[thundernoggin]

This is my first time with FS2 Open.  Using 3.6.9RC5, 3.6.8 Zetas in their own folder, launcher 5.4.1-pre, sane beamglows installed in mediavps/data/effects. Haven't tried adveffects yet.  Installed OpenAl. Using windows 2000 pro, 2.2ghz Barton, 2gigs Corsair, 9800pro 256mb, Audigy 2 Platinum Ex, Microsoft Force Feedback Pro.

C:\FreeSpace2\fs2_open_3_6_9.exe -mod mediavps -spec -glow -env -jpgtga -mipmap -nomotiondebris -2d_poof -missile_lighting -dualscanlines -orbradar -rearm_timer -3dwarp -warp_flash -snd_preload -alpha_env -fps

Everything works great so far except for one thing, whenever I hit a ship the smoke is all black squares.  Any ideas?

Thanks to everyone who worked to make FS2 Open possible.  I was pretty bummed the other day when I found out space combat wasn't very popular with the game companies anymore, that is until I found this place, keep up the good work.

[Sarafan]

Begin plasma core insertion, gunnery control, open fire:




Welcome to HLP. Please keep all appendages within the installation at all times. Flamethrowers are located underneath all seats, however, due to the rising cost of oil, the ID / evolution debate (don't debate me on Whether or not there is a debate),V, and the meaning of life, the napalm has been replaced with Holy Water. Plasma rifles are located in the weapons locker, but only Admins,V, or a hyper-intelligent shade of blue have access to these areas. If you meet a Shivan in the ductwork it is most likely Carl, give him your lunch and back away slowly, odds are good you'll be fine. Recommend reading includes Karajorma's Freespace FAQ for general questions, and The Freespace Wiki for specific issues and questions.

10th kill.

And, no, no idea but welcome.

[Wanderer]

Get the alphapatches from 3.6.9 RC5 thread

[thundernoggin]

I downloaded mv_alphapatch.rar but when I unzip it with Winrar there is nothing in it even though it's 577kb.  I've tried downloading a couple more times and still no luck.  Same thing with advalphapatch.

[Wanderer]

Wierd... I just tested downloading that file by myself and found the appropriate mv_alphapatch.vp file from the inside,

[thundernoggin]

I figured it out, didn't realize I was using Winace for everything instead of Winrar, downloaded current Winrar and the file is now in there.  I'm off to see if this fixes my smoke, I installed the patch file into my mediavps folder.

[taylor]

You should really get the patches from this post since this is the newest version of the fixes.  The original alpha patches are out-of-date and don't fix everything properly.

And regarding not being able to read the other RAR files, I used a high level of RAR compression on them (like I usually do when I keep stuff like that internally) but not all RAR uncompressors may be able to handle that.  WinRAR can, but others are iffy.  I'm trying to make it a point to avoid doing that to all other public RAR files that I make though just to make sure they work for everyone.

[thundernoggin]

I'll have to try the new patches tomorrow.  The alphapatch fixed my smoke, thanks Wanderer.  According to the FPS display I'm humming along at 120fps in the heat of things and everything looks amazing. Now I'm curious to see how badly adveffects will hit my framerates.  I do have one other question though.  Only played a few missions so far, I'm on the second Iceni chase, and right before the jumpgate it goes through is a large green wireframe that looks like a target.  Is this normal?  I may have hit a button or something, it popped up in the mission and remained after my deaths.  Thanks everyone.

[Wobble73]

Yes that's normal, what you are seeing is an inter system jump node. Your hud is displaying where the node is, you'll find a few more throughout the game

[Prophet]

Yep. The actual jump node is invisible to the human eye. The green wireframe is just a computer generated object thats funtion is to indicate the general location of the node.

[KaiserWarrior]

From my experience, adveffects doesn't drop your frames too very much at all. It is certainly a noticeable dip from time to time, but it's not unplayable by any means and is well worth it, in my opinion. For the most part, it doesn't seem to be a general framedrop so much as a stutter the first time you see the effect; for example the high-end shockwave will slow me down significantly the first time I see it, and again if there's a LOT of them onscreen at once (say 7 or 8), but after the first time it's generally gravy.

Keep in mind though that I have a radeon x300SE, so I'm WAY down at the low end of the totem pole, assuming your system is even remotely modern. Basically, on a card as crappy as that, the game runs quite playable and very beautiful with all the goodies turned on.

Best thing to do is to try it, really. Put adveffects and its patch into your mediavps folder and give it a whirl; if you don't like the framerate just remove them. But they really do punch up the eyecandy quite a bit.

[thundernoggin]

Glad to hear that's just a node.  I'll try adveffects when I get home tonight.  I'm still using a 9800pro 256mb on 4x agp, so I'll see what happens.  Rest of my specs are in the first post

[thundernoggin]

Removed sane beam glows, cleaned out mediavps/cache, installed adv_effects and patch.  At the moment I'm playing The Romans Blunder mission with zero problems.  110fps battling a few small ships, drops as low as 80fps around the larger ships, and during one of my many deaths I continued to watch the battle before restarting and it got as low as 60fps while my view was right next to a large ship being attacked.  Open GL, 1024x768, 32bit, no ansi, 4 High, trilinear, 4AA.  I've had no hiccups when something loads for the first time.  Here are is a more detailed list of my specs.

AMD XP2500+ Barton 11X200mhz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe rev 1.04, Nforce2
2 GBs Corsair TwinX2048-4000pt sync, 2.5-3-3-6
Radeon 9800pro 256mb 4xAGP
Western Digital 120GB 8mb Buffer
Audigy2 Platinum EX
480W Antec True Blue
Microsoft Force Feedback Pro

So far the adv_effects are working great.  Everything looks amazing.  Thank You.

[taylor]

Radeon 9800pro 256mb 4xAGP

That's why it works so well btw.  You need a 256meg video card to properly use adveffects.  You can use it on a 128meg card, but that's where you start to get the bad hiccups.

[Wobble73]

Western Digital 120MB 8mb Buffer

????? You mean 120GB surely!

[thundernoggin]

Good call, I just fixed that, typos be damned.

[ShivanSpS]

Yeah, this is the first game that really uses 256MB on card that reallys dont need them... generally, 256MB are starting to worth it since 9800XX/5900XX/6800XX, X800XX, 7600XX, X1600XT, 7800-1800++++++++++++++++++++

If you see... for exaple a 7300XX/6200XX/6600XX/X300/X600/X1300/X1600pro which 256MB is just marketing, because those mem going to be 256MB DDR2 instead 128MB GDDR3, so the 128MB will be faster, and the card cant handle 256MB of textures a good FPS anyway. The High end cards always uses a good extra amount of memory, because its high AA and AF, HDR, capability.

The same happends if you see a 6800XX, X800XX, 7600XX, X1600XT which 512MB... But high end like 7800/7900/X1800/X1900 may uses it, but only when using filters.

I say this because I see to many people wasting their money on 9200/5200/5500/6200/6600/X300/X600/X1300/7300XX which 256 or 512MB... and this is the only game that going to use this extra amount of memory... (well Vietcong 2 also allows you to load everything to card memory )

Anyway, I also running which adveffects on a 9600XT 128MB card, I only having some slowdown on explocions...

[Ferret]

I find it interesting that some people might percieve the nodes as a bug, I mean they are just basic wireframes and there's nothing else on the HUD that loosk like them. They're pretty out of place now that I think about it.

Just another HCI problem I guess...