Quake 1.5 helped me solve a CSQC mystery or 2 and hellped me understand some DP features that needed supporting work to use.
Problem with giant maps like ad_tears is caused by the existence of several protocols. There are many engines and a very little standardization. In the past, darkplaces did things in its’ own way. I am not a coder, but from what I understood protocol defines, among other things, how many entities can engine load. DP has its’ own protocol that should in theory handle extreme levels, but maps today have more and more entities in them up to the point when they exceed DP limits. Some of these limits are effectively unlimited, however in some cases it is still not enough. I don’t know how up-to-date is this overview, but it can give you at least some insight as to how is DP in comparison with other engines.
https://quakewiki.org/wiki/Engine_Limits
The most advanced protocol today is protocol 999. Some big levels that require protocol 999 can be loaded in DP, but there are limitations. Ad_sepulcher works only due to hack that blocks some not-so-important entities /like torches/ when you try load that map in DP. Ad_ tears or updated map by Heresy from Alkaline 1.2 /alk_dismal/ can be loaded in DP but there are bugs like flickering entities/missing geometry… You can encounter invisible enemies or ammo boxes. Other levels simply wont load at all and crashes DP to desktop with out-of-memory error message - e.g. ad_heresp2.
Another problem is engine optimization. I can use DP version from my post in this thread and load ad_tears. There will be bugs, but the levels “works” and the framerate is OK - round 50-60. With zircon I have only half of it. D2m8 from Dwell or Ball’s level from Alcaline /alk_dancing/ is the same case. On the other hand, Baker fixed some annoying bugs in DP. If you want to use DP than zircon fork of DP is a better choice for 95% of maps. Except for some really big levels it handles levels fine. For really big levels… well … ironwaill is a way to go here. Adding full support for protocol 999 into DP is probably not an easy task.
UPDATE
I’ve made mistake in the last paragraph. I used wrong map names as examples of what works in zircon and what does not. This is the correct version:
Another problem is engine optimization. I can use DP version from my post in this thread and load ad_tears from AD or alk_dismal from Alcaline. There will be bugs, but the levels “work” and the framerate is OK - round 50-60. Zircon won’t load these levels at all. It crashes to desktop. Ad_sepulcher should not work in DP or should have the same flickering entities if it were not for the special darkplaces hack. But it runs smoothly. Again, zircon fails to load that level. However, it does not crashes to desktop, only to console inside Q1. D2m8 from Dwell or Ball’s level from Alcaline /alk_dancing/ runs in zircon but framerate is terrible. I have 40-60 fps in alk_dancing with DP, zircon oscillates around 30 FPS with dips to single digits FPS. D2m8 is similar story. On the other hand, Baker fixed some annoying bugs in DP. If you want to use DP than zircon fork of DP is a better choice for 95% of maps. Except for some really big levels it handles levels fine. For really big levels… well … ironwaill is a way to go here. Adding full support for protocol 999 into DP is probably not an easy task.
All of this information will prove helpful.
Can I suggest a thing that may sound “useless”? In Darkplaces maps with fog tend to “cover the sky” completely while in other engines like Quakespasm/Rerelease and others the sky is clearly visible. It would be cool to make this feature be optional
Haha, that gets on my nerves too. FitzQuake derivatives if I recall have a cvar that specifies how much the sky gets fogged and it is something like 30%. Almost every engine that anyone ever serious about single player uses – except DarkPlaces uses the FitzQuake fog system.
DarkPlaces came before FitzQuake and some mods like Nehahra were designed with DarkPlaces being a major target.
My preference is FitzQuake fog.
I’ll look around. I hadn’t thought about that recently.
I updated my last post - there were mistakes. Read it again please.
as for the fog. Try d2m4 from Dwell in ironwail. You will see how water on the horizon merges seamlessly with skybox in gentle fog. It is really nice effect. In DP the fog works differently and you can see strict line where the water brush ends and skybox begins. When you load that level in DP you will see a notice in console unknown command r_skyfog. DP does not support that feature.
Wanted to check something out in Quake 1.5 …
gamedir quake15 // I prefer “game” but whatever
“Cannot change gamedir while client is connected …”
Adding to “fix” list.
nice 
I found that starting DarkPlaces in fullscreen mode on Windows sometimes you have to click the mouse before DarkPlaces receives keyboard or mouse input.
I just resolved this.
Dp had an editor for rtlights…what about an editor ti make colored lights (.lits)?
An alpha 6 with new features including a maps menu is available:
How I can access the maps menu?
Nevermind, just found. It would be cool to add a mods selection menu (not from console, but from main menu) like in Quake rerelease and recently in Ironwail. Will the coronas that are visible through walls (my most hated DP bug) be fixed?
I’ll think about the mods thing. how can I duplicate corona issue? need to cause it to examine it.
Mods menu item in main will need to look nice and natural. If I can think of way to achieve that …
(I only do things if the result can look nice).
Question:
I am making autocomplete better.
What autocompletes would make life easier? I am having “save”, “load”, “exec” autocomplete for example using the save games in paths.
But some DarkPlaces users probably use features I do not think about often.
Anything that if it autocompleted would help?
Hi Baker, I am maybe an idiot, but what autocomplete means?
If I type “map e” and press tab it fills in e1m1 in the console. If I press tab it says “map e1m2”
Or I type “exec d” and press tab it fills in to"exec default.cfg"
I tried to create the coronas seen through walls thing in Zircon by setting Lighting High, which sets r_coronas to 1. I went to several places with torches.
I was not able to cause the problem.
Is this problem only limited to unreleased DarkPlaces like the Jan 2023 build or should I be able to cause this somehow?