[RonnnL]

After a while I started once again with the Freespace 1 campaign (FSPort). In the first mission with asteroids however, the asteroids are only partly showing. The 'back' textures seem to be missing every now and then. When I turn the ship around the asteroid, the textures will show, eventually.

I'm running on WinXP, ATI1650. I used that impressive installer from Turey to get a fresh install and I am running the following command line options (ripped from a forum post a while back; might seem familiar to someone...)

fs2_open_3_6_9.exe -mod fsport,mediavps -spec -glow -env -jpgtga -mipmap -nomotiondebris -2d_poof -missile_lighting -img2dds -no_vsync -cache_bitmaps -dualscanlines -targetinfo -orbradar -rearm_timer -ship_choice_3d -3dwarp -warp_flash -snd_preload -alpha_env  -ambient_factor 0 -no_emissive_light -fov 0.55 -spec_exp 16.7 -spec_point 0.6 -spec_static 0.9 -spec_tube 1

'Use Large Textures' is turned off, by the way.

I'm going to try and change some things, but the problem might be familiar to one of you and easily solved.

[haloboy100]

try playing without -jpgtga? i heard this problem has something to do with it.

[Jeff Vader]

St00p1d. The asteroids won't show up at all without -jpgtga.

[RonnnL]

True, -jpgtga seems vital to me. I looked once again at the command line options but I can't pinpoint one that should be causing this problem.

I didn't mention yet that I use the 'Omega' drivers instead of the regular ATI ones. But this han't been troublesome in the past...

[karajorma]

Turn off -img2dds. It's the immediate suspect for this problem and if it is actually doing anything at all it's probably degrading the quality of your graphics.

[RonnnL]

Thanks for the tip, but -img2dss doesn't cause the problem. But I disabled it anyway.

Maybe some further clarification will help: When I approach asteroids in-game, new models and/or textures appear to be loaded every now and then. Seems logical, since far-away objects don't need full detail. But it seems that whenever a new model is loaded, the textures are sometimes only applied on the 'front' of the asteroid. When I approach further, the whole texture-set is correctly loaded, eventually. I can crash into asteroids in full detail...

Side-note: is there any way to update OpenGL-drivers on my system? I'm used to working with DirectX, so I don't know exactly if OpenGL-updates are available / necessary...

[haloboy100]

Side-note: is there any way to update OpenGL-drivers on my system? I'm used to working with DirectX, so I don't know exactly if OpenGL-updates are available / necessary...

That could be your problem. Go to your video card's website (ATI or Nvidia) and find the drivers for your card.

[RonnnL]

I have recent drivers for my graphics card, so as long as OpenGL doesn't need other ways of updating, apart from my graphic card drivers, it should be working properly.

I am using the 'Omega'-drivers, they didn't cause me any problems in the past though... Has anyone had bad experiences with these drivers?

[Jeff Vader]

I am using the 'Omega'-drivers, they didn't cause me any problems in the past though... Has anyone had bad experiences with these drivers?

I haven't. But if there are no objections, it probably won't hurt trying 'official' drivers as well.

[Shade]

Try clearing out the cache (data\cache\), i've seen cache corruption cause something similar to this on a few occasions.

[RonnnL]

I'd like to stick with the Omega-drivers since the performance gain in other games is quite significant. I re-installed the drivers however and also tried clearing the data\cache directorie(s), but the problem remains. Right now I'm re-installing FSO, in case I messed up things.

I used Turey's installer. Does this usually include all the latest files or only those of a last, somewhat older, 'stable' release? Might there be newer FSPort / mediaVPS-files available which could influence the asteroid-issue?

If there's no solution I just have to get used at asteroids looking like hollow, cracked egg-shells...

[Jeff Vader]

The Installer should download only the latest stable stuff. For example, it'll download the 3.6.8 Zeta mediavps, since those were the last big official release and they work. 3.6.10's work mostly but are still beta so they're not downloaded.

You could of course (re)move all the vps from the mediavps folder and download the 3.6.10's. They're available from a stickied thread in this very same board. Though you'll need a newer build too. Like this, for example.

[RonnnL]

Thanks. The Installer downloads both fs2_open 3.6.9 and 3.6.10(2007-10-07). The latter freezes in-game after about 10 seconds, so I'm using 3.6.9 now.

I'll download the newer build and see what happens...

[Zacam]

Why is "Use Large Textures" turned off? Have you tried turning it on?

[taylor]

Why is "Use Large Textures" turned off? Have you tried turning it on?

Doesn't matter, that option doesn't really do anything at this point in FSO.  It's really only there for retail exe support now.