I recommend
Arsunt's TR2Main as well. However, you don't need the border fix patch when using TR2Main. This border fix is also known to break music playback when not using the audio folder (see bottom).
TR2Main is quite simple to setup, but in order to enable all the best features and/or understand them, you may want to follow this guide.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arsunt
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If the source of your game is Steam or GOG, first remove all existing DLL files that are present in your game folder. The DLL files -
Dec130,
Edec,
WinPlay,
Winsdec and
WinStr can remain. Any other DLL files being present may conflict with TR2Main somehow.
Once you've unzipped the downloaded files, copy the extracted contents to your Tomb Raider II game folder/location.
The package includes:
- TR2Main.dll - the main file that makes all the magic happen.
- tomb2.exe - an almost identical exe from 1997 with few changes to give all the power to TR2Main.dll. Never patch this EXE with 3rd party patches.
- ffplay.dll - a brand new FMV player based on the ffmpeg project. It supports RPL, MP4, BIK and many other video formats.
- TR2Main.json - a text configuration file that allows to set custom watercolours, loading screen pictures, barefoot levels etc. All things are set to PS1 values, but anyone can edit it (via Notepad++ for example). This config file will receive more cool features in the future.
The latest release of the
data folder within the TR2Main package contains new files. Since The Golden Mask is freeware, the level files and script are now included:
- LEVEL1.TR2 - LEVEL5.TR2
- TOMBPCg.DAT
- MAINg.SFX
There are various other vanilla files included due to the way some files are shared between the OG game and Gold.
- BAREFOOT.SFX - there are just 4 sound effects inside this pack, taken from the PS1 version and then remastered (high frequency range is restored). You must enable barefoot SFX via ExtraOptions REG file (see below) if you want them to be audible in levels where Lara is barefoot.
The
PIX folder contains:
- Full set of PCX pictures (low quality) for the original game and The Golden Mask including US/UK logo. You can select your preferred logo version by REG file.
- Remastered loading screen pictures in PNG format. You must enable remastered pictures and/or loading screens by REG files if you want these features enabled. Now includes Gold load screens by Lito Perezito.
The
audio folder contains:
- PaulD's cdaudio.mp3 patch. Useful should you have an unpatched/non-digital download version of the game.
You may have noticed the
ExtraOptions folder. It contains the aforementioned REG files that can change the behaviour of the game. All files are safe, you can check them using notepad. Just double click any REG file to set the desired option. In future releases, this will be redesigned into a setup dialog which will incorporate all these settings.
ExtraOptions descriptions.
If you want to copy your existing saves into TR2Main, create a
saves subfolder in your TR2 game folder. Copy
savegame.* files that you need to this folder. However, making a save in-game should create this folder automatically.
The Golden Mask:
Launching The Golden Mask with TR2Main has been made simpler with the release of 0.9.0. No longer is it required to manually rename certain files thanks to them now being included as mentioned above. Also, you can now use the included
run_gold setup batch file without the need of manually creating shortcuts of the EXE. However, if you wish, you can still go that route and create different icons in the process.
To clarify the shortcut icon arrangement: first, create a shortcut of the Tomb2.exe file, then open the properties of this shortcut. At the end of the target/address field, add a space, then type
-setup or
-gold
Then you can name the shortcuts accordingly:
savesGold subfolder required for placement of existing savegames. The game should create this folder should you make a save in-game.
Setup advice: Disable Triple Buffer and
keep Z-Buffer enabled if you want good performance.
You can use F7 for Z-Buffer and Shift+F7 for Triple Buffer to see the difference right in the game.
Update: Triple Buffer option removed completely from TR2Main.
Here are
all TR2 keyboard hotkeys.
For those who haven't followed Arsunt's project and are interested in its progress
here is the changelog (you can see many cool changes).
If you happen to notice that FMV playback does not work, or you would like to use higher quality variants then see the following link.
LeonDeka's remasters
TR2 audio problems and solutions:
In some cases, people experience issues with music and ambient sounds not working (this is NOT a TR2Main issue but it can still occur when the audio folder isn't present). This can be due to a number of compatibility reasons, the origin of your game or other conflicts (Tomb Raider fullscreen border fix I'm looking at you!).
The digital releases are a mess; the Steam version took PaulD's cdaudio patch, but also duplicated the soundtrack with unused separate mp3's along with the sound.dll and audiere.dll wrapper. And from what I understand, GOG once used ogg files (which had their own problems), but later switched to mp3.
TR2Main uses
PaulD's cdaudio patch by default, which is a folder named audio containing a cdaudio.mp3 and DAT file (Steam uses this).
This is now included with the 0.9.0 release. I think TR2Main prioritizes this over any other music files that are present.
However, if you wanted to use individual music files of a higher quality, or perhaps even use custom tracks, you had to use an alternate audio patch like the ones shipped with Steam and GOG (music folder), or the wma fix that speedrunners recently used up until now. But these patches were not always reliable as mentioned above.
If you wish to try the latest revision of music wrapper for separate/custom tracks, read on. I'll cover the mp3 method as I assume that's what most people have. A folder named music will be used as the location for the mp3 files. Steam provide unused mp3 files (named 2-60) in this music folder. If you use these tracks as a base and/or replace any of them, you'll need to rename the 1st 8 tracks to have a leading zero, so they read 02, 03 etc instead of single digits, otherwise those tracks won't play. Also remove sound.dll, audiere.dll and the audio folder if present. Once you have placed all your mp3 files in the music folder, you'll need this pair of DLL files -
fmodex and winmm, and they need to be placed in your game folder (alongside everything else). DLL files courtesy of Grachev via Midge's
version swapper tool.