[Decado]

Hello,

I was a big fan of Freespace 2 and only recently saw all the modding activity going on around the game. I'd like to know what kind of system you should have to get (roughly) the best from the Source Code Project. I have an AMD 1.7, 768 MB RAM, a 268 MB (but still slow) Radeon 9600le video card and run on XP. The last system requirements thread I could find was dated around 2 years ago, so I just want to make sure it hasn't increased too much.

Also, how stable is it (just the regular games, not the campaigns)? Is it best to wait a while or is this about as good as it is going to get stability wise?

Anything else you recommend I download along with it? Other advice?

thanks

[Mars]

System sounds like it'll handle the game alright, but not really well.

The 3.6.9 RC 2 is the most stable build,  (it still has the Y targeting bug, but RC 3 should fix it) you can find it under the Source Code Project > Recent Builds forum. Once the 3.6.9 full version comes out, it should be really stable, if not quite as stable as the original FS2, so if you want to wait until it's really, really stable, wait until then, but it's fairly stable right now.

[pecenipicek]

well, i'm running it with mv_adveffects on an AthlonXP 2800+, FX5700, 512megs of ram and all the cool and fancy stuff in resolutions up to 1280x1024 in framerates in excess of 30fps.

ADVEFFECTS on the other hand is just a steal of RAM.

pointless if we count out animated glowmaps (which i love )

[neoterran]

nvidia cards are better in open GL (which is what fs_open uses now) even the fx series, with their shader 2.0 problems 

[WMCoolmon]

I've got an AMD64 3000+, 1 Gig DDR400 RAM, a GF6600GT, and a 250 GB SATA HDD and was able to run adveffects on "The King's Gambit" at a reasonable FPS. Adveffects puts a strain on that.

As far as stability goes, despite what all the articles and websites will say about CVS builds being less stable than release builds, that may not actually be true. Stability tends to follow a 'low tide, high tide' movement as new features/bugfixes get committed to CVS. It takes about 5 minutes, if you've got broadband, to download a new EXE and use it instead, so there's not really any reason to wait.

[karajorma]

As far as stability goes, despite what all the articles and websites will say about CVS builds being less stable than release builds, that may not actually be true.

Not all the articles say that

In general CVS builds are very stable. Often more so than the official builds. The general response to someone posting a problem with an official build is to tell them to check the most recent CVS build to see if the problem goes away. However on occasion CVS builds can be very unstable if someone has just checked in a piece of code which is incompatible with something else in CVS. For this reason people new to the SCP are generally advised to try out an official build first and only move on to CVS if there is a problem or once they are a little more comfortable with the way the SCP works.

That said we're all trying to be more careful with CVS these days so CVS builds are even more likely to be stable than they were when that was written

[mrduckman]

I've been away for a while. What cmdparams would you recommend for an AMD64 2Ghz, GF4FX5900 and 1Gb of RAM. Runs WinXP 32bit on it?

[ARSPR]

I've been away for a while. What cmdparams would you recommend for an AMD64 2Ghz, GF4FX5900 and 1Gb of RAM. Runs WinXP 32bit on it?

I suppose in most missions you would be able to run with everything on but mv_adveffects.

[ThomasJeffersonJones]

3.6.9 RC3 runs great on my system, even with mv_adveffects operational, - its an [email protected] w/ 1g RAM and an X850 XT 256mb card,

but - even without adv_effects, i've had my system shut down on me once almost every time i play, - apparently FSopen heats up my CPU to an unusual degree triggering an auto-shutdown.  Dialing my cpu fan up seems to help, but i wonder if anyone else has experienced this? 
My cpu typically hits ~49 C under load, and i've never had an overheating problem with any other program.
seems a bit odd.

[mrduckman]

lol we should add a cpu temp sensor readout in scp 

[Zacam]

Actually, the only thing in adv_effects that's ever given my system any pause at all are the HQ 3D Shockwave files.

To test, I subsectioned adv_effects into seperate vp files (each file containing ONE piece of content from adv_effects. IE: one for nebulas, one for shockwave, etc).

I can load all of them BUT shockwave and have little to no fps drop. Running JUST HQ 3D Shockwaves is only slighly better performance wise than running it with everything else.

ECS KT-600A
AMD Semperon 2400+ Retail (1.66 Ghz, 333FSB, NO overclocking, stock w/AS5 Thermal Paste)
2x512 XMS Corsair CMX512-3200 C2PT (2-2-3-5 @ 333)
Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT 256, stock, AGP 8x (Fast Write On), ATI Catalyst 4.12 w/Rage3DTweak 3.9c
Sony Multiscan 500PS 21" 5BNC Flat CRT
Crative Labs Audigy 2 w/OpenAL 1.1
Maxtor 100gb 75k-rpm SATA OS Drive
Saitek Cyborg 3D Gold USB

fs2_open_3.6.9.rc3, Launcher 5.4
game_flags =  -spec -glow -env -jpgtga -nomotiondebris -2d_poof -cache_bitmaps -dualscanlines -targetinfo -orbradar -rearm_timer -ship_choice_3d -3dwarp -warp_flash -snd_preload -alpha_env ;

Temperature rattings: CPU under idle: 35c. CPU under Full Load: 42c. CPU under FS2: 38c.