Help & Troubleshooting

When the dusk fights back

The 4th Coming is a classic from 2003 — a few tweaks make it run perfectly on modern Windows. Here are the fixes for everything new players hit. Most are one file copy away.

Don't have the client yet?

Download the pre-configured Gloom client — the realm address is already set.

⬇ Download Client Preparing download…
I can't connect / "Server is not online"
  1. Make sure Gloom is selected in the realm dropdown at the login screen.
  2. Check the live realm status on the home page — if it shows Offline, the server is down for maintenance.
  3. Your firewall must allow t4c.exe to use UDP port 11677 outbound.
  4. If your account is fresh, confirm you created it here first — the website login is your game login.
Black screen or crash in fullscreen

DirectDraw is deprecated on modern Windows. Apply the included DDrawCompat fix:

  1. Open the T4C Fixes\DDrawCompat - Graphics (fullscreen + DPI) folder in your client.
  2. Copy ddraw.dll into the same folder as t4c.exe.
  3. Relaunch the game.

Still black? Run t4cconfig.exe and switch to a windowed mode or a lower resolution.

No sound, or the music stutters

Use the included DSOAL audio fix:

  1. Open T4C Fixes\DSOAL - Audio (music + sounds).
  2. Copy dsound.dll and dsoal-aldrv.dll next to t4c.exe.
  3. Relaunch.

Prefer silence? Open t4cconfig.exe and turn music off — it removes the stutter entirely.

"msvcr… missing" or it won't start at all

The game needs the 2008 Visual C++ runtime. Run the bundled installer once:

  1. Open the _Redist folder in your client.
  2. Run vcredist_x86_2008sp1atl.exe and follow the prompts.
  3. Reboot if asked, then launch t4c.exe.
Wrong resolution or the window is tiny / huge

Run t4cconfig.exe (next to t4c.exe) to set your resolution, windowed/fullscreen mode, and audio before launching the game.

"Account already logged on"

Your previous session is still held by the server (a crash or hard-close). Wait 1–2 minutes for it to time out, then log in again. If it persists, contact a staff member to clear your session.

My antivirus flags t4c.exe

This is a false positive — the 2003-era executable uses an old packer that some scanners dislike. The client is the official 1.72 build. Add an exception for the client folder, or restore the file if it was quarantined, then relaunch.

The patcher fails or nothing happens on launch
  1. Right-click t4c.exeRun as administrator.
  2. Don't run it from inside the ZIP — extract the whole folder first (e.g. to C:\Gloom).
  3. Avoid system-protected paths like C:\Program Files; a normal folder works best.
How do I change or add a realm?

Realms live in iplist.txt in the client folder, one per line as Name#host:port. Yours already contains:

  • Gloom#play.gloomonline.net:11677 — the realm.