[General Freak]

I'm kind of stuck on the first Freespace 2 campaign mission (Surrender, Belisarius), not because it's hard, but because when I get to the end... and Hatshepsut destroys Belarius with its beams... FSO completely crashes, taking Windows down with it, forcing me to restart. I haven't been able to recover Windows once.

This bug happens EVERY time I play the mission. I've seen a previous thread about a similar problem (basically, the thread creator wrote that every time a capital ship fired a beam, his FSO crashed). The solutions to that bug, however, involved using all the latest versions of the Launcher, Freespace, etc, which I got. I couldn't find anything else on the forums, nor was it on the Mantis FSO bug site.

The strange thing though, is that the bug ONLY happens when the beam is in my view. If I turn away from Belisarius, Hatshepsut and Hatshepsut's beam a few seconds before the beam is fired, nothing wrong happens. Belisarius gets destroyed and I can continue. If I choose to fly my ship so that the beam is in view again, everything crashes. What I'm really concerned about is that I don't want to turn away every time a beam is fired! What is it? A Medusa?

I got Launcher 5.2, FSO 3.6 and the following media VP files:
mv_core
mv_core_a (not sure what this is...)
mv_effects
mv_models
mv_textures
mv_adveffects
mv_hiplanets

My computer specs are:
Win XP Professional, SP2
AMD Athlon 750mhz (748mhz according to System information)
384MB memory
Nvidia Riva TNT2 Model64 32MB memory (supports AGP)
Direct X 9 (although the Launcher can only detect Direct X 8 for some reason)

I've tried a lot with the Launcher Graphics' flags, from using none of them (default Freespace 2) to all. I've found out that the game will run smoothly with none of the flags on (except -jpgtga which, if off, will not let me see any of the ship's textures). I haven't tried -nobeampierce under Gameplay, but since FSO and Windows crashes every time I witness the first beam from Hatshepsut, I prefer to just wait for some answers. Thanks in advance.

[Kie99]

Have you tried without the MediaVPs?

[redmenace]

And your video card might be the cause. I think we have dropped support for the TNT2.

[karajorma]

If you have mv_Core_a that suggests that you're also using old media vp files.

The latest ones are in the 3.6.6 Media VP launch thread (or on the SCP website).

[taylor]

That's a known crash and it is video card related.  We have dropped support for the TNT2 so this won't be fixed.  You could still play without any MediaVPs and in software mode but support for that may not exist too much longer either.

[WMCoolmon]

Try using the -nohtl command line.

[DreAdFaq]

I've had the game crash in the same place, though my personal guess is/was that it was caused by the explosion of the belisarius rather than the beam.

I managed to at least complete that mission by running in OpenGL mode with the -nohtl flag.

[General Freak]

@redmenace and taylor: You say that you've dropped support for TNT2. What does that mean, and what exactly will go wrong? The rest of the game seems to be running fine.

@Coolmon: I've tried -nohtl, but it makes me crash the moment an NTF Hercules comes into my viewscreen. This time I just get thrown out of Freespace, nothing else.

Anyway, I'm now pretty sure I have the 3.6.5 versions of all the VP files because I downloaded them all from the Freespace wiki links. According to the wiki, the latest version is 3.6.5. D'oh. So who updates that page?

Can I just delete all of the VP files I listed above, download the new VP files and install them, or is it safe to just let those old files be over-written? And what about mv_core_a?

EDIT: Where's the graphics for the smiley?

[redmenace]

It means that TNTs might get some of the features to work, but since it is such an old card and is not HTL capable we don't even bother fixing any issues that are specific to it. The same goes for INTEL graphics chips and SIS.

[General Freak]

Ok, thanks.


Hmm... I don't understand. On the FSCP site, the media VP files are version 3.6.6 but the FS2 open installer is 3.6.5. It has a mv_core.vp file. Is that version 3.6.5 or 3.6.6? I'm really confused. :S

EDIT: Also, this does not make sense. In the FS open installer setup screen, the system requirements read: '* 16 MB video card with DirectX 5 compatible driver. Recommend at least 32 MB TNT2.(will work with the bare minimum of features although there have been some issues.)' If TNT2 isn't supported, why is it a recommendation? :/ (Yes, it does say that there are issues, but there's nothing under the 'KNOWN ISSUES 3.6.5' section).

[Dark RevenantX]

To fix it, remove SCP.  It is just about the only way.
Or, you can get a Radeon 9600 for a great price!

[redmenace]

Originally posted by General Freak
Ok, thanks.


Hmm... I don't understand. On the FSCP site, the media VP files are version 3.6.6 but the FS2 open installer is 3.6.5. It has a mv_core.vp file. Is that version 3.6.5 or 3.6.6? I'm really confused. :S

EDIT: Also, this does not make sense. In the FS open installer setup screen, the system requirements read: '* 16 MB video card with DirectX 5 compatible driver. Recommend at least 32 MB TNT2.(will work with the bare minimum of features although there have been some issues.)' If TNT2 isn't supported, why is it a recommendation? :/ (Yes, it does say that there are issues, but there's nothing under the 'KNOWN ISSUES 3.6.5' section).

Fractux hasn't been around to update the installer. But I might get ahold of him for the next release. The reason for the difference is that we never made a 3.6.6 release of fs2_open but the vps were update with new materials.

That might have been a fluke on my part concerning the readme. It is not recommended but a minimum requirement but will be revised because of recent changes.  Have you tried a recent build while running the no-htl command line arg?

[Sheepy]

i had this problem, i tured out it was my sound settings in the launcher, take a peek at that.

[General Freak]

@Sheepy: Sound settings? Audio? Hmmm... I had -snd_preload on. I'll check on that, because uninstalling SCP is not something I want to do just yet. Hmm..does one of the problems with TNT2 and SCP involve randomly and spontaneously crashing Direct X, forcing me to use OpenGL and restart Windows and Direct X? I was just about to see if that -snd_preload thing was causing the beam/ship explosion bug, bug never got to it.

@redmenace: What recent build do you mean? I got the 3.6.6 VP files and 3.6.5 of SCP. I've tried running -nohtl with both Direct X and OpenGL, but SCP crashes every time I click on the 'start mission door'. At least I think that's what happened...I'm going to have to test that again, after a restart.

[redmenace]

http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=97

[General Freak]

None of the executables I downloaded will work. When I open them, they just show a black screen for a few seconds, then exit. Also, the bug I experienced with the beams is caused by the explosion of the Belisarius, and not the beams. The bug is still there, despite me moving all of the VP files out of the Freespace 2 directory. Also, when I run the retail version of Freespace, I can't run any missions. It asks for CD 2, but I got the HOTU version of Freespace.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by General Freak
Also, when I run the retail version of Freespace, I can't run any missions. It asks for CD 2, but I got the HOTU version of Freespace.

Follow the link below to my FAQ and on the download page you'll find the HotU crack pack. Unrar it and stick everything in your FS2 folder.

End of problem (hopefully)

[redmenace]

You can get a HTL capable card for cheep.

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by General Freak
@Coolmon: I've tried -nohtl, but it makes me crash the moment an NTF Hercules comes into my viewscreen. This time I just get thrown out of Freespace, nothing else.

Try not using mv_models (and maybe mv_textures if that still doesn't work)

SCP crashes every time I click on the 'start mission door'. At least I think that's what happened...I'm going to have to test that again, after a restart.

Try without mv_music or with a newer build.

[General Freak]

@Coolmon: Nothing has changed. All the VP files are outside of the Freespace directory, as I've already said. Things are better with OpenGL, but none of the nebulae or planet images are loaded. Without -nohtl, OpenGL won't let me load any missions inside a ship, but the briefings work. Isn't there some kind of SCP-light, where the only new features available is multiplayer support, but the rest is just normal, retail Freespace?

EDIT: Nevermind. Although I still can't view the explosion of Belisarius properly in Direct X mode, I can now use OpenGL without -nohtl.

EDIT 2: Ok, I've found the reasons why SCP crashed in OpenGL mode, without -nohtl. These VP files are refusing to behave, for me:
mv_adeffects
mv_effects
mv_hiplanets

mv_models causes enemy ships (the Hercules in mission 1, at least) to appear like Micromachines Freespace.