True Patch Gold Edition -- OFFICIAL THREAD

[anariel]

Ah... just a question. The new True Patch Gold includes some "extra" mods. The NPC reskin is the same you have in the downloads page? And the Jack's "motorhead" reskin too? I was just installing the game and stumbled upon that XD.

[perez007usa]

I downloaded the 190.62 driver, but it said its mainly for 3D vision for LCD's I have a CRT? So it doesn't matter then?

[Tessera]

I downloaded the 190.62 driver, but it said its mainly for 3D vision for LCD's I have a CRT? So it doesn't matter then?

Nope, it doesn't matter. Go ahead and use those drivers. Your graphics should improve.  

Just make sure that you totally clean out all traces of the old driver before installing a new one. Free utilities such as Driver Sweeper (from Guru 3D) are fairly effective at getting rid of leftover traces after you have uninstalled a video driver. The procedure is: uninstall the video driver, using Windows control panel. Then reboot your machine. Then ignore any messages from Windows and run Driver Sweeper, to clean out any leftover traces from your nVidia driver. Then reboot the machine again. Next, install the 190.62 driver and lastly, reboot one last time.

If you follow that procedure, everything should be working just fine afterward. Let me know if you run into any other problems.

Ah... just a question. The new True Patch Gold includes some "extra" mods. The NPC reskin is the same you have in the downloads page? And the Jack's "motorhead" reskin too? I was just installing the game and stumbled upon that XD.

No, I only included a few optional mods which I myself created. That nifty "Motorhead Jack" mod that you are referring to was created by someone else (Shikamaru and AjuntaPall316).

[Malatar]

Awesome job Tessera.  Thanks from another lover of VtMB!

[Tessera]

 

[perez007usa]

Following up on the problem I'm have with my vid card, It's all right, it's a little haze, but not that big thing I saw. Funny as it seem, but I don't see it on my older rig, with the 6600le,  with the Gold Patch. Very strange indeed, but I can live with it.

[Tessera]

Perez, have you tried changing the video driver yet..?
Trust me when I tell you that an older nVidia driver is
often better than a newer one. Especially these days.


Incidentally, this thread is still receiving about 150 new
and unique views per day... which is good to see.

The total number of TPG downloads has surpassed
3000 so far... and it continues to climb each day.

"If you build it -- they will come."   

[Caspa_tfng]

"If you build it -- they will come."

[perez007usa]

Yes I did  change the video driver to 190.62 winxp 32bit, but every time I turn on the puter it goes to update mode and loads in 197.57 drivers  back in, and I'm back to where I started. So I stopped the auto updates and see where it leads. Glad I made that download and zipped it. Drivers 257.21 gives you the Cuda driver and it gives you over 2000 rez.  You can see the "BOX", but it is just a haze with the 190.62 or maybe I'm tweaking it wrong.

   Heres are the stats: First two images.    The last two are for the other games HL2, Call of Duty, Doom 3( WOW!!), Ghost Recon, all on the high end graphics, runs great with these settings, but if you have any ideas, show me.

            The Gold Patch runs "Fantastic".  Only wish you could do it for the other games as well.

[perez007usa]

Here's are more things happening, maybe I should reinstall the game and start all over?
 
     Here's the console version of it.
    I'm getting  weird stuff, but the game runs clean and sharp.

[lethargy]

That console error is due to a typo in the additionally provided TPG config files, IIRC it's the anamorphic command.

It has set r_anamorphic" "1" which should of course be set r_anamorphic "1".

[Tessera]

His setup is all messed up.

First of all, try disabling AA gamma correction for Bloodlines. See if that helps with the weird lighting that you are seeing.

Also, the console error "detaildist" is totally strange. The original command that I suggested to everyone was cl_detaildist "9600" (or any number between 1200 and 9600). But here's the problem: when I made that suggestion, I did not realize that you can not pre-load that command, due to the fact that it is a client-side Source command and it will not work until after the engine has finished loading. Which in turn means that trying to activate it from one of the config files is pointless, since that segment of the engine's map interpreter has not been loaded yet. The only way to use that particular command is to run it during gameplay... AFTER the game has loaded one of the maps. My bad.  


Regarding the irritating way that Windows insists on upgrading your drivers without permission: you have two choices. First, you should simply shut off Automatic Updates altogether and just run Windows Update manually every few days. That would be one way to eliminate this issue. Another way would be to change the way that Automatic Update functions, by telling it to first show you which updates it wants to install, before it actually installs them. And then, when it tries to upgrade your video driver, you can go into the update list and choose to HIDE that particular driver update from the system ("Do not show me this update again" or whatever way it is worded).


Anyway, Perez... I don't think you need to reinstall VTMB. But I do think you need to take charge of the way Windows operates on your computer. And you also need to become more familiar with the way your video driver's control panel functions. You might start by heading over to Koroush Ghazi's web site (tweakguides.com or whatever it's called) and reading his nVidia Forceware Tweak Guide. Just Google it. Because you have several default settings showing on your screenshots that I would definitely recommend changing.

So to sum it up:

(1) Turn off Windows automatic updates. Turn them off completely. And then just remember to run Windows Update manually every other week or so.

(2) Uninstall your video driver. Use a good driver cleaner afterward, such as Driver Sweeper, to remove any remaining traces.

(3) Reboot.

(4) Install the 190.62 nVidia drivers.

(5) Reboot again.

(6) Read the nVidia Tweak Guide, or else ask Tessera (moi) how to setup your video driver settings through the nVidia control panel. None of your settings are optimal.

(7) OPTIONAL: Start shopping around for a better video card. All of these cheap hand-me-downs that you've been using are definitely not doing their job.  

That console error is due to a typo in the additionally provided TPG config files, IIRC it's the anamorphic command.

It has set r_anamorphic" "1" which should of course be set r_anamorphic "1".

Eh..? There is no anamorphic command in the TPG config file. And we have only provided ONE config file with the TPG patch: autoexec.cfg and it does not contain any widescreen commands.

[lethargy]

Leftover from the beta then, n/m.

[spidey360]

I notice there's a problem with the files located in the bin folder of this patch... the 3 dll files keep causing me to not see the intro videos at all...
I'm referring to the 4 logo intro videos... Whenever I start the game, I see a screen that says loading...
Afterwards, the sound of the intro videos can be heard but I can't see them  
The game's main menu is ok though...
Is there a way to fix this

[Tessera]

How do you know that it is the DLL files..? Have you tested this..?

I am unable to duplicate this error on my machine. All of the intro (promo) videos are working perfectly.
ActiVision, White Wolf, nVidia and Troika videos all appear to be functioning normally under the TPG patch.

My conclusion is that this is a problem specific to your computer, and not related to the True Patch Gold.


Suggestion:

Those videos are in BINK video format. Have you installed any CODEC packs for Windows lately..?
Or... have you installed any video players like VLC, QuickTime, Roxio, etc. which may have installed
their own proprietary CODECS..? It's possible that you may have done something to screw up the
BINK video CODEC that Bloodlines relies upon for those four promo videos.

Also, check in the \bin sub-folder and make sure you didn't accidentally delete or rename the file
named "bink32.dll" which is required to play those four videos. It's version should be 1.6.3.0 also.

Incidentally, you can disable those promo videos completely, by simply renaming the folder in which
they reside. Just look for a sub-folder within your VTMB\Vampire folder named "media" and rename
it to anything you desire. I personally renamed mine to "media.bak" in order to avoid confusion.
Renaming that folder will prevent the Source engine from loading those videos... which will greatly
shorten the overall loading time for Bloodlines.

[spidey360]

It's a wild guess actually... Cause, I did a backup of the original clean install of vtmb(bought it from steam)   
And when I copy the original bin folder to overrite the current one, it works like a charm...

[Tessera]

And it is within the \bin folder that bink32.dll resides. Interesting. 

Anyway... I can't duplicate this on my machine. So unless we receive a few more
reports of the exact same problem, I am forced to assume that your situation is
an isolated incident. If it is really getting on your nerves, then you might try my
suggestion and rename the "media" folder, so the videos no longer play at all.

[spidey360]

ok... Thanks for yr help Tess  

Problem solved...

What I did:
1) Renamed the media folder to media.bak to skip the intros
2) Rename the media.bak folder back to media
3) Run vtmb... And, the 4 intro videos played flawlessly