Thief-anewnickname on 10/8/2008 at 20:35
Hi, I've read the FAQ's, I tried using the new fixed EXE file that corrects the direct 3d texture error, but nothing seems to work.
I have a 1.7 GHz CPU and ATI Radeon 9700. I installed Thief: The Dark Project and applied the Thief 1.33 patch and copied the file "convict.osm" to the game folder as usual. I managed to get the videos once I installed the Indeo Video codec, but as soon as the videos are over and the game loads to the actual mission, the screen goes black and I have to CTRL-ALT-DEL to "End Task" for the "Not Responding" Thief program.
I saw that on the FAQ's there are suggestions of a driver to download if you have an ATI video card and have fog problems, but I can't even get into a mission, let alone see fog so I figured this wasn't the solution.
Does anyone have any ideas? I'm completely stumped and would love to play my favourite game in the last 10 years.
baeuchlein on 11/8/2008 at 10:49
You said you were using Thief 1.33, so I guess we are speaking about Thief 1 (not T2: The Metal Age) here, right?
Thief 1 does not use fog, so you will never see any fog in there, and certainly not before playing missions. ATI's Radeon cards have some problems with displaying fog in Thief 2, but you can deal with that once you play Thief 2.
In Thief 1, you can play wthout Hardware support for your graphics card. It's hidden in one of the menus. Did you try that already? I know it does not look pretty, but at least that could give us some information about whether your graphics card or its drivers give you trouble here, or something else.
There is an option for playing with Hardware sound support as well. Try to set it to "off" as well. The sound does not suffer much from that, so don't worry.
If that does not help, please tell us something more about your computer: Which operating system is installed? Do you know what CPU (AMD Athlon, Intel Pentium, ...) you are using (and whether your computer uses a dual- or even quad-core-CPU)?
I can't promise that I will find out what's wrong, but maybe someone else will recognize the problem.
Thief-anewnickname on 11/8/2008 at 21:27
First of all, thanks for your help, I greatly appreciate it.
Yes, I should have made that more clear, I'm playing Thief 1, a.k.a. Thief: The Dark Project and I've patched it to version 1.33.
I should have thought to try running the game without video and audio hardware acceleration before. But unfortunately, I tried that just now, and it doesn't help. I still get to a black screen and have to ctrl-alt-del out of it.
I'm using Windows XP - Service Pack 2, Pentium 4, 1.7 GHz (this is single core), 1 GB RAM, and the video card is an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro with 128 MB RAM. I am using DirectX 9.0c.
baeuchlein on 1/10/2008 at 20:55
I know I'm awfully late again, but... well, I only found time to check out a few things some days ago.
I have now tried all three Thief demos with Windows XP, and everything worked.
I used a Radeon 9550 with Catalyst drivers version 8.2 (but without ATI's Catalyst Control Center (CCC)), Windows XP without any Service Pack, and an Athlon XP 2200+ (a "Barton" core CPU running at 1,7 GHz). Sound comes from the onboard CMedia CMI9761A 5.1 channel AC'97 audio codec. 1 GB of RAM lurks in the case, and DirectX 9.0c has been installed (but I do not exactly know how old this version of DirectX 9.0c is).
Two of the demos use version 1.33 of Thief, the third says version 1.22. I had to use the "-lgntforce" switch to get the demos to install on Windows XP, but apart from that, I did nothing special. No compatibility mode was selected, and "Hardware acceleration" for the graphics could be turned on and off without any problem. I did not use any texture fix, and from the looks of the demos, there was no need to do so anyway.
Thief-anewnickname, you use a computer that has a very similar graphics card, the same amount of memory, apparently the same kind of DirectX (although there are different versions of DirectX 9.0c as well), a CPU running at the same speed, Windows XP, and the same version of the Thief engine is used. The differences are that it's not exactly the same graphics card, a different brand of CPU, probably a different sound card, and XP with Service Pack 2. Somewhere among the differences, there must be the one creating the trouble for you. If I had to search for the piece of hardware responsible for it, I would start with the CPU.
I fear I will not be able to help you much more, since I don't have the hardware for that, but perhaps you can ask for more specific help here (like, "did anyone have trouble running Thief on a 1,7 GHz Pentium 4 CPU, like me?"). I hope you can finally get rid of whatever keeps you from making Thief run on your system.
bikerdude on 2/10/2008 at 23:20
Quote Posted by Thief-anewnickname
I have a 1.7 GHz CPU and ATI Radeon 9700. I installed Thief: The Dark Project and applied the Thief 1.33 patch and copied the file "convict.osm" to the game folder as usual. I managed to get the videos once I installed the Indeo Video codec, but as soon as the videos are over and the game loads to the actual mission, the screen goes black and I have to CTRL-ALT-DEL to "End Task" for the "Not Responding" Thief program.
# Are the paths in the install and darkinst config files correct?
# Check the catalyst driver your running isnt too new for the 9700 - best to use drivers that were optimized for that card when it was in it prime etc.
# Its entirly possible your thief folder is corrupt. uninstall and reinstall the game, then run to see if works, then install patches, then see if still works.
# Also what version of windows are you running? what service pack version?
# What apps are you running in the background.
# have you done a memx86 test on your pc's memory.
# have you done a scandisk of the hard drive.
Also this thread might help - (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123228)
biker
Thief-anewnickname on 7/10/2008 at 05:52
Thanks Baeuchlein, I tried the 1.22 demo and the 1.33 demo and both were playable with hardware acceleration as well. The game itself, unfortunately, freezes the moment you click "play mission" in the inventory screen where you use your currency to purchase new equipment before each mission.
Bikerdude, I will run through those diagnostic tests and get back to you as well as follow the steps suggested in the other thread.
bikerdude on 7/10/2008 at 12:35
Ok
The problem is because your using the latest Catalyst drivers, which have known issue with Thief and which btw arent optomised for a card is old as the 9700 pro. I would suggest going any higher than Cat 7.7.
biker
