[Stormkeeper]

I'm personally interested on doing a short article on it, for the interview board. I feel its a part of HLP's history, and shouldn't be forgotten.

[CP5670]

Ferrium came up long after the SCP release. The name comes from Freespace Engine 2, or Fe2. The thought was that the existing FS2 engine used clunky code practices and would be hard to upgrade and maintain over time (although it had no serious problems at the time), so it would be better to start from scratch. Like most overly ambitious projects around here, there was a lot of discussion but very little actual work was done. It effectively died out after a few months as people lost interest.

Kazan brought it up again a year later, saying that he intended to make an entirely different game with it (unrelated to FS), but I don't think that went anywhere either.

Some people are confusing Ferrium with Freespace Forever. It was a similar idea and was also started by Kazan, but a lot less focused and pre-SCP. There was one lengthy thread on it and nobody brought it up again after that. Unlike Ferrium, I don't think anyone ever seriously worked on it.

[chief1983]

Thanks for clearing that up CP.

[TopAce]

/...a lot less focused and pre-SCP...

That must have been ages ago. When I first came here, I already saw the Source Code Project. I didn't know what that was, but it was there.

[Vasudan Admiral]

(although it had no serious problems at the time)

Though I don't think they were the whole reason for the concept of Ferrium, the SCP definitely had some big problems back then.
The Y-targetting crash, trying to simultaneously support D3D and OGL, multi-docking, autopilot, in-mission cutscenes and normal maps were mere dreams, no correctly working multiplayer, faulty/inefficient/incomplete shadow, decal, submodel animation and material systems, only the first stages of scripting builds if they were actually out back then at all, some very troublesome FRED build problems that IIRC prevented all but one person being able to build it, all kinds of sound issues (that have since been cleaned up via using openAL), no FSO installer to help newbies, faulty MVPs, and a few other things like shinemaps not working on certain cards.

Kazan I think already had Ferrium in mind before that period, but those problems are certainly a part of the reason Ferrium generated so much excitement. Since then though thanks to the hard work of all the coders on the team, the SCP has not only rid itself of those bugs but has come leaps and bounds in terms of graphical abilities and overall feature sets.

[Mongoose]

Ugh...thanks for dredging up all sorts of unpleasant memories. I first came into the community right around that time, and my first experiences with the SCP were an utter train wreck.  It was a total crap-shoot to find a build that wouldn't crash on you after every single mission, and even then, that Y-targeting bug would rear its ugly head without warning and send you back to the desktop.  Even putting all of the new features and content aside, the simple fact that the team has managed to get the project to as stable a point as they have is a massive achievement.

[Polpolion]

that Y-targeting bug would rear its ugly head without warning and send you back to the desktop.

I remember that! Makes me feel like an older member of the community. 

[Stormkeeper]

Might be a little much, but I'd like to hear about all these bugs that made Ferrium a more attractive solution at that time. Like details and such.

[Krelus]

that Y-targeting bug would rear its ugly head without warning and send you back to the desktop.

I remember that! Makes me feel like an older member of the community. 

Ugh, yeah, I entered the SCP about halfway through high school, so that'd put it in 04-05. Everything was hideously inefficient and I had this weird glitch with propagating capship explosions where, instead of being torn in half by the blast, two separate copies of the ship would appear and move away from each other. Just for jollies, I dug around and found the old screen I took for Mantis and slapped it on photobucket. And for some reason the FSOpen executable refused to recognize my FX card in D3D or OpenGL. I think this was around 3.6.5, but I can't remember.

The SCP has come a long, long way since then. Getting a crash now is a surprising event, and with normal maps it looks as good as Oblivion (effects look even better :3)

[ssmit132]

I had this weird glitch with propagating capship explosions where, instead of being torn in half by the blast, two separate copies of the ship would appear and move away from each other.

Although I didn't have FS2 then, I noticed that when I played FSO with D3D sometimes (a while ago, last year?) on my desktop, everytime a vessel was supposed to disappear, all the mesh that had textures with a glow map would not disappear. When a cap-ship exploded in 'half', something exactly like your screenshot occurred.

[Krelus]

I had this weird glitch with propagating capship explosions where, instead of being torn in half by the blast, two separate copies of the ship would appear and move away from each other.

Although I didn't have FS2 then, I noticed that when I played FSO with D3D sometimes (a while ago, last year?) on my desktop, everytime a vessel was supposed to disappear, all the mesh that had textures with a glow map would not disappear. When a cap-ship exploded in 'half', something exactly like your screenshot occurred.

Right, it WAS the glowmaps. It wasn't all bad, though. I remember seeing the HTL Herc model for the first time with a slack jaw, ogling the fact that the cockpit was see-through. And for some reason I absolutely adored the elliptical orange 2D shockwaves of the 3.5.7-ish era. Never been a big fan of the bright blue 3D ones, myself.