[Sheazer]

First off, I'm glad I stumbled upon this place to see that the FS is quite alive and doing pretty well I'd say. Now on to the questions:

First, I recently picked up a new copy of FS: The Great War and Silent Threat because I had misplaced my old one. Well I just chewed through the Great War and tossed in Silent Threat. Installed fine, until the end where it said "Silent Threat installed to a newer version of Freespace, you may have to update again." When I click update Freespace in the FS launcher is fails to connect to the patch server (suprise eh?). So am I SOL on playing Silent Threat or?

Secondly, I was lurking once or twice before I registered and I was trying to make sense of that FreeSpace Open installer and all of the mods. I apologize if this is brought up often, I tried to read through the stickies but I honestly was a bit overwhelmed. I only ask because I'd love to get some more campaigns people have made (suggestions welcome).

Thanks for your time.

[Mars]

Simple Solution, use the Freespace Port on FSO:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,42854.0.html

And many, many, many other campagins await you.

[terran_emperor]

Fire the beam cannons!



Welcome to HLP station

What is your base install version of FS1?

I never had that problem
My pack was FS1 v1.6 When i installed ST, it became FS1+ST v1.4.

If all else fails, then you can download the FSPort. and silent threat with it...
Watch this space for the upcoming release of Silent Threat: Reborn - a fan-made remake and enhancment of the original ST. Will be released as soon as voice acting is completed


You're best asking Trurey or Karajorma bout the FSopen installer

[karajorma]

Actually Lobo has much more experienced with it that I am. I'm rather old school when it comes to installing FS2.

The 1.06 patch is available from here. Upgrading to FS2 + FS1 port is a decent idea though as FS1 can only be played in 640x480 while the port can be played in larger resolutions and using the upgraded graphics and models that come with FS2_Open.

[Jeff Vader]

Actually Lobo has much more experienced with it that I am. I'm rather old school when it comes to installing FS2.

What? I've only played the better HotU version. And in regards to the Installer, a while back Turey pointed out that I have been giving misleading instructions. Or idk, I just work here. 

Oi, Sheazer. If you really want to play the retail games, I recently heard that you'll have to reupdate FS1 to 1.06 after installing Silent Threat. That way it should work. But if you are not afraid of stepping into the world of FSO, you could just use Turey's FSO Installer (link to it and the manual in my signature). With it, you can download a functioning copy of FS2, as well as the new and spankin' FreeSpace_Open game engine. In addition, you'll need to download FSPort with it, since as it has been said, it will give you the possibility to play the FS1 and Silent Threat campaigns with the FS2/FSO engine, which results in prettier graphics and allows you to play on resolutions higher than 640x480. Also, assuming that your computer originates from this century, you might want to get the MediaVPs, which contain serious graphical improvements. Also, there is the possibility to acquire several usermade quality campaigns.

Don't worry. The Installer will do everything. Except install OpenAL, but that is highly easy and there is a link to it in my signature as well. If you have more questions, do ask.

[karajorma]

Actually Lobo has much more experienced with it that I am. I'm rather old school when it comes to installing FS2.

What? I've only played the better HotU version. And in regards to the Installer, a while back Turey pointed out that I have been giving misleading instructions. Or idk, I just work here. 

You've probably talked more people through problems with it in the last year than I have though.

[Jeff Vader]

Ah. I'll admit that. Helping, or trying to help, is fun. Most of the time.

[Wobble73]

Welcome Sheazer!

Please be aware the the installer downloads up to and beyond 5gb's worth of data and therefore may take some time! It definitely does work though!

[Jeff Vader]

Manuality ftw. I've never used the Installer (and I'm always advising people on how to use it...).

As an interesting side note, the title of the thread is a bit misleading. At first I thought... hmm, never mind. 

[Herra Tohtori]

Manuality ftw.

ditto...

It's not like it's too hard to set up the game, but since the information is rather scattered into forums (on which the search function is like magic 8-ball most of time), it's easy to get lost...  But basically making FS2_Open to work is as simple as this: Install OpenAL, make sure your GPU supports OpenGL properly, aquire and paste retail VP's in a directory, FS2_Open build and launcher to same launcher and the basic game is set.

Then start getting moar stuff like cutscenes, MediaVP's and mods. And familiarize yourself to the command line options in Hard Light wiki.


Obviously, an uniform installation procedure like Turey's installer makes troubleshooting and remote support ridiculously much easier, what with everyone starting from the same footing. On the other hand, automatized stuff is great as long as it works, but Dude the User will then lack the sufficient information to troubleshoot minor problems themselves (though that's a given in most cases anyway...), whereas if the whole install procedure were manual, it would force people to familiarize themselves to the inner workings of the game at least on the most superficial level like directory trees and stuff like that.

Of course that would easily lead to elitistic community that would be rather uninventing for people who just would want to play the game, so in general automated installer is a good thing.

[Wobble73]

As an interesting side note, the title of the thread is a bit misleading. At first I thought... hmm, never mind. 

 

I was suggesting that he speaks to Nuke actually!
 and I was going to ask him to pass the blunt!   

[Jeff Vader]

Obviously, an uniform installation procedure like Turey's installer makes troubleshooting and remote support ridiculously much easier, what with everyone starting from the same footing. On the other hand, automatized stuff is great as long as it works, but Dude the User will then lack the sufficient information to troubleshoot minor problems themselves (though that's a given in most cases anyway...), whereas if the whole install procedure were manual, it would force people to familiarize themselves to the inner workings of the game at least on the most superficial level like directory trees and stuff like that.

Of course that would easily lead to elitistic community that would be rather uninventing for people who just would want to play the game, so in general automated installer is a good thing.

True that. I probably would have used the Installer myself, had I not stumbled upon the SCP website first. Even though the files there were pretty outdated, the instructions were simple: get a Launcher, get an executable, get MediaVPs... no problems there, since I already had the HotU edition working.

I have actually faced all the most common issues, but since I have the typical Finnish "No way in hell am I gonna ask for help" attitude, I always searched (and still do search) for the answers myself. "What's OpenAL32.dll and why am I missing it?", search, "Ah, OpenAL". "Why won't the cutscenes work?", search, "Ah, OpenGL". "What's with the invisible asteroids 'n stuff?", search, "Ah, jpg/tga". "How to install mods?", check the ITHOV readme, "Ah, subfolders". "How to use several mods at the same time?", search, "Ah, mod.ini" (though today I rely on the command line). And so on. Basically I registered only because I couldn't figure out why the prettybackgroundified version of "Into the Lion's Den" caused severe framerate drops, hmm.

[Sheazer]

Thanks for all the help guys, really appreciate it. Alright, I downloaded the FSO installer and I got that running. I also downloaded OpenAL and I'll install that shortly. As for the MediaVPs, where are thost located, or are they included in the most recent FSO installer?

[Jeff Vader]

The Installer should have had an option for downloading the latest official MediaVPs (3.6.8 Zeta).

[Sheazer]

Yeah I thought I saw them in there and clicked the box. Thanks again Lobo.

[Sheazer]

Alright finished downloading and I see the FS2 Launcher and FS2 games which run, but how do I go about opening the other mods that came with the download? Is there another launcher for that, or do I have to go somewhere ingame? Sorry for all the noob questions haha.

[terran_emperor]

Follow these steps
1)Open FS2_Open Launcher
2)Click on the tab labelled "MOD" at the top.
3)Click the button labelled "Select MOD"
4)When the selection menu comes up, open the folder containing FS2 then select the folder for the mod you wish to play

for me this was

C:Games/FreeSpace2/[Blah]

[Blah]=name of mod ie Blue Planet, Derelict, FSPort, etc

5)once you have selected the MOD you wish to play, click button marked "OK"
6) The chosen mod has been selected. To play it now just Run FS2_Open and select the campaign(S) in the campaign room

[Sheazer]

Terran Emporer - Alrighty I did all that, which seemed to go well. Then when I tried to run FSO I get the message:

 " Unable to get proper pixel format for OpenGL W32! "

Did something get put into the wrong file or something to that effect or? And thanks again for the help thus far.

[terran_emperor]

I've never gotten that...Not my area of expertise.

Try posting this problem in the "FreeSpace & FreeSpace Open Support" section

[Sheazer]

Will do.