So...about all of these FM Loaders

nickie on 13/10/2016 at 17:50

I haven't looked yet and I'll probably forget to but I seem to recall something about DL not loading/unpacking textures in the right order so some were missing? I haven't seen this comment (or similar) for quite a while so maybe it's something that has been resolved.

voodoo47 on 13/10/2016 at 17:55

iirc, DL copies things around (a very, very evil thing to do), won't load any dmls (NewDark mission fixup patches), and won't recognize T1/TG missions properly. just one of those should be enough to make it not recommendable to newbies, and all three would make it not recommendable to anyone you don't hate.

Clock on 19/10/2016 at 16:47

I know I should have abandoned Garrettloader long ago, but I have a reservoir of Comments and Ratings for about 160 fan missions which cannot be exported to Dark Loader, so I just stayed with Garrettloader and performed the cleanup procedure whenever that problem popped up. But it's time to move on.

I plan to install NewDarkLoader right away and avoid transitioning from DarkLoader. Is this going to be an issue? I'm guessing from the NewDarkLoader thread that I still won't be able to export data from Garrettloader, but I can always manually retype my comments and ratings over. Once that's done, I can delete Garrettloader forever. Otherwise I'm stuck with using 2 FM Loaders, which can definitely screw things up if I'm not careful.

My ThiefG and Thief 2 are run through Steam now. Any issues there to be concerned with?

Also, with Garrettloader, you could only have 1 FM installed at a time and when you installed a different FM, it would auto uninstall the current FM. I think with the later FM Loaders you have to go through the 2 processes of uninstalling the current playing FM first, then install the one you want to play. Is this right?

Thanks in advance for any insight or comments.

nightshifter on 19/10/2016 at 17:28

with the new loaders you can have multiple fm's installed. they won't be loaded into the original thief folder ( as the old loaders do) they get installed in their own folder inside the "fm" folder that is created in your root thief folder. once "installed"(unzipped) there, you can switch from one fm to another very quickly.

the downside is ofcourse that this "fm" folder can get real big, but with nowadays hd's that shoudn't be a problem. ( and you can always "uninstall" fm's if you are done with them.)

Dahenjo on 19/10/2016 at 17:47

Quote Posted by Clock

I plan to install NewDarkLoader right away and avoid transitioning from DarkLoader. Is this going to be an issue?

No, it doesn't matter which FM-loader you've been using, but you do need to be using NewDark.

Quote:

I'm guessing from the NewDarkLoader thread that I still won't be able to export data from Garrettloader, but I can always manually retype my comments and ratings over. Once that's done, I can delete Garrettloader forever. Otherwise I'm stuck with using 2 FM Loaders, which can definitely screw things up if I'm not careful.

I'm not very familiar with Garrettloader but if you're able to select and copy the comments you could then paste them into NewDarkLoader. If not and there's an .INI file for Garrettloader containing the comments, you could open that file and copy/paste from there. Might be easier than retyping it all if you have long comments.

Quote:

My ThiefG and Thief 2 are run through Steam now. Any issues there to be concerned with?

You need to have NewDark installed, preferably the latest version 1.24. If so you're all set, but if not you'll need to install that before NewDarkLoader.

Quote:

Also, with Garrettloader, you could only have 1 FM installed at a time and when you installed a different FM, it would auto uninstall the current FM. I think with the later FM Loaders you have to go through the 2 processes of uninstalling the current playing FM first, then install the one you want to play. Is this right?

No, you don't have to uninstall any FMs to install more, but you can if you want, like to save space/etc as nightshifter said. You can choose to save your savegames & screenshots too if you uninstall which may take a lot less space than the installed FM.

nickie on 19/10/2016 at 17:50

Quote:

Install the original game missions and delete any remains of the following folders in your main Thief folder:

Pal
Bitmap
Books
Fam
Intrface
Obj
Mesh
Strings
Motions

but don't delete the movies, crfs or the res folder!

Steam versions - from the (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133946#installdigital) FAQ

Quote:

How do I install Thief 1, Gold, or Thief 2 if I have the Steam release and want to install it into a non-protected(full priveledges) directory?
You have two options.

Option 1: When you go to install the game, in the setup window there should be “Chose drive to install to.” If you have more than one drive then you can tell Steam to install it to another drive. OR, you can simply tell it to install the game to another directory. When choosing your drive you can switch it back to C:\ and pick a new Steam library folder to install your game.

Option 2: Install Thief Gold or Thief 2 using the normal Steam installation method. Once the game is installed, copy the entire thief directory outside of Program Files (x86)\Steam and into a new folder such as C:\Games\Thief2 or C:\Games\ThiefGold, depending on which game you are installing. NOTE: Program Files(x86) is only if you are running a 64-bit version of windows. If you are running a 32-bit version of windows, steam should be installed in Program Files.

Edit. Buses.

Clock on 19/10/2016 at 18:51

Quote Posted by nightshifter

That's great, I think. Once installed, they remain installed. But I'll probably mass uninstall after a period of time.
Thanks

nightshifter on 19/10/2016 at 18:54

and the best thing is that you can save your saves (and screenshots) when uninstalling ( so taking only very litlle space), so if you want to replay them, they will be available again.:cool:

Clock on 19/10/2016 at 19:18

Quote Posted by Dahenjo

No, it doesn't matter which FM-loader you've been using, but you do need to be using NewDark.

I'm not very familiar with Garrettloader but if you're able to select and copy the comments you could then paste them into NewDarkLoader. If not and there's an .INI file for Garrettloader containing the comments, you could open that file and copy/paste from there. Might be easier than retyping it all if you have long comments.

You need to have NewDark installed, preferably the latest version 1.24. If so you're all set, but if not you'll need to install that before NewDarkLoader.

No, you don't have to uninstall any FMs to install more, but you can if you want, like to save space/etc as nightshifter said. You can choose to save your savegames & screenshots too if you uninstall which may take a lot less space than the installed FM.

I don't remember if I have NewDark installed. I think I do because the resolution choices for Thief 2 are enhanced so that it handles my native 2560x1440. I don't think original Thief 2 had that as an option. Plus the game "looks" so much better.

Do the columns in NewDarkLoader allow for copy/paste?

Clock on 19/10/2016 at 19:27

Quote Posted by nickie

I don't think going straight to NewDarkLoader is a problem but I'd make sure the original game was installed before abandoning Darkloader and I'd also check to make sure there are no leftover files as per

Steam versions - from the (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133946#installdigital) FAQ

Edit. Buses.

You mean before abandoning Garrettloader I should make sure the original Thief 2 is installed (I don't have DarkLoader installed). I assume this would apply to Thief Gold as well.

I have been playing Thief 2 via Steam for a few years now, so I shouldn't have to move things around. I should just have to make sure that I'm pointing to the same folders when NewDarkLoader is installed. Right?