Hi! and Thief TDP and Thief Gold on same computer?

Brian The Dog on 1/10/2009 at 23:45

You probably know, but just in case, you have to install DDFix and configure it for each of the Thief games seperately. So if you have Thief 1, Gold and 2, then DDFix should be in all three directories and patched properly for each of three exe files.

I would not recommend Virtual PC for playing Thief, it uses a very poor emulated graphics card (~2Mb) that has to run in software mode, so Thief will look very bad and be very very slow, while Thief 2 will probably not run at all. Hopefully Microsoft will supply a better graphics card with subsequent versions of Virtual PC.

Raj on 2/10/2009 at 00:23

Um... Brian the Dog... what are you talking about? I don't recognize the DDFix. Maybe it's just what I need!

I have totally given up on the VPC thing. SO... it's the wild, wild world of XP now. (Oh, and I am going to hold out on going to the Vista for as long as I can.)

TheBlackman: What I want is TDP patched, TGold, TMA patched, and all the fan missions I can get (although I haven't ventured into the world of fan missions at all yet... I'm gonna start with T2X), all running happily on my XP Home SP3 machine. I don't know nothin' 'bout no "Dromed" but I've seen it on the Darkloader I downloaded. How do I make sure I'm doing what you say I should be doing about linking them all up right?

Your rig(s) are impressive! Are the Thieves better on a genuine W98 rig?

theBlackman on 2/10/2009 at 00:58

TGOLD is TDP with 3 new missions. You only need GOLD not TDP. The FMs will run on it (all T1 missions) and GOLD is a Patched TDP Plus missions.

So install TGOLD. Use the -lgntforce command. To do that, start the installation and when the install screen comes up QUIT.

Then go to START>RUN and browse to the SETUP EXE on DISC one of the GOLD.

Select that and when it shows in the window on the RUN screen put a SPACE after the .EXE and type -lgntforce with the l being a lower case L not an i.

Hit OK and follow the directions.

Repeat with the TMA discs. Then from the install disc on GOLD find the DROMED (contents, I think) and put it INSIDE THE GOLD FOLDER.

Do the same with the TMA Dromed. INSIDE THE TMA FOLDER.

You need the DROMED to run the FMs. Even if you don't intend to make FMs. That's a whole new ball game.

So forget TDP. Use GOLD instead.

Download and install DARKLOADER 4.3 and install it.

Make a generic folder BULK FMs. Make two seperate folders FM1, FM2.

DL, when you do all FMs to the BULK folder. Move them one at a time, as you decide to play them to the FM1 or FM2 folder.

Run DARKLOADER and SETUP (bottom right. The little hammer) and point it to the proper folders (Games and FMs).

Darkloader reads all FMs in the collective folders. If one is corrupt (FM1, FM2) it will crash on the game play.

So if you put an FM in one of the folders and play it and Dark crashes, remove the FM and try again. If Dark works, that DL is bad.

This way you don't have to guess or go around in circles trying to fix something that is not really broken.

DL to the BULK, move to the FM folders (one at a time and play) and you should be home free.

DDFIX is a tweaker for XP and widescreen. You can find tons of info about it in the tech forum with a SEARCH DDFIX.

Good luck

Raj on 2/10/2009 at 01:53

Thanks so much Blackman!

You've made it all so clear!

I do wonder, though, pretty much just for the sake of wondering, if I could transfer my saved games from TDP to TGold... but that's no biggie... it's not like I actually mind playing through the missions again on TGold.

Ok... thanks again, you've been a holy fount of helpful information.

I'll go search DDFix now... maybe then all my Thieving woes will disappear like the purse on a rich nobleman's belt.:thumb:

Brian The Dog on 2/10/2009 at 09:19

(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121449) DDFix is here. Try the GUI version, and if that doesn't work, then the Manual version (but you'll have to follow the instructions in the Readme that comes with DDFix).

baeuchlein on 3/10/2009 at 17:49

Quote Posted by Raj

I don't recognize the DDFix.

As far as I know, DDFIX fixes several graphics-related problems with Thief and Thief 2. It can be used with Windows XP (GUI and manual install version) and Windows 98 (manual install only). Some people can run Thief without DDFIX, others enhance their Thief experience with DDFIX, and some need it to bypass problems keeping them from playing. Sometimes one does not even find out what exactly was going wrong but just installed DDFIX, and everything worked.

Anyway, trying DDFIX shouldn't hurt.

Quote Posted by Raj

What I want is TDP patched, TGold, TMA patched, and all the fan missions I can get (although I haven't ventured into the world of fan missions at all yet... I'm gonna start with T2X), all running happily on my XP Home SP3 machine.

As theBlackman already said, you don't need TDP anymore, except maybe if you have older saved games you still want to use. In fact, you would have to apply an extra "patch" to TDP if you wanted to be able to play all fan missions with it, since several of the FMs use objects from Thief Gold which are not available with TDP.

If you still want TDP and Thief Gold both installed on your computer, install them in separate directories (AKA folders), but when Darkloader asks for directories/folders where the Thief games are installed, point it to Thief Gold's directory only, not to the TDP game directory/folder. And tell Darkloader where to find Thief 2 as well. Just pretend TDP does not exist...:cheeky:

Then, you can use Thief Gold for Thief 1 fan missions and playing Thief, while TDP is available for your old saved games.

Quote Posted by Raj

Are the Thieves better on a genuine W98 rig?

In some cases it's a bit easier to get the games installed and playable on a computer using Windows 98, but there are solutions to many common problems with XP already. I even have a computer where Thief 2 runs smoother when XP is used. Furthermore, several newer computers have problems with Windows 98; sometimes there are no drivers for newer hardware and Win98 anymore, sometimes the computer is "too fast" for Win98 (resulting in strange errors and crashes, both of them vanishing as soon as the CPU speed is reduced by some means).

Quote Posted by theBlackman

You need the DROMED to run the FMs. Even if you don't intend to make FMs.

Why does one need DromEd to play FMs?

By the way, I'm playing fan missions since mid-2000 and almost never had DromEd installed, yet almost all missions were fully playable with Thief Gold or Thief 2 (patched to version 1.18, of course). I don't think one usually needs DromEd.

Quote Posted by Raj

I do wonder, though, pretty much just for the sake of wondering, if I could transfer my saved games from TDP to TGold... but that's no biggie... it's not like I actually mind playing through the missions again on TGold.

At least not all saved games can be transferred. Some missions have been changed from TDP to Thief Gold. For example, when you play Undercover, where you enter a Hammerite temple to collect talismans, you will get one talisman in Thief Gold but (as far as I know) two of them in TDP. The Bonehoard mission has been changed as well, if I remember that correctly. Saved games from these missions most likely won't work if you copy them over to Thief Gold and try to continue.

I think it's not easy to find out if there are any saved games which could be transferred to Thief Gold. It's easier to either install both Thief 1 versions and finish TDP, then uninstalling TDP again.

Another possibility would be to use a level-skipping cheat in Thief Gold, e.g., pressing CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-END (I think), until you arrive at whatever mission you last played, then resume playing from that point on. There were even instructions from LGS somewhere among the files on my Thief Gold disks which explained how one could play only the three new missions that came with Thief Gold.

And there's yet another possibility of playing only missions you really want to play in Thief. I think it's explained somewhere in order to play the Blooper Reel "mission" (a collection of "Outtakes" available with Thief Gold only, and very funny).