Reply With QuoteErm, did I destroy the momentum of this thread?
Y' know, Dj, one could merely decompile your patcher and add a no-cd option, so your argument against a no-cd option is not only disagreed with, everyone is quite certain your not getting away with that.
(I mean, even if you hadn't told us, most people would've figured out you used inno install creator. I mean, I've decompiled install-shield files before, and I'm not even a programmer.)
But what do I know? We could get ballbusted for giving a fairly obvious no-cd patch for free to the thieving public, while some guys who made a somewhat complex patch to keep the executable from reading for the cd, get away unscathed.
Erm, did I destroy the momentum of this thread?
Last edited by Albert; 10th Mar 2010 at 15:01.
It installed the French version flawlessly, but I had to change "english" to "french" manually in darkinst.cfg or else it would crash. Can be easily corrected. Thanks DJ Riff.
One could get a ddfixed .exe or an .exe from a Premier Patch and do the same, but it's their conscious action, not mine and not via Patcher itself. You see, it's not about me releasing a no-cd patch, it's just about this thread that may get closed and links removed because of that and all taffers will have to look for updates via Google Translator at Darkfate.Originally Posted by Albert
Y' know, Dj, one could merely decompile your patcher and add a no-cd option, so your argument against a no-cd option is not only disagreed with, everyone is quite certain your not getting away with that.
Please post contents of SETUP.LID file, from CD1 of your French version.
And there's more than just changing the language in darkinst.cfg. There are some language-dependent files in Patch 1.18. They don't affect the gameplay much, but I still want them to be installed properly. So is there a French patch to 1.18 that can be easily unpacked (like a Premier for English one)?
Code:[Languages] key0=040c Default=040c count=1I think the English Premier patch is the only one that works on my copy... There is no specific French patch that I know of.
About the NO-CD - I think it may be just too much panic for nothing - Eidos doesn't care at all it seems. The Thief Anthology sold in Czech Rep. for example does not have CD checks at all.
But I understand you don't want to risk.
Found the link at southquarter and followed the link to the thread, but I'm not sure if the patch is completed or still a beta version...?
If it is complete I'll download and install it, but I don't want to screw with it unless it's completed
since I've had problems in the past...
Still in beta. Still adding fixes and collecting feedback. Actually, it doesn't do anything to your system except of re-registering Indeo Codec (and this option is unchecked by default). All changes are made to the specified folder only. So the worst inconvenience you may encounter in case of malfunction is to reinstall Thief-2.
This sounds like a great and long needed tool; I'll try it out when I get a new, modern computer. Thank you and keep it up!
I'm interested, but I get an error clicking on the link saying the page is not available...retry?
I want it!! Sounds interesting!! Don't leave me out!!
(Hopefully it will be fixed soon...I'll keep my eyes open.)
That's the one thing my new PC's DVD-rom does not want to do (install T2) I guess it's too fast for those old CD's
Would like to say thanks for you creating this marvelous piece of software for the world. I've been going through Thief withdrawal for a year now after losing my install disc and was saddened that when I finally found it, nothing worked. But it works fine now!..
At least until I installed Thief2x. Then it went "Haha, screw you." A re-install fixed all issues though. I guess it just didn't like 2x messing with the files.
Awesome, this is a great thing. A multi patch installer was already done for SS2, and I had always thought that thief could use an installer like this. I wanted to try and make one myself, but I haven't had the time and I don't really know how to make installers. I downloaded a copy of NSIS, which allows you to make complex installers (I think) using some scripting language but I haven't learned how to do it.
This is very interesting to me, because this is what I was trying to figure out how to do. That is, the game checks for your original installation files, and installs them as if it was doing it from the original setup.exe that thief/thief2 comes with. Is this a correct analysis of what you meant by the above statement? If so, how did you do it? I am curious.
You're having trouble "analyzing" what he means by "Installs the game from original discs"? Seriously?
What the fuck is your problem man? Are you so damn bored you gotta insult and criticize people? Don't you have anything actually useful to post? Do us all a favor and go away.
If the patcher doesn't find thief2.exe in the installation dir, it asks user if (s)he wants Thief to be installed there. If user chose "Yes", it opens a dialog where user can specify the source folder (CD1 or a folder where files from CD1 were copied to). Then the patcher copies from the source and several subfolders (RES, MOVIES, etc.) to the installation folder. If several files are absent, it asks for a second CD. After copying files are complete, it creates a DARKINST.CFG file. Additionally, you may want to create registry entries in Software, App Paths and Uninstall sections (not implemented yet).
To make it compatible with non-English releases, you also need to read SETUP.LID file and set the LANGUAGE string in DARKINST.CFG according to the language code.
That's cool. Is writing the scripts hard to do? I was just curious how you actually make the code for the installer or whatever.
I don't think that this has been mentioned yet, but you should probably advise people against installing to C:\Program Files\ or C:\Program Files (x86), as these are protected folders in Windows 7 / Vista, meaning that only an Administrator can make changes to them.
It's easiest all around if the game just defaults to installing to C:\Games\ or similar.
_______________________________________________________________________________
I also recommend using my "data" folder concept to make sure that the default game installation is safe and secure in the event of one of the Loaders crashing or messing up an installation.
The basic idea is to put all the original game files into a "Data" folder, so that even if something goes terribly wrong in the main installed folder, the original files are safe and secure. This makes it much more robust in the event of a mod installation going bad (not that it should with DarkLoader, but you never know...)
All all the original game data is moved into a "Data" subfolder, and DarkInst.cfg is adjusted accordingly.
I move the following files:
*.mis --> Data\*.mis
*.osm --> Data\*.osm
*.gam --> Data\*.gam
Res\*.crf --> Data\Res\*.crf
Movies\*.avi --> Data\Movies\*.avi
*.crf ---> Data\Res\Patch\*.crf -- this isn't needed if you merge the patch .crfs
So my install.cfg looks like this:
Code:install_path .+.\Data language english resname_base .\Data+.\Data\Res\Patch+.\Data\Res load_path .+.\Data script_module_path .+.\Data movie_path .\movies+.\Data\movies
The method has also been described (complete with a batch file) for SS2 here: http://www.strangebedfellows.de/inde...sg1721#msg1721
Last edited by Nameless Voice; 30th Mar 2010 at 13:53. Reason: Added missing word
If you know the basics of Delphi / Object Pascal, it's not that hard but rather time-consuming.
Good idea!
Well, that may cause some mods that don't read darkinst but expect the default folder structure (T2X, language packs, etc) fail to install or run. And that will make it difficult to use as a source for further installation. Lots of testing needed for this...
I'll admit that I still haven't got around to playing T2X, so I'm not sure about that.
Can you explain why language packs would be adversely affected?
Anything in resource folders in the main game folder overrides anything in the \Data\ subfolder. It's the same as if you are pulling all the resources from a second installation of Thief, rather than having two copies of all the files. I have been doing both for years without issue, but then again, I have never installed a "language pack" (and am not 100% sure what you mean by one).
Edit: scratch that. It's exactly the same as using the data files on the CD - the default DarkInst.cfg will fall back to looking for the files on the CD if it doesn't find them in the main folder. This is exactly the same, except it's looking in the Data folder on the hard disk instead of on the CD.
Not all mods actually read darkinst.cfg and analyze its contents. Some are just self-extracting archives with batch script that simply assume resource files are in .\RES. AFAIR, T2X installer doesn't work with relative paths correctly, and it assumes that original mission files are in root folder.
Just one example how a mod installer can break the game if something goes wrong:
Darkloader optimization breaking Thief Gold on windows 7
That's why I try to keep folder structure as close to original as possible.
Actually, It's more complicated when using this modified setup as a source for next installation. When working with CD as a source, I simply seek for thief2.exe or THIEF\thief2.exe. Once found, I assume that all mission files are in the same folder, and resource files are in RES, and I copy them or make a reference to them if it's a partial install. Now, if I assume that the source structure is modified, The rough algorithm will look like:
0. If there's no darkinst.cfg, then I should act as it's a CD with original structure.
1. If darkinst.cfg is present, then I should read it and create an array of strings for every valid string, converting relative paths to absolute ones if needed.
For example, if the resname_base looks like "resname_base .\Data+.\Data\Res\Patch+.\Data\Res+X:\Thief2\Res", then the "source_resname" array will look like:
C:\Games\OldThief2
C:\Games\OldThief2\Data
C:\Games\OldThief2\Data\Res\Patch
C:\Games\OldThief2\Data\Res
X:\Thief2\Res
2. I should have a list of all Thief files and a category assigned for them (*.crf to resname_base, *.osm to script_module_path etc).
3. Now I need to find, for example, an SND.CRF file. I'm searching in the folders listed in "source_resname" array backwards:
X:\Thief2\Res\SND.CRF — no file (no CD in drive) //or should I determine somehow that it's a CD and skip it?
C:\Games\OldThief2\Data\Res\SND.CRF — file found. I copy the file or, if it's a partial install, mark this folder as containing this file.
4. Now I'm searching for BOOKS.CRF. It's still in the same category, so I'm searching in the same list of folders:
X:\Thief2\Res\BOOKS.CRF — no file
C:\Games\OldThief2\Data\Res\BOOKS.CRF — no file
C:\Games\OldThief2\Data\Res\Patch\BOOKS.CRF — no file
C:\Games\OldThief2\Data\BOOKS.CRF — file found (for some weird reason it's here). Copying the file or marking the folder.
5. Now, If I did a partial install, I should add marked source folders to the new darkinst.cfg in the same order as they are in old the one:
Phew. As I said lots of testing needed to get it to work.Code:resname_base C:\Games\NewThief2\Data+C:\Games\NewThief2\Data\Res+C:\Games\OldThief2\Data+C:\Games\OldThief2\Data\Res
Added.
There's even more. Every time I install or uninstall mission or other game file patch, I need to read darkinst.cfg for the right folders, then search for the file in them. And the patcher should decide what folder to use if there's no such file present or there are more than one file. I have this already implemented for resource files in current version, it's lots of code and I still not sure if it has no bugs or side-effects.
Last edited by DJ Riff; 31st Mar 2010 at 02:01.
keep up the good work man, I'm sure a lot of people appreciate what you're doing.
Maybe it's too much work - it was only a suggestion.
However, actually reading darkinst.cfg for the paths will make the patcher far more versatile, so that it doesn't ruin unusual game installations.
I gave up on my Thief 2 install in Vista multi-core with various problems: videos, crashing after half a minute gameplay, and mouse limited to the top left quarter of the menus. I tried this patcher but it's not intuitive and it messed it up even more so now it crashed immediately!
OK, started again with a completely new install from CD. Woohoo! Seems to be OK. Played the first om for a minute or two anyway. Video fixed. Menu fixed. And all the usual stuff seems fixed like no cd etc. Thanks for that.
One problem, it asked me for game resolution and I couldn't remember the legal resolutions and since I entered a large desktop res before and it crashed, this time I thought I'd better accept the default 800 x 600. After all, I can always change it later right? Wrong! It seems limited to 640 x 480 or 800 x 600.
I'm reluctant to run the patcher again as it seems to do a complete install and I don't want to break anything now its working. So how do I change the possible screen resolutions? And what are 'legitimate' values? Anything my monitor accepts?
I spoke too soon. No-CD doesn't work. But more importantly, none of my gamesaves work. I only installed this so I could continue playing King's Story which is down to 5fps on my other machine.
Any ideas?
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