Thief: Deadly Shadows

Thief: Deadly Shadows

Developers
	Ion Storm
Publishers
2004-2009	Eidos Interactive
2009-2023	Square Enix
2023-present	Eidos-Montréal
Retail re-release	Sold Out Software
Russia	Noviy Disk
Engines
	Unreal Engine 2
Release dates
Windows	May 25, 2004
Reception
Metacritic	85
IGDB	83
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person, First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Stealth, Immersive sim
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Steampunk, Fantasy, Medieval, Victorian
Series	Thief

Thief
Thief: The Dark Project	1998
Thief II: The Metal Age	2000
Thief: Deadly Shadows	2004
The Dark Mod (unofficial spin-off)	2009
Thief	2014

Thief: Deadly Shadows is a singleplayer third-person and first-person stealth and immersive sim game in the Thief series.

The game was briefly developed by Looking Glass Studios in the few months between finishing Thief II: The Metal Age and the studio's shutdown in May 2000, and was picked up by Ion Storm Austin to which some of the original developers have moved. After release, the game received a single official patch.

The game does not suffer from significant issues when running out-of-the-box, but a set of community fixes and mods exists as part of the Sneaky Upgrade, which has become the de facto way of playing for most users.

General information

TTLG Forums - Thief Series

TTLG Forums - modding & mission design

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 5 DRM disc check. The official editor contains the 1.1 executable with removed DRM.
Amazon.com
GOG.com		Manual, wallpapers, soundtrack, avatars and design sketches included.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)

A free demo version is available from GameFront.

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch v1.1 is the latest retail patch. Digital distribution versions already include this patch.

Skip intro videos

Change ShowIntroMovies in DEFAULT.INI[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game>\System\ and open DEFAULT.INI. Go to the [PCStartup] section. Change ShowIntroMovies=True to ShowIntroMovies=False. Save the changes.

Modifications

A detailed tweak guide for gameplay, graphics and other aspects is available.

Archived download for the rare DXtool needed at some point in guide

Sneaky Upgrade

Includes "Thief 3 Gold", "The Minimalist Project" and "John P.'s texture pack" (all optional).

Adds native widescreen/multi-monitor support and fixes compatibility issues.

Gold mod removes most of the loading zones in the levels, expands maps and fixes bugs.

Minimalist Project aims to provide an experience more like Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II. Increases the difficulty of the game.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\System\Default.ini
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/6980/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\save\SaveGames
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/6980/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Install the Sneaky Upgrade to unlock all resolutions in-game.
Multi-monitor			Install the Sneaky Upgrade to unlock all resolutions in-game.
Ultra-widescreen			Install the Sneaky Upgrade and set SneakyTweaker HUD Width to 1.0.
4K Ultra HD			Use Sneaky Upgrade.
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		Toggle with Alt+↵ Enter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Called MultiSampling (causes crashing and hanging); also see Use MultiSampling and Bloom together.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Certain issues with lockpicking and ladder above 60 FPS. Use Sneaky Upgrade to avoid this issue.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Field of view (FOV)

This game uses vertical FOV. See FOV Calculator for help.

Set vertical FOV in Sneaky Upgrade[citation needed]
Install the Sneaky Upgrade. Run the game and set the desired resolution. Go to <path-to-game>\save\Options\. Open SneakyOptions.ini. Change VerticalFOV to the desired vertical FOV and save the changes.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		A plugged in controller may crash the game if you rebind keys; fixed with Sneaky Upgrade.
Mouse acceleration		Negative mouse acceleration can be disabled with Sneaky Upgrade.
Mouse sensitivity		See Mouse sensitivity.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Set in Options, Control.
Controller
Controller support		If plugged in, a controller can occasionally cause auto-walking. Additionally, a plugged in controller may crash the game if you rebind keys.

Controller types

Mouse sensitivity

Set horizontal and vertical mouse sensitivities
Install Sneaky Upgrade. Open the SneakyTweaker and go to Sneaky Upgrade/Tweaks. Change the Mouse Sensitivity Factor to your liking, with 1.0 being the default value. Press Apply and start the game.

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Sound Effects and Music
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output with DirectSound3D restoration software.
Subtitles		Subtitles for all speech (disabled by default).
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 3, EAX 4
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French				Included in digital versions but needs this package to enable.
German				Included in digital versions but needs this package to enable.
Hungarian				Fan translation by KGy.
Italian				Included in digital versions but needs this package to enable.
Polish				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Brazilian Portuguese				Retail only; CD Expert. Translation.
Russian				Official localization by Noviy Disk; local retail only.
Spanish				Fan translation by Clan Dlan, download.
Turkish				Fan translation by Dark Glyphs, here.

Issues fixed

Intro movie keeps repeating

This problem occurs on multi-core systems and is fixed by the Sneaky Upgrade.

Use the Sneaky Upgrade[citation needed]

Garrett starts floating in midair

Equip your bow and get ready to fire it, then press space to holster the arrow

Garrett gets stuck when lockpicking and trying to ladder

Caused by an animation bug due to uncapped framerates.

Use the Sneaky Upgrade

See Frame rate capping and apply a maximum frame rate of 100 or lower.

Game freezes or crashes when trying to load a save file

Use the Sneaky Upgrade

Temporary switch to desktop or black screen when loading

Use Sneaky Upgrade[citation needed]
Run the Sneaky Upgrade installer. When shown the installation options, enable the desktop effects fix. Continue installing normally. The game will now load without interruption. Notes A black screen may be seen momentarily at the start of loading a save when switching resolution.

Use MultiSampling and Bloom together

MultiSampling and Bloom can't be both on at the same time; enabling either will disable the other one.

Enable both settings

Enable Bloom in-game (leaving MultiSampling disabled). Force anti-aliasing through the graphics card's control panel. Both effects will now display together. Notes It causes major framerate drops on low-end machines and high end machines, so force bloom externally along with antialiasing through control panel and with reshade for the bloom instead to avoid this issue both are extremely GPU demanding settings.

Use Reshade's bloom without original game's bloom bluriness

Bloom is enabled in-game, the image becomes blurry because of the original shader code. This can be bypassed using ReShade.

Enabling ReShade effect

Install the latest d3d8to9 (This library translates the game's DirectX 8 API calls to DirectX 9, so it allows ReShade to work). Install the latest ReShade to <path-to-game>\System\ using DX9 API. Download standard shader packages. Edit <path-to-game>\System\reshade.ini and edit the following parameters: [DX9_BUFFER_DETECTION] PreserveDepthBuffer=1 [GENERAL] PreprocessorDefinitions=RESHADE_DEPTH_LINEARIZATION_FAR_PLANE=1000,RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_UPSIDE_DOWN=0,RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_REVERSED=0,RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_LOGARITHMIC=0,RESHADE_DEPTH_MULTIPLIER=2 Enable and tune any bloom effect (e.g. PPFX Bloom). This will allow better quality bloom without blurring the picture. Notes FXAA anti-aliasing and PPFX SSDO (Ambient Occlusion) can be enabled in Reshade. MXAO, ray-tracing and some other shaders can crash the game.

Vsync option not working

Use dgVoodoo 2
Download dgVoodoo 2. Copy dgVoodooCpl.exe and D3D8.DLL from \MS\x86\ into <path-to-game>\System\.

Jittery/Laggy movement

Use D8VK
Download the latest D8VK (This library translates the game's DirectX 8 API calls to Vulkan). Copy D3D8.DLL from x32 to <path-to-game>\System\ and overwrite any files, if asked. Notes Superior performance over d3d8to9. Does not fix all jitter, some is unavoidable.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created profile, requires dgVoodoo 2, see profile introdution. Note: Profile may not work with the latest wrapper, in case of issues please report to the vorpx forum.

Other information

Enabling HBAO+ on Nvidia graphics cards

Use the Ambient Occlusion flag 0x0000001E with Quality or High Quality.

Using Ambient Occlusion flag 0x0000001E

Install the Sneaky Upgrade and enable the 'Mouse Improvements' option. Download and run Nvidia Profile Inspector. Under Profiles select Thief 3 Deadly Shadows. Under Ambient Occlusion compatibility insert the flag 0x0000001E. Under Ambient Occlusion usage select Enabled. Under Ambient Occlusion setting select a quality level. In order to use HBAO+ you must use Quality or High Quality. Click Apply changes. Introduces "bleeding", which affects certain game/HUD elements.

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8
Shader Model support	1.1

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Audio	DirectSound3D

Modifications

Thief: Deadly Shadows ESRGAN Pack

AI upscaled textures & cinematics for Thief: Deadly Shadows. Requires Sneaky Upgrade to play.
Not only all the textures upscaled but also modified MatLib (material library) file included to add or restore normal maps for all the materials lacking them.
Comes in two versions:

• Full pack - all the upscaled textures and modified MatLib. With this pack, the game may be slower to load
• Light pack - downscaled version of the full pack but with all the MatLib and normal files improvements. Loads much faster with better visuals than the original game

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2000	XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 1.5 GHz	Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon 8500 Nvidia GeForce 3 Ti 64 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0 compatible Shader model 1.1 support	ATI Radeon 9500 Nvidia GeForce FX 5500 128 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9 device	EAX 4 compatible device (SoundBlaster Audigy/X-FI)