DeZmond
Junior Administrator
So, I've been watching Sanctuary for the first time recently, and the steampunk setting really inspired me to dig out my Thief 2 CDs for the first time in years.
Unfortunately, there was a problem - the game (now 11 years old) has quite a few compatibility issues with Windows 7 (and even more when running the x64 version).
Thankfully, a bit of research allowed me to solve these problems, so I thought I'd share the resources I've found for anyone else similarly inspired to play this most awesome game again.
(Note that these steps will also broadly work with System Shock 2 and the original Thief)
Unfortunately, there was a problem - the game (now 11 years old) has quite a few compatibility issues with Windows 7 (and even more when running the x64 version).
Thankfully, a bit of research allowed me to solve these problems, so I thought I'd share the resources I've found for anyone else similarly inspired to play this most awesome game again.
(Note that these steps will also broadly work with System Shock 2 and the original Thief)- 1. Install the game. Depending on which edition you have, you may need to do the additional step below, for others you may not (for example, the Sold Out version installs fine as-is). Also, do not install to a protected directory like Program Files, instead install to a path like C:\games\thief2, or similar.
1B. Install 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: refers to the CD drive letter.
D:\setup -lgntforce where D: refers to the CD drive letter.
- Patch to the latest version (1.18) if you've not already done so.
- If you have an Nvidia card, you need to edit the USER.CFG file in Notepad and remove the semicolon from the line that says ;safe_texture_manager
- Install DDFix to the Thief 2 root directory by copying in the files.
- DDFix is a patch that updates the game engine to work properly on modern hardware - making use of 32-bit colour, supporting multiprocessors, etc. There are also some optional enhancements, like loading new textures, using widescreen resolutions, and even bloom and HDR-like effects that can be enabled through the config file.
- Now you need to use a modified Thief 2 exe to make use of DDFix. You can download a prepatched exe as linked here or you can follow the steps here to manually edit the file yourself.
- Nearly done. One last thing to do, you need to edit the cam.cfg file, then add a new line that says
where the numbers are the screen resolution you wish to run the game in. (Widescreen or otherwise).Code:
game_screen_size 1280 800
- For the more adventurous, you can now tweak the ddfix.ini settings to customise the level of graphics upgrade given to the game. Personally, I've turned on bloom, turned off the trails (set them to 0) and decreased bloom amount to approx 120.
