Thief 2 HD mod

[teh_saccade]

Didn't see this until just today - a 6Gb mod for Thief 2 that adds a bunch of nice effects on actions, replaces some textures, generally improves and lushes out the environments, and covers the screen in goo.

Other parts, it simply renders the low poly architecture in HD, where some of the texture might seem a little under-scaled now are barely noticeable unless looking at that stuff.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/thief-2-hd-texture-mod/news/thief-2-hd-mod-v10-is-out

Was at ttlg a while, but I read about it at steam discussions while posting about TDM v2.07 release.

It does make many of the T2 levels feel like a load of new maps, and I've been a little turned around in a few places as they are unrecognisable due to the update.

After searching here, there was no mention on the forums - so here's the trailer with some comparisons and a link to the massive download. I couldn't find a torrent.

[woah]

Would you say that the feel/character/tone/spirit/whatever-you-want-to-call-it of the original assets are preserved? Sometimes these HD packs are more impressive on a technical level but completely fall flat artistically and/or have an inconsistent feel.

[chakkman]

Quite nice, but... the blood effect is absolutely horrible. And, it will essentially make Thief 2 a new game with all the changes to the objects, and vegetation. That's always the issue i have with such mods. Plus, it won't change the amount of polygon for most of the architecture, so, it won't look very consistent.

 

I think the enhancements of the TafferPatcher patch will do for me.

[peter_spy]

I always thought such projects don't make much sense, as hi-res textures alone make these environments look more sterile and empty. Geometry and object fidelity has to go hand in with texture resolution. Otherwise it leads to ridiculous situations like in the video, where you have a 2k texture of a super sharp-looking flat column on a blocky cylinder.

[teh_saccade]

The blood effect is, thankfully, off by default.
Unless it's a boomer in Left4Dead, Bloat in Killing Floor, or some other purpose to blind the player, I hate the view being obscured with splatter.

The nicest part about the patch is definitely the foliage and some of the texture replacements - especially for interiors.
It fills out some of the space and in parts does a job of masking some blocky polygons. But some of the stuff that looked ok in lower resolutions has had some HD crisping up that, like Judith said, makes it look more empty than before.
This really sticks out and it can seem a bit weird to have the new effects take place in a sparse area. Like putting out a torch and the smoke effect against a massive slab of, what looks like underscaled texture dressing.

I don't notice much of a difference in the architecture. It looks the same as tafferpatcher to me, but I don't have a 4k screen.

It still feels like Thief2, not that much has changed, and since there's only a few areas that have the nature stuff - it's T2 to me.

I've gotten to the bank and it looks much bigger from the outside than I remember. Almost too big. Might be the HD stuff.
Some older TDM missions feel a bit empty sometimes, as the texturing is so precise that it makes the areas feel bigger than they are, and the HD in T2 stuff leaves this impression.
Will have to see how casing the joint and the others look.

It's nice, but for so many Gb of stuff on my game SSD, idk if it will stay here much longer than a playthru.

// I just realised the loot I forgot on the first mission - it's out the front, where you have to lure the guards inside to get past them, near the lampost. Didn't see it because of the grass...

Edited March 2, 2019 by teh_saccade

[stumpy]

grass is too long, a manor house would have it trimmed, and forest grass doesn't get that high due to lack of sunlight due to tree cover, and deer and other animals eating it, plus trees suck all the moisture out of the ground so you are more likely to get hardy plants like ferns, moss, mushrooms, brambles, nettles.

 

that smoke particle effect isn't random, its the same effect everytime.

 

the water in the underground submarine base wouldn't act like that.

 

arrows shot into water do not produce a vertical splash, you get that from dropping a stone into water, arrows are aerodynamic so they would enter the water at an angle and produce very little spash angled along the shaft of the arrow.

 

pretty sure the glow sticks from thief 2 were a cold heat and couldn't be used to light a candle.

Edited March 2, 2019 by stumpy

[jaxa]

Does anybody know if the NewDark patches add a command or setting to display an FPS counter?

[PsymH]

You have to use the Editor dromed.exe (not sure, if it's also possible in the regular game exe), go into game mode (ALT + G) and there you can open the console with SHIFT + [.]. The show_stats command gives you the FPS.