Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Beowulf on November 13, 2003, 07:45:11 pm

Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Beowulf on November 13, 2003, 07:45:11 pm
Does someone want to fix the afterburner bug? :doubt:

I for one would *really* appreciate it! :nod:


~Beowulf
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Sticks on November 13, 2003, 08:03:48 pm
Yes, this is of course enough information.

:wtf:

What bug is this again? When does it occur? System specs?
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Beowulf on November 13, 2003, 08:25:11 pm
Well, if someone is really going to try...

Afterburns will not fire, they just make the noise that signals they are depleted. Energy transfer system works, however.

I've heard of two instances, on XP (which is apparently easy enough to fix), and in my rare case.

Win2000 Professional, Asus P4P800 Deluxe, Pentium 4 - 2.8Ghz, 2 x 512Mb Dual Channel DDR, ATI 9800 All-In-Wonder Pro, DirectX 9.0

Don't know what else you need.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Sticks on November 13, 2003, 08:26:37 pm
When does this happen? In every mission?
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Beowulf on November 13, 2003, 08:27:42 pm
Yes.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Sticks on November 13, 2003, 08:42:22 pm
Intermittently or all the time? Are your keys the default config? If not, what key/button are you using to use afterburners?
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Beowulf on November 13, 2003, 08:51:17 pm
All the time, every time. I have it mapped on default right now, but I tried mapping it to different keys but to no avail. The afterburners will not fire no matter what I do. It's as simple as that.

So lots of CMs and lots of prayer.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Sticks on November 13, 2003, 09:52:54 pm
Any mods installed?
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: karajorma on November 14, 2003, 04:33:51 am
I've seen this problem reported a few times. Here's what I put in my FAQ about it.

Quote
I'M PLAYING FS2 AND THE AFTERBURNER/ENERGY TRANSFER SYSTEM HAS STOPPED WORKING

This is an odd one. All the cases I've seen of it so far have occured on Windows XP and it's likely that some change in a recent update is causing it. The problem can be solved by running FS2 in compatability mode. Open up your Freespace folder and look for FS2.exe. Make a short cut for this file and position it wherever you like (Desktop or Startmenu). Right click on icon and choose properties. Click on the Compatability tab and choose which ever mode you like (I've heard that Windows 95 works best but you might find otherwise). Use the icon to run FS2 from now on.


The fact that using compatability mode fixes the problem points to it not being cause by mods or corruption of any of the FS2 files. It definately looks like a problem in the FS2 code itself.
 I've heard of the bug affecting the ETS system too a couple of times and both times the afterburn bug was also present.
 Obviously XP isn't that huge a problem since there is a work around but if it's affecting 2k as well there is a problem since 2k users can't use compatability mode.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: SadisticSid on November 14, 2003, 05:29:38 am
Yes they can. 2000 also has a compatibility mode, although I think the tab only appears when applied to shortcuts, not the EXEs themselves.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: karajorma on November 14, 2003, 07:12:19 am
Aha. That might be the solution then :D
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Admiral Nelson on November 14, 2003, 08:14:01 am

Hi folks,
I'd like to report that I have the identical problem. Pressing either the joystick afterburner button or the tab key just plays the afterburner shutdown noise. I notice if I am stopped, holding the button down will increase the throttle, but the afterburner never comes on.
Windows 2000 SP4
P4 2.8 GHz
1 GB RAM
ATI 9800 Pro

To the point about the shortcut -- when I start FS2 I am actually starting the launcher and not Freespace itself. I presume to set the compatibility properties of the shortcut to the FS2 exe itself, I would need to be able to figure out what command line the launcher concatenates together.

Thank you for any advice or help!!
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: karajorma on November 14, 2003, 10:06:36 am
Yeah. Until Random Tiger finishes his changes to FS2_open so that it always uses the command line set in the launcher you won't be able to fix FS2_open problems in this way (He may have already done this though. I haven't kept up to date on this).

FS2 retail however should be easy to fix as it doesn't commonly use any command line options so just making a shortcut to the fs2.exe (NOT the freespace2.exe as that is the launcher) should solve the problem.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: RandomTiger on November 14, 2003, 12:14:28 pm
Quote
Originally posted by karajorma
Yeah. Until Random Tiger finishes his changes to FS2_open so that it always uses the command line set in the launcher you won't be able to fix FS2_open problems in this way (He may have already done this though. I haven't kept up to date on this).


Just done that, will be avalible as of v3.0 http://mysite.freeserve.com/thomaswhittaker/c_code/freespace/Launcher.rar
However any version of the launcher shows you the full list of command params it puts together.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: karajorma on November 14, 2003, 12:36:04 pm
Yeah. I knew it did that but I didn't know how to get the exe to use it :D Isn't their some configuration file it uses or something?

Not that it matters now that the Launcher does it cause that is a more sensible way to alter the file.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: RandomTiger on November 14, 2003, 01:45:00 pm
No, its always been usable by shortcut
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Beowulf on November 14, 2003, 02:30:06 pm
I don't understand what you guys mean by shortcuts. I made them, checked them, still no compatability settings or luck.  :confused:

~Beo
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: IceFire on November 14, 2003, 02:34:33 pm
Ok do this:

1) Open Windows Explorer
2) Find FreeSpace 2's directory
3) Find FS2.exe (or the FS Open EXE)
4) Right click, create shortcut
5) Cut that shortcut (Crtl X while shortcut icon is selected)
6) Paste the shortcut on your desktop (Crtl V)
7) Right click on the shortcut you just put on the desktop
8) Click on the third tab labled "Compatability"
9) Check "Run this program in compatability mode".  Set it for Win98 I would think (that should do the trick)


Now you're good to go.

This is all done in Windows XP (Home or Pro).  Windows 2000 does it a tad bit differently.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Beowulf on November 14, 2003, 02:38:52 pm
Quote
Originally posted by IceFire
This is all done in Windows XP (Home or Pro).  Windows 2000 does it a tad bit differently.


You're right... because I seemingly can't do it at all. Unless Microsoft went out of their way to hide compatability mode on Win2000 I *really* doubt it exists.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: RandomTiger on November 14, 2003, 02:41:33 pm
On-one should be having to use compatibility options.
If this is happening without the htl flag its a bug and needs to be fixed.

Strange workarounds are not a good idea.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Beowulf on November 14, 2003, 03:05:52 pm
Well, go figure, their compatability support tool is on the service pack cd.

[edit]Blah blah blah[/edit]
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Beowulf on November 14, 2003, 03:11:53 pm
Well, installed the thing compatability tool on my computer, now I can use Win98....


:mad: :mad: :mad:

care to guess if it works or not?!!! :mad2:
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Kosh on November 14, 2003, 08:24:05 pm
I was completely unaware that Windows 2000 had a compatibility mode. I know that it automaticly emulates the 16 bit code in 9x only stuff, but thats about it as far as I know.

Let me guess: It doesn't work?
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Flaser on November 15, 2003, 06:14:21 am
It works perfectly under my Windows 2000 so there has to be smg. other than the OS itself that causes the problem.

Config:
P4 1,6
512 RDRam
Geforce 2 Deluxe
W2k Pro - no SP
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: karajorma on November 15, 2003, 07:03:59 am
The fact that the bug only appeared recently and until this case only on XP makes me believe that something has been updated that is causing the problem on some machines.
 Maybe it's not the OS itself but an OS specific update (eg. XP versions of detonator or catalyst drivers) but there is something weird about a a bug that has never occured before suddenly appearing 6 or 7 times within the space of 5-6 months when it has never occured before in 5 years.
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Setekh on November 15, 2003, 07:37:33 am
Quote
Originally posted by Admiral Nelson

Hi folks,
I'd like to report that I have the identical problem. Pressing either the joystick afterburner button or the tab key just plays the afterburner shutdown noise. I notice if I am stopped, holding the button down will increase the throttle, but the afterburner never comes on.
Windows 2000 SP4
P4 2.8 GHz
1 GB RAM
ATI 9800 Pro

To the point about the shortcut -- when I start FS2 I am actually starting the launcher and not Freespace itself. I presume to set the compatibility properties of the shortcut to the FS2 exe itself, I would need to be able to figure out what command line the launcher concatenates together.

Thank you for any advice or help!!


Welcome to HLP, Admiral. :) Great to have you here - anyway, to solve your problem, just follow IceFire's step-by-step. Basically, your important step is that you have to make a shortcut to fs2.exe rather than freespace2.exe.

:welcome:
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Admiral Nelson on November 15, 2003, 08:42:41 am
Thanks for the welcome!
There is no compatability tab in Win 2k, so I can't follow icefire's instructions. Beowulf implies that getting the compatability tool did not help.

I have patched Win2k to the latest level, SP4 with all security hotfixes installed. I'm running the Catalyst 3.7 drivers. The joystick is an MS Sidewinder FF 2. Note that the tab key doesn't work either.

I wonder, is the I/O code in FSO still old DX 5 stuff? Is that possibly the source of the trouble?
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Setekh on November 15, 2003, 08:46:39 am
If you're using 3.5.5, you should have the option of using DX8 in the Launcher. See if that helps. :)
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Admiral Nelson on November 16, 2003, 10:36:32 am
Oh, but I _am_ using DX8 in the launcher! My question was more one of although the _graphics_ code has been update to DX 8.1 has the _I/O_ code changed from what was in the original release ages ago? It's just a suspicion that some of that DX 5 code has become deprecated or broken in updated operating systems. Has anyone ever looked at that code?
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: Beowulf on November 19, 2003, 07:12:56 pm
Bump?
Title: A bug for the squashing...
Post by: RandomTiger on November 19, 2003, 07:40:16 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Admiral Nelson
It's just a suspicion that some of that DX 5 code has become deprecated or broken in updated operating systems. Has anyone ever looked at that code?


Its not even DX5, its old windows code.