kafka7 on 6/12/2005 at 19:24
Please read the whole post before replying. Thanks.
When T3 finishes loading it goes straight into the intro movie without pausing on the main menu screen. If you hit Esc, the menu flashes back to the menu but only for a split second, and the movie starts again. Pressing Esc repeatedly crashes the game with a Windows report error. Sometimes, if I'm quick, it is possible to click a menu item before the movie starts - the relevant screen is displayed but the game hangs immediately, requiring soft reset.
My system is a very new, self-built rig with a clean install and all the latest drivers. I have no virus checkers or rogue processes running in the background. I have installed the 1.1 patch.
I had a this game working fine on my old system (AMD64 3500+, K8V Deluxe, Radeon 9800XT, Audigy 2, 1Gb).
I've found only one other thread which mentions this problem, but no satisfactory answer is given:
(
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84276&highlight=movie)
Hardware:
AMD64 X2 4400+
Geforce 7800GTX PCIe (not SLI'd)
A8N-SLI Premium (nForce4)
Audigy 2
1Gb DDR2 (Crucial)
2x250Gb WD2500JS Caviar (7200rpm)
Dell 2405FPW LCD
Software:
WinXP Pro SP2 - all latest updates (auto-update is on)
DirectX 9.0c
Forceware 81.95 (latest)
nForce4 AMD chipset drivers (latest)
Creative Audigy drivers (latest - auto-detect)
A8N-SLI BIOS 1009 (latest)
Things I've already tried but didn't work:
1. Re-installing from scratch
2. Downloading and re-installing all video/sound/chipset drivers
3. Tweaked to turn off intro movies (only affects startup logo movies, not in-game intro movie)
4. Shutting down all non-system background processes before starting the game
5. Changing my desktop resolution from 1920x1280 (default) to 1280x1024 and even 1024x768
6. Turning off AMD Cool'n'Quiet
7. Virus scanned (found nothing)
8. Defragged (although not necessary as this is a clean install)
9. Removing bad registry and unnecessary files (e.g. temp files)
Any constructive suggestions will be gratefully received. I'm currently gutted to have a new system which which can't play Thief DS but which can happily handle other more recent games like HL2, BF2, Far Cry, Rome:TW, WoW etc with all the settings turned up to the max.
TIA
tiktokofoz on 6/12/2005 at 23:58
Not a solution from me I'm afraid but just to register that I too have experienced this. I have very similar specs to yours. It's only happened a couple of times and a reboot sorted it (obviously not permanently). I'm "glad" someone else has this problem and it's not just me.
kafka7 on 7/12/2005 at 06:45
Thanks for the info. I have to reboot almost every time because I am forced to soft reset when it hangs. Been trying almost everything for days, and nothing has sorted it out.
There must be some incompatibility with new hardware or software, in which there needs to be a fix. Does Thief DS work with dual core processors? If it's something this fundamental then this forum is going to become full of posts like this as time goes on.
Eidos, are you listening? Your game isn't future-proofed.
David on 7/12/2005 at 07:32
Try turning one of the cores off in the Task Manager. However, I have run TDS perfectly well on a X2 3800 / 7800GT combo.
Skynet on 7/12/2005 at 08:16
Try disabling the intro movies. See Thief 3 Tweak Guide section.
kafka7 on 7/12/2005 at 08:32
Quote Posted by Skynet
Try disabling the intro movies. See Thief 3 Tweak Guide section.
Already done this (using T3Tweak). It turns off the pre-loading movies, but the problem is the first in-game movie (with Garrett on the rooftop), which runs constantly thereby preventing any access to the main menu screen. Can this movie also be turned off?
David - if you can run it on an X2 3800 then I guess it can't be a dual core problem. Are you using Forceware 81.95? Are you tweaking your 7800GT in anyway? If your system is similar to mine I can at least rule out a few options.
David on 7/12/2005 at 18:10
I'm currently using the 81.85 drivers.
Skynet on 7/12/2005 at 18:27
Quote Posted by kafka7
Already done this (using T3Tweak). It turns off the pre-loading movies, but the problem is the first in-game movie (with Garrett on the rooftop), which runs constantly thereby preventing any access to the main menu screen. Can this movie also be turned off?
Yes, see the "Disable opening movies" section in Thief 3 - Tweak Guide forum topic.
kafka7 on 7/12/2005 at 19:47
Quote Posted by Skynet
Yes, see the "Disable opening movies" section in Thief 3 - Tweak Guide forum topic.
Made the change to DEFAULT.INI exactly as specified:
[PCStartup]
ShowIntroMovies=True
ShortIntroMovies__t=d:\content\t3\VideoTextures\ThiefTrailerNoESRB.bik
The only change is that the movie also plays before the loading screen. Once into the menu, it immediately starts playing again (preceded by that quote 'Recorded Text...blah blah'), with barely a pause at the menu. What on earth is triggering it to constantly play!? Pressing Esc only return to the menu for a second before it starts again!
David - I doubt if it's the graphics drivers as there can't be much difference between 81.85 and 81.95 (both are very recent).
If anyone has any hardware or software named in my first post and is running DS successfully please let me know, then I can rule it out as being problematic.
There's no way I'm giving up on this game - I was only halfway through when I upgraded. I haven't even played the Cradle yet!
Skynet on 7/12/2005 at 20:00
Quote Posted by kafka7
Made the change to DEFAULT.INI exactly as specified:
[PCStartup]
ShowIntroMovies=True
ShortIntroMovies__t=d:\content\t3\VideoTextures\ThiefTrailerNoESRB.bik
You need to set "ShowIntroMovies=True" to "ShowIntroMovies=False"
