Reply With Quote30. November
Any news about the progress of the new release?
30. November
Great news, really looking forward to it
We're talking about grass here. Grass. Not a hero prop, not a major model in a location. That's why this makes no sense, as it pushes the engine beyond reasonable limits. Again, the best way is to play other games, get some reasonable perspective. 2048 x 2048 texture provides a lot of pixel density for 128 x 128 or 160 x 160 game units in T3Ed or Dark Mod (that's around 12-16 Dromed units, right?). It's like a standard or medium high wall (player character is 80 units tall in TDM and 96 units tall in Thief 3). 2k textures still look good on standard walls in engines like UE3 or UE4, and you want to use 4k texture for blades of grass in a game from late 90s?If i want it extremely sharp i have to choose a very high resolution -> 4096 x 2048 or 2048 x 1024.
If Gecko were smart, and had even the slightest sense of proportionality when it comes to resource consumption, he'd be looking into using joint tweqs and/or chained model tweqs as a way to depict swaying blades of grass, instead of making each grass object a smegging video file.
But noooo, brute force all the way.
Looks great, nice to see more work with HD stuff, will be uploading to taffers soon as it is out for sure.
Link for current HD Texture Mod 9.5
http://www.taffersparadise.co.uk/thi...HDMod0.9.5.exe
+1Originally Posted by ZylonBane
Also, it wouldn't make sense to do such thing in UE4 or any modern engine, as this is still resource-heavy. The only difference is that your hardware will handle such scene better (you will still fail in making optimized, playable level). Waving grass effect is made with material functions now, like scrolling offset texture, or by linking wind direction node, so no actual animation is needed (and definitely not frame-by-frame stuff).
That's right Judith. In UE4 wind effects are made in the material functions. I've worked the last 12 months with UE4 and i've specialised my work on vegetation for unreal engine. It's great and easy to work with materials in UE4.
The grass texture in Thief 2 has 4 different layers in one texture. All layers are moving in different directions. So it's not possible to have the same effect with 'using joint tweqs and/or chained model tweq'. You would need to create too many objects for the same effect...
The T2 HD mod setup has 3 options:
1. animated vegetation
2. static vegetation (no animation...)
3. without new vegetation
Choose what you like
Also i've optimized the grass distance in the LOD settings for the best FPS rate.
Last edited by Gecko; 7th Nov 2018 at 02:49.
So today the 1.0 version will be released ? Are we still on track ?
By coincidence yesterday I installed Thief-2. To play it again, after 18.5 years. Great timing, eh.Thanks for creating this mod.
Changelog:
v1.0
- added 'Interactive Candles' to all T2 original missions (candles can have flames now, allow you to douse them with water arrows, snuff by frobbing, and relight with fire arrows or a flare - THX to voodoo47!)
- added lightmapped water/lava to all T2 missions
- added new grass and tree vegetation in some areas - static or animated - LODs (optional)
- added new natural HD water mod
- added 'NewDark Graphics Settings Tool v1.1' with more options!
- added full english subtitles for all characters (enabled by default!)
- added carry body mod (THX to R Soul)
- added new animation effect on water, fire and gas arrows
- added new smoke FX (torches, fireplaces, gas lamps, candles)
- added new blood FX for all enemies
- added new blood FX for Garrett (optional)
- added new moss arrow texture
- added new fire flames in some areas
- added new waterfall / fountain FX
- added new electricity FX
- added some new T2 HD textures
- added more improved object textures
- added more improved object models
- added improved AI skins (THX to Purgator and Necrobob!)
- added all Thief 1 HD textures for 'Fan Mission Mode'
- added 'NewDark v1.26' (Thief2.exe)
- fixed a problem with new sky textures
- fixed some textures
- fixed a install folder problem with the installer
Full Setup Installer of version 1.0
On the next step you can choose between this three HD mod versions:
New Grass Vegetation (Animated) (5.9 GB) = The new grass and some trees are animated (sort of wind effect)
New Grass Vegetation (Static) (5.5 GB) = The new grass and trees are static
Original Vegetation (4.8 GB) = Without the new grass
Why is this so big?
The T2 HD mod v1.0 has now also included all T1 textures for the FM mode!
There are also a lot of new T2 textures.
At the end of the installation you will see the option 'Enable LAA and higher object counts'.
The T2 HD mod won't work correctly if you disable this option. So it's required to leave it checked!!
If you have unchecked it (unfortunately) you can do it simply manuelly by double clicking the 'LAA.cmd' file which you will find in the HDMOD folder after installation.
If it's successfully patched you will see the popup window 'Large Address Aware successfully enabled in file: 'thief2.exe'.
What is LAA (Large Address Aware):
Problem:
Game or DromEd is running out or close to run out of memory (i.e.
process uses between 1.5GB and 2GB memory. Especially noticable when
using hires texture packs or FMs with loats of hires textures.
Solution:
* If you have 3GB or more system memory you can try to patch the
EXE file to enable Large Address Aware, to allow the process to
use more than 2GB memory.
What is 'higher object counts':
If you have installed the new grass vegetation then Thief 2 needs a higher 'object count' to show all the objects in-game.
The Setup will do this automatically and change the values in the file called 'dark.cfg'.
New values:
; object counts
obj_min -18192
obj_max 8184
max_refs 47740
New Grass Vegetation:
If you have installed 'New Grass Vegetation' you will find it in some choosen areas. The grass uses the 'LOD' system what comes with NewDark.
The default LOD grass distance is set to low for better performance. But you can change the values if you want!
How to change LOD settings:
To do that go to HDMOD folder and open up the file called 'gamesys.dml' with Notepad and search for 'Grass LOD Distance'.
These two values are important:
"LOD 0->1 Dist" 30.00
"LOD 1->2 Dist" 45.00
The value for 'LOD 0->1 Dist' should always be lower than for 'LOD 1->2 Dist'.
You can try this for example:
"LOD 0->1 Dist" 65.00
"LOD 1->2 Dist" 75.00
Higher values = needs more GPU and CPU power! Find your own value.
There is also a folder called '_vegetation_miss_files' which is included in the HDMOD folder (only if you have installed 'New Grass Vegetation'!).
You can switch between the 'grass' and the 'original' version if you want.
To do that just copy the .mis files from 'new' or 'original' folder into the HDMOD folder and override the files.
The HD mod v1.0 uses its own improved objects. This means that the EP2 (Thief Enhancement Pack 2.0) will be ignored.
So it is no longer necessary to download the EP2 pack!
---
> Installation Instructions <
Download:
(Official Moddb Download)
Thief2HDMod1.0.exe - 1.8 GB
(MediaFire Download)
Thief2HDMod1.0.exe - 1.8 GB
(Google Drive)
Thief2HDMod1.0.exe - 1.8 GB
T2 HD Mod on Moddb
Last edited by Gecko; 21st Dec 2018 at 09:25.
did dewdrop get a make over?
Wow thx. Just one question, 1.0 means that every single texture was fixed?
Okay, after watching trailer I have another question, can I return old lightning with gasoline circles?)
Whoah, this is epic Gecko! Thank you so much
Anyway, congratulations and thanks yet again, this is appreciated beyond measure
Thank you zil
Yesterday has started the 'Mod of the Year Contest' on moddb.com. So it's time to show all again how big the Thief community still is in 2018. And it's the best way to say 'thank you' to all the modders.
If you want to support me then please visit:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/thief-2-hd-texture-mod
and vote for 'Thief 2 HD Texture Mod' in Moddb's "Mod of the Year" contest.
Only registered 'Moddb members' votes will count in the competition.
So please sign-up at Moddb too, if you have not already done so.
It does't take much time.
In 2013 we've made it in the top 100 with the first version of the Thief Gold HD mod and it was so fantastic. Together we can do this again!
Thank you!
Last edited by Gecko; 2nd Dec 2018 at 07:30.
Necrobob based an awful lot of those textures on my originals scratch built skins.
Thank you Purgator! I've added your name to the text line everywhere
- added improved AI skins (THX to Purgator and Necrobob!)
You are still in the credits too (HDMOD_About_this.txt)
I voted in the moddb contest. Thanks for making this mod. It looks great. Much appreciated.
Last edited by Gryzemuis; 2nd Dec 2018 at 11:06.
I have problem with HDMod. When i start the game i see the message "This mission requires newer game version, your current version is 1.21"
Any idea?
Thank you Gryzemuis.
@ DatTaffer
Did you install last Tafferpatcher first? The best is you start with a clean fresh installation of the game.
Gecko you did a superb job, thank you very much.
I voted for you
I think I know what I'll be reinstalling this week...
It's kind of funny that with all this mod's excesses, it apparently still uses disk particles for most of the smoke and mist effects instead of bitmap particles.
The introduction of knee-high grass on levels that realistically would be well-maintained is also an... interesting choice.
Does the mod require the latest version of New Dark (1.26)? Because I believe Tafferpatcher still only updates Thief up to 1.25.
Great update! Do you happen to have the "Ultimate Difficulty" available for Thief 2 HD mod like you do for the Thief 1 HD mod?
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