Thief: DS 'Collective Texture Pack' released.

John P. on 2/5/2006 at 20:40

Well - it's finally out. :)

Sorry to those of you who have waited for a long time and whom I've told "just around the corner now...". Things tend to take longer than you think or anticipate.

Wasn't sure if I should post this here or in the Editing forum, but I thought it would reach more 'regular' game users in this forum.

This new texture pack contains all my previously known textures, but most of them in updated versions, plus a lot of new textures and files. And so I have called it my 'Collective Texture Pack'. You will be able to pick and choose what features you wish to install.
All in all there are over 500 files in this new texture pack. There are new menu backgrounds, new loading screens, new window, wall, floor, furniture, character - you name it - textures (the loading screens are however identical to the originals except for Garrett's appearance - well, you'll see...).

(http://www.john-p.com/textures/Thief-DS/index.shtml) And here's the link to the download page.

I'm quite tired as I write this, so I'll try to keep this short:

There is an Install Readme within the new installer which will explain pretty much any and every aspect of using the installer/uninstaller, and I'd recommend that you read it first, at least the parts that apply to you.

The only advice I would give here, is that you - once you decide to go through with installation - let it "run its course" as it were, and don't click Cancel or otherwise stop the process even if you have the opportunity to do so. This will ensure that the install process should go smoothly and you'll avoid problems later.

I have put up a new comparison page at my website. Unfortunately, I just now noticed that none of the images turn up in Firefox 1.5. And I have no idea why. I first thought it was because of my hotlinking protection, but they didn't turn up even after I disabled that (so I've enabled it again). If someone knows why, and what to do to make it work for Firefox users, I'd be happy.
The pages and images should turn up just fine using Internet Explorer, however.

I hope you'll like the changes I have made, and feel that it has its use.

The installer must be considered almost 'beta', even though I've tested it extensively. With so many different computers and configurations, there may still be bugs. If you think you find a bug however - please read through the Install Readme, since I've already mentioned a few 'peculiarities' there.

Good luck. :)

ZylonBane on 2/5/2006 at 21:27

Quote Posted by John P.

Unfortunately, I just now noticed that none of the images turn up in Firefox 1.5. And I have no idea why.

I'm going to guess that it's because you used backslashes in the image URIs, which, as an illegal URI character, Firefox quite rightly encodes as "%5C".

Awesome work as always, but in many cases the new textures seem to be excessively "clean" compared to the originals. The Museum 2 shots in particular illustrate this. The Fort_Ironwood shot as well-- the original age-worn, rough-hewn stone blocks look much better than the brand-new, machine-cut look of the updated texture.

Also, what's the point of side-by-side comparison shots if it's physically impossible to view the same part of both shots at the same time? If you must use 1024x768 res, doing half-screens would work better.

T-Smith on 2/5/2006 at 21:38

Looking through the pics on the page, I agree with Zylon's comment that many of the nex textures seem too clean comparred to the original ones, which (though lower res) are grittier and seem to fit in better with The City.

Still, that's not going to stop me from downloading the pack :p. I'm a big fan of all your older Thief: DS textures (I have almost all of them installed) so I have no doubt I'll end up enjoying these. I look foward to giving the game a run-through with the pack installed :thumb:.

Komag on 2/5/2006 at 22:41

Wow, some of those are amazingly better! A couple I prefer the old version, but mostly I like the new, great work!

Fig455 on 3/5/2006 at 03:04

Wow, I must say (God, I am trying not to sound ungrateful) a lot of them do look way too 'clean'. Otherwise, great stuff, thanks.

ascottk on 3/5/2006 at 04:06

Great job! I have some feedback for you (about the fifth time I tried to reply to this thread):

Things I like:

* The cave textures in The Seaside Mansion: Whoa!
* The green wall in The Seaside Mansion: Nice attention to detail.
* The clocktower: Holy ****
* Clothing: Again, nice detail.
* The Installer: Very slick.

Things that I don't like:

* The brick textures' normal maps are too square. I never seen brick shapes like those anywhere.
* The stone normal maps lack variation. They seem too flat on the surface.
* The stone "moss" in the Keeper library. It makes no sense whatsoever for an inside texture (the green stuff is either moss, or the Keepers have a bad mold problem). This was probably my pet peeve for the previous version as well.

At any rate, I may scrap my texture work, or maybe just add speculars (maybe fix those normal maps), for the Realist Mod.

Ben360 on 3/5/2006 at 05:06

Wow, very nice John P. - some of those wood/stone textures are almost photo realistic! Thanks for doing one installer. The Thief series has the best modders I've ever seen.

P.S. As mentioned above some weathering on that gray brick texture would look even better.

Yametha on 3/5/2006 at 09:24

OMG thanks soooo much! :D :D :D

Raven on 3/5/2006 at 09:28

Maybe that is not such a bad thing - compare thief 2 and thief 3. (Does anyone have a story-wise explination for why the city looks really run down in thief3 after thief2? I know there must have been some upset as the hammers reformed... but I would have thought that would have caused even more regeneration in the city - and yeah I know we see mostly the slums in thief3)

-actually from looking at JP's excellent work there might not actually be an issue to address any more regarding how skanky the city looks... oh damn I am missing the episode of quantum leap with the evil leapers... the conclusion!! ((it was brilliant as always.)) - anyway, I prefer the cleaner look to the city, ther is no way it could get so trashed in the 1 or 2 years from thief 2

Thirith on 3/5/2006 at 09:29

John P.: Not to sound ungrateful, because you've done great work on these textures - but do you think there might be an update, making some of the textures more weathered and less clean? I'm asking because in this case I'd wait for that update.