Velvet Assassin - No Hints modification v2.7

[662afe3740993Kolya]

This mod removes the following visual and text hints from Velvet Assassin:
- Violet glow on Violette's character when she is hidden in the shadows and white glow when in plain sight (aio/player_exdata.cfg)
- Highlighting of doors, objects, bodies (aio/player_exdata.cfg)
- Loot sparkle (FX/pickup_star.fxt)
- Action hints, Savestate messages, Mission target messages (gui/hud.men)
- All subtitles (gui/colors.col)

Other changes
- Morphine mode: Violette keeps her clothes on. Removed Blur FX. Little red fog instead of thick white fog. (aio/player_exdata.cfg, FX/PostFX/morphine_mode.pfx, Levels/morphine_lightenvironment.txt, aio/levelstructure.aio)
- Highlighting of grenades (on NPCs) toned down significantly (aio/player_exdata.cfg)
- Death grain filter: Gaussian noise (Textures/PostFX/grain01.dds)
- Better knife combat: DelayPerShot (0.7s->0.5s) MinShotSpreadAngle (0.0->4.0) ShotRecoilSpreadAngle (0.0->5.0) (aio/weapons.cfg) and increased range (160cm-200cm) (aio/player_attributes.pco)
- Increased damage of Sturmgewehr (38-52) to make the final level enemy rush a bit easier (aio/weapons.cfg)
- Changed in-game logo (Textures/GUI/HUD/logo_x.dds)
- Reduced bloom post effect (FX/PostFX/glow_strong.pfx)

Notes
- You should have played the game a bit before using this mod so you generally know what to do.
- You will need to understand English, German and French. Otherwise leave out the file gui/colors.col.
- You will actually need to use your flashlight now to find goodies.
- Starting the file "NoHintsMod-NightdressToggle.bat" toggles Violette's nightdress outfit on or off. This is meant to be used in the last two levels (Fade to Grey series).


PhysX Error
On a modern system you might receive this error when starting Velvet Assassin:

Code: [Select]

.\nx\PskMainNX.cpp
[51]
: error: Assertment failed!
Message: Failed to init Ageia physics SDKIn this case you need to install the legacy Nvidia PhysX drivers that will exist alongside your current Physx drivers.

Walkthrough
There's a complete walkthrough incl. all secrets and collectibles here on youtube.

Installation
Unpack this archive into the game folder.

[662afe3740b74Kolya]

Updated to version 1.5. The main change is that Violette doesn't suddenly wear a nightie any more when she's injected herself with morphine. The white light effect during morphine mode has also been removed. (FX/PostFX/morphine_mode.pfx, Levels/morphine_lightenvironment.txt)

[662afe3740cc5Kolya]

Version 2 fixes a problem of the previous version with Violette's body disappearing in morphine mode under certain circumstances.
It also fixes the missing key icons in the menus while all icons in the game should be gone now.
A bit of red fog has been added to morphine mode. And the death grain filter has bee changed to use Gaussian noise.

Unless I notice any mistakes I think I'm done taking the trash out.

[662afe374111fKolya]

I finished the game yesterday and ran into another disappearing Violette body problem. This is an interesting one:
When starting to play Velvet Assassin I quickly found that Violette running around half-naked between hordes of nazis, after injecting herself with morphine, was beyond ridiculous fan-service. Hence I modified the game so she keeps her clothes on. The fact that it's all supposed to be hallucinatory didn't convince me either. I doubt that women dream of killing nazis in their underwear. To make sure, I asked my girlfriend but I didn't get any useful answers out of her. 

My first modification worked well until I got the campaign leather dress for the first time and Violette's body disappeared. I managed to fix this relatively fast by instructing the game to load both clothes sets in "VisionMode". (Only the one suitable for the level actually gets loaded.) Whereas the nightdress isn't loaded at all of course.

Then came the last two levels and with them problems. For one thing Violette's body disappeared again. It was also apparent why: By the time she is in a hospital (where she's actually been the whole time, remembering her past missions) and as she leaves the bed she doesn't need morphine any more to see herself in a nightie.

Now I don't know why the two French resistance guys decided to take her clothes with them. For the whole preceding gametime they haven't managed anything but to discuss the pros and cons of saving or leaving Violette to the nazis. And finally they must have come up with this schoolboy prank somehow. If we're leaving her to the nazis, let's also take away her clothes!

When Violette wakes up she quickly realises that the one thing she needs the most is - a weapon! Clothes taking a close second place, I guess. Until then she only has her trusty knife which she keeps, I don't know where. And strangely for the rest of the game which sees her in her most dangerous mission, she never picks up anyone's clothes and instead runs through a burning night in her bright white nightie.

Now the default of this mod is to give her back her pilot clothes again. Suppose the two resistance fighters weren't utter bungholes and left them there by her bed. 
However there are a few points that speak against the pilot's dress:
For the first time in the whole game we got an actual explanation for why she's wearing a nightdress - because she's fleeing from a hospital. Also there are no less than four cutscenes, playing through the final two levels, all showing her in her nightdress and therefore are inconsistent with the pilot clothes. Finally, without going into too much detail, the last level is a harrowing experience with Violette walking through a living hell, both physically and emotionally. So while it's unrealistic, showing her in her white nightdress seems artistically justified in this case to emphasise her vulnerability and her helplessness against the reign of terror and help evoke the Christian motif of an angel in hell.

So for that purpose I wrote a batch file (NoHintsMod-NightdressToggle.bat) that gives Violette the nightdress back. It's supposed to be run when you reach the first of the last two levels, named "Fade to Grey - Hospital". This batch file is a toggle, so when running it again the changes are revoked, eg for a new game.


Version 2.5 changes

- fix fadetogrey body
- fix occasional mission message
- toned down grenade highlighting
- first person knife stabbing simplified
- Sturmgewehr damage increased for final fight

Version 2.7 changes
- minor bug fixes
- better knife combat
- reduced bloom post effect

[662afe3741390Kolya]

.

[662afe37414deKolya]

A picture of Stanny van Baer (Miss International 1961) at a dance event for young Jews in Amsterdam, 1958.