The Dark Mod

''The Dark Mod'' is a free and open-source software first-person stealth video game, inspired by the ''Thief'' series by Looking Glass Studios. The game provides the basic framework and tools (engine, assets, models, and editor) for more than 160 fan-made missions, including several multi-mission campaigns. ''The Dark Mod'' was first released in 2009 as a total conversion mod for ''Doom 3''. Version 2.0 was released in October 2013 as a standalone game using the open-source id Tech 4 game engine.

Gameplay

''The Dark Mod'' takes place in a classic gothic steampunk world. This includes a crossover of elements of fantasy, the Late Middle Ages, the Victorian era and the Industrial Revolution. Although set in a very similar world to that of the original ''Thief'' series, the mod does not use any of the original ''Thief'' intellectual property.

The player is an agile thief in a hostile world. He has to use his equipment and the environment to avoid guards, traps, creatures or other threats. His equipment includes a blackjack, water arrows, holy water, flashbombs, mines, and more. Since the player has only a limited fighting capability, he is supposed to sneak and hide in dark, mostly avoiding combat. The plot and mission goals are set by the author of the fan mission or campaign.

Development

''The Dark Mod'' was originally released as a total conversion modification for ''Doom 3'', but with the release of version 2.0 it became completely standalone on the id Tech 4 game engine. The game's source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License 3 and all other non-software components are under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.

The mod was originally developed as a toolkit. It includes models, sounds, , art, tools, and a specialised editor for users to create custom missions. The development of the mod started in 2004, and the first Beta was released in 2008, along with its first mission. In October 2009, v 1.0 was released. In October 2013 version 2.0 was released as a standalone game that included two missions created by the development team. The current version is v 2.11, and has over 160 fan-made missions available.

The Dark Mod 2.06 includes code from the dhewm3 fork of the id Tech 4 game engine that was ported to 64-bit, etc.
It is now possible to play ''The Dark Mod'' as a native 64-bit build on Linux without any 32-bit libraries.

Notable features as of 2.06 64-bit:

* Soft shadows
* Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) optimizations
* EFX Audio (replacing proprietary EAX)
* FFmpeg video support
* Scrolling menus and GUI scaling options
* Modernized OpenGL invokes, GLSL shaders, and Frame Buffer Object support

Note: As of 2.07, Soft shadows are available in two varieties:
* Blurred shadow volumes with a blurring algorithm similar to PCSS
* Shadow mapping with true PCSS blurring

Other notable 2.07 features:

* HRTF Audio
* AVX Optimizations

Notable features for 2.08:

* Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
* 64-bit color FBO
* Material Shaders support GLSL
* Parallax Corrected Cubemap Support (initial)
* GLSL 3.1 core compliance
* Uniform Transforms
* Buffer Object Persistent Mapping

Notable features for 2.10

* Volumetric lights ( God Rays )
* Entity limit raised to over 65K. ( Virtually unlimited )
* Full pre-compressed RGTC \ BC5 compression loading and rendering
* GLFW windows management
* glTexStorage support
* PNG texture loading
* Parallel texture loading
* A Hash Table
* Improved mission management GUI interface
* X-Ray Rendering support

Reception

''The Dark Mod'' has been featured and reviewed by a number of major game magazines, websites and blogs. Examples include the Dutch magazine ''PC Game Play'', the blog ''Kotaku'', the British magazine ''PC Gamer'', the German magazines ''PC Games'' and GameStar, as well as the British gaming website ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''.

After going standalone the project received additional substantial coverage from ''Destructoid'' and ''Joystiq''.

''The Dark Mod'' won ''PC Gamer'' UK's Game of the Year award (mod category) for 2013, and has been distributed on several magazine cover DVDs. In 2014 ''The Dark Mod'' was named by '' PCGamer'' among the "Ten top fan remade classics you can play for free right now".
In 2016, ''The Dark Mod'' was ranked as #2 in "The 50 best free PC games" list by ''PC Gamer''.

See also

* List of open-source games
* List of video games derived from modifications

References

External links

*

''The Dark Mod'' Wiki

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dark Mod, The
2009 video games
Linux games
MacOS games
Stealth video games
Doom mods
Windows games
Id Tech games
Creative Commons-licensed video games
Open-source video games
Freeware games