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Thief: The Dark Project

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Thief: The Dark Project
Thief: The Dark Project cover
Developers
Looking Glass Studios
Publishers
Eidos Interactive
Square Enix
Engines
Dark Engine
Release dates
Windows November 30, 1998
Thief: The Dark Project guide on StrategyWiki
Thief: The Dark Project on Wikipedia
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

This page is for the 1998 game. For the 2014 reboot, see Thief.

Key points

TFix helps run the game on modern systems.

General information

A Wiki for the classic Thief games
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
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
TFix removes the CD check.
Windows
Amazon.com
DRM-free
Almost exclusively available as part of the Complete Collection, which also includes Thief II: The Metal Age and Thief: Deadly Shadows.
Windows
Amazon.com
Icon overlay.png
Thief Gold.
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Thief Gold.
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Thief Gold.
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Thief Gold.
Windows
Steam
DRM-free after installation through Steam client (notes may include more details)
Thief Gold.
Windows
An updated version of the original demos is available.

Version differences

Thief: Gold includes extra missions and some other enhancements. The original content can be played using GoldToDark.

Essential improvements

TFix

TFix updates the game with NewDark for modern systems. Also contains mission fixes and optional texture mods. The GOG release has an out-of-date, stripped-down version of this patch.
Restart the current mission (or progress to the next one) after patch installation. Otherwise you may encounter various issues, such as torches that don't properly go out when extinguished.

Skip intro videos

Tell intro not to play[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Open cam.cfg using Notepad.
  3. Add the line skip_intro to the file and save it.

Texture mods

Enhancement Pack 2.0

The Enhancement Pack 2.0 is an updated version of the original Enhancement Pack (which is included in TFix and is much less comprehensive). This contains higher quality reproductions of original textures and objects. Also works with Thief II: The Metal Age.

The Necro Project

The Necro Project pack is very similar to the Enhancement Pack 2, but focuses on giving the game a slightly darker, noir look. Somewhere between the EP2 and HD Mod in lore-accuracy. Also works with Thief II: The Metal Age.

Thief Gold HD Texture Mod

The Thief Gold HD Texture Mod adds new textures, effects and enemy skins to all original missions. Significantly alters the game's graphical style (far more than the two packs above). The mod is compatible with Thief: The Dark Project and Thief Gold. Includes a tool to configure advanced graphics settings (Anti-Aliasing, Bloom, etc.). An FAQ with installation steps is available.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/211600/pfx/[Note 2]
Configuration files are: cam.cfg (basic settings, resolution), cam_ext.cfg (NewDark advanced settings), cam_mod.ini (Mod and fan mission options), install.cfg and user.bnd (key bindings).

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\SAVES[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/211600/pfx/[Note 2]
Fan mission saves are kept in the mission's folder.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Template:Video settings

Field of view (FOV)

Set FOV[citation needed]
  1. Install TFix and set the resolution you want in-game.
  2. If your FOV is not detected correctly go to the installation folder and edit cam_ext.cfg.
  3. Change ;fov 90 to fov ## with the FOV you want.
  4. Save your changes and relaunch the game.

Windowed

Set windowed mode[citation needed]
  1. Install TFix.
  2. Go to the installation folder.
  3. Edit cam_ext.cfg.
  4. Change ;force_windowed to force_windowed.
  5. Save your changes and set your chosen resolution in-game.
For borderless fullscreen windowed mode choose the desktop resolution in-game.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Installing TFix enables Vsync by default. Vsync can be disabled.
Disable Vsync[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Edit cam_ext.cfg.
  3. Change ;vsync_mode 0 to vsync_mode 0 and save your changes.

High frame rate

Set frame rate and correct game speed[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Edit cam_ext.cfg.
  3. Change framerate_cap 100.0 to framerate_cap ### with the FPS you want.
  4. Change ;phys_freq 60 to phys_freq 60 and save your changes.
  5. For more than 250 FPS change SlowFrame 4 to ;SlowFrame 4

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

EAX support

Thief features enhanced 3D sound effects that originally required a Creative sound card with special EAX drivers. To use EAX effects on modern systems, do the following:
Install patch and OpenAL[citation needed]
  1. Install NewDark using TFix.
  2. Install OpenAL 2.1.0.0.
  3. In the game go to Options, Audio, and change Hardware Acceleration to OpenAL. EAX can now be used.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
For subtitles use the New Thief Gold subtitles patch.
Spanish
Fan translation, download.

VR support

Issues fixed

A detailed forum thread for technical difficulties is available on the Through The Looking Glass forum.

Crashes on multi-core systems

Install TFix[citation needed]

Install NewDark via TFix.

Videos do not play

Install TFix[citation needed]

Install NewDark via TFix.

Gamma slider has no effect on gamma/brightness

TFix and config tweak[citation needed]

Install NewDark via TFix.

If you still can't change gamma:

  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Open cam_ext.cfg.
  3. Change ;d3d_disp_no_rgb10_buf to d3d_disp_no_rgb10_buf.
  4. Save the file.

Retail version won't install

Owners of the original disc version may encounter problems when attempting to install on modern operating systems.[1]
Run setup.exe in Windows 95 compatibility mode[citation needed]
  1. Go into the disc contents and find setup.exe.
  2. Right-click it and choose Properties.
  3. On the Compatibility Tab, enable Windows 95 compatibility mode and save your changes.

Low frame rate in fullscreen mode

Thief has frame rate issues in fullscreen mode on Windows 8 and later.
Install TFix[citation needed]

Install NewDark via TFix.

Other information

Fan Missions

A large number of Fan Missions, many of very high quality, have been produced for the Thief games. A categorised list is available here.
Some of the older FMs for Thief Gold and the Dark Project suffer compatibility issues when played with TFix/NewDark. An ongoing effort to preserve, test and fix these missions has resulted in a series of patches.
Running Fan Missions[citation needed]
  1. Install TFix and ensure the installer option to create a shortcut to the FM Selector is checked. If you did not check this option, add the command line argument -fm on a Thief desktop shortcut or in the Steam interface.
  2. Start FM Selector using this shortcut.
  3. Select a folder for installed missions and an FM .zip archive path when prompted. Do not put the archive path inside the FMs folder or vice-versa, otherwise things will not work correctly.
  4. To install a mission, drop its .zip file (do not extract it) into your chosen archive path, start the selector, double click the mission/zip file name and select 'Ok'. It has now been extracted to the installed missions folder.
  5. Launch the mission by double clicking the name again. To launch the original game select 'Skip FM' in the lower-left corner.

Sound effects enhancement pack

This mod provides cleaned up and resampled sound files for Thief Gold and Thief II: The Metal Age. The quality difference is particularly noticeable when wearing headphones.

GoldToDark

GoldToDark is a patch that will convert Thief Gold into the original Thief: The Dark Project. This must be used on a clean installation of Thief Gold. TFix can be installed thereafter and should correctly detect that you are using The Dark Project instead of Thief Gold.

View bob

By default, Thief: The Dark Project has view bob that may cause motion sickness.
Edit the configuration file[citation needed]
  1. Open <path-to-game>\cam_ext.cfg with a text editor.
  2. Find the line ;bob_factor 0.3.
  3. Remove the semicolon and set the value to 0.
bob_factor 0.0

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 6, 9 DirectX 9 requires NewDark/TFix.
Software renderer
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio DirectSound, OpenAL OpenAL requires NewDark/TFix.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 166 MHz
System memory (RAM) 32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 210 MB
Video card (GPU) SVGA video card
1 MB of VRAM
DirectX 6 compatible
Sound (audio device) 100% DirectX 6.0 compatible sound card
Other 4x CD-ROM drive
The system requirements for NewDark/TFix- and by extension those for the GOG.com release- are higher than the original requirements listed here.

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/211600/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (211600) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References