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Old 08-10-20, 19:03   #1
indigo1993
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Default Best way to run TRII PC

hey guys, I'm sorry for being a total noob, but I've been really craving the old TR games, namely TR II and III. I wanna play them on the pc and I would like to know the best configs/patches to run the game smoothly, especially in regards to joystick compatibility. I have heard of peixoto's patch but when I checked the thread there were so many things and all this stuff about dumping files, and textures and whatever. It made me feel like an old grandma because I have no clue where to even begin with that thing. hahaha
I have the GOG version of the game, my computer is windows 10. If you think getting it on steam is better I don't have a problem with buying it from there too and installing it. Is there any easy way to run the game nicely on PC? sorry again for the dumb question but it's really complicated to me and I need to be walked through the thing like I've never seen a computer in front of me before xD
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Old 08-10-20, 21:14   #2
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Hey! GOG is fine. I recommend to patch it with TR2Main. There are many cool things that were always exclusive for PlayStation TR games. And also there are many bugfixes. The project lives and grows for several years.
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Old 08-10-20, 21:22   #3
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Oh great! I'll read up on that now! Should I also install the multipath from tombraiderchronicles.com or is this one enough to get everything running smoothly?
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Old 08-10-20, 22:05   #4
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The GOG version should just run straight on Windows 10 as it is. Although you may have a problem where the game doesn’t go into full screen mode properly and you can still see the window border, but that can be fixed quickly with this patch.
There’s a common problem which I had where the game music kept looping which can be fixed with PaulD’s audio patch.
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Old 08-10-20, 23:32   #5
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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 View Post
Download the latest developers build (2021 09 20) from this link (Google Drive Zip currently unavailable)
Latest release now available via GitHub: https://github.com/Arsunt/TR2Main/releases
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. The music folder 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.

Last edited by laravision; 18-01-24 at 14:31.
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Old 09-10-20, 00:16   #6
indigo1993
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Arsunt View Post
Hey! GOG is fine. I recommend to patch it with TR2Main. There are many cool things that were always exclusive for PlayStation TR games. And also there are many bugfixes. The project lives and grows for several years.

hey, I just wanted to say thank you for your help! It is all working great! I'm so happy! I feel like I'm 8 years old again hahahahah
I saw there's a folder called ExtraOptions, how do I add the features in it to the game? Having the controller vibrate would be pretty cool for example!

Quote:
Originally Posted by laravision View Post
I recommend Arsunt's TR2Main patch aswell. However, you shouldn't need the border fix patch when using TR2Main.
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.



If you happen to notice that FMV playback does not work or you would like an upgrade, try the following, as you can use custom FMV's with Arsunt's patch.
thank you for reaching out! I got it all working great and I'm super happy. No audio or window border issues whatsoever, and I also got to replace the FMV with the remastered ones! I'm really over the moon here! I'm gonna be playing this all day tomorrow!! hahahaha

Last edited by indigo1993; 09-10-20 at 00:20.
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Old 09-10-20, 04:31   #7
Arsunt
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Quote:
Originally Posted by indigo1993 View Post
hey, I just wanted to say thank you for your help! It is all working great! I'm so happy! I feel like I'm 8 years old again hahahahah
You're welcome!
Quote:
Originally Posted by indigo1993 View Post
I saw there's a folder called ExtraOptions, how do I add the features in it to the game? Having the controller vibrate would be pretty cool for example!
Please don't ignore this short pdf with ExtraOptions description. To activate some of the REG files, you need to double click it. Between PC style and PS1 style, I recommend PS1 (except maybe GUI scale, x2 is too much for me). PictureStretchLimit 10% is optimal. If you play far from TV or monitor PsxFov is better to enable.

Last edited by Arsunt; 09-10-20 at 04:46.
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Old 09-10-20, 14:08   #8
indigo1993
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Arsunt View Post
You're welcome!

Please don't ignore this short pdf with ExtraOptions description. To activate some of the REG files, you need to double click it. Between PC style and PS1 style, I recommend PS1 (except maybe GUI scale, x2 is too much for me). PictureStretchLimit 10% is optimal. If you play far from TV or monitor PsxFov is better to enable.
oh thank you! I don't think this pdf came with the download, so that's why I was a tad lost! I saw they were Reg files and didn't want to mess with them before knowing first what was and what wasnt safe to do haha
speaking of which (and I know it's slightly off topic) but do you have a similar patch for TRIII? I'm just looking for a controller support. I can change the buttons perfectly fine from the game menu, except for the movement buttons. They're all assigned to my analog stick, but I only play old TR games with the D-pad. Lara moves very awkwardly with the analogue and I never adapted to it haha. Do you have any fixes for that? Thanks again for all the patience and help!
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Old 09-10-20, 16:21   #9
Arsunt
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Quote:
Originally Posted by indigo1993 View Post
speaking of which (and I know it's slightly off topic) but do you have a similar patch for TRIII?
TR3Main project is in very draft stage, I still have a little spare time to make miracles. Right now I'm trying to finish few more TR2Main things to make the official stable build (not beta).
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I'm just looking for a controller support. I can change the buttons perfectly fine from the game menu, except for the movement buttons.
D-Pad actually is not recognized as 4 distinct buttons. It is POV wheel, the game receives it's direction value in degrees (0.00 - 360.00), or negative value if D-Pad is untouched. D-Pad support will be added to TR3 someday.
Quote:
Originally Posted by indigo1993 View Post
They're all assigned to my analog stick, but I only play old TR games with the D-pad. Lara moves very awkwardly with the analogue and I never adapted to it haha.
I understand you. The problem with sticks is that the game does not recognize accurate stick position. Lara could rotate slower if the stick moved slightly, or rotate at normal speed if the stick moved to its limit. This "accurate stick" optional feature is under development too.

Last edited by Arsunt; 09-10-20 at 16:35.
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Old 10-10-20, 19:12   #10
indigo1993
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Arsunt View Post
TR3Main project is in very draft stage, I still have a little spare time to make miracles. Right now I'm trying to finish few more TR2Main things to make the official stable build (not beta).
no no that's perfectly understandable, I was just asking cause I actually didn't know about the work you've done and been doing and didn't know whether or not these fixes have been around for a long time! I used to play TRII and III on a ps1 emulator, but the quality looks just so bad it always made me upset to play them there when they look so much better on pc instead haha. I tried to override TRIII with xpadder but to no avail - guess I'll have to get used to the analog unless someone has found a miraculous workaround xD
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