[SCharger]

hello ya'll.  i'm a relatively new lurker around here.  i never had fs2 retail, and over the past few years have grown so space-sim starved that i finally looked up fs2.  i downloaded the HoTU version.  i have upgraded it with all of the files from the ftp site, and fs2o v 3.6.  i have also applied the new media_vp files to it.  here's my two problems:

1)  i have no music.  none.  ever.  all i ever get at any point in the game is the repeated clicks of windows telling me it can't find my music (at least that's what i assume windows is trying to tell me).  the clicking is driving me insane.  i did download the warble_vp and put it in the main dir, but to no avail.

2)  it may just be me, or i may not have installed them properly, but i can;t tell much of a difference, if any, after installing fs2o, or the media files.  well, that's not entirely true.  there is a slight (read: virtually nonexistant) improvement in textures, and the light effects (engines, beams, etc) but not the astronomical (pun intended) changes i expected.  i did play the game for a while before i installed fs2o, so i'm not a total philistine in this regard.  just a moderate one.  but equally confusing is that when i installed the media files, nothing changed.  i didn;t have any versions of them installed previously, so i didn't have to overwrite or move anything.

3)i also have another question.  other than no one has done it, is there a reason that there are no in game voiceovers?  is there a technical reason why it can;t be done?  or has no one gotten around to doing it?  just curious.

anyway, please pardon the obvious ignorance that i am imposing on you, and please don;t think that i didn;t look for the answers elsewhere.  i may have missed the relevant info, but i did scour the forum, faq's, and wiki's.  if anyone can help with the above stuff, i'd be ever grateful.  i dig the community one way or another and hope to be here for a while.

system specs if you need them:
win xp
p4 3ghz
120gig hd
ati radeon 9800 pro
1gig ram
directx 9.0b

thanks again all.

[WMCoolmon]

Plasma rifles are under the seats, exits are located to the left and right sides of the room. Do not investigate any clatterings in the duct; that's just Carl, our trusty Shivan, who eats lurkers.
In the event of a significant change in pressure, oxygen masks will descend from the ceiling. Place the mask over your mouth and breathe deeply. Although the bag may not inflate, sulfuric gas will continue to spew normally.
Alternatively, mountain-fresh Air is available in 12-packs at the conveniences booth.

For 2: Run the launcher, click the features tab, and click "enable glowmaps", "enable specular", "enable 32-bit textures" and "enable jpg, tga textures" (Your system should support all these.)

Run Freespace 2 and see if you can tell the difference.

[SCharger]

i have all of those checked, and there's still not a big change.  i may have just been overestimating how big a change it would be, but i would have thought that the new media files would have changed quite a bit.  all i did was put them in the main fs2 dir.  is that the right place for them?

p.s. thanx for the welcome.  can i meet carl?

[Blaise Russel]

For number one, is your FS2/data/music folder still full of music files with really low sizes from the orginal installation of the HOTU rip, or have you already deleted them?

I'm still a little fuzzy on the old HOTU rip, but this may also apply to the voices thing. If you aren't actually getting any voices at all (i.e. the briefing is curiously silent, all the in-flight messages are voiceless) then you may also need to check all the directories in the data/voice folder for more sound files with really low sizes (couple of Kb, if I recall right). I think those might be overriding the VPs you downloaded from the FTP server dealie.

Two's a little more difficult... it could be just a personal thing or summat... perhaps we could use Cygnus Prime (the planet in the background in the first FS2 campaign mission) as a point of reference. I think the hi-res planets come with the media VP package... I had them in mine, I think... anyway, can you tell me which one appears in-game, first mission? The one on the left, or the one on the right?



[/optician]

[karajorma]

I think I know what the problem may be here. Blaise has pretty much got it too.

The HotU version works by installing a load of files in your data folder rather than by a vp.

These files are regarded by the game as higher priority than anything in the media.vp files so you see them instead of the improved versions.  In the planet example he'll almost certainly be seeing the low res one.

The simple solution is to go to the Freespace FTP and download all of the vp files and then simply rename your data folder so that the game ignores it.

A slightly more time consuming (but less bandwidth intensive) solution is to use a vp construction tool (There should be links to one on the main page) and build your current data folder into a vp. Move it and give it a name starting with a z so that it is lower in priority than the current media.vp files.

Or you could simply open the .vp files using VPview(again look at the HLP files page or in my FAQ below for a link) and then delete any file in your data folder that matches one in there. I'd imagine that might take you a while though.  


As for question 3. If you mean why do you never hear the pilots speaking instead of just seeing text on screen the simple answer is that like with the music you're missing a vp file.  
 Get stu_fs2.vp and move data\voices out of your freespace folder.

[WMCoolmon]

If that really is the case...

1) Move your data/players file somewhere else
2) Download the attached file and extract it to your Freespace 2 directory
3) Run VPMage, and enter "data" as the source filename; then click "Add source".
4) Type in "Rufus_fs2.vp" (Because it's closest to "root_fs2") for the output filename and then click Build VP.
WARNING: Building the VP will take a long time
5) After a while a little dialogue will come up to tell you your VP is done; click OK and close VPMage.
6) Now move your data directory somewhere outside the Freespace 2 directory, or put it in the recycle bin
7) Create a new data directory and move your players folder back into it.
8) Run Freespace 2 to make sure everything went OK

[SCharger]

wellt thanks for responding so quickly all.  i went and renamed ll of the voice and music files that were overriding the vp's, and now everything works.  curiously enough, the media files seem to be working now too.  they weren't last night, and i didn;t do anything new.  the most noticable was the planets and the random debris.  just one more question now.  where can i find the new nebulae effects?  are they already in the fs2o or the media_vp's?  thanks again.

[kasperl]

It should be in the media VP's, not all that sure.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by SCharger
curiously enough, the media files seem to be working now too.  they weren't last night, and i didn;t do anything new.  the most noticable was the planets and the random debris.

If you removed the PCX files for the planets from your data folder that's exactly what I'd expect to see happen

[WMCoolmon]

There are no nebula effects in the media VP.

There are, however, weapons of mass destruction in the media VP.

[.::Tin Can::.]

For some reason, my Radar doesnt function. It just doesnt show ANY contacts at all on it.

[SCharger]

i have another question now karaj.  are all of the files in the models folder replaced by the media_vp files?  or to put it another way, if i rename the models folder so the game can't find it, will the media_vp files replace all of the "lost" files from the models folder?

also, the reason i asked about new nebulae effects is because i read a different post about some new ones that can potentially enhance the the original campaign in fs2o, but that they don;t always work in new campaigns.  are there nebulae effects files somewhere else where i haven't run accross them yet?  if so, i'd really love to find them.

[karajorma]

Sadly no. There are lots of people working on newer hi-poly versions of ships but so far only a few of them are done. Check out the Coming Attractions thread in the modding section to see what a high poly ship looks like

As for the nebulae. If I remember correctly Lightspeed has done two versions. The first is a simple upgrade of the textures to 32-bit TGA files. This version can simply be used to replace the ones in your data folder as they have the same names.  If I remember correctly these were included in one of the media.vp files.

The second set are completely new and much better looking. For missions to use these will require editing in FRED as the names are deliberately different.

[.::Tin Can::.]

Do you have an answer to my question, kara?

[Dark_4ce]

Yeah, I got the same issue too. No blips on my radar. Also, The introduction cutscene doesent show for me. But I'm new to trying the SCP. I know I know. But better late then never. And I gotta say, bloody good work.

[karajorma]

Have you used the radar_reduce command line? Otherwise I'm clueless.

[Dark_4ce]

Ah good. That did the trick. Will the normal Cutscenes work in the SCP? Or are they left out? Just asking cause the Intro is left out.

[karajorma]

The normal cutscenes won't work. Avi or mpg version ( just about anyhing windows media player can handle)  will work. There should be avi versions up on the freespace FTP.

[Dark_4ce]

Ah sweet. Thanks.