[Droid803]

3.6.10 works without a hitch for me.
Given, I did have to fix the missing beamglow and the HTL Ravana errors.

[haloboy100]

So, what exactly are the main problems with the 3.6.10 MVPs?

I just updated my 3.6.10 MVPs, as for some reason they were an older version that didn't have normal maps or the new beams. FSO now looks totally different now(and a hell of a lot better;I particularly like the missile lens flare effect ), and for now i'm going to stick with the 3.6.10 MVPs, as the only problem I see is the missing shivan beamglows.

[blowfish]

Only one version of the 3.6.10 MVPs has been released so far.  You either had the 3.6.8 zetas or you were missing one or more of the necessary VPs.

[Herra Tohtori]

Or he's been mishmashing stuff from forums to add to the Betas.

[haloboy100]

Or he's been mishmashing stuff from forums to add to the Betas.

Yeah. I know I find everything at least 3 times as more confusing as it should be.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

The 3.6.10 glowmaps work horribly on Intel.

[Mongoose]

I'd imagine that many things would, since integrated graphics cards aren't really intended for gaming in the first place.  You could probably pick up an older card dirt-cheap that would do a much better job with them.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Yeah...an nViDiA Riva TNT2 Pro, for instance, or the ATi Radeon X200. I played FS2_Open on both of these cards and it looked great. Pity they were installed in computers that gave up after about three years.

Just a heads-up: the new MacBooks have nViDiA graphics drivers in them. I, however, am using the previous model.

[Spicious]

You seem to have some misconceptions about what a beta release is intended to achieve. It is released so that anyone interested can test it to find bugs to be fixed for the final version. It is not released for your enjoyment. Those bugs probably were quickly addressed, and so the final release will not include those problems.

Additionally, the MVPs have no influence on allowing or disallowing animated glowmaps.

Finally, there was no 3.6.9 release of the MVPs.

[Herra Tohtori]

You seem to have some misconceptions about what a beta release is intended to achieve. It is released so that anyone interested can test it to find bugs to be fixed for the final version. It is not released for your enjoyment. Those bugs probably were quickly addressed, and so the final release will not include those problems.

Additionally, the MVPs have no influence on allowing or disallowing animated glowmaps.

Finally, there was no 3.6.9 release of the MVPs.

Quoted for the truth. Betas certainly aren't meant to have final release level of quality. In fact they aren't even a "release" to be specific; they are a version subjected to testing to find what needs to be fixed. Those specific model issues have been fixed for a while already. Amongst a plethora of other model issues that you probably haven't even noticed; malfunctioning debris models (crashed the game actually), LOD's working erratically, something that crashed the game whenever you flew close enough to an Ulysses or some other models... that kind of nice stuff. There's been a lot of work done in the last few months. Looking at my IRC logs, the Sekret MediaVP talk channel log on my part starting from October 5th is some 684 kB long, and that's quite a bit of text. And it's pretty much solely dedicated to troubleshooting and developement talk... So yes, a LOT has changed since the betas. For the better, I would like to think.

Also, there is a fixed Ravana model hanging around the forums somewhere (a search might help, or it might not - it sometimes works, sometimes not) so you can do like haloboy100 and manually update the beta by adding stuff that has been released in the forums. But that won't get you far compared to how the internal set works at the moment. And I definitely don't mean this in a mocking "tee-hee-you-can't-have-it" way; just a statement of a fact. There are some effects for example that haven't had a forum release, they've gone straight to the internal MediaVP's.

So... I think when you finally get this set of MediaVP's to your hands in a playable level, you'll be very pleased.

[haloboy100]

...starting from October 5th is some 684 kB long...

Woah 

Also, there is a fixed Ravana model hanging around the forums somewhere (a search might help, or it might not - it sometimes works, sometimes not) so you can do like haloboy100 and manually update the beta by adding stuff that has been released in the forums.

Actually, what I did was install the 3.6.10 beta MVPs mixed in with the 710 MediaVP patches(the ones you download to patch the 3.6.8 MVPs). For this entire year, I thought I was up to date with the latest MVPs. Damn, what I ever wrong when I removed the patches 2 days ago and saw the sexy normal maps and lens flares for the first time.

I just want back the sexy engine glows from the 3.6.8 pathes

[Mongoose]

That puts a great deal of stress on the team to organize and distribute many separate releases, though.  If the purpose of a beta release is to fix any and all bugs before the final version, and if a single beta is capable of doing so, then are multiple betas really necessary?  From the perspective of end-users, any of us who don't want to put up with the bugs in the beta set or replace the glitched models individually can always continue to use the previous MVP set (which wasn't really a "final" release either, but that's beside the point).

[Mongoose]

If the team has been alerted to the bug and has it confirmed as repaired in their internal tests, releasing it as another beta would just be redundant.  If the beta VPs as they stand are causing problems with a particular model, there's always the option of extracting that particular model's retail version and overriding it; that's what I wound up doing with the Ravana before coming across the corrected version.

[Vasudan Admiral]

Unstickied as 3.6.10 is out at last!