[Galemp]

Well whaddya know, it's a new version of the Port. The included readme is very comprehensive and n00b-friendly and covers everything you need to know about installation, hi-res textures, and FS1 resource extraction. I'll post its contents here.

==< FREESPACE PORT TO FREESPACE 2 >==
Version 2.0 12/13/02
http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/fsport/
======================================

This is the definitive version of Freespace for Freespace 2. It includes all of the classic ships, weapons, and campaigns you remember from Freespace: The Great War and Freespace: Silent Threat in the upgraded Freespace 2 engine.
Included in this ZIP is FSPORT2.VP. Simply extract it to your main Freespace 2 directory and head to the campaign room.
Here are many important items gleaned from the Port forum and Hard Light Productions. If you have a problem that isn't addressed here, head to the Port's homepage and follow the link to the Forum.

=< HI-RES TEXTURES >=

Port 2 includes high-resolution texures for many ships, including the SD Lucifer, GTC Fenris/Leviathan, PVC Aten, and all fighters and bombers. To use these textures at their maximum resolution, you will need to alter your registry. Only do this if you are familiar with registry editing, as serious damage can result from tampering!
-On Windows 95/98/ME, click Start->Run and type in REGEDIT. If you are running NT/2000/XP, type REGEDT32.
-Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Volition/FreeSpace2. You will need to add two new DWORD entries to the keys found there.
-D3DTextureDivider
Sets the rendering routines based on amount of texture RAM:
 0: autodetect as below
 1: optimize for > 16 MB
 2: optimize for > 8 MB
 3: optimize for > 4 MB
 4: optimize for <= 4 MB
 else: same as 4
I've found that a value of 1 works for me.
-D3DUseLargeTextures DWORD
 0: use 256 as max textures size (default)
 else: max size the card can use as the max
The Lucifer texture is approximately 1600x1000, so setting this for 1600 will enable it to be shown at full scale.

=< EXTRACTING FREESPACE VOICE AND ANIMATIONS >=

If you own Freespace and/or Silent Threat, you're in for a treat! You can extract all the necessary files from the previous games and play the Port with full voice acting and command briefing animations. You will need Descent Manager's VPVIEW32 to extract the files. (http://www.descent-network.com/cgi-bin/descman.cgi?module=vpview)
Copy and/or extract these files:
FS2\data\cbanim.vp (from the FS1 CD) Freespace command briefing animations.
FS2\data\interface\cb_*.ani (extracted from the ST MDISK.VP) Silent Threat command briefing animations.
FS2\data\movies\*.mve (from both FS1 CDs) Freespace cutscenes.
FS2\data\voice\briefing (from voc.vp and mdisk.vp) Briefing voice.
FS2\data\voice\command_briefings (from freespace.vp and mdisk.vp) Command briefing voice.
FS2\data\voice\debriefing (from voc.vp and mdisk.vp) Debriefing voice.
FS2\data\voice\special (from freespace.vp and mdisk.vp) In-mission message voice.

=< CONVERTING FSMs >=

If you've made any missions for Freespace using FRED, or you've downloaded some that you'd like to convert to Freespace 2, it's simple with the Port. Follow these steps.
-Open the .FSM mission in NotePad and save it as .FS2. (The first step.)
-Do a find-and-replace for PV and replace it with GV. This makes all the Vasudan ships recognised by FS2--PVC Aten is replaced with GVC Aten etc.
-Find and replace GVF Anubis, GVB Amun, GVFr Ma'at and GVFr Bast with their PV* equivalents. These ships retained their PV designations in Freespace 2.
-Find and replace Prometheus with Prometheus S. I didn't include the standard Prom with the port, just used the Prom S.
-Replace capital ship weapons with their definitions in the FS1 ships.tbl. That replaces the beams and flak on the ships with FS1 laser turrets.
Save and open it up in FRED2. It should work, but check up on any error messages you may get. Most common ones are medal grants and if the Galatea or Bastion are included. Once it checks out OK, try it in FS2. If that runs, you're in good shape--save a backup. For the finishing touches, give the Vasudan ships AltNames (give all the GVF Thoths PVF Thoth designations etc,) make sure all fighters have the right FS1 weapons, and give all large Vasudan craft Vasudan turrets instead of Terran turrets. Add backgrounds and music, fix briefing icons, and edit any briefing text that doesn't fit or has quotation marks. Run through the mission a few times and make sure everything fits. Save, test, etc. throughout.
If the first few steps don't work, you'll have to add all the objects manually, anywhere. You can copy and paste ship position and orientation, briefing information, and events and messages from the FSM piece by piece until you run into a problem. Then you can add that much by hand.

=< KNOWN ISSUES >=

Tech Room: "The ship listing in the Tech Room is out of order." As well as adding new ships to the list, I reorganized the entire table to make finding the right ship easier in FRED2. This had the unfortunate side-effect of mixing the Tech Room ship listing up so you can see some ships you shouldn't. This is because of a problem with the way FS2 handles the ship database, and it is being looked into by the Source Code Project.
"There are no descriptions for any of the ships in the tech room." This is a sacrifice that had to be done to keep the ships table under the limit imposed by Freespace 2. The database entries can still be found at Tech Freespace (http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/techfs/) and the Port's Features page.
"Whenever I click on the weapons database, the game crashes." This is another bug in the FS2 engine being ironed out by the Source Code project. There is currently no way around this; visit the Port's Features page for data on all the new weapons.

=< VERSION HISTORY >=

Updates in 2.0:
-Hi-res FS1 maps included; not all of them, just the ones at a higher res than the FS2 versions.
-All new Terran and Vasudan fighters and bombers have squadron insignias.
-Brand spanking new weapon interface art, in the FS2 style.
-FS1 weapons now use the FS1 sound effects.
-Tables stabilized by squeezing under the 130 ship limit.
-CoTT2 fix, subspace palette fix, five-engined Hades, and new pilot selection screen included.
-Still more bug fixes in the original campaign.
-Shielded Lucifer included and you can see the effects in the campaign. HUD icon included, courtesy of Sesquipedalian.
-Silent Threat, ported to FS2.

Updates in 1.5:
-Fixed hitpoint values for most of the imported ships, including nearly doubling the Athena's shields and armor.
-Karnak now has dock points, fighterbays, and turret paths, thanks to DTP.
-Weapon animations added for those who don't have Freespace. Only one weapon table is needed now.
-Fixed the turrets on the Amun.
-Added credits to Act III, mission 10.
-Fixed a few small bugs in some of the missions.
-Changed campaign to integrate some of the FS1 cutscenes.
-Added an icon for the Karnak installation, and edited the icons table to accommidate it.

Original release 1.0:
-All Freespace ships and weapons added to the FS2 tables.
-Main Freespace campaign converted to FS2.
-PVI Karnak, Fang, Barracuda and Havoc missiles included for use in future campaigns.
-Earth background added for use in the final mission.

=< LEGAL MUMBO-JUMBO >=

All material included herein is copyright 1998-1999 Volition, Inc., Interplay, and THQ. Ported with permission to Freespace 2 by Peter Oliver aka GalacticEmperor. You may use these mods for your own missions, campaigns, and mods on a no-cost non-commercial basis. Hosting provided by Hard Light Productions (http://www.3dap.com/hlp/) No Vasudans were harmed in the making of this Port.

[Stealth]

applauds

[StarGunner]

Originally posted by Stealth
applauds

found first bug ST first mission gos dead after first 20 sec!?

[Nuclear1]

Hooray for Mark Llama's gerbil farm!

[/i]

Watcha been smoking GE? can i have some?

D/Ling port now..

All right... first complaint: "GTF Hercules cannot carry Avenger weaponry"

"Medusa cannot carry Tsunami weaponry"

[Stealth]

Originally posted by StarGunner


found first bug ST first mission gos dead after first 20 sec!?

KNIGHT TEMPLAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

give us some system specs, etc.

[StarGunner]

Originally posted by Stealth


KNIGHT TEMPLAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

give us some system specs, etc.

no need I got the old on to work but not this one??  mission bug maby?

[Stealth]

exactly what mission is it again?

[Knight Templar]

ermm It seemed to work fine for me, GE, alikchi, etc.

You think a problem that obvious i would have missed?

[Stealth]

Originally posted by Knight Templar

You think a problem that obvious i would have missed?

no comment

[Galemp]

Originally posted by nuclear1
[/i]All right... first complaint: "GTF Hercules cannot carry Avenger weaponry"

"Medusa cannot carry Tsunami weaponry"

Make sure you don't have any previously installed mods and/or tables.

[Christoph_Berg]

It seems that mission two is making the same problems as in the last version. (I've written this to you before, Galatic Emperor)

When you play the mission on normal or less difficulty, the Vasudan Ace is not showing up. I think it is, because of a SEXPression operator, where you have to user or instead of and.

And there are not very much asteroids in the field. Some are in a distance of 60.000 units.

[Nuclear1]

Originally posted by GalacticEmperor


Make sure you don't have any previously installed mods and/or tables.

Fixed now. Something was screwy.... once i extracted the TBL for ships and weapons from the VP they worked

Good work, GE (and all Porters..)

[Hudzy]

Love those weapon selection anis

[IncendiaryLemon]

Thanks for update:)

[Raph521]

I just started playing it and it's great, it really brings back those great memories of playin FS1.

Anyway, I have a small problem with the voices.  I tried to copy the files from the FS1 CD to their proper folders in FS2, but I can't get voice acting directly before and after missions (I forget what it's called lol).  I copied the *.vp files listed in the ReadMe to the folders listed, but only get voices inside of missions and between missions.

This is just a minor problem, but it would be nice to have voice acting nonetheless.  Please don't interpret this as a complaint because it definitely isn't.  I am grateful for all of the hard work that went into making this conversion, as many other people are.

[Knight Templar]

Thanks for the complement

About the voices, i'll ask GE when he gets back.

[Lyrnnan]

Great job I was thinking of replaying FS1, but I could no longer bear the graphics and the resolution (640X480, that is so small...)

Anyway, I wanted to drop a message here in order to thank you for you job

Newbie out

[Knight Templar]

Hey Another one!

I didn't know we even had that many lurkers :wink:

Thanks for the complement, and keep an eye out for ST: Reborn soon

:thepimp:

[Lyrnnan]

I cannot say that I am a lurker since I come across HLP only today

ST:Reborn is the ST campaign improved right? I hope the *very* resistant and *very* useless Hades will change

[Knight Templar]

Oh it will, don't you worry . It will.