config.cfg file by deaulft from unless you use -nohome in your commandline.

[Henry]

As far as I understand, all of your issues are solved now, except the texture flickering.
Saves and configs are inside your id1 now, so you should be able to set all of your settings.
Try driver 320.49 then and see if it helps the flickering issue (if you cannot use 347 series). I do not have any more suggestions as I do not have the flickering issue.
Good luck!

[Spectre8750]

I'm running Darkplaces Engine with new textures and ServerModules 3.3.12 in CTF.
My problem is the team colors do not show at all, just gold for everyone. Hope it's ok to ask in this forum, I didn't know where else to go for help. Thanks for your time reading this.

[Cobalt]

If the players have all gold skins then the player model might be colored all gold in one of its skins. If you type in color 0 0 in the con and your player dont turn white, there is a different player model being used or the mod has set it to the wrong skin. If you press showscores, the scoreboard ought to show the all white color scheme , otherwise its possible the colormap file in the wad or pak might be corrupted.

I'm running Darkplaces Engine with new textures and ServerModules 3.3.12 in CTF.
My problem is the team colors do not show at all, just gold for everyone. Hope it's ok to ask in this forum, I didn't know where else to go for help. Thanks for your time reading this.

[talisa]

@spectre 8750

md3 models dont natively support team-colors, which is why all players look the same.
darkplaces however does support a way to make non-mdl models support team-colors.

ive made a little addon myself for ruohis player-model to support player-colors
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3u4l2tmjwq...olors.pk3?dl=0

[Spectre8750]

Thanks Cobalt. I realized I didn't have the custom PAK in the Modules folder and the colors show for teams properly now. Duh on my part.
Thanks Talisa, I will check it out.

[Spectre8750]

talisa
I'm using stock models I'm pretty sure. And where do I need to put the Color mod pak you made? Where on the Server and Client side? And thanks for helping me out! I dropped it in the Server "id" and "Modules", then the same with the Client, but didn't seem o work.

[Spectre8750]

I removed the player.mdl and texture from the HD pk3 file and put it in the client id folder and it works great with all the HD goodness, except for the player.mdl. Now the trick is to get Server Modules to use the newer player.mdl.