FAQ

Important

This FAQ relates to the full TDM release version only. For players of the pre-release demos such as Thief's Den and Tears of Saint Lucia please refer to the Demo FAQ.

What Doom versions are supported?

Can I use the Demo version of Doom 3?

No, sorry.

Can I use it with the Doom 3 expansion Resurrection of Evil?

No, sorry.

Does it run with the Steam version of Doom 3?

Yes :) You need to install the mod into the directory where Steam put Doom3, this might be under:

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\doom 3

or a similiar folder.

Important: Create a shortcut on your desktop and set it to the following:

steam.exe -applaunch 9050 +set fs_game_base darkmod

This ensures that when you start Steam, it will launch TDM and not Doom 3 without TDM.

Patching Doom 3 to verson 1.3.1.1304

How can I check whether my Doom 3 is correctly patched?

Open Doom 3 and hit Ctrl+Alt+~ (tilde, ^ on German keyboards) to open the console. You'll see the version printed in the lower left corner of the console. It should read 1.3.1.1304. If your version is ending on 1302, you've got the wrong patch installed.

Where can I get the right patch?

We have the patch hosted on our FTP. See the Installation article to find a link to it.

If you have version 1.3.1.1302, you may need to uninstall and reinstall before patch 1.3.1.1304 will let you apply it.

What's that issue with the 1.3.1 patch?

When the 1.3.1 patch was released by Id, they released it a bit too early. Some download sites picked it up quite fast though and started to distribute it. The problem is, that Id replaced that patch with a different one, and, probably thinking that it hadn't spread yet, didn't bother to change the version number. However, you can still find "wrong" 1.3.1 patches and these will not work with the mod. That's why it is important to check the version number in the console to make sure that the right 1.3.1 patch is installed if the mod doesn't work. The link provided here on our own page points to the correct patch, so if you downloaded it from here you don't need to worry about it.

Supported Operating Systems

Which Windows versions can I use?

The following versions of windows have been tested and are known to work : Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 in both 32bit and 64bit flavours.

Does it run in Linux?

Yes, Linux is supported.

Does it run in 64 Bit Linux?

Yes, Linux 64 bit is supported. In addition to the steps above, you need 32 bit compatibility libraries, since Doom3 is 32 bit only:

• On SuSE, they should be included.
• On Ubuntu/Kubuntu, install the package ia32.

For TDM after 1.0, this step should be no longer neccessary:

• Since you cannot install 32 bit libraries on a 64 bit system with the normal package manager, you should use getlibs to install libmng and the boost filesystem lib:

getlibs libmng.so.1

getlibs -l libboost-filesystem1.34.1

What about Gentoo?

Yes. It's not "officially" supported (the team doesn't test it specifically), however several users have reported success running TDM under Gentoo.

What about Ubuntu 8.10?

Yes. As of this writing you will need to install the libboost-filesystem package.

GLIBCXX_3.4.9 errors

If you receive an error about GLIBCXX_3.4.9, delete or rename the files /usr/local/games/doom3/libstdc++.so.6 and /usr/local/games/doom3/libgcc_s.so.1.

If this doesn't resolve the error and you have an old version of GCC, then you may have to upgrade. It has been confirmed that, at least under Gentoo, GCC 4.1 does not work with TDM but GCC 4.3 and GCC 4.4 are compatible.

Does it run on Mac OS X?

No. Or at least not yet. The Doom 3 game itself does support Mac OS X, but The Dark Mod currently does not because we don't have any developers who use Macs. If you can help us getting it to run on OS X, please let us know on the forum.

Since TDM works on Linux already, getting it working on OS X should not be too difficult for anyone with experience programming for that platform. In theory it's just a question of figuring out how to build the mod, sorting out dependencies, and writing a few pieces of platform-specific code.

Graphics

Does TDM support widescreen resolutions?

Yes. Choose "16:9" or "16:10" in the in-game Settings menu, and select the appropriate resolution. Note that you need to restart the game to have the new setting in effect.

If the native resolution of your wide screen monitor is not listed, you can enter it into DoomConfig.cfg by changing the following entries like so:

set r_mode -1
set r_customwidth 1280
set r_customheight 800

Note that if you get performance problems, please consider using a lower resolution and taking a look at Performance Tweaks.

Troubleshooting

It is hard to answer question on why something fails, because wildly different systems cause wildy different symptoms. If the following section does not help you, please ask at out our forums.

Updater (tdm_update.exe) closes almost as soon as it's started

See the main article on tdm_update.

Windows 2000: freeaddrinfo cannot be found in WS2_32.DLL

Please refer to the main article TDM in Windows 2000 to work around this problem.

FM won't install manually

If you are running Dark Mod under Linux and have edited the file darkmod/currentfm.txt this might prevent the FM from installing. This may be fixed in an update but apparently editing using notepad under Wine works OK.

FMs downloaded but don't show in menu list

You have download some FMs but they don't show on Dark Mod's New Missions list. Possible causes:

• You must not extract the pk4s or zip files but put them into the darkmod/fms folder (or alternatively you can create the FM folder in there eg, darkmod/fms/chalice for chalice.pk4 or chalice.zip.
• Early versions of Dark Mod cannot handle zip suffixes. Solution: rename to .pk4 or run tdm_update to get the latest version of Dark Mod.
• If you are running Linux then Doom 3 MUST be installed in a .doom3 folder. Note the dot before .doom3.

FM downloaded but won't play

If you have downloaded an FM you might see it in the New Missions List but can't get it to play. These are almost always an install problem. These are some of the causes and cures:

FMs (fan missions) are archives and in early versions of Dark Mod MUST be suffixed .pk4 not zip. Apparently Internet Explorer 8 may change it from pk4 to zip during download without telling you. You need to rename it back if running an early version of Dark Mod else run tdm_update to update and then zip files are OK.

You MUST use doom3\darkmod\tdmlauncher.exe to run Dark Mod in Windows and NOT Doom3.exe.

You do NOT need to extract the pk4 archives to install or play. Just download into or move the pk4 into the darkmod\fms folder. Optionally you can create a folder of the same name as the map and put it in there, eg, darkmod\fms\chalice but there is no need because Dark Mod will create that automatically. Just make sure your pk4 goes, unopened, into the fms folder then run tdmlauncher.exe

If you have done the above but see for example, a blank objectives screen and no briefing then it is still almost certainly an install error. I recommend you do a clean sweep if in doubt:

• Exit Dark Mod
• Delete doom3\darkmod\currentfm.txt (this just uninstalls any FM)
• Delete the map game folder (if any) This is NOT the folder in fms but the folder in doom3 of the same name as the FM, eg, doom3\chalice. Note: this has savegames and screenshots in so check and move them out if you want to preserve them. However, if you can't get the game to play it's likely you don't have any yet. If you can't see the folder don't worry. The folder name is normally the same as the pk4 but it might not be. Strictly speaking it must be the same as the name in startingmap.txt inside the pk4 archive. You might see this file in fms.
• Move the pk4 into the darkmod\fms folder if it is not already there.
• Delete the darkmod\fms\FMname folder if any, eg, darkmod\fms\chalice. Don't worry if there isn't one; it will be created automatically later.

So all that is left is the pk4 in the fms folder. Now run tdmlauncher.exe. The FM should be in the list in the New Missions menu. Re-install it and you should now be able to play it.

The game crashes on load

Make sure that:

• You installed the correct version of the Doom 3 1.3.1 patch.
• Your system meets at least the minimum system specs.
• You have enough free main memory. Try closing a few running programs like Outlook, Anti-Virus or torrent clients.

If that doesn't fix it, you probably receive an error message referencing an "Unknown event" at startup, like the screenshot below illustrates.

Here are a couple of known problems and their solutions:

• tdmlauncher.exe fails to copy the necessary game binaries. The log file should read something like this:

  found DLL in pak file: C:\Program Files\Doom 3\darkmod\tdm_game01.pk4/gamex86.dll
  copy gamex86.dll to C:\Program Files\Doom 3\darkmod\gamex86.dll
  could not create destination file

  • Sometimes, the procedure fails due to spaces in the installation path. Try extracting the gamex86.dll manually using Winzip or similar or install Doom 3 in a different directory.
  • You have a firewall installed that prevents the copy procedure, because since version 1.03, TDM has a built-in mission downloader. This misbehavior has been reported for the COMODO Firewall.
• It is also possible that an old version of gamex86.dll (or gamex86.so) is lying around in your Doom 3 folder. Delete it and try again.

Textures are missing, screen mostly black

Black textures

Look into your DoomConfig.cfg inside your darkmod folder and check that the following settings are like shown below:

 seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "1"
 seta image_useNormalCompression "2"
 seta image_useAllFormats "1"
 seta image_useCompression "0"
 seta image_preload "1"

Textures are missing, shadows are pitch black

Try disabling the AGP surface accelerator in DXDIAG

Graphic Corruption

One report we had was for a Radeon ATI HD 4650, catalyst 10.9. This screen corruption as I understand it was heavy pixelation even on the menus. Closing down Xfire fixed it so clearly to do with that. "I fiddled with the xfire Doom 3 configuration through the xfire_games.ini, and determined it has to do with InGameFlags portion.. For some reason the settings in that were interfering with doom 3, and after I removed some things from there, I was still able to run xfire, and doom 3 was still able to look proper"

The briefing is very fuzzy

Look into your DoomConfig.cfg inside your darkmod folder and check that the following settings are like shown below:

seta image_roundDown "1"
seta image_forceDownSize "0"
seta image_downSize "0"

The sky is corrupted

You either see black sky, or fragments of other textures. This seems only to happen on Geforce 6800 cards.

There are two fixes for this:

As a quick fix you can rename the following folder:

env/skyboxes/skybox_darkland_ne

to an different name. That will result in black sky.

Alternatively, edit the file materials/tdm_sky.mtr with Wordpad or a different editor and find the sky material named textures/darkmod/nature/skybox/skybox_darkland_NE:

 //Author: Dram
 //skybox_ocean with ocean replaced with dark land
 //Moon moved to north east by Fidcal
 textures/darkmod/nature/skybox/skybox_darkland_NE
    {
    qer_editorimage env/skyboxes/skybox_ocean/ocean_ed
    noFragment
    noshadows
    noimpact
    nooverlays
    forceOpaque
    {
        forceHighQuality
        blend add
        cameraCubeMap env/skyboxes/skybox_darkland_ne/darkland_NE
        texgen skybox
        texgen wobblesky .0 .0 .0
    }
 }

In this declaration, comment out the line that reads forceHighQuality by adding // in front of it:

 // forceHighQuality

That should fix the sky and make it render correctly.

The Sky rotates

This problem only affects FMs with a dynamic sky (eg, moving clouds etc.)

If you see the sky spinning it may be an ATI graphics card problem. One report says this was cured by turning off Catalyst AI. Also gives better loading times and cures HDR-Lite Post-Processing Problems.

If that doesn't fix it then try this. Note that it replaces dynamic sky with a static clear one so might look odd in a stormy FM for example but better than a spinning sky:

• Create a new folder in your darkmod folder called materials.
• Within it create a plain text file named no_skybox.mtr
• Paste in the following:

textures/smf/portal_sky
{
	qer_editorimage env/skyboxes/skybox_ocean/ocean_ed
	noFragment
	
	noimpact
	nooverlays
	forceOpaque
	noShadows
	{
		forceHighQuality
		blend add
		cameraCubeMap env/skyboxes/skybox_darkland_ne/darkland_NE
		texgen skybox
		texgen wobblesky .0 .0 .0
	}
}

HDR-Lite Post-Processing problems

Some owners of ATI graphics cards reported various artifacts when HDR-Lite Post-Processing was enabled. Among these artifacts are a distorted or upside-down screen and spinning sky. These can usually be fixed by disabling Catalyst AI, which also gives better loading times.

To turn off Catalyst AI, open your Catalyst control panel, go to 'graphics' up the top left, select '3d' from the dropdown list and on the new menu below, select the 'AI' Now select the 'Disable Catalyst A.I.' checkbox.

It has also been supported that HDR-Lite Post-Processing may lead to poor performance underwater.

Underwater performance poor

Some people suffer from very low framerates underwater with HDR-Lite Post-Processing enabled. Currently, the only known fix to this problem is to set g_doubleVision to 0 in the console. This however disables the doubleVision effect completely, so that there is no underwater-blur anymore. The murkiness still remains though.

Upside-down screen

If you get an upside-down screen, you can either turn off Catalyst AI if you have an ATI card or try turning off HDR-Lite Post-Processing in the advanced video options.

To turn off Catalyst AI, open your Catalyst control panel, go to 'graphics' up the top left, select '3d' from the dropdown list and on the new menu below, select the 'AI' Now select the 'Disable Catalyst A.I.' checkbox.

The game is very slow!

If you get less than 10 FPS, or the game even stutters, please try this:

Look into your DoomConfig.cfg inside your darkmod folder and check that the following settings are like shown below:

 seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "1"
 seta image_useNormalCompression "2"
 seta image_useAllFormats "1"
 seta image_useCompression "1"
 seta image_preload "1"

If that doesn't help, your system might run out of memory. Either upgrade to more than 1 Gbyte memory, or try to close some other applications before playing.

Please see also the article about Performance Tweaks to improve the performance.

Slow loading times

If you find an FM is very slow to load it may be an ATI graphics card problem. One report says this was cured by turning off Catalyst AI. Also cures HDR-Lite Post-Processing Problems.

Changing the following settings to 0 will also reduce loading time, but be warned...if you have a lower end system, poor graphics card, or low ram...you will likely notice a performance hit ingame since you will now be using uncompressed textures.

 seta image_useNormalCompression "0"
 seta image_useCompression "0"

Game freezes for several seconds when opening doors

The following problems :

A) "game freezes and loads some data from hard drive while opening doors" B) "while loading mission you are returned to the menu and need to restart loading"

Are often resolved by disabling EAX 4.0 HD in Audio Settings menu.

Game exits to menu after mission load, with renderpipe error in console

Symptoms: Missions are installed properly and will load, but after they reach 100% you are returned to the main menu or objectives screen. If you open the console (Ctrl-Alt-~ on US keyboards), you see one/both of these errors:

ERROR: Failed to open \\.\pipe\dm_renderpipe

or

ERROR: idRenderSystemLocal::uncrop currentcrop <1

Solution: Some firewalls, notably Sunbelt Firewall (aka Kerio Firewall) are known to interfere with TDM's lightgem, even when "disabled". To fix this problem, completely uninstall the firewall, and get a different one instead.

"COULD NOT FIND TDMLAUNCHER" when installing an FM

If you receive this error message you should check the start-arguments of DOOM3.exe / tdmlauncher.exe. Arguments are stored in darkmod/dmargs.txt and a faulty syntax e.g. a missing "+" before a "set"-command, will lead to this error message. Steam-users are advised to remove any launch-options from Doom.

The sound lags behind the picture

This seems to happen on Linux with certain ALSA drivers. You can try to disable "Dolby Surround" (switch to "Stereo") or just use OSS instead:

Put the following setting on your tdmlauncher.linux command line:

+set s_driver oss

and use "Stereo".

On some Ubuntu systems, applications using ALSA are re-directed to "pulseaudio" which causes a lack of syncrony between sound and image. Simply removing "pulseaudio" should get your sound back in syncrony:

sudo apt-get purge pulseaudio

Changing the screen resolution/aspect ratio does nothing!?

These changes require a restart of Doom to work. Alternatively the command vid_restart can be issued to the console. It can take quite some time to execute this command, depending on whether or not you're already ingame. It will still be a lot faster than restarting and reloading the game though.

Steam launches D3, not TDM

Whenever you start Steam and it does launch vanilla Doom instead of TDM, make sure you follow this advice:

Important: Create a shortcut on your desktop and set it to the following:

steam.exe -applaunch 9050 +set fs_game_base darkmod

This ensures that when you start Steam, it will launch TDM and not Doom 3 without TDM.

Known bugs

See article Known Bugs.