71

FreeSpace Discussion / Re: How did you get [into] FreeSpace?

« Last post by deathspeed on December 06, 2025, 01:22:31 pm »

I can't believe I did not post in here 15 years ago (or I am too old now to see it). 

This game is literally why I bought a PC.  I saw the FS2 box at Electronics Boutique, and thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.  I got my PC off a late-night infomercial (PII-350, 128 Mb RAM, 10 GB HDD, Intel i740 graphics card), my OG MS Sidewinder Force Feedback joystick at Walmart, then FS2 was the first game I bought.  I had many late nights playing, followed by miserable mornings at work. 

The force feedback would not work properly with the VIA chipset gameport on my motherboard, so my first PC upgrade was a Creative SoundBlaster so I could finally play the game the way God intended, feeling those missile impacts and afterburner thrust.  Eventually I also quadrupled the RAM and installed a GeForce2 MX GPU.

FS2 implied there was a FS1, so after completing the campaign I started looking for that (I'm not in a big metro area, and didn't use the internet for shopping then).  Eventually I found a jewelcase version with FS and ST.

I still have all the original discs and used them to re-install FS on a new SSD on Windows 10 a few years ago, but the retail FS2 box has been lost, like tears in rain.

I found HLP while looking for info about a possible FS3, and have been hanging out (mostly quietly) ever since.  I kinda took a break for a while, then re-discovered it when I read about Diaspora being released (maybe that's how I missed this thread).

72

Gaming Discussion / Re: Played Chorus. Would recommend playing.

« Last post by Scourge of Ages on December 06, 2025, 10:23:19 am »

I also remember playing the demo and having fun! I just haven't gotten around to playing the game itself yet, I might have to bump it up the list.

73

Gaming Discussion / Re: Played Chorus. Would recommend playing.

« Last post by deathspeed on December 06, 2025, 09:59:17 am »

There is a demo on Steam and EGS as well! 

I could have sworn i already owned this game but I'm not finding it on GOG Galaxy so maybe I just tried the demo once.  Or maybe I wishlisted it and removed it.

edit: typo

[Hidden Text: Alternative Launchers •]

74

FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) / Release: 25.0.0-RC6

« Last post by SirKnightly on December 06, 2025, 07:49:06 am »

Change log: (chronologically ordered)
PLACEHOLDER

Deprecations:
PLACEHOLDER

Deprecations are a mechanism in FSO where a certain feature or aspect of the engine has changed or is no longer supported. Since this would normally break existing mods, we have the mod table feature "$Target Version:" with which a mod can specify what version of FSO it was developed with. Any features listed under Deprecations will be removed or changed when the target version of a mod is at least the version released in this post.

Previous 23.2.1 Release Thread

Launchers, if you don't have one already:
All platforms: For every day use, we recommend Knossos.NET, an integrated solution for downloading and launching mods.

Hidden Text: Alternative Launchers • Show

Cross-platform: wxLauncher 0.12.x Test Build (legacy project for a unified launcher)
Important: For best compatibility with FSO 3.8 and later you should use at least wxLauncher 0.12.

Windows:  Launcher 5.5g (Mirror) (Mirror) Not compatible with Windows 8+, use wxLauncher above
OS X:  Soulstorm's OS X Launcher 3.0
Linux:  YAL or by hand or whatever you can figure out.

Windows (32/64-bit)
Compiled using GitHub Actions on Windows Server 2019 (10.0.17763), Visual Studio Enterprise 2019

64-bit: fs2_open_25_0_0-RC6-builds-x64-SSE2.zip

32-bit: fs2_open_25_0_0-RC6-builds-Win32-SSE2.zip
This one is based on the SSE2 Optimizations from the MSVC Compiler.

Hidden Text: Alternative builds • Show

64-bit AVX: fs2_open_25_0_0-RC6-builds-x64-AVX.zip
This one is based on the AVX Optimizations from the MSVC Compiler (fastest build if your CPU supports AVX instructions).


32-bit AVX: fs2_open_25_0_0-RC6-builds-Win32-AVX.zip
This one is based on the AVX Optimizations from the MSVC Compiler.

What are those SSE, SSE2 and AVX builds I keep seeing everywhere?
Your answer is in this topic.
Don't want to deal with that? Use Knossos.NET and it will download the best build specifically for your PC!

Linux
Compiled with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, GCC 9
x86_64: fs2_open_25_0_0-RC6-builds-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz
arm64: fs2_open_25_0_0-RC6-builds-Linux-arm64.tar.gz

These builds use a mechanism called AppImage which should allow these builds to run on most Linux distributions. However, we recommend that you compile your own builds which will result in less issues.
Alternatively, if there is a package in your software repository then you should use that. If you are the maintainer of such a package for a distribution then let us know and we will include that here.


macOS
macOS 10.9+
Intel (64-bit): fs2_open_25_0_0-RC6-builds-Mac-x86_64.tar.gz
Apple Silicon: fs2_open_25_0_0-RC6-builds-Mac-arm64.tar.gz

These builds are not signed and so by default will fail to launch. To run them simply right-click on the app, click open, then click open again on the security confirmation dialog. You should only have to do this once for each app.
If running the game through Knossos or Knossos.NET this step should not be necessary.

NOTE: macOS builds currently have limited support and may exhibit issues not present on other platforms.

Hidden Text: TrackIR Users • Show

Important!!
An external DLL is required for FSO to use TrackIR functions.  The following DLL is simply unpacked in to your main FreeSpace2 root dir.
TrackIR is only supported on Windows.
TrackIR SCP DLL (Mirror) (Mirror)

Known issues:

• Github issues and pending pull requests
• See the list of bugs ranked by priority

75

Gaming Discussion / Played Chorus. Would recommend playing.

« Last post by MachManX on December 05, 2025, 09:48:16 pm »

Ah it's been a while.  There really isn't a game quite like Freespace(2).  I love the no-nonsense dogfighting without the need to keep up with trades, economy, building, long term strategizing, etc.  This is one of the things that makes Freespace 2 great.

But it seems that many game developers don't want to make a game similar to this.  Those who do want to overcomplicate it with the things I just mentioned, probably to get players to have to login constantly.  I mean there were a few ok games like Freelancer but otherwise nothing like Freespace.

Well, after all these years I think I came across an interesting game: Chorus.  Again not like Freespace but the game is basically dogfighting for the most part.  The story is good (I mean whaddya expect from space?) and the powers you gain over time is spaced out nicely.  Yeah powers that help with the dogfighting.  It's pretty cool actually.  The ship upgrades are very easy to follow and use a simplistic credit system: no crafting and no economy involved.  And some upgrades are just given to you as you progress and/or do side missions.  The main thing is that the entire game is basically sitting in the cockpit piloting your fighter and doing/completing missions.  Occasional control of small ships too but mainly your fighter.  So in that regard ti's like Freespace.  However technically it's open world so no loading screens except when first turning on the game.

I used an Xbox 360 controller but you can use mouse and keyboard and it does support joysticks.  You can get it for cheap on Steam if you keep your eye on it.  Definitely recommend.  But no matter what you'll still come back to Freespace as replayability is amazing here.   

76

Nightly Builds / Re: Nightly: 04 December 2025 - Revision 937091ee7

« Last post by wookieejedi on December 05, 2025, 06:27:36 pm »

Thanks, this has now been fixed and the fix is in today's build (Dec 5). 

77

Getting Started / Re: Another Play Order Question/Help

« Last post by santange11 on December 05, 2025, 02:40:33 pm »

Thanks for including both Seals on your list. I recommend playing The Sixth Seal 2 after ST:R, so please, update your order

The order has been updated, thank you.

Scrolls of Atankharzim is another one you should add to your list as well as Shepherds.  The former is a post Capella campaign that feels like a high quality DLC and is a branching campaign.  Shepherds covers events after the loss of the Psamtik and it expands on the retreat from the Nebula

Thank you, I will look at these once I get home and added to the list. The hope it to start playing this weekend if life allows it.

78

Getting Started / Re: Another Play Order Question/Help

« Last post by ShivanSlayer on December 05, 2025, 12:46:19 pm »

Scrolls of Atankharzim is another one you should add to your list as well as Shepherds.  The former is a post Capella campaign that feels like a high quality DLC and is a branching campaign.  Shepherds covers events after the loss of the Psamtik and it expands on the retreat from the Nebula

79

Getting Started / Re: Another Play Order Question/Help

« Last post by shiv on December 05, 2025, 10:14:13 am »

Thanks for including both Seals on your list. I recommend playing The Sixth Seal 2 after ST:R, so please, update your order

80

Nightly Builds / Nightly: 05 December 2025 - Revision cb19fecc3

« Last post by SirKnightly on December 05, 2025, 12:53:28 am »

Here is the nightly for 05 December 2025 - Revision cb19fecc3



Group: Linux-arm64
nightly_20251205_cb19fecc3-builds-Linux-arm64.tar.gz (Mirror)


Group: Linux-x86_64
nightly_20251205_cb19fecc3-builds-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz (Mirror)


Group: MacOSX-arm64
nightly_20251205_cb19fecc3-builds-Mac-arm64.tar.gz (Mirror)


Group: MacOSX-x86_64
nightly_20251205_cb19fecc3-builds-Mac-x86_64.tar.gz (Mirror)


Group: Win32-SSE2
nightly_20251205_cb19fecc3-builds-Win32-SSE2.zip (Mirror)


Group: Win64-SSE2
nightly_20251205_cb19fecc3-builds-x64-SSE2.zip (Mirror)

Code: [Select]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
commit cb19fecc3
Author: Kestrellius
Commit: GitHub

    Fix culling for particles that have length (#7136)
 code/particle/hosts/EffectHostParticle.cpp |  2 +-
 code/particle/particle.cpp                 | 55 ++++++++++++++++++++----------
 2 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
commit af7bb154d
Author: wookieejedi
Commit: GitHub

    Fix shadow shader update oversight (#7135)
 code/def_files/data/effects/shadows.sdr | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)