GoG and the True Patch

[Tessera]

Some Answers Regarding The GoG Version of Bloodlines

About a dozen or so people have sent me e-mails regarding the Good Old Games version of VTMB, which happens to be "pre-patched" with Wesp5's awful "unofficial patch." Specifically, people have asked me (1) is it possible to remove Wesp's crap from the GoG version of the game and (2) can the True Patch then be installed and (3) will the True Patch be compatible with modern hardware and operating systems. So let me address those questions one at a time:


(1) Is It Possible to Remove Wesp's Crap From The GoG Version of Bloodlines..?

Yes and no. The staff over at GoG have released a script which supposedly removes most of Wesp's nonsense from their version of VTMB. But I took a quick look at it... and it seems that some remnants of Wesp's junk will still remain, even after running the GoG clean-up script. More about their script can be found here, on the GoG web site...

https://www.gog.com/forum/vampire_the_masquerade_series/vote_for_a_vanilla_v12_build_of_vtm_bloodlines/page1

I will mention in passing that I noticed the not-so-suprising appearance of Wesp within that thread and sure enough, he continues to spew the exact same lies and disinformation about the True Patch that he has been babbling for the past decade. Needless to say, everything that Wesp has said within that thread is absolutely and totally false, and deliberately misleading on his part. One would think that Herr Wesp would have outgrown that childish bullshit by now -- but apparently, he hasn't. 


(2) Can the True Patch be Installed, After Cleaning up the GoG Version Using Their Script..?

I honestly don't know. The fact that the GoG script DOES NOT totally remove all of Wesp's crap leads me to think that there might be some problems with installing the TPG into the GoG version of VTMB. I have no interest in testing it personally, so I'll have to rely upon the community to test it out and see whether or not it works properly. The TPG was developed and intended for use with either the original 3-CD boxed version of Bloodlines, or else the downloadable Steam release of the game. No other versions of VTMB are supported... because frankly, all of the other versions of VTMB are illegitimate in my view.


(3) Is The TPG Compatible With Modern Hardware and Operating Systems..?

The True Patch Gold Edition will work perfectly well on all modern hardware. Our patch contains code which enables the VTMB engine to recognize large amounts of system memory, modern video cards, and so forth. I personally run VTMB on the Windows 7 Ultimate x64 operating system. My computer has a modern Intel Core i7-6700K "Skylake" CPU and 32 GB of system RAM. My video card is a fairly new AMD Radeon R9 390 model, with 8 GB of on-board VRAM. VTMB runs perfectly on my setup, and it needs nothing more than the True Patch Gold Edition installed. So the answer to the question of whether or not the TPG is compatible with modern hardware is a resounding YES.

The bigger issue is the operating system. Windows 10 does not contain the support files needed to run VTMB... and about a thousand other PC games from that era. On Windows 7, VMTB runs just fine with the True Patch -- after you have re-enabled the SafeDisk driver that MicroSoft quietly disabled with a Windows update a few years ago.

But on Windows 10, it probably won't run at all. Windows 10 completely lacks the SafeDisk/SecureROM driver that the VTMB engine expects to find. Even if you use a hacked "NO-CD" executable, the game engine itself still runs a quick check for the presence of that driver and, if it fails to find it, the game will abort. This was never an issue until Windows 10, hence I have never done anything to fix it. And since I have absolutely no intention of ever buying and installing Windows 10 on any of my own computers, I doubt that I will -ever- attempt to fix this issue.

The TPG contains "no-cd" code that allows you to play the game without having to insert any CD's, but it does NOT bypass the start-up check for the presence of the SafeDisk/SecureROM driver (secdrv.sys). Hence the driver needs to be present and functional within your Windows operating system, even though the TPG version of the game will not actually use it. Weird, I know... but as I said, this was never an issue until the release of Windows 10. So like... go yell at Microsoft. Or just use Windows 7... it's a better OS for gaming, anyway.

BOTTOM LINE: The True Patch Gold Edition is fully compatible with modern computer hardware, and is likewise compatible with all versions of Windows -except- Windows 10. As for whether or not the TPG can be installed into the GoG version of Bloodlines, that remains to be seen. Community testing is needed, before the GoG issue can be resolved.

MY PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION: Do not purchase VTMB from Good Old Games, until they have fully resolved this issue. Buy it from Steam instead. No one should be selling a "pre-patched" version of Bloodlines... and yes, I would say the same thing even if it was the TPG that they were "pre-patching" it with. The plain-vanilla version of Bloodlines is the ONLY version that ANYONE should be selling, PERIOD. If you actually want a pre-patched version of the game for some weird reason, then just go download it via The Pirate Bay for free. But don't give your money to people who are trying to profit from community-made content. In my considered opinion, GoG are behaving like opportunistic leeches in this matter... so if you agree, then simply do not support them by purchasing any of their games.