From out of nowhere, new enhanced versions(!) of Thief 2 and System Shock 2

[Infinitron]

According to this TTLG thread, somebody surreptitiously uploaded a Thief 2 v1.19 patch and System Shock 2 v2.4 patch to a French forum yesterday. They are legit! I suspect that somebody (perhaps ex-LG personnel?) has been messing around with the Dark Engine source code, which was recovered 3 years ago.

I've no idea yet how well existing fan patches that have been created over the years will play with these new versions, which have fixed many long-standing problems with the Dark Engine. But I'm sure that the Thief and System Shock fan communities will soon have everything organized. I will keep the Codex updated when they do.

Thanks to Icewater for bringing this to my attention.

 

[asper]

- Added windowed mode
- Added single display mode option - no resolution change between menus and game
- Added ingame support for all common resolutions, including widescreen
- Added support for 32-bit color
- Textures can now be automatically promoted to 32-bit, improving quality and effectively eliminating the palette limit
- Added UI framerate cap option to avoid GPU fan spinning up in UI
- Added DDS/PNG image support
- Added full 24/32-bit TGA/BMP image support
- Increased the maximum number of frames allowed in animated textures from 20 to 99, and increased the allowable filename length for animated textures (before the underscore) to support more than 7
- Animated texture rate can now be specified via a material file for that texture
- Fixed a bug where Transparency property didn't (correctly) apply on objects that contain transparent polys

Nice!

 

[Menckenstein]

Looking Glass Never Die

 

[Captain Shrek]

 

[Revenant]

Great news, maybe we will eventually get the GPL release of the source codes. Playing Thief 2 in Linux natively would be really nice. Of course, ATM all this lays in hands of some unaware lawyers who can botch the deal faster than one can blink. Anyway, if the source code goes GPL, The Dark Mod would go completely obsolete

 

[Oesophagus]

enhanced

Be careful with using that word, I thought that SS2 was getting the rape treatment

 

[Infinitron]

enhanced

Be careful with using that word, I thought that SS2 was getting the rape treatment

Enhanced version, not Enhanced Edition

I wonder if they will make a version for Thief 1/Gold as well.

 

[CrustyBot]

Thanks for posting this, Infinitron.

 

[SCO]

- Replaced video player lib with an FFMpeg based one to play cutscenes. LGVid.ax or other codecs are no longer required

edit: lol

- DromEd will no longer stop working after 03:14:07 on Tuesday, 19 January 2038

 

[Nigro]

 

[ghostdog]

This is great.

 

[pipka]

Fake! Do not download!

Spoiler

just kidding

 

[Haba]

Another prophecy of apocalypse fulfilled. The end is nigh!

 

[Ion Prothon II]

 

[SCO]

This completely replaces all ddfix functions then?

 

[Infinitron]

This completely replaces all ddfix functions then?

Probably yes, but we really don't know yet. Give the fans a few days/weeks to sort it out.

 

[Cosmo]

This completely replaces all ddfix functions then?

From what i gathered on the french forums, i think it does. With some tweaks it should work on Thief1/gold.
Even AI possibilities have been increased apparently...

 

[Tzaero]

I'm hoping this renews interest in system shock 2 which might result in new fms

 

[Azalin]

 

[potatojohn]

Hopefully this will show EA that there is interest in SS3 and they will make a modern sequel, as they are wont to do.

 

[Astral Rag]

Awesome.


edit:

I installed the Thief 2 patch. So far it seems to work great but the movies don't work any more.

I installed Thief2 according to the methods described in Infinitron's Thief thread.

 

[Infinitron]

Hopefully this will show EA that there is interest in SS3 and they will make a modern sequel, as they are wont to do.

Rumor has it that what became Dead Space was originally going to be SS3.

 

[evdk]

How shocking, given the massive appropriation of themes and mechanics.

 

[octavius]

Hopefully this will show EA that there is interest in SS3 and they will make a modern sequel, as they are wont to do.

If they do I bet they will turn it into a corridor shooter with behind-the-ass camera.

EDIT:

Hopefully this will show EA that there is interest in SS3 and they will make a modern sequel, as they are wont to do.

Rumor has it that what became Dead Space was originally going to be SS3.

Judging from the description at Mobygames, it looks like I was right...

 

[Humanity has risen!]

What is the last remaining classic 3D PC game that is only barely playable on modern systems? Grim Fandango?