Update News (21/06/2018)

[Dusk]

Update 4 - 21/06/2018

It's been a while, but here you are a substantial update to both Act I and II!

Remember that savegames are not compatible across versions, but if you were in the middle of playing the game at the time of the update,
you can switch to the previous version (pubrelease_4 for Act I, pubrelease_5 for Act II) through the betas tab.

What's new?

Autosave
At key points of the game, savegames will be automatically taken. You can access the latest two autosaves from the load game screen.

Launcher and Wintermute engine customization

• Previously, you could only use Italian voices with italian texts, and all the other languages were tied to English voices.
  Now, we added a game launcher that (paired with some engine mods) lets you select the text/voices pair that you prefer, avoiding that restriction.
  
  
• It's now possible to play in window mode without the game blocking when the window loses focus.
  
  
• In case of rare memory allocation problems reported in the past, the game now shows an alert and shutdowns (previously, it kept running but in a broken state).
  Coupled with the autosave feature, this will mean having to replay very short sections of the game in case of crashes (that anyway, hopefully, should not happen anymore after some optimizations we did).
  
  
• If any repeatable problem happens, you can press shift while clicking the "Play" button on the launcher to run the game in debug mode.
  That will write a log file that you can send us to help in investigating the problem.
  
  
• In the aforementioned log, on startup, the savegames path will be written. This will help understating what's going on with users unable to load savegames (reported a couple times in the past)

Fixes/improvements/optimizations

• Savegame screenshots now include characters and dynamic elements (excepts for autosaves).
  
• Improved resource management (characters/animations loading/unloading)
  
• Fixed some animation flickering.
  
• Fixed some blackscreen show/hide timing
  
• Removed the save button from the main screen (when there's no current game to save!)
  
• Updated/fixed the end credits.
  
• Fixed an "empty balloon" interaction at the beauty center (Act II)
  
• Fixed text in the "Previously" video (Act II, english version)

Update 3 - 01/10/2016

After some time, here you are a new update for the first episode in our series.
No major changes, but we fixed some minor defects.

Remember that in case your savegames don't work properly after the update, you can switch to the previous version through the betas tab (keep reeading down here for detailed instructions).

Changelog

• bugfix: wrong preview image for savegames taken near the jewellery
  
• bugfix: wrong car animation in some conditions, in the HD version, during car chase minigame
  
• bugfix: missing hotspot indicator for the cigar, in the HD version
  
• improvement: cutscenes now use the voices volume setting and not the sfx volume settings
  
• improvement: minor changes to graphics and texts in loading screens
  
• improvement: better graphics for gun on the table (at home, near the ending)

Update 2 - 22/02/2015

As promised, with this second update the game now features Russian and Polish localizations.
We also managed to do some small improvements and fixes of non-critical issues.
Again, some of those are based on users feedback and suggestions (like the 'G' fix, or the car minigame info image), so thanks to everybody that did constructive criticism (more and more a rarity on the Internet).

This time, savegames taken with the previous release (update 1, codenamed "pubrelease_2" in the game properties betas tab) should work. EDIT: NO, they don't - please select the previous version if you already started playing.
In case of problems, anyway, you can select the previous versions in "betas", as explained below.

Changelog:

• Added Russian and Polish localizations
  
• Added info box in the cars minigame, suggesting that mouse has to be used to click on the arrows (it was unintuitive)
  
• Fixed a logic error about the scalpel usage while examining Anna's book
  
• Fixed some voices played with wrong volume settings
  
• Fixed graphics of the notepad, changing a 'G' that was sometimes misunderstood as '4'
  
• Fixed some "thinking" actions by James (missing echo effect on voices)
  
• Fixed some errors in the Yallop's book
  
• Fixed texts overflowing balloons in some circumstances
  
• Fixed flat door sound effect
  
• Minor fixes here and there

Update 1 - 12/02/2015

On the basis of feeback and bug reports that followed the Indie Gala giveaway, we fixed many problems in the game.
This will also affect the quality of the Act II release, so thanks to everybody that took the time to write about some issue.

We apologize again to the users that got stuck and unable to go on with the game due to corrupted savegames.
If you need a savegame at some specific point in the game, tell us and we'll try to provide one, so you don't have to replay everything.

WARNING: savegames of the previous release of the game are NOT COMPATIBLE with the new release (sorry, but that's an engine related issue we can't do much about).
Steam will automatically update the game and you will find an empty savegames list.

Savegames are stored in

%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\shadows on the vatican act i

or

%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\shadows on the vatican act i hd

Old savegames have .dsv extension, new ones have .sv1 extension.
We did this to prevent users from loading the old savegames with the new version of the game, something that would certainly bring unexpected behaviour.

If you want to continue playing with your savegames, using the old version, you can select it in the "betas tab" opening the game properties in Steam.
You must select pubrelease_1 to play the previous version.


Changelog:

• Prevented savegames to be taken when the game is in non-interactive sequences
  (this led to the infamous "cruifix bug" or "titanic bug", as some users named it)
  
• When climbing the scaffold at Evola's, some unexpected actions that led to erroneous behaviour are blocked
  
• When analyzing Marano's diary, James only updates his notepad once (about Dreamres)
  
• When looking for clues at the pc, the notepad graphics is now consistent with its state (crossed out items)
  
• Fixed a glitch in the cars minigame, when getting the second turn wrong
  
• Changed buttons layout in the Options window, for consistency with the main menu and improved UX.
  
• Fixed the sliders in the Options window of the HD version, that didn't work properly
  
• Added some missing sound effects: lamp switch, flat door, jewelry door, Mario's counter
  
• Stripped out character names from cutscenes subtitles, for consistency with Act II
  
• Removed a wrong reference to a date
  
• Removed a few delays in some scripted non-interactive sequences
  
• Fixed some "thinking" actions by James (echo effect on voices, no talking animations)
  
• Fixed a few errors/typos in the English, French and Italian texts
  
• James close-ups better suit the voice and mood of the character during some dialogues (Anna, Paola, jeweller)
  
• Volume leveling of many audio files
  
• Minor fixes here and there

[Dopefish]

thank you =D

[Bra1nd3ad Monk37]

waitng for act 2 :)

[Raven]

Russian localization is probably not going to see :(

[Shadows on the Vatican]

Hi, Russian and Polish localization will be in the next update, which will happen very soon!

[Raven]

Hi. Thank you, pleased!!!

[Deveu]

Thank you

[']

ok, im will wait localization, thank you)

[Lucky]

Please dont forget about the Russian localization!

[King Luiso]

Thanks for the update, but why at the end of Act I you exit the game to Windows? Is it a glitch? Still waiting Act I on Steam. A fabulous work!

Gretings

[Dusk]

It is not a glitch, it's how it was decided to end it. I think that going back to the menu would be better, but after all, it's not a big deal - what you would normally do at that point, in the menu, would probably be quitting anyway :)

[svenevil]

An update? What a nice surprise, I thought the game was dead and Act II would never come to steam. Good news!

[King Luiso]

Originally posted by Dusk:

It is not a glitch, it's how it was decided to end it. I think that going back to the menu would be better, but after all, it's not a big deal - what you would normally do at that point, in the menu, would probably be quitting anyway :)

Ya veo, pero si piensan quitar eso en un futuro estaría mejor, ya que dejaría a más de uno pensando que se salió por error.

¡Saludinees!

[Dusk]

I don't understand Spanish very well... you said that if people think it's an error, maybe in the future it would be better to go to the menu?
In that case, yes, I'm not the one deciding that, but I don't rule out that it will be changed in Act II and in a future update of Act I.
Thanks for your input!

[King Luiso]

Originally posted by Dusk:

I don't understand Spanish very well... you said that if people think it's an error, maybe in the future it would be better to go to the menu?
In that case, yes, I'm not the one deciding that, but I don't rule out that it will be changed in Act II and in a future update of Act I.
Thanks for your input!

Sorry, I thought I put it in English XD but if, at least on my part, I thought it was a mistake of the game to get away for Windows when the act will be ending 1. If possible, I would like the idea of not discarded finish the game, save the game and leave us in the menu.

Thanks to you and Adventure Productions and 10th Art Studio for this game!

[Dusk]

bump!
New update, Polish and Russian added!