Thief Games Setup - TTLG Forums

Pheonix on 17/10/2012 at 02:39

Ok, sorry if all these answers are available elsewhere, I've been trolling for several hours now and decided to just put it all in one message and hope I can get simple directions to help.

First my system: Windows XP SP3, 2.80Ghz Dual Core CPU, 3G RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4650 w/1G RAM, Creative Labs Soundblaster X-FI extreme, Games installed to 250G HDD mounted as C:\Games directory on my 1.5T C Drive (C:\Games\Thief1, C:\Games\Thief1G, C:\Games\Thief2, C:\Games\Thief2\T2X, & C:\Games\Thief3.)

Expansions I currently have installed:
Thief 1: Patch 1.33, Texture Patch HW, Sound Enhancement Pack, NVScript 1.22, UsrScript 1.2, Enhancement Pack, DDFix 1.5.11, A3D.dll

Thief 1G: UsrScript 1.2, NVScript 1.22, Enhancement Pack, Sound Enhancement Pack, T1G Mesh & Skin Patch, Texture Patch HW, T2Water, DDFix 1.5.11, A3D.dll

Thief 2: Patch 1.18, NTex, Enhancement Pack, DDFix 1.5.11, T2Skies, T2Water, Sound Enhancement Pack, UsrScript 1.2, NVScript 1.1, TnhScript 1.5.4, most usually installed through Tafferpatcher.

Thief 2 - T2X: DDFix 1.5.11, all the others only if they get refered to through the original install.

Thief 3: Patch 1.1, Collective Texture Pack v1.0.3, Sneaky Upgrade 1.1.0

Ok, now for the hard parts:
I am currently using Catalyst Drivers 9.4 because that is the last one that allowed Thief to play. Though I seem to recall having the latest (at that time,) working with Thief 1 & Thief 1G and found out about the 9.4 limit while trying to get Thief 2 running. But that was before I installed DDFix on my Thief 1 & Thief 1G installs, and I had been trying to install it with Thief 2 when I downgraded my drivers. Was the 9.4 limit a Thief 2 or a DDFix thing? Would this new 1.19 patch allow me to use my latest drivers? One of my newer games that I would like to play as well keeps crashing my video driver, and requires Catalyst 10.x+ to work :(

I have the 9.4 limit written down with my install disks, but if I ever switch to NVidia (not likely but possable,) is there a limit on the NVidia drivers I can use? I'd sort of like to write that down as well for future use if needed. Also, anyone know if this limit (if it exists,) is removed by the awesome new patch?

It appears that the latest, and final (apparently,) TnhScript (v2.1,) broke a part of the TnhScript (NewGuardDoor or something like that I believe.) Since the author has apparently stoped work on it, is it possable that someone might fix this small issue in the future? There is apparantly only one FM that I have that crashes with the new script, and I currently don't know if the old script will cause any of my others to crash, but it would be nice if someone could make v2.1 backwards compatable.

I love the way GarrettLoader looks, but it is becoming rather dated. It fails to delete files in some cases (no pattern I can discern,) won't replace some files that are included in the FM zip (such as TnhScript 1.5.4 in one FM,) does nothing to save or replace save games in Thief 3 so I have to always remember which saves are for what mission, and sometimes will just crash/shut down for no apparent reason at all. I had tried another loader (ModernLoader,) but asside from it no longer being worked on, I couldn't get it to work at all. Oh, it would act like it wanted to work, but when I enabled a FM and then played the game, I would just get the main game and not the FM at all. I had thought maybe this was because the game was actually on a seperate physical drive and not on the C drive at all (though it appeared to be,) but could never get an answer to that. Any help with that would be appreciated.

Finally, what would be the suggested set up, and set up order? I'd like to try the new 1.19 patch for Thief 2, but like a lot of the other patches as well. Which ones won't work with it? I've thought about using TFix for Thief 1 & Thief 1G, but again, how would it impact the other patches I like to use? I tend to play Thief 1 FMs in Thief 1 and Thief 1G FMs in Thief 1G, so I never worried about installing the Thief 1 patches that allow you to play Thief 1G FMs in Thief 1 (never even worried about downloading them.) I may change that habbit in the future and just start playing them all in Thief 1G. Any thoughts on that? It's really just my perfectionistic nature that makes me devide them up anyways. I've read posts that suggest that the 1.19 patch can be used with Thief 1 & Thief 1G as well, but I've also read about a lot of problems doing that as well.

Basically, any chance of a simplified instruction set on getting the Thief Games with the expansions listed installed for best visual & compatability effect?

Thanks.

voodoo47 on 17/10/2012 at 04:04

with NewDark, tinkering with driver versions is no longer necessary, just install the latest version for any card of your preference. as for the rest, yes, everything should work fine, now (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140085&p=2148212&viewfull=1#post2148212) go get it, and enjoy all the good stuff it brings.

Pheonix on 17/10/2012 at 20:05

Still in the process of testing out the New_Dark engine :) Seems to work great and the built in FM loader works like a charm so far. It even alows a FM to use an older version of a script file if it is included with the FM. So, I can go back to installing the latest scripts into my directory (for those that don't include them and if I ever decide to try my hand at FM construction again.) The "Awesome New Patch" (should trademark that :) hehe) doesn't seem to use or need DDFix, as I moved all the DDFix files out of my directory and the game still works fine. Don't know how that efects replacement textures that required DDFix (and lines in DDFix.ini pointing to the new textures and enabling them,) but I'll ask about that in the t2_1.19 thread. Assuming everything keeps working good, it's back to the uninstall - reinstall routine to clean things up a bit. TFix seems to include the "Awesome New Patch," now, I'm wondering if I'll need to manually install the Lame MP3 dll file. I'm also wondering how long it will be before TafferPatcher includes it (is it even still being worked on?)

So, things to come.... Uninstalling my T1, T1G, T2, & T2X installs. Updating to the latest Catalyst drivers (not going to delete the 9.4 ones just yet, make sure everything works just fine with the new ones.) Installing all 4 games and testing them out. Next will be to install the SneakyPatch 1.1.1 (which includes the FM loader introduced by 1.19,) and testing that out as well. Looks like integrating the FM loader into each game may actually work out quite well. Then the only thing left will be to check out what the patches (TafferPatch, TFix, T2_1.19, & SneakyPatch) don't install and installing them as well. Finally, I get to re-play all the games and make a set of "perfect stat" small size saves for the new version (1.19) since it isn't completely compatable with my old saves, they load just fine but I'm a bit of a perfectionist and it gives me something to do :) Looks like things have just gotten a lot easier.