[Fabianx]

Hi,

I can't get SCP to run under Linux. It runs, but all colors are messed up. (Already in "2D" mode). It might have to do with the GFX card, because even a screenshot made with ksnapshot is perfectly ok - _after_ I quit the game again.

Colors are all purple. If I run SCP in a window, I can even see my other applications using the same color palette too.

So, do you know of any code that sets up a color palette or something like that? I have never seen this with any other application and also not with the retail FS 2 version ... :-/.

Tried with CVS and tagged 3.6.7 build. Also wanted to try 3.6.5, but that one was not yet Linux ready. I could fix lots of things, but after even the main binary
(freespace2.cpp) was not linux-ready, I gave up ...

cu

Fabian

[edit:

My GFX card is a rather crappy Notebook Intel 855 running with X.org i810 driver and either i830 or i915 kernel dri module.

]

[taylor]

That video card isn't supported unfortunately since it doesn't support Transform & Lighting in hardware.  It may or may no work for you but if it doesn't then you are pretty much out of luck.

What cmdline options are you using?  Are you running X in 16 or 24 bit color depth?

It doesn't use a color palette so this just looks (like with the movie problem) like a GL driver issue to me.  Could be hardware but I think that the color thing is just a software issue.

[Fabianx]

Originally posted by taylor

What cmdline options are you using?  Are you running X in 16 or 24 bit color depth?

It doesn't use a color palette so this just looks (like with the movie problem) like a GL driver issue to me.  Could be hardware but I think that the color thing is just a software issue.

Regarding T&L: The Game did run for me, just the color palette was wrong. (I could make screenshots from In-Game)

Or does lack of T@L in GFx lead to this bizarre palette effect?

No Cmdline Options at the moment ... Just -window to have some fun colors on my desktop ;-)

I run X in 16bit depth ...

The strange thing is that because of the mistake before I did run just with MESA software rendering and still the palette was messed up, so it can't be a 3D driver issue, can it?

And how is the game able to restore it afterwards? After the game is quit ?

cu

Fabian

[taylor]

Lack of HT&L would not affect the palette (or at least it shouldn't) but could cause crashing at certain points.  The good thing is that you are running Linux so MesaGL can save you from many problems since it's software rendering is exceptional (of course speed will be an issue).

This could be an X issue rather than a GL driver issue (that would explain why it goes back to normal when the game exits too).  Try running X in 24-bit depth and see if that makes a difference.  I'm not sure that it will but it's worth a try at least.  The game should work in 16-bit but I don't think anyone has tested that in quite a while now.  If it doesn't then that's something I need to add to my todo list.  FS2_Open does have higher requirements than the icculus.org version does so this is likely just one of those things.

[castor]

SW rendering didn't work for me either (on r200). All texture colouring was messed up.
Luckily I got the HTL working now

[Fabianx]

Originally posted by taylor
Try running X in 24-bit depth and see if that makes a difference.  I'm not sure that it will but it's worth a try at least.  

Yes, in X11 24bit mode it does work.

However I am now facing the random crashes you warned me of ... :-(

However I am facing a funny issue:

With setting of 24 bit in fs2_open.ini it does crash immediately and always after Player Selection.

With setting of 16 bit in fs2_open.ini it does crash just randomly like you said ...

So I think, yes there is something strange with 16 bit mode going on ...

At least I'll be able to (randomly until next crash) test some effects now :-) ...

Well, I'll try "software only" mode now, perhaps that one does even work ;-) ...

Or I can get my driver to not provide the crashing functions (whatever those are) and let MESA handle them ...

cu

Fabian

edit:

Ok, now I've found the ideal configuration for me:

X-Display: 24 bit
Game-Setting: 1024x768x32 (yes, you read right)
Set details to "low" at Mission startup (else it crashes)

Then once missions runs, set details again to high ... (I think of automatizing this for my build ...)

Works really great! No crashes so far and very nice GFX so far.

Just the mv_effects package does not work as it then also crashes.

Yes, I know buying new hardware would solve the problem too, but this fiddling with the extremes is much more interesting *g*.

Thanks for all your help taylor,

cu

Fabian

[dizzy]

I get (sometimes) crashes after player selection too only that I dont have any issues with OGL, colors, video card (nvidia 6600) or drivers (played almost anything here from freespace to doom3 or morrowind in cedega). And my crashes (don't know if they are related to yours) are because of sounds or something. Some mods (like inferno or fsport with the modified music tables) that try to change the music trigger this crash just after new player creation and selection.