Tithian on 27/5/2006 at 15:32
Would it be legal to distribute OM's (Thief II) that have been remade in DromEd?
When I say remade I mean fixed so that loot is no longer stuck in walls and other minor fixes and retexturing.
Kinda like an unofficial patch.
[EDIT] Changed the title to Dark Metal because that's what we're discussing now :P
New Horizon on 27/5/2006 at 16:02
Quote Posted by Tithian
Would it be legal to distribute OM's (Thief II) that have been remade in DromEd?
When I say remade I mean fixed so that loot is no longer stuck in walls and other minor fixes and retexturing.
Kinda like an unofficial patch.
Not whole missions, but you could use a utility like 'patchwise' to create a binary patch and distribute that. What you would need to do, is setup two identical installations of Thief 2 on your computer...they must match perfectly in every way...then, install your updated files to 'one' of the installations.
Run patchwise and tell it where the original installation is and where the new one is. It will extract the changes into an executable that can be distributed to people who own the full game. :) This will be a much smaller file too.
Vigil on 27/5/2006 at 16:40
On the other hand...where do you stop? There's very few actual bugs in the OMs but a hundred and one ways to improve them, so there's the problem of fixing what scope you want for the changes.
New Horizon on 27/5/2006 at 17:34
Quote Posted by Vigil
On the other hand...where do you stop? There's very few actual bugs in the OMs but a hundred and one ways to improve them, so there's the problem of fixing what scope you want for the changes.
I think the main thing to focus on from the original post is that he said 'minor', so it probably wouldn't go beyond the types of things mentioned and perhaps a few littel cosmetics that weren't seen to due to time constraints on the second game.
tiger@sound.net on 27/5/2006 at 22:41
Quote Posted by New Horizon
Not whole missions, but you could use a utility like 'patchwise' to create a binary patch and distribute that. What you would need to do, is setup two identical installations of Thief 2 on your computer...they must match perfectly in every way...then, install your updated files to 'one' of the installations.
Run patchwise and tell it where the original installation is and where the new one is. It will extract the changes into an executable that can be distributed to people who own the full game. :) This will be a much smaller file too.
Like wow, New Horizon, you do know a whole world of very useful info! :cool:
So for my novice "Thief's Highway for T3" thoughts, could extra static-mesh pieces like awnings, roof edges, long with other walk-able and climb-able pieces be "binary patched" into the OMs of T3?
And this patching file would be only used at map load-times by others, correct?
(Ie: so it is not a permanent map-file patch, but an easily update-able one?)
Thanks! :thumb:
(And now, you have me wondering about T3 reversed-manteling problems being solved with some special edge-pieces, by using this very same method?)
(
http://www.patchwise.com/) PatchWise at Hanmen.Com
New Horizon on 28/5/2006 at 03:11
Quote Posted by tiger@sound.net
Like wow, New Horizon, you do know a whole world of very useful info! :cool:
:) I wouldn't exactly say that.
Quote:
So for my novice "Thief's Highway for T3" thoughts, could extra static-mesh pieces like awnings, roof edges, long with other walk-able and climb-able pieces be "binary patched" into the OMs of T3?
Yes, you just need to have two installations of the game...a default 'vanilla' install and the installation with your modifications. Run patchwise and it will extract 'only' the changes in your modified version, and store them as a self installing executable.
Quote:
And this patching file would be only used at map load-times by others, correct?
(Ie: so it is not a permanent map-file patch, but an easily update-able one?)
No, this creates an executable patch that the player applies 'before' playing and the changes would be permanent...unless patchwise allows the creation of an uninstaller...which I think it does. So that once the player has decided he/she is finished playing the mod, they would be able to run the uninstaller and restore Thief back to its original settings.
tiger@sound.net on 28/5/2006 at 05:40
Quote:
Originally Posted by [email]tiger@sound.net[/email]
Like wow, New Horizon, you do know a whole world of very useful info!
Quote Posted by New Horizon
:) I wouldn't exactly say that.
Well, New Horizon,
your idea sounds a lot more do-able then my very mechanical thoughts. :thumb:
Like just imagine a modified version of the current T3 Editor that reads those .gmp and .ibt files, as only map source-files and then it optional reads-in a new .mod file. (ie: Auldale1.gmp, Auldale1.ibt and an optional Auldale1.mod)
And then this special T3 editor would only write its updates to that .mod file, for the folks to download and use. And of course, the current T3 exe and/or its .ini file, that controls the game-loading of these map-files, would have to be told all about that "new and improved" T3 .mod file. Unless they do wildcard loads for those names by using only the front prefix-part of a map's name? (Auldale1.*) :cool:
So do you see how clumsy and stupid but very rapidly update-able that idea is? :p
Rob Hicks on 28/5/2006 at 07:17
Can I suggest you all wait for the release of Dark Metal - a patch that does precisely all these things?
Rob
Tithian on 28/5/2006 at 08:09
Dark Metal, eh? Never heard of it before, have any links or more info?
New Horizon on 28/5/2006 at 13:30
Quote Posted by tiger@sound.net
So do you see how clumsy and stupid but very rapidly update-able that idea is? :p
I'm pretty sure it would be impossible to do, since we don't have access to the .exe source code to alter the game in such a way.
Shadowspawn has already created a neat little tool that will be integrated into Garrett loader. I don't know if you have been reading the posts down in the T3 Editors guild, but you should check down there for the latest news.
