[IronForge]

I had to reinstall my OS and not install FS because the open GL messes up my freelancer. I'm guessing something to do with open GL. So is there any way to reinstall or must I continue to use a separate comp for FS? Thing is the 'separate comp' just got fried. Its old and can't even surf flash heavy sites very well anymore.

[The E]

Well, first, wrong board. This is a support issue, not a  GenFS one.
Second, Wrong vocabulary. If you're talking about sound, you're talking about OpenAL, not OpenGL.
Third, No way in hell. OpenAL is necessary. There is no currently supported version of the engine that does not use OpenAL, and no plans to create one.

Fourth, if FreeLancer doesn't like the version of OpenAL that FS2 needs, you'll have to move the OpenAL32.dll from System32 to the FS2 folder, then install FreeLancer.

I should also note that that is the first time I heard about this issue.

[IronForge]

I've tested this many times, its something in Freespace that is causing freelancer to screw up, bigtime. People have told me openAL causes problem.
Also, I didn't know where to post it since it wasn't a FREESPACE support problem and the people at freelancer hate me enough already. They couldn't solve my problem either.

[The E]

Okay, so walk me through this. You install FreeLancer. You install FS2, then install FSO on top of that. As part of it, you run the OpenAL installer. And then Freelancer quits working?

Be aware that your descriptions of the error are not very descriptive. Are there error messages?

[IronForge]

Allright I'll describe in detail.

I install freelancer. I install freespace. Freelancer sound quits working. Freespace is copypasta'ed from my old install, had it for years. I got it free when I bought my first computer *nostalgic tear* and have it somewhere on a USB stick.

Put freespace in, freelancer sound stops working. Everything else still works, no error message nothing, it is a common problem for people who installed other sound codecs. And openAL is a known offender.

Gun and turret sounds still work. Ambient sounds, background music, verbal cues and cockpit voices don't work. Otherwise, everything still plays great. Not a big loss really, but cuts into the FEEL of the game.

[The E]

Okay, that sounds weird, but ultimately? Not our problem.

If anyone's doing something wrong, I'd put my money on FreeLancer here, given the fact that they can't patch their exes the way we can.

[Herra Tohtori]

OpenAL is not a codec, it's a sound API (application programming interface). Installing it should have no effect on games that don't use OpenAL. The fact that it affects FreeLancer to begin with would suggest that FreeLancer uses OpenAL as well, at least to some extent.

To me it sounds like the OpenAL installer causes a conflict in the OpenAL implementation, which suggests to me that probably your motherboard sound card drivers include a half-assed OpenAL implementation and when you install proper OAL from creative labs, a conflict is born.

I suggest you do a search for *openal*.dll files, specifically nvopenal.dll...

[chief1983]

It honestly sounds like he hasn't even installed FSO according to those steps.  Unless he had it installed from a previous installation that he copied from, but then he would need to run the openal installer, unless the openal.dll was already in the FSO install folder.  But then it is entirely isolated and there's no way the FSO install should interfere with Freelancer.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

I'm fairly certain that OAL and FSO aren't the culprits behind the lack of sound in FL. I've had all three on my IBM for several years and they ran perfectly. It was only until recently that the sound in FL died. It could be a virus, or perhaps my tinkering of system services that causes it.

Either way, I no longer play FL, so I've no desire to solve this issue, one way or the other.

[Jeff Vader]

I'm fairly certain that OAL and FSO aren't the culprits behind the lack of sound in FL. I've had all three on my IBM for several years and they ran perfectly.

Haven't tested on this ****ty laptop, but at least somewhat over a year ago Freelancer and FSO ran flawlessly on the same rig. No sound issues, no nothing. Well, Freelancer would occasionally quit to the desktop just like that, without warnings or errors, but that occured before I had even heard about FreeSpace.

Allright I'll describe in detail.
...
I install freespace. ...  Freespace is copypasta'ed from my old install, had it for years. ... Put freespace in, freelancer sound stops working.

Um, could we get just a tad bit more details on how you actually install FS2 and FSO?

[IronForge]

I take the entire freespace folder and paste it to desktop.

[Jeff Vader]

I take the entire freespace folder and paste it to desktop.

O...K... and in terms of FSO, that folder is up to date?

Also, protip: the desktop is a poor place for FreeSpace.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Haven't tested on this ****ty laptop, but at least somewhat over a year ago Freelancer and FSO ran flawlessly on the same rig. No sound issues, no nothing. Well, Freelancer would occasionally quit to the desktop just like that, without warnings or errors, but that occured before I had even heard about FreeSpace.

Mine had absolutely no issues at all last year. Not even a single crash on Freelancer, and I was using Intel graphics, which FL thought might cause problems.

[chief1983]

I suppose I could install Freelancer on my Win7 x64 box with FSO installed and see if sound works.

[Topgun]

I have freelancer and fso and no problems

[Nuke]

^ditto

actually i had at least a couple computers with both games installed without any problems.