jermi on 5/4/2010 at 21:41

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<h2><a href="http://jermi.dyndns.org/~jermi/stuff/Thief/t2skies.zip">t2skies</a> - Enhanced skies for Thief 2: The Metal Age</h2> <h3>Contents</h3> <ul> <li>Realistic star field, generated with <a href="http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130094&p=1947142&viewfull=1#post1947142">t2stars</a> (with default parameters).
<li>High resolution texture replacements for<ul> <li>The Moon (<a href="http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130440&p=1950463&viewfull=1#post1950463">t2moon</a>).
<li>Clouds.
<li>Distant art. </ul> <li>t2skies.exe - a program that patches the celestial, sky, cloud deck and distant art parameters in the mis files (obsoletes <a href="http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117616&p=1951184&viewfull=1#post1951184">t2fogskies</a>, unless you <i>don't</i> want to use the high-resolution clouds and distant art). Source included (GPL).
</ul> <h3>Installation</h3> <p>Requires (http://jermi.dyndns.org/~jermi/stuff/Thief/ddfix_latest.zip) ddfix. <ol> <li>Uninstall any installed FM (in Darkloader, select "Original (Thief 2: The Metal Age)" -> Install Only).
<li>Backup your *.mis files - or, if you installed t2moon or t2fogskies previously, restore from the backups you should have made.
<li>Extract this package (with paths) into your Thief2 installation directory. If you've previously installed t2stars or t2moon, some files may need to be overwritten.
<li>Navigate to the t2skies directory and double-click on t2skies.exe. You will be prompted for each file to be patched (type "y" and &lt;enter&gt;).
<li>Put this setting in your ddfix.ini: TextureReplacement=1
<li>If your ddfix replacement texture path is not the default (RES/ddfix), then move the directory RES/ddfix/t2skies to the correct place (to the directory pointed to by "TexturePath" in ddfix.ini).
<li>If you installed t2moon previously, the "pmoon" replacement texture directory is now unused and can be removed.
</ol> <p>After installation, if you load a game that was saved during a mission, you'll need to restart the mission for the changes to take effect. <h3>Fan Missions</h3> <p>Re-run t2skies.exe every time after installing an FM to fix the stars. (Or temporarily remove FAM/skyhw/STARS.BIN to go back to the original stars.)

To fix the stars in T2X, run t2skies.exe from the command line with the -d option, for example "t2skies.exe -d c:\Games\Thief2\T2X" (without the quotes).

Currently, the only thing this mod touches in FMs is the stars.<h3>Uninstallation</h3> <ul> <li>Remove the file FAM/skyhw/STARS.BIN (and to save space and avoid clutter, any and all files extracted from this package).
<li>Restore the mis files from backups that you made before installation.
</ul> <h3>Screenshots</h3>Running Interference
<img src="http://jermi.dyndns.org/~jermi/stuff/Thief/t2skies_interference.jpg">

Ambush!
<img src="http://jermi.dyndns.org/~jermi/stuff/Thief/t2skies.jpg">

Masks
<img src="http://jermi.dyndns.org/~jermi/stuff/Thief/t2skies_masks.jpg">

<h3>Desktop Background</h3>
<a href="http://jermi.dyndns.org/~jermi/stuff/Thief/distcit_desktop.jpg"><img src="http://jermi.dyndns.org/~jermi/stuff/Thief/distcit_desktop_s.jpg"></a>

Sticky Fingers on 5/4/2010 at 21:55

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I'm no Dromeder, but speaking as a player that screenshot not only looks superb but very realistic & natural too :thumb:

Some designers have come up with some terrific skies / backdrops, but I can't remember one that good!

clearing on 6/4/2010 at 01:55

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Looks beautiful! :thumb: :)

jermi on 6/4/2010 at 06:02

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Thanks guys. A lot of work went into this, much more than I anticipated - three and a half months pretty much non-stop. Paradoxically, all that time I was trying to change as little as possible and stay true to the original. Of course especially the cloud deck makes many missions look dramatically different. So check it out, tell me what you think. According to the official party line, I'm open for suggestions (corrections, changes, further development, etc.)

Working on it.

Melan on 6/4/2010 at 12:43

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Beautiful city distant art! The one in baseline TMA is pretty blah, but this -- this is perfect (and I would love to see a TDM version!). How did you create it? Photoshop? Based on a collage of real photographs?