True Patch Gold Edition -- DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK

[Tessera]

I'm still tweaking various settings, but here's a screenshot that should serve as a bit of a teaser, at least...

I'll explain what we're seeing here in a moment. For now, let's just look at this image. The left half of the image is showing the original, default VTMB graphics engine. The right half of the picture is showing the new DirectX 9 functions that I am adding to VTMB:




So what are we seeing here, in the above split-screen image..?

Well... for starters, the right side of the image shows much better contrast and color saturation. Also, take a close look at the masonry behind the character... the stone wall. On the left, the surface of the stones look rather plain and ordinary. Boring, even. But on the right side, the stones look noticeably more detailed. This is because the normal mapping for those textures is significantly enhanced... they actually look like they have a 3-dimensional surface.

If you look at my Malk, you can see that her flesh looks much smoother and more richly colored on the right side, as compared to her rather washed-out appearance on the left side. On the DX9 side, her skin looks nicer, her clothing looks more detailed, her right eye looks more distinct than her left eye, etc.

Because of the enhanced contrast that DX9 allows, the bright areas on the DX9 side look brighter, and the dark areas look darker. The body of my Malk, along with the stone masonry in the foreground of the image, both look brighter and sharper on the right (DX9) side of the screenshot. But if you look upwards a bit, at the ceiling inside of the parking garage behind her, you can see that the ceiling on the right (DX9) side looks darker than the ceiling on the left (DX8) side. So we aren't merely making everything brighter here... no, what we're doing is adding more accurate gradations of contrast, resulting in an overall scene which is sharper and more delineated.

I'm finding that this actually augments the "noir" look of VTMB in most areas of the game. Dark areas of the game look more detailed now... but they're still retaining their "creepy factor." The overall "dark and creepy" atmosphere of VTMB has been magnified a bit, in other words.

Lastly, look at the graphics for the Health and Blood Point indicators. Look closely at the decorative scroll work around each indicator. You can plainly see the difference between them... the DX9 side looks much more vivid and sharper as compared to the DX8 side.

I'll keep working on this and soon, I'll post a demo video in the members-only area of the board. The reason I need to post it there is because I play VTMB with my own Mega-Mod installed... which features a large amount of adult content. Therefore, I would prefer to post such things somewhere other than in a public area of the board. But for now, the above screenshot... which is very tame... should give everyone a good idea of what I'm striving for here.

[Cylnar]

Looks terrific. But we wouldn't expect anything less.

Leave it to you to continue injecting new life into a game which was sadly virtually abandoned upon release (RIP Troika), and figuring out a way to make a creaky old graphics engine purr again.

[Tessera]

Looks terrific. But we wouldn't expect anything less.

Basically, what we're doing here is forcing VTMB to use shader model 3.0 and a tweaked (by me) form of native anti-aliasing.

Shader 3.0 allows for such things as HDR and Bloom lighting effects, tangent-space normal mapping, color vibrance and luma sharpening, and so forth.

[Edorf]

Nice work, Tessera. I really appreciate the effort you have put into making the True Patch.
Looking forward to the new release.

Thumbs up!

[rubinonthetable]

Least I can go through a level grinding quest without any bugs and glitches hitting the fan, like the infamous Milligan bug during necromantic where the camera freezes and stuck in the bookcases

[Tessera]

Least I can go through a level grinding quest without any bugs and glitches hitting the fan, like the infamous Milligan bug during necromantic where the camera freezes and stuck in the bookcases

As I recall, to fix that bug I had to change Milligan's position on the map slightly, as well as adding additional info (pathing) nodes for him to follow.

In fact, there were a lot of maps where I had to make similar adjustments, in order to get rid of pathing errors. The vanilla (un-patched) game is filled with crap like that.

[shinigami86]

Hi everyone.


I read the post of: The History Of The True Patch Series


I Have the versión GoG installed in the pc, but is instaled automaticaly with unnoficial patch.
My cuestión is: ¿Only need erase this carpet and later instaling the True patch?
or no exits manner of install the true patch whit this versión of game?

Waiting answer

[Tessera]

I have no idea. 

My suggestion would be to contact GoG directly and tell them that you would prefer an un-patched ("plain vanilla") copy of Bloodlines.

If they are unable to help you, then ask them to refund your money.

[shinigami86]

Im sorry.

I find one copy of the old Vanilla versión recorded in cd in ancient times in my house.
I intall the game. Later I put the True Patch Gold Edition (In correct direction).
But now, the problem is that when press New Game (Crahs to desktòp)

Now seeing your answers Tessera, im have win 10 and the version of the game.

Yours work is awesome and without it no can finish the game.
But now have the answer for why some people give support to the miserable gog version.

Is one lost no can enjoy the game if I not install another system than a secondary and my pc no have internal space in hard drive. (Is only 2,50) i believe.
But thank,s for all

[Dawnveil]

Welp. It's probably already been said but here goes:
It's possible to play Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (steam version, moved of course) patched with the True Patch Gold Edition on Windows 10x64.

The whole issue of it not loading past that 5% mark is the SecureRom driver not loading.

The way around this is to copy (might need to download it first) the secdrv.sys (SecureROM system file) to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\

Then the fun part: You have to disable driver signing. Temporary, this can be done through a reboot via the troubleshooting menu.
Or You can disable it permanently and get a nice little 'test version' watermark in the bottom right corner.

For the latter, open a command prompt with administrative rights then type in (without the quotes)

"bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS"

"bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING ON"

reboot, enjoy your watermark (which I think there are programs that can remove this), and more importantly, enjoy playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines WITH the True Patch installed.

Wish it didn't have to be this way (damn those strict driver signing checks). But it works.

[caninelegion]

 I apologize in advance because I asked this several years ago and, having not played the game in a few years, forgot.  Once loaded, how can one tell the TPG has been loaded?  I suspect I screwed up since there were a few issues long since fixed plus I couldn't even find a version number. 

[Tessera]

I apologize in advance because I asked this several years ago and, having not played the game in a few years, forgot.  Once loaded, how can one tell the TPG has been loaded?  I suspect I screwed up since there were a few issues long since fixed plus I couldn't even find a version number.

Simple enough.

You may recall that way back in version 5.04AT of the original True Patch, I placed a couple of small texture mods into the patch... for the express purpose of allowing the user to quickly determine whether or not the True Patch was actually installed and working.

In all cases, the changes are so small and unobtrusive that you would never even notice them at all... unless you were actually looking for them.

Look for the following "version stamps" in-game:

(1) The easiest one to find is in Act One, in the alley right next to the Asylum club. There are a couple of yellow dumpsters in that alley. If you have the True patch installed, then if you closely examine the graffiti scratched into one of the dumpsters, you will find your evidence. The dumpster closest to the street has the letters "AT" scratched into it ("AT" being the initials of "Acrimonious and Tessera").

(2) Also in Santa Monica, over near the parking garage, there's a toll booth with a gate. On the side of that toll booth is a "Pay Parking" sign. If you crouch down and look closely at that sign, you'll see "504 AT" scratched into the lower left area of the sign.

(3) Lastly, just look at the main character creation screen, when you are creating a new character. In the lower right corner you should see the words "Gold Edition." This was added to the above items when I produced the True Patch Gold Edition.

So then... if you can find all three of the above "version stamps" in-game, then relax... you do indeed have the True Patch Gold Edition installed. 

[shades01]

Hey man, your patch is GREAT. I registered to show my support and for two quick questions...

1. You say that best way your patch is used, is on original 3CD USA version of Bloodlines. Can I use it on original, UK version? Does it cause any problems?

2. I am unable to reconcile two sisters. I have always succeeded before (with high persuasion), then I read that you've made it harder, but I am unsure how harder exactly?

Anyway, thanks very much for great work, and I think your patch is way better than "other" one. Cheers

[Tessera]

1. You say that best way your patch is used, is on original 3CD USA version of Bloodlines. Can I use it on original, UK version? Does it cause any problems?

It should work okay. That is, assuming that there aren't any significant differences between the UK and USA versions. I have never tested the UK version, so it is impossible for me to give you a concrete answer to this question.

2. I am unable to reconcile two sisters. I have always succeeded before (with high persuasion), then I read that you've made it harder, but I am unsure how harder exactly?

No, I didn't make it harder to reconcile the Voerman sisters. If you read that somewhere, then it is false. The True Patch doesn't make anything easier or harder -- it simply fixes bugs.

You need to make sure that (1) your Persuasion skill is high enough and (2) you have not done anything to irritate either sister during your run through the first act. Keep in mind that sleeping with Jeanette will infuriate Therese... this is a common mistake that many players make.

Lastly, please add your correct age and gender to your Forum profile immediately. Failure to do so will result in account deletion.

[krakr]

Many thanks for your decade+ of dedication and hard work.
I was just on a Mind-Control oriented game site & ran across a mention of this game and it made me want to fire it up again.
Looking through my VTMB game ISO folder, I checked the old mods I had in there & decided to see if your site was still active.
Pleasantly surprised to find you still kickin ass & taking names.
Anyhow, I just dl'd the 2014 TessMod (to replace my 2012 one) and of course this one to replace my Hotfix 6 version.
Just wanted to let you know that your work is and has been highly appreciated by me for years.

[Tessera]

Awwww... that's very kind of you. Thank you. 

[Prisoner416]

Nice to see that work is still being done, amazed with the graphics dx progress.

However, I do hope you consider making a patched .exe file for those of us that were forced into using Windows 10, since there is the crash on new game.

I HATE the fact that Wesp's "Patch" fixes the issue. I'd rather not corrupt my game with it, even if it allows it to run.

It seems that the solution should be simple if he can address it with his. It seems like there's a fix with the vampire.dll file that bypasses the problem.

Sadly, more and more people will have Windows 10 soon, and Windows 7 is no longer available for purchase. I'd hate to see many people, including myself, miss out on the best patch for the game just because of that simple compatibility issue. I know you've made your stance clear, but I do hope you'll consider looking into it someday, if only to preserve this historic game.

[Tessera]

Nice to see that work is still being done, amazed with the graphics dx progress.

Well, I have some bad news. I have decided NOT to release the DX9 graphics upgrade, mainly because it would go against the tradition of the True Patch series. It isn't a bug fix... it's a mod and with only a few small exceptions, I've always tried to avoid adding any mods into the True Patch.

I may release it separately as a VTMB graphics mod --  we'll see. It isn't actually mine, anyway... all I've done is take the SweetFX mod and re-tune it for VTMB. And while it's true that I also made a couple of code changes to the VTMB engine, in order to make it work better with SweetFX, it's still a mod -- not a bug fix. SO... I won't be including it within the True Patch. Sorry, folks.

It seems that the solution should be simple if he can address it with his. It seems like there's a fix with the vampire.dll file that bypasses the problem.

Yes... it's a line of code that tells the engine to search for the SafeDisk driver, prior to loading the main menu. But as I have said, I have no interest in supporting Windows 10 -- therefore, I won't be bothering with it. If someone in the VTMB community wants to submit their own "TPG on Windows 10" fix for this issue, then by all means... go ahead and do so, with my blessing. 

Truth be told, folks... for the past 11 years, I've done my bit to support VTMB. More than my bit, frankly. The TPG is still the best patch on the web for VTMB, and it doesn't need any further enhancements.

Of course, the rest of you are free to make your own alternative patches -- if you feel that the TPG is somehow flawed or inadequate.