[antar05]

I can't find anything more recent than a year ago, and even THAT refuses to download.

I guess a separate question is whether it's worth it to have FRED2_Open over FRED2...

[Colonol Dekker]

Yes, and its available from spain i mean the SCP website which you can link to from the main HLP page.

[Shade]

Recent builds forum for the latest versions. It's included in the zips.

[antar05]

Thanks. I found it.

[antar05]

Interesting. I have the 2006-03-01 release. It crashes whenever I place a new ship (ship models turned on).

[Colonol Dekker]

You have read the readme i take t?
(you got the latest FS2 open as well?

[antar05]

Ah. I figured it out. I'm a moron, that's all.

I followed the program's advice and ran the thing in HTL mode.

Trouble is, I never bothered to download the high-poly models (my video card can't handle it).

It's all good now.

Thanks, all.

[Colonol Dekker]

You're welcome and

[antar05]

Ha!

Okay, this is awesome!

FS2_Open is worth it, if only JUST for the fact that you can have multiple ships docked to the same installation at once!

[Mars]

If your only problem is your video card, any new one, even a fairly cheap one, wikk be able to run the game moderately well. If you don't have PCI-Express or APG I'd recomend a Radeon 9250, it isn't all that fast, but it's the best you can do with only a PCI slot.

[Trivial Psychic]

Interesting. I have the 2006-03-01 release. It crashes whenever I place a new ship (ship models turned on).

I do not recommend you use any FRED build from early March.  Best to use something more recent than that.  There was a bug in those early March builds which would deny all player commands to any ship.

[jr2]

If your only problem is your video card, any new one, even a fairly cheap one, wikk be able to run the game moderately well. If you don't have PCI-Express or APG I'd recomend a Radeon 9250, it isn't all that fast, but it's the best you can do with only a PCI slot.

How does BFG's FX 5500 OC PCI (256M) compare to the Radeon 9250? http://www.bfgtech.com/5500OC_pci.html

[CP5670]

The 9250 will be significantly better.

[Mars]

I've looked around on the internet, the general consensus is that the 9250 is the best video card you can get for PCI. I've found the 512MB version is the best value, but you can get a 256 for under $100 in some places. 9250's support HTL, get pretty good preformance, and you don't even need to replace your MoBo.

[jr2]

...I'd recomend a Radeon 9250, it isn't all that fast, but it's the best you can do with only a PCI slot.

How does BFG's FX 5500 OC PCI (256M) compare to the Radeon 9250? http://www.bfgtech.com/5500OC_pci.html

The 9250 will be significantly better.

Darn.  I recommended the 5500 to a friend.  Oops.  Oh, well...I liked the factory over-clocked w/ lifetime warranty feature.
PS Where do you find the specs for the 9250?  BFG's are right on their page, but I couldn't find the tech info for the 9250 on ATI's site.

[Mars]

Try newegg.

[jr2]

@Mars: Thx.

Brand BFG Tech Model BFGR55256OCP Interface PCI Chipset Manufacturer NVIDIA GPU Geforce FX5500 Core clock 290MHz (vs. 270MHz standard) PixelPipelines 4 RAMDAC Dual 350MHz -> ( www.bfgtech.com ) Memory Size 256MB Memory Interface 128-bit Memory Type DDR DirectX DirectX 9 OpenGL OpenGL 1.5 D-SUB 1 TV-Out S-Video Out VIVO No Tuner None RAMDAC 350 MHz Max Resolution 2048x1536 Cooler Heatsink and Fan OS Supported Windows 98/ME/NT 4.0/2000/XP P III or Celeron, AMD Duron or Athlon or + with available PCI 2.0 slot 128MB of RAM 35MB available hard disk space (50MB for full installation) CD or DVD-ROM Drive 250 watt minimun recommended power supply Win 98 +, ME, 2000, XP, NT4.0 w/SP 5 or 6 Up to 4 pixels per clock rendering engine Up to 16 textures per pass Digital Vibrance Control 3.0 Microsoft DirectX 9.0 with Vertex Shader 2.0 and Pixel Shader 2.0 Z- correct bump mapping Package Contents Driver CD $59.99

Brand ATI Model 100-436012 Interface PCI Chipset Manufacturer ATI GPU Radeon 9250 Core clock 240MHz PixelPipelines 4 Memory Clock 400MHz Memory Size 256MB Memory Interface 128-bit Memory Type DDR DirectX DirectX 8 OpenGL OpenGL 1.3 D-SUB 1 TV-Out S-Video/Composite Out VIVO No Tuner None RAMDAC 400 MHz Max Resolution 2048x1536@85Hz Cooler Heatsink OS Supported Windows 98/ME/NT 4.0/2000/XP Intel Pentium 4/III/II/Celeron, AMD K6/Duron/Athlon/Athlon XP compatible with PCI bus. 64MB of system memory Installation software requires CD-ROM drive DVD playback requires DVD drive 250-watt power supply or greater Charisma Engine II SmartShader technology SmoothVision HYPER Z II FullStream Video Immersion II Hydravision Package Contents Manual, Driver CD $49.99 - $94.00

@CP5670: What do you think?
EDIT: Included prices from newegg.

[Mars]

Get a 512MB one if you can find it (try circuit city)

[CP5670]

@CP5670: What do you think?

The 5500 is just a slightly higher clocked 5200, which was a bad card even for its time. The 9250 will be somewhat faster in older games and over twice as fast in newer DX9 ones. There are some of those for around $60 on Newegg. Make sure you get one with a 128-bit memory bus; there are a few crippled 64-bit ones there that you want to avoid.

Don't worry about the amount of memory, as anything over 64MB will make no difference on these cards.