j2choe on 1/4/2015 at 18:10
I recently played through the first two Thief titles after watching the Rageaholic's dripping endorsements. Both were absolutely fantastic games...miles ahead of anything released in recent years.
There has been relatively little discussion about 3D gaming on this forum, which is not too surprising since the format has been losing a lot of steam in the past couple of years. That being said, I would encourage anybody with a 3D television or monitor to experience the first two games in 3D. I was blown away by how well the 3D works, and it adds an entirely new dimension to the games. Trust me...it REALLY has to be seen to be believed.
I am currently trying to get Thief 3 to work in Tridef, with no luck. A search of this forum revealed that other players were having similar problems, but the thread was very old, and I was hopeful that somebody had better luck in recent years.
The problem I seem to be running into is that Tridef won't recognize the game. It will load the game normally from the launcher program, but the game only loads in normal 2D mode and none of the 3D modes are enabled. I have patched the game and installed graphic mods, but these have not had any effect. I am running the game from Windows 7, and one thing I have noticed is that when you load the game, the colour scheme changes to Windows 7 basic, which I thought was unusual. Thief 3 is a Direct X9 game and Tridef should easily be able to run it. What gives?
Any input would be appreciated. I heard that Thief 3 in 3D can be accomplished through other programs such as IZ3D. If anybody could post how they got it to work, that would be great. Thanks!
snobel on 2/4/2015 at 07:45
I gave TriDef a go just now, hoping to get anaglyph mode working - but no luck either.
There's a few possible problems: First, patches could cause the game to not be recognized but T3 is not known to TriDef anyway, and the unpatched game doesn't work either. Second, the main game exe (T3Main.exe) is not launched directly but through a small launcher program (T3.exe at startup, Ion Launcher.exe on level load). You can run T3Main.exe directly, but when it finds T3.exe not running it will just launch it and then quit. T3.exe will then re-launch T3Main.exe. Depending on how TriDef latches onto the game I guess it's possible that the indirect launch could be missed? Third, T3 is DX8, not DX9.
Your best bet is probably to ask about these things on the TriDef forum.
Quote Posted by j2choe
I am running the game from Windows 7, and one thing I have noticed is that when you load the game, the colour scheme changes to Windows 7 basic, which I thought was unusual.
This must be the fix which disables Aero etc. to avoid having the desktop show before a level load. On Win7 it's on by default in the Sneaky Upgrade and you also get it with some versions of the game, GOG at least.
j2choe on 2/4/2015 at 15:44
Quote Posted by snobel
Third, T3 is DX8, not DX9.
That alone appears to be the answer I was looking for. Tridef won't recognize anything before DX9, which is why games like Max Payne 2 will not work with it. I was under the mistaken impression that Thief 3 was a DX9 game. The failure of Tridef to "grab" Thief 3 is exactly the same thing that occurs when trying to run the program with any other DX8 game.
For the previous releases in the series, the patches and upgrades made those games run under DX9, which is why they work flawlessly. Again, I'd encourage anybody with to try these titles out with the 3D enabled.
Such a shame really...from my limited play of Thief 3, it seems like this is exactly the type of game that absolutely begs for 3D, with its dynamic lighting and enhanced physics. Was really looking forward to experiencing the Cradle mission for the first time this way.
j2choe on 2/4/2015 at 16:39
In searching the Tridef forums, I ran across this thread: (
http://tridef.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&p=15600)
Apparently, there is a converter which will convert DX8 games to DX9. The conversion requires the dumping of a dll file and a converter file into the game's root directory. Going to give this a try tonight and will let you know whether I get any results. Keeping my fingers crossed!
