Thief: Deadly Shadows Tweak Guide
[Page 8] Conclusion
Here are some final tips and tweaks before we wrap up the guide.
Thief: Deadly Shadows Console Commands?
Thief: Deadly Shadows doesn't appear to have a working console. The '~' key is hard-coded as the console key, but it doesn't work and it's likely it has been disabled on purpose. Perhaps future patches will enable access to the console.
Dual-Core CPU Issues
If you run a dual core CPU, such as a Pentium D or AMD X2, or even a Pentium 4 with HyperThreading, you may notice that the game has a range of problems, such as not loading up properly. To resolve this issue, use one of the methods below:
Setting Processor Affinity Manually: Launch Thief: Deadly Shadows, and as soon as the game appears to begin loading, or after it has loaded up, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the Task Manager. Under the Processes tab, find the t3.exe and t3main.exe processes, right-click on each one, select 'Set Affinity' and in the box which appears, untick 'CPU 1'.
Setting Processor Affinity Automatically: If you want to force the game to only use one of your CPUs automatically each and every time you run the game, see the instructions here for using the Imagecfg utility, a small Windows NT file you can safely copy into your \Windows\System32 directory and then use to permanently set the affinity for particular programs. I recommend you backup your t3.exe and t3main.exe files before applying this tweak, as the only way to undo it is to restore the original .exe files. Furthermore, note that you may have to redo this tweak each time you patch the game, since the executable will change.
Both these methods basically force the system to effectively see, and use, only one of the CPU cores on your dual core CPU to run the game, thereby resolving this problem.
Using Fraps to Measure Framerate
A common question people have is "How do I measure my framerate in Thief: Deadly Shadows?". Well the most accurate and least troublesome way is to download a small free utility called Fraps. Once installed, simply run the utility in the background (minimize it), and it will show a small yellow counter in the corner of the screen with the current frames per second.
Before running Fraps though, make sure you go through each configuration screen and check the key assignments. For example by default Fraps uses the F9 to start recording a demo. This can cause problems in T:DS if you've assigned F9 to something like Autosave. So make sure the Fraps key assignments don't conflict with your T:DS keys. To change a key assignment in Fraps, left-click in the box with the key name, and then press a new key to assign it. Alternatively you can click the Disable button to disable that functionality in Fraps.
Some people have cast aspersions on how accurate Fraps is, and whether having it run in the background actually reduces performance. This is all completely untrue. Fraps is extremely accurate - I have personally compared it with the in-game framerate counter on various games and it is within 1% of them. At the same time it has no performance impact because of the way it has been developed. It has been around for many, many years and is known as one of the best independent tools to use for measuring framerate. The latest version of Fraps even has a built-in Benchmarking tool if you want to compare framerates with others who use similar settings in T:DS. It's a highly recommended tool.
Taking Screenshots
You can take screenshots of T:DS using the default Windows screenshot key (PRINT SCREEN). Pressing the PRINT SCREEN key during the game places a single screenshot into memory, and once you exit Thief: Deadly Shadows, you can paste the last screenshot taken into a paint/photo editing program and modify or save it from there.
However to take multiple screenshots and have them saved while you're playing the game, you can use a utility like Fraps (See the section above). Fraps can take as many screenshots as you like during gameplay, and stores them in high-detail .bmp format in the directory of your choice. Alternatively if you want to be even more fancy, a utility called Hypersnap DX will meet any and all your screenshot needs, but requires paid registration to enable full functionality.
For most people I highly recommend using Fraps as it is free and has many useful functions.
Custom High Resolution Textures
Some of the textures used in Thief: Deadly Shadows are relatively low resolution and hence can look quite bad. While there is no official way of improving these low resolution textures, an unofficial set of high resolution textures has been released by John P. and can be downloaded here: John P.'s High Res Texture Page. Each pack comes in a self-installing file, so there is no file editing or messing around. Full instructions on how to download and install the packs are on John P's page, along with screenshots showing before and after textures for each pack so you can see what they look like before you use them. In addition to higher res textures, John has also a small pack which changes the frob (the blue highlighting whenever Garret can select an object) to a more appropriate tone, and several other graphical fixes which you are sure to like. Give them a try!
Further Tweaking
I need to make a special mention here that many of the tweaks in this guide were originally discovered by the great people on the TTLG Thief Forums. This Thief 3 Tweak Guide in particular (compiled by Mentalepsy) is extremely useful and highly detailed. Although most of the major Thief: Deadly Shadows tweaks are in the guide you've just read, I strongly recommend you go through that guide for more customization and tweaking options.
Some final tweaks from the above guide which I found very handy, but do not involve manual .ini tweaking are:
Disable Loadscreen Tips
If you find the painfully obvious tips presented on the Loading screen when loading up saved games or during map loads to be very annoying, you can quickly disable them by going to your \Thief - Deadly Shadows\CONTENT\T3\Books\English\ directory, and renaming the file HelpText.sch to something else (e.g. HelpText.sch_BAK). Doing so will skip the Loadscreen tips, although you will still see the various storyline quotes which are a bit more interesting.
Changing the Blue Object Selection Highlight
Whenever Garrett highlights an object he can pick up or use, such as a crate, candlestick or corpse, it becomes covered in an electric blue highlight which seems quite out of place, especially in the darkness. To change this color to something more neutral, you can download a special patch created by Myagi from here. Place the T3_patcher.exe in your \Thief - Deadly Shadows\System\ directory and run the file. It will give the option to change the Frob (highlighting) color, as well as several other things like Loot Glint.
Ghosting - The Ultimate Challenge
Just in case you think playing Thief: Deadly Shadows is easy, and you've finished the game once, you can first try raising the difficulty using Thiefbot, as mentioned in the Patches and Fan Missions section of this guide.
If you're after even more of a challenge, you can try "ghosting", which involves going through a level without being seen, nor heard, nor doing any damage. You can read all about it here: The Official Rules of Ghosting. If you want to prove that you're a Master Thief, ghosting is the only way to do it.
Note that you must patch Thief: Deadly Shadows to Version 1.1 (See Patches and Fan Missions section) to resolve an AI bug in Version 1.0 of T:DS which resets the difficulty to 'Normal' no matter how high you set it.
Conclusion
Well that brings to end another guide from TweakGuides.com. But that's definitely not the end of the tweaking story for Thief: Deadly Shadows. For starters I want you to send me your working tweaks and tips if you believe they are worth sharing with other tweakers out there. The most significant ones will be included in this guide. I also want to hear your feedback on this guide (and anything else on my site) - whether good, bad or otherwise, so Email Me. Please remember though that I can't provide personal tech support or tweaking advice.
Finally, keep in mind that this guide will constantly be updated to remain as up-to-date and accurate as is possible. Check back regularly for updates, especially when a patch is released for Thief: Deadly Shadows.
Credits and Links
As mentioned above, this guide is not a one-man effort. It is a piece of work researched from a variety of sources. These sources - and indeed some great places to continue reading about Thief: Deadly Shadows - are listed below:
Eidos Thief: Deadly Shadows Forums
Thief 3 Tweak Guide on TTLG Forums
Check them all out if you love this game.
Ok, well until the next guide comes along, happy sneaking guys!
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