Kuririn7th on 16/3/2009 at 21:49
I actually followed those threads/pages to the T, and was still unable to get Thief 2 to run (reliably, see below). After installing, I can get to main menu, and at no point through the series of steps can I ever actually launch the engine. If I set the resolution to 640x480 once inside game, I can get the game to load for about half a second, with kaleidescope coloring, and no actors, after which it crashes to desktop with the usual appcrash error prompt. Any other time, it never gets past a black screen and the slightly discernible sound of a cricket.
At some point through the process, I actually got it to load, completely, successfully. Actors walking around, game engine being all dark and brooding. Coloring looked a bit off but it was *running*. It was also running in I believe 640x480, as at the top it stated that 'the selected resolution cannot be displayed', and I believe it defaults to that if it can't run *whatever*. Then, apparently, I sneezed or something, because the next time I tried to run it, it crashed. I'll attempt to go through all steps again tomorrow to see if I can reproduce that magic niche where it worked.
For further information, see my other thread, a few spots down in the main. 'T2 Crash on mission start'
Clock on 16/3/2009 at 22:16
Those 2 threads helped me make it work, but I'm not sure which particular instruction(s) get credit. Goldsla followed JohnAnthonyCurran's instruction and made amendments, which I followed as best I could.
I didn't run into your issues however. My problem was testing the program before I should have. It kinda looks like your issue is graphics related. Perhaps Goldsla's instructions worked for me because we shared the same graphics card (Nvida 8000 series).
Kuririn7th on 17/3/2009 at 05:57
Here's a copy-paste from my previous thread, using an 8800gtx as well.
The interesting thing about my 'temporarily fixed' game is that there was no real change from any of my previous steps, most of the 'GET THIEF 2 WORKING ON VISTA x64/NEW MACHINE/XP/COMMODORE 64' all run the same steps, none of which worked for my system. I probably need some voodoo magic or something.
Paste follows.
Hello all. So I got a primal urge this weekend to club some guards. I dug out my old Thief 2 cd's (pre-updated to 1.18, no idea which 'version' of the cd's this is). Installed without a hitch, started tracking down various patches I needed to get it running on my system (vista 64). Here are the steps I have gone through so far:
removed CD checks in install.cfg and darkinst.cfg
installed DDFix (had to do it manually, with hex edit due to gui crash despite me having .net 3.5)
Installed widescreen fix, changed resolution in that batch program, ddfix.ini, and cam.cfg, to 1650x1080 using the appropriate syntax
copied dromed.zip contents from game cd to base install folder
Video fix, multicore fix are done, safe_texture_manager fix is done.
Have tried various startup combinations including with cd, without, admin mode, compatability mode, darkloader, and even uninstalling the whole shabang and adding one item at a time. Initially, I was getting borked at initial game launch, I discovered that was caused by my 3d stereoscopic driver. Disabled in NVIDIA control panel and I could then get into the game. I can do whatever I please in the menus, but upon launching an actual game, it crashes after the briefing 'continue' button. Fully loads, it would seem, and I can almost head the sound of a cricket from the start of the first level, no visuals though, afterwards it's desktop city.
All movies work fine for the record.
Current rig:
Intel Quad 2400 (to re-iterate, CPU affinity set to core 0)
8800GTX with latest drivers
Asus Xonar D2X sound card
Vista 64 Ultimate
Any suggestions?
Nameless Voice on 17/3/2009 at 14:58
Quote Posted by Kuririn7th
installed DDFix (had to do it manually, with hex edit due to gui crash despite me having .net 3.5)
I'd suggest using the pre-patched executables linked to in the DDFix thread, since they also have all the other patches (multicore, etc.) applied to them already.
Quote Posted by Kuririn7th
copied dromed.zip contents from game cd to base install folder
That version of DromEd is probably out of date (I'm not sure which version the pre-patched Thief 2s come with, but the original T2 discs had an outdated and buggy version), but you don't need DromEd to run the game anyway.
Quote Posted by Kuririn7th
Have tried various startup combinations including with cd, without, admin mode, compatability mode, darkloader, and even uninstalling the whole shabang and adding one item at a time.
You generally need to run it as an admistrator to get the videos working at least.
Compatibility mode is a bad idea, it usually makes things worse for Dark games.
Kuririn7th on 17/3/2009 at 18:41
Victory! So here's the steps I took on this installation attempt. Installed my 1.18 version of T2. Made changes to the install.cfg and darkinstall.cfg, then backed up the whole directory just so I wouldn't have to reinstall again. Made a backup of thief2.exe. Threw in the prepatched thief2.exe that's located all over the place (default set to run in compatibility mode for 2000). Threw in ddfix.dll and .ini. Made changes to the user.cfg to take out the semicolon in front of the safe_texture_manager. Fiddled with various resolutions in-game and out, with no success. I then ran the imagecfg fix (not that this would do anything, as the cpu's were already disabled except for core 0) and fiddled with more resolutions, to no avail.
Finally, I said 'screw this', renamed my patched thief2.exe to something else, got my backup thief2.exe, changed it to compatibility mode for 2000, and it WORKED. As a note, at this point it has no widescreen support, no ddfix applied to it, and no single core fix applied. As I expected, it crashed after about 15 seconds. I bounced out, applied the darkwidescreen fix to bump it up to 1440x900, and then applied imagecfg fix to it to make the single core fix permanent, and now it runs beautifully. I've sinced applied a couple hi-res texture patches and some sound quality update.
Couple things I am curious about though. The colors are a bit off. Sky is a weird greenish color and the clouds don't blend well (same with most shadows). Looks sort of like it's running in 256 colors, or something. Also, resolution changes when I enter menus, maps, ect. Any way to fix these two issues WITHOUT using DDFix? I can live without them, it's just not 'optimal' (thanks OCD).
Nameless Voice on 18/3/2009 at 01:13
DDFix was made to fix those issues.
Kuririn7th on 18/3/2009 at 06:02
Indeed, I went a bit deeper down the rabbit hole last night, found out precisely what the issues were revolving around dithering, and the 16bit palettes, ect. This tells me that I do indeed need to get DDFix running, unfortunately *that* is precisely the problem. Currently, without DDFix, my thief starts, and doesn't crash. With DDFix applied, it crashes on mission start. The GUI does not work, but I properly applied it manually, it doesn't go psycho on menus for me, so that tells me it's 'working', but no matter what combination of resolutions, compatibility modes, admin mode, ect i try, it just crashes on mission start, before anything in the game world is displayed.
I'm willing to entertain anybody's suggestions to get this working. About the only other thing I can conceive to do, which i'll be trying tonight, is to uninstall my stereoscopic vision drivers. It's already totally disabled, but perhaps there's some driver conflict going on.
Kuririn7th on 18/3/2009 at 18:04
Alright, so I uninstalled my stereoscopic drivers, to no effect. Installed the latest nvidia drivers as well, also no effect. Has anyone successfully gotten a) ddfixGUI running on vista x64, and/or b) gotten thief 2 running WITH ddfix applied, on an 8800gtx and vista x64? Starting to wonder if it's possible with this configuration. Most posts I've seen are either XP, or vista x86.
Clock on 18/3/2009 at 18:21
I don't know how to help, except to say that I have the same configuration you have, without the problems.
My graphics card is 8800GT, not GTX. Was that a typo?
driver ver = 182.08 Maybe you haven't updated your driver
Kuririn7th on 18/3/2009 at 19:06
Negative, it's a GTX, next step up from that one. And I'm using the same driver version. Using DDFix I get to the mission briefing thing, hit continue, the little dials go spinning to load the level. Screen goes black as if to load the level, and then it gets stuck in blackscreen, and a generic windows error window pops up. Both resolutions in ddfix.ini and cam.cfg are set to the same. Pretty much out of solutions here :\
