[Kie99]

In FRED 2 Open some ships are on the lowest detail level, the Orion looks a blue brick, yes even more than normal, the Raynor is just a zig-zag and the Ravana has the same basic shape but it has just a single Gra(e)y-black texture

[Trivial Psychic]

Its a stop-gap measure until FRED is fixed and works properly with HTL.  There is a command line in place to activate HTL, but there are problems with that mode.  First of all, defaulting to lod LODS helps improve the performance of FRED, but it also prevents crashing when using Hi-poly models.  These models are designed for use with HTL, but in non-HTL mode, these models will crash the program.  To decrease the likelyhood of this happenning, the LOD distances were changed so that only at extremely close proximity, will it attempt to render LOD0.  Since most LOD1 of HTL craft use the LOD0 of the retail model, its guaranteed not to crash... at least from this.  Once FRED is working properly with HTL support, I'll bet the LOD distances will be restored.

[Kie99]

Oh Well, I'll just use FRED_Open_r for most of the mission then use 3.6.5 to do some of the new effects