[Silent Warrior]

As of late, when I decide to shake a stick at the latest SCP-releases, the game starts to load, sitting at the start-up screen for bloody eternity, and load and load and load... Nothing further, y'honour. Doesn't get past that point. Doesn't even register in the errorlog. WTF! SOS!
I have just about every conceivable command-line tickmark option-thingy enabled that's supposed to make the game look all neat and shiny. And play well enough. The only mod I'm trying is one of my music-mods.


*Cartman-mode* INEEDMYFIX,DAMMIT!

[phreak]

start turning them off until it works.  since you didn't post the command line list, then i can't help you other than that

[karajorma]

Run FS2_open only. Remove the media.vp(s) and make sure your data folder is empty of mods (Probably simpler just to rename the old one and just make a new one).

If that works we know that it's not FS2_Open itself.

If it doesn't post your system specs.

[kasperl]

Can you copy and paste your command line?

What VP's are in your FS dir?

As Kara said, please post your system specs.

[Nuke]

make sure yr firewall software isint interfering with fsopen, i had that problem for awhile. especially when you update to a new fsopen version. be sure you clear the exe with the firewall.

[Silent Warrior]

[Edit] IDEA! I just tried to access the registry-tab, and the launcher said there was an error, cancelling, and then there was the tab. Could this be the one?

First, the list of command-lines: C:\Games\FreeSpace2\fs2_open_7-1-04.exe -spec -glow -pcx32 -jpgtga -ship_choice_3d -targetinfo -nomotiondebris -snd_preload -d3d_no_vsync -loadonlyused -dnoshowvid -fps  -ambient_factor 0.39 -mod FLMusmod

Take that! All should be tried and true (the noshowvid was added in case that was the problem). I removed all the options that were new to me for testing once (the texture and lighting-stuff was allowed to stay) - no luck.

VPs:
mv_core_a.vp
mv_effects.vp
mv_hiplanets.vp
mv_models.vp
mv_speffects.vp
mv_textures.vp
All standard FS2-VPs and sparkee.vp (insanely-high-res?)

No firewall that I can configure (if there's a firewall, it's most likely with my ISP). System specs:
ASUS P4T-E
Pentium 4 2.0 GHz
512 Mb RDRAM (PC2700?)
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128 Mb, Catalyst 4.4
Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 5.1
DVD and CD-R
Wingman Force 3D, software v4.40.

Proceeding to try a *sniff* stripped FS2_Open...

[Update] Uh-huh. It's something with the exe. The recent builds (26/6 and onwards) didn't look very lively, but 3.6 worked just fine with everything turned off. Will try turning everything back on...

[kasperl]

sparkee is FSport, IIRC. (512^2 texes for FS1 ships, if I'm really not mistaken.)

The firewall thing is complete nonsense, unless you're running anything like an auto-update thingy from the launcher or multiplayer.

[Taristin]

I get that registry error too... dunno why.

[Silent Warrior]

Yep, 3.6 works like a charm. If a bit tough, since I actually have to be a decent pilot to be able to jump out...

[mrduckman]

I'm still trying to choose which of the latest builds is the more stable

[Nuke]

Originally posted by kasperl
The firewall thing is complete nonsense, unless you're running anything like an auto-update thingy from the launcher or multiplayer.

not realy, what happens is when freespace querys the network the firewall (ependoing on what you use) may give out a popup that asks the user to give authorization for the program to use the network. causing freespace to loose process priority. windows stalls freespace and the game hangs. it has nothing to do with freespace, but how windows gives process priority to whatever program is on top. it used to happen to me when i used macaffe firewall. im useing zone alarm now and it doesnt hapen any more.

[Bobboau]

ok try 3.6 (not one of my experimental builds) with just -spec, -glow, and -jpgtga

[Silent Warrior]

Bobboau: I've tried 3.6 with everything and then some turned on. No problem there. Except for drooping framerates.

Hm... I suppose there was something else as well... There was an error-message about a missing icon in either briefing.tbl or hud.tbl. I've had alerts about missing briefing-icons before, and it doesn't seem like much of a problem as the game goes on, but it would be quite alright to fix it.

[Bobboau]

that could defenately be the cause of your problems, if you have altered game data remove it and see if everything works as it should, if it works without the mod data then it's probly bad mod data.

[kasperl]

Originally posted by Nuke


not realy, what happens is when freespace querys the network the firewall (ependoing on what you use) may give out a popup that asks the user to give authorization for the program to use the network. causing freespace to loose process priority. windows stalls freespace and the game hangs. it has nothing to do with freespace, but how windows gives process priority to whatever program is on top. it used to happen to me when i used macaffe firewall. im useing zone alarm now and it doesnt hapen any more.

Nuke: Where does FS acces the network/internet when NOT using multi or an auto-update function?

[WMCoolmon]

At the very beginning, right before the pilot screen appears.

If you've got a debug build, run it in windows mode and watch the output window, it should be pretty evident.

[kasperl]

Oh.

Is that healthy?

[Bobboau]

wait I just reread this and realized the problem was super slow loading time on my recent builds, everything that has index buffers in it is going to have signifigantly slower load times becase every model loaded needs to be converted on the fly to a slightly diferent format, if you have HTL models (such as the finres) it can take an unbeleiveably long time (up to 30 seconds just for that one ship) eventualy we're going to need to upgrade the model format, but untill we do you're going to just have to bare with it.

[Silent Warrior]

Well, as far as I could tell, we're dealing with MINUTES here (on a machine that should keep it under ONE minute, unless it's a whooooole lotta stuff going on). Still, that would explain things - a whole bunch of HD-activity for most of that time.
But the new builds are ok, then? Is there some option I should stay away from?

I'll look over my tbls now.
Nope, nothing modded in data/tables except the hud_gauges.tbl I believe we got with a recent SCP-build. No mods active... Strange. Missing briefing icon... Weirdness.

[Update] No luck with yesterday's build, or whatever it was. Chugged/stalled along merrily for a good 15-20 minutes, and no change. Grr! I need that Jump-out-even-at-Very-Easy-fix!

[Silent Warrior]

Just so everyone knows, I just reinstalled FS2 and everything that went with it. Ran a stripped-down version of the most recent build (fs2open_C07102004.exe or something), and it seems to work now.

Lesson: When something that should damn well work doesn't work at all, reinstall.