Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: whitewolf007 on July 26, 2006, 10:08:00 pm

Title: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: whitewolf007 on July 26, 2006, 10:08:00 pm
I dunno how many times you guys answer this but I must not have the best textures or something downloaded.  I'm using

SCP 3.6.7
I also got the zpack thing that has the .v files in it.   myshipszpack.zip from scp forum.

Nvidia 6800gt

The game looks alot better but ships dont look like screenshots ive seen on millyways.  They don't have the solid metal look to them
Do I need to get shinemaps or special textures off millyways?  Maybe a different scp build like something in beta??  I'm totally lost here.  BTW what is a CVS build?  Thanks in advance!
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Mars on July 26, 2006, 10:25:37 pm
Use 3.6.9, available here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,40886.0.html)
and the Zeta Mediavps from here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,39905.0.html)

(http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3749/welcomevp5.png)

Welcome to the HLP. Keep all your fingers and toes inside the installation at all times! Exits are located near the "rear" of the station, however, due to the fact that the airlocks are broken, I think you'll find the exits are rather useless. Flamethrowers are located beneath seats, but due to the U.S. good-guy/bad-guy debate, GodTM, the AMD / ATI merger, ect. the napalm has been replaced with holy-water. Plasma rifles and shotguns are located in the weapons lockers, however, only the admins, :v:, and the hyperintellegent shade of blue have keys. At no point should you combine the symbols F S and 3, as you will be drowned in holy-water. If you should meet a Shivan in the airducts, give him your lunch and back away slowley. Strawmen may be constructed at any time on level one.

If you have any questions go to Karajorma's Freespace FAQ (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/FAQ/intro.html)
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: neoterran on July 26, 2006, 10:33:05 pm
The stuff on milliways is either extra stuff for campaign / mission / mod authors to use (you can't use it) or it's already in the mediavps. Don't worry about it, worry about getting your build and your mediavps up to date.

CVS stands for Concurrent Versions System. It's just the bleeding edge build code change tree, and you're not really supposed to be using it, but because Freespace open changes so much, often times you have to use CVS for everything to work right. This should change when 3.6.9 is released, it's in the RC phase right now. The latest build of freespace open is around July 25 CVS for 3.6.9. I suggest using the latest CVS instead of any of the RC's they're a bit out of date until RC6 is released, then you can switch to that if you want and to 3.6.9 final when it's done.

The latest mediavps are 3.6.8zeta + taylors' alpha (black box fix) patches. Look in the DUDE-3.6.8zeta thread...all the way at the end to get the patches. You should just spend some time reading the thread. You should also read Karajorma's FAQ so you know how to use the mediavps. you can put them in your main folder and it works but you should really put them in a folder called mediavps and then load that as a mod, sounds complicated ? it kind of is... read the FAQ.

Sorry I'm too lazy to link you but I believe in doing a little work on your own as well as just being handed everything.

Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Mars on July 26, 2006, 11:11:12 pm
I figured it was better to tell newbs to get the RCs than to tell them to get CVS, but okay.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: whitewolf007 on July 27, 2006, 12:54:48 am
Well I tried out 3.6.9 RC 3 and it kinda works except for the black squares around explosions and such.  I saw where that has to do with patching the media vps though.  I have the 3.6.7 ones and I think im supposed to get the newer ones.

RC5 wont even launch because it says I need openaleax.exe

 :mad:

yeah you get that on the creative website but you have to be a developer to even dl the thing.

 :mad:

wtf I spent like almost an hour goggling it trying to find another source.  Oh well maybe one of you knows where to get it.  Also I tried to download the mv_alphapatch.rar but it just had an empty folder in it??

sheesh harder than I thought to get up and running but I will try what you suggested above.

It really sucks though that openal.org doesnt have the file just a link to dev site at creative.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: whitewolf007 on July 27, 2006, 12:59:18 am
Oh yeah thanks for the info.  The faq is really good too I read that before I set up fs2open.  I can't believe they didn't market the game better its like Tie Fighter or Wing Commander on steroids.  Its a space flight sim dream!  To think I just now discovered it after trying x3 etc...

So the screenshots I keep seeing are people running 3.6.9 and the vps?
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Wanderer on July 27, 2006, 01:12:06 am
OpenAL http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/latest/OpenALwEAX.exe
Current mediaVPs (3.6.8 zeta) and patches http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,39905.0.html

And generally its better for casual gamers to stick with 369 builds (RC or not) instead of CVS builds - atleast once the 3.6.9 has finally been released (as true release, not RC)
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: neoterran on July 27, 2006, 03:09:43 am
The problem is the 3.6.9 RC5 has a really nasty bug where the shields don't regenerate, and RC4 and RC3 have other issues that have since been fixed in CVS, so it reallly is better to get CVS in this particular case. Or, get 3.6.9 RC6 when it is available, if you don't want to use CVS.

In any case, you should NOT be using 3.6.7 and 3.6.7 mediavps because they're very out of date at this point.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Wanderer on July 27, 2006, 03:15:32 am
Well there is the 'unofficial RC6' http://icculus.org/~taylor/fso/testing/multi_test.rar which is AFAIK from 3.6.9 code instead of cvs code.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Zacam on July 27, 2006, 09:26:22 am
Then there is http://icculus.org/~taylor/fso/testing/light_test.rar (http://icculus.org/~taylor/fso/testing/light_test.rar) which is the same as multi_test.rar save it has some lighting reaction enhancements that IMO make it an even better yield than multi_test.

Sadly, in both mentioned builds, countermeassure training missions result in no missiles being launched for some reason. Behavior persists until redmenace 20060725. http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/latest (http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/latest)

And I thought CVS was 3.6.9....all the redmenace builds I've been running state 3.6.9.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: whitewolf007 on July 27, 2006, 11:53:57 am
Wow you guys are really really helpful!! 

thanks so much

I'm currently taking programming at ITT Tech so I know a bit about c++

What can I do to contribute.  C++ is a bit cryptic at times compared to Java and VB but games use it more.
Do you use Dev C++ or Visual Studio to code?

The consensus seems to be to use cvs 3.6.9 and the media vps 3.6.8
All I need is the link to this cvs please.

Yes I did also notice that with 3.6.9 rc2 that missles didn't fire from the frigate in countermeasures training.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Mars on July 27, 2006, 12:03:23 pm
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,34852.0.html (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,34852.0.html)
Or if you want / have to compile it yourself
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/cvsweb.cgi/#dirlist (http://fs2source.warpcore.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/cvsweb.cgi/#dirlist)
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: karajorma on July 27, 2006, 01:14:57 pm
Zacam posted a link to the build you should use directly above your post WhiteWolf :)

As for getting started this (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,39908.0.html) post may be helpful to you.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: neoterran on July 27, 2006, 01:43:46 pm
I'm currently using the http://icculus.org/~taylor/fso/testing/light_test.rar build since it has the really nice taylor lighting changes.

I don't care about the countermeasures training bug, since i never play those training missions ;0)
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: whitewolf007 on July 27, 2006, 04:26:49 pm
It's kinda odd to me but I have to use the opengl video drivers vs DX8 for some reason on my 6800gt.  If I don't I end up with jagged lines and such even with the aa sampling turned on. 

I did not even know that nvidia cards did opengl so well.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: ME$$ENGER on July 27, 2006, 04:37:45 pm
What? You didn't know nVidia cards did OGL well? Try an ATI card then and marvel at how BAD their OGL drivers are. ;7 Although for general usage, you shouldn't run into too much trouble with the most recent catalyst.

BTW, as a general rule of thumb for FS2_Open, you should ALWAYS use OpenGL. The reason is the SCP team doesn't have any D3D coders now, so it is pretty much broken and left in the dust.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Kazan on July 27, 2006, 06:46:03 pm
um Messenger  :eek:

i've neer had problems with ATI's OGL
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: whitewolf007 on July 27, 2006, 11:08:39 pm
AMD bought out ATI and I have Nvidia LOL

But I do have a AMD xp 4000

I didn't have the money last year to do pci-e.

I like my gigabyte board though and the 6800 runs everything I want to play

In a few years ill check newegg again and see how the merger of ATI and AMD has paid off.

Open GL works though!
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Mars on July 27, 2006, 11:53:27 pm
From what I've seen ATI has perfectly good OGL drivers. You probably has a ****ty ATI card
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: whitewolf007 on July 28, 2006, 01:20:11 am
What is volition doing now?  I want to work for them or make FS3

Wow I dont even have the texture files because im on dial up :( but I got the music and advanced effects. 
I want to make a game like this !!

I'll get the textures tomorrow on the wireless network at school but Im in awe about what you guys have done so far.
I can't believe I never found this game before.  I played Privateer and WC prophecy and Xwing and Tie Fighter.  Ive been around for awhile with the whole space sim thing.  This is what I love.  Homeworld etc Ive played alot of space based games but this is it!  I need to learn more about the game engine and c++ in general and Im not good at artistic things like textures and such but I can see an FS3 in the future and I want to be part of it!

email me at [email protected]
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: karajorma on July 28, 2006, 04:00:37 am
To be honest we need good programmers more than we need good artists at the moment. Only a few of the team are actually actively fixing bugs and committing code at the moment.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Wobble73 on July 28, 2006, 04:28:32 am
What is volition doing now?  I want to work for them or make FS3

Wow I dont even have the texture files because im on dial up :( but I got the music and advanced effects. 
I want to make a game like this !!

I'll get the textures tomorrow on the wireless network at school but Im in awe about what you guys have done so far.
I can't believe I never found this game before.  I played Privateer and WC prophecy and Xwing and Tie Fighter.  Ive been around for awhile with the whole space sim thing.  This is what I love.  Homeworld etc Ive played alot of space based games but this is it!  I need to learn more about the game engine and c++ in general and Im not good at artistic things like textures and such but I can see an FS3 in the future and I want to be part of it!

email me at [email protected]


Psssst, Don't mention F------------S--------------3!

Or D*r*k S*m*rt



Read Karajormas FAQ for more details! It's in his signature above!


and welcome again!

EDIT: Edited to spell Karajormas name correctly! Sorry Kara!
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on July 28, 2006, 05:52:36 am
:LOL:, I feel like its 2002 again, the amount of **3 questions flying around right now.
We need to make a new to HLP sticky with the ten HLP commandments or add to the Codes of Conduct.


In the beginning there was petrarch and he said..
"LO' ALPHA ONE DID FACE THE NOVA IN CAPELLA, BUT HE KNEW NO FEAR!, AND ON HIS RETURN TO US HE BESTOWED THE WORDS OF :V:"
1-Though shall not mention Eff Ess 3"
2-The D*R*K SM*RT Heathen will not be spoken of EVER
3-ETC, add to this by all means :D
[/i]
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: ME$$ENGER on July 28, 2006, 09:48:36 am
From what I've seen ATI has perfectly good OGL drivers. You probably has a ****ty ATI card

If you don't believe me you can ask Taylor what he had to do to make env mapping work properly on ATI cards.  :nod:

However, as I said before, general usage should be fine. It's just riddled with tons of little bugs here and there.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: whitewolf007 on July 28, 2006, 05:24:03 pm
Ugh i got wincvs and im trying to check out the code but it keeps exiting with a 1 error code.

[email protected]: /home/fs2root/cvsroot

is this the correct thing to put or did I leave out a space or not put one in or something?

I'm going directly of the cvs 1.2 page on how to get a copy of the code. 

Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: whitewolf007 on July 29, 2006, 12:13:09 am
What is an inferno build?  Do I need to get that in order to have the screenshots seen here??

http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscreenies/inferno/index.php

I got the latest cvs and 3.6.8 media

Where are those cool nebula backgrounds coming from and there must be more textures that make the ships look metallic and more solid vs whats in the 3.6.8 media.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Mars on July 29, 2006, 01:41:58 am
Inferno is a mod that is fairly popular, those screenshots are from Inferno.

The Inferno builds are special builds that used to be required by Inferno, because it removed several limits from the engine, now I think it is no longer required, but it's useful to keep a build with higher limits.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Mr_Maniac on July 29, 2006, 03:33:27 am
For the CVS:
It's /home/fs2source/cvsroot
That should worg...
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: karajorma on July 29, 2006, 05:32:34 am
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Goober5000 on July 29, 2006, 01:39:30 pm
Excellent!  Wikify that post! :D
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: whitewolf007 on July 29, 2006, 02:35:40 pm
Thanks again guys for the help.    ;)

Now how do I get the inferno build all set up and running??

I found an ftp site that said latest exes and dled an infernobuild there but it still looks the same.

Can you give me details on what files specifically I need.

Im currently running 3.6.8 mediavps and opengl 3.6.9 fs2open.

The inferno build I got was 20060630-P4Inferno.rar

There must be more to it then just that.



Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Wanderer on July 29, 2006, 02:59:35 pm
Excellent!  Wikify that post! :D
Indeed!
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Zacam on July 29, 2006, 08:00:24 pm
Did you grab the R1 stuff from http://inferno.hard-light.net/R1.htm ? Don't forget the SCP Patch.

The inferno build is only going to make things look like those screen shots when you're actually playing inferno.....otherwise (in the case of Playing FSPort or any other mod) it's still going to look like a regular scp exe.....the data is in the mod.

If you DID grab all the R1 stuff (and the patch) and you're still having problems, then what are the command lines being used in the launcher?
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: whitewolf007 on July 29, 2006, 08:50:09 pm
Wow thats exactly the link I needed.  I didn't know how to get that mod before now.  Thanks alot i'll have to download it all and let you know if I come across any problems.

BTW the regular FS2 with 3.6.9 and the vps looks awesome!!

The lighting advances are really noticeable too very nicely done and great eye candy!
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: karajorma on July 30, 2006, 03:41:45 am
Hmmm. I think there has been a misunderstanding here. You don't need Inferno builds unless you're a developer on the Inferno team. The current release runs perfectly well with standard SCP builds AFAIK.

Excellent!  Wikify that post! :D

I intend to. I tend to write posts like that with an eye for transferance to my FAQ or the wiki now :)

EDIT : Only problem is that I just tried to FTP in to upload the pics and my password wasn't accepted.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: ARSPR on February 01, 2007, 02:34:26 pm
Excellent!  Wikify that post! :D

I've just reached this thread... (sorry as it is pretty old).

PLEASE Kara, add it to Wiki  :yes:
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Taristin on February 01, 2007, 03:43:25 pm
You know the great thing about a wiki?

Instead of bumping a 5 month old thread to ask someone else to add information thats listed, you could to that yourself!
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: ARSPR on February 02, 2007, 12:23:49 am
You know the great thing about a wiki?

Instead of bumping a 5 month old thread to ask someone else to add information thats listed, you could to that yourself!

Yes, but I don't know how to upload pictures  :confused:

(I've updated by myself some other threads, so please, don't suppose I'm SO LAZY. Although, maybe, I should have asked in Wiki zone how to do it ...)
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Wanderer on February 02, 2007, 12:33:25 am
File upload in FSwiki still broken or rather prevented.

But next time... If you have the HLP theme, look at the selection bar on the left. Just under the 'search' field you can see toolbox area. Now if you are registered just press 'Upload file' and you are taken to upload page..
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: IceFire on February 05, 2007, 10:30:25 pm
What is an inferno build?  Do I need to get that in order to have the screenshots seen here??

http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscreenies/inferno/index.php

I got the latest cvs and 3.6.8 media

Where are those cool nebula backgrounds coming from and there must be more textures that make the ships look metallic and more solid vs whats in the 3.6.8 media.
I just realized that those nebulas are the ones I made a couple of years back.  Still nice to see them circulating around :D
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: ARSPR on February 06, 2007, 02:05:57 pm
You know the great thing about a wiki?

Instead of bumping a 5 month old thread to ask someone else to add information thats listed, you could to that yourself!

Yes, but I don't know how to upload pictures  :confused:

(I've updated by myself some other threads, so please, don't suppose I'm SO LAZY. Although, maybe, I should have asked in Wiki zone how to do it ...)

Finally I've uploaded the info to Wiki (without images). Please check it, (I'm neither code expert nor English speaker)

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Sourcecode_Reference#CVS_client_.28TortoiseCVS.29
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: karajorma on February 06, 2007, 03:03:31 pm
Thanks a bunch for that. :yes:
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: neoterran on February 06, 2007, 03:37:28 pm
you guys should really consider moving to SVN instead of CVS, it's way better.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Goober5000 on February 06, 2007, 07:13:47 pm
you guys should really consider moving to SVN instead of CVS, it's way better.
If we did, would you join the SCP?
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: neoterran on February 07, 2007, 02:09:05 pm
well, if i could get the visual studio 2005 build to build an exe that didn't crash, probably so.

Actually, that other new guy who was trying to build ran into the same issue so maybe karajorma has helped him out enough so i can borrow a fix from him.

The problem wasn't linking errors, i solved all those, it was that it successfully builds an exe that crashes.

This was back when i was importing VC6 files into 2005 project tho - i heard there is a better 2005 project checked in now.
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: jr2 on August 18, 2007, 06:22:55 pm
You know the great thing about a wiki?

Instead of bumping a 5 month old thread to ask someone else to add information thats listed, you could to that yourself!

Yes, but I don't know how to upload pictures  :confused:

(I've updated by myself some other threads, so please, don't suppose I'm SO LAZY. Although, maybe, I should have asked in Wiki zone how to do it ...)

Finally I've uploaded the info to Wiki (without images). Please check it, (I'm neither code expert nor English speaker)

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Sourcecode_Reference#CVS_client_.28TortoiseCVS.29

:rolleyes:

Great.  I prolly just wasted 20 mins... http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Getting_the_FreeSpace2:_SCP_Source_Code


It was already done.. sorry, I used the freakin' search function instead of reading the rest of the thread.  By now I should know never to trust any search engine on a forum / wiki... they're worthless.  :mad:  I searched "tortoise", I searched "cvs", and this didn't show.  Oh, and sorry for the
:necro:

EDIT: Well, at least I learned how to upload pictures, link them, format wiki text, and insert links in the wiki.. not a total waste, I guess.  :doubt:

EDIT2: And it's all kara's fault.  He didn't link to the wiki; he linked to his post (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,48968.msg993557.html#msg993557).  :p
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Shade on August 18, 2007, 06:27:59 pm
Well, yours has pictures. That means you win ;) Much easier to follow that way.

[Edit] How about this: We'll keep your version, make the old, bland one into a redirect, and stick links to your version in both http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Getting_Started%28Main%29 and http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Development_Reference ?
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: jr2 on August 18, 2007, 06:29:44 pm
Oh.  I guess it was worth it then.  Should we merge the two?  ( kara? )
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: Shade on August 18, 2007, 07:00:08 pm
Changed links to point to your article, and added a few redirects to cover some likely search terms (getting the source, getting the code, getting the source code).
Title: Re: Please help a noob!! Why does my game not look as good as screenshots?
Post by: jr2 on August 19, 2007, 01:38:16 am
Thx.  :)