[jr2]

Will the retail exe run on the p3-version's vp files?

[Taristin]

Yes. But there will be no planets or afterburner trails. It's not in the retail code.

[Selectah]

Yup, Raa's right. It's in the executable, not in the .vp files. The EXE only executes properly on a P3 or PM system. No-one has to date attempted to remove the Pentium 3/M instruction set detection code. For folks who speak Assembler as their second language this would probably be a breeze; substituting JZ/JNZ code with a stream of NOP's, and so on. Perhaps a more constructive way would be to endlessly bug and pester the sweet folks at V to finally release the eye candy to the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free. As an 'update'? A non-supported patch?

Cordially,
-Selectah

[clueless]

i'm surprised more people didn't bug Volition about this in the past. it's a waste. i'm glad i still have a P3 laying around.

[Taristin]

Many did not know that the DVD had such features.

[Selectah]

Be that as it may, I agree with Clueless; it's damn strange anyhow.

[jr2]

clueless

i'm surprised more people didn't bug Volition about this in the past. it's a waste. i'm glad i still have a P3 laying around.

You can go to http://www.volition-inc.com/Contact and the link there (Send a message to Volition...) does work, (I got a response), but the guy who would be doing it is backed up in his work and asked me to give him a couple of months and try my request (for renders & such that they have backed up on tape) again.
So you could ask, but I'd wait 2-4 months.

[Taristin]

Er. Right. Don't expect a request for an 8 year old game to be patched to be taken seriously. Not saying it won't. but really, don't get our hopes up.

[clueless]

i finally managed to get my hands on the fs1 P3OEM DVD. you can tell it's the right DVD if it has "CD-DVD-273-GPE" above the words "Bundled Software" on the face of the disc.

contrary to popular belief, it does work on non-P3 systems. you need to use compatibity mode on all the .exe's in the fs1 folder. i set mine to Windows 95 compatibility. everything in the fs1 p3oem folder is mostly the same as the retail version. a program called FSP3.exe is placed in the fs1 folder. it is that .exe that provides the afterburner trails and planets in the background. you also cannot use the 1.06EAX patch even though 1.06 is the version that is installed (on the bottom right, in the main hall, it states, "v1.06 (Pentium III)" as opposed to a fully patched retail version which reads "v1.06 3DNow! EAX"). the other thing that is different is the root.vp. it includes the planet pics for the backgrounds in some levels and a few different trail effects for some of the missles.

one last thing, you can install "Silent Threat" with the fs1 P3OEM DVD, but it's quite a process. here are the steps:

1. look for the registry key "FreespaceP3OEM". the path is: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Volition/FreespaceP3OEM
2. rename "FreespaceP3OEM" to "Freespace" (do not put the quotation marks)
3. make a copy of Freespace.exe, FS.exe, FSP3.exe, FRED.exe, and the root.vp and put the copies into a separate folder or onto your desktop.
4. run the Silent Threat installer.
5. run the 1.06 patch
6. run the 1.06EAX patch
7. place the Freespace.exe, FS.exe, FSP3.exe, FRED.exe, and root.vp that you placed in a separate folder (or desktop) back into the Freespace folder.
8. go back into the registry and rename "Freespace" to "FreespaceP3OEM" (do not put the quotation marks)
9. extract the ships.tbl from the mdisk.vp
10. open the ships.tbl and add these lines after the line $Score on all ships that can use afterburners:

$Etrail: 100
$EtrailAB: 100

(you may not want to put these lines in the new ships that ST introduces due to possible game instability)

11. create a Tables folder and place the newly edited ships.tbl into it.
12. place the Tables folder into the Data folder.
13. have fun!

i personally would not go through this much trouble since Silent Threat sucks IMHO.

Cheers!

[Taristin]

i finally managed to get my hands on the fs1 P3OEM DVD. you can tell it's the right DVD if it has "CD-DVD-273-GPE" above the words "Bundled Software" on the face of the disc.

contrary to popular belief, it does work on non-P3 systems. you need to use compatibity mode on all the .exe's in the fs1 folder. i set mine to Windows 95 compatibility. everything in the fs1 p3oem folder is the same as the retail version except for this file: FSP3.exe. it is that .exe that provides the afterburner trails and planets in the background. you also cannot use the 1.06EAX patch even though 1.06 is the version that is installed (on the bottom right, in the main hall, it states, "v1.06 (Pentium III)" as opposed to a fully patched retail version which reads "v1.06 3DNow! EAX").

You have a different DVD than I, then. Mine dod not run on anything but a P3; did not have a special fsp3.exe file, nor folder.  For mine, FS.exe was the only executable besides FRED.exe and Freespace.exe

[Turey]

weird. i have the same DVD as Raa, (cause it only has three exe's, but has the trails n stuff) but somehow i got it to work on my P4 with winxp. i'll try to figure out how i did it (i remember having to do something special, but i don't know what) and post here.

[Annorax]

Feel free to ignore this, I'm a non-coder with about no clue how much work this would take, but...

Would it be possible to rip the planet backgrounds and afterburner trails from the .vps, put them into the SCP or FSPort media vps and eventually code them into a new SCP release? This might be a better, easier fix than somehow tweaking a FS1 retail exe... but what would I know?

[StratComm]

P3 code should execute natively on a P4.  The place you'd have trouble would be on install, where the installation program checks processor compatibility.  Once you've got the exe and VPs on disk, and have the necessary registry entries, it should work seamlessly on a newer system.

[Taristin]

P3 code should execute natively on a P4.  The place you'd have trouble would be on install, where the installation program checks processor compatibility.  Once you've got the exe and VPs on disk, and have the necessary registry entries, it should work seamlessly on a newer system.

Ah, but it doesn't check upon install. I installed the FS1 on my Duron system plenty of times. It's when you try to run the app that it stops you.  However, I'm begining to think the program just looks for "Genuine Intel" and "Pentium" to run. So a Pentium M, or a Pentium 4 will run it.

[StratComm]

AMD?  That'd do it, though technically that's unnecessary as well unless they were just trying to enforce the OEM license.

[ZmaN]

AMD?  That'd do it, though technically that's unnecessary as well unless they were just trying to enforce the OEM license.

Pentium 4's and Pentium M's are built off of the original Pentium III processor so it should definitly work.....
AMDs are another story....  Like what was stated before, if it doesnt detect "Intel" or Pentium, then it wont execute...

Id like to find this DVD, maybe even a version for sale on Ebay....

[neoterran]

Pentium Ms are built from the Pentium3 architecture, but Pentium 4's aren't. They were a completely new architecture that just happened to execute x86, x87 and SSE code, but not in the same way that a Pentium3 does. Anyway, i'm sure it's possible to get the special edition to work on any processor that supports SSE going forward, but is it worth the effort ? Freespace 1 port looks pretty good on SCP now.

[Taristin]

FS1 had a much different atmosphere that FS2 cannot emulate.

[Mars]

I wouldn't nessesarily say "cannot", I would say "hasn't yet."

[jr2]

I wouldn't nessesarily say "cannot", I would say "hasn't yet."

-- I concur... it's just a few more modifications away from being done, I think... check the progress of FSPort!