tessmage.com

True Patch Gold Edition -- DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK

(http://www.tessmage.com/images/True_VTMB_Patch_GOLD_Logo.png)

Not long ago, the federal government forcibly shut down the MegaUpload web site and arrested several of its administrators.

Lately, I have been hearing rumors about potential shutdowns of other popular file sharing sites... including FileFront, where we have (thus far) been hosting the True Patch Gold Edition.

In light of this oppressive (and seriously disturbing) trend by the feds, I have decided to once again offer the True Patch Gold Edition right here... on tessmage.com, so that VTMB players can download the latest and most up-to-date version directly from our own private server.

This version of the True Patch Gold Edition already has all of the various Hotfixes (the most current version being Hotfix #6) applied to it. So this single download is all that you will require in order to patch VTMB properly and enjoy playing a bug-free game.

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DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK FOR TRUE PATCH GOLD EDITION, including HOTFIX #8:

http://www.tessmage.com/tpg/True_Patch_Gold_FINAL_with_Hotfix8.rar

FILE SIZE: approximately 190 megabytes (compressed using WinRAR's maximum compression)

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I repeat: this single download is all that you will require. It already has all of the various Hotfixes pre-applied to it. Just download it, unzip it to a neutral location on your hard drive and then install it as per the included instructions. The True Patch Gold Edition is a fully comprehensive patch package and as such, its overall file size is quite large. Be sure to allow ample time for your download to be completed. The good news is that the download speeds from our server are about as fast as they come -- in excess of 1.8 MB/second -- so if you are using high-speed broadband, then you should be able to download the entire TPG file within a reasonable amount of time. In my own tests, I was able to download the entire TPG package from our server within 3 minutes.

Remember that the True Patch Gold Edition -must- be applied to a clean, fresh installation of VTM: Bloodlines. You can not simply install it on top of some pre-existing copy of the game. It is imperative that you adhere to this rule, otherwise you will almost definitely end up wrecking your VTMB installation and rendering the game un-playable. So let's all remember to first install a fresh copy of "plain-vanilla" VTMB and then, apply the True Patch.

You will not require the official 1.2 patch from ActiVision, as it has already been fully incorporated into the True Patch Gold Edition. Simply install a fresh copy of Bloodlines first, and then apply this version of the True Patch Gold Edition w/Hotfix #6, and you will be all set. No further patching of any kind will be required.

I should point out that several optional features have been bundled into the True Patch Gold package (a wide-screen fix for the game engine, for example). I strongly recommend that everyone READ the included instructions FULLY, as well as explore the various sub-folders within the TPG package, before deciding upon which (if any) optional features to apply. The actual patch itself is located within a sub-folder named "TRUE_PATCH_MAIN."

Hopefully, we won't get so many downloads that we run out of bandwidth. If anything like that -does- happen, then I will do whatever I can to increase our bandwidth allotment. This web site is privately funded and as such, we sometimes have a hard time making ends meet. But I will do the best that I can to ensure that every single VTMB player will always have full and easy access to the True Patch. I made that promise six years ago and I will continue to abide by it.

As always, full and complete technical support is available for all True Patch users... right here on this web site. If you have any problems or questions, then please do not hesitate to contact me. You may post your inquiries and comments within this thread, or else you may contact me privately if that is what you prefer. My door is always open.

All my best to all VTMB players,

- Tessera -
E-MAIL: tessera@tessmage.com

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This post may occasionally be edited, in order to reflect any future changes which may occur.

---

Quote from: True Patch Gold Edition Installation Instructions
True Patch GOLD Edition with Hotfix #7
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
- Tessera -
2012


---------------------------------------------------------------
INSTALLATION:
---------------------------------------------------------------

(1) First, you will need to remove any existing copies of Vampire -- The Masquerade: Bloodlines from your computer.
The True VTMB Patch Gold Edition requries that you begin with a fresh new installation of the game. Failure to follow
this first step can and will result in corrupted game files. So be smart, and wipe all traces of VTMB from your machine
before you proceed.

(2) Now install a fresh copy of Bloodlines. Just follow the normal installation procedure for whichever version of the game you own.

(3) Once you have installed a new copy of Bloodlines, you will need to navigate to its "root" folder. This is the same
folder where the file named "vampire.exe" resides. Note that we are referring to the ROOT folder here... NOT the "Vampire" folder.
We need to apply the True Patch Gold Edition to the same folder where "vampire.exe" is located. Got it..? ;)

(4) The True Patch Gold Edition contains several sub-folders. The main body of the actual patch is contained within a
sub-folder named "TRUE_PATCH_MAIN" and it is very important that you locate this folder correctly. Do not simply dump
the entire True Patch into Bloodlines and expect it to work properly. Specifically, we are going to be applying ONLY
the material located within the "TRUE_PATCH_MAIN" sub-folder. Be sure that you are clear on this point, before proceeding.

(5) And now comes the fun part: let's install the actual True Patch to Bloodlines. The way to do this is quite simple,
once you have properly identified all of the folders mentioned in the previous steps.

(6) Navigate to the folder named "TRUE_PATCH_MAIN" and COPY all of its contents, including all files and sub-folders within.

(7) Now, highlight your working Bloodlines root folder (the folder that has "vampire.exe" in it, remember?) and PASTE everything
that you copied in step #6 into that root folder. If you do this correctly, Windows will warn you that "a file named blah blah blah
already exists" and then ask if you wish to overwrite the existing files. Just say "Yes To All" (or the equivalent for Windows 7 users).
This will allow the True Patch Gold Edition files to be copied into their correct locations. THIS STEP IS CRITICAL, FOLKS... SO MAKE
ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT YOU COPY/PASTE EVERYTHING CORRECTLY. I can not stress this enough. The True Patch contains hundreds of files and
sub-folders and ALL of them need to be copied over to their correct locations. Otherwise, nothing is going to work properly.

(8} Assuming that you performed all of the above steps correctly, it is advisable to defragment your hard drive, prior to playing
your newly patched game. This will ensure that your gaming performance in Bloodlines will be optimal, following the installation
of the True Patch Gold Edition.

(9) If you wish to install any optional third-party mods for Bloodlines, then now would be the time. But be advised that there are
certain mods out there which, for whatever stupid reasons, are not fully compatible with the True Patch and they could cause your
game to malfunction or even crash. If you are uncertain about a particular mod, then you are advised to contact the author of that
mod directly and inquire about whether or not their mod is compatible with the True VTMB Patch. All of Tessera's mods -are- compatible
with the True Patch, but other people's mods may not be. In each case, you will need to contact the authors if you are unsure about
the suitability of a particular mod.

(10) So far, so good..? Then go ahead and launch Bloodlines. make absolutely sure that you create a NEW CHARACTER after patching the game.
Because of the peculiar nature in whcih Bloodlines stores map data into its gamesave fiels, YOU CAN NOT USE A PRE-EXISTING CHARACTER AFTER
YOU HAVE PATCHED THE GAME. This principle holds true for EVERY kind of VTMB patch... not just the True Patch. You need to start fresh.


Enjoy playing Bloodlines. Those of you who prefer to play the originally intended Troika game will be very, very happy with the True Patch Gold Edition. :)



------------------------
EXTRAS:
------------------------

Several optional add-on mods have been included in their own separate sub-folders wihtin the True Patch Gold Edition.
You will find instructions on how to install and use those mods within their corresponding folders.

Some additional documentation can also be found within the sub-folder named "Docs."

Some helpful utilities have been included as well. And agin... the instructions for those utilities can be found within their corresponding folders.



------------------------
SUPPORT:
------------------------

Official support for the True Patch Gold Edition may be obtained through the tessmage.com Forums at:

http://www.tessmage.com/forum/index.php/board,48.0.html

Just look for the thread entitled "True Patch Gold Edition -- Official Thread." Forum members may post their inquiries there.

NOTE: the tessmage.com web site contains nudity, profanity and other mature content. ADULTS ONLY, please.



------------------------
CREDITS:
------------------------

The True Patch GOLD Edition was created and compiled by Tessera -- from March 2008 through June 2010.

The True VTMB Patch version 5.04AT, upon which the True Patch Gold Edition is primarily based,
was created and compiled by Acrimonious and Tessera in the spring/summer of 2007.

All versions of the True VTMB Patch have been carefully beta tested by volunteers from
the tessmage.com community. Many, many thanks to them for their invaluable assistance.
Every single one of those volunteers is a veteran Bloodlines player and they helped us
to identify quite a few glitches that the True Patch authors had failed to notice.
This is why all versions of the True Patch are independently tested prior to release:
because we're trying to FIX bugs -- not introduce any new ones. ;)

BETA TESTERS:

Acrimonious
Tessera
Alehezar
Erelas
Jordi
Paramecium
Tinman
Steeal
Kandid
Cylnar
Tessgirl


"FREE LILY" REPAIRS: original data courtesy of DDLulu and posted publicly in April, 2010. Many thanks.

Core engine repairs, memory allocation fix and DX9 updates: Tessera, Jordi, some public info posted by
"SomeJ*Doe" and a group of Russian and eastern Euro hackers who shall remain nameless. :p


The True VTMB Patch was conceived of by Tessera in late 2006 and co-authored by Acrimonious and Tessera.
Absolutely no content of any kind from any other authors has been copied, mimicked, "stolen" or otherwise
malappropriated and inserted into the True VTMB Patch GOLD Edition. The True VTMB Patch is a 100% original
piece of work, unless otherwise noted within these patch notes. Any use or misuse of its contents is expressly
forbidden, unless prior permission is obtained in writing from Tessera.

The True VTMB Patch Gold Edition is being distributed free of charge and as-is. The authors do not accept any
liability for any problems of any kind whatsoever which may arise due to your use and/or misuse of this patch.
Therefore, any claims of damages, whether real or imaginary, will not be considered valid. It is to be understood
that you agree to install and use this patch your own risk. If you do not agree to these conditions, then you must
not install the True VTMB Patch Gold Edition under any circumstances. This agreement is mutually binding and
non-negotiable, however your own local laws may vary from region to region.

If you wish to host a copy of the True VTMB Patch Gold Edition on your own web site, then please contact Tessera
for permission. In most cases, permission will be granted, so long as you agree not to alter any of the contents
of this patch in any ways whatsoever, or to use it for any illicit purposes. If you wish to apply for permission
to host the True VTMB Patch Gold Edition on your web site, then you may contact Tessera directly at: tessera@tessmage.com

"The True VTMB Patch" and "The True Patch GOLD Edition" are both copyrighted trademarks of Tessera and tessmage.com. All rights reserved.


OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE of The True VTMB Patch Gold Edition: July 08, 2010
HOTFIX #1 ADDED ON JULY 26, 2010



--------------------------
OFFICIAL WEB SITE:
--------------------------

www.tessmage.com

For Mature Gamers
(Adults Only)


------------
END
------------

NOTE TO ALL TRUE PATCH USERS:

I would like for this to become the new official thread for the True Patch Gold Edition. I have therefore un-stickied the previous TPG threads accordingly. If you have any comments, questions or observations regarding the True Patch, then please post them within this thread from now on. That way, we can keep everything up-to-date and organized.

Many thanks,

- Tessera -

Cool.

Hopefully you don't get a bunch of people downloading (because their mental) just so they can get a compiled copy  ;)

They can download it as much as they need to.

If we run into a bandwidth issue, then I guess I'll have to start begging for donations again.
But hopefully, it will not come down to that. Let's just take it as it comes.

I made a strong commitment to this game and its community many years ago and I fully intend
to ensure that all VTMB players will continue to have full, no-bullshit access to the TPG.

No matter what.

Is Sailmaker still hosting the TPG?

Yes, I believe so. And for the time being, so does FileFront.

But I still wanted to take this step, in order to ensure that absolutely nothing interferes with TPG downloads in the future.

Also... I wanted to re-release the TPG, with all of its Hotfixes (to date) already incorporated into it. Much less hassle that way.

Thanks!!!

*** MINOR UPDATE ***

A minor update has been uploaded to the server. This update is non-critical and involves a rare glitch that could occur for female Brujah characters, during their dialogue with the "Santa Monica Blueblood" NPC.

I repeat: this is a minor update and non-critical. It only affects female Brujah characters and even then, it is quite rare (which explains why it was not discovered until now).

It did not affect your ability to play the game -- it was simply a missing line of Seduction dialogue, which has now been repaired. Many thanks to the tessmage.com member who reported it.

The TPG has now had this update applied to it. The original post in this thread now reflects the update, via the insertion of a new download link. I will repeat the new download link here, in this post:

http://www.tessmage.com/tpg/True_Patch_Gold_FINAL_with_Hotfix6b.rar

For most players, it is not necessary to download a new copy of the TPG, unless you are concerned about this minor update and wish to obtain a copy.

The updated TPG can be installed directly on top of previous TPG installations, with no adverse consequences. You will not need to create a new player character. Nothing else is being changed, aside from a single dialogue file related to the SM Blueblood NPC.


NOTE: USERS OF TESSERA's VTMB MEGA-MOD SHOULD NOT INSTALL THIS UPDATE. A SEPARATE UPDATE FOR MEGA-MOD USERS -ONLY- WILL BE ISSUED IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

TPG NEWS:


Older copies of the True Patch Gold Edition have been removed from this server. They were simply outdated.

The newly revised copy of the TPG, which is linked to in my OP and also on the main page of this web site, is now the only official version of the TPG patch.

Quote from: Tessera on March 06, 2012, 06:29:13 PM


I repeat: this is a minor update and non-critical. It only affects female Brujah characters and even then, it is quite rare (which explains why it was not discovered until now).

It did not affect your ability to play the game -- it was simply a missing line of Seduction dialogue, which has now been repaired. Many thanks to the tessmage.com member who reported it.

Woo! I feel important and stuff.

Everyone who contributes legitimate bug reports to me is important.
I'm only one guy... so I can't find EVERYTHING all by myself.

Many thanks for your help, dude.  ;D

Yea, Sailmaker and FileFront  are still there, but its only 444 mgs. not what you have here.

I know. I'm going to have to try to remove the older version from Filefront.

As for sailmaker, I'll just send him an e-mail and ask him to replace his link
with a new one that links to the updated copy on our server.

Thanks for reminding me.  :)


Interesting side note:

Over on FileFront, the TPG has been downloaded more than 10,000 times to date.
Here are the actual statistics...


File Name:     True_Patch_Gold_FINAL.rar
File Size:    444.77 MB
Date Added:    08-14-2010
Download This Week:    127
Downloads All Time:    10665
Popularity:    10.75%


I have no idea what "Popularity" means on FileFront. Popular as compared to what..? All other downloads..? I have no idea. But anyway, if you add those numbers up with the number of downloads from Sailmaker's site, along with the number of times that the most recent TPG Hotfixes have been downloaded from THIS site, then it becomes clear that the TPG has indeed spiked in popularity during the past year. In fact, the number of downloads during the past six months appear to be roughly triple what they were a year ago. It's good to see.

Maybe the increase in the TPG popularity for the last 6 months has to to something with the Halloween steam sale for VtMB?
Considering the forum general attitude vs steam, I surely hope so ;D
One question: where to report game typos?

Quote from: Zoli on March 10, 2012, 10:55:30 PM
One question: where to report game typos?

Rite here actually  :)

QuoteMaybe the increase in the TPG popularity for the last 6 months has to to something with the Halloween steam sale for VtMB?
Considering the forum general attitude vs steam, I surely hope so ;D

It also has a lot to do with the fact that Steam is causing issues with the game (even with it being vanilla on XP X86/32bit), and the UP has a huge amount of complaints on the Steam boards, of his patch not working with the Steam version of the game. Where the TPG works every-time as long as you install it right.

I rather would see a tread dedicated to typos, than litter a main TPG thread with bug & typo reports - just my opinion.
Maybe it would be something to add to the FAQ: where to report typos?

You can report any typos or other remaining bugs right here, as Schu already told you.

It is helpful if you can include a screenshot of the bug in question within your post. It saves me a great deal of time, so far as tracking it down is concerned.

Otherwise, just do your best to be as specific (and as complete) as you possibly can with your descriptions, whenever you post a bug report.

Typo: hoetl  instead of hotel
Location: e-mail #1 in Simon Milligan apartment, apt1 Skyline Apartments, Downtown LA
VtMB: CD(not DVD or steam) version
Patch level: Official patch 1.2 and TPG with Hotfix #6(one previous to the present one); some mods included in the TPG are installed
Player: Brujah, clan histories enabled

I think that misspelling is deliberate. The email is obviously written by a moron. ;)

Oh hey, if we're doing grammar/misspelling, I could do a whole slew for you. I am VERY picky regarding these, I can play through the entire game looking for them if you can use the fixes.

I consider that my job is to report typos; if that particular typo is legitimate or not, isn't my decision ;) . And is better to know about the possible typos and bugs, than not.

Quote from: Prisoner416 on March 11, 2012, 03:23:01 PM
Oh hey, if we're doing grammar/misspelling, I could do a whole slew for you. I am VERY picky regarding these, I can play through the entire game looking for them if you can use the fixes.

As Cylnar pointed out, there are grammar errors and misspelled words that were put in to the game on purpose. So we need to be careful about reporting those to Tessera.

Quote from: Zoli on March 11, 2012, 11:56:47 AM
Typo: hoetl  instead of hotel
Location: e-mail #1 in Simon Milligan apartment, apt1 Skyline Apartments, Downtown LA
VtMB: CD(not DVD or steam) version
Patch level: Official patch 1.2 and TPG with Hotfix #6(one previous to the present one); some mods included in the TPG are installed
Player: Brujah, clan histories enabled

Thank you for your report, Zoli.  :)

However, I do not consider this item to be a bug. The misspellings within that e-mail are no doubt deliberate.

The fact that there are other misspellings in that particular computer entry, such as "!1" and "greated" and "evar,"
would indicate that Troika were making fun of the illiterate way in which many people communicate on the web.

Hence the deliberate typos and misspellings contained within that particular computer entry.

VERDICT: Report is in error. No Bug Exists. Typo was deliberate.

Quote from: Zoli on March 11, 2012, 03:43:17 PM
I consider that my job is to report typos; if that particular typo is legitimate or not, isn't my decision ;) . And is better to know about the possible typos and bugs, than not.

This is absolutely true and I appreciate every single bug report that I receive. Just because I decide to reject
some of those reports, it doesn't mean that you should stop reporting them.

When in doubt, it is always better to report something that you think might be a bug. I will then investigate the
issue and make my own determination. In this particular case, I determined that the report is in error. But there
have been plenty of other times when the report was justified... and I did indeed follow up on it with a repair.

So keep those bug reports coming. There are almost no bugs left to report anymore, thanks to the TPG.
But there were so many bugs present in plain-vanilla VTMB that there may very well be a few obscure
bugs here and there that we still haven't discovered.


PS -- I noticed in your report that it says:

"Patch level: Official patch 1.2 and TPG with Hotfix #6"

Just a reminder to everyone: the official 1.2 patch is not required for TPG users. All of the repairs found within the
official 1.2 patch are already bundled into the TPG. Hence the TPG is the only patch that you will require. Install the
game itself, then install the TPG and everything will be taken care of with a single patch.

If Tess can recommend a method to read the script files, I would be more then happy to go error hunting.

So far I've got a collection of 30 screenshots of spelling errors or speech omissions.

The omissions are cases where just looking at the script won't work, as things are said in the audio that aren't written in the caption, or questions have periods, or such.

The most popular error seems to be the usage of ellipses, either without spaces at the end, or really weird formation, like ".  .   ."

Others are typical (you're, your) mix-ups, extra spaces, missing commas, weird capitals, and the like.

I'll post some of them later.

Quote from: Prisoner416 on March 11, 2012, 09:47:54 PM
If Tess can recommend a method to read the script files, I would be more then happy to go error hunting.

All of the text-based files within VTMB are best dealt with using Notepad.

Yup... good old, simple Notepad. This is because all of those files are in basic ASCII text format.

Quote from: Tessera on March 11, 2012, 07:07:30 PM
PS -- I noticed in your report that it says:

"Patch level: Official patch 1.2 and TPG with Hotfix #6"

Just a reminder to everyone: the official 1.2 patch is not required for TPG users. All of the repairs found within the
official 1.2 patch are already bundled into the TPG. Hence the TPG is the only patch that you will require. Install the
game itself, then install the TPG and everything will be taken care of with a single patch.

Since you've "asked", here's my answer(I will try to keep as short as possible):
First time I've heard about VtMB just before Halloween last year; I've decided to give it a try: alt.binaries.games, official patch, gamecopyworld, etc.
Then I've read about the community patches: the UP came out first from a search. I've looked & read - conclusion: work in progress; if after seven fucking years you cannot make a stable release(which I was looking for), then count me out. I've read more, I've found the TPG. The discussions on the public part of the forum made me curious, so here I am.
In the end, I would like to thank to everybody(especially Tessera) for the past, present and future work & contribution to the TPG.

Well, no harm done. If you had already installed the official 1.2 patch prior to installing the TPG, then it doesn't matter. It just means that the TPG will overwrite the previous patch, without causing any conflicts.

That's one of the nicest aspects of the TPG: it's overall stability. It doesn't make a bunch of arbitrary changes to the game, nor do we keep re-releasing a new version of it every second Tuesday -- so it is virtually conflict-free.

Hello,

Just wanted to say thanks for making the patch, :) am installing it now.

You are very welcome.  8)

Sorry I had to edit your post... that dark blue font
was too difficult for my aging eyeballs to read.

The download link on the download page gives a page not found error.

Ooops... sorry. I did a server upgrade yesterday and I forgot to move a couple of things.

It's working fine now. Thanks, beetle.

No problem and thank you.  8)

sorry but im noob with this....

what this mod realy do??

skins?? animations??? :S

This isn't a mod -- it's a bug-fixes-only patch.

You're posting in the wrong thread. I think you mean my VTMB Mega-Mod.

Quote from: Tessera on April 22, 2012, 11:32:05 AM
This isn't a mod -- it's a bug-fixes-only patch.

Fortunately. The only Bloodlines mods that I stand are the texture mods.

Try the Mega-Mod. It's fun and it doesn't violate canon.

But this is the wrong thread for mod discussions. As I said -- the True Patch is not a mod. Not even remotely.

Downloaded this earlier, always enjoyed VTMB, and since I deleted wow I have enough space to install it again. I'm going to go ahead and assume, based on the rave reviews, that the TPG is well deserving of a large thank you.

You are very welcome... and I hope the quality of the TPG meets your expectations.

Just wanted to ask if this patch allows for the option to save heather later on in the game while keeping her a a ghoul not sure where to look to see if this is the case.

Thank you for the Great the work truly appreciate it.

Quote from: Drak on June 10, 2012, 01:28:40 PM
...the option to save heather later on in the game while keeping her a a ghoul...

That belongs in a MOD, not a patch, since that option is not available in the original game. If you fail to release Heather before her third drink of blood - which results in a "blood bond" - she dies. End of story. It's about making choices and dealing with their consequences, whether intended or not. The TPG is about fixing bugs and NOT about introducing changes to the gameplay or content. ;)

Thank you for the quick answer.

Thanks for great work.

First of all, I want to thank you for your effort. I really appreciate your hard work on makin' this awesome game better.

Some time ago, I used patch from... another guy... But even due to the quantity of versions he made, I understand that the number of problems he solved and problems he brought are equall. Well, I lied. It takes me 3 or 4 f***** up saves to understand it completely. I don't understand people that trying to change some things in game that are already working rather good. Don't touch it for the God sake!

So thank you again. And that's a pity, that your patch is rather hard to find among others. At least on my country comunities.

Now, let me get to the point. My monitor has problems on 75 frequency (this problem is everywhere, where 75, so don't bother yourself with it) and I have no idea how to change it to 60 in VTMB. My resolution is 1280*1024 btw, so after installing your patch I have changed resolution in VTMBrespatcher (was included in your patch), because it was 1280*760 by default or something like that. Unfortunately, I can't remember if vanilla game had same problem, maybe 60 was default.

I'd be grateful for some feedback.

From Russia, Saint Petersburg, with love. Hope u won't find my post too сommunist lol.

Quote from: Stranger on July 01, 2012, 08:27:13 AM
First of all, I want to thank you for your effort. I really appreciate your hard work on makin' this awesome game better.

You are most welcome.  8)

Quote from: Stranger on July 01, 2012, 08:27:13 AMMy monitor has problems on 75 frequency and I have no idea how to change it to 60 in VTMB.

No problem. Add the following line to the end of your autoexec.cfg file...

fps_max "60"

You will find the autoexec.cfg file within your VTMB\Vampire\cfg folder.
Just open it up and edit it with Notepad, or any other simple text editor.

Adding that line will force the Source engine to cap its frame rate at 60 fps.

Let me know if there is anything else that I can help you with.

Lol sorry, I meant refresh rate.  Finally realise it.
I'm not good with technical terms. Sorry 'bout that. So the question is still open.

Same answer.

Quote from: Tessera on July 01, 2012, 12:48:21 PM
Same answer.

Well, sorry for wasting your time. Finally, I can enjoy the game.

You didn't waste my time. That's what I'm here for.  ;D

Looks like we've been mentioned on the official Valve Developer's site...


https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Vampire_The_Masquerade_-_Bloodlines#Playability

8)

That is cool, though the page could use a little more info about the game.

I agree, although it's not the Wikipedia. It's a developer's site that is primarily dedicated
to the technical aspects of the Source engine itself... and not to any particular games.

During the production of the True Patch Gold Edition... as well as my VTMB Mega-Mod...
I practically haunted that site. It's a gold mine of Source engine info for modders.

*** TPG OPTIONAL UPDATE #7 ***


I am releasing an optional, non-critical engine update for True Patch Gold users.

This update is for those of you who are playing Bloodlines on a 64-bit computer. It consists of a single file... the "vampire.exe" file. Once again, I have altered the main executable of Bloodlines, in order to make it work better with 64-bit operating systems. NOTE: if you are not playing Bloodlines on a 64-bit computer, then this update will not be of any use to you. This update will ONLY be of benefit to 64-bit users.

By installing this update, you will enable the Bloodlines engine to make better use of system RAM on 64-bit computers. Aside from making the game run faster and more efficiently, this update will also allow you to increase the "-heapsize" command line switch, in order to allocate much larger amounts of cache RAM than the original engine would allow. This in turn will help the game run even smoother on 64-bit systems, with less stuttering and also, with less random crashes (particularly on Windows 7 x64 systems).

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.tessmage.com/tpg/TPG_update7_x64_vampire.zip


OPTIONAL UPDATE #7 -- INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

(1) First, locate your existing vampire.exe file and rename it vampire.exe.bak so that you have a backup copy (for safety).

(2) Download this update and then unzip it to a neutral location on your hard drive (any temporary folder will do nicely).

(3) Copy the vampire.exe file from this update and then paste it into your main VTMB folder. It will thus replace the original vampire.exe file.

(4) Play the game. Everything should now work perfectly on 64-bit computers.

---------------------------------------------------

OPTIONAL -- INCREASE YOUR GLOBAL HEAP SIZE

(1) Right-click on your desktop shortcut for VTMB and select "Properties."

(2) In the command line ("Target") window, add the following switch to the end of the command line (if you have not already done so)...

-heapsize 800000

The above command line switch will allocate 800 megabytes of additional cache RAM to VTMB's memory pool, whenever you launch the game. You can experiment with higher amounts of RAM if you want to, but in practice I have found that there is no particular benefit to setting up a RAM cache much larger than 800 megabytes. As a matter of fact, making the RAM cache too large can actually SLOW DOWN the game at times, so my advice would be to keep the "-heapsize" number to anywhere between 384000 to 800000. You may wish to experiment with different values, in order to determine whether or not you are getting any significant increase in VTMB's performance.

Note that the number after the "-heapsize" switch refers to how many kilobytes of RAM. Thus a figure of "800000" is actually 800 megabytes.

---------------------------------------------------

WHAT THIS UPDATE DOES:

By modifying the vampire.exe file, the game engine will now be "more aware" of 64-bit systems which have more than 4 GB's of system RAM installed. This should give the game more stability and better performance on 64-bit systems. It is also possible that this update will allow the game engine to make better use of multiple CPU's on dual-core, quad-core (and higher) computers.

This update is fully compatible with all versions of the True Patch Gold Edition... past and present. It may not be compatible with other versions of Bloodlines, however. If you are not a True Patch user and if you are not playing the game on a 64-bit computer, then you are advised NOT to download this update.

Enjoy.  8)


- Tessera -
2012

---

...now let's see how long it takes Wesp to steal this one from us.

Thanks for the latest update Tess  8) I'll give it a run this weekend.

thanks a ton :)

Tessera, I gave your new update (TPG_update7_x64_vampire) a try over the weekend, and I got a pleasant surprise.

Normally when using the Mega-Mod on Win7 64bit, the game will crash once-in-awhile. Now this doesn't happen very often,
usually only when I play for hours on-end. To me it is a known memory issue, one that I thought was Win7 related, not game
related.

Well, I loaded your update, then immediately changed the memory switch to 640000 (roughly 500MB), instead of 384000, to
give it try. The game only crashed on me once all weekend, and that one, was my own fault.

I haven't noticed any issues or bugs with the update yet, so I would think you managed to fixed my other issue. Great work,
and thanks for this update.

My pleasure, Schu.    8)

Yes, the latest TPG update should help VTMB make better use of system memory on 64-bit systems.

No headaches in between, TPG all the way to Gold

Quote from: Tessera on July 22, 2012, 08:52:41 PM
Yes, the latest TPG update should help VTMB make better use of system memory on 64-bit systems.

Ain't that the truth.

One more thing I just figured out about the update. It seems as though the game is loading faster using 500MB instead of 300MB.
Also it looks like the loading screens between areas is slightly shorter. Or maybe its just me.

Quote from: Tessera on July 18, 2012, 05:36:53 PM
*** TPG OPTIONAL UPDATE #7 ***


I am releasing an optional, non-critical engine update for True Patch Gold users.

This update is for those of you who are playing Bloodlines on a 64-bit computer. It consists of a single file... the "vampire.exe" file. Once again, I have altered the main executable of Bloodlines, in order to make it work better with 64-bit operating systems. NOTE: if you are not playing Bloodlines on a 64-bit computer, then this update will not be of any use to you. This update will ONLY be of benefit to 64-bit users.

By installing this update, you will enable the Bloodlines engine to make better use of system RAM on 64-bit computers. Aside from making the game run faster and more efficiently, this update will also allow you to increase the "-heapsize" command line switch, in order to allocate much larger amounts of cache RAM than the original engine would allow. This in turn will help the game run even smoother on 64-bit systems, with less stuttering and also, with less random crashes (particularly on Windows 7 x64 systems).

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.tessmage.com/tpg/TPG_update7_x64_vampire.zip


OPTIONAL UPDATE #7 -- INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

(1) First, locate your existing vampire.exe file and rename it vampire.exe.bak so that you have a backup copy (for safety).

(2) Download this update and then unzip it to a neutral location on your hard drive (any temporary folder will do nicely).

(3) Copy the vampire.exe file from this update and then paste it into your main VTMB folder. It will thus replace the original vampire.exe file.

(4) Play the game. Everything should now work perfectly on 64-bit computers.

---------------------------------------------------

OPTIONAL -- INCREASE YOUR GLOBAL HEAP SIZE

(1) Right-click on your desktop shortcut for VTMB and select "Properties."

(2) In the command line ("Target") window, add the following switch to the end of the command line (if you have not already done so)...

-heapsize 800000

The above command line switch will allocate 800 megabytes of additional cache RAM to VTMB's memory pool, whenever you launch the game. You can experiment with higher amounts of RAM if you want to, but in practice I have found that there is no particular benefit to setting up a RAM cache much larger than 800 megabytes. As a matter of fact, making the RAM cache too large can actually SLOW DOWN the game at times, so my advice would be to keep the "-heapsize" number to anywhere between 384000 to 800000. You may wish to experiment with different values, in order to determine whether or not you are getting any significant increase in VTMB's performance.

Note that the number after the "-heapsize" switch refers to how many kilobytes of RAM. Thus a figure of "800000" is actually 800 megabytes.

---------------------------------------------------

WHAT THIS UPDATE DOES:

By modifying the vampire.exe file, the game engine will now be "more aware" of 64-bit systems which have more than 4 GB's of system RAM installed. This should give the game more stability and better performance on 64-bit systems. It is also possible that this update will allow the game engine to make better use of multiple CPU's on dual-core, quad-core (and higher) computers.

This update is fully compatible with all versions of the True Patch Gold Edition... past and present. It may not be compatible with other versions of Bloodlines, however. If you are not a True Patch user and if you are not playing the game on a 64-bit computer, then you are advised NOT to download this update.

Enjoy.  8)


- Tessera -
2012

---

...now let's see how long it takes Wesp to steal this one from us.

This REALLY should be promoted. To me, it's basically the best selling point of the True Patch. As far as I know... well, actually, I DO know, Wesp's creation has NEVER offered improved x64 stability.
It could be quite a decisive factor to the right audiences.

Quote from: Prisoner416 on August 08, 2012, 05:01:03 PM
This REALLY should be promoted.

Then by all means... please do so.   8)

Quote from: Prisoner416 on August 08, 2012, 05:01:03 PMAs far as I know... well, actually, I DO know, Wesp's creation has NEVER offered improved x64 stability.

Give him some more time. He hasn't gotten around to stealing it from us yet.

*** NEW VERSION RELEASED ***


A newly updated version of the True Patch Gold Edition has been released.

This new version includes every single Hotfix, including the recent Hotfix #7 (which adds superior stability and better memory usage when VTMB is running on a 64-bit operating system).

It is strongly recommended that all TPG users download the latest version of our patch. Even if you are already using the TPG and have applied all of its various hotfixes, it is still wise to have a fully up-to-date version of the patch archived on your computer (I recommend burning it to a CD or a DVD).

The download link for the TPG has been updated as well, both in my original post in this thread, as well as on our Downloads (http://www.tessmage.com/download.htm) page...


http://www.tessmage.com/tpg/True_Patch_Gold_FINAL_with_Hotfix7.rar


This newly updated version of the True Patch Gold Edition will work perfectly with any and all modern versions of the Windows operating system (both 32 and 64 bit).

---

SPECIAL NOTE TO VTMB MEGA-MOD USERS: if you decide to re-install the True Patch, you will likewise need to re-install the entire Mega-Mod and all of its updates AFTER you have re-installed the TPG. This notice only applies to the users of Tessera's VTMB Mega-Mod.

The Steam sticky has been updated to include the True Patch.

I think it might be a good idea to set up a dedicated mirror on an external site that doesn't have 18+ requirements, in order to make the fixes available to as many people as possible.

Quote from: Prisoner416 on August 09, 2012, 05:26:27 PM
I think it might be a good idea to set up a dedicated mirror on an external site that doesn't have 18+ requirements, in order to make the fixes available to as many people as possible.

The True Patch Gold Edition is available to everyone, regardless of their age. It is not restricted.

This area of our Forums is likewise open to everyone, so long as they have not done anything
to get themselves banned from our board. It is also viewable by unregistered guests.

8)

Quote from: Prisoner416 on August 09, 2012, 05:26:27 PM
The Steam sticky has been updated to include the True Patch.

Well, it looks like that thread, gave us what I was attempting...a fair compromise.

Prisoner, thanks for taking the brunt of the grief in that nightmare. I didn't start it to pick a fight, but the UP goon squad try's to get any thread locked or deleted that even mentions the TP, so they take things out of context, and pick a fight.

Hell they are the reason it stayed on the front page for so long  :laugh:

I also left a final post, letting DarkByke know that the kink leads too the public part of these forums.

Really like this mod and upon playing I've ran into nearly no bugs.  :D

Fortunately, this is not a mod 8)

Quote from: kurtis64 on August 16, 2012, 08:44:22 AM
Fortunately, this is not a mod 8)

Far from it. The TPG is simply a bug-fixes-only patch. Always has been... always will be. Hence the name: the "True" patch.

Nobody should take it upon themselves to shove arbitrary content (mods) down anyone else's throats. ;)

Quote from: Prisoner416 on August 09, 2012, 05:26:27 PM
The Steam sticky has been updated to include the True Patch.

I think it might be a good idea to set up a dedicated mirror on an external site that doesn't have 18+ requirements, in order to make the fixes available to as many people as possible.

Wouldn't have found this place without that "intervention"! Downloading the TPG now :)

As someone who played VTMB a Loooooooooong time ago, I am glad that there is such a great community and support still around for this game which I have decided to pick up once more. Thanks alot to all the modders etc for keeping the patches, and this game, alive :)

Quote from: Cubanpete on September 15, 2012, 12:57:33 PMThanks alot to all the modders etc for keeping the patches, and this game, alive :)

You are very welcome. And thank you, too... for your show of support. I am gratified to see
that the True Patch community continues to grow larger and larger each year.  :)

Thank you very much for this! I never played VTMB when it was released so was somewhat disappointed by it's overall stability on my current Win 7 x64 machine the first time I did play it. This patch fixed all of the issues I had :)

Quote from: Zenskas on September 23, 2012, 01:11:14 AM
Thank you very much for this! I never played VTMB when it was released so was somewhat disappointed by it's overall stability on my current Win 7 x64 machine the first time I did play it. This patch fixed all of the issues I had :)

You are most welcome... and I hope you will continue to enjoy VTMB for many years to come.  8)

So i can't unzip this over an installation with tpg hotfix #6 either?
Because i installed the game months ago, applied the tpg, then compressed the game folder, burned it to a dvd, and deleted the original game images i downloaded. Must i download the game again? Or simply use the files in the dvd?

Every version of the True Patch Gold Edition is fully compatible with every previous version. So yes... you can simply install the current release right on top of your current VTMB installation, if you are already a TPG user.

You may need to start the game over again, however... using a brand-new character which has never been played before. Aside from that little quirk of the Source engine, there shouldn't be any other problems.

If you are using any third-party mods for Bloodlines (assuming that those mods are 100% True Patch compatible), then they might need to be re-installed after you have re-patched the game.

where can I find all features of this patch? how does it affect the game?

Quote from: Diver on October 13, 2012, 11:11:42 AM
how does it affect the game?

It doesn't. That's the beauty of the True Patch. All it does is fix the legitimate bugs which existed within the "plain-vanilla" game, without altering any of the other aspects of Troika's masterpiece. After installing the True Patch Gold Edition, you will be playing Troika's original game without bugs... and nothing else.

Proper third-party patches just fix bugs. On the other hand, mods make changes to the original content. Unfortunately, there are some people out there who feel that a patch and a mod are the same thing... which probably explains why so many Bloodlines players are very dissatisfied (and even angry) with "that other patch." I think we all know which "patch" I am referring to.

The TPG will allow you to enjoy a bug-free gaming experience. It does not make any significant alterations to Troika's original game, aside from restoring a minimal amount of broken content which Troika did not have enough time to fix on their own. That's a promise.

Cool! It's a test time so :D

wow. I've been using your patches since v4.2 I think it was. The last version I used was 5.04. I've been considering a another play through of VTMB so seeing you are still developing the patch is very cool.

thanks

You're welcome.  8)

And the best news is: if you were already using patch 5.04AT, then you can install the True Patch Gold Edition directly on top of it. The TPG is fully backward-compatible with version 5.04AT.

A couple of suggested modifications to the ReadMe_RES-PATCHER.txt

- The config.cfg file does not exist initially from a new install (I installed from cd). It's created after you successfully launch the game for the first time.
- "double-click vtmbrespatcher.dll" s/b double-click vtmbrespatcher.exe
- include info/inst around the -h xxxx -w xxxx switches.

Thank you for your suggestions. I'll fix those errors in the ResPatcher ReadMe as soon as I can,
and upload the revised version to the server afterward.

Hi, I'm really new to this game and this forum. I just bought it recently from a steam sale, so I'm sorry if this question is obvious but, I was wondering if the True Patch Gold includes higher res textures or if that is just exclusive to the Mega-Mod?

So Tessera, mind you I am an idiot with this stuff. But is there any cheap, easy, dirty way to know that the TPG was in fact installed? Every time I try to copy paste to what I *think* is the .exe it launches, lol. I have tried drag and drop and everything else my small brain can think of. I didn't want to wait for some over priced disks, so I did a digital download off Gamestop and well, lets say its not just way past time for a new computer (building as I can afford), but also an OS reinstall. If I could figure out quickly whether it took or not, I can try again to get it to take. Otherwise, I am just not sure. Any ideas?

Well first of all, make sure that you READ and UNDERSTAND and FOLLOW the installation instructions for the TPG. Follow those instructions EXACTLY. Don't take it upon yourself to install the TPG in some "better way." There is no better way. So let's just start off on the right foot and do everything the way that it is supposed to be done.

Now then, your question boils down to this: is there a way to verify that the TPG has in fact been installed into Bloodlines..? And the answer is yes, there is. In fact, there are numerous ways that you could verify that the TPG is installed and working as intended.

But let me tell you the easiest way... something that any layman can do on their own, without having to be a computer expert.

There are some special graphic textures included within the TPG patch. The sole purpose of those special graphic textures is to help people determine whether or not the files from the TPG patch were installed to their correct locations. What these special textures do is very simple: they add a small, unobtrusive graphic image to a few of the static props in the game. Nevermind what "static props" are right now... just go with me on this. The point is that there have been very tiny, almost impossible to see (during the course of normal gameplay) graphics added to the actual game world itself. Those tiny little graphics are what I call "texture stamps." I have been integrating such texture stamps into the True Patch series, for verification purposes, ever since version 4.02AT.

So what do we do with these so-called texture stamps..? Simple: we run out into the game world and try to find one of them. And if it is not there, then it means that the TPG is not properly installed. That is the sole reason for the addition of those texture stamps.

The easiest texture stamp for everyone to find is in Santa Monica... in the outdoor area. Just run your character over to that alley next to the Asylum club. If you are standing in the street, facing the front door of the Asylum, then the alley that I am referring to is on your right.

Sitting in that somewhat dark alley are a couple of big, yellow dumpsters. Those dumpsters are examples of static props... they don't move, they just sit there being a part of the scenery. So go over to where those big yellow dumpsters are, and take a very close look at them. You will notice that they are covered with all sorts of graffiti. Now take an even closer look at the graffiti...

On one end of the dumpster, if you look REALLY hard for it, you will see some graffiti scratched into the yellow paint that says "AT" which stands for "Acrimonious and Tessera," the authors of the original True Patch for Bloodlines.

But instead of me just telling you about it, why don't I show you..? Let's take a look at the screenshot below:

(http://www.tessmage.com/tpg/True_Patch_dumpster_texture_stamp_example.jpg)

The inset at the lower left shows a close-up view of the actual texture stamp. It is one of several texture stamps that I integrated into the True Patch series of Bloodlines patches. As you can see, it is very faint... you would never, ever notice it during the course of normal gameplay (unless you were deliberately looking for it). And even if you did happen to notice it, you wouldn't give it a second thought. It just looks like all of the other graffiti that covers the dumpster. It is completely unobtrusive... but it also serves a very important purpose. It lets us know that the True Patch was indeed installed properly and that all of the TPG files have ended up in their correct locations.

So if you run over to that dumpster and you do NOT see "AT" scratched into the yellow paint (as shown in my screenshot), then your TPG installation is either missing, or improperly installed, or incomplete.

Awesome! I haven't played Bloodlines since 2006. Wesp's stuff scared me with all the changes. Thank you thank you thank you!

You are very welcome. Happy vamping.  8)

Thank you! Doing any of the patches, mods, skins, etc. is always a struggle (small understatement) for me. This way, at least I will know when I finally do get it right.

You're welcome. And we've raised that point several times on this board... namely that the TPG is the best choice for aspiring Bloodlines modders.

The TPG version of Bloodlines provides modders with a nice, stable and essentially unchanging base upon which to build their mods. No arbitrary changes to the game... no silly BS... just a solid, bug-free game. Speaking as a modder, that is precisely what I would want to start with... not some ever-changing abortion, which could very well undermine my modding efforts from one version to the next.  ;)

Just installed TPG and the MegaMod on a fresh VTMB install.  Cranked up the game and played through to the first bite and saved.  Very smooth sailing so far, and lookin very good through the intro.   I browsed the config file and it looks like you have binds already there for exactly what I was going to put in those missing key configs, and I don't need to change what you have done.  Just odd, that it does not show up in the menu any more.  But really, I just wanted to start thanking you for the years of labor and making this game fun to play.  Very clean install process.  I shall divulge more upon further digestion, but that could be several hours or days away... ;)

Quote from: kgram on January 12, 2013, 10:15:24 PMJust odd, that it does not show up in the menu any more.

Key binds..? Sure they do. From the main menu screen, select Options ---> Keyboard.

The TPG makes no changes to the default game menus. Everything is working as it should.

So I guess this does not work with the unofficial patch? Never played this game before but was directed to this.

You can use the "unofficial patch" OR the True Patch Gold. They are mutually exclusive. I recommend using the True Patch Gold. ;)

The True Patch is an alternative patch for VTMB.

The True Patch has absolutely no connection with the so-called "unofficial patch" produced by Werner Spahl ("Wesp5").
Therefore, it is not possible to use both of them at the same time, due to the numerous conflicts between them. Nor is
it necessary to do anything like that, since the True Patch fixes more legitimate bugs than any version of Wesp's crap.

Hi to all forum members,
Hi to all VtM Bloodline lovers,
Hi True Patch Team,
Hi Tessera;

I just registered my self here to express my big thank you to the Patch makers for there great effort to make this game as bug free as possible without changing the game/play it self.

I used the UP for several years now and i got more and more uncomfortable with the direction and intention of that project. (used it since 4.x)
Last time i played VtMB, a while ago, i used UP 7.3. The game became too easy for me in the plus version and also the basic version didn't felt right any more.
So i put it away and lost interrest in the game for quite some time.

Days ago I thought I'll give it a try again and got my self the latest iteration (8.42).
As soon as I read through change log form top to bottom, ill realized that this was no patch any more.

Difference between a Patch, Updated and an Add-on (IMHO anyway):
As discussed here and on several other forums a patch is a way for developers to fix broken content, engine or gameplay bugs.
As an update may introduce something which was missing at the initial release but intended to be part of the game (or software) from the start.
Add-on's in the past provided content which was completely new and was not part of the initial design process of the game (design feature, game play elements and/or new stories content).

Nowadays DLC's IMHO provide a mixed concept of Add-on's and Updates (or better say "should").
Sadly that's not true anymore or never was as countless publishers showed us the last years.
(->Day 1 DLC's are not new content bud cut out game play elements by publishers for profit gain reasons only)

Long say sort: This patch represents the idea and concept of a "PATCH" much more accurately than WES UP project. I would call UP a game play mod, not necessary a bad one but fare away from being a patch (even the basic version) more like an update or mini add-on. So if you read this and may have stubble about this True Patch Project by accident or chance like I have and wonder if you should try it, give it a shot. You cant loose but only win a better game experience, not altered too drastically and still true its original developers (Troika Games).

So once again, thank you very much to all people who made this true patch possible, and to Tessera for developing and still keeping it alive.

wbr Spawnkiller

Sorry for my bad English, it's not my native tongue.

Btw I'm a proud owner of the original 3CD version of the game, and very happy to use the game without the copy protection (more like an infection) anymore. Sony's SecuROM was and still is responsible for many software and system crashes, and should have never been released in the first place. IMHO it's a very crappy piece of software full of bugs and nonsense like spyware. Sorry of the rant I really hate this "software".

I'll often modify my post because they are mostly full of typos... so sorry if I mess up quotes for anyone...

[666 Members - Latest Member: Spawnkiller] Don't know if I should feel honoured or be frightened. I'll go with honoured  ;D

Quote from: Spawnkiller on January 25, 2013, 11:55:53 AM
I used the UP for several years now and i got more and more uncomfortable with the direction and intention of that project. (used it since 4.x)
Last time i played VtMB, a while ago, i used UP 7.3. The game became too easy for me in the plus version and also the basic version didn't felt right any more.
So i put it away and lost interest in the game fore quite some time.

This is one of the most common complaints that we've heard over the years, regarding Wesp's so-called "unofficial patch" for Bloodlines. Dozens and dozens and dozens of people have shown up here, saying more or less the same things about "that other patch."

Well, I have said many times that by inserting too much unnecessary (and often unwanted) content into Bloodlines, Wesp is actually guilty of undermining the re-playability of the game. And comments like yours would seem to support my assertion. You are not the first person to tell us that after using Wesp's "patch," you quickly lost interest in Bloodlines... and didn't get interested in it again until after you discovered the True Patch. Naturally, I am very happy to hear that our patch has renewed your enjoyment of the game. But I am equally saddened... because for every person like you who has found their way here, and found their way to the True Patch Gold Edition, there are likely ten more VTMB players who didn't. And many of those players could be struggling with the same basic issue: a loss of interest in Bloodlines, due to the largely inappropriate nature of Wesp's numerous alterations to the game.  

I could continue... but I won't, because I'll just launch into another of my angry rants against Wesp and his ongoing sabotage of Troika's masterpiece. So instead, I'll just say that I am glad that you are enjoying Bloodlines with the True Patch. It's a wonderful game and it deserves an equally wonderful patch. Hopefully, we have managed to provide everybody with one.

Happy vamping.  8)

Quote from: Tessera on February 29, 2012, 07:15:16 PM
...
You will not require the official 1.2 patch from ActiVision, as it has already been fully incorporated into the True Patch Gold Edition. Simply install a fresh copy of Bloodlines first, and then apply this version of the True Patch Gold Edition w/Hotfix #6, and you will be all set. No further patching of any kind will be required.

Not installing the official patch 1.2 before copying the TPGF hf#7 content into the game folder turned out to be a major deal breaker, and made the game very bug to nearly unplayable for me...

What I did:

1. Uninstalled the game by the provided uninstaller.
2. Deleted the Activison folder and all it's sub folder content (moded files, save games, UP content....)
3. Installed a new fresh copy of VTM:B from the 3CD version of the game
[Because its not very much fun to do that more the 2 times a day, I created myself a single medium (DVD) install version of the game via matched  'Vampire - The Masquerade Bloodlines.msi' with the ORCA util (tool by Microsoft to view and modify .msi packets)].
4. I copied all the content of the 'TRUE_PATCH_MAIN' subfolder (vampire.exe, vampire & bin dir and all it's sub content) over the main game dir of VTM:B ([Drive Letter]:\Program Files (x86)\Activision\Vampire - Bloodlines)
5. started the game and closed it instantly to generate the config.cfg file
6. used the vtmbrespatcher.exe to patch the 16:10 aspect ratio of my screen (play with 1680x1050)
7. started the game again, created a char and started the tutorial (btw I was not able to skip the intro speech, I really can't hear the speech of that idiot LaCroix any more :D )

Bugs I encountered:
.) Unarmed Combat was not possible due the fact the unarmed icon was not available (missing) in the melee list of weapons.
.) Could not pickup any thing that should be able like tuna cans to distract the sabbat guard.

At this point I stop and uninstalled the game again, deleted all content, and reinstalled the game.
Then I installed the official patch 1.2, afterwards copied all the content from TPG hf#7 over again.
This time I had no problems with unarmed combat or picking up trash.

Right now I'm at my play through and I encountered some minor bugs like two the cops at the park house near the stairs to the beach are invisible or the models are missing. I can hear their voices taking to each other discussing the murder on the pier but can't see the men standing there (like it should be).

I'll make a list with all the bugs and glitches I may find till I leave Santa Monica the 1st time and post it later here. I'll try to provide save games and screenshots if needed or requested.
(I guess it will take me some days till I'm done with the 1st part of the game, so don't expect any update very soon :p )

wbr
Spawnkiller

Quote from: Spawnkiller on January 25, 2013, 07:25:23 PM
1. Uninstalled the game by the provided uninstaller.

Not sufficient.

The instructions within the TPG package clearly state that you must physically delete your entire VTMB installation prior to reinstalling it. This is especially true if your prior VTMB installation included any third-party patches or mods. The game's default uninstall program does not remove everything that it should, and it usually leaves behind remnants of your prior installation. Those leftover remnants could potentially cause conflicts with the TPG (or any other patch, for that matter).

As always, it is important to follow the TPG installation instructions carefully. Otherwise, you are asking for problems. The TPG is a comprehensive, MAJOR patch and it is extremely critical to read, understand and follow the included instructions to the letter.

Quote from: Tessera on January 25, 2013, 10:42:16 PM

Quote from: Spawnkiller on January 25, 2013, 07:25:23 PM
1. Uninstalled the game by the provided uninstaller.

Not sufficient.

The instructions within the TPG package clearly state that you must physically delete your entire VTMB installation prior to reinstalling it. This is especially true if your prior VTMB installation included any third-party patches or mods. The game's default uninstall program does not remove everything that it should, and it usually leaves behind remnants of your prior installation. Those leftover remnants could potentially cause conflicts with the TPG (or any other patch, for that matter).

Maybe my fault and I made my self not clear enought but as i wrote before:

"2. Deleted the Activison folder and all it's sub folder content (moded files, save games, UP content....)"

That action deleted all related files from VTMB, because the unchanged dir structure of the game is:
'[Drive Letter]:\Program Files (x86)\Activision\Vampire - Bloodlines'
So there were no leftovers from any mod or the original game it self. However I did not use a reg cleaner because there are no prominent entries from the game in the registry as fare as I could determine the last 3 times I searched for them by hand (of cause I could be wrong).

Quote
As always, it is important to follow the TPG installation instructions carefully. Otherwise, you are asking for problems. The TPG is a comprehensive, MAJOR patch and it is extremely critical to read, understand and follow the included instructions to the letter.

Yes I read it, and I believe I understood it's instructions correctly :D

wbr
Spawnkiller

Quote from: Spawnkiller on January 26, 2013, 06:23:31 AM
Maybe my fault...

http://www.tessmage.com/forum/index.php/topic,53139.msg25768.html#msg25768

Everything stated within that post applies to the TPG as well.

Spawnkiller, you might want to check out this thread:  http://www.tessmage.com/forum/index.php/topic,58583.0.html

Some things that people don't think they need to do, is empty their recycle bin and restart their computer after removing old software, because they plan on reinstalling it.  I know it can be a pain, but this needs to be done in order to get rid of any remnants of the software, especially if your installing to the default location.  Your computer will search the recycle bin and any open cache for previously installed software.  This was intended as a time saver, but it actually causes more issues than it is worth, so emptying the recycle bin and restarting your computer to clear any open cache is always a good idea when reinstalling games and other software.  Doing a defragment of your drive is also a good idea after loading or reinstalling a game.

I did see that you are a former UP user.  Did you know that the UP adds registry entries? This is because of its .exe, and sometimes they can be hidden.

As far as the missing cops, at the garage gate near the Santa Monica pier.  They never existed in the vanilla version of the game.  That was something that Wesp added to the UP a few of years ago, and in my opinion, a bad idea.  Bloodlines to a point, deals in an alternate reality, and any cop that you could see, is going to see you, so they wouldn't discuss a murder in the open like that.  In fact they would tell you to move on.  As far as I'm concerned, not being able to see the cops, adds to ambiance of the game.

I find that Revo Uninstaller works real good in removing programs, it even scans and removes the leftovers registry files, and folders, under your discretion only! Then you do a restart.  By the way it's "FREE".

Hmm...when I hit reply at the top it sent my reply to the "there is nothing wrong" thread instead of putting it here.  Not a big deal, but that seemed weird and it is certainly over in that thread and not this one.  I can't seem to recreate that though, so I have no idea how that happened.

Anyway just wanted to pop in and say thanks, downloading and about to install now.

Alright I got a couple questions. 

1) The game works fine, I unpacked all the vpk's and moved the old vpk's to a backup location.  Not sure if I was supposed to do that, but I did and it didn't seem to have any negative effect.

2) The Readme_Now_Utility file is outdated I assume?  None of these files are in the utility folder:

engine.dll
shaderapidx9.dll

Do I need them?

3)I ran vtmb_respatcher.exe and set my resolutions to typical 16:10 resolutions.  However in game, when I got to options-> visuals I see one 4:3 resolution and two 16:9, one of which is 1920x1080 which is fine, just wondering why I don't see 16:10 options?

Spidyknight, you wont see any 16:10 resolutions in the options menu, you have to lock it in the short-cut target menu, then  the resolution you want will appear in the options menu automatically.  You will have to run the res patcher (already done by you), then go into the config.cfg file and change the line "r_anamorphic "0" to r_anamorphic "1"", or you can add the line "r_anamorphic "1"" to the autoexec.cfg file instead, then add your resolution to the short-cut target menu.

Here is what my target menu looks like:
"D:\Program Files (x86)\Activision\Vampire - Bloodlines\vampire.exe" -w 1680 -h 1050 -32bit -heapsize 640000 -console

Notice the "-w 1680 -h 1050", that is my monitors native 16:10 resolution.

And just to support Schu's advice, here is what the "Target" box for 
my VTMB desktop shortcut looks like:

F:\VTMB\vampire.exe -console -32bit -heapsize 800000 -w 1920 -h 1080

So again... notice that the -w 1920 -h 1080 figures are set
to my desktop resolution (HDTV widescreen, in my case).

This has probably been asked a Million times but is there an auto exe version?

Not to speak for Tessera, but...

Nope, there is not an auto install version of the TPG.

Third party auto install .exe's can be dangerous, and should be avoided at all costs, unless the modder is doing hard coding changes (which we are unable to do at this time with Bloodlines).  A well written read-me with complete manual install instructions is all that is needed.

Don't believe it?  Search the net, and you will see that most modders use manual installs, instead of .EXE's.  With the exception of those modders who do hard code changes (where auto .EXE's are required), create mod managers, most of which are hard coded, or those who have something to hide.

Possibly an error of some kind, but I'm too busy to check into it right now.

In any case, it does no harm to leave it there... so that is what I recommend doing: leave it there.

I remember there were 2 versions of the True VTMB Patch: a lite one and a big one adding also fanmade content. I take you're now able to manually choose which content to add now. Thanks for re-uploading anyways, I'm reinstalling Bloodlines asap  :D

Quote from: Þolvere on April 16, 2013, 06:02:27 AM
I remember there were 2 versions of the True VTMB Patch: a lite one and a big one adding also fan made content.

That is incorrect. You are confusing the True Patch with those horrible "unofficial patches" produced by Werner "Wesp5" Spahl.

There has always been one... and JUST ONE... version of each edition of the True Patch. Accept no substitutes. 8)

After downloading the True Patch, I noticed that a large portion of the portion of the compressed archive size (200MB) is a result of including the installers for every language of Adobe Reader that came with the original Bloodlines manual. Since you're hosting the patch locally (meaning you're paying for the bandwidth yourself), have you considered re-compiling the True Patch to just include the manual itself, and not all the Adobe installers? Almost everyone has a PDF reader installed on their computer at this point, and even if they don't, it shouldn't be your responsibility to provider one to them. Removing the Adobe installers cuts the size of the archive nearly in half (450MB -> 250MB), which would be nice for both the patch users and your bandwidth bill.

If you've already talked about why you include them in some other thread, and I just missed the discussion scanning through the forums, I apologize for bringing up an old issue.

Cheers,
Alamei

I included the Adobe Reader as a courtesy, because the original VTMB User's Manual (also included as a courtesy) is in Adobe PDF format. I was just trying to make it easier for everyone.

You are incorrect about the file sizes, however.

Here is the actual breakdown of the entire True Patch Gold Edition package:

Size of "Docs" folder (includes Adobe Reader and original VTMB User Manual): 201 megabytes (uncompressed size).
Size of "Extras" folder (contains a few optional mods, as well as some helpful utilities): 96 megabytes (uncompressed size).
Size of the True Patch Main folder (the actual patch itself): 512 megabytes (uncompressed size).

As you can see, the actual patch itself is quite large. More than a half-gigabyte of nothing but bug fixes. And it is nearly twice the size of all of the other TPG extras combined.

There's a bunch of smack talk over on PlanetVampire... as most of us already are aware. One of the things that Wesp likes to claim is that our patch is actually not much bigger than his, because our patch is loaded with Adobe installers and "a bunch of mods." Well, as I have just explained, that is simply nonsense. The actual True Patch itself, which comprises the vast majority of the True Patch Gold Edition package, is over 500 magebytes in size. To date, it contains the largest collection of legitimate bug fixes available for Bloodlines. That is a fact.

Wesp has further tried to claim that I used inadequate compression when I packed up the TPG, hence its much larger (than Wesp's "patch") file size. This too is incorrect. The TPG was packed using WinRAR, at its maximum compression level, and using file verification during the compression process. Is it possible to compress the TPG even further..? Yes, but not by much. It is already squished down about as far as it can be squished. Once again, Wesp is simply suffering from denial. Our patch is large because it is COMPREHENSIVE... much more so than any other third-party patch for Bloodlines.

And it does all of that without making any arbitrary and unnecessary changes to the game play.

So just ignore the crappola coming from "the other side." We have the numbers to back us up. They do not. Case closed, so far as I am concerned.  8)

Making the manual easily readable certainly makes sense. Have you considered including a lightweight multilingual PDF solution like SumatraPDF instead? It would only take up about 5MB, and would still allow people to install a PDF reader to view the manual if they don't already have one on their system.

With regards to the files, the sizes I listed were all post-compression. When I tested removing the installers and re-compressing the folder with WinRAR max compression, I ended up with a 251 MB archive (the executables obviously don't compress well). In any case, if the extra bandwidth usage doesn't bother you, it's obviously not a real issue. :D

I'm afraid I don't quite follow the second half of your post. I only just got into Bloodlines recently, and the extent of the reading I did was to figure out that TPG was a patch and UP was a mod. I didn't look any further than that, and I seem to have missed some historical discussions that would be required contextual reading to fully grasp your post.  :-\

Well, as I said...

The True Patch Gold Edition was compressed using the full, registered, 64-bit WinRAR (ver. 4.20) file compression utility. It was compressed into RAR format, using maximum compression. File verification (to ensure the integrity of the archive) was employed during the compression process. Final compressed size: approximately 462.4 megabytes. Two-thirds of that archive consists of the actual True Patch itself, which contains literally thousands of legitimate bug fixes for Bloodlines. To the best of my knowledge, there is not a more comprehensive bug-fix patch available for Bloodlines anywhere on the web. And yes, that obviously includes "that other patch."

So that's it... that's as small as it gets, using WinRAR. And I chose WinRAR because it is more universally accessible. I didn't want the end users to have to jump through hoops, looking for some esoteric file compression utility (such as GZip or whatever). WinRAR is very well-known and is readily accessible to everyone. For free, no less.

I do appreciate your suggestions, however. And I am sure that you will enjoy using our patch.

Hello,

On your first post of this thread, you've said it includes hotfix6, but you've also said "Simply install a fresh copy of Bloodlines first, and then apply this version of the True Patch Gold Edition w/Hotfix #6, and you will be all set.". So does this mean that hotfix #6 is included with the download, or does it mean to install hotfix #6 first? I just want to make sure because the above sentence can be read two ways especially as you have typed above it "DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK FOR TRUE PATCH GOLD EDITION, including HOTFIX #7:". It's just a little confusing  :) .

Also, you say this download is 462.4 megabytes but my download from the 'downloads' tab at the very top of the page is only 451. Is there any difference between these two downloads?

I really appreciate your help, take care.

There is no need for you to be confused. Simply take the first post in this thread at face value.

The current version of the TPG is "Hotfix #7" and it is the only version available for downloading.

So simply download the patch, and then follow the installation instructions. Simple as that.

Quote from: Tessera on June 29, 2013, 08:02:06 PM
There is no need for you to be confused. Simply take the first post in this thread at face value.

The current version of the TPG is "Hotfix #7" and it is the only version available for downloading.

So simply download the patch, and then follow the installation instructions. Simple as that.

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply, but could you just tell me why the download I've got is smaller (451mb) than the 462mb that you've mentioned? I just wanted to make sure because I'm about to install the patch now.

Quote from: sensitivesoul on June 29, 2013, 08:14:36 PM...could you just tell me why the download I've got is smaller (451mb) than the 462mb that you've mentioned?

Look at the screenshot below, for your answer...


(http://www.tessmage.com/images/misc/TPG_size_listing_windows_explorer.jpg)

For some goofy reason that I have never fully understood, Windows reports the size of a file in two different ways at the same time. You can see it doing so, in that screenshot.

The actual, correct size of the compressed TPG file is as I have said: about 462 megabytes. But Windows also reports the size of a file as a rounded-off hexadecimal figure... or some such crappola.

The exact size of the TPG archive is in fact 462, 430 kilobytes... or slightly more than 462 megabytes.

Anyway... not to worry. The version of the TPG available from this site is absolutely correct. And it has been tested backwards and forwards, to ensure its integrity. That's a promise.  8)

Windows uses a non-decimal counting system, based on powers of 2, to measure file sizes. Some programmers prefer this measurement system, since all computing is rooted in binary mathematics, but it can be confusing to end-users. As far as Windows is concerned, a kilobyte is 1024 (2^10) bytes, not 1000 (10^3). A megabyte is similarly measured as 1024 kilobytes. As such, both numbers you're seeing are correct (462430 / 1024 = ~451), they're just not being measured in a decimal number system.

Most Linux distros and more recent versions of Mac OSX measure file sizes in decimal (1000 KB per MB), so files may appear to have different sizes when they move from one operating system to another. If you want to be sure about a file's size, it's best to always just look at the file properties (in Windows Explorer, right-click and select Properties) to get the file size in plain bytes, which will be reported the same regardless of operating system or application.

Quote from: Alamei on June 30, 2013, 07:44:46 AM
If you want to be sure about a file's size, it's best to always just look at the file properties (in Windows Explorer, right-click and select Properties) to get the file size in plain bytes, which will be reported the same regardless of operating system or application.

473,530,368 bytes

Quote from: Tessera on June 29, 2013, 10:15:36 PM

Quote from: sensitivesoul on June 29, 2013, 08:14:36 PM...could you just tell me why the download I've got is smaller (451mb) than the 462mb that you've mentioned?

Look at the screenshot below, for your answer...


(http://www.tessmage.com/images/misc/TPG_size_listing_windows_explorer.jpg)

For some goofy reason that I have never fully understood, Windows reports the size of a file in two different ways at the same time. You can see it doing so, in that screenshot.

The actual, correct size of the compressed TPG file is as I have said: about 462 megabytes. But Windows also reports the size of a file as a rounded-off hexadecimal figure... or some such crappola.

The exact size of the TPG archive is in fact 462, 430 kilobytes... or slightly more than 462 megabytes.

Anyway... not to worry. The version of the TPG available from this site is absolutely correct. And it has been tested backwards and forwards, to ensure its integrity. That's a promise.  8)

Hello,

Thanks for the detailed reply. I just didn't know whether my download had messed up or something else had happened.  ;)

Big THX for this patch!

OK, I hope I'm not going to be too much of a pain - I really am easily confused with any PC tech issue.  Anyway, I installed VTMB for the first time on this computer.  Then followed the directions for the latest TP.  I first tried copying "main" into the root folder but didn't get the overwrite messages.  So, I deleted it from the root file then copied each subfolder individually into the root folder.  Got the messages and checked overwrite the next "n" conflicts (I have Win7).  So, I was confident all was fine.  I then backed the vampire folder up and proceeded to apply the mega mod.  Copied and pasted the mod's vampire folder into the root folder and got the messages.  So, I opened the game using the shortcut the initial installation made and -  well, I quit before the initial video completed.  The Gangrel female appeared unchanged at all and the real kicker, when people left the auditorium, there were no vampires exiting.  I'm thinking that possibly, I just didn't wait long enough as I never got to the initial Jack helping me part.  Or, maybe using the initial shortcut was a problem.  or, I just can't follow simple directions and screwed up the process.  Anyway, before I start trying things and making a mess, I thought I should ask here and see if I did some really basic mistake.  So, I say, "Help!". 

Oh, yes, another issue.  I now have a widescreen so everybody has a stretched face.  In other older games I went into my software and set it to 5:4 (I believe) leaving the rest of the screen black (ie, I negated the wide screen basically).  Is that advisable or is the megamod designed for a wide screen? 

Well obviously, yours is a case of user error. Let's start there.

Is this in reference to the original, 3-CD version of Bloodlines..? Or is it the Steam downloaded version..?

If it is the 3-CD version, then you must have copied the patch (and mod) files to the wrong place.

If it is the Steam version, then you have neglected to follow the instructions (found on this board) for moving Bloodlines
away from Steam and setting it up in a new location on your hard drive. Everyone who plays the Steam version of VTMB
absolutely must follow that procedure. This is true not only for the users of our patch, but for the users of Wesp's patch
as well. Bloodlines is not compatible with Steam... period. Regardless of what the idiots at Steam may say to the contrary.

You need to delete the game, re-install it and then CAREFULLY follow all of the installation instructions to the letter.
And if you are playing the Steam version, then you MUST move the game out and away from Steam into a totally
new and unique location on your hard drive... BEFORE you patch it and mod it. I can not stress this enough.
The download-able Steam version of Bloodlines MUST be moved... TOTALLY MOVED... away from Steam.

I can not give you any further advice unless you provide me with more specific information regarding your setup.

Incidentally, you mentioned that you are a Windows 7 user. Make sure that Windows 7 itself is not interfering with
your attempts to move/patch/modify the game. Check your User Rights Management settings, if you suspect
that this may indeed be the case. You might wish to shut URM off completely until after you have finished
setting up Bloodlines. I personally cant stand Windows 7 URM and I have shut mine off permanently.

I have the three disc version.  OK, I'll try again but I really thought I did follow the instructions having got the messages and all (meaning, there a good chance I'll make the same mistake again).  As I recall, there is an issue of uninstalling everything, ie, not everything unloads (possibly save files?).  And, just to be sure, I don't need the official 1.2 patch loaded first, right (I know, you did say, "I repeat, no other patches are needed" :) )?  Darn!  I was hoping I made a basic, easily noticed mistake. 

Quote from: caninelegion on August 10, 2013, 11:50:35 AM
I have the three disc version.  OK, I'll try again but I really thought I did follow the instructions having got the messages and all (meaning, there a good chance I'll make the same mistake again).  As I recall, there is an issue of uninstalling everything, ie, not everything unloads (possibly save files?).  And, just to be sure, I don't need the official 1.2 patch loaded first, right (I know, you did say, "I repeat, no other patches are needed" :) )?  Darn!  I was hoping I made a basic, easily noticed mistake.  

The official 1.2 patch is already incorporated into the True Patch Gold Edition. The TPG is the only patch you need.

So far as fixing whatever you did wrong during your previous installation attempt, the best way to go about it is to just start over again from scratch...


(1) Delete your entire existing Bloodlines installation. Don't just run the game's own uninstall routine... open up Windows Explorer and manually delete the ENTIRE game. All of it. Zap the entire fucking thing out of existence.

(2) Defrag your hard drive after deleting Bloodlines. Do not skip this step.

(3) Re-install Bloodlines, from the original 3 CD's.

(4) Install the True Patch Gold Edition, according to its instructions.

(5) If you are playing on a widescreen monitor, then you will also need to run the VTMB Res-Patcher utility, which is included within the TPG package. Follow its instructions carefully. Do not run the Res-patcher utility until AFTER you have installed the TPG patch. The rule of thumb is always thus: install the TPG patch first, before doing ANYTHING else with VTMB.

(6) Edit your desktop shortcut for VTMB, by adding the appropriate switches to the end of the command line that launches the game. This is a required step for everyone who used the Res-Patcher, as well as anyone who is using the VTMB Mega-Mod. The game will not run properly otherwise. If you are unsure of how to do this, then either look up the instructions posted elsewhere on this board, or else just ask and I'll run through it again real quick. It's easy to do. If you do need to ask, then be sure to tell me what your Windows desktop resolution is, so that I can give you a precise answer.

(7) Since you mentioned that you have a copy of the VTMB Mega-Mod, now is the time to install it... after you have done all of the above successfully.

(8} After launching the game and making sure that everything is working properly, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND MAKING A FULL BACKUP COPY OF THE ENTIRE GAME INSTALLATION AT THIS POINT. Just compress it onto a couple of DVD's, using WinRAR or a similar compression program that allows you to spread the archive over several volumes. Doing so will ensure that you have a pristine, patched and modded backup of the game... which will make any future re-installations very, very easy to do.

(9) Play the game and have fun. Everything should be working perfectly, assuming that you did not make any errors.

I wish I had waited until I got your reply; I'll have to start over again.  Well, at least I made a copy of the installed game on my backup drive so I won't need to load the discs again.  It'll have to wait until tomorrow, though - too tired at this point.  Thanks; you've been patient with me.  

EDIT:  I believe I got the patch working - it says "Gold Edition" on the character creation page.  Question though, just to be sure before I continue.  The execution scene is the British version now, ie, no actual decapitation visible and I still see just emptiness when the vampires leave that meeting (seems way back with your vary earliest TPs, that was fixed) - is that the way it should be or do I still have problems? 

And yes, I downloaded a copy of your mega mod when I first returned to this forum.  I understand you don't support it (and I agree) so I won't ask about it but that will be my next step if you feel the patch is loaded correctly.  Then I'll tackle the widescreen issue - I may end up needing a little help with that as part of the instructions I don't feel comfortable with (my tech vocab is very limited - funny; I've been using computers since 1981 when I worked as a geophysicist until forced to retire due to health issues in 1999, even mastered a programming language (which is useless now - have you ever even heard of FORTRAN 77? :) ) but I still do not know what makes them tick.   

Regarding the decapitation scene... it isn't just the British version, it's EVERY version -- ever since the official 1.2 patch was released. Troika altered that scene, at the request of ActiVision. I have no idea why they insisted on changing it... but then, I have never understood half of the retarded things that ActiVision does. The only way to see the original decapitation scene nowadays is to install the original American 3-CD release of Bloodlines and DO NOT patch it. Then start the game and you may or may not see an actual decapitation. It appears to be somewhat random. But once you apply the official 1.2 patch (or the TPG, which has the 1.2 patch integrated into it), the decapitation scene will be censored. It's very stupid... but that's the way it is.

If you are seeing "Gold Edition" on the lower right corner of the character creation screen, then the TPG is indeed installed. To be doubly sure, go to Santa Monica and look on the side of the yellow dumpsters that are sitting in the alleyway next to the Asylum club. On the far right end (as seen from the front of the dumpsters), you will see "AT" scratched very faintly into the yellow paint of the dumpster, mixed in with a bunch of other graffiti. I made sure that it wasn't too obvious, so you may need to hunt for it a little bit. That "AT" graffiti stands for "Acrimonious and Tessera," and it indicates that the TPG has been correctly installed.

Since you are an existing Mega-Mod user and a board veteran, you can ask me for Mega-Mod support via private message. If you need any support, that is. But I am no longer publicly supporting that mod.

Quote from: Tessera on August 11, 2013, 08:33:38 AM
Regarding the decapitation scene... it isn't just the British version, it's EVERY version -- ever since the official 1.2 patch was released. Troika altered that scene, at the request of ActiVision. I have no idea why they insisted on changing it... but then, I have never understood half of the retarded things that ActiVision does. The only way to see the original decapitation scene nowadays is to install the original American 3-CD release of Bloodlines and DO NOT patch it. Then start the game and you may or may not see an actual decapitation. It appears to be somewhat random. But once you apply the official 1.2 patch (or the TPG, which has the 1.2 patch integrated into it), the decapitation scene will be censored. It's very stupid... but that's the way it is.

If you are seeing "Gold Edition" on the lower right corner of the character creation screen, then the TPG is indeed installed. To be doubly sure, go to Santa Monica and look on the side of the yellow dumpsters that are sitting in the alleyway next to the Asylum club. On the far right end (as seen from the front of the dumpsters), you will see "AT" scratched very faintly into the yellow paint of the dumpster, mixed in with a bunch of other graffiti. I made sure that it wasn't too obvious, so you may need to hunt for it a little bit. That "AT" graffiti stands for "Acrimonious and Tessera," and it indicates that the TPG has been correctly installed.

Since you are an existing Mega-Mod user and a board veteran, you can ask me for Mega-Mod support via private message. If you need any support, that is. But I am no longer publicly supporting that mod.

Thanks!  I will have one extremely basic question to ask on the mega mod but, as for the gold patch, I assumed the hot patch was automatic and I don't have to load that separately; true, right? 

Once again:

The TPG is the only patch you need.

Install the game, and then install the most recent version of the TPG.
That's it -- no other patches are required. The TPG does it all.

thanks i install in our group this mod and it looks awesome! :o thanks again and so why in one readme you write that need to install patch 1.2 and in one other you simply say only to reinstall and paste all???

Because the ReadMe that tells people to install the 1.2 patch first is older... it comes from way back in 2007, when I released version 5.04 AT.

But the current version of the True Patch... the Gold Edition... has had the official 1.2 patch incorporated into it. So it is no longer necessary to install any other patches. The TPG does EVERYTHING all by itself.

Now... will it do any HARM to install the official 1.2 patch first..? No, it will not do any harm. It will simply be redundant and a waste of your time... because when you install the TPG, it will completely overwrite and replace all of the stuff that the 1.2 patch installs.

So do we all understand now..? You do not need to install the official 1.2 patch if you are installing the True Patch Gold Edition. Absolutely everything that is contained within the official 1.2 patch is likewise contained within the TPG. All of it. Every last bit.

8)

Well, everything went well - gold and mega mod loaded fine.  Used the utility for widescreen resolution.  Now I get this:  "engine error:  could not load cl_dlls\GameUI.dll".  Anyone know how to rectify the situation?  My screen uses standard widescreen (res = 1920:1080).  Only thing that looked different was the file specified had a small "g" rather then the capital "G" in the error message. 

When you used the Res-Patcher utility, did you place it into the same folder as the engine.dll file before using it..?

And when you used the Re-patcher utility, did you select the correct widescreen ratio before you hit the patch button..? In your case, the correct ratio to select is 16:9.

And after you used the Res-Patcher utility, did you add the following switches to the end of the command line that launches VTMB..? In your desktop shortcut..?

-w 1920 -h 1080

(Note that the actual values of those switches will depend upon your actual desktop resolution. In this particular case, those are the correct numbers.)

Failure to do any of the above steps correctly will lead to engine errors.

If you screwed up with the Res-Patcher, then no worries... just run it again... CAREFULLY this time.  :P

---

Now then, I have a really good suggestion for ALL users of the True Patch, as well as any users of my various mods...

READ THE FUCKING INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE YOU DO A SINGLE GODDAMNED THING.

It's such a simple concept, really...

There's a reason why I sit up at night, writing out all of those "ReadMe_NOW.txt" files that I include within ALL of my work. It's so people will read those instructions and then know what the fuck they are doing, before they actually install anything. It's... ya know... the intelligent way of doing things.

::)

I did all of that sept the last part - I'll look again, but all I remember reading in the "read me" file was to open the game after changing the numbers, ie, I thought I remembered something about that from a prior post but not in the "read me".  If I missed it (or if it isn't there), I'll let you know.  Likely I missed it, though - happens far too often when following instructions with me (Gulf War Syndrome manifests itself in strange ways, sometimes).  

EDIT:  OK, it really isn't in the "read me" - probably should be added to it.  It IS however, at the top of this page - that's where I thought I remembered it from but not seeing anything in the "read me", I thought my mind was playing tricks on me again.   My bad.  Anyway, I made the change and have absolute confidence that all will be well now.  Again, thanks.  I've learned the hard way that I can be trying and I appreciate your patience.  

EDIT2:  I don't know what I'm missing - it seems easy enough but it still won't open the engine.  Guess I'll have to delete the engine dll and replace it with the back up and run it as 5/4 using NVIDIA controls.  The only thing I can think of is that the -w/-h commands need to be before the heapsize command.  Guess I can try that first.  

There is a separate readme for the Res-Patcher, located in the same folder as the Res-Patcher.

The order of the command line switches is unimportant, so long as all of them are located AFTER the actual command that launches the game.

There are something like 12,000 people worldwide who are using the TPG without having any problems with it. So if you are continuing to have problems, then you are almost certainly doing one or more things wrong. Occam's Razor, dude. If 12,000 people are having no trouble, but one person is... then what is the most likely explanation..? A bad patch..? Bad instructions..? Or user error..?

---

Anyway, since you have told me what your desktop resolution is, and since you have told me that you are also a Mega-Mod user, then the command line within your VTMB shortcut should look like this:

"X:\VTMB\vampire.exe" -console  -heapsize 800000 -w 1920 -h 1080

Note that you will need to replace the "X:\VTMB" part with the actual drive letter and folder name of your own VTMB installation.

None of this is rocket science, dude. If you do everything carefully, and do everything in the correct order, and follow my instructions... not somebody else's instructions, nor your own personal idea of how it should be done, but MY instructions ONLY... then everything should be working as intended.

I think I've said at least six times that the problem is with me.   Where did you get the idea that I blamed the patch?  Oh well, let's try another angle as I typed in exactly what you had above and it didn't work.  Maybe its the name of my execute file that is the issue.  Here is what the target is when I create a new shortcut:  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Vampire - Bloodlines\vampire-bloodlines.exe".  This is what I modified it to:  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Vampire - Bloodlines\vampire-bloodlines.exe" -console -heapsize 800000 -w 1920 -h 1080.  "Start in" I didn't change.  It reads:  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Vampire - Bloodlines".  Also, the dll that won't open is not a part of the engine dll.  Its in a completely different folder:  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Vampire - Bloodlines\vampie\cll_dlls\gameui.dll.  There is only one other file there:  client.dll.  I did change the "0" to a "1" as instructed wherever it was you told me to do that prior.  I can't believe I made the mistake with the utility file - its just too simple.  It won't open unless within the "bin" file and there are only two options, "normal widescreen" and "16:10".  It must be something in the shortcut command line that a computer idiot could overlook.  

Now, the issue of the "read me" file.  here is the end of it:  

(4) You will see all of the different new resolutions displayed above those
buttons, and if you are sure that the values being displayed are compatible
with your widescreen monitor, then go ahead and click the large button
labeled "Patch it!" in order to permanently modify VTMB's engine.dll file.

(5) When you next play the game, its screen resolution will be be maxxed out
for your widescreen display. It really will take your breat away, if you have
never seen how good VTMB can look when it is being rendered in true widescreen.

------------------------
VTMB Res-Patcher utility was created by pirapira.

These instructions were written by Tessera, for the True VTMB Patch GOLD Edition.



Please tell me where it says to modify the shortcut.  As I said, it'd be a good idea to add that as it might (providing people read it) save you a few headaches.  Really, I didn't selectively cut and paste; its really not there!  

I do appreciate your help with this.  I think some eight years ago when you first helped me with some Bloodlines problem (that was at Vampire Planet) I was impressed at how quick you (and Acrimonious) were to offer help and how complete that help was.  That has not changed.  I know only too well how frustrating it is dealing with me and if you think you're frustrated, it pales at how frustrated I am with myself.  I mean, this is someone with a BS in Geology, a BS in Meteorology, and an MS in Geophysics and I can no longer even follow simple, well written instructions.  Well, I'm venting now; I apologize.  

Quote from: caninelegion on August 13, 2013, 04:51:12 PM
I think I've said at least six times that the problem is with me.

Okay... and if the problem is with you, then how do you want ME to fix YOU..?  :P

All I can do is tell people the correct way to do things. But if they still keep having trouble,
even after I've explained it six different ways, then I'm done. I can't do any more to help you.

I'm known for being a very helpful guy on this board. But this thread is devoted to issues with the True Patch Gold Edition. It was never meant to be a primer on how to use a Windows computer properly. We have other topics on this board that are devoted to such things. And that is why you are sensing a bit of irritation on my end of this exchange. It's gotten to the point where we're cluttering up the TPG thread with issues that... quite frankly... do not belong here.

Your problems seem to be arising from a general lack of aptitude when it comes to using a Windows-based computer properly. So my suggestion would be to become better acquainted with your computer and its operating system.

No, the problem is that I have Gulf war Syndrome.  Its no biggy.  If I can't get it to work then I can't get it to work.  I can deal with not playing the game for the six hundreth time.  I was just curious about what fine things you had done.  Besides, I have a genius nephew who will be able to explain it to me as he has much patience.  Thanks as you certainly gave it a good effort.  

And if you can fix me, then have at it.  The VA doctors gave up and said I'd just have to accept the new me.  But then, that government run healthcare so what can one expect? 

YEEHAAA!  My nephew got it to work and I've been playing widescreen (that was the only issue - I had the TP and MM working all the while) all night.  He had a huge advantage - he took control of my computer remotely - but as it turns out, what I did was to somehow make a second application file (Vampire-Bloodlines - my backup of the mod and TP loaded game had both) which didn't work.  Put in the Vampre application file, routed to that one, and voila!  The simplest, stupidest, hardest things to notice seem to be the cause of so many problems.  Anyway, the mod was well worth waiting for.  Why, even stodgy old Strauss has loosened up!

As usual, I have no idea what you're talking about -- but it doesn't matter.  :laugh:


Some words of sage advice...

Now that you (and your nephew) finally figured out what your problem was... and now that everything is working properly for you... don't forget to make a new backup copy of your entire VTMB installation. Use WinRAR to compress it into a couple of 4 GB chunks and then burn it to a couple of DVD's, or whatever. That way, you won't need to go through any of this confusion again in the future.

Quote from: Tessera on August 15, 2013, 06:46:13 AM
As usual, I have no idea what you're talking about -- but it doesn't matter.  :laugh:


Some words of sage advice...

Now that you (and your nephew) finally figured out what your problem was... and now that everything is working properly for you... don't forget to make a new backup copy of your entire VTMB installation. Use WinRAR to compress it into a couple of 4 GB chunks and then burn it to a couple of DVD's, or whatever. That way, you won't need to go through any of this confusion again in the future.

I was so happy, I forgot (thanks!).  I express myself about as well as Malkavian in a dental exam.  :)

Stumbled upon this forum (love it by the way) and found this patch for VTMB, probably the best RPG I have ever played. I was using WESP's patches for a time and they worked fairly well, until the last 4 releases. I'd get very odd graphical anomalies during gameplay that just annoyed me. Like electric wires  doing a type of spaghetti rag-doll effect (for want of a better description). Or certain quests would fail using a particular clan. Like Nosferatu, I would get a crash after completing the Italian Dinner quest, but not being a Malkavian; I couldn't finsh that play-through after spending about 15 hours getting there, grrrr!.  So, I used your patch, and it works awesome. No graphical anomalies and the quests finished properly. Now I can start a new game using the two clans I have not played yet. Thanks for the hard work on this, it is greatly appreciated! <3   :-X

Well first of all, thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you're enjoying the game again, now that you're using the best patch for it.  ;)

Secondly, please add your correct age and gender to your Forum profile immediately, lest you risk having your account automatically deleted. All of our members are required to do this.

Quote from: Tommy6860 on October 10, 2013, 07:13:35 PMI was using WESP's patches for a time and they worked fairly well, until the last 4 releases. I'd get very odd graphical anomalies during gameplay that just annoyed me. Like electric wires  doing a type of spaghetti rag-doll effect (for want of a better description).

Yah... Wesp's "patch" is pretty awful. And you're making the same complaints about Wesp and his "patch" that we've heard a million times before. That issue with the wires, for example. That's yet another ugly bug that Wesp himself added to the game. Wesp had the hair-brained notion that some of the wires on the various telephone poles needed to be "fixed." There was actually nothing wrong with them... but regardless, Wesp decided to pad out his horrible and amateurishly constructed "patch" a few years ago, by making changes to those wires. And they've been malfunctioning ever since.

There are numerous other examples of things that Wesp has broken in Bloodlines. It no doubt explains why so many VTMB players have "defected" away from Wesp and his nonsense and moved over to the True Patch Gold Edition. It's good to see... and I'm glad that I've been able to help everyone to enjoy a smooth, rock-solid gaming experience without bugs -and- without making silly and unnecessary changes to the original gameplay. The TPG represents what every good third-party patch should be: something well-constructed, which improves the game by fixing as many bugs as possible... and NOT making arbitrary changes to the rest of the game.

As for Wesp, he has actually added more bugs to VTMB over the years than he has managed to fix. Fortunately, we all have a very nice alternative. The True Patch has never added a single new bug to Bloodlines and it never will. That's a promise. 8)

Quote from: Tessera on October 10, 2013, 09:30:38 PM
Well first of all, thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you're enjoying the game again, now that you're using the best patch for it.  ;)

Secondly, please add your correct age and gender to your Forum profile immediately, lest you risk having your account automatically deleted. All of our members are required to do this.

Apologies for that, I remember reading that caveat when I signed up, but I was on my way out the door to make it to work and forgot. I stumbled onto this site a while back, then found this patch, and played it; I only thought now to give a good comment as to let everyone know that I really played through it and how well it works. I just decided to make an account to comment. Anyhoo, all updated and yes, I am that old. I been RPGing since 1980 on computers.

Quote
Yah... Wesp's "patch" is pretty awful. And you're making the same complaints about Wesp and his "patch" that we've heard a million times before. That issue with the wires, for example. That's yet another ugly bug that Wesp himself added to the game. Wesp had the hair-brained notion that some of the wires on the various telephone poles needed to be "fixed." There was actually nothing wrong with them... but regardless, Wesp decided to pad out his horrible and amateurishly constructed "patch" a few years ago, by making changes to those wires. And they've been malfunctioning ever since.

There are numerous other examples of things that Wesp has broken in Bloodlines. It no doubt explains why so many VTMB players have "defected" away from Wesp and his nonsense and moved over to the True Patch Gold Edition. It's good to see... and I'm glad that I've been able to help everyone to enjoy a smooth, rock-solid gaming experience without bugs -and- without making silly and unnecessary changes to the original gameplay. The TPG represents what every good third-party patch should be: something well-constructed, which improves the game by fixing as many bugs as possible... and NOT making arbitrary changes to the rest of the game.

As for Wesp, he has actually added more bugs to VTMB over the years than he has managed to fix. Fortunately, we all have a very nice alternative. The True Patch has never added a single new bug to Bloodlines and it never will. That's a promise. 8)

Sad too, because the first few patches I used seemed to have worked well, but then shit hit the fan and I got frustrated. I bought this game on Steam for a $3 about 2-1/2 years ago. Anyway, again, awesome job, will recommend you big time if anyone ever asks for help.  :-X

Bah, you're not old. You simply grew up with the best music and the hottest looking women of all time (those incredible 1980's "hardbody" babes).  ;)

Is there a changelog available for all the TruePatch hotfixes ?

Quote from: Abhijeet on October 15, 2013, 10:21:58 AM
Is there a changelog available for all the TruePatch hotfixes ?

Unfortunately no, there isn't. Sorry, but I neglected to document most of the TPG repairs. Chalk it up to my own laziness... we are talking about literally hundreds of individual repairs.

If someone asks me about a specific item, then I can usually remember what it was that I fixed and respond accordingly. But no, I didn't sit here writing down every single item. There were just too many of them.

I am of the opinion that most people don't even bother to read change logs anyway, so I didn't concern myself with it at the time. In retrospect, I suppose it would have been a good idea for me to have been a bit more thorough in my documentation.  :-[

But anyway, what difference does it make..? All of the repairs contained within the TPG are 100% legitimate and of very high quality. It's the best VTMB patch on the web, period. The TPG repairs more legitimate bugs than any other VTMB patch from any other source. That isn't just a bunch of hype -- it's the absolute truth and it has been independently verified.

I think the forums more or less serves as the change log. Aren't some of the changes posted here and there thru out the forums?

I don't think they're viewable anymore... but yeah, back when the TPG was in its month-long beta testing phase,
there were pages and pages of posts from myself and the rest of the beta testing team, which examined all sorts
of different bugs and the solutions that I worked out for each of those bugs.

I'm pretty sure that the TPG beta testing forum was archived several years ago. I suppose I could dig it up again,
if anybody REALLY wants to read through all of that stuff. Most of it is pretty technical, though. 

In the meantime, if anybody is curious or has a question regarding a specific repair made by the TPG, then feel
free to ask me about it. I should be able to remember what was done to fix it, once I know exactly which bug
we happen to be talking about. It should still be rattling around inside my head... somewhere.

Quote from: Tessera on October 15, 2013, 04:38:17 PM
Unfortunately no, there isn't. Sorry, but I neglected to document most of the TPG repairs. Chalk it up to my own laziness... we are talking about literally hundreds of individual repairs.

Besides, to "someone we all know and love", a changelog would be a godsend. He'd actually know what to fix.  ;)

He has already stolen from the TPG, on quite a few occasions.

I just installed the TPG, and it works smoothly.
I just wish to express my thanks for your hard work.

Some months ago I installed Wesp's Unofficial Patch, having read about it somewhere. Well, I had my fun with it, but some changes I found either unnerving or aimed at making the game too much easy, like the Blood Heal [unnerving], the flapping ropes everywhere [unnerving] or the 4th point of Thaumaturgy [vastly overpowered, in my hopinion].

So now that I could make a fresh install of my VtMB copy, I proceeded with your patch and it's been really good so far.

You really have my heartfelt thanks. =)

Quote from: Tessera on October 15, 2013, 04:38:17 PM

Quote from: Abhijeet on October 15, 2013, 10:21:58 AM
Is there a changelog available for all the TruePatch hotfixes ?

Unfortunately no, there isn't. Sorry, but I neglected to document most of the TPG repairs. Chalk it up to my own laziness... we are talking about literally hundreds of individual repairs.

If someone asks me about a specific item, then I can usually remember what it was that I fixed and respond accordingly. But no, I didn't sit here writing down every single item. There were just too many of them.

I am of the opinion that most people don't even bother to read change logs anyway, so I didn't concern myself with it at the time. In retrospect, I suppose it would have been a good idea for me to have been a bit more thorough in my documentation.  :-[

But anyway, what difference does it make..? All of the repairs contained within the TPG are 100% legitimate and of very high quality. It's the best VTMB patch on the web, period. The TPG repairs more legitimate bugs than any other VTMB patch from any other source. That isn't just a bunch of hype -- it's the absolute truth and it has been independently verified.

I have played VTMB quite a few times with True patches. My problem is that i am stuck with awful internet. So it would be helpful if I knew what changes are done with last few hotfixes. Is there any recommended mods which are compatible True Patch ?

The True Patch does not change the game. The True Patch simply fixes the game. Hence I did not feel that a lengthy, detailed listing of every single bug fix was necessary. Most people would never bother to read it in the first place. Also, most people would have little or no idea what all of that information actually means, since most people are not very savvy when it comes to Source engine programming.

So I kept it very simple: the TPG fixes all of the most important bugs in Bloodlines, along with fixing numerous little bugs, too. At the present time, the TPG fixes more legitimate bugs in Bloodlines than any other patch, from any other source. That is an independently verified fact.

There are also a few minor restorations, most notably the "ghouling Heather" scene at the Santa Monica Clinic, as well as re-enabling a couple of oral sex sequences that Troika was apparently forced to disable prior to the game's release. Also, some of the NPC pathing has been adjusted, in order to minimize the frequency of collisions as the NPC's move about from place to place.

Aside from the above, the TPG makes no other changes to Bloodlines. It is not a mod... it is a legitimate bug-fix patch, and nothing more.

Quote from: Tessera on November 05, 2013, 05:45:25 AM
The True Patch does not change the game. The True Patch simply fixes the game. Hence I did not feel that a lengthy, detailed listing of every single bug fix was necessary. Most people would never bother to read it in the first place. Also, most people would have little or no idea what all of that information actually means, since most people are not very savvy when it comes to Source engine programming.

So I kept it very simple: the TPG fixes all of the most important bugs in Bloodlines, along with fixing numerous little bugs, too. At the present time, the TPG fixes more legitimate bugs in Bloodlines than any other patch, from any other source. That is an independently verified fact.

There are also a few minor restorations, most notably the "ghouling Heather" scene at the Santa Monica Clinic, as well as re-enabling a couple of oral sex sequences that Troika was apparently forced to disable prior to the game's release. Also, some of the NPC pathing has been adjusted, in order to minimize the frequency of collisions as the NPC's move about from place to place.

Aside from the above, the TPG makes no other changes to Bloodlines. It is not a mod... it is a legitimate bug-fix patch, and nothing more.

Thanks for the info Tessera. What do you plan to fix in fix in next hotfix ?

Quote from: Abhijeet on November 08, 2013, 10:05:28 PM
Thanks for the info Tessera. What do you plan to fix in fix in next hotfix ?

Well, I'm open to suggestions.   8)

Frankly, I can't think of anything else that needs fixing. Hotfix #7 (the current version of the TPG) pretty much nailed it. Oh, there's still a few extremely minor little things here and there. Dialogue errors (spelling and punctuation), for example... we never seem to run out of those. And the NPC's still collide with each other in a few places. But none of those things are especially important, really. All of the major bugs have already been taken care of by the TPG -- so if there's anything left over, then those issues would amount to nit picking on our parts.

But yeah, I'm open to suggestions, if anyone has any to offer. Keep in mind that I am only interested in actual BUGS... not just a list of things that you wish were different or "better." Making things different is what mods are for. The True Patch is only concerned with actual, legitimate malfunctions which may exist in the game code. As we have said many times around here: a patch is a patch, and a mod is a mod. I have always done my best to ensure that the TPG is a bona fide patch, which simply fixes bugs and does nothing else.

Updated TPG Installation Notes:


True Patch Gold Edition
HOTFIX #7
August 08, 2012
ReadMe Updated on March 08, 2014
- Tessera -


NOTE: PLEASE REFER TO THE "Docs" SUB-FOLDER FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS
REGARDING THE TRUE PATCH GOLD EDITION FOR VTM: BLOODLINES.


------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------

This is the complete True Patch Gold Edition patch for Vampire -- The Masquerade: Bloodlines.
The True Patch Gold Edition patch MUST be installed BEFORE you install any third-party mods.

Regarding Hotfix #7...

This hotfix deals with several bugs and glitches which were discovered after the release
of the True Patch Gold Edition.

This Hotfix also includes several model repairs by DDLulu. Specifically, these repairs add
visible fangs to several NPC vampires who previously lacked them. The NPC's affected are:

Skelter
Lily
LaCroix
Isaac
Copper
The "Serial Killer"
Sweeper

Many thanks to DDLulu, for giving us permission to add his various model repairs to the TPG.

All other repairs were performed by Tessera and Acrimonious, unless otherwise noted.

-------------------
INSTALLATION
-------------------

IMPORTANT:
It is strongly suggested that you make a FULL backup of VTMB, prior to installing this
or any other third-party patch or mod(s).

After unzipping this package, simply copy the entire contents of the "Vampire" folder and
the paste those contents into your working VTMB\Vampire folder. If you do this correctly,
then Windows will warn you that the files in question already exist and ask if you wish to
overwrite them. Select "Yes" to all and then wait for these updated files to replace the
original versions. That's all there is to it.

You do not require any other patches aside from this one. The official version 1.2 patch
from ActiVision is already fully incorporated into the TPG package. The TPG is all you need.


*** SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR USERS OF THE "HAVEN DANCE" MOD: ***

If you elected to install the optional "Haven Dance" mod that was included within the original
True Patch Gold Edition, then you will need to follow the instructions below:

(1) First, install this update as per the previous instructions at the beginning of this section.
(2) Next, look for a sub-folder within this hotfix package labeled "Haven Dance."
(3) Within that sub-folder is another sub-folder named "maps." Highlight and copy that sub-folder.
(4) Now paste that sub-folder named "maps" and all that it contains into your working
VTMB\Vampire folder. When Windows prompts you to overwrite existing files, say "Yes" to all.
(5) If you do all of the above correctly, then your Haven Dance mod will be updated with the
new repairs for the "Milligan bug." The dance mod itself will continue to function as before.
The Milligan bug occurred within the Skyline map, as does the Haven Dance mod. Hence the need
for Haven Dance mod users to install a separate version of the Skyline map file.


*** SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR VTMB MEGA-MOD USERS ***

DO NOT install any of the optional mods from the True Patch package. There is no need for Mega-Mod
users to do so, because improved versions of all of those optional TPG mods are already included
within the VTMB Mega-Mod package. Mega-Mod users should simply install the basic TPG and then
install the VTMB Mega-Mod. You will then "have it all," as they say. :)


--------------------
IMPORTANT NOTES
--------------------

This hotfix includes several major map repairs. Hence it may be necessary to start the game
all over again... from the beginning... with a brand-new character which has never been played
before. This unfortunate requirement is due to the way that the Source engine saves map data
into its gamesave files. If you enter a newly revised map with an existing character who has
already visited that map -- prior to when it was updated -- then in all likelihood the game
will malfunction in various and unpredictable ways. Hence the need to start over again from
scratch with a brand-new character. With Bloodlines, that's just the way it is, folks.

--------------------------------
Notable repairs in Hotfix #6:
--------------------------------

Some minor adjustements to several ground pathing nodes have been performed in various maps.
A fairly significant pathing issue inside the Asp Hole club has been repaired (it had to do
with NPC congestion happening on the stairs leading up to the second floor).

Several other minor map repairs have been performed inside the Asp Hole club in Hollywood.

A sound effect which was causing certain audio cards to experience problems has been adjusted.

Barabus will now despawn properly after the player has completed all of his quests and exited
the Fu Labs building (in Chinatown).

Milligan will never get hung up on the furniture... never again. The "Milligan Bug" is no more.

Several female NPC's have had a minor texture repair done to their hair. Thank you for reminding me, Zeno.

Several Kindred NPC's whose fangs were missing have been repaired, courtesy of DDLullu.

A minor adjustment to the "Haven Dance Mod" bundled in with the TPG has been performed.

A few new Python repairs are being introduced, courtesy of the one and only Acrimonious.

A couple of malfunctioning triggers have been repaired on the Santa Monica Warehouse map.

Various other small map repairs, which are frankly too numerous to list.


----------------------------------------------
Notable repairs in Hotfix #6b and Hotfix #7:
----------------------------------------------

Several misfiring audio problems resolved via map trigger edits.
A few minor NPC pathing issues were resolved.

The main executable (vampire.exe) has been patched, in order to provide
additional stability and better memory usage on 64-bit operating systems.




---------------------
SUPPORT
---------------------

As always, official support for True Patch users is available via the tessmage.com Forums.


---------------------
AUTHOR
---------------------

All parts of the True Patch Gold Edition were written and assembled by Tessera, except where
otherwise noted within the official patch notes.



- Tessera -
www.tessmage.com
August 14, 2011

E-Mail: tessera@tessmage.com
 

Nice - thanks for the update Tess!

Thanks alot my game is much better now  :)

Nice to replay one of the best RPGs :)

Glad you're enjoying it. VTMB is probably my all-time favorite PC-RPG.  8)

Is there more than just the odd two or three nudity skins from you?

Quote from: mooseh on March 26, 2014, 01:05:28 PM
Is there more than just the odd two or three nudity skins from you?

The True Patch has nothing to do with nude mods. It is simply a patch to fix the bugs in the plain-vanilla game.

If you have any inquiries regarding my various adult gaming mods, then please post those inquiries up in the appropriate area of this board (in the "Tessera's Mods" section).

*cough* I think he was looking for something similar to some mega-mod ...

Same answer: those inquiries do not belong within this topic. The True Patch has
nothing whatsoever to do with my mods. It is an entirely separate entity.

Patches are patches, and mods are mods. The TPG makes no changes to the
original game, therefore it is not a mod. It simply fixes bugs and nothing else.
The TPG is a true patch, in every sense of that term. Hence its name.  ;)

Inquiries about my mods belong up in the "Tessera's Mods" section of this board.
Please confine any and all discussions about my mods to that area.

Copied over from the members-only area of this board....

---

Quote from: elanaahova on April 01, 2014, 10:56:01 AMthought XP mode addressed those issues.

"XP mode" is simply a software-based emulator built into Windows 7. It won't have any effect upon how your hardware handles DirectX 8 games, because the problem is in fact a hardware-based issue. In any case, there is no need to run VTMB in Windows XP mode... not if you have the True Patch installed. The current version of the TPG allows VTMB to run just fine on later versions of Windows (both 32 and 64 bit versions).

Bloodlines in particular has a long history of not getting along very well with nVidia video cards. Which is kind of goofy when you think about it, because the original game shows an nVidia splash screen when the game is loading (complete with Velvet Velour taking a bite out of the nVidia logo). I've played Bloodlines on all sorts of video cards over the years and for whatever it's worth, I've always had the least amount of problems when it was running on an ATI (AMD) Radeon video card.

A possible reason for this might be because the original Source engine... the exact same engine that VTMB was built upon... was developed using ATI Radeon video cards. As a matter of fact, the first release of Half-Life 2, which used more or less the same engine as VTMB, had "Special thanks to ATI Technologies" or some such listed in the credits.

I'm not saying that an ATI Radeon card is the ONLY way to play VTMB, mind you. I'm just saying that the VTMB engine is very quirky and it seems to be rather fussy about its hardware requirements. For one thing, it definitely does not get along with most types of built-in motherboard audio chips. It works much better with a separate, dedicated audio card in the system. And as I've been saying, it likewise doesn't get along very well with several models of nVidia video cards. For whatever reason, VTMB seems to get along much better with ATI Radeon cards.

I don't know if any of the above info is related to the problems that you've been having, but I figured it would be helpful to you and/or anyone else who might be curious about VTMB's peculiar hardware requirements.


HARDWARE THAT VTMB "LIKES"
At least 4 GB of system RAM
ATI Radeon video cards
A dedicated, high-quality audio card (see following section for exception)
A fully defragmented hard drive
A dual-core or better CPU


HARDWARE THAT VTMB "HATES"
Slow CPU's (not an issue for most modern computers)
Less than 4 GB of installed system RAM
Built-in motherboard audio hardware
Creative Labs "SoundBlaster X-Fi" audio cards (or any other audio card based upon the X-Fi chipset)
Several models of nVidia video cards
Heavily fragmented hard drives (increases Source engine "stuttering")

A new version of the TPG (with Hotfix #8) will be released very soon... probably before Christmas.


The next release of the TPG will contain a few additional repairs. All of them are minor,
but I finally collected enough tiny repairs to warrant the release of a new Hotfix.


Other changes which will be included within the next release of the TPG are:

(1) The Adobe Reader application will no longer be included within the True Patch Gold Edition package.

(2) The optional mods which were included within previous versions of the TPG will likewise no longer be included.


I'll post an announcement when the next version of the TPG is available for downloading. It should be ready very soon.

This patch is great! Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Happy vamping.  8)

Eeek, I'm getting a 404

Quote from: BazYat on July 31, 2015, 11:53:36 AM
Eeek, I'm getting a 404

Oops... sorry. I forgot to update my OP when I released Hotfix #8.   :-[

I have just updated the download link.

You can also download the True Patch directly from our Downloads page:

http://www.tessmage.com/download.htm

Ahhh that'll explain it. Thanks Tess =3 Do I need a NoCD crack, or is one included?

Quote from: BazYat on July 31, 2015, 01:28:00 PM
Ahhh that'll explain it. Thanks Tess =3 Do I need a NoCD crack, or is one included?

All you need is the True Patch Gold Edition. Install the game... install the patch... and you're done. You don't need any other patches or cracks or anything else. Just fire it up and play. This is why I named it "the Gold Edition." This single patch will take care of every possible issue, including a built-in NOCD function, as well as ensuring that Bloodlines is 100% compatible with all current versions of DirectX and all modern 64-bit Windows operating systems (and it will run just fine on 32-bit Windows, also).

Those of you who play on a widescreen monitor... which is pretty much everybody these days... will also need to run the VTMB ResPatcher utility after the game has been patched. Full instructions are included within the TPG package. You will also need to modify the desktop shortcut for VTMB, in order to force the game to run in widesceen after it has been ResPatch'ed. It isn't difficult, but you do need to pay attention when you are doing it. Lastly, you'll need to make sure that one of the lines within the config.cfg file is set properly, so that the game will default to running in anamorphic widescreen.

All of that may sound a little complicated -- but it isn't. For most people, it will take them all of five minutes to do all of that stuff. Keep in mind that Bloodlines was developed back at a time when almost nobody used a widescreen LCD monitor... most of us were still using 4:3 ratio CRT monitors back in 2004. So the game needs to be pushed a little, in order to get it looking as yummy as possible on today's video hardware.

And as always, if you're playing the Steam version of Bloodlines, then you MUST move the entire game out and away from your Steam folders BEFORE you patch it or do anything else. Full instructions on how to do so (it's easy) can be found within this forum. Bloodlines is not compatible with Steam... no way -- no how. I will not offer technical support to any Steam users who fail to follow this procedure.

Cool, cheers =D

Hello. I've been using the patch for a long time with no problems. Recently I've upgraded my Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, and now the game is crashing. I tried many options, running it with compatibility, as administrator...,  So I just came to the conclusion that the patch is not compatible with W10  :'(
The game runs fine with clean install, no patch.
I just wanted to make sure you know it, in case you plan on releasing an update. Or maybe you have a solution?

See ya :)

Quote from: Alerie on September 03, 2015, 03:26:44 PM
I just came to the conclusion that the patch is not compatible with W10  :'(
The game runs fine with clean install, no patch.

Thank you for your input. I appreciate it.

However...

I don't have Windows 10... nor do I have any intention of installing it EVER... so I have no way of testing any possible compatibility issues between VTMB, the True Patch, and Windows 10. But if I had to take an educated guess, then I'd wager that the code changes that I made to vampire.exe and a couple of the DirectX DLL files might be clashing with some new bug in Windows 10. Mind you, that's just a guess... as I've said, I have no way to test it so that I can know for certain.

The fact that the TPG runs perfectly fine on every single previous version of Windows should tell us something: namely, that it is WINDOWS 10 which broke this game... not the True Patch. This is hardly unexpected, because every new version of Windows from Windows 2000 on upward has become increasingly bloated, buggy and downright shitty.

My suggestion is to get rid of Windows 10. Go back to using Windows 7, until a year or so from now... after Microsoft finishes working out all of the bugs in Windows 10. Anyone who installs Windows 10 so soon after its release is just asking for all sorts of trouble. I realize that MS is giving away Win10 for free (for now), and that seems very attractive to most people. But if I came to your house and offered you a free box of dog shit, would you take it..? Hey -- it's free! But no, you wouldn't take it -- because it's still dog shit.

Hopefully, I've made my point. So give it awhile... and just roll back to Win7 for now. That's my advice.

Otherwise, I guess you're on your own. As I said, I have zero interest in Windows 10 and so, I have absolutely no plans whatsoever to release any Windows 10 updates for VTMB.

QuoteMy suggestion is to get rid of Windows 10. Go back to using Windows 7, until a year or so from now... after Microsoft finishes working out all of the bugs in Windows 10. Anyone who installs Windows 10 so soon after its release is just asking for all sorts of trouble. I realize that MS is giving away Win10 for free (for now), and that seems very attractive to most people. But if I came to your house and offered you a free box of dog shit, would you take it..? Hey -- it's free! But no, you wouldn't take it -- because it's still dog shit.

Never buy anything computer related on day one, hardware or software.

Yeah, seriously... I've been hearing nothing but bad things about Windows 10. Not just from gamers, but all over the web people are bitching about it. Lots of bugs, including a ton of incompatibility issues. The geeky little control freaks at Microsoft are trying to ram this new, bloated and buggy OS up everyone's asses... just as they tried with Vista and Windows 8. Our best response, collectively, is to give MS the finger and JUST SAY NO to Win 10. I have not seen any evidence that Win 10 offers anything new and wonderful, as compared to Win 7. Win 10 also seems less secure to me, what with all of its inducements to move over to "cloud-based" apps and storage. Fuck that... I won't entrust my data to outside agencies. I especially do not trust Microsoft, given their miserable track record during the past decade.

If anyone is having troubles with Bloodlines or ANY of their games on Windows 10, and if those games were running just fine on Win7 or some other version of Windows, then don't report it to me... report it to Microsoft.

So I repeat: the best plan right now, so far as Win 10 is concerned, is to stay away from it for at least a year (or longer). MS is still supporting Windows 7 and they plan to do so until the year 2020 or whatever... so there's no hurry to switch to Windows 10 right now.

Hi Tessera, just wanted to say I give infinite respect to you for your work on this patch for one of the best games ever made. It is a tragedy of boundless proportions that Activision did what they did to this masterpiece, but thanks to your hard work we get the chance to enjoy it as it was meant to be. Not gonna mention that other "patch"... My hat is off to you, and I hope people have taken and continue to take the time to express gratitude for everything you put into this patch. *bow -- FYI, I constantly praise this game to the uninitiated, and the second thing I mention is your patch, which I consider indispensable to enjoying the intended experience.

Any rate, just repeating what the poster above said. Game is completely unplayable with this patch when using Win 10. CTD right after clicking "new game". I imagine it will get hammered out, eventually. I'd report to MS per your suggestion, only I don't know what information exactly to give them. The crash log is Greek to me. I imagine you have it right and it's DirectX-related. You got any suggestions on what information is pertinent or on a good way to collate this stuff for MS? I don't agree with you about MS, btw, but that's neither here nor there, and I'm hoping as a fellow lover of this wonderful work of art, you might look past that and try to help a fan out even if you do think they're... misguided. :)

Thanks for everything that you do!

Quote from: DeadAmaranth on September 28, 2015, 07:30:54 PM
Hi Tessera, just wanted to say I give infinite respect to you for your work on this patch for one of the best games ever made. It is a tragedy of boundless proportions that Activision did what they did to this masterpiece, but thanks to your hard work we get the chance to enjoy it as it was meant to be. Not gonna mention that other "patch"... My hat is off to you, and I hope people have taken and continue to take the time to express gratitude for everything you put into this patch. *bow -- FYI, I constantly praise this game to the uninitiated, and the second thing I mention is your patch, which I consider indispensable to enjoying the intended experience.

Any rate, just repeating what the poster above said. Game is completely unplayable with this patch when using Win 10. CTD right after clicking "new game". I imagine it will get hammered out, eventually. I'd report to MS per your suggestion, only I don't know what information exactly to give them. The crash log is Greek to me. I imagine you have it right and it's DirectX-related. You got any suggestions on what information is pertinent or on a good way to collate this stuff for MS? I don't agree with you about MS, btw, but that's neither here nor there, and I'm hoping as a fellow lover of this wonderful work of art, you might look past that and try to help a fan out even if you do think they're... misguided. :)

Thanks for everything that you do!

Well first, thank you for the compliments. I appreciate it.  8)

Regarding Windows 10 issues... I think I've already covered that problem. If VTMB plays fine on every version of Windows -except- Windows 10, then it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the problem is with Windows 10 itself... not with VTMB, and not with the True Patch. This wouldn't be the first time that a new version of Windows has broken a bunch of great games -- and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Truly, people... it's too soon to be reporting Windows 10 problems, for this or ANY other game. Win 10 has only been around for less than a month. And like every new OS from MicroSlop, it's almost certainly filled with hundreds of bugs and probably just as many compatibility issues. This is why I've been urging everyone... and gamers in particular... to STAY AWAY from Windows 10 for at least another year.

Keep in mind that you aren't losing anything by doing so... because from what I've seen, Win 10 doesn't offer anything new and wonderful, so far as PC gaming is concerned. Not one single thing. So if high-end gaming is what your main priority is, so far as your operating system is concerned, then you gain absolutely nothing by switching to Windows 10 at this point in time. There isn't a single game on the market which has been optimized for Win 10... all of the top titles are still based around DirectX 11 and the Windows 7 OS, actually. Most developers are probably hanging back and waiting to see how popular Win 10 is, before they start basing their designs around that particular OS.

So what's the hurry in switching to Win 10, people..? Gamers are gaining nothing AT ALL by doing so.

I don't want to repeat myself -- and I think my points have already been made. Just give them a chance to iron out the numerous issues with Win10 before installing it. "Newer" isn't always "better," especially where Windows operating systems are concerned. It took MS nearly two years to work out most of the bugs with Windows 7, and they NEVER managed to work out all of the compatibility issues with its predecessor, Windows Vista. As for Windows 8... it's a dog, nobody wants it and everybody knows it, that's why its sales have been absolutely abysmal.

So step back from Win 10 for now, and just stick with Win 7 for a year or so. That is my advice to everyone. If you want to report compatibility issues to MicroSlop, then fine... go right ahead. But you'll still be waiting for at least a year before they get around to fixing it, so again... dump Win 10 for now, and revert to Win 7. At the very least, set up Win 7 as a secondary OS on your computer and just do all of your gaming there.

Just wondering, since I've been gone for a while. What was the reason for the removal of the high-res texture pack again? Was it because it came too close to modding?

I've seen various success rates with Windows 10, and I didn't really have a choice in the upgrade after a hard drive failure and not having an OS disk, so I suppose I'll reinstall and see if I can get it running on mine.

I'd also think that one could reinsert the decapitation sequence in SOMEHOW, but you'd have to really know how it was programmed and risk messing up all sorts of things in the process. Shame it was removed, as I only ever had the Steam version.

Quote from: Prisoner416 on November 02, 2015, 06:45:34 PM
Just wondering, since I've been gone for a while. What was the reason for the removal of the high-res texture pack again? Was it because it came too close to modding?

Yes, that...

...and also because those textures were old and not of the same quality as that of my later VTMB mods. That hi-res texture pack was one of the very first texture mods that I ever created for VTMB, way back in early 2007. And back at that time, the quality of my VTMB mods were pretty lousy, to be honest.

In truth, I was sort of embarrassed by them... so I removed them from circulation, so to speak.  :-[

It's been a long time since I played, I remember mainly using an improvement for the eye models, which I can't remember if it was included with the patch or not.

Lately I've been doing a lot of typo hunting on the Fallout series, namely 1, 3, and New Vegas.

Guess my old account was removed for inactivity. I'll try to pop in every now and then when I can. I see the patch has updated since the last fix, which was my submitted Brujah seduction error. Have to find a change log and see what all was modified.

LOL... I don't write change logs. Not since 2008. :laugh:

I have fixed so many goddamned bugs over the years, that I quickly got tired of trying to catalog them all. I mean... we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of bugs here. The sheer size of the TPG should give you an idea of how much of an undertaking this project has been.

This game was such a mess before the True Patch... most of you have no idea just how many bugs there are in the plain-vanilla game. It's an insane amount. So it didn't take long for me to just say "Fuck it," and stop keeping notes on every single bug fix. Hey... it's not like anybody is paying me for this stuff.  :P

Hello
Ok, so I followed the Installation Instructions thoroughly (and made sure before to paste the vampire content from the Steam Library to another folder outside of the Steam folder). When I tried to start the game (using the exe.file in the root folder) I heard sounds but no graphics until the start page turned up. I chose "New game", but after that the game Crashed To Desktop. I noticed that a crash log was created after the crash so I provide it here, hoping that might bring light into what happens.

Cheers

EDIT:
Just to be sure I understood it right: After copying the contents of the TRUE_PATCH_MAIN into the root folder (the folder containing the vampire.exe), when I got the question about what to do with conflicting files, I chose "Copy and remove" on all conflicting files.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


EDIT by Tessera: removed crash log data, as it was not helpful in this particular situation and also, it was taking up too much space.

Which version of Windows are you using..? If it's Windows 10, then I have been getting reports that VTMB is not compatible with Win 10. At present, Win 10 is apparently very unfriendly to older (pre-DirectX 11) games.

Did you move VTMB out and away from Steam and into its own unique folder on your hard drive BEFORE patching it with the True Patch..?

Are you using the most recent, up-to-date version of the True Patch Gold Edition..? And did you download it from THIS web site..? If you find the TPG on some other site, then you need to know that those versions of the TPG are unauthorized. They may not be up-to-date... they may even have been altered... and I will not support them.

Are you using any other third-party mods for VTMB..? If so, then are those mods 100% True Patch compatible..? And did you install them AFTER you installed the True Patch..?

If you are running the game in widescreen resolution (most people are these days), then did you use the VTMB ResPatcher utility that is bundled in with the True Patch..? And did you select the correct set of widescreen resolutions (16:9 or 16:10) when you used it..? NOTE: the ResPatcher should not be used until AFTER the TPG has been fully installed.

Is there anything else about your system that you can tell me..? Even the little things can sometimes be important. The crash logs don't help me at all... they merely say which modules crashed, but they rarely say WHY they crashed.

Quote from: Tessera on November 05, 2015, 06:02:28 AM
Which version of Windows are you using..? If it's Windows 10, then I have been getting reports that VTMB is not compatible with Win 10. At present, Win 10 is apparently very unfriendly to older (pre-DirectX 11) games.

Did you move VTMB out and away from Steam and into its own unique folder on your hard drive BEFORE patching it with the True Patch..?

Are you using the most recent, up-to-date version of the True Patch Gold Edition..? And did you download it from THIS web site..? If you find the TPG on some other site, then you need to know that those versions of the TPG are unauthorized. They may not be up-to-date... they may even have been altered... and I will not support them.

Are you using any other third-party mods for VTMB..? If so, then are those mods 100% True Patch compatible..? And did you install them AFTER you installed the True Patch..?

If you are running the game in widescreen resolution (most people are these days), then did you use the VTMB ResPatcher utility that is bundled in with the True Patch..? And did you select the correct set of widescreen resolutions (16:9 or 16:10) when you used it..? NOTE: the ResPatcher should not be used until AFTER the TPG has been fully installed.

Is there anything else about your system that you can tell me..? Even the little things can sometimes be important. The crash logs don't help me at all... they merely say which modules crashed, but they rarely say WHY they crashed.

I´m using Windows 7 (haven´t upgraded yet because of the often usual trouble with using latest version)

I did cut out the entire Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines folder from the Games Steam/ Steamapps/Common folder and pasted it in a folder called VTMB at another place on my computer before applying your patch to it.

I used a version of the True Patch that I downloaded from this site. Not sure if it is the latest though... I downloaded it a couple of weeks ago. UPDATE: I checked it and it is the one with hotfix 8.

I decided not to use any third party mods for now. "Better make the main game work first." I thought.

I am running the game in widescreen resolution but I haven't used the VTMB ResPatcher yet. Not sure how to use it either.

Well, I´m using windows 7, Home premium with Service Pack 1.
I have a Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 2400 CPU @ 3.10 GHz,
RAM 8 GB,
64 bit operating system

Not sure what more I can provide... Oh, and after the failure with starting the game, I erased all of it, downloaded a new version and tried start it without your patch after I extracted it into an external folder, but then it complained that it couldn't find steam.

UPDATE:
I found the ResPatcher utility, opened up the Instruction Note and tried to find the config.cfg which is supposed to be found in the VTMB\Vampire\cfg sub-folder, but the only files in there is an autoexec file and a notecard called "dummy". No config.cfg to be found there.

The game writes its own config.cfg file after the first time it has been run. Since you haven't been able to run it yet, you don't have a config.cfg file.

I've never heard of a "dummy" file before... not for VTMB, anyway. That sounds a little suspicious to me. I suggest deleting that file.

Anyway, I have no idea why you're having trouble with it. VTMB with the True Patch should run just fine on every version of Windows 7 that exists. I myself have Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installed on one of my machines, and VTMB runs perfectly there. No problems of any kind whatsoever. I realize that this doesn't help you at all, but I just wanted to mention it.

It's possible that your VTMB download might be corrupted, I suppose. I would suggest deleting the game and then re-downloading it from Steam. It couldn't hurt to try.


Other possibilities:

(1) Your video card might be causing problems with VTMB. Certain models of nVidia video cards have a history of crashing this game. ATI video cards, on the other hand, have not been known to cause any problems with VTMB.

(2) Certain on-board audio hardware can likewise cause the game to crash. VTMB expects to find a separate, dedicated audio card plugged into one of your PCI slots.

(3) Regarding sound cards: just about ANY sound card based upon the Creative Labs "X-Fi" chipset will not only cause problems for VTMB... they will also cause problems for lots of other games and applications, too. This is especially true when an X-Fi card is used in conjunction with a 64-bit operating system. If you own such a sound card, then get rid of it. They're nothing but malfunctioning garbage, frankly. I recommend replacing it with any sound card that is built around a C-Media chipset.

(4) Certain applications running in the background can sometimes interfere with VTMB and other games. Try shutting EVERYTHING off... all of that extra crappola that's running on your task bar. Then see if the game will run.

(5) Do not try to run VTMB on a laptop computer. And it makes no difference how good your laptop is. This game engine pre-dates "gaming laptops," and it has no idea how to properly address laptop hardware. The OS should take care of this issue and translate the instruction sets properly... but in many cases, it doesn't do a good enough job and the game runs poorly, or not at all on a laptop machine. This game... and every Source engine game, really... was meant to be played on a full-sized, desktop gaming rig.

Quote from: Tessera on November 05, 2015, 08:20:22 AM
The game writes its own config.cfg file after the first time it has been run. Since you haven't been able to run it yet, you don't have a config.cfg file.

I've never heard of a "dummy" file before... not for VTMB, anyway. That sounds a little suspicious to me. I suggest deleting that file.

Anyway, I have no idea why you're having trouble with it. VTMB with the True Patch should run just fine on every version of Windows 7 that exists. I myself have Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installed on one of my machines, and VTMB runs perfectly there. No problems of any kind whatsoever. I realize that this doesn't help you at all, but I just wanted to mention it.

It's possible that your VTMB download might be corrupted, I suppose. I would suggest deleting the game and then re-downloading it from Steam. It couldn't hurt to try.


Other possibilities:

(1) Your video card might be causing problems with VTMB. Certain models of nVidia video cards have a history of crashing this game. ATI video cards, on the other hand, have not been known to cause any problems with VTMB.

(2) Certain on-board audio hardware can likewise cause the game to crash. VTMB expects to find a separate, dedicated audio card plugged into one of your PCI slots.

(3) Regarding sound cards: just about ANY sound card based upon the Creative Labs "X-Fi" chipset will not only cause problems for VTMB... they will also cause problems for lots of other games and applications, too. This is especially true when an X-Fi card is used in conjunction with a 64-bit operating system. If you own such a sound card, then get rid of it. They're nothing but malfunctioning garbage, frankly. I recommend replacing it with any sound card that is built around a C-Media chipset.

(4) Certain applications running in the background can sometimes interfere with VTMB and other games. Try shutting EVERYTHING off... all of that extra crappola that's running on your task bar. Then see if the game will run.

(5) Do not try to run VTMB on a laptop computer. And it makes no difference how good your laptop is. This game engine pre-dates "gaming laptops," and it has no idea how to properly address laptop hardware. The OS should take care of this issue and translate the instruction sets properly... but in many cases, it doesn't do a good enough job and the game runs poorly, or not at all on a laptop machine. This game... and every Source engine game, really... was meant to be played on a full-sized, desktop gaming rig.

I'm not so good with computer specs but I made a search and I think I have a Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition) sound card, WDM-type (not sure if I found the right info though). I have an ASUS R9, 280 Series video card.

RealTek is almost certainly on-board audio hardware. It's not a separate sound card... it's built into your motherboard.

Hello,

I was trying out the TPG with the megamod and I ran into a really strange problem, I can only imagine I'm doing something wrong so let me run you down with my process. For the record i'm using Win 8.1 and Geforce GTX 760.

#1. Download a fresh copy and move VTM away from steam.
#2. Copy all TPG files over to VTM
#3. Copy all Megamod files to VTM
#4. Start up the game to get a config.cfg file and exit before making any characters.
#5. Run the VTMB res patcher for 1920 x 1080
#6. Open config.cfg and find r_anamorphic and change its value from "0" to "1"
#7. Make a shortcut to my desktop and add the command line  -w 1920 -h 1080 at the end
#8. Restart the game and make a fresh character.

Now, the game works fine all through the tutorial, however, once I am in the city, random buildings I enter will not let me go back out.  As in, the door will open, however I will not zone out, leaving me trapped forever.

Reloading to a previous save does nothing as the building will permanently be unexitable no matter how many times I try it.

I have tried deleting everything doing steps 1-8 again and doing the tutorial, it resulted in new buildings being unexitable, and the diner crashing me several seconds after I enter it.

I would sincerely appreciate any help or advice you may have!

Thank you.

The game may be running out of memory. "Crashing when entering the diner" is a classic symptom of this issue.

Try adding the following switch to the end of your VTMB command line:

-heapsize 800000

And make sure that you are not using any other mods -- unless you are absolutely positive that they are 100% compatible with the True Patch. I'm saying this because "not being able to zone out of buildings" sounds suspicious to me. No one has ever reported anything like that before, which indicates that there is something weird going on with your specific installation of VTMB.

Since you intend to use my VTMB Mega-Mod, it is a good idea to install the game itself and the True Patch first, and then start the game and create a test character BEFORE you install the Mega-Mod. Make sure that everything is working properly, before shutting the game down and installing the Mega-Mod files. The main reason for doing it this way is to ensure that you will be better able to track down the source of any potential problems that may arise. So, install VTMB... then install the True Patch... and then, create a temporary test character and start the game normally. If you can make it through the opening cinematic and the subsequent tutorial segments of the game without any glitches, then it is safe to assume that everything is working properly. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND MAKING A FULL BACKUP COPY OF THE GAME AT THIS POINT, AND KEEPING IT IN A SAFE PLACE. Once you have done all of that stuff, go ahead and install the Mega-Mod... after which you will need to erase your test character and create a fresh, new play character.

I should also mention that I myself have VTMB installed on two separate test computers. One of those computers has an ATI Radeon "HD" series video card, whilst the other machine has a much newer nVidia GTX 780 Ti video card. Well, on the computer with the nVidia card, the game occasionally suffers from odd and intermittent glitches... where as on my machine with the ATI Radeon card, it never has any problems of any kind whatsoever. There is a long history of VTMB not getting along very well with certain models of nVidia cards.... which is why I felt that it was worth mentioning.

But try the above "-heapsize" switch first. You mentioned that you're using the VTMB Mega-Mod... and that mod is a serious memory hog. The "-heapsize" switch allows the user to allocate additional memory to VTMB (it actually instructs the Source engine to grab more system RAM and use it as a file cache when it loads). And for VTMB Mega-Mod users, it's an absolute MUST. By default, VTMB only allocates a measly 200 megabytes or so of system RAM for its own use. Keep in mind that the game was released back at a time when most people only had 1 or 2 gigabytes of RAM in their machines. But the VTMB Mega-Mod requires... at the very least... approximately 600 megabytes of memory overhead (more is better)... otherwise, it will simply fail to load certain game maps and as a result, the game will crash.  

Is there a post or something that compares the differences between the Tessera patch, and the Wesp5 patch?

There are several threads in this forum, posted by various people, which make comparisons between the True Patch and the so-called "unofficial patch" produced by Wesp.


One of the best threads devoted to that subject can be found here:

http://www.tessmage.com/forum/index.php?topic=57843.msg78317#msg78317


It's an older thread that was created a few years ago, but just about all of the information presented within that thread is still accurate and pertinent.

Quote from: Tessera on November 17, 2015, 12:29:53 PM
The game may be running out of memory. "Crashing when entering the diner" is a classic symptom of this issue.

Try adding the following switch to the end of your VTMB command line:

-heapsize 800000

And make sure that you are not using any other mods -- unless you are absolutely positive that they are 100% compatible with the True Patch. I'm saying this because "not being able to zone out of buildings" sounds suspicious to me. No one has ever reported anything like that before, which indicates that there is something weird going on with your specific installation of VTMB.

Since you intend to use my VTMB Mega-Mod, it is a good idea to install the game itself and the True Patch first, and then start the game and create a test character BEFORE you install the Mega-Mod. Make sure that everything is working properly, before shutting the game down and installing the Mega-Mod files. The main reason for doing it this way is to ensure that you will be better able to track down the source of any potential problems that may arise. So, install VTMB... then install the True Patch... and then, create a temporary test character and start the game normally. If you can make it through the opening cinematic and the subsequent tutorial segments of the game without any glitches, then it is safe to assume that everything is working properly. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND MAKING A FULL BACKUP COPY OF THE GAME AT THIS POINT, AND KEEPING IT IN A SAFE PLACE. Once you have done all of that stuff, go ahead and install the Mega-Mod... after which you will need to erase your test character and create a fresh, new play character.

I should also mention that I myself have VTMB installed on two separate test computers. One of those computers has an ATI Radeon "HD" series video card, whilst the other machine has a much newer nVidia GTX 780 Ti video card. Well, on the computer with the nVidia card, the game occasionally suffers from odd and intermittent glitches... where as on my machine with the ATI Radeon card, it never has any problems of any kind whatsoever. There is a long history of VTMB not getting along very well with certain models of nVidia cards.... which is why I felt that it was worth mentioning.

But try the above "-heapsize" switch first. You mentioned that you're using the VTMB Mega-Mod... and that mod is a serious memory hog. The "-heapsize" switch allows the user to allocate additional memory to VTMB (it actually instructs the Source engine to grab more system RAM and use it as a file cache when it loads). And for VTMB Mega-Mod users, it's an absolute MUST. By default, VTMB only allocates a measly 200 megabytes or so of system RAM for its own use. Keep in mind that the game was released back at a time when most people only had 1 or 2 gigabytes of RAM in their machines. But the VTMB Mega-Mod requires... at the very least... approximately 600 megabytes of memory overhead (more is better)... otherwise, it will simply fail to load certain game maps and as a result, the game will crash.  

Thank you very much Tessera, the heapsize switch seems to have fixed everything.

 8)

Or not...

Well, the diner certainly doesn't crash anymore, and I made it significantly farther into the story before the no zoning thing happened again, (after I got the Astrolite from the pier and went back into mercio's apartment.)

I tried upping the heap size a bit, and I still seem to be stuck in the building. For the record, i'm not using any other mods.

This really is a strange issue.

Quote from: Nicemods on November 23, 2015, 11:46:51 PM
...I made it significantly farther into the story before the no zoning thing happened again, (after I got the Astrolite from the pier and went back into mercio's apartment.)

I tried upping the heap size a bit, and I still seem to be stuck in the building. For the record, i'm not using any other mods.

This really is a strange issue.

Well in any case, this isn't a True Patch issue.  :police:

Whatever problem you are having, it is something that is specific to your computer alone. I've never heard of anyone else having a problem like that, so your troubles might be coming from your operating system.

I'd look into things like your device drivers (newer drivers are not always better -- especially where older, pre-DirectX 11 games are concerned).

I would also look at any programs that you have running in the background and try shutting them off one at a time, to see if one of them might be causing problems. I have heard of certain Adobe services interfering with some games, for example. There may be something like that going on with your machine.

But this is a True Patch support thread... so I would prefer that we restrict the conversations within this thread to TPG issues only. We have other areas of the board that have been set aside for specific problems with specific games. Also, since you are using the VTMB Mega-Mod, we also have a thread devoted to that topic, too. I may not be offering the Mega-Mod anymore, but I do still support it. So if this turns out to be a Mega-Mod issue, then I recommend posting a follow-up over in the Mega-Mod thread.

I'm sorry that I can't be more helpful to you in -this- thread... but it's because I know for certain that the True Patch is not causing the problems that you've been experiencing.

Fair enough. You are kind enough to make and support these excellent mods/patch so i'll try fiddling with my drivers, background programs and whatever else I can think of to try and fix it so as not to waste your time.

If i'm still unable to figure it out by next week i'll post again in the appropriate thread.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I don't know if this can be part of the problem games and what-nots. Just see what you are downloading, what apps are there, maybe your anti-virus is affecting it. The people here downloads everything what MS says, and they will come up with a mess and they come to me for help which I do help to get these rigs up and running right. Some apps that you are using says its a malware and won"t run it, some will say yes or no. Look into this. Your rig is yours to do what you want, not the other way around.  The TPG is the greatest program ever for VTMB.  Again just look into your background apps.  

Hi everyone,

just bought the game via steam, and ind this place, and followed all the instructions, but when i when try to start a new game it crashes. I attached the crashlog,
maybe someone can help what goes wrong. I run it on Windows 8.1 64.bit.
Thanks

Quote from: Tschinsking on January 03, 2016, 07:58:42 AMI run it on Windows 8.1

Bloodlines is not compatible with any version of Windows later than Windows 7. Neither is the True Patch. In fact, until the True Patch came along, VTMB wouldn't run on Windows 7, either.

My recommendation to all gamers... and not just for Bloodlines, but for pretty much every other game, too... is to install Windows XP or Windows 7 as a second operating system on your computer and then play all of your games there. Newer versions of Windows are terrible at running any games that are older than about 3-4 years, which of course includes Bloodlines (VTMB is an 11-year-old DirectX 8 game).

Hi everyone!

I've stumbled upon this place by a mere accident while searching on how to repair VTMB to function on my laptop. I have the exact same problem as
Tschinsking who previously posted the crash report. The game would start and when I press New Game, the game crashes. I also have Windows 8.1 64bit, but the funniest thing is that I had been playing the game on my laptop with said OS until August 2015. Then I stopped playing it, cause I moved to another game and completely forgot about VTMB. And today, for who knows what reason, I decided to play it. Turns out, I cannot. At first it gives me error ""Access denied - Please login with administrator privileges and try again" which is ridiculous as I'm logged as admin. In properties, I make sure it says allow administrative privileges, then the game won't start at all. Upon discovering this patch, I've reinstalled the game at least 3 times, hoping it would work. Installing this patch gave me hope as it starts the game nicely, and the moment I choose "new game" it crashes. I've placed Final Nights mod, and the same thing happens. In vanilla version and with mod. The moment I choose new game, it will crash.
Even if I choose to load old save file, it crashes. So I'm truly confused. According to google search, some people claim that this problem is because of some windows update that MS pushed awhile back. I don't know if this is true or not, but I'm willing to take it under a consideration, as MS can screw up things for us customers.
The problem is pinpointing the culprit in updates, cause I haven't played the game since August 2015 and since that time, I had lots of windows updates installed. Not sure what to think or what to do. :c

I'm sorry, but I am unable to help you.   :(

As I said earlier, I do not support any version of Windows later than Windows 7.

Hi.I bought Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines on Steam and applied your patch and I have a couple of questions: How can I change resolution to 1680x1050? In-game I have only two options:1280x720 and 1366x768.And why doesn't Steam count my play hours and I don't have any access to any Steam related features like screenshots within the game?

Quote from: Alen on January 10, 2016, 01:14:41 AM
Hi.I bought Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines on Steam and applied your patch and I have a couple of questions: How can I change resolution to 1680x1050? In-game I have only two options:1280x720 and 1366x768.And why doesn't Steam count my play hours and I don't have any access to any Steam related features like screenshots within the game?

The True Patch is not meant to be used with Steam. As a matter of fact and as we have stated many, many times, VTM:Bloodlines itself is not compatible with Steam... hence its inability to use certain Steam features. It would be nice if the greedy jerks at Steam would tell this to people, but they don't -- because they want your money. Fortunately, this incompatibility issue can be remedied fairly easily...

After downloading Bloodlines from Steam, you MUST move the entire game out and away from your Steam folders and THEN install the True Patch Gold Edition. Full instructions on how to do this can be found in various threads on this board (including within the thread named "CRITICAL INFO: VTMB Is NOT Compatible With Steam" (http://www.tessmage.com/forum/index.php?topic=59301.msg95323#msg95323)). And this procedure is not optional -- failure to move the game away from Steam can and WILL result in your game files becoming corrupted over time. Everyone who obtained their copy of Bloodlines from Steam MUST read that article, which can be found within this forum.

As for changing the resolution of the game, please follow the instructions included with the True Patch. Specifically, look for the information pertaining to the correct use of the VTMB ResPatcher utility which is included within the True Patch bundle.

I was wondering what all is included in this patch and is it compatible with the Dev0lved ENB mod?  Thank you for your replies.

I have no idea whether or not the TPG is compatible with someone else's mod. You would have to ask the author directly.

Hey Tess, love your mods.  Was a forum member before, but probably got deleted because of inactivity.

Anyway, I have a fix for the guys running Windows 8.1 x64 (haven't tested on Windows 10) that get the crash on New Game and wanted to contribute.

1. Open an elevated command prompt (cmd.exe run as admin)
2. sc config secdrv start= demand
3. sc start secdrv

Play the game, works so far with TPG and Mega-Mod for me.

Once done playing, "sc stop secdrv" in the command prompt.

Apparently Microsoft decided to introduce a patch to disabled secdrv service which was a protection method for older games.  Hence, the service isn't running, some older games can't be played.

Nothing to do with you patch or mods, just MS being MS.

Anyhow, cheers and thanks.

Thanks for the tip.

But I would be curious to know whether or not the same commands work for Windows 10 users.

I seriously doubt it... and here's why...

---

I've already stated this quite a few times, but let me say it again... in big letters this time:


VTMB WILL NOT RUN ON WINDOWS 10


Neither will lots of other pre-DirectX 11 games. MicroSlop, in their never-ending attempt to force PC gamers into buying X-Box gaming consoles, has seen fit to sabotage backward-compatibility support for older DirectX games in Windows 10.

Therefore, if you wish to play VTMB or ANY OTHER pre-DirectX 11 PC game, then you will have to UNINSTALL Windows 10 and roll your system back to an earlier, more gamer-friendly operating system (such as Windows 7 or Windows XP).

There are no other viable options at this time for Windows 10 users. If you are angry about this, then I suggest writing several hundred nasty letters to Microsoft.

Quote from: Tessera on November 24, 2015, 02:38:29 AM

Quote from: Nicemods on November 23, 2015, 11:46:51 PM
...I made it significantly farther into the story before the no zoning thing happened again, (after I got the Astrolite from the pier and went back into mercio's apartment.)

I tried upping the heap size a bit, and I still seem to be stuck in the building. For the record, i'm not using any other mods.

This really is a strange issue.

Well in any case, this isn't a True Patch issue.  :police:

Whatever problem you are having, it is something that is specific to your computer alone. I've never heard of anyone else having a problem like that, so your troubles might be coming from your operating system.

I'd look into things like your device drivers (newer drivers are not always better -- especially where older, pre-DirectX 11 games are concerned).

I would also look at any programs that you have running in the background and try shutting them off one at a time, to see if one of them might be causing problems. I have heard of certain Adobe services interfering with some games, for example. There may be something like that going on with your machine.

But this is a True Patch support thread... so I would prefer that we restrict the conversations within this thread to TPG issues only. We have other areas of the board that have been set aside for specific problems with specific games. Also, since you are using the VTMB Mega-Mod, we also have a thread devoted to that topic, too. I may not be offering the Mega-Mod anymore, but I do still support it. So if this turns out to be a Mega-Mod issue, then I recommend posting a follow-up over in the Mega-Mod thread.

I'm sorry that I can't be more helpful to you in -this- thread... but it's because I know for certain that the True Patch is not causing the problems that you've been experiencing.

I have the exact same problem, getting stuck in mercurios appartment (or any houses). I tried it on Windows 7 and on Windows xp in a virtual machine. It also seems to work fine until i load a savegame. I have just installed the newest true patch.

Please read the following article:

http://www.tessmage.com/forum/index.php?topic=53139.msg25768#msg25768

Thanks and good luck.

Quote from: Nicemods on November 23, 2015, 11:46:51 PM
Or not...

Well, the diner certainly doesn't crash anymore, and I made it significantly farther into the story before the no zoning thing happened again, (after I got the Astrolite from the pier and went back into mercio's apartment.)

I tried upping the heap size a bit, and I still seem to be stuck in the building. For the record, i'm not using any other mods.

This really is a strange issue.

dont know if you still need it, buti found a solution for me: try to copy the true patch again and overwrite all files. worked for me :) . after copying everything i loaded my savegame and could leave houses again ( and mercurio appeared on the beach, he wasnt there before).

Quote from: hubadl on February 13, 2016, 02:38:12 PM
dont know if you still need it, buti found a solution for me: try to copy the true patch again and overwrite all files. worked for me :) . after copying everything i loaded my savegame and could leave houses again ( and mercurio appeared on the beach, he wasnt there before).

Okay... but what this indicates is that the True Patch wasn't installed correctly the first time.  :-\


For all of this stuff to work properly, the following conditions MUST be met:

(1) You must be playing the legal, retail version of Vampire -- The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Not some pirated copy... not some foreign "translation" of the game... not a "pre-patched" version... but the legitimate, American English-speaking, retail version of Bloodlines. The True Patch has been fully tested with both the original 3-CD version of VTMB, as well as with the download-able version available from Steam. Other retail versions might work, too... so long as they meet the conditions that I have just specified.

(2) You must install the game correctly. Also, Steam users MUST move the entire game out and away from their Steam folders, prior to patching. Full instructions on how to do so (it's easy) can be found elsewhere within this forum.

(3) The True Patch Gold Edition must be obtained from THIS web site... and nowhere else. This is the only way to be certain that you are installing the correct, "official" and fully tested version of the True Patch. If you obtained your copy of the True Patch from anywhere other than the tessmage.com web site, then it is an ILLEGITIMATE copy of the True Patch... and I flatly refuse to support it.

(4) The True Patch must be installed correctly, as per the instructions included within the True Patch package. Deviating in any ways whatsoever from those instructions can and will result in a corrupted installation (and a malfunctioning game). Those written instructions MUST be followed to the letter.

(5) If you decide to install any additional mods for VTMB, then those mods MUST be installed AFTER you have installed the True Patch. Patch first -- mods second. Furthermore, those mods MUST be 100% True Patch compatible. If you are uncertain about the compatibility of a particular mod, then you should contact the author of that mod and ask him or her to verify whether or not their mod is 100% True Patch compatible. Naturally, all of my own VTMB mods are 100% True Patch compatible... but I can not vouch for the compatibility of mods produced by other authors.

(6) Lastly, you must be playing VTMB on the correct version of Windows. This means that you must be using Windows 7, Windows XP, or... for you living fossils out there... Windows 2000. This game will not run properly on ANY OTHER VERSIONS of Windows -- including Windows 10. The bottom line: Windows 7... whether it be the 32-bit or the 64-bit build... is the latest version of Windows which is compatible with this game.

Question:

I've download twice with Firefox and once with Chrome from the link in the first post, and all three times the download has been reported as successful.  However, each time the file has been 186 megabytes.  The first post of this thread mentions that the file should be approximately 463 megabytes, and previous versions on other sites (moddb) list a file size of over 450 megabytes.

So... is there probably some problem on my end?  Or is the newest version here much smaller than previous versions?  Or was the file here accidentally truncated or missing files when it was posted?

The files look to be in place when I view the archive contents... but that size is just so far off... ?

Quote from: SeduceMePlz on May 01, 2016, 08:06:35 AM
Question:

I've download twice with Firefox and once with Chrome from the link in the first post, and all three times the download has been reported as successful.  However, each time the file has been 186 megabytes.  The first post of this thread mentions that the file should be approximately 463 megabytes, and previous versions on other sites (moddb) list a file size of over 450 megabytes.

So... is there probably some problem on my end?  Or is the newest version here much smaller than previous versions?  Or was the file here accidentally truncated or missing files when it was posted?

The files look to be in place when I view the archive contents... but that size is just so far off... ?

When I released the TPG with Hotfix #8, I stripped out a bunch of extra stuff that was included within the previous versions. Mainly because (1) some of it was obsolete and (2) I had included a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader software in earlier versions of the TPG, which I totally removed from the latest release, and (3) I used a more extreme type of compression on the latest version, which helped to reduce its total compressed size by a significant amount.

So yes, the reported size of your download is correct. The file size of the RAR archive should be roughly 190 megabytes. When you decompress it, the total size of the True Patch package will be about 540 megabytes.

And I have just corrected the stated file size in my OP. Sorry about the confusion.

I bought the GoG version, which comes preinstalled with the unofficial patch but in a seperate folder and it loads that via command line. I wouldn't even mind except i keep having memory errors (something about being bigger than the free hunk, whatever that means. i can go try again to get the specific error if it matters, I didn't in the first place because I intend to use a different version)

I don't know how to follow the directions given that I cannot have a "clean" install. I don't know if it even includes all the original files. Maybe it does and because it's in a seperate folder I always have a clean install. No idea.

Sorry to bother you with a potentially stupid question. I'm used to modding, but it's usually games that are so old they require a .exe to mod properly (like PS:T) or that are new enough to be easily unpack/repackable with a tool if they don't have official/NMM support. Actual manual installs are new to me.

Any advice? GoG specific directions? I'll take screenshots of the directories if you need them.

Oh, my specific issue is that is says the engine makes an access violation.

vampire caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005)
in module engine.dll at 0023:200f5a77.

Read from location 00000000 caused an access violation.

Context:
EDI:    0x00000008  ESI: 0x08c59814  EAX:   0x106bcc00
EBX:    0xffffffff  ECX: 0x00000000  EDX:   0x00000073
EIP:    0x200f5a77  EBP: 0x20d5e0b8  SegCs: 0x00000023
EFlags: 0x00010202  ESP: 0x0018e5e4  SegSs: 0x0000002b

Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 11 a3 48 09 2b 21 a1 3c 09 2b 21 83 c4 14 50

He'll have to weigh in himself of course, but I'd have to say that as of right now I doubt Tessera will be able to support the GoG version, due to the fact that it comes with two directories and EXE files - one for using vanilla 1.2, the other for using the Wesp5 "fixes" but still share some resources. It may be possible to create a playable TPG build with the GoG version of VTMB, but it would require some tweaking. Some folks in the discussion thread at GoG are working on it but I don't think they have fully succeeded yet. When/if they do, hopefully they will post how to do it. However, Tessera's installation instructions specifically indicate a standard, vanilla installation, preferably from the CD version of the game. :-\

Unfortunately, GoG chose to go down a certain path with this release (they may never have even heard of the TPG due to the amount of noise Wesp5's partisans make and the fact that Poland, where GoG is based, borders Germany, where Wesp5 is based) and while I am somewhat optimistic the TPG may be made to work with it eventually, it will never be a true "clean install". :P

That's why I asked. I didn't know if I never or always had a clean version or what I was screwing up if either way.

I don't want to buy the steam version and do it that way, I want to support GoG as much as possible. Also I don't want to spend 20usd again.

Any chance you have a link to the specific discussion or thread? I can't seem to find it. Or I did find it and didn't know it. Either way I'd like to follow it myself, if possible. I like to play games more or less "as intended" before I do much modding, i wouldn't even use the TruePatch normally but given obsidians/inexiles track record I assumed any game released by former black isle employees would be a great game inside a bug riddled hellscape doing it's very best to make the game unplayable.

Though I was (not anymore cus I can't advance) playing with the bruja replaced. I don't know if it's lore friendly or not but the lack of an option to play a non-white character bothered me, so I changed it.

Quote from: Forum_Pirate on May 01, 2016, 03:54:00 PM
Any chance you have a link to the specific discussion or thread?

Latest page at the time of this writing: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/release_vampirer_the_masquerade_bloodlines_1ab3d
First page: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/release_vampirer_the_masquerade_bloodlines_1ab3d/page1
Page where I got the conversation started: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/release_vampirer_the_masquerade_bloodlines_1ab3d/page9

Thanks.

I'm no modder, but I'll keep trying. If I manage it and can figure out how I managed it I'll post how.  If it's just overwriting/deleting/patching the right files in the right places then I might be able to.

If someone else figures it out and I find that I'll post that here instead, unless someone beats me to it.

I'll "weigh in on it," as Cylnar has said, by simply stating the following:

Once your copy of VTMB has been infected (yes, I'm going to use that term) with ANY version of Wesp's "unofficial patch," then your VTMB installation is effectively ruined.

And I'm not merely saying that to be hostile and derogatory toward Wesp5. The absolute fact of the matter is this: his poorly constructed "unofficial patch" insinuates itself into so many nooks and crannies of the game files, that any attempt to remove his "patch" after the fact is an almost hopeless endeavor.

Can it be done..? Yes, absolutely. It would involve adding a scripted batch process to the TPG -- which first deletes every single file that Wesp's "patch" has altered, followed by replacing every single one of those files with either the fixed TPG versions, or with the plain-vanilla versions (in the case of various files which never needed to be altered in the first place).

So then... should somebody release such a "Wesp cleaner," that completely removes Wesp's crap from their VTMB installation..? An "unofficial patch uninstaller," in other words..?

Yes... but I am not going to be the person who releases it. I'm sorry, but I won't.

---

Please read on, everyone... because I want to be perfectly clear about this issue...

Here's the thing: it has never been my intention to produce an "anti-Wesp patch." The more childish members of the larger VTMB community have always assumed that my goal was to undermine and denigrate Wesp... when in fact, that has never been my intention at all. While it is true that I have a strong dislike for Wesp, it is also true that fighting with Wesp or anybody else was NOT a part of my plan when I took the plunge and decided to produce an alternative (and superior) third-party patch for VTMB. I suppose all of those fights were inevitable -- but none of them were started by anyone on our side of the fence. Not unless you feel that the mere release of the True Patch was some sort of secret plan on my part to start fights within the larger VTMB community. NO... it was not. I was really just trying to help everyone as best I could. Also, I happen to be a tough-skinned mofo who was ready, willing and able to hold my ground against the established clique of Wesp followers.

I got into the True Patch project for one reason and one reason only: I love VTMB, and I was appalled at the callousness of Wesp and the numerous ways that his so-called "patch" have effectively ruined the brilliant and unique masterpiece that Troika created. With each successive release, Wesp's work has increasingly become a cobbled together mess that causes more bugs than it fixes. At the same time, Wesp's work also pollutes so many of the unique and wonderful aspects of the original game that, at this point, anyone who is playing VTMB with Wesp's patch is not playing VTMB at all. You are playing an ill-conceived, buggy and utterly dumbed-down bastardization of the game. In short: by installing ANY version of Wesp's "unofficial patch," including his minimalist versions, you are effectively sabotaging a masterpiece.

The True Patch was intended to be an alternative to what Wesp was doing. That's it... that was my only motivation at the time. But unfortunately, the True Patch has also caused a "patch war" and a schism to arise within the larger VTMB community... and sadly, that hostility and divisiveness continues to this day.

Therefore, if -I- was the person to produce and release a so-called "unofficial patch uninstaller," then I have no doubt that the community would perceive it as being some attempt on my part to fire up the "patch war" again. Which, as I have already stated, has never been my intention.

So until someone else constructs and releases a "Wesp uninstaller," we're back to the bottom line here: the True Patch Gold Edition MUST be installed into a clean, "plain-vanilla" version of VTMB. It is totally incompatible with any and all of the mongrel, "pre-patched" versions of the game that are floating about out there on the web... including the latest GoG release. On the whole, I think GoG is a great little company -- but their decision to start selling a pre-patched version of VTMB was a very, very, very bad idea. Their customers are expecting to get what they paid for: the actual, original game... and not some heavily bastardized and illegitimate version of it.

I wish it were otherwise... but that is where we are. I have been saying for many years that Wesp has done far more to hurt this game and its community than to help it -- and we are seeing, once again, just how true that accusation has been.

The gog version does come with an unmodded version. Or maybe it's a command line that ignores the unoffical patch because the unofficial patch tells it to. Don't know.

The point is, I can play pure vanilla if I want to, so I don't want to fault GoG for not giving me the option. The problem is, pure vanilla is all kinds of broken and I haven't managed to mod it (with your patch) so that it works better.

Sadly, I know absolutely nothing about coding and so can't just make the uninstaller myself. Do you know if I could I delete the patch, "find" the vanilla files (which I would not feel gullty about seeing as I paid for the game,) overwrite what's currently there, and patch the result?

I'm sorry babe, but I'm going to stay out of this one (for diplomatic reasons).

According to Cylnar, there's a thread devoted to this very topic over on the GoG forums.

My suggestion would be to get involved in that thread and then post your questions and suggestions to those folks.

It also wouldn't be a bad idea for everyone who is concerned about these events to post and/or e-mail some inquiries directly to the GoG staff, and ask them why they are selling a polluted and illegitimate version of Troika's final masterpiece. In my opinion, that shouldn't even be legal.

Fair enough. Can't endorse "finding" things on the internet. Copyright law is horrible.

I think I'll put it a little more diplomatically than that. I like mods. I have 136 active esps in my skyrim load order, and a good many more textures/models besides. Though skyrim is incredibly mediocre without mods so maybe that isn't a good example. I only have like 9 mods in my morrowind load order because it's pretty good as is.

Point is, I just want to play a working version of the vanilla game before I start modding the gameplay, so I know what  I want to change. GoG doesn't seem to be selling that. Still, i did ask them. I'll update if it leads to anything.

i don't remember if you don't like double posts or not, so sorry if you don't.

Ok, I got it working I think. Not 100% on the how.

I downloaded and installed the patch into the vampire folder like I was supposed to, moved the exe, renamed the .exe.12 to just .exe, and then had GoG verify/sync the games files, told galaxy to launch the legacy version, and then activated the .exe manually anyways.

My Verification (if you can call it that) is that texture files i put in the regular vampire folder (and just the regular vampire folder) are showing up and bloodbuff is the +5 to 3 seperate stats instead of the much weaker version in the unofficial patch.

Kinda happened on accident, so I don't know which of those steps is necessary, or if there is a better way. There probably is. If anyone wants to experiment to see what of that is necessary and what isn't and wether it's working properly or not, please post the results here (and anywhere else you can think of really) for myself/others. I will too. I'll probably experiment more myself (with an install in a different place) to
a) make sure it's actually working
b) figure out what actually made it work
c)make getting it working as simple as possible

I'll update if I run into problems, but it's running and will actually play the game instead of crashing on launch or on selecting newgame. Hope this fixes it for people, or at least gives a jumping off point.

(Sorry it's not detailed/sensible enough for you to use it as actual instructions in your post and/or txt Tessera)

@Tessera: Thank you for answering my question, and thank you for TPG.

---

About the GOG version... No promises, but:

Wesp5 isolated his content changes to a subfolder, and most of his engine changes seem to be overwritten during the installation of True Patch Gold. Here is the procedure for installing TPG to the GOG version of Bloodlines:

1. Install the game.

2. Open the game folder (C:\GOG Games\VtMB) and delete the folder "Unofficial_Patch".

3. Extract the True Patch Gold archive to your desktop or another location.

4. Inside the extracted folder, find and open the folder "TRUE_PATCH_MAIN". Copy the contents (the folders "Bin" and "Vampire" and the file "vampire.exe") to the game folder (C:\GOG Games\VtMB). When asked if you want to merge folders, check the box "Do this for all current items" and select "Yes". When asked about files, check the box "Do this for the next 226 conflicts" and select "Copy and Replace".

5. Right-click on the "VTM Bloodlines" shortcut on your desktop and click "Properties". In the Target box, delete this part of the line: "-game Unofficial Patch". Click "Apply", wait, and then click "Okay".

6. (Optional but recommended) Enable Clan histories:
a. Open the game folder (C:\GOG Games\VtMB).
b. Open the folder "Vampire".
c. Open the folder "cfg".
d. Open the file "autoexec.cfg" in Notepad.
e. Delete the two slashes before "vchar_edit_histories" and save the file.

This seems to be working for me on Windows 7 64-bit. I don't have Windows 8 or 10 to test.

Move and look seem just a bit off to me, but that's probably because Bloodlines is older game, and it's been about 3 years since I last played it.

Quote from: SeduceMePlz on May 02, 2016, 12:42:27 AM
Move and look seem just a bit off to me, but that's probably because Bloodlines is older game, and it's been about 3 years since I last played it.

You might try experimenting with different values for the default FOV settings. The game was originally created for 4:3 CRT monitors.

I find that on a 16:9 or 16:10 widescreen monitor, changing the default FOV from 90 to somewhere between 68 to 72 degrees makes the game look and feel a lot better. On a 16:9 HD widescreen monitor, for example, I have found that a setting of exactly 68.25 degrees gets rid of most of the distorted "fish-eye" effect... and it also ensures that turning your character and other such things looks and feels much more natural and correct.


PROCEDURE:

First of all, open up the config.cfg file (located within the VTMB\Vampire\cfg folder) in Notepad, and search for the line that says r_anamorphic and make sure that it is set to r_anamorphic "1" in order to enable widescreen resolutions.

After you do that, you must run the VTMB ResPatcher utility included within the TPG package and have it patch the game engine, so that it can display widescreen resolutions properly. The VTMB ResPatcher utility will add the necessary code to the engine, so that it can display additional resolutions that the default engine is incapable of (such as 1920 x 1080 HD widescreen). Before doing this, you will need to know whether your widescreen monitor uses 16:9 (HD) or 16:10 resolution. Then it's just a matter of clicking on the correct button in the ResPatcher utility... either 16:9 or 16:10, depending upon your needs. Then click on "Patch It!" to apply the actual code to the game engine. After all of that is done, you can shut down the ResPatcher and you'll never have to use it again. Those changes to the engine are permanent (they can, however, be reversed or changed by once again using the ResPatcher utility).

Even if you think that you have already done all of that stuff, I would do it again... just to make sure. And don't forget to add the startup switches to your VTMB desktop shortcut, in order to force your desired resolution. The details on how to do all of this stuff are included within the TPG package. Just look for the appropriate ReadMe files in the Utilities sub-folder.

Okay... you've done all of the above. So how about pushing it a little further..? Modern video hardware is capable of enormously better performance than anything that was around back in 2004. So let's really push VTMB and get it to look its very best.

Try these tweaks, for starters. Here are my preferred tweaks for running VTMB on a modern widescreen monitor. Simply open up your autoexec.cfg file (or create one, if you don't already have it) and add the following lines to the end of that file:


lod_Enable "1"
lod_TransitionDist "1200"
cl_v_geometric_detail "10"
default_fov "68.25"
cl_ragdoll_collide "1"
r_lod "-5"


Those tweaks are a good part of the reason that my VTMB screenshots look so much better than most other people's screenshots. Even the old alpha Source engine was capable of FAR better graphic detail than anything else that was around at the time. By adding the above lines to your autoexec.cfg file, you'll be pushing the engine to render all of its graphics in pretty much the best detail that it is capable of.

There are even more tweaks than those... it can get pretty extreme, if you really wanna dig into it... but those tweaks will add so much more detail to the game that you'll be quite surprised at just how good it can look. Back when VTMB was released, if you tried to add those tweaks to your game files back THEN, you would almost certainly either crash your video card completely, or else you'd end up trying to play the game at such a low frame rate that it would be effectively impossible to play. But as I said... today's video hardware (even a relatively cheap modern video card) is about 20 times more powerful than anything that was around back when VTMB was first released. So these days, it is perfectly safe to go ahead and push the ol' VTMB engine to its limits.

I also recommend opening up the control panel for your video card and setting anti-aliasing to FORCED, prior to playing VTMB. The Bloodlines engine will not activate anti-aliasing on its own... so it needs to be forced via your video card's control panel. At very high screen resolutions, I find that either 2x or 4x AA is plenty for this game. At lower resolutions, you may wish to go even higher, at the expense of graphical detail.

On my own system, I set my video card to 2x AA forced, prior to playing VTMB. When I am done playing, I switch my AA settings back to "Application Controlled."


So to sum it up:

(1) Make sure that you have gone through all of the necessary steps to set up VTMB to run in perfect widescreen resolution. This only needs to be done once... but it also needs to be done CAREFULLY.
(2) And naturally, make sure that you have selected the correct widescreen resolution for YOUR video monitor (16:9 or 16:10).
(3) Add the tweaks that I listed above to your autoexec.cfg file, to force the VTMB engine to render its graphics at a much, much higher quality than its defaults.

8)

@Tessera: Cool, thanks for the tips!

Quote from: SeduceMePlz on May 02, 2016, 12:42:27 AM
@Tessera: Thank you for answering my question, and thank you for TPG.

---

About the GOG version... No promises, but:

Wesp5 isolated his content changes to a subfolder, and most of his engine changes seem to be overwritten during the installation of True Patch Gold. Here is the procedure for installing TPG to the GOG version of Bloodlines:

1. Install the game.

2. Open the game folder (C:\GOG Games\VtMB) and delete the folder "Unofficial_Patch".

3. Extract the True Patch Gold archive to your desktop or another location.

4. Inside the extracted folder, find and open the folder "TRUE_PATCH_MAIN". Copy the contents (the folders "Bin" and "Vampire" and the file "vampire.exe") to the game folder (C:\GOG Games\VtMB). When asked if you want to merge folders, check the box "Do this for all current items" and select "Yes". When asked about files, check the box "Do this for the next 226 conflicts" and select "Copy and Replace".

5. Right-click on the "VTM Bloodlines" shortcut on your desktop and click "Properties". In the Target box, delete this part of the line: "-game Unofficial Patch". Click "Apply", wait, and then click "Okay".

6. (Optional but recommended) Enable Clan histories:
a. Open the game folder (C:\GOG Games\VtMB).
b. Open the folder "Vampire".
c. Open the folder "cfg".
d. Open the file "autoexec.cfg" in Notepad.
e. Delete the two slashes before "vchar_edit_histories" and save the file.

This seems to be working for me on Windows 7 64-bit. I don't have Windows 8 or 10 to test.

Move and look seem just a bit off to me, but that's probably because Bloodlines is older game, and it's been about 3 years since I last played it.

Tried it (ie this method) twice. Once it crashed on startup with the same permissions error as before, once it worked (and continues to work.)

64bit (duh,) windows 8.1.

I can't get the game to work with the True Patch

Quote from: Christina_Romuald on May 03, 2016, 04:51:47 PM
I can't get the game to work with the True Patch

It might help if you told of us what version of the game you're using sweetie.

Quote from: Christina_Romuald on May 03, 2016, 04:51:47 PM
I can't get the game to work with the True Patch

Are you using the GOG version of Bloodlines? If so, did you try the steps I posted above? Which version of Windows are you using?

As an alternative to what I posted, it might be possible to use the engine changes from the UP with the content fixes of TPG:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/release_vampirer_the_masquerade_bloodlines_1ab3d/post694

I haven't tested it, and you shouldn't expect Tessera or Wesp5 to support such a hybrid, but you might try it if nothing else works for you.

Quote from: SeduceMePlz on May 03, 2016, 07:34:49 PM
As an alternative to what I posted, it might be possible to use the engine changes from the UP with the content fixes of TPG:

No offense -- but that is a very, very bad idea.

"The engine changes from the UP" are precisely what are causing many people to get crashes-to-desktop and out-of-memory errors. Stay away from Wesp's crap... it is BAD. Keep in mind that more than half of the stuff in Wesp's "patch" wasn't even produced by Wesp... it's a cobbled-together mess at this point.


The TPG contains fixes to the game engine which actually, truly work properly. Installing the TPG enables the game to remain stable on 64-bit operating systems (no more crashes and "out-of-memory" errors). It also allows the game to take advantage of more system memory than the default engine -- which practically eliminates any stuttering problems and other such issues. And lastly, the TPG contains code which enables VTMB to make better use of DirectX 9 and above... resulting in smoother shading of textures and more realistic lighting effects, in areas which were previously malfunctioning in the plain-vanilla version of the game.

Unlike anything that Wesp has produced, our patch has been thoroughly tested on a wide range of different computers and operating systems. It is completely stable on every platform upon which it has been tested. Meanwhile, if you scoot on over to the official thread for Wesp's "patch," you will find dozens and dozens and dozens of people reporting bugs and crashes and tons of other problems. Every single gaming board that you can find will contain numerous... and I mean NUMEROUS... posts from people complaining that Wesp's "patch" did something or other to mess up their game.

In stark contrast, you will find almost nothing like that over here. Essentially, everyone who has installed the True Patch correctly -- into the correct "plain-vanilla" version of Bloodlines -- has experienced ZERO problems with the game ever since. But don't take my word for it. Search the entire web if you want to... and you won't be able to find anyone complaining that the TPG somehow screwed up their game. That is simply a fact.

So if anyone is having trouble getting their copy of VTMB to work with the True Patch, then there can only be one reason for this: you are not installing the True Patch correctly, into the correct "plain-vanilla" version of VTMB for which it was developed.

Quote from: Forum_Pirate on May 03, 2016, 05:13:24 PM

Quote from: Christina_Romuald on May 03, 2016, 04:51:47 PM
I can't get the game to work with the True Patch

It might help if you told of us what version of the game you're using sweetie.

I'm using the CD version of VTMB

Quote from: SeduceMePlz on May 03, 2016, 07:34:49 PM

Quote from: Christina_Romuald on May 03, 2016, 04:51:47 PM
I can't get the game to work with the True Patch

Are you using the GOG version of Bloodlines? If so, did you try the steps I posted above? Which version of Windows are you using?

As an alternative to what I posted, it might be possible to use the engine changes from the UP with the content fixes of TPG:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/release_vampirer_the_masquerade_bloodlines_1ab3d/post694

I haven't tested it, and you shouldn't expect Tessera or Wesp5 to support such a hybrid, but you might try it if nothing else works for you.

using CD version of VTMB

Quote from: Christina_Romuald on May 03, 2016, 04:51:47 PMusing CD version of VTMB

Great. That's the best version to have... the original 3-CD release.

But how do you expect anyone to help you, when you post a single sentence that says "I can't get it to work,"
and then you provide absolutely no further information of any kind..?

Could you be a bit more... specific..?

Quote from: Christina_Romuald on May 04, 2016, 12:34:52 AM
using CD version of VTMB

What's the problem? And which version of Windows are you using? Iirc, TPG might not be compatible with Windows 10 (in which case you'll have to settle for the UP).

Basic procedure for the CD version:

1. Install the game as normal but change the folder to "C:/Games/Vampire - Bloodlines" or another custom location outside of the default Program Files directory.

2. Extract the True Patch Gold archive to your desktop or another location using WinRAR or 7zip.

3. Inside the extracted folder, find and open the folder "TRUE_PATCH_MAIN". Copy the contents (the folders "Bin" and "Vampire" and the file "vampire.exe") to the game folder. When asked if you want to merge folders, check the box "Do this for all current items" and select "Yes". When asked about files, check the box "Do this for the next x conflicts" and select "Copy and Replace".

4. Right-click the desktop shortcut (or 'vampire.exe' in the game directory), click Properties, and select the Compatibility tab.  Check the box for "Disable desktop composition". Click "Apply", then click "OK".

If you have windows 8 or 8.1 do this

1)Hit the windows key from your desktop
2)go you your apps (the down arrow at the bottom of the screen
3)scroll to the windows section (far right)
4) Rightclick command prompt to run as administrator
5) copy and paste this (without the quotes) EXACTLY and hit enter  "sc config secdrv start= demand"


Should work. It is, apparently, a security risk so I'd recommend you turn if off again whenever you stop playing, simply follow the above directions and copy/paste this instead "sc config secdrv start= disabled"

I have confirmed it works for windows 8.1 64bit myself. It might work for windows 10, I don't know. Worth a shot at least.

Sources: http://steamcommunity.com/app/2600/discussions/0/517142892070567695/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3086255

EDIT: does not work with windows 10, windows 10 lacks the safedisk drm that both VTMB and Truepatch require to function (VTMB because drm, at a guess truepatch has problems because it fools the drm, but it can't fool something that isn't there so VTMBs check with windows drm comes back negative (there;s nothing to check with so it cann't recieve a confirmation) and the game refuses to run)

It is fixable, if someone decides to do so please let people know.

If you had any doubt that DRM needs to die, let this be a lesson to you. 10 years from now when windows stops supporting nuevo or something, you're going to lose access to all you're current games. Support GoG, and stop buying games with DRM. The way i see it, if using DRM is costing them millions of dollars then they'll stop using it.

im using windows 10

@ Tessera VTMB crashes when i start a new game

@Forum_Pirate
Safedisk can't be an issue, because the TPG removes Safedisk DRM from the main executable (vampire.exe). It's far more likely that Windows 10 simply doesn't properly support older versions of DirectX (VTMB is a DX8 game). Win 10 probably doesn't support shader model 2.0 or earlier, either. The problem isn't the game -- the problem is Windows 10.


@Christina_Romuald
VTMB and about 7,000 other wonderful games do not run properly on Windows 10. That's because Windows 10 is garbage. Sorry to be so blunt... but for gamers, it's pure garbage. I suggest switching to Windows XP, or Windows 7 as your operating system, if you wish to play any games which were produced prior to 2010.

I personally will not support Windows 10, I'm sorry. There are tons of people out there who can't get VTMB to stop crashing after the main menu loads. And do you know what all of them have in common..? Windows 10. It's a very, very bad operating system for gamers. So do yourself a big favor, and get rid of it.

Why do you think turning on safedisk fix the problem for windows 8? Some interaction I'm not aware of?

Windows 10 is definitely a problem, I'm not using it for a reason, but there are a lot of reports of safedisck/securom games not working specifically because of those files being unsupported. Other old games (ie those without that DRM) still work, though as will all old games on a new OS, they can be a pain to get running.

I'm no expert on the technical matters involved, but FP seems to be making a reasonable conclusion to me: If enabling the DRM allows Bloodlines and TPG to function on Windows 8, then some vestige of that DRM must remain despite the No-CD patch/crack. Unless that command is also enabling something else that is actually resolving the crash?

Also, I agree: Microsoft is irritating. To me, it seems like they finally struck gold with Windows 7, only to turn around and screw it up with Windows 8 and Windows 10.

Quote from: Forum_Pirate on May 04, 2016, 06:37:27 PM
Why do you think turning on safedisk fix the problem for windows 8? Some interaction I'm not aware of?

I have never tested anything under Windows 8 or Windows 10, so I have absolutely no idea. All I can tell you is this: the current version of the True Patch Gold Edition removes SafeDisk copy protection from the main executable (vampire.exe), by using a typical "no-cd" hack (SafeDisk code is simply extracted and deleted from the executable file).

The TPG then goes one step further, by adding special code that allows the engine to recognize and utilize larger amounts of system RAM... as compared to the default executable, which tends to crash on newer 32 and 64-bit machines. Anyone who has gotten the infamous "less than 15 megabytes" error message should know what I am talking about. The TPG adds special code to the game engine, which eliminates that issue completely.

So then, why is VTMB still crashing on Windows 8 and Windows 10..? We could probably jump through a million hoops trying to nail down the exact cause... but the bottom line is that Windows 8 and Windows 10 are simply BAD OPERATING SYSTEMS.

Newer isn't always better... especially where Microsoft is concerned. Starting with Windows Vista, each successive OS released by Microsoft has been progressively worse and worse, so far as PC gaming is concerned. So the VERY BEST solution to this ongoing problem is to install Windows XP as a second operating system on your computer, and then boot into Win XP whenever you want to play your older games. After you are finished gaming, you can then reboot into Windows 10 (yuck), or Linux (an excellent choice), or whatever your main operating system of choice happens to be.

Dual-boot systems are quite common these days, and this discussion is exposing one of the major reasons why. As for how to set up a dual-boot system, just Google it. There are hundreds of articles all over the web which will explain the procedures. The main thing to remember is to install the older operating system first (ie: Windows XP), and the more modern operating system last (ie: Ubuntu Linux). Also, since MicroSlop no longer supports Windows XP, it is important to install a good third-party anti-virus/anti-malware package immediately when you are first setting up Win XP. Which, when you think about it, you should be doing no matter which version of Windows you happen to be using.

Yes, it's a bit of a hassle. But not an enormous one. You should be able to find a copy of Windows XP for pretty cheap on the internet... and you can even get it for free, if you know where to look (nudge nudge wink wink). And it will completely eliminate any further problems with VTMB and dozens of other classic games.


So that's my stance on this issue: stop trying to play VTMB on newer operating systems, and play it on the older Windows XP OS for which it was originally developed. Or if you prefer, it will also run on Windows 7... thanks to the True Patch. But I can not and will not support Windows 8 or Windows 10. Both versions of Windows are exceedingly BAD operating systems, and that goes double for PC gaming.

Copied over from a reply to a private message. I felt that this information was important enough to share publicly. This is in reference to running VTMB on Windows Vista/7/8 and possibly Windows 10:

---

My responses...

(1) Simply running VTMB in Windows XP compatibility mode might allow the game to start and run, but it will be far from enjoying optimal performance on newer computers.

The VTMB executable was created back at a time when most home computers had less than 2 GB of total system RAM. Hell... there were still plenty of people who had even less than 1 GB of total RAM back in those days. Running VTMB in compatibility mode will allow the game to start, yes... but it will still only make use of approximately 240 megabytes of heap memory, simply because the original engine does not know how to use anything more than that.

VTMB can be forced, via the command line (using the -heapsize switch), to possibly grab as much as 800 megs or so... but on newer computers (especially 64-bit machines), this procedure often fails... and the engine crashes with an error message, about not being able to allocate such-and-such amount of RAM.

So what I did with the TPG was to patch (hack, really) the engine code, so that the old VTMB engine is now "aware" of up to 4 GB of total system memory. And it will, in fact, utilize that much RAM if it needs to. With the TPG installed, I have successfully been able to force VTMB to grab as much as 1.2 gigabytes of memory heap for its own use, in a 64-bit machine that has a total of 16 GB of RAM. That's nearly five times the amount of RAM that the plain-vanilla game would normally utilize on its own. The result is a game that runs very, very smoothly... and without any stuttering, CTD's on certain memory-intensive map loads, or other unpleasant issues.

I should mention that it has been alleged that not long after I released this new code within the TPG, it was stolen by Wesp and incorporated into his own crummy "patch." I have not bothered to verify whether or not this is true, simply because I have long since stopped caring about Wesp and his childish nonsense. But I felt that it was worth mentioning.


Regarding SafeDisk...

It is true that recently, MS patched Windows Vista on up to Windows 10 with an "anti-SafeDisk" patch. Basically, this particular update disables SafeDisk services, which effectively makes just about every old game produced prior to 2005 (which includes VTMB) stop functioning. MS claims that this was done "for security reasons." I feel that it was done simply because MS is run by a bunch of dictatorial corporate douchebags.

In any case, the batch commands that you mentioned will not work for many people, because the most recent updates from MS go even further -- and make system registry edits that effectively block any attempts to manually restart SafeDisk.

The actual fix for this situation is to go into your Windows system registry and reverse the damage done by the MS updates. The offending code is located here...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\secdrv

Within that key, look for the "Start" entry and then modify it. It is most likely set to "4" for everyone who has been attacked by the MS updates. The code "4" means that the service has been completely blocked from being started. But by modifying that data and changing that number to "2," it will completely re-enable the old SafeDisk drivers and force them to automatically start at boot-up... once again allowing older games like VTMB to run perfectly fine. And without the need for any fancy batch file commands. This is a permanent fix.


So... your posted guide over at GoG was certainly well-intended, but unfortunately it is flawed and incomplete. Hopefully this new information will allow you to correct and/or amend it.

- Tessera -

PREVIEW: TPG Hotfix #9


I would like to announce that in the very near future, I plan to update the True Patch with Hotfix #9, which will add forced anti-aliasing function to the game.

At present, the VTMB engine does not contain any sort of anti-aliasing settings... they need to be forced via the video card's control panel, prior to starting the game. Which is a less than ideal situation, due to the fact that different games benefit from different anti-aliasing settings and hence, it is always best to setup your video card to do AA on an application-controlled basis.

My next Hotfix (#9) will give the end-user the ability to permanently add native anti-aliasing capability to the Bloodlines engine, eliminating the need to make any changes within your video control panel.

This upcoming Hotfix will simply be a graphical improvement for Bloodlines, further bringing the game engine into line with modern video hardware.


What it is:

This will be an update to the DirectX code for VTMB, which will force the game to run in splendid DirectX 9 "4X" anti-aliasing mode... regardless of your video card's control panel settings. This AA functionality is included within pretty much every newer game on the market -- but the necessary code to enable it was not present in VTMB, due to the game being developed for the now-defunct DirectX 8.

Hence VTMB has no internal AA settings of its own... and if you wanted to play VTMB with AA enabled, you needed to force it -- by changing the settings in your video card's control panel. But forced AA is actually more of a drain on your video card than having the AA code native to the game itself. This is why I have decided to go ahead with this next Hotfix. It will provide superior video rendering in VTMB, without the need to force it via the video card's control panel. You can then leave your video card set to "Application Controlled" for its AA setting, which is in fact the optimal way to set your video card.


What it does:

Instead of giving you a long-winded description, let's just look at a side-by-side comparison. In the screenshot below, I have resized everything up in scale a bit, to make the aliasing around the edges of the model more apparent. My video card is set to "Application Controlled" for AA -- meaning that for VTMB, it would normally be turned off completely. Let's take a look...


(http://www.tessmage.com/images/VTMB_Hotfix9_Preview_AA_Example.jpg)

Look carefully at the area inside the red boxes. On the left is the default VTMB engine, with no modifications of any kind. As you can see quite clearly in that screenshot, the edges of the model show very noticeable aliasing. It's pretty ugly, frankly. But now take a look at the screenshot on the right. It's practically a night-and-day difference. With the new code added by the upcoming Hotfix #9, superb anti-aliasing has been added straight into the game engine itself. And the results are excellent... there is hardly any visible aliasing at all along the edges of the model.

For the record, both screenshots were taken at a screen resolution of 1920x1080 HD widescreen, with anti-aliasing set to "Application Controlled" in my video card's control panel. Hotfix #9, once installed, will essentially force VTMB to run in anti-aliased mode at all times... significantly improving its overall appearance, without chewing up too much resources. It will actually use less resources than if you were forcing AA via your video card's control panel, simply because it will be running as native code, without the need for any "outside intervention" from your video card.

This next Hotfix will be released in the very near future... possibly within a week from this announcement. I just want to do a bit more fine-tuning and testing on it, before I make it available. So far, it looks fantastic.  8)

Looks good. 8)

Looks good. I wish more mods used True Patch as their base. Once I've played through a few times I like gameplay overhuals and such.


Why would MS block it all together? Either they have administrative access and have no need to turn it on in the first place, or they don't and couldn't if they wanted to. 

Quote from: Forum_Pirate on May 07, 2016, 08:26:27 PM
Why would MS block it all together?

To induce people to purchase newer titles and/or console gaming systems. MS has a big stake in the latter, with their XBox console systems. Which probably explains why every single version of Windows... from Windows Vista on upwards... have been progressively shittier and shittier platforms for PC gaming in general.

Trivia: when was the original XBox 360 console gaming system released..? Answer: shortly before the introduction of Windows Vista. Now do the math.

MicroSlop has been guilty of unfairly bullying the market for about 30 years (and counting). They've even been dragged through the courts about a hundred times for various offenses. That behavior on their part has never stopped... just look at the insanely aggressive way that they've been trying to ram Windows 10 down everybody's throats.

So for me to allege that MS is deliberately crippling the gaming capabilities of Windows is not as far-fetched as it might seem. PC games are superior to console games... period. Better and more powerful hardware, more available resources, and better control mechanisms are all on the side of PC gaming. And today, most people have a PC of some sort in their homes. So then, why would anyone run out and spend an additional $500 or whatever on a console gaming system..?

Well, they probably would buy it... but only if it worked better than their PC does.

Once again -- do the math. PC's compete with console systems. So in order to boost the sales of console systems, the industry needs to make consoles appear more attractive -- whilst simultaneously making PC's look less attractive to gamers. The easiest way to accomplish this would be if MS deliberately started to selectively cripple the gaming capabilities of their Windows operating system.

Still in doubt..? Then ask yourselves why the OLDER versions of Windows... such as Windows 2000 and Windows XP... are MUCH better at running PC games than ANY of the later versions of Windows. The answer is because, prior to the time of Windows Vista, MicroSlop had no stake in the console gaming market. But now they do.

I have an old version stored away that takes up a whole cd  ,i think.
Pretty sure it was at least 700mb.
Is it just better compression that makes "hotfix 8" so small or have some big changes been made since my old version?

Better compression, yes... and I also removed some older optional material that was obsolete.

Specifically, there were a few optional mods that were bundled into the original TPG package. Those mods were removed with Hotfix #8.

Also, the Adobe Reader application was removed with Hotfix #8, simply because I decided that it was no longer necessary (most people already have Adobe Reader installed these days).

Hence the significantly smaller overall size of the TPG with Hotfix #8. Better compression, and less fluff.

Ahh ,thanks Tessera and thanks for all your work on this great game over the years.

on a sidenote ,
i use a small pdf program called Sumatra  ,it's usually ok for most pdf files.

Quote from: Tessera on May 07, 2016, 04:04:49 AM
PREVIEW: TPG Hotfix #9


I would like to announce that in the very near future, I plan to update the True Patch with Hotfix #9, which will add forced anti-aliasing function to the game.

There's been a delay in this next Hotfix... not because anything is wrong. No, it's because I'm looking into doing something even more ambitious.

I don't want to reveal my idea prematurely... let's just say that if I can get it to work, then the VTMB community is going to be in for a special treat.

Well... True Patch users will be in for a treat. Everyone else is gonna be shit outta luck.  :laugh:

More info soon. Just hang in there, until I can do a bit more research.

- Tessera -

Color me intrigued.

It may take another month. Hang in there.

No worries, quality takes time.  ;D

Quote from: Tessera on May 04, 2016, 02:57:50 PM
@Forum_Pirate
Safedisk can't be an issue, because the TPG removes Safedisk DRM from the main executable (vampire.exe).

apparently only when you start the game - you get as far as the menu

under Win 7 32bit and 8.1bit with automatic updates enabled I still had to revert to

sc config secdrv start= demand
sc start secdrv

I have not tried the registry tweak

it seems like the safedisk stuff is not only used when starting the game but also when you start a new game and if you load a game

now things work the way they are supposed to (European retail versions - with English, German, and French included)

The registry tweak is the best solution. It's permanent, it won't harm anything, and all of your other games that use Safedisk will work perfectly in Win 7 (and beyond).

I got the game from GOG and when I went to install the patch I saw that the unofficial patch was installed. After deleting that folder I moved the folders I was told to to the game where the exe.12 was located. Now when I check the Gameplay section it used to say the unofficial patch was installed now it says Game Mod Loader. Just want to know if I did everything correct.

I have no idea. I do not support the GoG version of Bloodlines, due to it being a corrupted "pre-patched" mess.

My suggestion would be to ask GoG to refund your money. And then, purchase a legitimate copy of Bloodlines (such as the downloadable Steam version).

Hi.
I have downloaded and installed the true patch gold and everything works great except camera control from 3rd persion view, is there somthing I have to do (except making sure num lock is on) to make this work? or have I done something wrong
I did look at the autoexec and it looks like the necessary text is there.
Running windows 7 and installed the gog vtmb version of the game before installing the true patch.
Please help
Thanks for a awesome patch, great job

Please read my previous post.

The True Patch is not compatible with the "pre-patched" GoG version of Bloodlines. Nor do I support that version of the game.

I'm sorry that you are having trouble. The people to complain to are the people at GoG. They should not be selling a retail game that is "pre-patched" with amateur third-party content.


IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you installed the GoG version of VTMB, and then simply installed the True Patch right on top of it, then it is certain that your entire game installation is now hopelessly corrupted. You will need to delete the entire game and then re-install it from scratch. And you CAN NOT install the True Patch into the GoG version of Bloodlines, due to it already having been patched with Wesp5's so-called "unofficial patch."

This is a very unfortunate situation, but there is absolutely nothing that I can do about it. What GoG is doing is quite simply wrong, and I recommend that everyone who is interested in Bloodlines avoid buying the game from GoG. Go get the original, legitimate, "pure" version of VTMB from Steam instead.

It's a sad day when you have to promote the use of Steamingpile on this website. Too bad the 3-CD version of Bloodlines isn't more widely available. And too bad GoG made the decision they did. :P

If you're worried about corruption, It comes with a completely unpatched version. The relevant files all have .12 as the file extension. Delete anything that has a .12 counterpart, remove the .12 file extensions, remove the "-Unofficial Patch" command line from the shortcut, delete the Unofficial patch files (that shouldn't be necessary but they don't do anything so no reason to keep them around, ) install true patch as normal.

That procedure may or may not work. Good luck to anyone who wants to try it.

But my "official" stance on this matter is unchanged: I can not and will not offer any support
for the "pre-patched" version of Bloodlines being sold by Good Old Games (GoG).

VTMB players who wish the use the True Patch Gold Edition are therefore urged to AVOID the GoG
version of VTMB, and instead purchase a completely legitimate "plain-vanilla" copy of the game.

These days, your two best options are (1) buy the game from Steam, or (2) search for the original,
3-CD retail version of VTMB on eBay.

Either way, the True Patch was constructed in such a way that it will ONLY work properly when installed
into the original, legitimate, unmodified version of VTMB.

Which is, after all, exactly as it should be.  8)

So I followed your advise and bought the steam version, then followed the steps in the read me and installed the true patch, but when i try to start the game from steam i get a message saying that i need to log on as admin, (I have only one user on my computer and I am admin) and then the game crashes. then I tried the exe file, and then i got a message saying "could not find steam" and the game did not start up.  What have I done wrong?
Thanks in advance for any help.

Quote from: corsair1 on June 25, 2016, 07:07:09 AM
So I followed your advise and bought the steam version, then followed the steps in the read me and installed the true patch, but when i try to start the game from steam i get a message saying that i need to log on as admin, (I have only one user on my computer and I am admin) and then the game crashes. then I tried the exe file, and then i got a message saying "could not find steam" and the game did not start up.  What have I done wrong?
Thanks in advance for any help.

What did you do wrong..?

---

Well... for starters, you didn't read this very important article:

http://www.tessmage.com/forum/index.php?topic=59301.msg95323#msg95323

---

Read that article, and then follow the procedure that is outlined within the article. Everyone who bought VTMB through Steam needs to do it. There are no exceptions to this rule.

VTMB is not compatible with Steam. I know you bought the game from Steam... and that's fine... but don't try to run VTMB from under the Steam shell. Especially if you intend to use the True Patch, or any other third-party patches and/or mods. VTMB is a game which predates the Steam service by about a year... and the VTMB version of the Source engine is simply not "Steam-aware."

No worries, though. Just read the article that I linked and everything will be fine, assuming that you carefully follow my instructions to the letter. Basically it involves re-installing Bloodlines, moving the entire game out and away from Steam, installing the True Patch, and then running the game as a stand-alone program... the way it was originally intended to be run. That article will fill in the details.

That a bit embarrassing  :D
Thanks for your help

Don't be embarrassed. I mean... wouldn't you expect the game that you bought from Steam to actually work properly with Steam..?

But as weird as it may seem to some people, VTMB is simply not going to work properly if you try to run it from under the Steam shell.


Some things to remember about VTM: Bloodlines...

(1) It predates the Steam service by about a year, hence it is not compatible with Steam.

(2) VTMB must be run as a stand-alone program. No launchers... no Steam shells... no nothing. The game was designed 12 years ago to be launched and run exclusively from its own executable file (vampire.exe).

(3) VTMB does not recognize any sort of "must be connected to the internet" requirements and so, any attempts made by Steam to force it to run that way are guaranteed to cause various glitches and headaches. Which, in fact, it does.

(4) VTMB was designed using the now-obsolete Safedisk form of copy protection (must have the CD in the drive in order to play the game). All versions of Windows from Windows 7 on upwards have SafeDisk disabled by default. If you are having trouble running VTMB on Windows 7 (or 8, or 10) after installing the True Patch, then it is almost certainly because the SafeDisk driver (secdrv.sys) is disabled in your version of Windows. The good news is that it can be enabled by doing a quick edit to the Windows system registry. Instructions on how to do so may be found on this board, or on numerous other game-related web sites. Just Google it: "How to enable SafeDisk driver in Windows."

(5) The multimedia aspects of VTMB were programmed using DirectX 8. If your version of Windows does not include the necessary files to support a DirectX 8 game, then VTMB will not run on your computer. Windows 10, for example, offers absolutely no support whatsoever for older versions of DirectX... so you can forget about trying to run VTMB on Windows 10, unless the DirectX 8 compatibility issue is remedied.

(6) VTMB was not designed to be run on widescreen monitors. It comes from a time when almost everyone was still using small screen CRT monitors. In order to see VTMB in all of its glory on a modern widescreen monitor, the game engine needs to be patched, so that it can output a proper 16:10 or 16:9 ratio video presentation. Fortunately, the True Patch Gold Edition includes all of the tools and instructions that you will need in order to accomplish this wondrous feat. It is also very easy to do... assuming that you carefully follow all of the included instructions.

---

What everyone needs to remember is that we're all trying to adapt a game that began its development waaaaaay back in 2002. Probably even earlier than that. It is, quite frankly, an obsolete game by modern standards. But if you are ready, willing and able to go through a few extra steps, then it is entirely possible to run VTMB on today's modern operating systems and hardware. But there's no getting around it -- you WILL have to do a bit of extra work in order to get it all up and running properly. That's just the way it is.

Thanks for all your help so far, but i have one more problem.
When I try to start a new game the game crashes.
Have I done something wrong or missed some important information again? (sorry in advance if I have)
I don't speak computer but this is copy paste from crash report, does the following make any sense to you?

* * * Vampire Crash Data Log, Generated From Exe Built On: Oct  6 2004 * * *

vampire caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005)
in module engine.dll at 0023:200f5a77.

Read from location 00000000 caused an access violation.

Context:
EDI:    0x00000008  ESI: 0x03e0d144  EAX:   0x106b9c00
EBX:    0xffffffff  ECX: 0x00000000  EDX:   0x00000073
EIP:    0x200f5a77  EBP: 0x20d5e0b8  SegCs: 0x00000023
EFlags: 0x00010202  ESP: 0x0018e680  SegSs: 0x0000002b

Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 11 a3 48 09 2b 21 a1 3c 09 2b 21 83 c4 14 50

I have a  few questions...


(1) Did you begin with a fresh, clean installation of the 100% legitimate, retail, UN-PATCHED version of VTMB..?

(2) If purchased through Steam, did you move the entire game out and away from Steam BEFORE you installed the most current True Patch (with Hotfix #8)..?

(3) If the answer to number 2 is "yes," did you obtain your copy of the True Patch from THIS web site..? Or did you download an unauthorized copy from somewhere else..?

(4) Are you trying to run VTMB on a laptop computer..?

(5) Are you trying to run VTMB under the Windows 10 operating system..?


The answers to those five very important questions will help me to diagnose your problems.

(1)Yes steam version. (2) Yes (3) Yes from this site (4) No (5) No
Running windows 7 home premium.
And I followed your advise from another forum and replaced the files in the bin folder due to engine error "memory not available" crash.

Are you running VTMB under Windows 7..?

If so, then try the following and then get back to me:


(1) Open an "elevated" (run as administrator) command prompt.

(2) At the command prompt, type in the following command...

sc start secdrv

...and then press the Enter key.

(3) Close down the command prompt and then try to launch VTMB again.


Tell me how that works out for ya.

Quote from: corsair1 on June 25, 2016, 05:49:04 PM
And I followed your advise from another forum and replaced the files in the bin folder due to engine error "memory not available" crash.

"Another forum..?" Do you mean another web site..? The only place that I provide support and/or advice regarding VTMB is on -this- web site. If you found something on another web site that was attributed to me, then it may be phony. Would it be possible for you to provide a link to this alleged advice..?

If you installed the TPG correctly, then you don't need to "replace files in the bin folder." The TPG should have dealt with those files all by itself. If you did something or other that is not specifically mentioned within the TPG's included instructions, then what you did is almost certainly WRONG. Messing with the files in the \bin folder is NOT something that ANYONE should be doing. Just let the True Patch handle that aspect of the installation.

Yes some important info I forgot to mention, vanilla steam version does not work at all without the files from the bin folder who followed the TPG download. (I downloaded and tried the vanilla version just for kicks after my 3rd failed attempt to make the TPG work, and it does not start up I get an "engine error memory not available 15 Mb -1" and the game shuts down.) that's why I tried the solution described by tessmage, I assumed that was you.
Here is the link.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=841911

It is a advise for someone who is running vista and the files i question is from tpg hotfix 6 but since I had the same problem I gave it a try, (I used the files from hotfix 8) and now do get to the main menu, that's further than before.

I did what you asked, and this is the result:
(sc) startservice failed 1058:
service can not be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it (Sorry for the bad english I do not run an english windows and I am not the best translator)

So I guess I have to activate that (whatever it is) but I have no clue how or what I am doing now.

Are you running the original, English language version of Bloodlines..?

And are you trying to install the legitimate version of the True Patch..? Not some unsupported "translated" version..?

The memory issue to which you are referring is a NON-ISSUE if you are installing the current version of the TPG correctly. That issue was fixed (by me) a loooong time ago. If you are still seeing that error, then you are not installing the True Patch properly. Or, you are not installing the proper version of the True Patch.

The more I see of your posts, the more I am becoming convinced that you are trying to install VTMB in some unorthodox way, and you are trying to get me to help you make it work.

So instead of doing something different, just do it the way that I told you to. If that isn't possible for some reason that you haven't told me about, then I am unable to help you any further.

This is what you MUST do:

(1) Download a fresh copy of VTMB from Steam. The original -AMERICAN- version of Bloodlines... not some half-assed foreign translation of the game.

(2) Next... and before you do ANYTHING else... do not start the game, do not do ANYTHING else... move the entire VTMB installation out and away from Steam and place it into its own unique folder on your hard drive. This is a simple copy/paste operation. It is not rocket science. Don't try to be clever and do it some other way... just do it the way that I told you to. Make a new folder, give it a unique name, and then move the entire game over to that new folder. It is as simple as that.

(3) After moving the entire UN-PLAYED game to its own new folder, install the True Patch Gold Edition as per the included instructions. IF YOU DEVIATE FROM THOSE INSTRUCTIONS FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER, THEN YOU ARE GOING TO BE 100% FUCKED. So please do it CORRECTLY. I don't care what people on other web sites tell you to do. I wrote this patch, so what I say is correct. If you don't see something written within the TPG instructions, then DON'T DO IT.

(4) After installing the True Patch and before you do ANYTHING ELSE, create a NEW desktop shortcut to the vampire.exe file that actually launches VTMB. DO NOT USE ANY DESKTOP SHORTCUTS WHICH WERE CREATED BY STEAM. THEY WILL NOT WORK. You must create a NEW shortcut. And then, start the game and make sure that it launches properly.

(5) Assuming that everything is fine at this point, shut down VTMB and then use the VTMB ResPatcher utility, in order to allow the game to run properly in widescreen resolution. I am assuming that you, like 99% of everyone these days, are using a typical widescreen computer monitor.

(6) Be sure to follow the additional instructions that are included with the ResPatcher utility. These include making an edit to your config.cfg file, as well as adding the proper start-up switches to your VTMB desktop shortcut.

(7) Start the game again. IF all is well, then you'll be finished. Enjoy playing VTMB bug-free for the rest of your life.


That's it... that is all that there is to it. Thousands of people have followed the above procedure, and VTMB is working perfectly for ALL of them.


PS -- regarding secdrv.sys:

You may need to edit your Windows system registry, in order to re-enable the secdrv.sys (SafeDisk) driver. A fairly recent update to Windows 7 forcibly disabled the secdrv.sys service on all copies of Windows 7 and Windows 8. A simple edit to the system registry will reverse the damage done by this Windows update. You can find specific instructions on how to do this by simply doing a Google search for "Windows 7 secdrv.sys enable" or some similar search terms. Basically, you need to change a single number in the registry, in order to re-enable the secdrv.sys driver in Windows 7 and Windows 8.

As for Windows 10 users... you're flat-out screwed, because support for SafeDisk in Windows 10 does not even exist.

The patch I am trying to install have been downloaded from this site: http://www.tessmage.com/download.htm I assume that is correct.
As for the version of the game, its not unlikely steam has provided me with the wrong version. Since I have followed your instructions to the letter, (the first 3 attempts) It should have worked if i had the correct version of the game, so I will try to get another version from steam, and try again. Thanks for your help.

Quote from: Forum_Pirate on June 24, 2016, 08:57:25 AM
If you're worried about corruption, It comes with a completely unpatched version. The relevant files all have .12 as the file extension. Delete anything that has a .12 counterpart, remove the .12 file extensions, remove the "-Unofficial Patch" command line from the shortcut, delete the Unofficial patch files (that shouldn't be necessary but they don't do anything so no reason to keep them around, ) install true patch as normal.

Ill give this a try with my gog version and hopefully it'll work.

Required reading:

http://www.tessmage.com/forum/index.php?topic=53139.msg25768#msg25768


FOR THE RECORD:

These days, I play VTMB on a computer which has the following specs:

(1) Asus Crosshair IV Formula motherboard
(2) 6-core AMD "Black Edition" CPU (not overclocked)
(3) 16 GB of G.Skill system memory (running at 1600 MHz.)
(4) Sapphire Radeon R9 390 video card with 8 GB of on-board VRAM
(5) HT Omega Claro Halo XT sound card
(6) Windows 7 Ultimate x64 edition operating system (SafeDisk driver enabled after editing the system registry)
(7) The original 3-CD version of VTM: Bloodlines
(8} The True Patch Gold Edition (latest version with Hotfix #8)

TRUTH TIME: VTMB runs perfectly on my machine. Absolutely no problems of any kind whatsoever. If any of you are having problems, then it is out of my hands. I can do my best to offer suggestions, but ultimately it is your responsibility to make sure that your computer, your operating system, and your version of VTMB all meet the minimum requirements necessary to install, patch and play the game properly.

Hi, Tessera.

I`ve read about the GOG version from earlier posts in this thread, regarding the compatibility with the True patch.

I have the GOG version and the wesp patch is just installed into the game as a mod. This is just the basic unofficial patch. I can run the game without this patch if I want to. There is two shortcuts to the game, one directing to the unofficial patch mod and one to vanilla.

And here is the thing; I would assume I could install the True patch and then just start the game with the vanilla shortcut, as nothing else is installed into the basic game folders?

I really don't have any idea.   :-\

I don't own a copy of the GoG version... and because of that, I am unable to offer any support for it.

The True Patch was developed primarily for the original, 3-CD American retail version of Bloodlines. It will also work perfectly with the Steam version of the game, but only if certain conditions are met.

As for any other versions of Bloodlines... be they the GoG release, or foreign language translations, or whatever... those versions represent non-standard releases of the game and as such, I can not and will not support them. I would need to purchase a copy of every single alternate version of VTMB in order to fully test their compatibility with the True Patch... which is something that I am simply unwilling to do.

My advice would be for GoG users to get together on their own, and see what they can come up with.

Quote from: Edorf on August 19, 2016, 06:53:59 AM...the wesp patch is just installed into the game as a mod. This is just the basic unofficial patch.

It is important for VTMB players to realize that even the so-called "basic" version of Wesp's patch imposes quite a few arbitrary and unnecessary changes upon the default game. It is far from being "basic." It simply screws up the game a bit less than his full-blown "patch" does. Just an FYI for ya's.  ;)

Quote from: Tessera on August 19, 2016, 10:55:11 AM
I really don't have any idea.   :-\

I don't own a copy of the GoG version... and because of that, I am unable to offer any support for it.

The True Patch was developed primarily for the original, 3-CD American retail version of Bloodlines. It will also work perfectly with the Steam version of the game, but only if certain conditions are met.

As for any other versions of Bloodlines... be they the GoG release, or foreign language translations, or whatever... those versions represent non-standard releases of the game and as such, I can not and will not support them. I would need to purchase a copy of every single alternate version of VTMB in order to fully test their compatibility with the True Patch... which is something that I am simply unwilling to do.

My advice would be for GoG users to get together on their own, and see what they can come up with.

Quote from: Edorf on August 19, 2016, 06:53:59 AM...the wesp patch is just installed into the game as a mod. This is just the basic unofficial patch.

It is important for VTMB players to realize that even the so-called "basic" version of Wesp's patch imposes quite a few arbitrary and unnecessary changes upon the default game. It is far from being "basic." It simply screws up the game a bit less than his full-blown "patch" does. Just an FYI for ya's.  ;)

Thanks for your reply, Tessera.

I`ll just see what I can come up with with my GOGed version then :). I really want to make my own decision on which unofficial patch I play with, so too bad
GOG incorporated the wesp patch from the get go. Obviously it should be an optional thing.

And by the way, thanks for your efforts in making the True patch . It fits exacly with my vision of fixing a game; bugfixes only and play the game as it was intended. I`m not really a fan of so called "restored" content in games but favours the vanilla experience. A good thing we have your alternative then :)

Quote from: Edorf on August 19, 2016, 03:19:23 PMI`m not really a fan of so called "restored" content in games but favours the vanilla experience. A good thing we have your alternative then :)

We've discussed this many times in the past. But I'll reiterate a bit... by way of an analogy:

Let's say that I'm a movie director. So I get everything together and then shoot my movie. The movie is going to be about 2 hours long when it's finished... that's the plan.

Meanwhile, during the course of shooting the film, we ended up with about 4 hours worth of raw material. There are all sorts of interesting scenes that we shot... so that later, during the editing phase, we can pick and choose the best "flow" of scenes in order to produce a final, cohesive and intelligible movie. This is how any movie gets made -- you always shoot extra stuff... figuring that during the final cut of the film, you will narrow it down to including just the stuff that works best for the overall narrative.

Which of course means that in the final stages of making our movie, we're going to end up discarding about half of the material that we originally shot. Not because it sucks... not because of any sort of censorship... but simply because in the final analysis, the movie works best if we get rid of a lot of extraneous stuff, and keep the rest of it nice and tight and focused.

But then... along comes a bozo like Wesp, who takes it upon himself to "restore" all of the garbage that ended up on our cutting room floor. Nevermind that he may be undermining the mood, the quality, the flow and the atmosphere of the original presentation... unsophisticated clowns like Wesp just want MORE MORE MORE MORE..!!! After all... if something is good, then more must always be better, right..?

Wrong.

But try telling that to Wesp and his crowd. To my way of thinking, Wesp is kinda like... the Uwe Boll of Bloodlines.   :laugh:

Quote from: Tessera on August 20, 2016, 05:36:26 AM

Quote from: Edorf on August 19, 2016, 03:19:23 PMI`m not really a fan of so called "restored" content in games but favours the vanilla experience. A good thing we have your alternative then :)

We've discussed this many times in the past. But I'll reiterate a bit... by way of an analogy:

Let's say that I'm a movie director. So I get everything together and then shoot my movie. The movie is going to be about 2 hours long when it's finished... that's the plan.

Meanwhile, during the course of shooting the film, we ended up with about 4 hours worth of raw material. There are all sorts of interesting scenes that we shot... so that later, during the editing phase, we can pick and choose the best "flow" of scenes in order to produce a final, cohesive and intelligible movie. This is how any movie gets made -- you always shoot extra stuff... figuring that during the final cut of the film, you will narrow it down to including just the stuff that works best for the overall narrative.

Which of course means that in the final stages of making our movie, we're going to end up discarding about half of the material that we originally shot. Not because it sucks... not because of any sort of censorship... but simply because in the final analysis, the movie works best if we get rid of a lot of extraneous stuff, and keep the rest of it nice and tight and focused.

But then... along comes a bozo like Wesp, who takes it upon himself to "restore" all of the garbage that ended up on our cutting room floor. Nevermind that he may be undermining the mood, the quality, the flow and the atmosphere of the original presentation... unsophisticated clowns like Wesp just want MORE MORE MORE MORE..!!! After all... if something is good, then more must always be better, right..?

Wrong.

But try telling that to Wesp and his crowd. To my way of thinking, Wesp is kinda like... the Uwe Boll of Bloodlines.   :laugh:

Exactly :D

*cough* Hellcat *cough*

SOON TO BE RELEASED -- THE TRUE PATCH ULTRA EDITION


A little over a year ago, I put up a post in which I stated that I was researching a way to add some DirectX 9 functionality to Bloodlines.

For the record, VTMB is an older DirectX 8 game. As such, it doesn't support later DirectX functions such as Bloom lighting, HDR lighting, advanced normal mapping and a slew of other graphical enhancements. This otherwise beautiful game has, therefore, always been hampered by such things as poor contrast, a lack of 3-D surface details, and an overall "rough"  and washed-out appearance... due to its total lack of such things as native anti-aliasing, tangent-space normal mapping, luma-sharpening and digital vibrance... to name but a few.

Well, very soon all of that is going to change. Not in any extreme or radical way... because as most of you should already know, I don't believe in forcing radical changes into a third-party game patch. But I doubt very much if any of you would object to the introduction of some new game engine DLL's which will noticeably improve the overall sharpness and color vibrance of VTMB, as well as adding support for such things as advanced normal mapping techniques and similar DirectX 9 functions.

Short version: the next version of the True Patch will make VTMB look noticeably better, without ruining its classic "film noir" visual style. Mostly what you'll notice are more vibrant colors and more realistic looking surfaces in the game, as well as enhanced contrast and other such yummies.

To accomplish this wondrous feat, I've been in touch with the original author of the ENB and SweetFX software. With his permission, I've been developing a package that will infuse a custom-made addition to the True Patch, tailored specifically to VTM: Bloodlines.

For those of you out there who enjoy tweaking things, you will have the option to edit the options and tweak the various settings... until you achieve a "look" for VTMB that suits your own personal taste.

As an added bonus, this upcoming version of the True Patch will also add native anti-aliasing to VTMB... something which the original game has always (sadly) lacked. No more jaggies.

Purists will be relieved to hear that all of this will be bundled together in such a way as to allow the end user to have a choice: you will be able to either add the new DX9 files to VTMB, or else omit them if you prefer. It will be entirely up to you.

Once I am happy with all of my final adjustments, I'll post a video which will allow everyone to compare... in split-screen format... the "before" and "after" effects of the new files. That way, you will be able to see for yourselves just how much of an improvement these new additions actually make to the game. I personally feel that VTMB looks significantly more realistic with these changes and hopefully, most of you will agree with my assessment.

For now... just imagine what Half-Life 2 looks like, in comparison to Bloodlines. Although both games were released within a couple of weeks of each other (back in 2004), Half-Life 2 was ported over to a DX9 engine, where as VTMB was still stuck with the original DX8 version of the Source engine. As such, its overall visual quality is rather poor in comparison to Half-Life 2.

All of that is about to change. I've been working with this for about a year now, and I think I've finally gotten it to the point where I'm happy with it. I think you will be, too.

Stay tuned... I'll post an update very soon, along with the side-by-side comparison video that I promised.

*** This will be the first major update to the True Patch in several years. Hopefully, it will be worth the wait. 8)

;D ;D ;D Awesome, dude! ;D ;D ;D

8) 8) 8) Can't wait. 8) 8) 8)

That goes double for  me !

I'm still tweaking various settings, but here's a screenshot that should serve as a bit of a teaser, at least...

I'll explain what we're seeing here in a moment. For now, let's just look at this image. The left half of the image is showing the original, default VTMB graphics engine. The right half of the picture is showing the new DirectX 9 functions that I am adding to VTMB:


(http://www.tessmage.com/images/VTMB_splitscreen_DX8_vs_DX9_01.jpg)

So what are we seeing here, in the above split-screen image..?

Well... for starters, the right side of the image shows much better contrast and color saturation. Also, take a close look at the masonry behind the character... the stone wall. On the left, the surface of the stones look rather plain and ordinary. Boring, even. But on the right side, the stones look noticeably more detailed. This is because the normal mapping for those textures is significantly enhanced... they actually look like they have a 3-dimensional surface.

If you look at my Malk, you can see that her flesh looks much smoother and more richly colored on the right side, as compared to her rather washed-out appearance on the left side. On the DX9 side, her skin looks nicer, her clothing looks more detailed, her right eye looks more distinct than her left eye, etc.

Because of the enhanced contrast that DX9 allows, the bright areas on the DX9 side look brighter, and the dark areas look darker. The body of my Malk, along with the stone masonry in the foreground of the image, both look brighter and sharper on the right (DX9) side of the screenshot. But if you look upwards a bit, at the ceiling inside of the parking garage behind her, you can see that the ceiling on the right (DX9) side looks darker than the ceiling on the left (DX8) side. So we aren't merely making everything brighter here... no, what we're doing is adding more accurate gradations of contrast, resulting in an overall scene which is sharper and more delineated.

I'm finding that this actually augments the "noir" look of VTMB in most areas of the game. Dark areas of the game look more detailed now... but they're still retaining their "creepy factor." The overall "dark and creepy" atmosphere of VTMB has been magnified a bit, in other words.

Lastly, look at the graphics for the Health and Blood Point indicators. Look closely at the decorative scroll work around each indicator. You can plainly see the difference between them... the DX9 side looks much more vivid and sharper as compared to the DX8 side.

I'll keep working on this and soon, I'll post a demo video in the members-only area of the board. The reason I need to post it there is because I play VTMB with my own Mega-Mod installed... which features a large amount of adult content. Therefore, I would prefer to post such things somewhere other than in a public area of the board. But for now, the above screenshot... which is very tame... should give everyone a good idea of what I'm striving for here.

Looks terrific. But we wouldn't expect anything less. 8)

Leave it to you to continue injecting new life into a game which was sadly virtually abandoned upon release (RIP Troika), and figuring out a way to make a creaky old graphics engine purr again. ;D

Quote from: Cylnar on April 05, 2017, 06:55:04 AM
Looks terrific. But we wouldn't expect anything less. 8)

Basically, what we're doing here is forcing VTMB to use shader model 3.0 and a tweaked (by me) form of native anti-aliasing.

Shader 3.0 allows for such things as HDR and Bloom lighting effects, tangent-space normal mapping, color vibrance and luma sharpening, and so forth.

Nice work, Tessera. I really appreciate the effort you have put into making the True Patch.
Looking forward to the new release.

Thumbs up!

Least I can go through a level grinding quest without any bugs and glitches hitting the fan, like the infamous Milligan bug during necromantic where the camera freezes and stuck in the bookcases

Quote from: rubinonthetable on April 15, 2017, 05:27:14 PM
Least I can go through a level grinding quest without any bugs and glitches hitting the fan, like the infamous Milligan bug during necromantic where the camera freezes and stuck in the bookcases

As I recall, to fix that bug I had to change Milligan's position on the map slightly, as well as adding additional info (pathing) nodes for him to follow.

In fact, there were a lot of maps where I had to make similar adjustments, in order to get rid of pathing errors. The vanilla (un-patched) game is filled with crap like that.

Hi everyone.


I read the post of: The History Of The True Patch Series


I Have the versión GoG installed in the pc, but is instaled automaticaly with unnoficial patch.
My cuestión is: ¿Only need erase this carpet and later instaling the True patch?
or no exits manner of install the true patch whit this versión of game?

Waiting answer

I have no idea.  :-\

My suggestion would be to contact GoG directly and tell them that you would prefer an un-patched ("plain vanilla") copy of Bloodlines.

If they are unable to help you, then ask them to refund your money.

Im sorry.

I find one copy of the old Vanilla versión recorded in cd in ancient times in my house.
I intall the game. Later I put the True Patch Gold Edition (In correct direction).
But now, the problem is that when press New Game (Crahs to desktòp)

Now seeing your answers Tessera, im have win 10 and the version of the game.

Yours work is awesome and without it no can finish the game.
But now have the answer for why some people give support to the miserable gog version.

Is one lost no can enjoy the game if I not install another system than a secondary and my pc no have internal space in hard drive. (Is only 2,50) i believe.
But thank,s for all

Welp. It's probably already been said but here goes:
It's possible to play Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (steam version, moved of course) patched with the True Patch Gold Edition on Windows 10x64.

The whole issue of it not loading past that 5% mark is the SecureRom driver not loading.

The way around this is to copy (might need to download it first) the secdrv.sys (SecureROM system file) to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\

Then the fun part: You have to disable driver signing. Temporary, this can be done through a reboot via the troubleshooting menu.
Or You can disable it permanently and get a nice little 'test version' watermark in the bottom right corner.

For the latter, open a command prompt with administrative rights then type in (without the quotes)

"bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS"

"bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING ON"

reboot, enjoy your watermark (which I think there are programs that can remove this), and more importantly, enjoy playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines WITH the True Patch installed.

Wish it didn't have to be this way (damn those strict driver signing checks). But it works.

 I apologize in advance because I asked this several years ago and, having not played the game in a few years, forgot.  Once loaded, how can one tell the TPG has been loaded?  I suspect I screwed up since there were a few issues long since fixed plus I couldn't even find a version number. 

Quote from: caninelegion on August 18, 2017, 07:08:21 PM
I apologize in advance because I asked this several years ago and, having not played the game in a few years, forgot.  Once loaded, how can one tell the TPG has been loaded?  I suspect I screwed up since there were a few issues long since fixed plus I couldn't even find a version number.

Simple enough.

You may recall that way back in version 5.04AT of the original True Patch, I placed a couple of small texture mods into the patch... for the express purpose of allowing the user to quickly determine whether or not the True Patch was actually installed and working.

In all cases, the changes are so small and unobtrusive that you would never even notice them at all... unless you were actually looking for them.

Look for the following "version stamps" in-game:

(1) The easiest one to find is in Act One, in the alley right next to the Asylum club. There are a couple of yellow dumpsters in that alley. If you have the True patch installed, then if you closely examine the graffiti scratched into one of the dumpsters, you will find your evidence. The dumpster closest to the street has the letters "AT" scratched into it ("AT" being the initials of "Acrimonious and Tessera").

(2) Also in Santa Monica, over near the parking garage, there's a toll booth with a gate. On the side of that toll booth is a "Pay Parking" sign. If you crouch down and look closely at that sign, you'll see "504 AT" scratched into the lower left area of the sign.

(3) Lastly, just look at the main character creation screen, when you are creating a new character. In the lower right corner you should see the words "Gold Edition." This was added to the above items when I produced the True Patch Gold Edition.

So then... if you can find all three of the above "version stamps" in-game, then relax... you do indeed have the True Patch Gold Edition installed.  8)

Hey man, your patch is GREAT. I registered to show my support and for two quick questions...

1. You say that best way your patch is used, is on original 3CD USA version of Bloodlines. Can I use it on original, UK version? Does it cause any problems?

2. I am unable to reconcile two sisters. I have always succeeded before (with high persuasion), then I read that you've made it harder, but I am unsure how harder exactly?

Anyway, thanks very much for great work, and I think your patch is way better than "other" one. Cheers

Quote from: shades01 on September 25, 2017, 10:44:51 AM
1. You say that best way your patch is used, is on original 3CD USA version of Bloodlines. Can I use it on original, UK version? Does it cause any problems?

It should work okay. That is, assuming that there aren't any significant differences between the UK and USA versions. I have never tested the UK version, so it is impossible for me to give you a concrete answer to this question.

Quote from: shades01 on September 25, 2017, 10:44:51 AM2. I am unable to reconcile two sisters. I have always succeeded before (with high persuasion), then I read that you've made it harder, but I am unsure how harder exactly?

No, I didn't make it harder to reconcile the Voerman sisters. If you read that somewhere, then it is false. The True Patch doesn't make anything easier or harder -- it simply fixes bugs.

You need to make sure that (1) your Persuasion skill is high enough and (2) you have not done anything to irritate either sister during your run through the first act. Keep in mind that sleeping with Jeanette will infuriate Therese... this is a common mistake that many players make.

Lastly, please add your correct age and gender to your Forum profile immediately. Failure to do so will result in account deletion.

Many thanks for your decade+ of dedication and hard work.
I was just on a Mind-Control oriented game site & ran across a mention of this game and it made me want to fire it up again.
Looking through my VTMB game ISO folder, I checked the old mods I had in there & decided to see if your site was still active.
Pleasantly surprised to find you still kickin ass & taking names.
Anyhow, I just dl'd the 2014 TessMod (to replace my 2012 one) and of course this one to replace my Hotfix 6 version.
Just wanted to let you know that your work is and has been highly appreciated by me for years.

Awwww... that's very kind of you. Thank you.  :)

Nice to see that work is still being done, amazed with the graphics dx progress.

However, I do hope you consider making a patched .exe file for those of us that were forced into using Windows 10, since there is the crash on new game.

I HATE the fact that Wesp's "Patch" fixes the issue. I'd rather not corrupt my game with it, even if it allows it to run.

It seems that the solution should be simple if he can address it with his. It seems like there's a fix with the vampire.dll file that bypasses the problem.

Sadly, more and more people will have Windows 10 soon, and Windows 7 is no longer available for purchase. I'd hate to see many people, including myself, miss out on the best patch for the game just because of that simple compatibility issue. I know you've made your stance clear, but I do hope you'll consider looking into it someday, if only to preserve this historic game.

Quote from: Prisoner416 on December 08, 2017, 10:22:36 PM
Nice to see that work is still being done, amazed with the graphics dx progress.

Well, I have some bad news. I have decided NOT to release the DX9 graphics upgrade, mainly because it would go against the tradition of the True Patch series. It isn't a bug fix... it's a mod and with only a few small exceptions, I've always tried to avoid adding any mods into the True Patch.

I may release it separately as a VTMB graphics mod --  we'll see. It isn't actually mine, anyway... all I've done is take the SweetFX mod and re-tune it for VTMB. And while it's true that I also made a couple of code changes to the VTMB engine, in order to make it work better with SweetFX, it's still a mod -- not a bug fix. SO... I won't be including it within the True Patch. Sorry, folks. :'(

Quote from: Prisoner416 on December 08, 2017, 10:22:36 PM
It seems that the solution should be simple if he can address it with his. It seems like there's a fix with the vampire.dll file that bypasses the problem.

Yes... it's a line of code that tells the engine to search for the SafeDisk driver, prior to loading the main menu. But as I have said, I have no interest in supporting Windows 10 -- therefore, I won't be bothering with it. If someone in the VTMB community wants to submit their own "TPG on Windows 10" fix for this issue, then by all means... go ahead and do so, with my blessing. 

Truth be told, folks... for the past 11 years, I've done my bit to support VTMB. More than my bit, frankly. The TPG is still the best patch on the web for VTMB, and it doesn't need any further enhancements.

Of course, the rest of you are free to make your own alternative patches -- if you feel that the TPG is somehow flawed or inadequate.

Quote from: Tessera on December 09, 2017, 09:47:53 AM

Quote from: Prisoner416 on December 08, 2017, 10:22:36 PM
Nice to see that work is still being done, amazed with the graphics dx progress.

Well, I have some bad news. I have decided NOT to release the DX9 graphics upgrade, mainly because it would go against the tradition of the True Patch series. It isn't a bug fix... it's a mod and with only a few small exceptions, I've always tried to avoid adding any mods into the True Patch.

I may release it separately as a VTMB graphics mod --  we'll see. It isn't actually mine, anyway... all I've done is take the SweetFX mod and re-tune it for VTMB. And while it's true that I also made a couple of code changes to the VTMB engine, in order to make it work better with SweetFX, it's still a mod -- not a bug fix. SO... I won't be including it within the True Patch. Sorry, folks. :'(

Quote from: Prisoner416 on December 08, 2017, 10:22:36 PM
It seems that the solution should be simple if he can address it with his. It seems like there's a fix with the vampire.dll file that bypasses the problem.

Yes... it's a line of code that tells the engine to search for the SafeDisk driver, prior to loading the main menu. But as I have said, I have no interest in supporting Windows 10 -- therefore, I won't be bothering with it. If someone in the VTMB community wants to submit their own "TPG on Windows 10" fix for this issue, then by all means... go ahead and do so, with my blessing. 

Truth be told, folks... for the past 11 years, I've done my bit to support VTMB. More than my bit, frankly. The TPG is still the best patch on the web for VTMB, and it doesn't need any further enhancements.

Of course, the rest of you are free to make your own alternative patches -- if you feel that the TPG is somehow flawed or inadequate.

Way back on December 14, 2011, I stumbled into this forum having found out about the patch, asking some stupid questions in retrospect about the two patches. I thank you, deeply, for doing this much for this long.

I hope someone does or you consider your own release. At the moment I'm running the true patch but with the dll file from the other thing.

Seems to work so far... only error I noticed was that after the intro execution, it showed a blank hall instead of the characters leaving. I think that happened to me before in pure runs anyway though. Also the beheading scene is missing.

Honestly, I'd do the work myself if I could just to make sure the file was untainted by wesp. I can only pray that someone with better knowledge takes a stab.

I'd love to work on the scripts for the game, fix the subtitles to match the spoken dialog in most cases (There are a lot of cases where the subtitles are lacking), and do the basic grammar tweaks. Not sure if it'd be worth starting it up as a project though if development for the patch is done.

I'm seriously considering creating a mod that will completely remove Wesp's patch from VTMB and replace it with the True Patch Gold Edition.
That way, people who have been ripped off, and forced to buy a copy of VTMB with the UP pre-installed, will have a way to fix that situation.

It's incredibly sleazy that he got his mod pre-installed with the game.

I never got why he insists on calling it an unofficial patch.

There are many excellent partial conversion mods available for Bloodlines for those who want a different experience (I love the removal of passive healing entirely in Camarilla Edition, it makes the game a lot tenser). It's obvious that he wants to make one, so why doesn't he just call a spade a spade?

Dude, I gave up on trying to figure out Wesp and his ego problems years ago.  :-\

But with a bit of work, it shouldn't be too hard for me to put together an "Anti-Wesp" patch, that completely removes every single file from his UP and then replaces those files with either TPG files (where applicable), or the default files (in those cases where no patching was necessary).

A simple batch file would do the trick. Unlike Wesp, I don't believe in using *.exe files for fan-made patches. They make some people nervous, because it is very easy to hide viruses and other malicious code within an *.exe. This is why the True Patch has NEVER employed an *.exe installer. It isn't because I don't know how (I do)... it's because I want people to have confidence in my work. All versions of the True Patch have always relied upon simple copy/paste operations, in order to install them. Note: I am not suggesting that Wesp deliberately inserts viruses into his installer... but it would be a very easy matter for third parties to take advantage of Wesp's installer, add malicious code to it, and then bundle it into one of their own mods, or simply redistribute Wesp's UP with a virus attached.

Anyway, I'll think seriously about creating an easy way for people to remove Wesp's garbage from VTMB completely and then re-patch it with the TPG. I don't wish to ignite another patch war, but I don't think it's right for people to be forced to use a faulty fan-made patch that they may not want.

The problem is he's still releasing new versions of his mod every few months, so you'd have to make a deinstaller every time Wesp feels like stroking his ego.

It's strange, he's been working on it a decade, you think he would have finalized it by now. I presume GoG will be incorporating new versions as they become available.

The makers of CQM get bothered by Wesp's adoring fans whenever he releases a new version, because CQM is built on top of "only" version 9.something and he's almost up to v11. The fact that CQM isn't getting updated all the time suggests to me that Wesp's actually important code base is stable, and he just keeps making changes to keep himself feeling important.

What I have noticed now is that Wesp's mod installs in a different subfolder so it is entirely detached from the main game - it is launched as if it were a conversion mod. This, at least, provides some isolation.

Quote from: StarWrecker on April 02, 2019, 12:00:19 PM
The problem is he's still releasing new versions of his mod every few months, so you'd have to make a deinstaller every time Wesp feels like stroking his ego.

I thought about that, about three hours after I made that post. And you're quite right, of course.

Hello Tessera and everyone, cheers from Ukraine. I'm new to this website and although I don't do much of social networking, and to be perfectly honest I was aware of your True Patch Gold Edition for some time ever since I started to play Bloodlines, even though I don't play games anymore due to my declining interested in them, nevertheless  I do watch some videos about them from time to time and also I haven't been aware of Patch Wars till yesterday and seeing what I read makes kinda of stupid for people to be narrow minded and as for your patch, I haven't played Bloodlines with your patch sadly in my days, and seeing some changes which I saw in UP it kinda baffles me sometimes since I always stick with Basic not with Plus although I played it with Plus once and I really didn't like some changes since they were kinda controversial for me. Anyway sorry for bringing the old history again, just wanted to say thanks for your all hard work and I hope you have good future ahead of you.

P.S. Sorry for my English, it can be rusty sometimes.

Your English is fine... and thank you for the kind words.  8)

For me, the "patch war" is a thing of the past. It began all the way back in 2007, which was 12 years ago. Basically, when we produced
a "bug fixes only" patch as an alternative to what Wesp had been doing, the people in Wesp's camp totally lost their fucking minds
and began flinging their poo at us. Being a rather rough and tough son of a bitch, I responded in kind and it just sort of escalated
from there. Well, that was then and this is now. I have long since moved on. I've been told that Wesp continues to compete with
me and with the True Patch from time to time, which I consider to be childish.

I have always said that people should play Bloodlines however they want to. If they want to play the original game created by Troika,
then they should play with the True Patch Gold Edition. If they prefer to play a game that is heavily altered in various ways, and they
don't mind someone else making those decisions for them, then by all means... play Wesp's version.

Hey thanks for replay, I have couple of questions if you don't mind answers to them.

1.Is your patch compatibly with mods for example with Clan Quest Mod ? and also what's your opinion about this mod ? even I don't play games with any mods aside from couple of games, and in Bloodlines I play only with patch mainly UP Basic but nevertheless I say that author made a great work of making a new quest line for Sabbat unlike in UP Plus and his Sabbat ending....

2.I read on pcgamingwiki.com that Bloodlines has issues with low quality of voice and sound effect surround/echo retrospectively, so I assume that True Patch Gold Edition fixes this issue or is it left unfixed due to problem with old Source engine itself ? 

3.Does your patch remove Gary's quest "Poster Session" where you need to collect items for Gary in return for posters he sends to your heaven ?

4.Do you get a lot of Russian or Ukrainian users for that matter and what do they usually ask about your patch ? 

5.And lastly What's your thoughts about upcoming sequel Bloodlines 2 and Do you think that it will share the same fate as it was with first Bloodlines ?

I know that you busy person and all, but if you have time to answer to my questions, I'd appreciated a lot.
Well that's all have nice day or night and keep up a good work.

P.S. Ahh yes I forgot one more thing Does your patch modify visibility for Peds in order for them to see of Nosferatu player because as far as I know if you keep your distance from them, they won't you see close enough for Nosferatu not to receive Masqueraded Violation ?

Quote from: Maxim Blackwell on July 01, 2019, 08:55:19 AM
1.Is your patch compatibly with mods for example with Clan Quest Mod ? and also what's your opinion about this mod ? even I don't play games with any mods aside from couple of games, and in Bloodlines I play only with patch mainly UP Basic but nevertheless I say that author made a great work of making a new quest line for Sabbat unlike in UP Plus and his Sabbat ending....

2.I read on pcgamingwiki.com that Bloodlines has issues with low quality of voice and sound effect surround/echo retrospectively, so I assume that True Patch Gold Edition fixes this issue or is it left unfixed due to problem with old Source engine itself ? 

3.Does your patch remove Gary's quest "Poster Session" where you need to collect items for Gary in return for posters he sends to your heaven ?

4.Do you get a lot of Russian or Ukrainian users for that matter and what do they usually ask about your patch ? 

5.And lastly What's your thoughts about upcoming sequel Bloodlines 2 and Do you think that it will share the same fate as it was with first Bloodlines ?

P.S. Ahh yes I forgot one more thing Does your patch modify visibility for Peds in order for them to see of Nosferatu player because as far as I know if you keep your distance from them, they won't you see close enough for Nosferatu not to receive Masqueraded Violation ?

(1) I have no idea which third-party mods are compatible with the True Patch. I suppose some of them will be, and others will not. You need to contact the authors of each mod and ask them that question directly. They would know better than I would. I never play VTMB with their mods, so I have never bothered to test any of them for compatibility. So the individual authors are the only people who can answer this question.

(2) The True Patch makes no changes to the audio engine in Bloodlines. Troika employed the Miles Audio 3-D Sound engine for this game and it does indeed have some problems. But no, I have not altered it.

(3) The True Patch does not remove any quests of any kind. It does make a repair to a certain Nosferatu quest, which was intended to be for Nossies only. In the vanilla game, any clan could do the quest, due to a bugged script. Once the script was repaired, the quest stopped being available to other clans and was restored to being Nosferatu-only, as was the original intention by Troika.

(4) I haven't kept track of the nationalities of different True Patch users over the years, so I have no idea. I do know that our patch is used worldwide... but beyond that, I can't say.

(5) We do have a thread devoted to Bloodlines 2, up in the forum devoted to Bloodlines. I have shared a few thoughts about it, but since none of us have actually seen the game yet, my impressions about it are limited.

(6) The True Patch makes no alterations to the game mechanics, other than to fix legitimate bugs wherever they have been found. The trick to playing a Nossie, while out in public, is to hide as much as possible. Use the sewers, whenever you can, to travel around town... that's what they're for. The biggest challenge when playing a Nossie is NOT to be seen, so if Wesp's "patch" has made some sort of change to that mechanic, then he is undermining the special challenge that Nossie players were intended to face.

Quote from: Maxim Blackwell on July 01, 2019, 08:55:19 AM
4.Do you get a lot of Russian or Ukrainian users for that matter and what do they usually ask about your patch ? 

There is at least one Russian around here on this board.
( :

Let me jump in with a couple of things:

The Clan Quest mod is built upon the UP (though I don't think they necessarily change it every time Wesp reiterates the UP - each version is built upon a certain base. Same with virtually all the other mods out there like Camarilla edition etc.

As for the Nossies: I seem to remember even playing with the TPG (accept no substitutes!) that Nossies could avoid Masquerade violations fairly easily, simply by keeping to the middle of the streets rather than the sidewalks, and avoiding getting too close to any civilians. The default "detect/react" range of most NPCs is rather short.

Quote from: Cylnar on July 01, 2019, 03:08:01 PMThe default "detect/react" range of most NPCs is rather short.

This is true... about two to three meters for most NPC's. Makes it easier to follow them around and put the bite on them when you want to.

There are some exceptions. Certain specific quest NPC's have been programmed to react to the player at extreme distance... such as Bach, for example.

Also, if you do something really extreme... kill a cop out on the street, say... pretty much every garden variety NPC on the entire map will immediately react to it, even if they're six blocks away from you. It's a sort of "all points bulletin" that goes out immediately, and nearly all of the NPC's will try to run away from you in unison. Except the other cops, of course... they'll all come running at you, from wherever they are.

Also I've watched a video recently where one plays with True Patch Gold Edition and noticed that the execution scene of your sire is different, where game force the camera to cut from sheriff decapitated the sire, but as I heard it depends mostly on versions of the game that you have and also screen goes black at moment where the prince talks to the player when he says "but you see there is a strict code...." but then it returns back to normal, it just for couple of seconds
Does True Patch Gold Edition alters any of these scene or is it just left unchanged ?

P.S. I don't if True Patch Gold Edition enables dialogue for peds but I don't that is the case due to the view of developers ? Also I don't suppose True Patch Gold Edition adds any subtitles for radio ?

Let me answer all of your questions with a simple statement:

The True Patch Gold Edition does NOT make any arbitrary or unnecessary changes to the quests, items, or gameplay mechanics of Bloodlines. Our patch is exclusively concerned with fixing legitimate bugs discovered in the default, "plain-vanilla" version of the game. The entire purpose of the True Patch series was to provide players with a viable, high-quality and working alternative to another well-known series of fan-made patches -- which unlike our patch, makes literally hundreds of completely arbitrary and unnecessary (and occasionally foolish) changes to the original game.

I see thanks for the answers, you know you said that Wesp5 usually leaves a lot of his game codes in the game, out of curiosity what kind of gaming codes are talking about and does it dramaticly affects the game itself?

Quote from: Maxim Blackwell on July 03, 2019, 04:30:14 AM
I see thanks for the answers, you know you said that Wesp5 usually leaves a lot of his game codes in the game, out of curiosity what kind of gaming codes are talking about and does it dramaticly affects the game itself?

I think it would be better if you asked Wesp that question.   ;)

Quote from: Maxim Blackwell on July 03, 2019, 04:30:14 AM
I see thanks for the answers, you know you said that Wesp5 usually leaves a lot of his game codes in the game, out of curiosity what kind of gaming codes are talking about and does it dramaticly affects the game itself?

It's been ages since I actually burrowed myself into any of this game's files in general, but I do remember DLGs being filled by the trigger scripts which track whether you actually use Plus or just Basic edition.

I see, also I notice when player pick ups phone from phone booth it magicly returns to its original place and the player's hand remains only like he speaks through its hads. I recon that True Patch doesn't fixes this issuedue to the problem Source engine itself ?

Quote from: Maxim Blackwell on July 05, 2019, 04:52:21 AM
I see, also I notice when player pick ups phone from phone booth it magicly returns to its original place and the player's hand remains only like he speaks through its hads. I recon that True Patch doesn't fixes this issuedue to the problem Source engine itself ?

I'm a bit confused now. Initially, you told us that you are not a True Patch user. If I may quote you:

QuoteI haven't played Bloodlines with your patch sadly in my days, and seeing some changes which I saw in UP it kinda baffles me sometimes since I always stick with Basic not with Plus although I played it with Plus once...

So then, why are you asking so many questions about the True Patch..? Seems a bit odd, frankly.

Well even though I have never played VTM Bloodlines with True Patch Gold Edition, well I'm just asking out of curiosity whatever weird it may sound it and since I played a long time ago with Weps5 "unofficial patch" I just decided to find out the difference between your patch and his you know. Besides it's not like I will be playing any games since I decided to called a quit with them, mostly take up reading books, but you know old habits die hard, so yeah I guess I'm kinda a weird person.

 Fair enough.  8)

Well then, rather than address every single minute detail of either patch, I'll just give you another generic answer. Keep in mind that while I am certainly biased, I will endeavor to be as honest as I can be:

(1) No matter which version of Wesp's patch you install, there will be numerous and arbitrary changes to the originally intended experience that Troika wanted us all to enjoy. Even Wesp's "Basic" version contains dozens of completely unnecessary changes to the game. About a third of Wesp's patch consists of actual fixes to legitimate bugs... the other two-thirds is nothing but arbitrary mods of various types.

(2) The True Patch Gold Edition is almost 100% comprised of high quality repairs to legitimate bugs which existed in the default, retail version of Bloodlines. My primary concern was with bugs which were very obvious, and also with bugs which might impede your progress in some way (for example: bugs which caused crashes, or which caused scripts to malfunction, etc.) While I am sure there are various tiny little things that we never bothered to fix (your payphone glitch, for example)... the reason we ignored those things is because they are just that: tiny and unimportant little glitches, that most players would probably never, ever notice or encounter. To date, the True Patch fixes more legitimate bugs than any version of Wesp's patch, while making almost no arbitrary changes of any kind to the rest of the game.


So it all comes down to what you want. Some people might prefer a modified game. Those people should use Wesp's patch. Other players might prefer to play the actual game that they paid for, before deciding whether or not they want mods. Those people should install the True Patch. It's nice to have choices, eh..?

Given the nature of True Patch Gold Edition I assume that you also include fixes from other users, if so then what kind of basic rules should users follows if they want include their fixes into your patch ? aside from the fact that only fixes are allow into the patch and also do you plan to include an aforementioned aniti aliansing or is it going against your rules of only including fixes and nothing more ?

Quote from: Maxim Blackwell on July 13, 2019, 09:20:03 AM
Given the nature of True Patch Gold Edition I assume that you also include fixes from other users

Incorrect. All of the fixes in the True Patch came from me and a programmer named Acrimonious.

Acrimonious retired from the gaming community, following the release of the True Patch version 5.04AT.
All additional repairs beyond that point, including the True Patch Gold Edition, were done by myself.

If you poke around a bit on this board, you will find lots of information regarding the history of the True Patch series.

Regarding your question about anti-aliasing, no... I have no plans to incorporate anything like that into the True Patch, because it isn't necessary. There has been a third-party mod out there for several years called SweetFX, and it does a fine job of adding all sorts of great graphics tweaks to VTMB and to lots of other older games. It includes anti-aliasing, and enhanced shaders, and all sorts of other tricks that help older games look better. It works great with VTMB... just don't expect miracles, because VTMB is a DirectX 8 game and as such, it's graphics capabilities are limited.

If interested, you can obtain SweetFX from the author's web site here:  http://sfx.thelazy.net/downloads/

Ahh I see, then speaking of other users. Do you get any occasinaly request from time to time about incorporating their own fixes into the patch to or you just prefer it to do any maintenance by yourself in fearning that users might incorporated some questionable changes ?

Quote from: Maxim Blackwell on July 14, 2019, 03:32:28 AM
Do you get any occasinaly request from time to time about incorporating their own fixes into the patch

Nope. It's all just me.

Also Did Troika intentionally didn't add any Xp points to Knox reveal that Bertram Tung is manipulating you into doing his dirty work and in so called Daydream Believer quest where you trick thin-blood into buying blood packs from you and sending him to kill a head vampire ? Cause if they didn't then it makes a lot of sense unlike Wesp5 change....

Quote from: Tessera on March 30, 2019, 06:44:19 PM


I'm seriously considering creating a mod that will completely remove Wesp's patch from VTMB and replace it with the True Patch Gold Edition.
That way, people who have been ripped off, and forced to buy a copy of VTMB with the UP pre-installed, will have a way to fix that situation.

Hello Tessera,when will the mod be finished?

Thank you for your hard work and dedication,amigo.

Anyone know how to get TPG to play nice with Steam on Win 10? I get as far as loading a game and it falls over... what have I done wrong?

Quote from: BazYat on September 01, 2020, 08:08:35 AM
Anyone know how to get TPG to play nice with Steam on Win 10? I get as far as loading a game and it falls over... what have I done wrong?

The True Patch does not work with Windows 10.

...nuts. OK

Quote from: BazYat on September 04, 2020, 12:31:29 PM
...nuts. OK

I know I had the True Patch working under Windows ten, sadly the only way to do so is by liberating a .dll file from Wesp's mod. I believe the issue isn't so much a Windows 10 compatibility issue as it is a Securom or other copy protection scheme, which Microsoft disabled under Windows 10 due to security risks.

I understand the general reluctance to support Windows 10, but I do hope that someday the patch can be updated to fix this minor issue. Sadly, rolling back to Windows 7 isn't an option for everyone. I think it's one of the main barriers right now in getting others to make the leap to switching over from what they thought was a decent patch, only to learn the truth about Wesp's craft.

I have to do more testing anyway, I have to reinstall Windows thanks to an error on my part. I never noticed any ill effects from running the .dll but then again I've been lucky in other aspects as well.

It doesn't work with win 10... it's cool I didn't spend hours uninstalling reinstalling putting wesp "patch" on and off to get the vampire12.dll and trying with every vampire.exe I found, while seeing it work with wesp patch but not playing with it because f his changes... guess either I retrograde to win 7 which I wanted to do since it's my favourite version, never play VtMB again or play with wesp "patch" but not the -plus one hoping the regular version is an actual patch. I'm lost does anyone have an advice? Can I merge the TPG with wesp's blasphemous one? (Sorry Tessera, really :')

edit: nah no way I'm playing a screwed version again (I played it 5 times with gog version) I'll reinstall win 7.

Well obviously, I'm never going to tell people to use ANY part of Wesp's "patch."  ;)

But if the DLL file is all you really need, then I guess it's up to each of you to decide what to do. I'm going to stay completely removed from that conversation.

Personally, I still advise everyone to install Win 7 as a second operating system and just do all of your gaming from there. You might find a way to get VTMB working on Win 10... and if the only game you ever played in your life was VTMB, then you'd be all set. But what about all of your other older games, folks..? Every single game that ever used SecureROM copy protection simply WILL NOT work under Windows 10.

So you can either throw all of your older, favorite games away and never play them again (dumb idea).... or you can do the smart thing, and run Windows 7 as a separate operating system on the same computer. This is not difficult to do, folks... but it will require a complete re-installation of both operating systems.

For the uninitiated, it goes like this:

(1) First make a backup of everything you want to save from Windows 10 and keep that backup on a separate DVD, or external hard drive, or a thumb drive, or whatever. Just not on your main hard drive.

(2) Now install Windows 7 and tell it to reformat your hard drive during installation. You won't be able to get updates for Win 7 anymore, unless you hunt all over the web... but that's not important right now.

(3) Next, install Windows 10 and during installation, it will detect the presence of Windows 7. It should then ask if you want Win 10 to run as a second operating system. You should also be given the option to decide which OS will be your default OS. Whenever you reboot your machine, which OS should it automatically boot into? I'm sure most of you will want Windows 10 to be your default system, so just be sure to set it up that way.

(4) That's all you gotta do. If you're worried about security whenever you boot into Windows 7 for gaming, then just go into the Win7 control panel and disable its internet access. This is usually as simple as just going into the Win7 Device Manager and permanently disabling your network adapter. No functioning network adapter -- no internet. Simple. Windows 7 then becomes its own little island and it never connects to the web. Updates for Win7 then become unnecessary.

Get the idea..? If Windows 7 can never connect to the internet, then you can never be hacked or infected with a virus while using Windows 7. Pretty simple, right..? You'll just use Windows 7 for gaming and then switch back to Windows 10 for everything else.

I still think this is the "best of both worlds" solution, which is precisely why I have never made any effort to update the True Patch for Windows 10. Why bother..? Win10 sucks for gaming, period. 

Lastly I'll just mention that on my main gaming rig, I continue to use Windows 7 x64 exclusively. I rely upon third-party anti-virus and anti-malware software, to keep the system safe while web surfing. I have not been missing out on anything at all. I can do everything on my Win7 machine that Windows 10 users can do. In other words, Windows 10 is a redundant, unnecessary pile of shit, folks. I have Win 10 on a laptop, so I know what I'm talking about here. There is absolutely NOTHING on that Win 10 machine that I can't do BETTER and FASTER and with LESS BLOATWARE as compared to my Windows 7 rig. That is an absolute fact. So why do we need Windows 10..? I have no idea.

FOLLOW-UP: Adding secdrv.sys to Windows 10


It's safe to say that this has been an ongoing issue for years. Windows 10 does not support the older SecureROM (aka SafeDisk) form of copy protection, which was used by hundreds of older games (like VTMB) that people still enjoy playing.

I finally decided to seriously look into this issue. I haven't really bothered with it before, because my stance has always been "Just play VTMB on a Windows 7 machine." I still think that's the best solution, but I also realize that most people don't want a dual-boot (Win 10 + Win 7) setup, nor can they afford to build an entirely separate computer, just to play older games like VTMB.

So after doing a bit of snooping around, it appears that there may actually be a way to ADD the old SecureROM driver to Windows 10... thus enabling Windows 10 to play ALL of your other older games. VTMB included.

I think this is a better idea than simply copying a file out of Wesp's mod/patch, because you probably enjoy other games besides VTMB. Wesp's file only fixes VTMB... but it does nothing for any of your older games.

MicroSoft removed the SecureROM driver from Windows 10 and Windows 11, basically telling the fans of vintage PC games to go fuck themselves. Not cool. Microsoft claims that the device driver involved, which is named "secdrv.sys," is some sort of monumental security risk. The actual people who originally created secdrv.sys have stated that Microsoft is full of shit. You can decide for yourselves who to believe.

Because of these concerns, I will not tell anyone what to do, or how to do it. Instead, I will post some links to an article and some software which, supposedly, will allow you to permanently add the secdrv.sys to Windows 10. Hopefully you will be able to read the article and figure out how to do it yourself. I have read it and it appears to be do-able.

Check these links:

https://windowsreport.com/cd-games-windows-10/#5     <--- the actual procedure

https://www.ngohq.com/driver-signature-enforcement-overrider.html  <--- the software that supposedly allows you to override Windows 10 disabling of older drivers

http://www.mediafire.com/file/vqel2rrxnoz3z67/RemoveWatermark_20090509.zip/file   <--- correct download link is on the right side of the page; don't be fooled by the ads


Now then... I have not personally tried this method. That's why I won't tell anyone what to do. I'm just relaying this information, with the customary "Do it at your own risk" disclaimer.  ;)


- Tessera -

It looks like this has worked for people, but I couldn't find any way of adding secdrv back that doesn't result in a "this driver has been blocked from loading" error when I try to start it in the command prompt. I also tried booting without driver signature enforcement, and this more involved method: https://github.com/ericwj/PsSecDrv

THAT SAID, I can't discount user error. But I also wonder if my version of secdrv.sys is too old to work. I copied it from my Windows XP virtual machine and the product version is 4.03.086 2006/09/13. I couldn't find any later versions online, so if any of you guys with a Win 7 machine feels like checking, check your secdrv.sys' Details tab in its Properties and let me know if it's any different.

If it's the same, I'll have to assume it's a case of PEBKAC, unless recent Win 10 updates have completely blocked it from loading.

Quote from: Blonde Guardian on March 18, 2022, 04:01:29 PM
It looks like this has worked for people, but I couldn't find any way of adding secdrv back that doesn't result in a "this driver has been blocked from loading" error when I try to start it in the command prompt.

That's because your driver wasn't signed.

If Windows encounters a driver that isn't properly "signed" and entered into its catalog of approved drivers, it simply skips it at boot-up.

Supposedly, one of those utilities that I linked in my previous post deals with the driver signing issue, effectively making secdrv.sys a permanent part of Win 10.

But once again... I have not personally tested this. I do have Win 10 installed on a laptop... maybe one day I'll give it a try and see if I can make it work.

I suspect that, even after installing the driver, one would probably have to do something or other in the registry. I remember that when MS quietly disabled the driver in Windows 7, we had to go into the registry and undo their sabotage. I remember posting an article about it in this forum, way back when.

Quote from: Tessera on March 14, 2022, 02:40:34 PM
FOLLOW-UP: Adding secdrv.sys to Windows 10


It's safe to say that this has been an ongoing issue for years. Windows 10 does not support the older SecureROM (aka SafeDisk) form of copy protection, which was used by hundreds of older games (like VTMB) that people still enjoy playing.

I finally decided to seriously look into this issue. I haven't really bothered with it before, because my stance has always been "Just play VTMB on a Windows 7 machine." I still think that's the best solution, but I also realize that most people don't want a dual-boot (Win 10 + Win 7) setup, nor can they afford to build an entirely separate computer, just to play older games like VTMB.

So after doing a bit of snooping around, it appears that there may actually be a way to ADD the old SecureROM driver to Windows 10... thus enabling Windows 10 to play ALL of your other older games. VTMB included.

I think this is a better idea than simply copying a file out of Wesp's mod/patch, because you probably enjoy other games besides VTMB. Wesp's file only fixes VTMB... but it does nothing for any of your older games.

MicroSoft removed the SecureROM driver from Windows 10 and Windows 11, basically telling the fans of vintage PC games to go fuck themselves. Not cool. Microsoft claims that the device driver involved, which is named "secdrv.sys," is some sort of monumental security risk. The actual people who originally created secdrv.sys have stated that Microsoft is full of shit. You can decide for yourselves who to believe.

Because of these concerns, I will not tell anyone what to do, or how to do it. Instead, I will post some links to an article and some software which, supposedly, will allow you to permanently add the secdrv.sys to Windows 10. Hopefully you will be able to read the article and figure out how to do it yourself. I have read it and it appears to be do-able.

Check these links:

https://windowsreport.com/cd-games-windows-10/#5     <--- the actual procedure

https://www.ngohq.com/driver-signature-enforcement-overrider.html  <--- the software that supposedly allows you to override Windows 10 disabling of older drivers

http://www.mediafire.com/file/vqel2rrxnoz3z67/RemoveWatermark_20090509.zip/file   <--- correct download link is on the right side of the page; don't be fooled by the ads


Now then... I have not personally tried this method. That's why I won't tell anyone what to do. I'm just relaying this information, with the customary "Do it at your own risk" disclaimer.  ;)


- Tessera -

Quote from: Blonde Guardian on March 18, 2022, 04:01:29 PM
It looks like this has worked for people, but I couldn't find any way of adding secdrv back that doesn't result in a "this driver has been blocked from loading" error when I try to start it in the command prompt. I also tried booting without driver signature enforcement, and this more involved method: https://github.com/ericwj/PsSecDrv

THAT SAID, I can't discount user error. But I also wonder if my version of secdrv.sys is too old to work. I copied it from my Windows XP virtual machine and the product version is 4.03.086 2006/09/13. I couldn't find any later versions online, so if any of you guys with a Win 7 machine feels like checking, check your secdrv.sys' Details tab in its Properties and let me know if it's any different.

If it's the same, I'll have to assume it's a case of PEBKAC, unless recent Win 10 updates have completely blocked it from loading.

I tried both and I have got it working and here is my Story:

I tried the solution mentioned by Tessera using the "Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider" tool without any success.
Then I tried the Tutorial mentioned by Blonde Guardian (https://github.com/ericwj/PsSecDrv) which worked for me!
I followed it by the letter downloaded the secdrv.sys data mentioned in the link and it works like a charm. I am using Win10 Pro 64-bit Version 21H2 Build 19044.1706 which should be the up to date build.
The Watermark Removal Tool mentioned by Tessera did not work for me either. I have used the "Universal Watermark Disabler" created by Winaero.
I am running VTMB using the True Gold Patch with the Mega-Mod Package and it runs great on my Win10 Machine.

@Blonde Guardian maybe it could help to edit the Registry:
Press win+r and type "regedit"
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServices (you can paste it into the navigation line at the top of the Reg Editor)
Add here a new DWORD (32-bit) Value named "secdrv" with hexadecimal value "2"
Reboot and look if it helped otherwise check again if you followed the tutorial you mentioned correctly.

It is also possible that you still have "Secure Boot" in your Bios activated which does not work. I had it deactivated by Default. This is also mentioned in the Tutorial.

Glad to hear it, Happy. I did do the registry edit by then, and my BIOS is legacy mode, so the secure boot issue presumably doesn't apply. It's entirely possible that I just bungled something while following that tutorial. Maybe I'll give it another try one of these days.

Hey there. Been playing the 10th anniversary megamod and everything was honky-dory until I got downtown. Fat Larry didn't appeared. I tried reloading, I tried closing the game, restarting the pc and running it again, reinstalling, using the gold patch instead, using the gold patch over the 10 anniversary version and removing the UP folder. Couldn't find any way to spawn npcs via console (and it would be great to know how to do that so I can test mods more efficiently). I am srsly considering buying the steam version to get the vanilla dlls, as my gog version cane with the UP, but I would prefer not to, if I can avoid it.

Im using windows 7, a phenom 2 x4 cpu, amd 550 GPU and 8 gb of 800 ddr2 ram.

And im fairly sure I followed the instructions to a t, but everybody is fallible, I guess. Not sure if I left out info needed for the troubleshooting and I would appreciate ppl pointing out if I did.

Thanks in advance!

It sounds to me like you tried to install the Mega-Mod on top of an UP version of VTMB. I guarantee the game will stop working if you do that.

Both the True Patch and the Mega-Mod expect you to start with the original, plain-vanilla version of VTMB. Anything having to do with the UP will be totally incompatible.

Plain vanilla VTMB ---> patch it with the True Patch ---> install the Mega-Mod  ---> play the game. That's the ONLY way to make it work.

Quote from: highphy on November 30, 2022, 09:18:09 PM
(and it would be great to know how to do that so I can test mods more efficiently). I am srsly considering buying the steam version to get the vanilla dlls, as my gog version cane with the UP, but I would prefer not to, if I can avoid it.

That sucks, but that's probably what you're gonna have to do. I hate that GOG doesn't sell the un-modded version of the game; it's just silly.

Oh well, thank you both for your answers, at least now I know what I have to do.

Took advantage of the Steam sales this holiday season, delete, reinstall, apply patch AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND still no fat larry.

The textures are nice, the variety of meshes is GREAT and I specially like the previously empty spaces being populated, but incompatibility with other mods and no fat larry are a deal breaker for me. Thanks anyway.

Quote from: highphy on January 06, 2023, 09:02:59 AM
Took advantage of the Steam sales this holiday season, delete, reinstall, apply patch AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND still no fat larry.

The textures are nice, the variety of meshes is GREAT and I specially like the previously empty spaces being, but incompatibility with other mods and no fat larry are a deal breaker for me. Thanks anyway.

Read:   http://www.tessmage.com/forum/index.php?topic=59301.0