[Goober5000]

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for... almost nine months after the last official release and six months after the code freeze began... it's the OFFICIAL fs2_open v3.6 release thread™!

As a special treat for you all, we're pleased to announce the first incarnation of the SCP Install Program.  This should take you through the steps to setting up the registry, installing the program and the media VPs, and generally making things much easier for the unwashed masses. Everybody thank Fractux for all his hard work putting this together.
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/FS2Open_3_6-Installer.exe

For those of you who want to install everything manually, here are the individual components:

The build...
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/fs2_open_3_6.exe
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/fs2_open_3_6_debug.exe

EDIT: These links are all dead.   A new Windows build has been uploaded at http://scp.indiegames.us/builds/WIN/fs2_open_3_6.zip

The launcher...
http://www.randomtiger.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/freespace/Launcher5.rar
PLEASE NOTE: Everyone using the launcher should download this update.  FSO v3.6 is not compatible with prior versions of the launcher.

The media VPs...
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,16418.0.html

FRED isn't quite up to speed yet, but we hope to have it released shortly.

Consult the Wiki (especially the SCP Manual) if you have any questions.  If you can't find an answer there, then post here and someone should be along to help you out.  If you find a bug, report it using Mantis.

And just as a small bonus, we've hacked together some quick fixes for the end-of-mission message crash bug and the Y targeting crash bug.  These aren't permanent fixes, but they'll let you play the game while we continue to work on them in the background.

Oh, and the code freeze is now officially lifted.

EDIT: For anyone interested, this build includes text-to-speech support.  You'll need to enable it with the Launcher to hear it.

EDIT2: Added engine failure note.

EDIT3: Per karajorma's suggestion, I rolled back the source to the 3.6 release tag, fixed the engine bug, and uploaded the result.  Both the standalone 3.6 build and the installer should now have the engine bug fixed.

Old 3.5.5 thread

[jdjtcagle]

YAY!!!!!!!!!!

That installer is pretty cool

[jdjtcagle]

Problem with the laucher: The mod tag doesn't work.

Problem wit 3.6:  I can't enter the campaign room... the game crashes with a error

[nall]

the launcher link is dead or wrong...

[Moonsword]

Let's cut them some slack.  They're probably all drunk at the SCP 3.6 release party or something...



Glad to have this out, now to see how quickly I can break it.

[Fractux]

jdjtcagle - do you have the HOTU version of FS2?

nall, which launcher link, the on that's placed on the desktop? Look at the properties and tell me what's there, and also where you installed the game.

[jdjtcagle]

No...

[Moonsword]

Actually, I think he means the link to the launcher file in the post above.  I just noticed the same thing.

[Fractux]

Just asking, because I had the same problem a while ago with the MOD tag not working, but I had the HOTU version installed.

I got my hands on retail FS2, and after I installed that, it worked fine.

Also, the registry setup for the HOTU version is different, and people who had downloaded that, and not a full install, may run into problems.

I had a totally different problem a little while ago with regard to the command line options, and maybe this could solve your problem, but I'm reacing out on a limb here cause i've no clue about the actual functioning of the launcher. Try this, delete the launcher.ini, and the flags.lch file, and see if that does anything.

[jdjtcagle]

No luck...

[Fractux]

Well, then I'll leave that up to someone who know what's actually going on there. Because I had that problem, but, like I said before, it went away after  I reinstalled.

To get around it for now, just type in the '-mod DIRECTORY' in the custom flags box.

[WMCoolmon]

Try this link for Launcher 5.0, it's from RT's sig.

[karajorma]

This is good news Downloading

[jdjtcagle]

Originally posted by Fractux
Well, then I'll leave that up to someone who know what's actually going on there. Because I had that problem, but, like I said before, it went away after  I reinstalled.

To get around it for now, just type in the '-mod DIRECTORY' in the custom flags box.

That works, but then how do I switch campaigns??

WMCoolmon:  Nope, if no one else has this problem, I'll probally reinstall sometime.  But, if it helps I get an "Mod directory cant contain space error" but, that has never stop it from working

[Rictor]

Error:
Freespace2/Fred2 cannot be run from a drive root directory!

and also

Fatal Error:
Failed to read flag file
___

I get both when I open the launcher.exe. After these error, the launcher does open, but in the "Features" section, the Flag area is empty, with the three pull-down menus (Easy setup, Custom flags and List type also being empty).

The directory I am running this from is C:/Games/Freespace2

FS2_open_3_6.exe works fine, its just that I get no shinemaps (and who knows what else), which I am guessing is because my flags are all empty, which amounts to having none of the new features enabled.

Win98 SE, Athlon 1600+, 256 mb ram, S3 ProSavage DDR (onboard vid card)

I'll try to re-install and report back.

[jdjtcagle]

I used the Debug and got this when trying to enter the campaign room

Assert: strlen(fname) < MAX_FILENAME_LEN
File: E:\Languages\Visual Studio Projects\Visual C++\fs2_open\code\Mission\MissionCampaign.cpp
Line: 345

Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
    campaign_room_campaign_filter()    cf_get_file_list()    campaign_room_init()    game_enter_state()    gameseq_set_state()    game_process_event()    gameseq_process_events()    WinMainSub()    WinMain()    WinMainCRTStartup()    kernel32.dll 77e814c7()
------------------------------------------------------------------

[Moonsword]

Okay, when you exit the lancher, any custom flags you might have entered (-nohtl in my case, since my adapter doesn't handle HTl very well) are stuck in there, and you can't remove them, as they're no longer editable!

[Rictor]

the problem went away with a quick re-install, I really should have done that before I posted here. However, I am not getting some wierdness with the spec maps. Some ships, most actually, are uber-bright, as if they have no spec maps whatsoever. There are several different types of Teh Wierdness. The Myrmidon for example looks like the texture is behind an 70% white layer. The Hecate lhas almost all of its textures totally white, and looks very shiny, which the Myrm does not.

I have enabled all graphical flags except the last one "stop fog intersecting hull", though I also tried turning several of the likely culprits off (mipmapping, cell shading, jpg & tga textures and so on), but to no avail.

[jdjtcagle]

-ambient_factor 85

Should fix the brightness

[Fractux]

Originally posted by Moonsword
Okay, when you exit the lancher, any custom flags you might have entered (-nohtl in my case, since my adapter doesn't handle HTl very well) are stuck in there, and you can't remove them, as they're no longer editable!

If you find that a command is stuck and you can`t edit it out, delete the 'launcher.ini' and 'flags.lch' file. Then restart the launcher.

@ Rictor - yup some ships do look very bright with spec  mapping on. Use -ambient_factor as was suggested already, and adjust it as much as you can.

That`s why we`re all waiting on Lightspeed's shinemaps 2.0, which will sort out these problems.

Cheers!