[Christopherger]

Hi,
I saw number of posts confirming this, but just wanted to double check with the latest builds of the Open FS...

I am getting mint copies of FS 1 plus the add ons and FS2 for my collection and to start my journey in FreeSpace Universe, then plan to upgrade with the community build ...

I have an AMD 3300 2.5 ghz~ set up with 400 GB Hrd Drive, 1.5 GB RAM, GeForce 6600 with 256 RAM, Audigy 2 ZS Snd Card, with XP SP2, will this run FS1 and 2 vanilla in 98 Compatability mode (for the afterburner problem) well, as well as running the latest build of the Open?  I had a strange crash with a previous install of FS2 which locked up my whole system and so wanted to start over just in case.

Thanks for all the great work here reviving this classic and I have worked to be ready to start the campaigns, and will indeed upgrade to the great improved game being created here, but I wanted to at least see the original as so far all I have seen is a bit of the demo for FS1. Thanks.

Also does anyone have a recomendation for a joystick conroller? I dont have one but figure it is probably necessary. Thansk

EDIT:
The software dealer who found me a copy of FS2 sent the following notes to me and I wondered if the problem one of his clients noted may occur for me:

RE FS2

"It is old game published in 2000 but windows XP and Windows 2000 are ok to play, those 3 old original CD
are in good condition, OK to install and play.
It check hardware for old Glide or Direct3D hardware accleration card.

System requirement:
Pentium 200
32 meg RAM
8x CD-ROM
Hardware Acceleration Card; G200, G400, Banshee, Voodoo 1, Voodoo 2, Voodoo
3, Savage 4, TNT, TNT2, Ati Rage Fury, Ati Rage 128, or Ati Rage Fury/Expert.
400MB Hard Drive Space
DirectSound Compatable Sound Card
Windows 95/98/NT

When I play this game, I fell it like that famous game "Homeworld".
There are 30 missions. There are 3 game CD, the first CD install 66%, the second CD install to 87%,
the third CD install the rest, and then insert the second CD to play the game.

One of my clients told me "when I attempt to autoplay, I receive the following error:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT. The system file is not suitable for
running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to
terminate the application."... ...
please try to use other computer to play it or
explore the file setup.exe in Disk 1 and double click it.
Or please follow this link to fix this problem:
when you install or start an MS-DOS or 16-bit Windows-based game in WindowsXP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324767&Product=winxp
end quote

I checked the link and it looks like a way to adjust the config in Windows.

Let me know if anyone knows about this if you have time. thanks

[PotzUK]

Aye, that system will play the games with ease - I used to play Freespace 2 on a Slot A Athlon clocked at 750Mhz on a STB Velocity card back in the day   It should cope with the SCP easily enough too.

I've never played with the joystick so I can't comment there, most people (myself included) play with Keyboard/Mouse

[Christopherger]

Roger, PotzUK, message recieved. Thanks and OK much appreciated.

I had hoped to avoid the joystick, myself, so that is reassruing, Just needed to ask.

Over and out. Thanks again.

[Freespace Freak]

I have a set up similar to yours, except with two 7600 GT's in SLI and I'm using an integrated sound card.  I've never had problems with either FS1 or FS2 vanilla with Win XP SP2.  I'd play them vanilla first then do the SCP thing.  Get the FSPort so you can play FS1 with the SCP graphics!

I have a Logitech Wingman Extreme, which I've had since I bought the games back in '99-2000ish.  I believe Logitech still makes still makes similar joysticks.  I would NOT recommend force feedback, as it makes it more difficult.

[Christopherger]

Thank you very much Freespace Freak, I do apprecaite your reply with your suggestoins very much. I am a junkie for graphics so I will really look forward to the Port graphics for FS1 and of course of the entire new build, I just want to try the orginals and see where we started from.

Much appreciate the info and help. 
Cheers

[Freespace Freak]

I remember a couple of years ago, must have been '04, I had a roommate and I was showing him Freespace 2.  He was blown away by the graphics and I told him it came out in '99 and he was like    And that was OG style Freespace 2, not the SCP version.   

[Christopherger]

 

I am very much looking forward to finally getting into the FS Universe
Thanks FF, much appreciated, and I can't wait.

[Cyker]

While I would recommend playing Freespace with a joystick, I find it hard to recommend any of the joysticks currently available as pretty much all of them suck.

There are some high-end ones (The Saitek X-something and the TM Cougar) which are great if you can afford them (And have arm muscles like Arnie's) but in consumer land there ain't much out there

I did try something heinous once and played it with an X-Box controller, and have to admit that it worked surprisingly well (The X-Box controller has more buttons and axis than my beloved Sidewinder 3D Pro! If only I could mod the two together... Hmmm....  )

Many people here don't use a joystick so I guess it's mostly playable without the joystick. Personally I can't imagine how these crazies can play it with keyboard and mouse

[Freespace Freak]

You use an XBox 360 controller?  They have a USB connection, right?

[ME$$ENGER]

You use an XBox 360 controller?  They have a USB connection, right?

I thought you have to mod it yourself or use an adapter? The architecture is indeed USB though. So it's a fairly easy mod.

Anyway, if you're going to run the original FS1 on winXP as opposed to fsport, you may have to set compatibilty layer to win98 for the launcher. I had to do that in order to set some graphics settings on my win2000 box.

[Christopherger]

Excellent, thanks for the heads up, I plan to do an install of both FS1 and FS2 and then do a seperate install of FS2 for the upgrade to FS Open, and add the components i.e. the launcher, MediaV, etc. I know this will take longer than using Shivan's excellent package, but i can't bring myself to install Torrent, as I dont want to hazard my set up which has a huge collection of softwares installed....

so i will do it slowly ...if anyone has suggestions of the best and most stable builds of the Open elements I would welcome suggestions, as I see there are quite a few and I dont know which ones are the most stable.

Thanks for the great help so far on this, and I am awaiting the arrival of the FS1 and FS2 from my supplier.

[karajorma]

Excellent, thanks for the heads up, I plan to do an install of both FS1 and FS2 and then do a seperate install of FS2 for the upgrade to FS Open, and add the components i.e. the launcher, MediaV, etc.

That's an enormous waste of HD space you know. FS2 retail and FS2_Open can co-exist perfectly well in the same folder if you set everything up correctly in the first place.

As for what to do. I might as well bounce this guide on to yet another website

--------------------------------------------

I've written a guide on how to install FS2_Open which you can find in my FAQ but seeing as how I'm in a good mood I'll give you some specific information on what to do. You can read the guide if you're unclear on what I've said.

First thing you should do is install FS2. Do a full install (or else you may have problems with the 1024x768 resolution modes).

Then you'll need to download these two files

Launcher 5.4
and
3.6.9 Release Candidate 7

Extract both files to your Freespace 2 folder. The second link contains 3 links to patch VPs. Download these, create a new folder within your main freespace folder called media VPs and extract them to there.

Now go to this thread. You already have the patch VPs so what you need is mv_zpack (which is a big file containing the most important media VP files).

This too needs to be extracted to the mediavps folder you made earlier.
I suggest you leave mv_adveffects alone for now. If you have a really powerful computer you can go back and try it out once you're certain everything works.

Now go here, download and run the OpenAL installer.

That's everything downloaded that you need. Time to set up. Go into your FS2 folder and run the launcher. Click the browse button at the top and choose fs2_open_3_6_9.exe.

Go to the features tab and turn on the first 5 graphics options. You can experiment quite safely with the Audio, HUD, Game Speed and Gameplay options but you probably should leave anything else alone. 

Now go to the video tab and select OpenGL if it isn't already selected. D3D support is virtually non-existant and you will almost certainly have problems running in D3D so you should only use it as a last resort.

Set up the audio/joystick and network tabs while you're here.

Lastly go to the mod tab and select mediavps as your mod. This step enables the mediavps. If your PC runs the game too slowly come back here and click no mods. You'll lose the new graphics etc but you'll be able to play the game with the original files this way and that should be faster..

Press run. Enjoy the game.

[martellato]

kara, taylor was just recommending this link for Launcher 5.4, just fyi..

Just curious, I'm using your pre-5.4 build from June 5th (http://icculus.org/~taylor/fso/testing/Launcher.rar).  Is that the latest (currently public) build?

http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/Launcher.rar should always point to the newest public Launcher build, whatever version it may be.

Also, I have a question about OpenAL.  I've been using http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/latest/OpenALwEAX.exe - and I merely assumed that it was the latest OpenAL to be tested to work with fs2_open.  Obviously, the link that you posted is much more recent - straight from OpenAL.org.  Is it safe to use that?

[Christopherger]

Wow, I am honored. Thanks very much Karajorma, I cannot fail now. I will proceed as directed, and look forward to seeing the fantastic improvements created by you all. I just cant thank you enough for your kindness in giving such a detaild map. I will be downloading asap. Thanks again!

C

[Freespace Freak]

kara, taylor was just recommending this link for Launcher 5.4, just fyi..

Just curious, I'm using your pre-5.4 build from June 5th (http://icculus.org/~taylor/fso/testing/Launcher.rar).  Is that the latest (currently public) build?

http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/Launcher.rar should always point to the newest public Launcher build, whatever version it may be.

Also, I have a question about OpenAL.  I've been using http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/latest/OpenALwEAX.exe - and I merely assumed that it was the latest OpenAL to be tested to work with fs2_open.  Obviously, the link that you posted is much more recent - straight from OpenAL.org.  Is it safe to use that?

From my very recent experience, I'll tell you that for some reason, on my system, when I downloaded and installed the latest OpenAL 1.1, it didn't replace the files.  First, look in your windows/system32 folder and see if you have the files nvopenal.dll and ct_oal.dll.  If you have them delete them.  Then look for OpenAL32.dll and wrap_oal.dll and delete those as well.  Then, download OpenAL 1.1 and those last two files should reappear in your system32 directory.  Find them and copy and paste them in your main Freespace2 folder and FS Open should work like a charm with Open AL. 

[karajorma]

OpenAL 1.1 is what you need and all the links on this thread point to it. If you already have OpenAL 1.1 working on your system there's probably no reason to upgrade. If you don't have it get the most recent one.

Wow, I am honored. Thanks very much Karajorma, I cannot fail now. I will proceed as directed, and look forward to seeing the fantastic improvements created by you all. I just cant thank you enough for your kindness in giving such a detaild map.

Twas nothing really. I posted that on the SCP site a few weeks back. So far Game-Warden is the only freespace site I haven't copied and pasted it to yet

[Christopherger]

Re the Adveffects.....

I read over the file contents:

Extremely detailed Planet immages {Lightspeed}
Animated glowmaps (GlowLTL-12.0) {Lightspeed}
High-quality explosion textures {Lightspeed}
High-res nebulae {Lightspeed}
Super high-quality 3D Shockwave {DaBrain}

    and I hope I can try them, i will do the install first....my system is

AMD 3300 2.5 ~ghz 400 GB HD, 2.5 GB RAM, Geforce 6600 FX Vid with 256 RAM, Audigy 2ZS snd crd, will this run Adveffects?
Just curious, and I suppose getting a little bit greedy,  bitten by the FS bug!  thanks again.....and

 I do appreciate your sharing the info, and being such a kind guide for these complexities. I have approached the subject several times and read through your guide, this step by step approach you shared here is a great help, I have almost gotten all the resources and only await the delivery of the software. Thanks again.

[666maslo666]

Im sure it will work great on that machine even with adveffects and full AA and AF. I have Athlon 2 ghz Radeon 9600 256mb and 1 GB ram and it works perfectly on maxx.

[Christopherger]

Well, I got everything downloaded that Karajorma suggested, and I am ready to install as soon as the software gets here. thanks for all the great help and suggestoins, much appreciated, everyone. thanks agian.

[Christopherger]

sorry for the double post,

So I do a full install of FS2 and then add the elements of the FS Open build, will I still be able to play FS2 original  retail from the installed files as well as FS Open enchanced? just wanted to check, as I don't mind doing two installs, I have tons of Gigabytes of memory on my system still, but the Headmaster thought it excessive. Just checking. thanks for all the help everyone also.