Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace & FreeSpace Open Support => Topic started by: Makar40 on July 10, 2007, 04:12:29 pm
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Ive read the faq and been searching the boards. Ive downloaded tons of stuff here, and been playing the Wing Commander Saga and whatnot(which I understand is a stand-alone project).
What I need to figure out, is if I want to play FreeSpace 1 and 2, do I need to own the original games, or can I download a version that was compiled from the released source code? basically I would like to be able to play the games again JUST as they were back when, except maybe using the graphic upgrades made by the SCP team. Do you know what I mean? Any help would be appreciated.....basically is it possible and what do I need to be able to do it? Thanks a ton!!!
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:welcomeblue:
If you want to play the game all shiny and with graphics upgrades, just select your "mediavps" folder using the mod feature, in the launcher.exe. then play the freespace 2 campaign. If you want to play the freespace 1 campaign, then you need to download the fsport (if you haven't already) from http://fsport.hard-light.net/ (http://fsport.hard-light.net/), and select THAT with the mod feature after installing it.
If you have the SCP installed, then you won't need the freespace disks. If you don't want he shiny new graphical upgrades, then don't select any mod at all.
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But you do need to install FSOpen on a pre-existing copy of FS2, no?
If you don't have FS2, look here (http://hades-combine.com/web/index.php?ind=downloads&op=section_view&idev=76).
Enjoy! :yes:
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Ive read the faq and been searching the boards. Ive downloaded tons of stuff here, and been playing the Wing Commander Saga and whatnot(which I understand is a stand-alone project).
What I need to figure out, is if I want to play FreeSpace 1 and 2, do I need to own the original games, or can I download a version that was compiled from the released source code? basically I would like to be able to play the games again JUST as they were back when, except maybe using the graphic upgrades made by the SCP team. Do you know what I mean? Any help would be appreciated.....basically is it possible and what do I need to be able to do it? Thanks a ton!!!
I don't think the previous two responses adequately addressed the question, so I'll give it a shot...
You need the original game.
FreeSpace consists of the game data and the game engine. The engine is just a simple executable file. The game data can be found in VPs, table files, graphics files, custom missions, user mods, etc. Basically, if you want a no-frills SCP upgrade, you can simply use the SCP executable instead of the original executable.
The SCP, by itself, does not contain any graphical or multimedia enhancements. Those are in a separate but related project which produces the mediaVPs which you often hear about. The original game will ignore the mediaVPs (if you install them correctly) but the SCP will use them.
The absolute easiest way to check out the community enhancements is to do the following:
1) Install the original game
2) Use Turey's Installer (http://www.fsoinstaller.com) to add the upgrades that you want
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Goob strikes again!
...and it hits home!
But for the record, i responded figuring he said he downloaded all the stuff here, and since he's familiar with WCS he must be acquainted with scp as well.
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AFAIK the retail version of Freespace 2 can be obtained using Turey's installer, but correct me if I'm wrong...
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AFAIK the retail version of Freespace 2 can be obtained using Turey's installer, but correct me if I'm wrong...
That's true, but why waste hours downloading gigabytes of data when you can install it from the CDs in 15 minutes?
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OOOH video files...
I was gonna say how does a 750 mb approx game became "gigabytes of data." Silly me.
Because from what I understand, he doesn't exactly have the CDs handy.
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Ahh but I WILL spend much time dwnloading gigabytes of data, because I lost most of my old games about 3 years ago in a fire and I remember Freespace games being AWESOME......then I stumble upon all this stuff and its just A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! OMG....you have got to be kidding me. Its what ive always wanted...someone to redo some of the awesome games I loved, just LOVED growing up. Freespace, Wing Commander, Ultima(although no one I know of is redoing those but oh well), the list goes on. You guys rule!
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Ahh but I WILL spend much time dwnloading gigabytes of data, because I lost most of my old games about 3 years ago in a fire and I remember Freespace games being AWESOME......then I stumble upon all this stuff and its just A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! OMG....you have got to be kidding me. Its what ive always wanted...someone to redo some of the awesome games I loved, just LOVED growing up. Freespace, Wing Commander, Ultima(although no one I know of is redoing those but oh well), the list goes on. You guys rule!
Joshua asks: Do we?
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Hi everyone!
My question is more philosophic in nature than a Hard Software question.
I've been playing various Space simulations over the years since the 286-processor age (yea, old me..) but I have never ever seen or played a real planetary/atmospheric descent or a start from the surface. I ask mainly because of the StarWars Mod I luckily stumbled upon. I could imagine that the ability to go down to the surface of a planet would open an abundance of new options in all of the Mods using this game engine.
Now what I thought about was following:
Basically the only problem in this is equation is the gravity. One would have to add old Mr. Newton into the whole game and make mass an additional property of all objects together with the gravitational constant, so that their behaviour could be changed according to F=G*((m1*m2)/r^2) with G=6.67*10^-11m3kg-1s-2. Now if you mess with the gravitational constant G and "CHANGE the CONSTANT " (Physicists?. sorry you'll laugh now :lol: I know) it you would suddenly open an entirely different range of options. OK, I know its weird but it's nothing else but 9th grad physics. The consequences of this would be enormous. I'll underline it with some StarWars examples but I guess it might be just as valid for any other space simulation.
Uncareful navigation might then suck you into a black hole or into a Neutron star (remember Han Solo mentioning that in Episode 4), if you are in a less than geostationary Orbit your plane would loose the engines/thrusters it would start to fall down (and possibly burn in the atmosphere) . I see a potential for SAR missions there ("Anti-Grav generators are down!! Pull us out!! Mayday!). It gives room for Gravitational Weapons that might crush an entire battle group, or for some bad species that tamper with the Gravitation and produce phenomena such as the "Delphic expanse" in Startrek. Not to mention the ability to hoover above a surface (and actually to LAND a craft) with anti-gravity reactors on-line like a Helicopter. I wonder what happends if you manage to shoot down these or damage these in a skirmish ???
I guess such addition might not only make Anakin Skywalker's Rescue of the Chancellor Palpatine in Episode 3 playable, but would also be a welcome innovation to other MOD. Last but not least, the introduction of mass into the physics of flight would result in a different dogfight behaviour. A fighter that is fully loaded has a much greater turn radius and is of course less agile - Velocity and Mass make up the Inertia. Heavy missiles and torpedoes would be fired earlier to "get rid of them", because the less missiles and armour you have the more agile you become. That would be definitely a big plus for the TIEs, A-Wings, Arrows a big drag for gunships and, say, B-wings or Thunderbolts. A whole lot of different approach to fighting would be if you are with your X-wing inbound to your target or on your flight home when you encounter a swarm of TIEs :-)
So this was some pouring of ideas. Maybe some programmer who is cool enough might take up this challenge.
And maybe someone who knows the code of by heart might reply me with a "Sorry - it is a no go". I'd be just as thankfull for such reply if competent.
Acin