Szynek on 3/6/2019 at 20:50
Hi there.
I recently got back to original Thief. The game is good, I do have one problem though: In many areas, I'm simply unable to tell whether this particular corner of the room is dark (meaning: I'm invisible) or not. I'm not sure if this is my fault, or maybe this NewDark did something weird with lightning (I dont't recall having those issues before, though keep in mind last time I played was probably more than 10 years ago), but It feels like there are places in the game where It's dark, and yet visibility marker shows you as fully visible and sometimes (less often) vice versa.
Example: mission 6 (stealing the sword), garden:
* Here on the left side I'm invisible (as it should be) --> (
https://images.tinypic.pl/i/00984/v82gjh934v1j.png)
* Here in the middle I'm almost fully visible, even though ground texture seems to be darker (although in this case might be because I'm not standing very close to the wall) --> (
https://images.tinypic.pl/i/00984/z6ltga7u6ala.png)
* Here I'm on the right side, and again I'm almost fully visible, even though I'm standing next to the wall and the surroundings clearly look dark --> (
https://files.tinypic.pl/i/00984/uvjcfbmkjufk.png)
It's not the first time I'm seeing something like this, previous mission (casino / thiever's guild) also had problems like this. The way light sources work also seemed weird, sometimes I shot water arrow and the whole room becomes clearly dark, another time, visually not much happened, but I become invisible in bigger part of the room than the lightning would suggest (I think it was in the sewers).
This is really annoying and kind of put me out of the experience; the game has solid enough mechanics, but I keep having to save-scam, because I go into the room, hear some guard coming (with plenty of time to hide) but then I fail to find (through trial and error) this one "correct" dark corner that actually makes me invisible.
Now the question is: am I missing something, am I seeing / interpreting something wrong (brightness settings...?)?. I should point out, I'm playing with TFix and HD Texture Mod.
voodoo47 on 3/6/2019 at 22:19
can you verify whether this also happens with just TFix + NecroAge? remember, you will have to restart (hit the level restart button in the menu) the current level.
Szynek on 4/6/2019 at 19:02
Thanks, especially about this last part (restarting the level); I received NecroAge suggestion on Steam Forum, but I had no idea, that you have to restart level after switching textures.
More to the point: this seems to help, It's not 100% perfect, but It's clearly better than HD Mod. I tried to run around the level with NecroAge and also with un-modded version, and there is not huge amount off difference in lightning between those two, whereas HD Mod seems to produce some unnecessary "fake" dark places. This is really weird to me, because HD Mod is very popular, someone clearly put a lot of work into it, but at the same time it kind of breaks the game.
One final question should my mod_paths in cam_mod.ini look like this?
Quote:
; ---------
; Mod paths
; ---------
; the max path count is 63 for "uber_mod_path" and "mod_path" combined
; (avoid an excessive amount of paths, it can make file handling slower)
; these are mod paths that override the active FM in the search order
;uber_mod_path mods\UpToDateOSMs+MyGemMod
; these are normal mod paths which are applied after the active FM in the search order
;mod_path MyBowMod+.\TexturePack
;mod_path usermods+hdmod+hdmod\t2skies+patches
mod_path NecroAge/Thief1+NecroAge
I mean, what should I enable/disable to get rid only of HD Mod? I wouldn't want to disable some critical TFix features, and I don't know how this file looked before I installed HD Mod.
voodoo47 on 4/6/2019 at 19:18
I wouldn't recommend using a custom cam_mod.ini in the TFix environment - just use the TFix default (repatch with the latest TFix), and install NecroAge by dropping it into the TG root (no edits are necessary, that's pretty much the point of the patcher). remove it from the root again if you don't want to use it (as mentioned in the TFix topic, NecroAge can be loaded/unloaded at any point without issues, no need to restart the mission, saves will not break). you will need to repatch with TFix and delete the hdmod folder manually if you want to uninstall hdmod, and restart the current mission.
the lighting difference between using and not using NecroAge with TFix should be zero, as the maps (and their lighting) are identical.
hdmod uses customized maps that have been relit using the 32bit lighting setting, and this is a major pita to get even remotely right, that's why I avoided doing it on the TFix maps.
Szynek on 7/6/2019 at 18:52
Thanks again.
Just to be safe I uninstalled both HD mod and the game, removed game folder, then installed game again and copied NecroAge, then copied old saves and restarted the level. Just finished The Sword (and if I might add: wow, that's some level design :)), didn't encounter any problems. Whereas HD mod looked better in some places, gameplay is way more important.
