Mandragora on 27/5/2022 at 08:53
Hello folks,
i just wanted to ask, as a rule, is it better to install FMs with 'convert ogg to wav' checked (in FMselector)?
What is the story behind it on technical side?
I saw that some missions suggest to install with conversion checked, as to improve performance?
Since wav is larger and uncompressed format, why is it considered as better/faster?
Should i just leave 'convert ogg to wav' checked for all missions (TG and T2)?
Btw, i downloaded around 10 GB of fan missions!
Man, it is going to be a long hot (and dark and shadowy) summer (nights) :))
Thanks for any info regarding sound, and thanks mission designers!
I am slowly going through missions, by the date of release, starting with Thief Gold.
I finished Garrett's Revenge and Hard Luck.
Now starting The Death of Garrett.
Awesome stuff!
Once again, thanks!
SlyFoxx on 27/5/2022 at 11:49
Just a guess but I'd imagine wav files might work better because the game engine was designed to use them. Better to let the loader chew a bit longer to load a mission and convert the audio to avoid/mitigate lag while playing.
Mandragora on 27/5/2022 at 12:16
Great, i will install all the missions with 'ogg to wav' then.
I wanted to ask one more thing.. If author suggest that i disable any mods or enhancement packs, does that include all the Tfix stuff (like T2 skies, enhancement pack.. and the rest of goodies that come with Tfix).
Is this purely aesthetical/art direction suggestion from author, or will it break the game if i leave Tfix goodies 'ON'.
I read somewhere that FMsel has option to start mission without any 'upgrades', but didn't manage to find that option.
As you can see, i am trying to find the most optimal way to play all the missions (all from 1999 up to newest one) without the need to constantly install or uninstall features, if that is possible.
Of course, it is not a big deal to follow the instructions if there is no other option.
baeuchlein on 27/5/2022 at 12:59
In theory, Ogg Vorbis files should not be a problem for NewDark, but in reality, people often have short pauses in the game if an Ogg file is played. Sometimes, it's just when a certain file is played for the first time, sometimes it's every time any Ogg file is played. And how much a player is annoyed by this varies as well. That's why some FM loaders offer to convert Oggs to Waves.
On the other hand, this takes more room on your hard disc once the files are indeed converted to Wave. If your hard disc is nearly full, you might have to play without this "Ogg to wav", especially for missions with many Ogg files. Luckily, the saved games are not affected by all this, so you can switch back and forth between those options and still continue with savegames you made before.
Disabling mods was just discussed a bit in the AngelLoader thread, (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149706&p=2486558&viewfull=1#post2486558) here. Apparently, it is a bit tricky to enable/disable mods in FMSel. On the other hand, AngelLoader should now have menus for that which would make it easier to select your preferred mods. I did not check out the newest versions of AngelLoader yet, though, so I don't know much about it. And most of the time, I don't use many enhancements anyway.
FenPhoenix on 27/5/2022 at 13:21
When authors say to disable mods/enhancement packs, what they're usually saying is that the FM was made with custom textures or objects that are supposed to look just so, and graphical mods might overwrite some of the textures or objects and make things look broken, wrong, half-right, etc. So it's basically aesthetics.
About disabling mods:
The deal with disabling mods is, there are "optional" mods like graphical enhancements etc. that can freely be disabled with no issue, but then there are mods that do things like fix FMs or add scripts or whatnot, and TFix/T2Fix come with many of these and they should not be disabled or things might break.
In FMSel there is a "Mod path excludes" textbox where you're supposed to type the relative paths of the mods you want to disable with + in between, so like "hdmod" or "hdmod+mods\t2skies" or whatever. You can also type "*" to disable all mods, but you should not do that because then it even disables the important ones I mentioned above.
Older versions of AngelLoader had a checkbox "Disable all mods" that behind the scenes just set the mod excludes to "*", but that caused the issue above where important things were disabled, so now it has a more safe and user-friendly mod disabling functionality where if you click "Disable all" it will only disable the ones that won't break things if they're gone.
Mandragora on 27/5/2022 at 14:25
@baeuchlein
Thanks, this was very informative!
I thought it was sort of payoff in regard to file size vs load speed, but wasn't sure if there are any 'behind the curtain' potential problems related to ogg/wav.
@FenPhoenix
I have installed only what is packaged within Tfix, since i see it as very convenient 'one stop shop' for playing Thief on 'modern' PC.
Well, i will leave it as it is then, until i see a problem.
So far, so good! Blackjack, boing!, keep 'em coming :))
Also, i am a fan of your videos!
You have some wide character range as a voice actor, and more importantly, you are hilarious, my dude :))
