Loading Screen Is Screwed...

May i start out by saying, nice work for making a great mod...

now to my problem,

while the game itself runs just fine, when the load screen pops up the background is clustered horribly, at the top of the load screen is what looks like a city skyline and the rest is just pixelated garble....

I apologize for not having screenshots, but i do not know how to take them....

any help would be greatly appreciated...

(btw: i dont have a powerhouse of a system, but i was able to play VTMB without a hitch before and the game still plays great now so i doubt it is my system.)

(2 X BTW: i tried uninstalling, reinstalling, a fresh install of original, so thats not it)

Walking Shadow wrote:

May i start out by saying, nice work for making a great mod...

now to my problem,

while the game itself runs just fine, when the load screen pops up the background is clustered horribly, at the top of the load screen is what looks like a city skyline and the rest is just pixelated garble....

I apologize for not having screenshots, but i do not know how to take them....

any help would be greatly appreciated...

(btw: i dont have a powerhouse of a system, but i was able to play VTMB without a hitch before and the game still plays great now so i doubt it is my system.)

(2 X BTW: i tried uninstalling, reinstalling, a fresh install of original, so thats not it)

Thats strange, you are the first person to report this. What resolution are you running it at?

1024X768

unfortunately...i can go no higher....

but now that you mention it...i will experiment with different resolutions and report back...( i feel dumb i never thought of that)


edit: 800X600 was no different...same distortion....

double edit: I then attempted to run the game in 640X480 with the compatibility thingy, but the game refuses to play in 640X480 and switches back to 1024X720 regardless. I also tried disabling the desktop composition (???) and that did nothing....

hey look!!! another edit: i tried changing the anti aliasing and anisotrophic filter....and still nothing different....



any ideas....im really open to em...

Wow you do have an old machine...

Well? I just tried it at 1024x768 and the wallpaper used looked fine. You say everything else runs just fine but the wallpaper?

You could always go into \Activision\Vampire - Bloodlines\Vampire\Materials\Interface\Tipinfoscreen\ and delete the 3 background_default.xxx files. That will restore you to default until I can figure out what the problem is.

well, i thank you for your time...

So it seems resolution is not the issue....

Your comment gave me an idea...that maybe different combonations of the backround_default.XXX files would maybe change something....it didnt...but the pink and black squares were pretty

something I just noticed....the screwy pattern of pixels that appears is never the same...and then about 3/4 of the way through loading the level...it changes...and I can see two chopped up skylines...one at the top and one about halfway down...

Just to be clear.....there are (well were) 3 background_default.xxx files in that folder...a .tth file....a .ttz file....and a .vmt file.... is that what is supposed to be in there?


edit: i dont know if this will help, but when I was trying my different combinations of background_default files...when I only had the .vmt file there....I got the default background that came with VTMB....

maybe that helps...

HA HA!!!


Screenshots:

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img682/660/screen01mn.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img688/223/screen02d.jpg



now you can see what i mean by "screwed"...

I just downloaded this mod, and I am experiencing the same issue. I am running my res on 1920x1200. I have XP 32-bit as well, so I am unsure what the issue is. I will try playing with the resolutions, but this may be something a bit beyond me. I will try removing the background files if I can't get it straightened. Other than that, so far the game runs pretty good. I did get a crash during character creation when checking out the histories, but it hasn't happened since so it may be an isolated event. One thing I noticed with my first character creation is that it let me slip by without naming my character. XD So now his name is Default.

I'm taking a look at your issues now.

#1. Default was accidently put in place instead of Unnamed. This will be fixed in CE 1.2.

#2. During character creation you get about 20 clicks before it boots you out of the game. This glitch isn't because of CE, it started happening when Wesp introduced Histories back in 2005 or whatever. It's been around forever and so far nobody can figure out why.

#3. I'm looking at your background (great screenshots btw) and I noticed you have jumbled white text along with the official Vampire logo. Neither of these should be there. Yes there should be 3 background files (.tth, .ttz, and .vmt). Use notepad to open up background_default.vmt, it should look like this (minus the indents)

UnlitGeneric
{
"$basetexture" "interface\tipinfoscreen\background_default"
"$translucent" "1"
"$ignorez" "1"
"$vertexcolor" "1"
"$vertexalpha" "1"
}

If it doesn't look like this then that could be the problem. If your file DOES look like this then just delete the whole tipinfoscreen folder, that SHOULD take you back to default. I would've thought deleting the files would've taken you back to default but you said it didnt, just blast the folder instead.

just to be clear, when i deleted those files from the infotipscreen folder it DID return to default....

I apologise if i misspoke and gave you the wrong impression that it didnt.....

i will look into repairing that .vmt file ASAIC... (as soon as i can)

Walking Shadow wrote:

just to be clear, when i deleted those files from the infotipscreen folder it DID return to default....

I apologise if i misspoke and gave you the wrong impression that it didnt.....

i will look into repairing that .vmt file ASAIC... (as soon as i can)

Oh ok I misunderstood then, I thought it was still screwed up AFTER you deleted those files. I was like how the hell.... HAHA

well damn...

i really thought thats what it would be but thats what my .vmt files says...

just to be sure, the .tth file (when using notepad) is just a single line of weird symbols like this:

TTH

Ø À È Ð Ø ø ) x
¯ x u x  x+ ‡  É` ' À VTF 
@ @°
x  l?Ÿ¤Æ>$½¢>ÿW| €? 

ÿÿ ¢‚ÿÿÿÿÿ ¢‚ÿÿÿÿÿ らÿÿÿÿÿ ÂaÍÿÿÿÿÿ  UUUUÿÿ
UUUUÿÿ õUUUÿÿ ÿUUUÿÿ ·UUUÿÿ

and the .ttz files is the really big file of what looks like caligraphy...or well it does to me.....its the 454 kb sized file....


if all of that is correct then....well im outta ideas....

Ya the .ttz and .tth will be compiled code, you won't be able to read it. The only thing I wanted you to look at was the .vmt file in notepad so you did the right thing.

I'm out of ideas as well, the only difference is the background wallpaper, it's a black and white picture of stockholm sweden at night looking really gothic, it's a fantastic picture but not necessary to the game. Oh and it has the CE 1.1 logo at the bottom left. You're not really missing anything important, the text you read doing loading screens are still the same.

this may be insignificant, but...

since i was going to delete the folder anyway...i decided to mess with the values in the .vmt file...

i put all of them to zero one time and nothing changed...

this has lead me to the conclusion that perhaps my .tth and .ttz files are corrupt in some way...


any ideas on how to fix it...i know the loading screens not a big deal but that wallpaper is pretty sweet...

Walking Shadow wrote:

this may be insignificant, but...

since i was going to delete the folder anyway...i decided to mess with the values in the .vmt file...

i put all of them to zero one time and nothing changed...

this has lead me to the conclusion that perhaps my .tth and .ttz files are corrupt in some way...


any ideas on how to fix it...i know the loading screens not a big deal but that wallpaper is pretty sweet...

What is your email address, I will send you ones I know are not corrupt because they work great on my machine. If even those don't work then we know it's not the picture, it's something else.

Walking Shadow wrote:

this may be insignificant, but...

since i was going to delete the folder anyway...i decided to mess with the values in the .vmt file...

i put all of them to zero one time and nothing changed...

this has lead me to the conclusion that perhaps my .tth and .ttz files are corrupt in some way...


any ideas on how to fix it...i know the loading screens not a big deal but that wallpaper is pretty sweet...

What is your email address, I will send you ones I know are not corrupt because they work great on my machine. If even those don't work then we know it's not the picture, it's something else.

Edit: NM duh I'm the admin of this board, of course I have your email... I'll send those files right away.

I sent you a zipped file with all 3 files from my personal game. Try those out.

*slams head against table*

thanks for the files...unfortunately...corruption was not the correct answer....i still have the same problem...


let me ask you something, are there any other files...like say in the Bin folder... or anywhere else... that help code that part of the game...

like where does the loading screen get its messages from... perhaps that is interferring some how...




still, that doesnt explain why other elements of the game are bleeding through to the wallpaper...just doesnt make sense...

Now it makes no sense at all...

The loading tips are generated from a .txt file located in the system folder called loadingtips.txt (go figure). It doesn't appear that your loadingtips are messed up, and you already said different resolutions didn't help the problem. I'm completely baffled why it would work for the other 1400 downloaded people but not yours. Just you and 1 other guy have reported it so far.

I don't even know where to start to replicate the problem... I mean you convert a .jpg or .bmp into a .ttz (and .tth), rename them and stick em in the folder and boom, you got a new loading wallpaper.... I mean it's really just that easy.

how does one convert a jpeg to a tth and ttz.... those CE wallpapers that came with the download would make good loading screens...

Walking Shadow wrote:

how does one convert a jpeg to a tth and ttz.... those CE wallpapers that came with the download would make good loading screens...

Take the jpg and convert it into a .dds file... then take the original .tth file of the wallpaper you want to replace and put it in the same dir as the .dds file. Then use quick and dirty bloodlines tool to convert the .dds into a .ttz keeping the .tth file in the same directory. A .ttz file will be created and you will want to move the .tth and .ttz file into the directory (in this case the tipinfoscreen dir) and you should see the new wallpaper during load screens.

Walking Shadow wrote:

how does one convert a jpeg to a tth and ttz.... those CE wallpapers that came with the download would make good loading screens...

Take the jpg and convert it into a .dds file... then take the original .tth file of the wallpaper you want to replace (in this case background_default.tth) and put it in the same dir as the .dds file. Then use quick and dirty bloodlines tool to convert the .dds into a .ttz keeping the .tth file in the same directory. A .ttz file will be created and you will want to move the .tth and .ttz file into the directory (in this case the tipinfoscreen dir) and you should see the new wallpaper during load screens.

Ill Be Damned...

i did what you said...converted to dds...use quick and dirty tool...copied to infotipscreen folder...

IT WORKED!!!

the loading screen is fine... wth... did i get a corrupt picture...???

either way...im glad it worked...

hey zero, what program do you use for converting the jpeg to dds...i have a program but it leaves an ugly watermark...

also, could you please send me the pic that was supposed to be there...the skyline one....


thanx for all your help...

Hey great job Shadow!!

Finally got something to work haha! I use Photoshop CS Ver. 9.0 for ALL of my graphics based stuff, it's an amazing program. Of course Photoshop isn't free (well it was for me but we won't go there), but it's worth it for someone like me who makes game modding.

If you do get your hands on a copy of photoshop, nVidia makes an excellent .dds plugin for photoshop that will allow you to convert .bmp, .jpg, .tga, whatever into a lossless .dds file, no watermarks or pixilation.

I obviously can't sponser or show you how to get free hacked software but I "heard" torrents are a good place to start. *wink wink

Hey great job Shadow!!

Finally got something to work haha! I use Photoshop CS Ver. 9.0 for ALL of my graphics based stuff, it's an amazing program. Of course Photoshop isn't free (well it was for me but we won't go there), but it's worth it for someone like me who makes game modding.

If you do get your hands on a copy of photoshop, nVidia makes an excellent .dds plugin for photoshop that will allow you to convert .bmp, .jpg, .tga, whatever into a lossless .dds file, no watermarks or pixilation.

Oh I went ahead and sent you the .bmp that I used for the background loading screens, details in the email.

I obviously can't sponser or show you how to get free hacked software but I "heard" torrents are a good place to start. *wink wink

it seems i spoke too soon...

i tried to edit the dss file in photoshop to get rid of the watermark (this was before i read your recent reply) and yet again it glitch.....

but since photoshop doesnt leave a watermark perhaps it wont glitch after i "purchase* photoshop CS 9......