Create a Patched Executable

If you don't have the original disc based version want to generate the thyme.exe to load the dll automatically anyway you will need to apply a patch to the executable in your existing install of Zero Hour.

We provide patches for the 1.04 English disc version, The First Decade version and the Origin version with Bibbers fixed launchers applied. You will need one of these to proceed.

First, go here to get xdelta3. Pick the x86_64 version if you are on 64bit Windows, pick i686 if you are on 32bit or aren't sure. Unzip the executable from it to the patches directory. If the directory doesn't exist, make sure you have a recent copy of Thyme.

Then copy generals.exe from your The First Decade install or your Origin install, with or without Bibbers fixed launchers, to the patches directory as well. If you are doing this from the CD version, then you want game.dat instead of generals.exe to be copied across.

Now you need to open cmd.exe as you need to apply the patch using the command line. You will need to navigate to the patches directory using the cd command and then enter the following command:

xdelta3-3.0.11-x86_64.exe -d -s generals.exe patch_tuc.delta thyme.exe

If you are patching The Ultimate Collection with bibbers fixed launchers, then use patch_bibber.delta instead of patch_tuc.delta.

If you are patching The First Decade, then use patch_tfd.delta instead of patch_tuc.delta.

If you are patching the CD version then use game.dat instead of generals.exe and patch_104_eng.delta instead of patch_tuc.delta.

This should result in thyme.exe being generated in the patches directory. You can copy this back to your Zero Hour install directory and provided you also have a build of the thyme.dll file you should be able to run the game from thyme.exe.