How to make Thief 2 run on a modern computer

[Peter Smith]

The purpose of this thread is to list verified fixes that are necessary to make Thief 2 run on modern computers (Windows 2000 or later). Please do not use this thread to ask questions. Please start another thread for questions. If you find any errors in the following or suggested improvements, please post them here.

There are several things one generally has to do to get Thief 2 to work on a modern computer. Some depend on the type of video card you have, as noted below. Some depend on which version of the software you have.

1. Installation. Install it using the lgntforce flag. Insert the install CD and exit out of the autorun install window. Then, in a command window or at the Run command, type
D:\setup -lgntforce

where D: is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive, and the first character in lgntforce is a lower case L.

2. Patch. Start Thief, escape to desktop using the Pause/Break key, and look at its icon in the task bar. If it displays a version number less than 1.18, patch the installation to version 1.18, the final version. This is necessary to get Fan Missions running and is a prerequisite for DDFIX.
http://www.thief-thecircle.com/media/patches/

3. Single processor. If you have dual or more CPUs, or if you have hyperthreading enabled, you must make Thief 2 run on only one processor.

First test it with Process Manager. Start the game but do not start a mission (the main graphics). Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and select Process Manager. Select the Processes tab and scroll find thief2.exe. Right click on thief2.exe, and set its affinity to one CPU. Then return to Thief (icon on task bar), start a mission, and play for a while. If it works, then make a backup of your EXE and make it permanent using imagecfg.
http://www.thief-thecircle.com/guides/hyperthreading/

4. safe_texture_manager bug. If you have an Nvidia video card, edit USER.CFG and remove the semicolon from the line
;safe_texture_manager

5. Movies. Register the Indeo codecs so movies play reliably. In rare cases this must be repeated before each execution. This can be done using a BAT file containing a "regsvr32" command as described in the link below or using DDFIX (see below).
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthrea...t=75031#movies

6. DDFIX. After you get it working, consider installing the DDFIX patch for 32 bit rendering and no resolution switching with menus and books.
http://timeslip.chorrol.com/ddfix.html.

DDFIX is necessary to get decent rendering of Thief 2 with any Direct X 10 card (Nvidia 8800 series or later or ATI 2900 series or later). It has useful side benefits for all cards. For some recent Nvidia cards (e.g., 8800 GT), you have to install DDFIX before it will run. DDFIX also has an option to take care of the Indeo codec registration, and it automatically takes care of the affinity, so it is a good way to go.

I suggest that you try to make Thief run before applying DDFIX, because there may be other problems that need to be solved first. If you have issues making DDFIX work, there are probably solutions posted at TTLG:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117616

Vista? There may be some additional things you need to do with Vista. I am not currently aware of them. Please respond with any additional fixes you find necessary and successful. I'll add useful ones to this initial post.

Re-released versions. There may be additional problems associated with re-released versions such as Sold-Out or Steam. I am not currently aware of these problems or how to fix them. Please post any additional fixes you know will work. My advice is to stick to the original release versions if you can find them.

[goldsla]

The advice given here and at

http://www.johnanthonycurran.com/gamemods.html#thief

worked spendidly for me when re-installing T2 on a new machine (64 bit Vista with 4 processors). The only "trouble" I had was with DDFIX; I had to manually hex edit Thief.exe to get it hooked up. Not hard, once I downloaded a hex editor for Vista, but it would have been nice if the GUI installer had worked. But what a difference in the graphics with DDFIX! The hex editor that I found & liked was: Hex Editor Neo

Also of note, GarrettLoader installed and works just fine with no mods in Vista. I also like how GarrettLoader now points you to the right places to download FM scripts. I don't remember that from before. Thanks!

The steps I followed:

1) I did a clean install from the newest copy of Thief 2 that I have from SoldOut Software. I just bought it this year at Amazon (it has both T1 and T2 on it) as a backup for my older copy (also from SoldOut). This CD claimed to be Vista Compatible. It did install with no problems, but Thief did not run cleanly and locked up.

2) My version was up to date, so no need to patch. I used imagecfg after backing up my exe. That worked well enough to let me run the program, but the graphics were horrible.

3) Since I have 2 NVIDIA GeForce 8800 cards, I was expecting great graphics. Editing USER.CFG to un-comment (remove semicolon) from the ";safe_texture_manager" line made things better, but still not great.

4) I then decided to try the Thief 2 patched exe from John Curran's site. I backed up my exe again, and switched in the moded version. It worked. Hard too tell if it fixed anything I had not already fixed. But it works fine.

5) Next, I went to Timeslip's DDFIX webpage and picked up the GUI version. I read the readme file included in the zip file (I used 7-zip to expand the .7z file, though I suppose WinRar should work also). Unfortunately, the GUI did not work. Either it is not Vista compatible or not multi-core compatible or something else. In any event I then followed the Manual installation instructions and had no further problems. This is what my DDFIX.ini looks like after my edits:

[Main]
;Screen resolution
;Must be 800x600 or greater
gWidth=1024
gHeight=768

;Refresh rate. 0 is default, anything else to override.
RefreshRate=0

;Set to 1 to fix the duel core related crash
MultiCoreFix=1

;Set to 1 to automatically register lgvid.ax each time thief is started up
VideoFix=0

;This can be set to zero to get a more accurate z-buffer
;Doesn't usually make a noticable difference to picture quality
UseCompatibleZBuffer=0

;Turns on the 32 bit texture loader and adds support for some unsupported screen resolutions
;Will cause a crash if used with an unsupported exe
; 0 - Disable
; 1 - Determine exe automatically
; 2 - Thief 2 v1.18
Thief2Extensions=1

;Set to 1 to disable the windows keys while thief is running
DisableWindowsKey=0

;Set to 1 to enable anisotropic filtering
AnisotropicFiltering=0

;If you want to share overriden textures between thief installations, uncomment the next line
;It should contain the absolute path to the equivilent of \res\ddfix, including the trailing \
;TexturePath=C:\Games\Thief2\res\ddfix\

;XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
;XX Compatibility settings XX
;XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

;Changes the way direct writes to the frontbuffer are handled
;SS2 players should set these options to '2' and '0xf81f' respectively
;Thief 2 players with corrupted in game text should use '2' and '0x0000'
;Players who experience slowdown with UseSysMemOverlay=2 should set both options to 0
UseSysMemOverlay=2
OverlayColourKey=0xf81f

I then edited cam.cfg to have the same screen resolution as DDFIX.ini. With all this done, my graphics were looking good, but no movies!

6) Finally I installed the updated Indeo codec (version 5.11). The weekend I did all this, both ttlg and Thief-thecircle were down. so I googled it, found the updated codec and installed it. To tell the truth, I don't recall which site I used to download it from. There are several. The one I chose claimed to be certified virus free, and seemed to be telling the truth.

That's it. Now all I need to do is pick up the enhanced texture pack I remember being released earlier this year or late last.

I could not have done it without the great advice by Peter (above) and John Anthony Curran. Thanks!

[Peter Smith]

This is great stuff, Goldsla. Thanks.

[abiallan007]

cool post but requires a lot of patience

[jtr7]

Head's up, gang! Timeslip's site is down--hopefully temporarily. The taffers over at TTLG are presently working on getting the DDFix patch and instructions hosted elsewhere, so get ready for alternative links, if they are needed.


http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthrea...76#post1796076

[clayman]

I have read this sticky and the other for Thief 1 and need some help. Or someone to talk me out of the apparent herculean effort required to get this working. Or just a knife to slit my wrists.

I bought a laptop for clayboy #1 for Christmas and he's anxious to get Thief installed. I've not even attempted all this technical stuff yet, just reading and getting more confused the more links I click on.

There is no "evident" Run command in Vista to even try the / lgntforce command, and the error message I get as I attempt to install is as follows :

"This product cannot be installed on Windows NT due to Microsoft DirectX (TM) limitation."

His system info is as follows :

HP G60 Notebook
Vista Service Pack 1
AMD Turion Dual-Core 32 bit RM-70 2.0 ghtz
3 gb memory
NVIDIA GeForce 8200 M G video card

The best late Christmas present I could give the boy would be a fully functional Thief 1 and 2 with all 800 FMs. All these steps, fixes, patches, links etc. have me thoroughly confused. Can someone dumb this down for an old, crotchety Thief ?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[goldsla]

1) click Start
2) where it says 'Start Search' in gray text type "cmd" and it will open a command window.
3) That should get you past the "There is no "evident" Run command in Vista ... " issue.

Or you could create a bat file with the text D:\setup.exe -lgntforce in it and double click on it (assuming your CD drive is D: )

I had no trouble installing Thief to Vista ... I vaguely recall reading something about "This product cannot be installed on Windows NT due to Microsoft DirectX (TM) limitation." on some forum, this one or a more general one. Have you tried googling that message? you saw this, right?

... I remember now:

I did a clean install from the newest copy of Thief 2 that I have from SoldOut Software. I just bought it this year at Amazon (it has both T1 and T2 on it) as a backup for my older copy (also from SoldOut). This CD claimed to be Vista Compatible. It did install with no problems, but Thief did not run cleanly and locked up.

Your old CDs may not be Vista Compatable. Buying new ones from Amazon (or someone) that are Vista compatible may be the ticket. The one I bought had both T2 and T1 Gold. My Deadly Shadows CD gets little use, but it installed just fine without being replaced. Just make sure the ad for the CD says Vista Compatable in the text.

Don't be put off by the steps above to get Thief working. It might take all of 20 minutes once you have the pieces assembled (the hex editor, 7-zip, DDFIX, Indeo codec, etc.). It really is easy, if scary. But Thief is supposed to be scary, no?

Hope this helps. PM me if you need more than can be discussed here.

[clayman]

Confused still. So someone has reverse-engineered Thief (i.e. the PIRATE word comes to mind) to make it work with Vista ?

I own original 3 copies of Thief 1 and 2 and they are looking at me from the shelf right now, so I know I'm able to comfortably install this on Clayboy 1's PC with no piracy worries. But ordering add'l copies from someone else has me worried ? Or am I just not drinking enough tonight ?

Clayboy 1 is officially on the forum as of 10 minutes ago. Another generation of Thieves (hopefully).

[goldsla]

Sold-Out software is not pirated software. They have a license to sell it. They have upgraded the installation side of the CDs to install on Vista. It really was cheap enough. But you may not need that if you can get to run the setup.exe with -lgntforce. I edited my message above. Try either route and see if it works.


.... also this

[goldsla]

Originally Posted by clayman

So someone has reverse-engineered Thief (i.e. the PIRATE word comes to mind) to make it work with Vista ?

Well, stricly speaking, DDFIX might fall into the category of a bit of reverse engineering. I didn't write it, so I don't know what was involved. But I don't think anyone sees it as a hack, like removing copy protection, and you have to have a copy of Thief 2 to use it. So it is not piracy. It just enhances what you bought and makes it possible to run on a modern machine.

[Peter Smith]

I have deleted several posts from people who asked questions here in spite of the request in the top post. Please make another thread for questions. It's fine to give further technical information here, such as the following post about Vista.

[Venometal]

Wow listen here, I even got full positional 5.1 surround sound and EAX possibility in Vista! All you have to do is add the game manually to creative Alchemy. You can do this by opening Alchemy and clicking "add" or something similar, I use the Dutch version so I don't know what the buttons are called exactly in English.

Anyway, when you clicked "add" you get a dialog box where you can type in a title, it doesn't really matter what you type here as long as you can make out to yourself that what you're gonna insert is Thief 2. Then type in (or paste) the path to your game's install folder, e.g. C:\Program Files\Thief2 under the option "use game path". Don't select the "install in subfolder" option. I don't know what exactly the settings underneath the game path do, I just left them as they were, but I checked the box that reads "Disable Direct Music". After you've done this and you clicked "OK" to close the dialog box you will see it in the left column, just click on it and click on the arrow that points to the right between the two columns. Alchemy should now put some files in the game's directory and your entry should now appear in the right column. Just close Alchemy and start up the game!

That's the way it works for me, I can now alter the EAX option in the game's audio options menu, where it was grayed out before. Also I don't seem to remember the "Ambient Volume" slider was there before I put Thief 2 into Alchemy, so I think that's new too, but I could be wrong. All the sound is now real high quality, and fully working with positional surround sound, I have a 5.1 system Oh, and I'd consider putting the ambient volume slider not too high, because in my case it has quite a lot of bass output which is disturbing at times.

The above process might also work for Thief/Thief gold but I don't have that game. In that case you would just have to change the game directory to where the original Thief is installed.

Thanks Eidos for helping me set up my game to work on a modern computer!! The game absolutely rocks as it has very unique gameplay and those graphics feel really old school Also thanks to Creative for making Alchemy to compensate the sound system rebuild in Vista! I never expected it would work this good I hope my reply will help other people get the experience from the game fully as it was intended

[Peter Smith]

Originally Posted by Venometal

Thanks Eidos for helping me set up my game to work on a modern computer!! The game absolutely rocks as it has very unique gameplay and those graphics feel really old school Also thanks to Creative for making Alchemy to compensate the sound system rebuild in Vista! I never expected it would work this good I hope my reply will help other people get the experience from the game fully as it was intended

Actually, Eidos has not helped at all. The information here is provided by players like you and I. Thanks go to many people at TTLG who helped to provide the information I compiled.

As for Eidos, since they seem to have no interest in maintaining the code, they should release the source so the games can be fixed by the people who enjoy them.

[Venometal]

Originally Posted by Peter Smith

Actually, Eidos has not helped at all. The information here is provided by players like you and I. Thanks go to many people at TTLG who helped to provide the information I compiled.

As for Eidos, since they seem to have no interest in maintaining the code, they should release the source so the games can be fixed by the people who enjoy them.

Oh, but I thought you were from Eidos since you were a moderator But you know what I mean. I've used both your post and the FAQ on TTLG although that one did not mention DDfix which I really needed as I have a Geforce 8800GT card. So thanks to you then

[LordGervasius]

Using these instructions I was able to get thief 2 to work flawlessly on a windows 7 release candidate with an nvidia 9800.
.

[Cold0ne]

The only issues left now are the too-quickly moving water texture effects on modern systems (even with limiting the refresh rate to 60), and of course the missing fog/weather effects from newer video cards.

Edit:
Nevermind, the fog works, and it creates a bright sky which looks like day time, but this is normal from what I've read even on old machines when the game came out. Somehow I remember playing that map on an old machine where the level Life of the Party has some fog effects, but the sky isn't white. Not sure now if it was a hack or what but it looked more proper.