[Originally written by Salvage]

The Dark Engine and Multiprocessor/Hyperthreading Systems


If you're reading this you probably already know that Thief, Thief Gold, Thief 2, as well as System Shock 2 don't like multiprocessor/hyperthreading systems.
The non-permanent way to fix this problem is to:

  1. Start the game(go only as far as the menu).
  2. Alt-Tab out of it.
  3. Bring up the task manager(Ctrl-Alt-Del then T).
  4. Click on the processes tab.
  5. Find thief.exe(thief2.exe as well as thief2.icd for thief 2).
  6. Right click on it/them and go to set affinity.
  7. Uncheck one of the cpus.
  8. Alt-Tab back into the game and play.
This will need to be done every time you start the game as this is not a permanent solution.


The permanent way to fix this problem(without turning off Hyperthreading) is this:
  1. Download imagecfg.
  2. Unzip it to Windows\system32\ as well as Windows\system32\dllcache\.
  3. Make a backup copy of your exe and icd(for Thief 2 and System Shock 2) files.
  4. Open notepad and enter the following for Thief/G:
    imagecfg -u thief.exe
    imagecfg -a 0x1 thief.exe
    pause

    For Thief 2 it's:
    imagecfg -u thief2.exe
    imagecfg -u thief2.icd
    imagecfg -a 0x1 thief2.exe
    imagecfg -a 0x1 thief2.icd
    pause

    For System Shock 2 it's:
    imagecfg -u shock2.exe
    imagecfg -u shock2.icd
    imagecfg -a 0x1 shock2.exe
    imagecfg -a 0x1 shock2.icd
    pause
    ( Added by R Soul )
    Note: If you use Dromed/ShockEd you'll also need to include either of the following:
    imagecfg -u dromed.exe
    imagecfg -a 0x1 dromed.exe
    Or
    imagecfg -u shocked.exe
    imagecfg -a 0x1 shocked.exe
  5. Save the file in the game directory as "processor.bat" including the quotes.
  6. Double click the file processor.bat (must be in the game directory). You will see a something similar to the following:
    D:\Games\Thief2>imagecfg -u thief2.exe
    thief2.exe contains contains no configuration information
    thief2.exe contains a Subsystem Version of 4.0
    thief2.exe updated with the following configuration information:
    Image can only run in uni-processor mode on multi-processor systems
    Image can only run in uni-processor mode on multi-processor systems

    D:\Games\Thief2>imagecfg -u thief2.icd
    thief2.icd contains no configuration information
    thief2.icd contains a Subsystem Version of 4.0
    thief2.icd updated with the following configuration information:
    Image can only run in uni-processor mode on multi-processor systems
    Image can only run in uni-processor mode on multi-processor systems

    D:\Games\Thief2>imagecfg -a 0x1 thief2.exe
    thief2.exe contains the following configuration information:
    thief2.exe contains a Subsystem Version of 4.0
    Image can only run in uni-processor mode on multi-processor systems
    thief2.exe updated with the following configuration information:
    Process Affinity Mask: 00000001

    D:\Games\Thief2>imagecfg -a 0x1 thief2.icd
    thief2.icd contains no configuration information
    thief2.icd contains a Subsystem Version of 4.0
    Image can only run in uni-processor mode on multi-processor systems
    thief2.icd updated with the following configuration information:
    Process Affinity Mask: 00000001

    D:\Games\Thief2>pause
    Press any key to continue . . .
  7. Load the game and play.
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