True Patch Gold Edition -- OFFICIAL THREAD

[perez007usa]

I "DO" need your help with the nVidia control panel, it's running on the 190.62 driver, and would it help the other games, even tho they are running great.

[Tessera]

I "DO" need your help with the nVidia control panel, it's running on the 190.62 driver...

BEST SETTINGS FOR BLOODLINES -- nVIDIA CONTROL PANEL:

Ambient Occlusion: OFF (doesn't work in VTMB and will just suck up your FPS for no reason)

Anti-Aliasing: set it to 4x or 4xS if available (or 8xS if your video card has the muscle). In practice, 4x works fine for VTMB... depending on your overall screen resolution.
Anti-Aliasing Mode: Override application settings
Transparency Anti-Aliasing: OFF (can cause glitches in VTMB, but you can switch it on for most other modern games)
Anti-Aliasing Gamma Correction: may cause problems in VTMB. Works fine in most other games. Try switching it on and off and see what effect it has in Bloodlines (if any).

Anisotropic Filtering: Application controlled

Conformant Texture Clamp: use hardware (only has any noticeable effect in older OpenGL games)

Error reporting: OFF

Extension Limit: OFF

Texture Filtering - Quality: High quality setting (maxxed)

Texture Filtering - Negative LOD Bias: Clamp (if your game uses Anisotropic filtering), Allow (if your game does not use Anisotropic Filtering). For VTMB, it doesn't really matter... but for most other 3-D games, "Clamp" is the preferred setting. I recommend setting it to "Clamp."

Texture Filtering - Anisotropic Sample Opt: OFF (it doesn't optimize anything... it can actually make things look worse with newer video cards)

Frames To Render Ahead: set this to "2" or even "1" so that you get less stuttering and other hassles when playing Oblivion. Also less input lag from every other game.

Multi-Display Performance Mode: it doesn't really matter. It only kicks in if you have multiple monitors connected to the same video card. "Single Display Performance Mode" is best if you are only using one monitor and do not have more than one video card in your computer.

Vertical Sync: ON (forced on, to override application settings)

Triple-Buffering: initially, leave this turned off to increase performance. But if you get any jerky framerates or mouse lag during gameplay, then switch it to "ON." Generally speaking, I feel that it is best to leave this set to "Off," unless your performance goes into the toilet after enabling Vertical Sync.

All other settings: set to their highest visual quality settings for 3-D games like Bloodlines. Always favor "Quality" over "Performance," unless your hardware is choking and bogging down under the strain.

[lethargy]

In addition to the above, if you have an SLI setup: DISABLE it.
Bloodlines does not play well and you will get tearing.

You can still make your secondary GPU do some work by choosing SLI antialiasing for Bloodlines.

[perez007usa]

Thanks, I'll see to it that's implemented.

[Tessera]

The number of downloads just surpassed the 4,000 mark today. WTG, Bloodlines players..!!!

And there have been more than 2100 unique views of this thread since it was posted two
weeks ago... and yet there have been essentially no bug reports. If it keeps up this way,
then I might jump off the wagon just long enough to share a bottle of champagne with
Tessgirl. All in all, I am very happy with the way the Gold Edition is working out so far.    

Looks like we finally nailed it. Pat yourselves on the back, everyone.                         

[Tessera]

I have a very sensible suggestion for all owners of the Steam version of Bloodlines:

Once the TPG patch is installed, you can free yourselves completely from the Steam service when you play VTMB. Here's how...


Simply copy your entire Bloodlines installation to a new folder on your hard drive, and give that folder a different name than the default. By giving its new folder a new and unique name, you will effectively bypass any registry conflicts that were setup by Steam.

First create the new folder... and call it "C:\VTMB" or whatever name you wish to give it. I am just using "C:\VTMB" in this example.

Then highlight the entire contents of your working Bloodlines folder -- be sure to copy everything at the same time, including all sub-folders -- and then paste the entire she-bang into your new C:\VTMB folder. If you do all of that correctly, then you should end up with a complete copy of the entire game, located in a brand new folder on your hard drive.

Then, create a new desktop shortcut to the "vampire.exe" file that actually launches the game. Just highlight that file in its new folder, copy it, and then right-click anywhere on your desktop and select "Paste shortcut" from the pop-up menu. MAKE SURE THAT YOU SELECT "PASTE SHORTCUT." We do not want to paste the actual file to the desktop... we just want to create a new shortcut that points to it.

Once your new shortcut has been created, you can add any command line switches to the end of the command target that you desire. Just right-click on the new shortcut, select "Properties" and then edit the command line in the "Target" box according to your wishes. For example, you can add the "-console" switch to the end of the command line, to enable the in-game debug console. And if you are using the widescreen resolution patcher which is included with the Gold Edition, then you would add the related widescreen resolution commands here also. All of the instructions on how to do so are included within the Gold Edition patch.

You can copy the entire game to its new folder before you apply the True Patch, or afterward. It doesn't matter, just so long as you DO install the TPG patch before you try to play the game. Nor does it matter whether or not the registry entries for Bloodlines are pointing to the new directory. FYI: on 64-bit operating systems, Bloodlines will run perfectly well without ANY registry entries being present, thanks in part to the WOW64 emulator which is a feature of all 64-bit versions of Windows (including WinXP x64, Vista x64 and Windows 7 x64). And it is also possible because the True Patch Gold Edition contains an altered version of the vampire.exe file. That altered file was added to the Gold Edition as a courtesy to owners of the original 3-CD version of the game, which is no longer being manufactured. But it has the additional side benefit of allowing Bloodlines to run from anywhere... without the need for any launchers of any kind (like Steam).

Just make sure that you set up its new desktop shortcut properly, and the game should launch and run just fine... all by itself and without any interference from Steam. Once the Gold Edition has been installed, Bloodlines will be able to run as a stand-alone application in Windows.


And from then on, just launch Bloodlines directly from its new desktop shortcut. No need for Steam to be running at all... which is a good idea actually, because there is mounting evidence that the Steam service can sometimes interfere with the way that the Bloodlines engine operates. For example, corrupted gamesave files are one possible symptom that has been reported by Steam users.

Considering how invasive the Steam service can be at times, I should think that everyone who owns that version of Bloodlines would wish to take advantage of this method. Your game will run more smoothly and with a lot less headaches. I realize that there are various methods for circumventing the Steam service, but this particular method is by far the best choice for Bloodlines.

Note that these recommendations are intended for people who own legitimate copies of Bloodlines that they actually purchased from the Steam service.

[perez007usa]

VTMB, is running prefecto moondo with the new settings. thanks Tess, with these settings my other games are running better then ever, Call of Duty, Doom 3, Ghost Recon, Unreal, I had to reinstall Half-Life 2, even if its a pain in the neck to install it (you know steam), to see how it would run.  



FROM TESSERA:  Excellent.

[Vo_OD00]

Felt like I should register on this site to thank you for this patch. Downloading with 1.1 MB/s atm, and I foresee great bloodsucking in the future ^^

If there are any problems, I'll, umm, probably ask here

[Tessera]

Felt like I should register on this site to thank you for this patch. Downloading with 1.1 MB/s atm, and I foresee great bloodsucking in the future ^^

If there are any problems, I'll, umm, probably ask here

Many thanks for the feedback and hopefully... you won't have any bugs to report. But we love to hear the good stuff, too.

As for the fast download speed, you can chalk that up to the fact that tessmage.com exists on its own private server. Unlike most independent gaming sites, we don't share our server with anybody else... which allows me to crank up the bandwidth to the maximum limit for things like downloads and streaming videos. We used to have a run-of-the-mill shared server in the past, but I finally got so sick of its limitations (low bandwidth, slow system performance, censorship, etc.) that I decided to lay out the cash for a dedicated server down in Florida. Anything that you download from here should zip along at a fairly high speed... depending upon your own internet connection, of course.

[Vo_OD00]

Well, I installed the patch using the instructions provided, and it all works perfectly - the patch also fixed the error -15 mb something error (can't remember quite what it said =)) I had previously.

Also, slightly off-topic (though it is provided within the package, so I might as well ask anyway here): I used the resolution patcher for my 1920x1080 monitor, and followed the instructions. all works well, although the characters look a little "fatter" (even though all graphics are sharp), and the health bar/blood pool bar graphics look slightly stretched... is it supposed to look like that?

(Or do you need a screenshot?)

[Tessera]

Nope, no need for a screenshot. There are a couple of things that you probably forgot to do.

Since you are using an HD monitor in your example, I shall tell you the correct settings for that particular monitor...

First, make sure that you selected the 16:9 group of widescreen resolutions when you used the VTMB Respatcher utility. You might wish to double check and run it again, just to make sure.

Next, open up the file named "autoexec.cfg" with Notepad. You can find that file within the VTMB\Vampire\cfg folder.

Add a new line to the bottom of that file: default_fov "70"

And be sure to include the quotes. That line will shrink the field of view slightly in Bloodlines, which helps to eliminate any "fish-eye" effect when playing in widescreen.

You may also wish to add the following two lines to the same file:

lod_Enable "1"
lod_TransitionDist "800"

Those lines are optional, but they will add a bit of eye candy to the game... particularly on distant objects. It'll basically just let you get a little extra mileage out of your video card's anisotropic filtering.

Lastly, you need to edit the shortcut that actually launches the game and add the following switches to the end of the command line:

-w 1920 -h 1080

Those two switches are used to force the game engine to render Bloodlines at a width of 1920 pixels and a height of 1080 pixels. Even though you used the VTMB Respatcher utility, you still need to add those two switches to your command line before the game will be rendered properly. The res patcher adds the widescreen code to the game engine, but the actual resolution itself needs to be forced via the command line. And as I said earlier, those are the exact switches for YOUR monitor. Like myself, you run the game on an HDTV widescreen monitor at 1920x1080p. Users of different monitors with different desktop resolutions will need to adjust those numbers accordingly:

-w <width in pixels>
-h <height in pixels>

Steam users can add those commands via the "launch options" menu in Steam (or whatever the hell it is called... I forget right now).

There are even more tweaks that you can use to force Bloodlines to ramp up its eye candy factor. I recommend that tessmage.com Forum members read the thread entitled "Force Bloodlines To Look More Awesome" in our Tweaks, Tips And Tricks sub-forum. Just be sure to read the entire thread, because initially we were experimenting with the engine and a few of my initial recommendations turned out to be false. The later posts in that thread are more accurate.

[Vo_OD00]

You were right in that I didn't execute those steps before, but my "issue" (not much of an issue, honestly, though) still stands. Here's a screenshot anyway: http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/5002/naamloosnz.png

As you can see, the model of that guy looks just right, nothing stretched etc., but the bars look sort of stretched, a little fuzzy. Maybe it's noteworthy that since when I applied the resolution patch, there was no config.cfg file (neither was there after starting a new game), I made my own "config.cfg", which now only contains the line "r_anamorphic "1"" (without outer quotation marks, obviously-- but I don't need to tell you that! XD).

EDIT: Thanks for your answer, of course!

EDIT 2: Just read the modification to your post. I'll be sure to check out that thread, thanks (=

[Tessera]

There has to be a config.cfg file. Bloodlines creates one automatically and edits it every time you change any of the in-game options. If yours is missing, then that is very odd indeed.
 

But anyway... the screenshot that you posted looks fine. It is normal for the HUD (on-screen overlay) to be slightly stretched when playing in widescreen mode. Just so long as the models themselves are not distorted, then everything is good to go.


EDIT: here is a copy of my own config.cfg file, for reference purposes. Note that some of my settings may not work on other computers. I am providing this ONLY as a reference...

unbindall
bind "TAB" "+wpn_secondaryatk"
bind "ESCAPE" "cancelselect"
bind "SPACE" "+use"
bind "'" "+moveup"
bind "," "+moveleft"
bind "-" "draw_hud 0"
bind "." "+moveright"
bind "/" "+movedown"
bind "0" "vhotkey #10"
bind "1" "vhotkey #1"
bind "2" "vhotkey #2"
bind "3" "vhotkey #3"
bind "4" "vhotkey #4"
bind "5" "vhotkey #5"
bind "6" "vhotkey #6"
bind "7" "vhotkey #7"
bind "8" "vhotkey #8"
bind "9" "vhotkey #9"
bind ";" "+mlook"
bind "=" "incrementvar draw_hud 0 1 1"
bind "[" "invnext"
bind "\" "lastinv"
bind "]" "invprev"
bind "`" "toggleconsole"
bind "a" "+moveleft"
bind "b" "+moveup"
bind "c" "+chareditor"
bind "d" "+moveright"
bind "e" "+jump"
bind "f" "+feed"
bind "h" "holster"
bind "i" "slot6"
bind "k" "showhotkeys"
bind "l" "+questlog"
bind "p" "vphysicshand"
bind "r" "+reload"
bind "s" "+back"
bind "v" "+movedown"
bind "w" "+forward"
bind "z" "togglecamera"
bind "BACKSPACE" "dropitem"
bind "UPARROW" "+forward"
bind "DOWNARROW" "+back"
bind "LEFTARROW" "+left"
bind "RIGHTARROW" "+right"
bind "CTRL" "+duck"
bind "SHIFT" "walk"
bind "F1" "slot2"
bind "F2" "slot3"
bind "F3" "slot5"
bind "F8" "vdiscipline_endall"
bind "F9" "save quick"
bind "F10" "snapshot"
bind "F12" "load quick"
bind "PGDN" "dlgscrldn"
bind "PGUP" "dlgscrlup"
bind "HOME" "dlghist"
bind "KP_HOME" "cam_yaw 135"
bind "KP_UPARROW" "cam_yaw 180"
bind "KP_PGUP" "cam_yaw 225"
bind "KP_LEFTARROW" "cam_yaw 90"
bind "KP_RIGHTARROW" "cam_yaw 270"
bind "KP_END" "cam_yaw 45"
bind "KP_DOWNARROW" "cam_yaw 0"
bind "KP_PGDN" "cam_yaw 315"
bind "KP_MINUS" "+camout"
bind "KP_PLUS" "+camin"
bind "MWHEELDOWN" "invnext"
bind "MWHEELUP" "invprev"
bind "MOUSE1" "+attack"
bind "MOUSE2" "vdiscipline_last"
bind "MOUSE4" "mv_toggle1"
muzzleflash_light "1"
camera_prefs "7"
camera_weaponswitch "1"
hud_fastswitch "0"
phoneme_delay "0"
flex_rules "1"
print_flex_weights "0"
print_flex_rules "0"
phonemefilter_min "0.0"
phonemefilter_max "0.0"
crosshair "1"
c_maxpitch "90"
c_minpitch "0"
c_maxyaw "135"
c_minyaw "-135"
c_maxdistance "800"
c_mindistance "30"
c_orthowidth "100"
c_orthoheight "100"
cl_upspeed "320"
cl_forwardspeed "400"
cl_backspeed "400"
lookspring "0"
lookstrafe "0"
joystick "0"
m_pitch "0.022"
m_filter "1.000000"
sensitivity "5.900000"
m_side "0.8"
m_yaw "0.022"
m_forward "1"
cl_idealpitchscale "0.8"
net_graphwidth "192"
net_scale "5"
net_graphpos "1"
net_graphsolid "1"
cl_v_image_quality "1.000000"
cl_v_lighting "0"
cl_v_bump_mapping "1"
cl_v_geometric_detail "10"
cl_v_shadows "3"
cl_v_shadow_count "2.000000"
vchar_edit_histories "1"
vchar_skip_intro "1"
r_viewcubemapsize "96"
particle_scale "1.0"
suitvolume "0.25"
footstep_pc_vol "0.3"
sv_aim "0"
default_clan "Player_Malkavian"
default_gender "0"
vdiscipline_allow_renewables "0"
damage_floaters "1"
footstep_normal_vol "0.5"
footstep_normal_dist "256"
footstep_heavy_vol "0.85"
footstep_heavy_dist "512"
ai_report_task_timings_on_limit "1"
ai_think_limit_label "1"
sv_noclipaccelerate "5"
sv_noclipspeed "1000"
sv_skyname "santamonica"
sv_backspeed "0.6"
sv_jump_boost "25.0"
sv_jump_maxspeed "350.0"
sv_jump_boost_immediate "0"
voice_forcemicrecord "1"
voice_enable "1"
voice_scale "1"
dsp_stereo "1"
dsp_on "1"
dsp_ontrans_clearstate "1"
snd_duckreleasetime "3.0"
snd_duckattacktime "0.25"
snd_duckvolume "0.4"
adsp_debug "0"
dsp_dist_max "1440.0"
dsp_dist_min "0.0"
snd_mixahead "0.6"
snd_surround "1"
hisound "1"
volume "1.0"
brightness "4.250000"
sv_voiceenable "1"
particles_enable_precipitation "1"
r_eyesize "0"
r_eyeshift_z "0"
r_eyeshift_y "0"
r_eyeshift_x "0"
r_eyemove "1"
r_eyegloss "1"
skill "1"
cl_v_combat_effects "1"
mat_overbright "2"
mat_polyoffset "4"
mp_decals "300"
r_speedsquiet "0"
r_anamorphic "1"
cl_v_gamma "2.700000"
mat_compressedtextures "1"
mat_picmip "-10"
con_alpha "192"
con_color "255 0 0"
cl_updaterate "20"
cl_dlmax "32"
rate "2500"
bottomcolor "0"
topcolor "0"
model ""
skin ""
team ""
name "Lilith"
cl_timeout "305"
cl_captions "0"
cl_cmdbackup "2"
cl_cmdrate "30"
bgmvolume "0.500000"
+mlook

[Vo_OD00]

There has to be a config.cfg file. Bloodlines creates one automatically and edits it every time you change any of the in-game options. If yours is missing, then that is very odd indeed.
 

But anyway... the screenshot that you posted looks fine. It is normal for the HUD (on-screen overlay) to be slightly stretched when playing in widescreen mode. Just so long as the models themselves are not distorted, then everything is good to go.

is it supposed to look like that?

Guess the answer would be "yes", then (=

Well, thanks anyway, and of course for the great patch!

[slayermbm]

Hey Tessera,

I appreciate your efforts in making Bloodlines an even better game, getting rid of the majority of it's bugs, and staying true to the experience Troika intended the players to have.

I would like to point out that the resolution patch included within your patch is flawed, because when it changes the game to widescreen, it produces missing screens depending on the direction your character looks,
specially when you look down.

So, I would suggest including this alternate resolution patch I attached to my message.

It changes the game to widescreen and don't causes the problems cited above.

I hope you can continue to do your excellent job!    

[Tessera]

Hey Tessera,

I appreciate your efforts in making Bloodlines an even better game, getting rid of the majority of it's bugs, and staying true to the experience Troika intended the players to have.

I would like to point out that the resolution patch included within your patch is flawed, because when it changes the game to widescreen, it produces missing screens depending on the direction your character looks,
specially when you look down.

So, I would suggest including this alternate resolution patch I attached to my message.

Hi... and thanks for the good words. 

I will definitely take a look at your alternative to the VTMB ResPatcher utility. Could you please tell me who the author is..?

Also, I had to delete your attachment. This area of the board is visible to the public, and I can't allow links to external files until after I have had the chance to check them for viruses and authenticate them. I hope you understand.

But yes... I am all in favor of anything which will improve the functionality of our patch. I will let you know what I decide. And thanks again. 

[slayermbm]

These are the links for the patch I attached on my previous message: (UNAPPROVED LINKS REMOVED BY TESSERA)
                                                                                                      
That guy named Frank7777 created it and posted on rapidshare.

The patch is included in the Unofficial Patch too, but I don't think there is a problem with this right?

[Tessera]

                                                                                                 
That guy named Frank7777 created it and posted on rapidshare.

The patch is included in the Unofficial Patch too, but I don't think there is a problem with this right?

Well actually, there might be a problem. Frank7777 is not a supporter of the True Patch, so far as I know.

Anyway, please refrain from posting links to externally hosted files within this section of the board.
You can post such links up in the members-only sections instead. The modding section would be best.