[senor135]

hey guys, i'm eager to try out freespace 2 open, it seems pretty cool.  I installed the game and set everything up through the launcher and it seems to work fine but...

in the in-game menus (pilot select, main menu, briefing room, options, etc.) the game will consistently pause every couple seconds or so, and for several seconds each time, not allowing me to move the mouse, hit shortcut keys or click on anything.  then when the pause finishes it works normally for another 2 or 3 seconds before pausing again.  because of this I haven't actually gotten to play the game, as the problem is rather annoying to deal with while navigating the menus.

I installed FS2Open version 367 with launcher version 5.3, and im running WinXP pro SP2 on an athlon 64 x2 6000+, 3 gigs of ram, radeon HD 3870 w/ driver package version 8.442-071204a1-055811C-ATI and Direct3D verision 6.14.10.0549   

i chose fs2_open_367_p4.exe to run and selected 1680x1050 in Direct3D8 with 2 sample multisample and "high" general settings

i then picked up these  "-spec -glow -pcx32 -jpgtga -d3dmipmap -nomotiondebris -2d_poof -rlm -orbradar -ballistic_gauge -ship_choice_3d -3dwarp" for the optional features features

If i should include any more information to help you guys help me lemme know, and thank you in advance if there's anything that can  be done.



EDIT - i looked around a little bit to find a FAQ or general troubleshoot thread but didnt really see anything, so if there is something like that i should check out first then my apologies and please link it if you can

[FUBAR-BDHR]

First you need to be running 3.6.9 or later run Turey's installer to update your stuff.  Then make sure you update your video drivers as well.

[Jeff Vader]

The drivers sound new enough. I have version 6.yaddayaddyadda and am doing well. But egad, where did you get all that stuff? The newest appropriate Launcher is 5.5d, the latest official and stable build is fs2_open_3_6_9, and I'm guessing that you might have some funky mediavps in there, with the newest stable release being MediaVPs 3.6.8 Zeta. Get Turey's Installer (link in my signature), run it and point it at the folder where you've installed FSO. It'll check it out and download all the necessary stuff to make it up-to-date. And play in OpenGL. Direct3D is highly unsupported.

[senor135]

i think i had downloaded FS2 Open a little while back in anticipation of scrounging up a copy of FS2 somewhere and playing it again, but i didnt get around to it till today, so thats why i have an old version

do i need to uninstall the 367 version or will 369 simply update over it if i use Turey's install?

thanks for the help and replies

[Jeff Vader]

In terms of the builds, the Installer will download 3.6.9 if it doesn't detect it, but it won't replace your old 3.6.7. The trick is that you can have several builds in the \freespace\ folder and you select the one you want to use with the Launcher. Th emediavps might be another thing. If you have a subfolder called mediavps, you might want to remove or replace it before using the Installer to make sure that new mediavps are downloaded.

And another thing that hit my eye just now. Avoid widescreen resolutions. They mess up the HUD and the targeting reticles, not to mention backgrounds, especially suns. If you have a widescreen monitor, just force it to some 4:3 resolution (like 1024x768 for example) and deal with the black bars at the edges of the screen. Trust me. It's a helluvalot more fun that way. Or if you really want to play with a widescreen resolution, I can find you a build meant for that purpose, that you can just download and use.

[karajorma]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/FAQ/installingfs2_open.html#upgrade

The instructions there will tell you what you have to delete in order to change an install of FS2_Open into a retail install so you can use Turey's installer.