infinity on 10/5/2009 at 12:22
I've seen many threads on this topic, although none of them seem resolved, so I'd like to start a new one to see if we can get to the bottom of this.
I start up the game, running Vista 32 in Win98 Compatibility as an Administrator. The game starts fine, and I hit 'New Game'. The cutscenes play, and then I go to the equipment screen, choose my equipment, and press play. The game tabs out, then tabs back in, to a black screen that freezes. I get no error message, no anything. So I Ctrl Alt Delete it.
I just went through about every option of the ddfix, manual, gui, editing with the Hex and all. Nothing helped. I have a Radeon HD3650 (I'm on a laptop). And I'm dying to play some Dark Project.
Yandros on 10/5/2009 at 12:49
First, most people (myself included) running Vista don't have to use a compatibility mode. You tried without it? I do, however, have to run as admin to see movies.
Second, can you confirm that the dark.gam file is in your Thief folder? You might post it's file props here (size, timestamp) so we can make sure it's intact. A missing or corrupt gamesys will cause the exact behavior you're seeing.
infinity on 10/5/2009 at 13:40
Dark.Gam is 1.00 MBs, 9/29/1999 last modified.
Interesting development (I guess). Now when I run without a compatibility, the game crashes at the same spot but Vista actually tells me instead of just leaving me hanging (and having to alt-tab to ctrl alt delete). But still, the same issue.
I'm trying to run at 1280x800.
theBlackman on 10/5/2009 at 20:04
Try running it at the level just below the highest in the VIDEO options menu.
Some Vcards will crash Thief when you try to force it out of the listed menu options WITHIN THE GAME MENU.
Set your Desktop to whatever you want. But run the game within its set resolutions.
infinity on 11/5/2009 at 17:51
Interesting. The Res is set to 640x480, but now I can play the level, but the whole screen is black except that I can see the health bars, hear sounds, and even move around, but the whole screen is black! This is certainly and odd and frustrating problem but it feels like progress.
infinity on 11/5/2009 at 18:04
Alright, here's the issue. When I go in game, the only res option is 640x480, and that gives me the moveable black screen with sound. Then I close out, but the ddfix demands that the res be greater than 800x600. What do I do? When I set the ddfix and cam res' to be 1280x800, the game crashes to the normal black screen.
bikerdude on 11/5/2009 at 18:42
I have mentioned this several times, what may be happening is AA(anti-aliasing) in vista is know to cause the black screen issue. So far I have only see it effect nVidia cards.
Try turning the AA off altogether and see how it goes, also set the AA to 4x or higher and see how you go.
vertimyst on 11/5/2009 at 19:08
I'm having the black screen issue too, though in Windows 7, using an Intel 945 Express (GMA 945 I assume).
A few months ago I posted here needing help with running Thief (Gold) on Windows XP, I had problems with the game not starting at all, among other things. It seems on Windows 7 the game runs perfectly out of the box, aside from being unable to either start a new game, or load my previous saves, because of the black screen.
Unlike with XP, ddfix doesn't help. In fact, it seems ddfix makes things worse, as it severely limits my resolution choices (down to 800x600 I think, windowed mode), and tells me I don't have DirectX installed (I do). Without ddfix, I have access to 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768.
I've tried running it at the various resolutions, and I'm unable to even get what infinity is.
@Bikerdude, where's this anti-aliasing option you're referring to? I can't find it in my video settings, or anywhere else in the options.
bikerdude on 12/5/2009 at 12:47
Quote Posted by vertimyst
@Bikerdude, where's this anti-aliasing option you're referring to? I can't find it in my video settings, or anywhere else in the options.
You will need to download the latest driver for the onboard intel gfx, but even then I dont think the option is available on intel gfx.
And ddfix will be required for the game to look correctly under Windows7, and regarding the directx error (
http://downloads.guru3d.com/DirectX-End-User-Runtimes-(March-2009)-download-1943.html) download the latest DirectX and install should fix that.
vertimyst on 12/5/2009 at 17:15
It appears you were right about Intel not having such an option, it's still not there after updating my drivers.
However, installing the latest version of DirectX didn't help. When running Thief with ddfix, I still get this error:
"DirectX 6 or higher is not installed.
3D graphics acceleration will be unavailable.
Graphics performance may be slow.
You will only be able to play Thief in windowed mode.
Graphics quality may be poor if your desktop color palette is set to 256 colors or fewer.
We strongly recommend installing DirectX version 6 or higher to enable fullscreen graphics support.
Continue anyway?"
Choosing Yes causes Thief to start in a small windowed mode, and I can proceed to load my save file right up until the black screen.
Thief still doesn't work without ddfix.
Here is my DxDiag (posted externally so as not to make a large post): (
http://pastebin.com/f1b5e3014)
