Thief Enhancement Pack 2.0 alpha

[Nameless Voice]

Is EP2.crf in the main Thief dir?

Try with fewer mod paths, or putting the EP2 first. In Thief 2, it looks like you have both the EP1 and NTex overriding the textures, so you won't see much.
Also, you need to include ep2\thief1 before the EP2 for Thief 1, or you will get bugs.

Thief 1:

mod_path ep2\thief1+ep2

Thief 2:

mod_path ep2

[Mixthoor]

I know you work togehter and in the future C-beam Texture Pack for thief 2 will be integrated with EP2 . Am I right?
But now I've got a little question to you, taffers. What kind of EP version should I use in the old good Thief Gold right now? Until now I always used EP. I tried EP2 once, but it was some pre alpha version and I didn't notice any changes. Right now, it is amazing job, I see many differences and I want to use your hard work in my beloved game. Of course I can wait for the final EP2 release.

[Nameless Voice]

EP2 works fine for Thief 1 / Gold as well as for Thief 2.
You should see marked improvements in city and manor areas. A lot of those textures have been upgraded.
Sadly, many of the very-specific textures have not been upgraded yet, such as those in the Maw, or in the ruined missions.


There's no version incorporating C-BEAM's textures yet. I'll need to see about uploading a new version soon.

[Mixthoor]

There's no version incorporating C-BEAM's textures yet. I'll need to see about uploading a new version soon.

Great! I'm waiting for it.

[Nameless Voice]

Updated with all textures up to 13:00 GMT on the 2nd of January 2014.

(Includes all of the ArtDeco family, but not Necrobob's updated city textures or later.)

[nickie]

As always, my thanks to all contributors and your hard work in putting it all together, NV.

[weapon_zero]

Updated with all textures up to 13:00 GMT on the 2nd of January 2014.

Downloaded the new version, thanks to the contributors.

As a newbie to this and Thief 1 player, i am a little confused which texture pack to use now or how different ones interact.
I understand that the idea of this one is to remain more faithful to the original textures and that its primary focus is Thief 2, compared to the new HD texture pack on this forum? Using two texture packs, the one being referenced first in the cam_mod.ini will override the other if both include the same texture?

But you also add new models with this package right? Cause a while ago i read that actor models are almost impossible to edit (cannot remember in which context), are there many improved models compared to a standard TFIX installation (i read about the bedroll, gonna check if Giry got a new one )?

[Nameless Voice]

The EP was originally an object model and texture upgrade project, but it expanded to world textures when NewDark came out and made upgrading them feasible.
Its aim is to make things "the same, but better", and stick with the original style and atmosphere of Thief.

It covers both Thief 1 and Thief 2, but is nowhere near complete for either. Most of the upgraded objects were Thief 1 objects (because those were the ones most in need of upgrading anyway), though the terrain textures favour Thief 2 (because more HD Thief 2 textures have been made so far.)

For playing Thief 1 for the first time, I would not recommend gecko's HD texture pack, as it's a mod which completely changes the style and atmosphere of the game - save that for a replay!

The texture pack referenced first in your cam_mod.ini will override, yes.

Creature meshes are rather difficult to create, yes. The EP includes almost none, other than a new sword arm and a few minor tweaks to other models.
TFix contains an earlier version of the EP. There aren't too many new models since that version (new potion models come to mind), but a lot of the object textures have been upgraded to higher resolutions.

[sNeaksieGarrett]

So, no changelog?

[Nameless Voice]

Go to this post in the development thread, which coincides with the date of the previous version..
Everything posted in the thread from that post up until until 13:00 GMT on the 2nd of January 2014 is included in the new version.

[sNeaksieGarrett]

Cheers!

[mxleader]

So I dropped this into the Thief 2 folder and used the code for the mod_path etc. But should there be a semicolon in front of the code? Also, shouldn't these textures now show up in the updated dromed? I don't have any textures in dromed after updating to v1.21. The strange part is that when I load a mission I've just started working on the new textures show up when in the in-game mode but the pull down texture family menu shows nothing. Using Alt+T only the textures I had used are showing up. I can't seem to load any of the others. Help!

[Daraan]

I would really suggest doing KoMaG's Tutorial there is everything explained. But anyway

-semicolons in front of a code pages means they are quoted = are not used. So you have to remove it.
It's a bit hard to follow where you want to see textures. Do you have them loaded & did you insert the dromed basic toolkit 1.10?
The texture palette ALT+T shows which textures you have manually loaded.



Click for Fullsize

This is a screenshot of my DromEd window with open text editor. My top bar (whats the right name for this?) and drop down menus look a different from your since I'm using my own custom menu apart from this it should look similar. If not be sure that you use the menu.cfg from the toolkit 1.10.
The second method is loading the textures via the texture palette like I did on the left side. After you have loaded a family the textures are added and can be used. Also be sure that there is a * in the filter line on top.

----

What also comes to my mind to fully have HQ quality in editor you have to be sure that in cam_ext.cfg use_d3d_display is enabled. No semicolon in the 11th line from above.
And you have to edit your dromed.cfg. The important part is just the D3D9 render options section at the end where you have to enable editor_disable_gdi and edit_screen_depth 32 by removing the semicolons. I suggest reading through the whole file since you can tweak your gui a bit with it.

[mxleader]

Now I did all that and when I hit Alt+T I no longer get the texture pallete. Also on the menu bar under textures none of the textures are listed. Only the commands to load, compress, etc. the textures are there.

[weapon_zero]

The EP was originally an object model and texture upgrade project, but it expanded to world textures when NewDark came out and made upgrading them feasible.
Its aim is to make things "the same, but better", and stick with the original style and atmosphere of Thief.

It covers both Thief 1 and Thief 2, but is nowhere near complete for either. Most of the upgraded objects were Thief 1 objects (because those were the ones most in need of upgrading anyway), though the terrain textures favour Thief 2 (because more HD Thief 2 textures have been made so far.)

For playing Thief 1 for the first time, I would not recommend gecko's HD texture pack, as it's a mod which completely changes the style and atmosphere of the game - save that for a replay!

The texture pack referenced first in your cam_mod.ini will override, yes.

Creature meshes are rather difficult to create, yes. The EP includes almost none, other than a new sword arm and a few minor tweaks to other models.
TFix contains an earlier version of the EP. There aren't too many new models since that version (new potion models come to mind), but a lot of the object textures have been upgraded to higher resolutions.

Thanks a lot for the detailed response!
I have played Thief before, in the old days, well only "The Dark Project". So i will try out both texture packs individually and combined. Well in fact, i will never go without this one for the improved models; the better the textures get, the more your realize the lackluster nature of the default models as well...

Although of course there are lots of memories connected with the game, i have little memory on the technical aspects - apart from floating bodies . And i am not even sure if the goal to re-enact the original game 1:1 is feasible, it will always be a modification, the original experience derives from low poly meshes and low res textures. I feel like in Thief the engine (and its flaws) and the story being experienced are very closely connected with each other - might elaborate on this one rainy day in the "Thief 1 - things that are better than Thief 2" topic on this forum.

I for my part am rather on the "when you go mod it in the first place to modern standards, then do it right/go all the way" - side. Now I am not good with modding and i suck with arts and have zero clue about modelling (in that order ) - but this re-engagement with Thief and this community got me to think to aim for a playthrough project of the original TDP, with the last official patch applied (should be 1.33?) and no other tempering whatsoever.
So the goal would be to experience the game like it actually was, to refresh memories etc., so to have everything "vanilla" and played on original hardware, captured with a secondary machine. Well, it won´t happen before next fall since i need to rebuild my Slot-A Athlon-1000, maybe throw in a rare Voodoo GFX, who knows, yeah it seems a nice thing to aim for to me.

[Daraan]

Now I did all that and when I hit Alt+T I no longer get the texture pallete. Also on the menu bar under textures none of the textures are listed. Only the commands to load, compress, etc. the textures are there.

If you have NewDark and the Toolkit Alt+T must open the text palette expect you have capslock on or you messed with the default.bnd file. The texture dropdown also must show the lines I have (see below)

I made new install, added NewDark then the Toolkit. Now it looks like this:


Is there 1.21 written in your DromEd window? Is there a cmd window called MONO? Does it print any errors/yellow messages?
If no/no/... something is wrong with NewDark install it again. Without NewDark some Menus might not get displayed correct.
If yes/yes and you sure extracted all Toolkit 1.10 files and it's still as you said then I can just recommend that you do your complete Thief install again. Deinstall+Remove any files that are still there. Make copies of the mission files you made also the EP2 so you don't have to DL it again+any other files you want to keep like your cam_mod.ini, cam_ext.cfg

Install it again via Tafferpatcher (NewDark included), then add the Toolkit then the mods like EP. Check your cam_mod.ini and your cam_ext.cfg+dromed.cfg for d3d9 options.

[mxleader]

I must have the wrong tool kit then because I just reinstalled the kit and it made my dromed v1.18 again instead of v1.21. But hey at least some textures are back....

[Ricebug]

It sounds like you're using an old version of TafferPatcher. It should be 2.1.2 (beta). If not, let TP install the files using the default settings---don't tweak anything---you can do that later if needs be.

NV: Is the alpha pack going to be on Google docs permanently? Right now, I'm just linking to it from my page.

[Nameless Voice]

If you're using my original version of the DromEd Toolkit, that's 1.18 and you need to install it before NewDark. I'm not sure about AM16's updated version.

Ricebug: It will probably stay there at least until a proper release.

So the goal would be to experience the game like it actually was, to refresh memories etc., so to have everything "vanilla" and played on original hardware, captured with a secondary machine. Well, it won´t happen before next fall since i need to rebuild my Slot-A Athlon-1000, maybe throw in a rare Voodoo GFX, who knows, yeah it seems a nice thing to aim for to me.

The original hardware part is hardly necessary, you can run the game as vanilla through NewDark, on any modern computer. Just don't install any of the graphical updates (and leave off things like 32-bit rendering if you must.)

[Mechs Delight]

I'd just like to mention that some of the fan missions I tried have the water flipping back and forth between the EP water and the original FM water.

[DiMarzio]

I'd just like to mention that some of the fan missions I tried have the water flipping back and forth between the EP water and the original FM water.

Me too, and it started with the newest version

[Nameless Voice]

Blue or green water?

[Mechs Delight]

Blue or green water?

It was somewhat greenish when I tried "Eclipsed."

[Yandros]

This is likely caused by the FM using a custom water texture (like Eshaktaar's) that uses fewer frames than the EP water texture, so the engine uses the ones in the FM for the first X frames, and then those from the EP for the additional ones (since their number goes higher), then loops back to frame 0.

[ffox]

Edit: Didn't have it right first time.

I experienced this if cam_mod.ini contained:

mod_path MODS\t2water+MODS\ep2

The problem disappeared if I changed that line to :

mod_path MODS\ep2+MODS\t2water

Because ep2 contains t2 water that line can be shortened to:

mod_path MODS\ep2

Here's a video of the problem: http://youtu.be/7-2mtpTUGak