Albert on 6/10/2012 at 18:52
^ Heheh, nice emoticon formatting. :laff:
I mentioned this in another thread, but for those who aren't dromed users, has anyone thought about releasing the reprocessed lightmaps of OMs in 32-bit lighting format? I mean, I know they are technically attached to the .mis files themselves, so maybe release it in .diff format?
(Also, what a coincidence ZB, I just got Anachronox yesterday off GOG, and it actually runs perfectly in wine.)
voodoo47 on 6/10/2012 at 19:42
it's not as easy as it may look - I'm experimenting with the lightmaps a bit, and it seems like the 2x 32bit mode can look really bad in certain situations. plain 32bit seems fine, but I think just relighting all the missions and throwing them on the 'net without proper testing might not be such a good idea (I'll be posting images as soon as I'm sure that I'm not doing anything stupid - I was never a dromeder or shockeder to begin with).
also, do note that this is going to change minimal system requirements - while I can run NewDark with the original ligtmaps on my hp dc7700 (integrated intel) all day, 32bit is significantly slower. probably not an issue for anyone with a decent gpu, but anyway.
Albert on 6/10/2012 at 19:45
Ah, okay. Though, the .diif file part is still a good idea right?
Because we can distribute an installer that includes a small .diff (
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/diffutils.htm) merger application to handle the technical aspects of it.
voodoo47 on 6/10/2012 at 19:53
no idea. I know the diffs exist, and that they were used to patch up the missions in the old days, but that's about it. somebody more knowledgeable will have to step in.
van HellSing on 6/10/2012 at 20:09
How about adding the Thief 2 user.bnd as an installation option in TFix?
Albert on 7/10/2012 at 00:48
Yeah, that too.
Course, I wouldn't call myself an expert in .diff either. But the basics really aren't all that difficult to pick up: It's the difference of two files, and if the difference in a modified FM is going to just be modified lighting, then we won't have to worry about file sizes either. Assuming lightmaps aren't massive, which from my minor experience with lightmaps of other game engine's of the early era, they aren't.
So basically to generate a diff file, we'd supply an original unmodified OM and the modified OM, which would produce the difference. And then, supply those .diff files in an installer which combines them with an unmodified OM in the Thief directory. Simple.
And of course, an error message incase the person has an already modified OM in their files.
UPDATE: Of course, .diff files are usually pretty foolproof from the cases in which I've used them. I bet they'd work on .mis files, just fine.
Why, I'd be more than willing to help figure out the technical aspects of this, and create an installer myself if someone were to help me by supplying the modfied OMs?
Nameless Voice on 7/10/2012 at 01:45
Diff files aren't worth the trouble. Just supply the full .mis file. They compress really well anyway.
EmperorSteele on 7/10/2012 at 02:12
Ok, so I'm playing around in DromEd thanks to this patch, and I'm noticing something disconcerting.
A LOT of the default Thief/TG textures have small dark areas that are acting as transparencies now. They probably always HAVE, but thanks to my screen resolution being really high and being able to see fine detail, it really sticks out like a sore thumb! Half the brick textures look like swiss cheese =(
I suppose I'll have to make new textures or find a replacement pack that doesn't stray too far from how the textures look in-game...
LarryG on 7/10/2012 at 04:00
Just repalettize them so that the color at index 0 is not in the texture, i.e. change it to hot pink, save the palette, then apply the new palette as best match and you're done.
Angs on 7/10/2012 at 06:18
I updated my Thief 2 OM lightmaps to 32-bit 2X and have thought about distributing them.
The leaked source contains a MISSDIFF.EXE util that makes a diff file with the same format as a MIS file. I think even Thief 1.18 then automatically merges miss1.mis and miss1.dif when loading the mission. But alas, it won't work with new lightmaps. The problem might be that the diff can only add tags, not remove them, as there are some tags that are only in 1.18 missions, not 1.19. Even then, moving even one item in the world makes the dif file contain all the structure (worldrep?) in the map again so there isn't much of a space benefit.
I have some doubts about the legalities of distributing every original mission in a fully playable form, so some other diff utility would be nice. Regular unix diff doesn't work on binaries, I think.
Edit: And because all changes overwrite everything in the world, you can't have, say a separate loot fix and lightmap fix with these dumb diffs. Every patch has to be built on top of the previous.
