[PotzUK]

Is there a problem running this in OPENGL with ATI cards? I am switching to ATI and would hate to have to revert back to D3D.

C.

I'm running it on a Radeon 9800 Pro Mobility (Dell Inspiron 9100) laptop with not a single problem.  Typical FPS is well over 60fps, dropping to around 20fps in the nebulous regions at 1680x1050.  That's with all the options up as high as they'll go with the high detail mediavps  8)

[karajorma]

I suppose I should clear up the debate as to what to use when it comes to installing FS2_Open cause there seems to be some confusion as to what to use and if we sort it out now you can all give out good advice

Basically you have two options. ShivanSPS' all in one pack or a DIY install on top of FS2 retail. I'm not going to say one or the other is the better solution because they both have advantages and disadvantages. If you're new to FS2 or FS2_Open the advantages of ShivanSPS' pack are that everything is easy to install. You install 1.5 followed by 1.8 and 1.9c. IIRC 1.9c get you up to date with everything except for the RC7.8 build you'll need for multiplayer. Shivan's pack also has the advantage of including the FS1 port and Derelict in a ready to play configuration. Simply click the select mod button in the launcher and they're ready to go too.

The only real problems I've heard with Shivan's pack is that it's hard to get some of the updates. 1.5 is easy to get as a torrent but has some rather big flaws in it which require that it is patched to 1.9c. Unfortunately the patches aren't torrented and thus are hard to get.

Bandwidth usage is another problem with Shivans pack if you already have FS2 as it requires that you download about a gig of data which you already have on the FS2 CDs or your existing FS2 install. For some people the convienience of the pack makes it worth it. For instance from the sounds of it cvearl already had the 1.5, 1.8 and 1.9c patches already downloaded. In which case simply deleting his FS2 install and extracting ShivanSPS' pack to the exact same place would have actually been his best bet.

If someone hasn't already downloaded the pack I tell them that they are going to have to spend a lot of bandwidth and leave it up to them to decide what to do. Because although installing FS2_Open is easy for me I can see why it is a daunting process to do it by hand if you're new and it is very doubtful that you'll do as good a job of it as if you'd simply installed the pack

Installing mods is where most people start to fall apart. I doubt that many of the people who have done a DIY installation have a proper working mod.ini like ShivanSPS's pack has. Sure people figure out how to do the Secondarylist thing but how many people actually have the Website and forums buttons working? How many have the picture and blurb configured?



Sure they're only minor things but they do look cool and they do make the SCP install look a lot more professional. One thing that has put off quite a few people is the sheer amount of stuff you need to do to install FS2_Open. ShivanSPS's pack solved a lot of problems initially but the problems patching it to a modern copy have started making it a hassle to use again. Hopefully that will be solved when we release 3.6.9 officially and  we get the v2.0 pack from him.

[Colonol Dekker]

SoR Elaborate................ps what version launcher is that, Mine can select mods but i forget which it is

[karajorma]

That's actually a very old pic. If you look at the title bar and the build you can see that

SoR is short for Seeds of Rebellion which is my own mini-campaign. It keeps getting pushed back cause of MG and BSG commitments but I'll get it finished sooner or later

[Colonol Dekker]

Funky ship in the mod image though

[cvearl]

Well I played late into the evening. Rock solid!

I only wish I could stay home today and play it all day.

I did not mind manually installing FSOPEN to my Retail install. sizzler made it super easy to understand. And it gave me a change to understand how it all goes together.

But ya. A Full pack like Shivans is cool. Makes it "more accessible" and therefore a larger community which benefits everyone.

If there was a "PATCH" version of Shivans where it installed like Shivans Pack. But basically did not have the whole game but just planted the Mods, launcher and build. That would be cool.

That one PACK updated by the TEAM when new full releases were ready. That would make life easy. Anyway, I will promote the project to anyone who will listen. It's fantastic and this community is tight.

C.

[karajorma]

Cheers. The Charon class is about the only mod I ever finished. Of course it's now decidedly old hat in these high poly days

[Polpolion]

I'm assuming you have the latest release of FSOpen, in which case you should set the video tab to OpenGL (and if you don't have OpenGL, you should get it). Direct3d doesn't work as well as it used to on Open, an OpenGL is the preferred video setting nowadays.

Is there a problem running this in OPENGL with ATI cards? I am switching to ATI and would hate to have to revert back to D3D.

C.

Use OGL. There is no compatibility issues with ATI cards and it (I have an ATI Radeon 9550 and am fine with OGL). Also, some features do not work with D3D, as it's beginning to be phased-out.

[cvearl]

Well at 1280x960 4xAA 16xAF in OGL mode, this game is even better!

Thank you everyone for humoring this newb and I look forward to playing this one to the end. 

And to the team. You guys rock. Keep up the incredible work.

C.

[TrashMan]

Are you playing with al lthe fgags on?

-ambient_factor 18.3 -spec_exp 16.7 -spec_point 0.6 -spec_static 0.9 -spec_tube 1

copy/paste his into hte launchers custom flags box 8in hte Features tab)

[cvearl]

All I am currently doing is using the launcher to set ALL FEATURES to enabled except for the "do not stretch videos thing" in the Features-Graphics screen.

Then in the VIDEO TAB I set to OpenGL and 1280x960. Checked the USE LARGE TEXTURES box and set to #4. "HIGH".  Is that right?

As is, it already looks in-friggan-credidible.

Only thiing I have trouble with is when I copy and past anyones "-ambient_factor 18.3 -spec_exp 16.7 -spec_point 0.6 -spec_static 0.9 -spec_tube 1" into that field, the specular checkbox clears itself for some reason.

So I have not done the "-ambient_factor 18.3 -spec_exp 16.7 -spec_point 0.6 -spec_static 0.9 -spec_tube 1" thing. Should I?

And why does that line force the checkbox for Specular to not checked?

C.

[karajorma]

Just tick it again

[cvearl]

Just tick it again

When I do and then APPLY and quit and come back into the launcher it is unchecked again. I can do it over and over. The only way for it to remain checked is to take that long string out of that field that I keep copying and pasting. I even tried other peoples strings of switches and it happens.

C.

[karajorma]

Tried it. Not having any problems with it.

If you really want to add those settings try them one at a time and see which one is causing you grief. The hyphen denotes the start of a new option so start with -ambient_factor 18

(Not 18.3. Can people stop using decimal points in ambient_factor. For a start it's doubtful that there is a huge difference between 18 and 18.3 in the first place but more importantly the variable that it gets parsed into is an integer so the first thing the code will do is round it!)

[Herra Tohtori]

Well, that's new to me, although quite obvious when I think about it.