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KCTools

Description

TTLG Release Thread

KCTools is a collection of tools for working with NewDark 1.27 files. Currently there are two tools, a lightmapping tool, and a .BIN model export tool. The latest release can be downloaded here.

Light

An external lightmapping tool for NewDark 1.27 fan missions. DromEd's built-in lighting is single-threaded, has a number of bugs, and scales extremely poorly with lightmap scale and large open spaces. KCTools Light uses a multithreaded approach with a modern raytracing library to improve lighting times, reduce lighting artifacts, and often improves in-game performance in complex scenes.

Features

  • All DromEd lighting functionality
  • Massively improved lighting times
  • Better light culling, improving performance in large-scale city maps and eliminating object lighting errors
  • Additional warnings to mappers for mis-configured lights
  • Produces generally more accurate shadows

Benchmarks

All tests were performed on a PC with a Ryzen 5 2600 CPU. I've used a variety of mission sizes and types to help show what sort of missions benefit most from KCLight.

Mission DromEd KCLight Speedup
Alcazar 00:00:03 00:00:02 ~1.5x
Cinder Notes 00:05:12 00:00:12 ~26x
Fierce Competition 00:00:08 00:00:01 ~8x
Godbreaker M2: Impious Pilgrimage 00:07:21 00:00:03 ~147x
Into the Odd 00:01:41 00:00:05 ~20x
Malazars Tower 00:00:46 00:00:06 ~7.5x
TBP M8: Jaws of Darkness 00:08:23 00:00:18 ~28x
The Scarlet Cascabel M2 00:01:30 00:00:02 ~45x
TPOAIR M2: Collecting it All 01:00:58 00:00:27 ~135x
Winds of Misfortune 00:15:23 00:00:05 ~185x

Usage

KCTools Light is available as a straightforward GUI (KCLight.Gui.exe) if you don't have much experience using a terminal: GUI.png

To use the CLI, open a console in the KCTools folder and run KCTools light --help to see the help screen:

light: Compute lightmaps for a NewDark .MIS/.COW

Usage:
  KCTools light <install-path> <mission-name> [options]

Arguments:
  <install-path>  The path to the root Thief installation. [required]
  <mission-name>  Mission filename including extension. [required]

Options:
  -c, --campaign-name  Fan mission folder name. Uses OMs if not specified.
  -o, --output-name    Name of output file excluding extension. Overwrites existing mission if not specified.
  -s, --simple-vis     Use a simpler Light to Cell visibility calculation. Only use for debugging. [default: False]
  -?, -h, --help       Show help and usage information

Model Export

Exports models as a binary GLTF. Sub-object and joint hierarchy is respected and textures are bundled into the exported .glb.

model_export_blender.png

Usage

Open a console in the KCTools folder and run KCTools model export --help to see the help screen:

export: Export models to .GLB

Usage:
  KCTools model export <install-path> [options]

Arguments:
  <install-path>  The path to the root Thief installation. [required]

Options:
  -c, --campaign-name     The folder name of a fan mission.
  -m, --model-name        The name of the model.
  -o, --output-directory  Folder to output exported models to. If not set models will be exported alongside the original.
  -?, -h, --help          Show help and usage information

Building

This project requires the .NET 9.0 runtime and SDK. Raytracing uses a forked version of TinyEmbree with backface culling enabled, a pre-built package can be found in LocalPackages.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.