[karajorma]

That's pretty much what I said in a less verbose way

What I was basically saying is that the changes ARSPR made would have had no effect because the game was still able to load the file even though technically it's in the wrong folder.

[ShivanSpS]

I still no known why still which this system(/anis,/maps,/models, etc)... if your are working in some diferent models at the same time, is a total mess, you may miss the correct file for earch models in maps.. for esample..., The same happen to any user that install diferent no VP packed stuff..., just imagine a noob user traying to unistall the Lighspeed nebula pack... its just an exsample, that is why I have packed in a .vp the nebula pack in my pack.

[taylor]

That's pretty much what I said in a less verbose way

What I was basically saying is that the changes ARSPR made would have had no effect because the game was still able to load the file even though technically it's in the wrong folder.

Putting a tbl in data rather than data/tables will only work if the tbl in the data directory on the disk, not in a VP.  And if I were to put data back on the cache search list rather than the slow search (to optimize file finding) then it wouldn't even be found then.  And for Linux/OSX, which have multiple data directory locations, it would only work in one of them.  Technically it's an error either way and we need to convey that since at some point this will break for people if the various files are in the wrong place.  That the game can find it now is simply the lack of better optimization.

Anything used as a hud graphic really needs to be in data/hud since if I were to put CF_TYPE_HUD in the search path for opening those files then it will only grab them from data/hud.  There is significant reason for doing that since we could skip over a filename comparison check for 8,000+ files and that would be a LOT faster.  Having it work now should only be considered a fluke since at some point there probably will be stricter control of directory searching.  We've already done this for model maps to avoid loading hud graphics, and we really need to do it for hud graphics to avoid ever loading model maps.  Basically the current method of file searching is a bug, but one that we can't easily fix since it would break file loading for many.  We can get away with it for now but that isn't going to last so it's time to start fixing these file location issues now.

[karajorma]

I fully agree with you there. In fact even without that I would say that it should be fixed simply because it makes it easier to figure out where FS2_Open is getting its data from when modding

[ARSPR]

Thank you, Karajorma and Taylor... (I already knew about folder locations thanks to this thread I started and you answered before: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,39114.msg795577.html#msg795577)

But, can anyone answer my real question?  What does this ani file do within game cos I don't see any difference in missions which use GVF Path?

[WMCoolmon]

The shield quadrants were messed up, IIRC.

[S-99]

Holy ****, dabrains beams are amazing, but is there any way to get them working without the performance hit? And i mean, i want the nice new beam flares not combined with the older hi res beams (that's what the last beam update thingie did). Anyway to like do that? Or would some type of preloading work for me on those? I just don't understand why i should have a slow down with the ani beams when i have 256mb of ddr2 on my graphics card.

[Wanderer]

Are you going to include species_defs.tbl?

[S-99]

Species_defs.tbl shouldn't be necessary. Thruster glows and flares work fine.

[Wanderer]

Nevermind... i just noticed the -sdf.tbm file

[DaBrain]

Holy ****, dabrains beams are amazing, but is there any way to get them working without the performance hit? And i mean, i want the nice new beam flares not combined with the older hi res beams (that's what the last beam update thingie did). Anyway to like do that? Or would some type of preloading work for me on those? I just don't understand why i should have a slow down with the ani beams when i have 256mb of ddr2 on my graphics card.

Do you mean the actual beams, or the glows?

You can get the EFF version of the glows. And there also might be room to optimize the beams. I think the animation of them is way too fast. The frames almost seem to appear random. (depending on your frame rate)
I guess fast animations come with a higher performance drop, than slower animations. Might be worth a try. I'll test this for the next MediaVP.

[WMCoolmon]

Fast animations probably cause more lag than slower ones, because the video card has to load more images from system memory in a given set of time.

[CP5670]

But, can anyone answer my real question? What does this ani file do within game cos I don't see any difference in missions which use GVF Path?

It's for the Bakha, not the Ptah.

[S-99]

I'm pretty sure it's the beams. I've been able to use the new glows with the older beams via a file called MediaVP_update_BG.rar which contains the new beam glows that you put in the effects folder to use (and those were dds). The glows had no performance impact whatsoever with the older beams. The new beams are tons better, they've always been a performance hit, but i never knew why. And i guess i did find out why just now because of the faster animations.

[DaBrain]

Fast animations probably cause more lag than slower ones, because the video card has to load more images from system memory in a given set of time.

It's kinda hard to set up the beam ANI fps. They react like captical ships to animations. In other words: Completely wrong.

[S-99]

I understand, as much as i hate it, i'll go for the sane version of the beams for now. I shouldn't need to, i have a 9800pro 256ddr2 radeon.

[Mike_A36]

First my specs.
Athlon 64 3200
1 gig Ram
160Mb sata hdd
ATI 9800 Pro 128Mb video card
Saitek X36 USB Hotas
Saitek Eclipse Keyboard.

I am using Shivan's Freespace download and replaced the Mediavp's with the downloaded the MediaVP 3.6.8 Zeta's. I removed the advanced effects vp's. I am also using Taylor's latest CVS build.

All game play elements work fine no problems. The only problem I have is I can play one mission just fine all screen elements show up great, when I advance to the next mission the skyboxes are messed up. I think the description is that the textures are artifact (I am still trying to learn to take a screenshot and post the image).

I can reboot the machine and enter the mission then it looks fine but advance to the next mission and same thing happens. All ship models look great it is just the skyboxes (I think that is what they are called) are messed up. Again I am not using the Advanced Effects VP's.

I only experiance brief stutter now and then when things blow but only for a second or two.

I am not looking for a solution cause I figure it is the small ram amount on the video card I am just reporting on what is happening on my machine.

Otherwise I am completely blown away by the visuals in this game. I still cannot believe what you guys have accomplished with this game.

Thank you for your time and effort in making one of my favorite games even better.

Mike_A36 Out.

[ARSPR]

All game play elements work fine no problems. The only problem I have is I can play one mission just fine all screen elements show up great, when I advance to the next mission the skyboxes are messed up. I think the description is that the textures are artifact (I am still trying to learn to take a screenshot and post the image).

I can reboot the machine and enter the mission then it looks fine but advance to the next mission and same thing happens. All ship models look great it is just the skyboxes (I think that is what they are called) are messed up. Again I am not using the Advanced Effects VP's.

Can you check if this (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,39842.msg812137.html#msg812137) is what you're seeing?

Maybe it's some kind of bug nevertheless. Keep tuned so you can give some more info if Taylor, (the main OGL guy), or any other SCP member, asks for it.

[Mike_A36]

Yes that looks like what I'm seeing but it is not with the ships but with the nebula backgrounds. The planets and suns show up fine.

[ARSPR]

The shield quadrants were messed up, IIRC.

It's for the Bakha, not the Ptah.

Thank you for the info. I have just learned how shield graphs work looking inside sparky_fs2.vp.

Just till now, I thought that this ani was some kind of effect for showing the stealth technology on Path. (Path and Bakha are very similar).