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Thief the Dark Project: 20th anniversary fan-created levels

Posted: December 12th, 2018, 9:42 pm
by grodog
If you're a fan, it's worth checking out Melan's summary: http://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/201 ... rsary.html

Allan.

Re: Thief the Dark Project: 20th anniversary fan-created levels

Posted: December 13th, 2018, 2:11 pm
by Necron 99
I've honestly not played any of the Thief series. I don't recall why I never gave them a try but I think back then I was getting into MMOs, specifically Ultima Online which came out in 1997 and then Everquest in 1999. Most single player games fell by the wayside during those years. I was a huge fan of the Ultima line of games, growing up so when the first chance came to play with other folks in the same world, it was a no brainer.

Which is a shame, because I know I missed out on a lot of cool games from those years. Glad to see a fan community is still keeping Thief going. Skyrim is the same way, the fan mods add so much great stuff to the game it's almost pointless to play without them and players love playing over and over using them.

Re: Thief the Dark Project: 20th anniversary fan-created levels

Posted: December 15th, 2018, 2:31 pm
by Captain_Blood
Cool! I really enjoyed this title when I picked it up back around 2000. I've still got the original box on my shelf. I just might have to dust it off and check this out. Thanks for the link.

Re: Thief the Dark Project: 20th anniversary fan-created levels

Posted: December 20th, 2018, 1:47 am
by grodog
Apparently the binaries on GOG.com (if your modern PC doesn't include a floppy or CD ROM drive, like my son Henry's) are the better ones to download, per some folks Melan asked:
My friends' advice is to go with the GOG version of Thief Gold. It has the essential patches (NewDark and TFix Lite) installed. Don't bother with "upgraded texture and object packs", since they make substantial and unwelcome changes to the game.

If you want to disable hardware rendering for a pixellated look (which is considered to be better), you will have to manually edit cam_ext.cfg with the following changes:

mipmap_mode 0
tex_filter_mode 0
;tex_filter_trilinear
;square_parts_as_disks
;pixel parts_as_disks
movie_sw_scalequality 0


I have also attached a copy of this file - you can just copy it into your installation folder when you are done, and let it overwrite the original. Even if you don't want to make these changes (and prefer a more smoothed, slthough slightly smudgy look), you should still make sure the following line looks like this:

; enable new mantling code
new_mantle


The last thing to learn is installing and playing fan missions. The current FM loader is FMSel. It comes integrated into the GOG version. You need to launch Thief as
thief.exe -fm Or make a desktop shortcut of thief.exe and add -fm in the command line.

When you load up FMSel, it will ask you for a directory to store fan mission archives (ZIP files), and a different one for actively installed missions. I use FMArchive and FMs, respectively, but you can customise this. FMSel's documentation is found in your "DOC" folder (look for a PDF file).

I think that covers most issues. Do write if you experience any problems! :D
I can't attach the file that Gabor mentioned, but if you want a copy, email me.

Allan.

Re: Thief the Dark Project: 20th anniversary fan-created levels

Posted: December 29th, 2018, 9:39 pm
by Captain_Blood
Just a note regarding binaries from gog.com. Good Old Games spends a lot of time testing and rewriting patches for older games, and their binaries are designed to work on modern operating systems. You often will not go wrong dropping a few bucks on a copy of a game from them. I haven't had to go out and research how to get a game to work after buying from them.

Re: Thief the Dark Project: 20th anniversary fan-created levels

Posted: January 4th, 2019, 1:00 pm
by grodog
Captain_Blood wrote: December 29th, 2018, 9:39 pm Just a note regarding binaries from gog.com. Good Old Games spends a lot of time testing and rewriting patches for older games, and their binaries are designed to work on modern operating systems. You often will not go wrong dropping a few bucks on a copy of a game from them. I haven't had to go out and research how to get a game to work after buying from them.
Good to hear, thanks! :D

Allan.