True Patch Gold Edition -- DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK

[Tessera]

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.

[Forum_Pirate]

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

[Cylnar]

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".

[Forum_Pirate]

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.

[Cylnar]

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

[Forum_Pirate]

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.

[Tessera]

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.

[Forum_Pirate]

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?

[Tessera]

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.

[Forum_Pirate]

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.

[Forum_Pirate]

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)

[SeduceMePlz]

@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.

[Tessera]

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.

[SeduceMePlz]

@Tessera: Cool, thanks for the tips!

[Forum_Pirate]

@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.

[Christina_Romuald]

I can't get the game to work with the True Patch

[Forum_Pirate]

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.

[SeduceMePlz]

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.