Zednaught on 30/12/2010 at 06:10
I'm playing Thief Gold off the collection disc that has all three games on it.
I'm running Vista (that's probably my problem right there) with an Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT. No mods to the game, and it runs fine.
My problem is that I usually cannot look at any in-game books, scrolls, or documents, nor do videos like the intro or mission briefings play. The game remains stable, and I can tell that the document or video loads for a fraction of a second before cutting away.
I can tell that this is a somewhat common issue, but none of the suggestions in the FAQ have seemed to work for me-I've searched for other topics about this, and none of the codec packs or whatever seem to work either. I haven't seen any mention of the documents not displaying, which is my main issue. I could manage watching the briefings out of the game, but being unable to read any of the documents hidden around levels is too much.
Are the documents connected with the problem with the cut scenes, or are they a separate issue?
It seems to me that something is causing a conflict with this Indeo codec, because the video or document will genuinely display each time, but it always shuts down soon after. I'd be happy if I could just get the documents to display.
Now, a few times, things have magically worked for a little bit, but I've noticed no correlation with any suggested fix or re-installation of the codec. The times when the videos will play also correlate with the times when the documents can be read, but I'm confused as to why that is.
Thanks in advance for whatever suggestion you may have. Otherwise, I'm really enjoying the game's atmosphere, stealth mechanics, and especially the enormous levels.
Zednaught on 2/1/2011 at 02:15
Well, after doing some searching, I think it may be impossible. I think Vista automatically installs its own versions of the Indeo codecs, and as core system files, I can't remove or override them. I'm hardly knowledgeable here, but that may be it. The version of ir50_32.dll that is there is version 5.10, but I think the one from the patch is 5.11. Is there some way to get Thief to work with these? I'll keep fiddling and see what I can do.
voodoo47 on 2/1/2011 at 19:10
ok,you say your TG install is unmodified,that means you need (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121449) ddfix.
as for the problem with videos,what kind of codec packs do you have installed? those already included in vista don't really matter,only those that were installed by you,like klite or all in one codec packs.
Zednaught on 2/1/2011 at 20:50
Quote Posted by voodoo47
ok,you say your TG install is unmodified,that means you need (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121449) ddfix.
as for the problem with videos,what kind of codec packs do you have installed? those already included in vista don't really matter,only those that were installed by you,like klite or all in one codec packs.
Ok, I gave DDfix a try. I didn't really think I needed it-the game itself runs perfectly fine. I don't think I'm using it correctly. After applying the patch, even in the same resolution the game somehow looks worse. The game screen is blank if I try to go to a higher resolution. Documents are kind of better. Instead of flashing and then disappearing, then stay up a little longer-perhaps a second or two, though the cursor won't move. Movies still load for a fraction of a second before disappearing.
As for codecs, the disc I have carries the Ligos 5.11 codec pack.
Edit: OK, actually I got the resolution thing working and the game does seem to look better. Unfortunately, the problems still remain. I don't know enough about DDFix to know why it's making any progress at all regarding the documents. What I don't get is why something like the map works fine, but the documents do not. There is a connection between the videos and the documents, but I don't know why that would be the case.
I do have the DirectX SDK installed from getting a previous game to work. Perhaps there are settings there that could help?
Zednaught on 21/1/2011 at 22:04
well, for what it's worth, the problem seemed to have fixed itself. I gave up on trying to fix the problem and played through at least half the game like that, and then suddenly videos and documents started working. I can't even think of any changes to my software in general that may have caused it. If you're reading this in the future and having the same problem, all I can say is good luck.
In any case, Thief Gold was the best stealth game I've played, even with some cumbersome parts and a few annoying enemies. On to Thief 2!
