True Patch Gold Edition -- DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK

[corsair1]

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

[Tessera]

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.

[corsair1]

(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.

[Tessera]

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.

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.

[corsair1]

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 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.

[Tessera]

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.

[corsair1]

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.

[Gokuthegrate]

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.

[Tessera]

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.

[Edorf]

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?

[Tessera]

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.

...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. 

[Edorf]

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.

...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

[Tessera]

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

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:

[Edorf]

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

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

[Ratcatcher]

*cough* Hellcat *cough*

[Tessera]

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.

[Cylnar]

Awesome, dude!

Can't wait.

[perez007usa]

That goes double for  me !