As many people will tell you, modding a game can be quite a nightmare, especially when your not sure what files you need and more to the point what they do.
With the help of this thread i hope to make your transition from what is a old game, into a new one with relative ease.
Be forewarned though, there is a lot of downloading involved, with some big files. You will need about 3.5gig of hard drive space. but don't let that put you off, most of it is compressed in RAR format, Also if you haven't got the game yet, best download that first, and then come back to this thread,
*UPDATE* -Added link to WMcoolman's post for the VP files
-Added link to Turey's Auto Downloader/Installer
What you need and what it does.Freespace2 - its the game, (I'm not going to be patronising about this, i assume if your here, you will know what a game is
)
Fred_open - this is the main mod launcher, mission editor, and the thing that's going to make your game look groovier once you have the appropriate files.
MediaVPs - the media VPs, are what contain all the hi-resolution ships / pretty nebular / hi - poly stuff that add the gaming environment, they can also contain all the shine maps (make your ship look metallic) bump-maps (give your ship depth with out altering the poly count) environment maps (correct me if I'm wrong on this one, but they reflect the surrounding land scape on to your ship)
the game movies - Although the game does come with the movies, (if you download the retail disk version) the launcher doesn't use the movie files with in the modded environment, so if you plan on playing the main campaign, you will need these files.
OpenAL - OpenAL is a program that helps fred_open use all the audio files.
Mods folder - this one is pretty strait forward, you will have to make this one your self, you don't really need it, but if you want to keep your freespace2 directory looking neat and tidy, its handy, but just in case you don't know, this is where you put modifications like the Babylon project in.
NOTE:
There is auto downloading installer that can do almost everything for you (apart from freespace2 its self) you can get it with this link.
The freespace installer thread by TureyBut if (like me) you would much rather do things yourself to learn how its done, carry on reading.
Right, if your still with me. Lets get down to the nitty gritty of things
Installing and Modding Freespace2Step 1: The game.
Unless you have freespace2 this is going to be over pretty quick, So first thing to do is go get it, (there are many threads available on the legality of this and i wont go into it here, but lets just say its been available on the web for some considerable time)
You can obtain it from these links, i prefer the retail 3 disk version as it comes with the whole game with no files missing.
Freespace2 download -You will need a torrent down loader like
Azureus in order to download.
Step 2: Installing.
This step may seem like the obvious, but you need the game to install into something simple like, c:\games\freespace2
You can do this by burning the disks using a program like Nero, you can get a trail version from
the links section at the bottom of this post.
If you do not have a burner, you can always mount the disks in a virtual drive program like daemon tools (see below for instructions) that can be downloaded from the links section at the bottom of this post.
Step 3: Fred_Open and related files.
The latest build is 3.6.9 and is available here.
ClickyExtract these to your main freespace2 folder (IE: C:\Games\Freespace2 Or where ever the main game .exe is), you will need winrar or winzip to unpack these files (see below for links)
You will also need to download the MediaVPs, these can be quite large so if your on a 56k modem, it might be a good idea to leave these downloading overnight or while your at work / school.
PLEASE NOTE: for now, just download these from the list
mv_adveffects (advanced special effects)
mv_core (these are the core files for modding the game)
mv_effects (same as above, just not as pretty, you will still need these even if you have the adveffects)
mv_models (this is the main hi-poly ship models)
mv_music (does what is says on the tin)
mv_textures (your ships wouldn't be the same with out them
)
You will also need to download the patch files.
mp-710_adveffects
mp-710_effects
mp-710_modelsAll obtainable from this link.
WMCoolmon VP threadNext is to grab the movie files, These are only needed for the storyline of the main campaign and are available from This thread
The ThreadAnd make sure you get OpenAL from here.
OpenAL Right, after all that downloading, I bet your wondering when your going to find time to get to play the game...or where these files even go?
So far you should have either downloaded, or installed the game and downloaded all relevant files and are Ready to set everything up so its playable.
Step 4: Setting everything up.
Right, if you haven't installed Freespace2 yet, go do that now, if you are using the retail disks, it should auto install to C:\Games\Freespace2, which is a lot easier, if not, just create a Games folder on the root of your hard drive then find and copy and paste your freespace2 folder into it, The important thing here, is that Fred_Open, doesn't like a directory path with spaces in it, IE: C:\Program files\blah is a no no.
Next navigate to your freespace2 main directory, and create a folder named mediavps and drop these files into it
mv_adveffects mv_core mv_effects mv_modelsmv_musicmv_texturesmp-710_adveffectsmp-710_effectsmp-710_models
Unrar the 3.6.9 build of fred_open and put these files into the main freespace2 directory.
By now your directory should look like this.
Then install the OpenAl file you should have downloaded (link above).
Now you should have a application in your freespace2 folder called LAUNCHER, run this and a window should pop up.
Click the Features tab in the window that's just popped up, and select the browse button, this should pop up a search feature, navigate to your freespace2 directory (if its not pointing to it already) and select fs2_open_3_6_9.exe then click open.
Now the most important part, how to get the freespace2 high poly models and other niceties into the game.
With the freespace2 launcher window open, click the MOD tab, and then the SELECT MOD button.
If you have followed my instructions so far, all you have to do is point it to the mediavps folder.
PLEASE NOTE the launcher window for reference.
That's about it. you can now run the program via the launcher , best thing to do is create a shortcut for your launcher and place it on the desktop.
PLEASE NOTE: do not use the game icon that FS2 added to your desktop if you want the mods to work.
For help on setting up and using Daemon Tools, please go to the post below this one.
LINKSNero Burning Rom - Program for burning Freespace2 ISO's to disk.
NeroDaemon tools - Virtual disk device, for Installing Freespace2 ISO's without burning them to disk. (will require a restart to work.
Daemon ToolsWinRar - Program used for unzipping the RAR archives.
WinRarFreespace Wiki - The freespace2 encyclopedia
The WikiThe Freespace Oracal - good refrance points for help with installing and setting up Freespace2
FAQ-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This thread is dedicated to Tom A.K.A The fish R.I.P 9/1/2007
