Toutatis on 22/3/2011 at 23:54
So, for some reason after not playing Thief 2 for a while, I come back to it only to find that my in-game text is gone! You know, the in-game messages, text above weapons and items etc. that is sort of necessary. Now neither a forum search of "missing text" nor the viewing the FAQ revealed anything, so I was wondering if any of you could help me.
Mods installed are DDFIX and hi-res textures. I play at 1680x1050, and this is the first time this has happened.
Also, I have a 5.1 surround set-up (on Vista x64) and upon performing the speaker test in-game I get only the center channel reporting "Left, Right".. but the menu ambience plays through the front stereo speakers.. the game appears to only work in stereo, ignoring my rears. Is EAX required for 5.1 (as my sound card is an ASUS xonar d2x and the EAX emulation crashes T2)?
Thanks in advance. :cool:
ganac on 23/3/2011 at 03:21
Sounds like you are missing your books folder. Try a re-install or finding a backup copy of your game files, if you have one.
I'm not sure of your sound problems. It might be that you need to change your speaker settings on your computer so they fit with the limitations of the game. I'm not sure, I always use headphones.
Toutatis on 23/3/2011 at 05:36
Re-install fixed the text issue. Something must've screwed up with darkloader. Tafferpatcher set me straight however, my install is right as rain again.
And I found out that the dark engine doesn't support 5.1, so out of luck there. Thanks.
jtr7 on 23/3/2011 at 06:40
I don't even think surround sound was that common in gaming systems, yet, back then.
piln on 23/3/2011 at 11:07
Dark engine does support some kind of surround sound though, doesn't it? I used to play Thief 2 with a 4-speaker setup and I'm sure it had surround sound.
Or have I gone mad :confused:
Brian The Dog on 23/3/2011 at 15:26
Thief only has surround-sound via EAX. Thief 2 has surround-sound via other means as well as EAX. My Logitech G35 does not have EAX, but does have 7.1 surround-sound. I can get surround-sound in Thief 2, but not in Thief.
piln on 23/3/2011 at 17:11
Thanks, it's a relief that I haven't gone mad yet.
So doesn't that mean Toutatis should be able to get surround sound in Thief2 one way or another?
Toutatis on 24/3/2011 at 03:02
Hmm is there a special way to activate 5.1 in Thief 2? Newer games handle it no problem, but I find that I have to jump through hoops for older ones.
piln on 24/3/2011 at 10:47
I don't know what the 'other means' are of achieving surround sound in Thief 2 - hopefully Brian The Dog can explain more.
I think the most desirable option for you would be to solve that crash, but I've googled and I haven't yet found anyone else with the same issue. I know nothing about your sound card - does its EAX solution require ALchemy to work in Vista/7, like a Creative card would, or is it supposed to work without it?
Other options could be:
* if you've got another drive you can boot off and a Windows XP disc, just boot into that instead to play older games that struggle with Vista/7. Worth doing if you play lots of older games.
* get a new sound card. If you don't want to ditch your Asus, it may be possible to sit a second card or plug in a USB soundcard alongside it, and make Thief use it for output instead of the Asus. No idea if/how well this works in Vista, and you'd have to do your research for cards that work well with Thief ((
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127462&highlight=asus+xonar) this might help) but clearly we're talking Creative for genuine EAX support.
Toutatis on 24/3/2011 at 18:52
So I've decided to forget DS3D GX, because it's unstable, but I did manage to find a version of ALchemy unlocked for *any* modern sound chip, which Creative would love to make disappear. :ebil:
I am testing that, however EAX in T2 is still whited out. It works fine in Thief Gold and Thief: DS surprisingly, and I'm in the process of testing it with other EAX games I can scrounge up.
I have an Audigy 2 kicking around but its Vista/x64 support is abysmal and still Creative wants $9.99 for ALchemy for Audigy, the greedy bastards, so screw em.
It seems to work as a wrapper- the same as DDFIX or ENBSERIES in that it drops a .dll and .ini in the game folder and any .exe run that utilizes ds3d gets wrapped?
So my main concern is getting that damn EAX option un-white so I can try out ALchemy.
Thanks for the help!
EDIT: update, Thief Gold and other games that load dsound.dll generate a log file showing runtime, and probably any errors.
Code:
Logging Time : 24/3/2011 at 16:06:53
Loaded D:\games\ThiefG\dsound.ini
Using Creative Software 3D Library
Thief 2 doesn't get this far- it's as if Creative's dsound.dll isn't loaded at all, which irks me something fierce because I can't tell why.
I'm busy wracking my brain and trying all sorts of different tests, so far no luck.
