PST on Vista 64 bit & a 1440x900 Native Res LCD Monitor

The other day Chezdon asked about setting up PST on a 64 bit version of Vista on Game Banshee's PST forum... I have never actually done this and while others may have, I can't remember having come across such information. (Although it should theoretically work out just fine) I also became intrigued at the notion of moddifying the game to run on different widescreen monitors. Folks have put up guides to such incorporating existing mods but, at least the ones I've read through, take you through it step-by-step on a theoretical basis, not actually by going through it themselves. This is important because many of today's widescreen monitors have different aspect ratios and resolution dimensions than what was out at the time that the above mentioned mods were developed.

I have two main goals: 1) Make sure it runs on 64 bit Vista and 2) See how The Bigg's widescreen mod and the Ghostdog UI mod work on my 1440x900 native resolution lcd monitor.

I am more or less following the "Fully Modded" guide by Johnny Walker found here:

http://thunderpeel2001.blogspot.com/2009/01/planescape-torment-fully-modded.html

My point isn't to just copy his guide (why else would I have put it up) but to go more in depth into the aspect of modding the game for current generation widescreen monitors. It is an experiment in testing it out on my specific monitor size and to see how well it performs on 64-bit vista. I do however touch on the topic of a full install which many folks have already gone through in other places. This is so that one could potentially set up the game without having to link out of here.

The computer I'm testing this out on runs on an AMD Phenom x4 9759 Quad Core processor and an ATI Radeon HD 3650 video card.
I am running a 64-bit version of windows vista. (home-premium)
My monitor is an LG 19" widescreen that runs at a native resolution of 1440x900.

I am using the 4 disc original version of the game.

I installed the game... my chosen installation path looks like this: C:\Games\Black Isle\Torment

I then installed the V1.1 Patch because I have the 4 disc version.

Since the installation basically just installs the core components off of the first disc you will be doing a lot of disc swapping so I will now do the "full install".

So I copied the contents of each disc to inside of my Main "Torment" game folder... remember that each disc contains one actual folder and inside of the folder are a bunch of .bif "files".(they are actually archives) DON'T put the .bif files, by themselves, into your Torment folder, rather just copy the folder -- which contains the bifs -- into the Torment folder.
So for example, on the second game disc there is the "cd2" folder and inside that folder there are maybe a 100 .bif files, well just copy the "cd2" folder to your main Torment folder.

Repeat for discs 3 and 4.

Okay, finished that up. Now I need to make it so that the game knows where these folders are when it needs to load from them. To do this I opened up the Torment.ini file which resides in the main Torment folder. In Vista, if the "show file extensions" is off, which it is by default, you won't actually see the .ini part but it is easy to find because on the "file type" column it is listed as "configuration settings". Now just change the file paths for each cd to where it was you put the cd.(this is the very first part of the .ini file) For example, with cd 2, it looked like this CD2:=E:\CD2\ but after changing it, it looks like this CD2:=C:\Games\Black Isle\Torment\CD2\

Also, as per the "Fully Modded" guide, I changed the "cache size" to =1, the path search nodes to =32000 and the "maximum framerate" to =40

I tested the game up to this point to make sure everything is working so far. It does. Also, before getting into the widescreen mod, I took a screenshot of how the game looks played at its native 640x480 resolution when scaled up to my monitor's native resolution. (the link is towards the bottom of this post) Note: The screen capture tool I used actually captures it at its true 640x480 resolution without taking into account the scaling that the graphics card performs. This means that I had to scale the image up manually in my image editing program to 1440x900 but by experimenting with different resampling algorithms, I was able to get it to look nearly identical. All in all, the picture is almost exactly how the it looks while playing the game without any mods. IMO, it's not acceptable.

I installed The Bigg's mod using the following specifications (as per the "Fully Modded" guide): 1280x720. Note: I tried using my native res of 1440x900 even though it is unsupported by ghostdogs mod, and the graphics were very messed up...

I need to make note of the fact that not all "widescreen" monitors have the same aspect ratio which can be problamatic. You see my widescreen doesn't proportionatly scale down to any of the Ghostdog supported resolutions: 1280x800, 1280x720, 1280x768, and 1280x1024... so in a way I'm screwed. I'm not a resolution expert and don't know exactly how The Bigg's mod works so I just tried different ones until I found one that kept everything on the screen. (note, the menus will be top left justified regardless... you actually have to start a game to see) So experimenting around is really the only thing I can recommend... Ideally, my resolution would be set at 1280x740 but The Bigg's widescreen mod doesn't support this, neither does Ghostdog's mod.
The best I could do, ultimately, while still staying "supported" by both The Bigg's and Ghostdog's mods, was 1280x720. This still is unacceptable, however, because it clips off a portion of the screen on the right...

Here's a before pic:

And the after: (Note that you can not see the cut-off on the right side of the screen because my screen capture software captured the full image without taking into consideration the scaling, and subsequent cut-off, that my video card produced.. but trust me, it cuts off about 20 pixels or so)


So there you have it... it works great, but only on SOME widescreen monitors. If your widescreen monitor can scale 1280x800, 1280x720, or 1280x768 properly, i.e. no clipping, then you should be good to go. If not, I'm not sure if there is a solution. If anyone out there knows of a solution PLEASE share. What happened, I think, is that The Bigg's mod was created "back in the day" when there wasn't as much diversity in types of widescreen monitors... but times have changed.

Links and Credits: I didn't create any of the tools I used for my install test and am not implying I did. The download links for the mods (along with credentials) are listed below:

The Bigg's Widescreen mod: http://www.gibberlings3.net/widescreen/

Ghostdog's UI mod: http://www.spellholdstudios.net/ie/ghostdogs-pst-ui

Where Have all the Manuals Gone To?

I was going through some old game stuff of mine and came across the original manual for Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. It sits in front of me as I type. It’s a frickin' monster! Like a book.

Back then, games were more than just an interface thrown together over the latest Unreal engine in a half assed manner. Granted, that’s not entirely fair to say, and BGII did re-use the infinity engine… but still, games were legends out of the box. It wasn’t a sales thing as much as it was a gamer thing because gamers weren’t casual about their sport. It wasn’t a Friday night two hour flick at the closest. But I’m not just talking about a time investment. I’m talking about energy and passion. Back then kids didn't get bored of a game in a month only to then lose it a month after that; or trade it in for a few bucks and Gamestop because the quality of the content really is that mediocre. Back in the day, people, at least that I knew of, didn’t trade/sell games. Why? Because I still play many of them to this day. I wouldn’t give up my copies (I have several…) of BGII for anything… Games had a lot of heart, a lot of background, a lot of meaning and connection to the gamers, high replay value, and, of course, big ass manuals that explained everything, from how to play the game, to a brief history of the making of the game, to the background story for the game.

I must admit I never read the “how to” parts of the manual but I absolutely loved reading about background story elements for the diegesis’. The character bios in the BGII manual, yeah, I would read all of those. I read all of Volo’s little random notes about whatever. I would read about Amn… I loved that stuff. (PS:T was sorely lacking in the manual department. Maybe that is part of why it failed commercially.. back then if there was ever a genre in which a big manual was required that genre was the role-playing one. RPG’s needed to have big manuals)

So here we are now. The prices of games have crept up from the previous and long standing high of 50 bucks a pop for newly released goods to 60, and yet we fail. I haven’t played Dragon Age yet… but I will. How’s the manual…

Expansion

I've decided to diversify. Expand beyond PS:T. Why? Because PS:T is effectively dead to the world at large. In fact, it never really lived except within the hearts of a select few. But at the end of the day I don't think anybody reads this blog and I used to falsely maintain that such didn't really matter ... I lied. It does. If it didn't I would write off-line. But for some reason, it matters. Maybe my writing isn't up to par with the bloggers who have readers, but I know that my topic of choice, PS:T, isn't really helping either and while I can't wake up tomorrow suddenly as a blogger extraordinaire, I can maybe write for a larger audience. I'm not "selling out" however. PS:T always is and always will be the best game ever and I will write about it often but I will also write beyond PS:T. I am determined however to stay within the realm of video games. So I may blog about Modern Warfare 2. Or Bioshock. Or Unreal Tournament... whatever. But I will maintain focus on video games. So if you happen to "like" video games you might find something of interest on Prime Material. (the name stays, for now) You don't even have to like PS:T... you should; but you don't have to.

Right Up There with the Lady of Pain?

I ran into the Sword Emperor himself tonight as I was navigating through the cyber-planes and took a plunge through an iffy portal behind a brothel (got to stop doing that, just where in the hell do I keep thinking those ones are going to lead to?)... It wasn't as bad as meeting the Lady of Pain though. (shivers) In fact, it was really quite pleasant because at the end of the day he runs a very pleasant blog. But not any old blog for there are a hundred billion of those out there. No no, *this* blog had Planescape: Torment stuff on it and that my friends is always a good thing. Truly warms my heart. It was cool because the Sword Emperor played through, chronicling his experiences along the way, PS:T and gave a great review at the end. I thought I would put up a link to his review for all to check out:

http://theswordemperor.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/end-of-torment-the-planescape-torment-review/

As an aside, the other day I put up a topic on a Diablo II forum and someone responded to the post by starting off with an "it's great to see another Planescape:Torment fan!"... You see my profile name on the forum is Vhailor and well, a connection was made. It kind of hit me when I saw this, another fan's recognition of the game: People at large who have played Planescape: Torment treat it with deep respect...

Justice Is Not Blind, I Am Her Eyes

*SPOILERS*

Torment is full of "wow" moments. Moments that make you stop and think. Moments that make you want to reload a saved game file or play the entire game again. In fact, the game is like one big long epic moment. Sure it has up and down slopes but the overall curve it is truly stunning.

I was thinking of my "favorite" moment and while it would be wrong to say I truly have one there is a moment that I have recently been thinking about a lot and that is when The Nameless One meets Vhailor. You see Vhailor is perhaps more akin to The Nameless One than any other NPC or character in the game. (excepting TTO who is a part of TNO) The difference is that it wasn't some misguided ritual performed by a night hag that gave him his immortality (okay so maybe he isn't truly immortal like TNO but you get the idea) rather it was through sheer force of will and dedication to an ideal that literally kept him from dying until his work was through... I dig that... a lot?

Talk about undying loyalty to a cause... such a phrase has always been used metaphorically until Vhailor's character was created. One more reason to love Planescape: Torment. (actually, as an aside, I am reminded of the Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marines from the table top minatures game Warhammer 40k. Their armour was sealed shut by a curse so that their spirits continued to live in their armor long after their physical bodies had turned to dust. Vhailor, however, continues living long past his mortal expiration date to fight for justice through sheer force of will)

What Is Planescape Torment?

Or, better yet, what is it not?

On my last post, which was my first post on this blog, I told the epic tale of how I got involved with Torment but I failed (though not really because I didn't *try* to) mention what *is* Planescape: Torment? To put it simply: Planescape: Torment (PS:T) is a computer role playing game (CRPG) developed by Black Isle Studios and released in 1999 by Interplay. To expand upon this Planescape: Torment is the best computer role playing game ever made and as far as a compelling storyline is concerned it is the best game ever made on any platform and in any genre. I would go so far as to say that it is the best fictional story ever created out of any medium (film, book, video game, etc.) Now obviously "the best storyline" is a subjective phrase but let me tell you why it's so for me. You see when any particular story be it from a film, game, or book moves you and makes you think about it -- a lot -- and ponder upon the characters, plot and themes long after you have read the book, watched the film or played the game then it is good. All of the crap games, movies and books (and music if you will) that you pass off without a glance behind, well, it is exactly that crap. It sucks. The really good stuff compels you to go back to it time and time again whether in your mind or by replaying the game, watching the movie or reading the book. Never have I gone back to a story, in my mind and through replaying it, thinking about the characters, pondering what was left unsaid, adding my own little theories and expanding upon what has already been created more than with Planescape: Torment. There has not been a movie, book or other game that I have thought about more than PS:T. It reigns king. And that is why it's the best.

You want a rating? How about a 9.5 out of 10. I know it's not a perfect 10 and that wasn't a typo. The reason being because of a few bugs and an awkward interface. So while the bugs and interface issues knocked off half a point, because it is a game after all, the exceptional story really does make up for this (even if it is highly text based) and it is a near perfect game as such. Storywise it is a perfect 10.

I've talked a ton about its story but haven't mentioned really anything about it. It is simply this: Set in TSR/Wizards of the Coast's Planescape fantasy setting, you wake up in a mortuary unaware of your past; hell, you don't even know your name. As such you are called "The Nameless One". You have tattoos all over your body which happens to be covered in scars. There also happens to be a floating skull near you when you wake up who can talk. Oh, and you can't die. That's it. That's all you know and I can't really explain the rest without giving away the story but what follows is very epic on a personal level. And to the critics out there who think this is your typical run-of-the-mill amnesiac story. Well, it's not. Nothing else touches it. In fact in came out before many of the amnesia films that are popular today. The closet resemblance would be Memento. (because of the tattoos which help the protagonists remember things that they have forgotten) But PS:T was before Memento... except that it really doesn't matter if something is original or unique if it sucks. PS:T doesn't. (By the way, plot aside, the characters in PS:T are another very important reason for why it is so bad ass. I've never seen characters that were so engrossing as those in Torment)

I decided that the collective knowledge and professionalism of, well, professionals was probably greater than mine so what I have done is created a list of links for you to learn more about PS:T. There are two links under "General Information" which explain the story, origins and legacy of PS:T (CAREFUL with the Wikipedia link because it contains major SPOILERS if you haven't played the game yet and plan on doing so sometime)

I also listed some reviews from various established folks so you don't think I'm full of crap. There are others out there who raved about PS:T. (It has made it's way into basically every computer gaming hall of fame list that exists from Computer Gaming World to Gamespot) This is not a conclusive list but it gets you started.

General Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape:_Torment (MAJOR SPOILERS)
http://www.spellholdstudios.net/games/pst

Reviews:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/planescapetorment/review.html?print=0
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6135401/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/circuits/articles/27game.html
http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=19285&tab=overview
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20061006/quantum_08.shtml
http://www.gamepro.com/article/reviews/3948/planescape-torment/
http://www.gamespy.com/articles/540/540546p1.html
http://pc.ign.com/articles/159/159939p1.html
http://top100.ign.com/2007/ign_top_game_71.html
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/planescapetorment?q=planescape

Planescape: Torment. Why A Blog?

Why not? Is it not the greatest (story-wise) game ever? Wouldn’t that qualify it for its own unofficial blog created over a decade after the game's release?!

I know its status is that of “cult” not “blockbuster” and as such it didn’t sell sooo many copies but you know what, that doesn’t matter to me because guess what, I played it; and it raped my mind. And I don't throw such verbiage around lightly either. You can also believe me when I say that I was very skeptical going into this game so yes, it really is that good.

Here’s the dark of it: Back in the late 90s when I was a young lad of 13 or so I loved to play video games; had always loved playing video games since when I was but a babe playing Super Mario World on the SNES. And I still love to play games. But at that particular time I had played almost every single title on the SNES and the N64--except for those that hadn’t come out yet right? I must confess that I hadn't gotten into the whole Playstation thing however. I think it was the discs. It seemed so inferior to me because of the load times. I was young and as impatient as ever. That and I also felt that the graphics on the Playstation were inferior to the N64. Anyways back then I also hadn’t played very many computer games because we didn’t have a computer--the console ruled all. Once my dad brought his work computer home and I went out and bought a bunch of dos games: Cooridor 7, Duke Nukem you name it. That was short lived however because my dad took his computer back to work after about a month. But then one day my dad brought home a computer that was to be a “family computer” but which essentially became mine and before I knew it I had bought Mechwarriors 3. I loved it and all of the other games that I bought during my pc gaming honeymoon: from Quake to Grim Fandango I earned my stripes in just about every genre. Except for one….CRPGs.

You have to understand that I wasn’t ignorant to CRPGs--just biased. I had always kept my distance from the likes of: Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, Diablo, (it counts) and all the others. My reasons were grounded in a Playstation toting friend of mine. He swore by the Playstation while I swore by the SNES, N64 and subsequently the computer. I don’t know what it was because neither of us really gave the other's system(s) of choice a chance but I think it was just straight up pride. Blind pride. The kind of burning pride that grips you and whispers to your mind that you're better than the next guy because you are on a higher, more refined and tasteful plane of video game connoisseurship. And he’s thinking the same thing. Not only did he worship the Playstation but his games of choice were RPG’s . That turn based crap found in Final Fantasy-esque games really pissed me off. It was like a damn extension of the Playstaion’s load times! Not only do I have to wait for the game to load every five seconds but then I have to “wait my turn” to fight someone…anyone…everyone! And even when it is "my" turn it feels like I'm waiting as I go through menus to try and figure out how I'm going to fight. And even when I’m not fighting it just “feels” like I’m waiting around. WTF! Fire up Turok!

So naturally I would pass on anything with the letters RPG in them… even if there was a C in front. But then one day I overheard a schoolmate talking about an up-and-coming game called Baldur’s Gate II. (by this time I wasn't really playing consoles anymore. I was a full time PC gamer but the memory of Playstation RPG's still haunted me at night) But this kid's Baldur's Gate rave struck a chord. He promised it was going to be the most bad ass game ever. So I took a plunge. I bought Baldur’s Gate I and for the first time I came home from school and immediately started playing until either my mom made me turn it off by force or until I fell asleep at the keyboard. I hardly ate dinner. I definitely said eff-all to my homework and grades and only took a pee when absolutely necessary. And I did it for months. Now I have always loved games but this was different. This was like smoking the ganja, a straight up addiction. You see Baldur's Gate was different than Final Fantasy. I mean yeah you could pause the battles (and you have to in order to win the tough fights) but it was a choice, a way to represent the tactical genius of a truly great warrior. I know the Final Fantasy styled RPGs had the same idea but it just didn't "feel" the same as Baldur's Gate. It was freaking genius. And I really felt like I was role playing--being myself as a butt kicking hero--not living the life of a Japanese manga character.

So one day I was reading Computer Gaming World, checking out the review on BGII. It was a great review and I was dead set on getting this little ditty to continue my epic quest as I had just finished up BGI but something un-baldurian stood out to me. You see the review ranted and raved about gameplay, graphics, and yes the story but there was one little line that struck me. Just one, almost off-the-cuff remark, that made the hairs stand out on the back of my neck and which would change things forever. I can't quote the line word for word now but the gist of it was: “…while not as dark or deep as the storyline of Planescape: Torment…” The reviewer was saying that while BGII was one of the coolest games ever but that it’s story wasn't as cool, or deep, or dark or whatever as a game called Planescape: Torment. Weird. I mean I thought BGI had a great story (a god of murder trying to be reborn through, well, murder) and I hadn’t even heard of Planescape: Torment.

It would be a while before I came across Torment again because I got wrapped up in BGII which was, frankly, awesome. Additionally I thought BGII's story was even better than the first one in some respects. Who doesn't think that Jon Irenicus is one of the best antagonists ever? And it is for such a reason that I would never forget that reference to Torment because if it was better, story-wise, than BGII...

One day while at the now defunct (but highly nostalgic for I bought almost every PC game in my teenage years there) Media Play and I saw it in a bundle. The memory resurfaced of the high praise that was given to the game by a CGW reviewer. Plus it was two going-out-of style games for the price of one going-out-of-style game. By itself I might have not bought it but with another one attached I had to and so I did. (BTW, I thought it was Myst. I know that doesn't sound right but I swear it was. Thing is, I got the "big box" original version of PST, not the jewel case so it would have had to been shrunk wrapped together with Myst and sold.. It may not even have been an "official" bundle.. I could be wrong but that is my memory. Stephen King once wrote that "memory is like a deck of cards that we stack" so maybe this is what happened to me)

So back to having finally acquired PST. You see when I popped that sucker into my box (I had by this time acquired my very own computer) and was assailed with those dark and grim images of the mortuary, a wacky interface and a very unfamiliar, basic, and uninteresting-if-not-shallow, character creation system (I loved making characters in BGII. I’d re-roll the dice for hours in order to try to get an uber-powerful character) I was turned off and so I turned off the game without even getting off the second floor the mortuary. I even un-installed the poor berk. (I would later learn that the character creation system had its purpose but at the time I didn’t get it. I was hoping for another Baldur’s Gate-esque game)

A year or two later I dusted off my copy of Torment and fired it up for a second go. I don't know why I gave it another chance but most likely I had read some additional high praise for the game and also because of the now historic BGII review.. that one liner. The praise that came across to me as so respectful of the game's story. But for whatever the reason, I gave it another go, a real shot this time. And now I can finally say that the rest is mother***ing history.