jvarnerus on 27/7/2009 at 04:48
So I've recently tried to install TDP and TMA on a computer that someone gave me. I thought it would be old enough to run Thief easily, but it appears I was wrong. I've been trying all the fixes I could find in the forums here, but my exact problem doesn't seem to be addressed anywhere. I can get the games to install and run fine, except that there are no wall or floor textures; it's all white. Guards, torches, furniture, loot, and sky are fine, but any walls or ground are white in both games. In TDP I'm able to run it in software mode and the graphics are there, they just suck.
Here's what I'm running on:
PIII w/ xp pro sp3
ATI 3D Rage pro AGP 2x driver 5.1.2001.0
I've patched and ddfix'd and texture fixed, all to no avail. It's got to be a problem with my video card, right? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
voodoo47 on 27/7/2009 at 10:06
any chance that you are running your graphics card on the default xp driver? make sure you have the latest driver from ati..and btw,you shouldn't use ddfix,its not meant for such an old card.
bikerdude on 27/7/2009 at 15:44
Quote Posted by voodoo47
for such an old card.
In fact that card is too OLD for T2 :laff:, you will just about run the game - but dont exspect to play any FM's
jvarnerus on 27/7/2009 at 16:13
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
In fact that card is too OLD for T2 :laff:, you will just about run the game - but dont exspect to play any FM's
Oops, I guess that might be the problem. I didn't realize the card was THAT old. Maybe I'll have to get a newer card, although I was just going to save money for a top of the line machine once Thief IV specs come out.
So what would be a good card that was current for TMA? Since I'm replacing it anyway, it would be great if I could just get the right card to look good and have fog without all the tweaks. Or does a new card plus ddfix, etc. look substantially better than a card that's current for when the game was developed?
baeuchlein on 27/7/2009 at 16:29
Quote Posted by jvarnerus
Here's what I'm running on:
PIII w/ xp pro sp3
ATI 3D Rage pro AGP 2x driver 5.1.2001.0
I've patched and ddfix'd and texture fixed, all to no avail. It's got to be a problem with my video card, right?
I once had a Pentium-II based computer with the Intel 440LX chipset and an (ATI) AGP 3D Rage Pro video chip onboard. I wrote down that I had some display problems when running
Thief 2 with Windows 98 SE and DirectX 8.0, but never found out more about the problem since something else on the mainboard was defective and could neither be identified nor repaired. So that thing went into the trash bin, after I took out anything that was still usable.
Rest in pieces.
I'm afraid bikerdude is right and the video card will not play the games. By the way, I discovered a side note somewhere on the ATI internet site saying that this card only supports a small subset of AGP features. Maybe that's the reason for this problem.
I had the same issue ("white walls", but normal-looking guards) with an ancient S3 ViRGE /DX graphics card and
Thief 1. Using the "texture fix" did not change anything. Later on I found out that the ViRGE has some problems allocating enough memory for textures, but I could never solve this issue.
EDIT: Just read your latest posting, jvarnerus. I have played
Thief 2 on an ATI Xpert 2000 pro (something close to a Rage 128 Pro and/or Rage Fury Pro), a NVidia TNT2 and TNT2 Model 64 (a slower version of the TNT2), an ATI Radeon 7500, Radeon 9550 and a Radeon 9250. The Xpert 2000 pro and the TNT2 models should play
Thief 2 with fog, while the Radeons need a little tweaking (e.g., configuring them with Rage3D Tweak or directly entering some values into Windows' registry) before they display fog. The TNT2 fog seems to be a little bit better (no "wall of fog" effect) than ATI's fog.
A Voodoo 2 and perhaps even a Voodoo 1 will work as well, but these PCI cards are old and slow, and you would need another PCI graphics card for them as these are "add-on cards", requiring a 2D PCI (or AGP) graphics card as a companion.
Newer T2 missions may be better off with the newer cards (the Radeons in my list), but I'm not sure. Additionally, a Radeon 9550 or Radeon 9250 is suitable for
Thief 3 as well, while the other cards I mentioned are not.
I only used the Radeon 9550 with Windows XP, but I don't think the other AGP cards would have problems with this operating system.
theBlackman on 27/7/2009 at 18:53
Sorry I've just got to butt in here. I ran TDP, TGOLD, and TMA with an ATI RAGE 128 straiaght PCI card.
I also ran the games with an ATI AGP X2, don't remember the model but it is not the age of the card in this case, although a new one is bound to be better. The card may just be defective.
The card, if working should run the games. Obviously not TDS, but T1, T2 and GOLD should run unless there is something else not right.
voodoo47 on 27/7/2009 at 21:12
Quote Posted by baeuchlein
I'm afraid bikerdude is right and the video card will not play the games. By the way, I discovered a side note somewhere on the ATI internet site saying that this card only supports a small subset of AGP features. Maybe that's the reason for this problem.
no.as already mentioned,a fully working rage pro will play T1/T2 fine (speed is another thing,of course).
Quote Posted by baeuchlein
The Xpert 2000 pro and the TNT2 models should play
Thief 2 with fog, while the Radeons need a little tweaking (e.g., configuring them with Rage3D Tweak or directly entering some values into Windows' registry) before they display fog. The TNT2 fog seems to be a little bit better (no "wall of fog" effect) than ATI's fog.
not quite,the dx9 radeons don't need any fixes with the current drivers.
Quote Posted by baeuchlein
A Voodoo 2 and perhaps even a Voodoo 1 will work as well, but these PCI cards are old and slow, and you would need another PCI graphics card for them as these are "add-on cards", requiring a 2D PCI (or AGP) graphics card as a companion.
that would be a no,add-on 3dfx cards have no d3d support under the NT kernel (winxp).not mentioning the resolution limit.
bikerdude on 27/7/2009 at 21:16
Quote Posted by voodoo47
no.as already mentioned,a fully working rage pro will play T1/T2 fine (speed is another thing,of course)..
They will but at a low resolution 800*600 at best I would have thought and who still plays thief at that res..?
baeuchlein on 27/7/2009 at 23:57
Quote Posted by voodoo47
a fully working rage pro will play T1/T2 fine (speed is another thing,of course).
Maybe these cards need enough video RAM to fully work with
Thief. Maybe there's some problem with allocationg enough texture memory even if the card has enough RAM. Although I would expect the texture fix for
Thief 1 to work in that case.
Anyway, mine is gone for several years now, and somehow I don't regret it.:ebil:
Concerning fog:
Quote Posted by voodoo47
not quite,the dx9 radeons don't need any fixes with the current drivers.
I have not had much luck with these drivers, that's why I don't know much about them.
And about Voodoo add-on cards:
Quote Posted by voodoo47
add-on 3dfx cards have no d3d support under the NT kernel (winxp).not mentioning the resolution limit.
Correct, I forgot about the missiong Voodoo drivers in NT/XP. And indeed, the cards were limited to 1024x768 or less, but people can survive that.
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
They will but at a low resolution 800*600 at best I would have thought and who still plays thief at that res..?
I use 640x480 most of the time. Apart from being a bit smoother, there's nothing I gain from switching to 800x600 or more. However, at 1024x768 and with vanilla
Thief 2, I need a magnifying glass to decipher text strings appearing on-screen (e.g., descriptions of the item I select in inventory). So, I see it as an annoyance rather than an improvement.
