[rcrph]

For me the learning curve must be a vertical line.  I am trying to activate the HTL mode. I've read at the Oracle that you just add "-fredhtl" at the end of the target box in the launcher but am unable to activate it.  The error message is that the "C:\Program Files\THEBAB~1\fred2_open_r-20060301.exe"-fredhtl specified in the Target box is not valid. Make sure  the path and file name are correct.

I am using fred2_open_r-20060301.exe and fs2_open_r-20060301 and launcher5.

What am I missing ?? (besides functioning brain cells)

[karajorma]

Space between the name and the -fredHTL entry?

[rcrph]

Kara you rock !!  Thanks for the help !!

[rcrph]

Dang, I was experimenting with a mission using an EA Olympus and I'm finding that some of the textures are absent.  Well, I assume it's the textures since some of the sides of the ship are missing (but you still can collide with the area.)  Obviously, I've messed something up but no error message is displayed.  I'm using FS2_open_r-20060301. Is there something I need to flag besides fred ??

[Trivial Psychic]

You'd probably want -jpgtga as well, but which TBP Base install are you using?  3.2?  3.3?  3.3a?

[rcrph]

I'm using TBA 3.3a

[Trivial Psychic]

How did you install the 3.3a patch?  I only ask because I've found people who've installed it incorrectly.

Another thing, I don't advise you to use 2006/03/01 to FRED with.  There's a bug which turns off all player orders to all classes of ships.  Missions will still play fine on 03/01 if the mission was created using an earlier FRED, but if you actually create a mission with 03/01, you're in for a problem.

[rcrph]

The patch shows up in a folder in my THEBAB~ directory. And I freely admit that all the version of fred2_open and FSO have me now thoroughly confused.  (OUCH, I think I just shorted out another neuron) 

[Trivial Psychic]

So you extracted the contents of the 3.3a patch RAR file, to the "c:\Program Files\The Babylon Project" (or wherever you have the program installed) directory?  There is a readme included with the path, as well as several FSO and FRED builds.  The readme explains what each different included build is best for, and how to make it work.  The newest included build is 2006/01/09, and is probably the most bug-free for TBP's purposes.  Builds newer than this are not good.  Except for some of the very latest builds, all builds since 01/09 have a major turret bug, which severly imballances gameplay.  Of those that have this bug fixed, most require further changes to the turret animation code, which aren't always consistant.  To avoid a headache, stick to the 2006/01/09 build for now.

Just a thought regarding the Olympus bug... you don't have a copy of olympus.pof sitting in your models directory do you?

[rcrph]

The olympus.pof is 411kb with a date stamp of 01/17/106 04:15  BTW, thanks for your all of your help so far.

[Trivial Psychic]

I'm assuming from your response, that the model file is within the VP and not extracted from the VP into the models folder.  There goes that theory .  I made a few changes to the model last year.  When FSO started becoming more picky about the dimensions of map and effect files in DDS format, I went through TBP looking to find and fix DDS files prone to this problem.  I found that the map file for the side of the Olympus was of improperly sized, so I found an original pcx copy, resied it and reconverted it to DDS.  However, I also found that there was another version of the map included with TBP, that was of higher res, that the model wasn't using.  So I found an original for that and resized and reconverted it.  I then changed the modelfile so it would use the higher res file.  I don't think I included the lower res version in the patch, as it was not necessary, so if you had an older copy of olympus.pof sitting in your \data\models folder (outside of any VP), it might be overriding the one included with the patch and trying to reference the older and improperly-sized DDS map file, that would have been in B5-Core-3_2.vp and by extension B5-Core-3_3.vp (which is renamed after you install the 3.3 upgrade).

[rcrph]

I don't have a models file outside of the VP. Would it be possible for you to upload your pof so that I could somehow replace the one that I have.  But then again, I may be doing something stupid in the way I have the files organized.  You mentioned in an earlier post about a -jpgtga flag.  Where would I insert this flag, in the launcher browse line ?? 

[rcrph]

Hmmmm,   seems that some of the Mimbari vessels also suffer from a similar texture problem.  The Sharlin and the Tinashi  I've extracted the ships-adv tables from the patch into a folder I created labeled tables and renamed the table by eliminating the -adv.  It's strange that these few vessels don't display properly but the rest of the ships do.  Any other suggestions, plz ???

[Trivial Psychic]

OK, this is sounding like the patch isn't actually installed.  The patch includes the properly resized maps for the ships you've mentioned.  You should also experience this with the G.O.D. Sat, the Drazi Firehawk, and the lower LODS of the different Aurora variants.  I want to make absolutely sure.  In the c:\Program Files\The Babylon Project\ directory (assuming you installed the game there), you should have the following VP's (as well as others but they aren't important for this situation) B5-Core-3_3.vp, and just above that (assuming you've properly installed the patch and you've got your directory displaying in alphabetical order) B5-A-Patch-3.3a.VP.  If you have these 2 files properly installed, and you're still seeing missing textures on ships, here's one last thing I can think of.  Open the FS2 launcher and select the "features" tab, then under the "list type" option, select "Troubleshoot".  Scroll down to the "don't use cached index buffers (IBX)" option and check that box.  Run the game and open one of the offending models in the techroom or in the lab.  You'll notice that it takes longer to render, as its creating an ibx on the fly for all models you're viewing.  If the models appear as normal, then the ibx file that its been using is corrupt somehow.  In that event, exit the program and find the ibx for the offending model file in the "data\cache" directory, and delete it.  Then, reopen either the game (once you've unchecked the no-IBX box) or FRED and attempt to view that model again.  It should then be viewable properly.  If you got the errors even with IBX caching disabled, then I'm stumped.

[rcrph]

HA !!  You are a genius.  Woohoo !!  I am in awe of your awesome powers of reason and deduction.  My sincere thanks for your time in helping me resolve the problem.  You are the man !!!

[StratComm]

It should be noted that IBX caching is very important for loading speeds to be sane, so if that was the problem then try cleaning out your data/cache directory (the files in there are essentially temp files so deleting them doesn't hurt anything) and seeing if it's still an issue.  There have been issues with IBX generation on non-Windows platforms recently that could be indicitive of a larger problem, but if that's the case it should be known so it can be fixed.

[Trivial Psychic]

HA !!  You are a genius.  Woohoo !!  I am in awe of your awesome powers of reason and deduction.  My sincere thanks for your time in helping me resolve the problem.  You are the man !!!

Good to hear.  That means I'm 2 for 2.  Out of curiosity, what WAS the problem?  Was it simply that the patch VP wasn't there, or was it the ibx thing?

[Slasher]

Since we're on the subject, does anyone else have a stuttering problem when they look at certain ships in the tech room?  The Omega is the biggest offender that I can think of. 

[Goober5000]

Since we're on the subject, does anyone else have a stuttering problem when they look at certain ships in the tech room?

Why, because we're speechless at the beauty of the HTL ships?

[madaboutgames]

Since we're on the subject, does anyone else have a stuttering problem when they look at certain ships in the tech room? The Omega is the biggest offender that I can think of.

Ive come accross that bug.  It happened when I installed the 3.3a patch.  I generally turn of speech for tech room, but I turned it on after installing the patch.