[sfried]

I see... so basically the media files you were reffering to were the .mvs I had to "install" to get the purdy effects and such.

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
Although I guess it might work better to just use pcx2dds instead then.

pcx2dds?

Status: As for the missiond, I get some real bugging slowdown when you first meet the Iceni. Must be because of the asteroid chunk...

I have mipmapping on. Does anybody recommend this?

What does Compress PCX do?

And what about the WarpMap.ani file? How do I "use"/"unuse" it?

[WMCoolmon]

PCX2DDS is the compress textures to DDS option somewhere in the launcher. It makes files take up less memory at the cost of quality, so it may give you a bit of a performance boost.

the warpmap.ani file should be put in the data/effects directory for it to work. But I'm not sure if that's the right name..

[sfried]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
PCX2DDS is the compress textures to DDS option somewhere in the launcher. It makes files take up less memory at the cost of quality, so it may give you a bit of a performance boost.

the warpmap.ani file should be put in the data/effects directory for it to work. But I'm not sure if that's the right name..

Yup. All worked... Got a performance boost, alright (was it because of that S3 texture compression some people talked about? First heard it during the GC's infancy... something about making textures look sharper. Also, is that what the "Texture sharpening" checkbox in the nVidia setup dialog box was all about?). Putting settings on "Performance" seems to do the trick. Aside from some minor hickups (I seem to be getting of harddrive access...heck, my tablet feels hot already), everything's playing nicely, if not a wee bit more difficult (something done with FSOpen that they tweaked enemies to become "smarter?").

Also, I'm not sure, but it seems mipmapping does improve performance quite a bit.

Now if only I could find FSO for FS1... that would be great, too.

And why doesn't the Herc 2 have a better model than the Herc 1? That's kinda odd, considering the Perseus got a facelift, too.

[Bobboau]

there is an Ares model somewhat done, it's basicly a herc2 with wing thingys straped onto it, so... there you are then.

[Deepblue]

Because the Herc 2 is a much harder job to high-polify.

[phreak]

Originally posted by sfried
Now if only I could find FSO for FS1... that would be great, too.

http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=39

[Taristin]

Originally posted by Bobboau
there is an Ares model somewhat done, it's basicly a herc2 with wing thingys straped onto it, so... there you are then.

The version I have on my HDD is completely done, AFAIK. I think I may be only missing shields, which'd be nothing to import. I juat haven't gotten around to uploading it.

The cocpit and everything work on it, for me, as well. No floating pilot.

[sfried]

Just one last question.

Can I still launch the standard FS2 using the original launcher, or do I need to remove, if not uninstall the whole FS2 package in order to watch the cutscenes,  run the game from CD again, etc. (Standard FS2 stuff...). Basically now that I have FSO, I still want to go back finish what I started in FS2 without having to convert the file (I'd be missing out on all the cutscens).

And one last thing that's buggin me: You know the dialog box that asks you if you really want to quit FS2? Well, I'm experiencing some EXTREME slowdown on that part, as if it didn't want me to exit FSO or something.

[WMCoolmon]

There are cutscenes in a format fs2_open can play...somewhere...

[sfried]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
There are cutscenes in a format fs2_open can play...somewhere...

Thanks \. Where do I put these?

[karajorma]

Anywhere FS2_Open can find them.  Freespace2\, Freespace2\Data, Freespace2\Data\Movies. Really doesn't matter.

[sfried]

Hmm... Ok.

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
Extract these to your main FS folder (They're self-extracting RARs):
http://scp.indiegames.us/download.php?view.54
http://scp.indiegames.us/download.php?view.51
http://scp.indiegames.us/download.php?view.53
If you really want higher-quality effects, download this file. With an FX5200 I wouldn't really recommend it though.
http://scp.indiegames.us/download.php?view.60

Why not just this? Any of the other features buggy?

[karajorma]

ZPack basically contains everything. That means that if something slows down your PC your only choice it to download the individual packs anyway.

zPack will also set off the mv_Music bug because it contains the contents of that file.

[sfried]

Originally posted by karajorma
ZPack basically contains everything. That means that if something slows down your PC your only choice it to download the individual packs anyway.

zPack will also set off the mv_Music bug because it contains the contents of that file.

Ah. Thank you so much for the forewarning. Almost about to install the sucker since it says "Contents optimized to take up minimum space". And I thought that might speed-up the loading process.

Oh, and I still think the cutscenes on the CD have better quality. Not bad for DivX, though. Could've expected better compression, but it seems like a useless endevour unless Volition hands out the source source FMVs they made in Adobe Premier or some professional format for someone to edit and extract into DivX. The artifacting on their "revised" FMV format is bad enough.

I hope somebody puts an optional "use CD media (FMVs, briefing animation, etc.)" function on later releases. I know most people would rather have the media files on their drives,  but it really takes up of space, and I still want to enjoy playing FSO without missing out on all of the other options and "nuancess" of FS2. Other than that, and the Exit Dialogue Box slowdown, FSO could definately hold as a replacement.

Thanks guys for helping out an FSO n00b like me. Too bad Volitionboards has come and gone... (was once a member there)

[karajorma]

Now I know where I've heard that user name before! I was looking over old posts I saved from the VBB a little while back. Must have seen something you posted.

[sfried]

Ack! The movies still don't work! I put them on the data folder/ data/movies folder, and they still wont play.

I feel like reverting back to old Freespace 2. Does the uninstall utility it comes with actually bring everything back to "normal"?

[WMCoolmon]

You shouldn't need to uninstall anything, just move the mediaVPs to another directory and start the original EXE.

[sfried]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
You shouldn't need to uninstall anything, just move the mediaVPs to another directory and start the original EXE.

I don't know what you mean by that. (Move) all the .vp files to where? Freespace2/data?

Edit 2: Ah... I see what you mean... Try to separate FS2 from the .vp files... But I was planning on making a separate directory for FSOpen within the \Games directory, so it ends up something like

C:\Games\Freespace
C:\Games\Freespace2
C:\Games\FRED
C:\Games\FSOpen

Can that still work? Does FSOpen.exe still need to be within the \Freespace2 directory?

[WMCoolmon]

Mmm, that's going to cause you problems. FRED needs to be in the same directory as the FS2(Open) VP files, and FS2Open needs to be in the same directory tree as FS2. Otherwise you'll end up having three sets of the retail VP files on the hard drive.

I think I see what you want to do though. Try this: Move FRED2(Open) to the Freespace 2 directory, along with the FS2Open EXEs. Place the mediaVPs in a folder under the main FS2 one, say, mvpdata. Now go into the launcher, click the features tab, press select mod and select the directory with the mediaVPs in it. Make sure you have the FS2Open EXE selected.

Now when retail FS2 starts up, it won't find the mediaVPs and you'll be able to play without any problems.

One thing left to do, pilot files (in the data/players/single directory). If you've already run FS2Open 3.6.5+ with your pilot files, unfortunately, you can't unconvert them to retail. If they're still in the retail format (The player files will have the .plr instead of .pl2 extension), make a copy of all the files starting with the callsign of the player you want to use, and rename them so they start with the original name, plus "FSO". For example, "WMCoolmonFSO.plr", "WMCoolmonFSO.Freespace2.csg", "WMCoolmonFSO.Freespace2.css"

If they're in FSOpen format, rename all the current ones to have the FSO prefix like above. Startup retail FS2 and create a new pilot, and play a mission. Exit Freespace 2, download CSGEdit, and use that to edit the .csg file of the pilot you just created in retail FS2 so that the next/prev mission values are correct. This may take a bit of guesswork since progress is saved in number of missions, with the first mission being 0. (You should be able to open up the mission simulator in FS2Open and count the number of missions)

At this point, if you want to play FS2Open, you select the player with the "FSO" suffix. If you want to play FS2, you select the player without. (Starting up the proper EXEs, of course)

Note:
If you want to play any FS2Open mods, you'll have to use the multiple mod feature, and if you want to use FRED2Open, you'll have to use its mod feature.

[sfried]

Note: I did not move FRED2. Thi is merely a folder where I keep the official files Volition released, like Vasudan talk .wav files, etc. Stuff that could potentially be used in projects in the future.

FRED2 is still safe and sound where she is... I think (if FSO didn't do anything to her).

And I also made a brand new pilot for FSO. I didn't want to convert with the progress I made in FS2.