Post news Report RSS Sneaky Upgrade 1.1.7 released - adding the GarrAT mod

Also, a loading text tweak, display selection, multicore mode (YMMV) and an improved installer. And the patched game will again launch from Steam etc.

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1.1.7 is out. Obesity is the new normal: The Fat Edition is now the Full Edition and the former standard edition is the Update Edition - for use when appropriate.

The highlight of 1.1.7 is the inclusion of the "GarrAT" Garrett Animation Tweaks mod by ascottk - this has been on the to-do list for a long time. In the Sneaky Upgrade incarnation of the mod it will work not only with the original game but also with T3 Gold and (in principle) all FMs. Assuming most players will want this it's enabled by default after installation.


The two small launcher executables are no longer patched originals but rewritten, simplified replacements. T3.exe will now launch the patched game for the benefit of Steam, GOG Galaxy and GarrettLoader users. This also means that the original desktop shortcut will now again launch the patched game. You can still run the unpatched game if needed, through a shortcut in the start menu.
Thief3Launcher.exe (the replacement Ion Launcher.exe), which keeps the desktop hidden while launching a new level, hopefully removes the need to disable themes on some versions of Windows. As a bonus it will cut a couple of seconds off loading times...

The installer has had a much-needed overhaul, using more installer pages instead of cramming everything into 'additional tasks'. Uninstalling a previous version has been moved to after clicking the Install button, so it's now possible to cancel at any point before and keep the current version.

A few new settings are available in the tweak tool:

  • In a multi-monitor setup, run the game on a display which is not the primary
  • Allow the game to run on multiple cores. When this works it will increase performance, at least in some cases
  • New tweak to scale down the size of the tip/flavour text on loading screens

The display selection and multicore features are somewhat experimental - feedback is welcome!

The loading screen size tweak provides 5 sizes from Normal to Smallest. Thief 3 Gold now uses a smaller size with improved formatting. Since it's a purely cosmetic change, T3G is still on version 1.2 and existing savegames will work.

Here's an example of the smaller text (on the middle setting) and improved formatting, as used in T3G:

Improved T3G loading screen


Level loading is now fast enough that there's often not enough time to actually read the loading screen text - so loading can now be paused by holding down the Ctrl key.

A couple of small original issues with the loading screen text were fixed in the process. Most importantly the centered text, which would revert to left-justified after a couple of lines, is now left-justified to begin with.

The fix for the frozen mouse cursor when using large fonts is now on by default. The tweaker will now detect if it's already running, instead of launching a second instance. Various small fixes and improvements to descriptive text.

Behind the scenes everything has been moved to Visual Studio 2015 - which unfortunately means everything is now broken on Wine. Mac/Linux users should stick to the beta (1.1.6.500).

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Schopenhauer
Schopenhauer

Well thank you Mr. snobel!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
lowenz Online
lowenz

If only, one day, we can get these goodies in DXIW too!

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snobel Author
snobel

Not having played DXIW, what would be a good name for such a patch? It has to be "the <something> Upgrade"... :)

Reply Good karma+2 votes
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