[Beowulf]

Does someone want to fix the afterburner bug?

I for one would *really* appreciate it!


~Beowulf

[Sticks]

Yes, this is of course enough information.



What bug is this again? When does it occur? System specs?

[Beowulf]

Well, if someone is really going to try...

Afterburns will not fire, they just make the noise that signals they are depleted. Energy transfer system works, however.

I've heard of two instances, on XP (which is apparently easy enough to fix), and in my rare case.

Win2000 Professional, Asus P4P800 Deluxe, Pentium 4 - 2.8Ghz, 2 x 512Mb Dual Channel DDR, ATI 9800 All-In-Wonder Pro, DirectX 9.0

Don't know what else you need.

[Sticks]

When does this happen? In every mission?

[Beowulf]

Yes.

[Sticks]

Intermittently or all the time? Are your keys the default config? If not, what key/button are you using to use afterburners?

[Beowulf]

All the time, every time. I have it mapped on default right now, but I tried mapping it to different keys but to no avail. The afterburners will not fire no matter what I do. It's as simple as that.

So lots of CMs and lots of prayer.

[Sticks]

Any mods installed?

[karajorma]

I've seen this problem reported a few times. Here's what I put in my FAQ about it.

I'M PLAYING FS2 AND THE AFTERBURNER/ENERGY TRANSFER SYSTEM HAS STOPPED WORKING

This is an odd one. All the cases I've seen of it so far have occured on Windows XP and it's likely that some change in a recent update is causing it. The problem can be solved by running FS2 in compatability mode. Open up your Freespace folder and look for FS2.exe. Make a short cut for this file and position it wherever you like (Desktop or Startmenu). Right click on icon and choose properties. Click on the Compatability tab and choose which ever mode you like (I've heard that Windows 95 works best but you might find otherwise). Use the icon to run FS2 from now on.

The fact that using compatability mode fixes the problem points to it not being cause by mods or corruption of any of the FS2 files. It definately looks like a problem in the FS2 code itself.
 I've heard of the bug affecting the ETS system too a couple of times and both times the afterburn bug was also present.
 Obviously XP isn't that huge a problem since there is a work around but if it's affecting 2k as well there is a problem since 2k users can't use compatability mode.

[SadisticSid]

Yes they can. 2000 also has a compatibility mode, although I think the tab only appears when applied to shortcuts, not the EXEs themselves.

[karajorma]

Aha. That might be the solution then

[Admiral Nelson]

Hi folks,
I'd like to report that I have the identical problem. Pressing either the joystick afterburner button or the tab key just plays the afterburner shutdown noise. I notice if I am stopped, holding the button down will increase the throttle, but the afterburner never comes on.
Windows 2000 SP4
P4 2.8 GHz
1 GB RAM
ATI 9800 Pro

To the point about the shortcut -- when I start FS2 I am actually starting the launcher and not Freespace itself. I presume to set the compatibility properties of the shortcut to the FS2 exe itself, I would need to be able to figure out what command line the launcher concatenates together.

Thank you for any advice or help!!

[karajorma]

Yeah. Until Random Tiger finishes his changes to FS2_open so that it always uses the command line set in the launcher you won't be able to fix FS2_open problems in this way (He may have already done this though. I haven't kept up to date on this).

FS2 retail however should be easy to fix as it doesn't commonly use any command line options so just making a shortcut to the fs2.exe (NOT the freespace2.exe as that is the launcher) should solve the problem.

[RandomTiger]

Originally posted by karajorma
Yeah. Until Random Tiger finishes his changes to FS2_open so that it always uses the command line set in the launcher you won't be able to fix FS2_open problems in this way (He may have already done this though. I haven't kept up to date on this).

Just done that, will be avalible as of v3.0 http://mysite.freeserve.com/thomaswhittaker/c_code/freespace/Launcher.rar
However any version of the launcher shows you the full list of command params it puts together.

[karajorma]

Yeah. I knew it did that but I didn't know how to get the exe to use it Isn't their some configuration file it uses or something?

Not that it matters now that the Launcher does it cause that is a more sensible way to alter the file.

[RandomTiger]

No, its always been usable by shortcut

[Beowulf]

I don't understand what you guys mean by shortcuts. I made them, checked them, still no compatability settings or luck.  

~Beo

[IceFire]

Ok do this:

1) Open Windows Explorer
2) Find FreeSpace 2's directory
3) Find FS2.exe (or the FS Open EXE)
4) Right click, create shortcut
5) Cut that shortcut (Crtl X while shortcut icon is selected)
6) Paste the shortcut on your desktop (Crtl V)
7) Right click on the shortcut you just put on the desktop
8) Click on the third tab labled "Compatability"
9) Check "Run this program in compatability mode".  Set it for Win98 I would think (that should do the trick)


Now you're good to go.

This is all done in Windows XP (Home or Pro).  Windows 2000 does it a tad bit differently.

[Beowulf]

Originally posted by IceFire
This is all done in Windows XP (Home or Pro).  Windows 2000 does it a tad bit differently.

You're right... because I seemingly can't do it at all. Unless Microsoft went out of their way to hide compatability mode on Win2000 I *really* doubt it exists.

[RandomTiger]

On-one should be having to use compatibility options.
If this is happening without the htl flag its a bug and needs to be fixed.

Strange workarounds are not a good idea.