[KhronX]

Greetings everyone,

First of all, kudos to all the people who made FSO possible FS1 and 2 gave me quite a bunch of hours of enjoyment back in the day...

Now, to the issue at hand. The game itself runs ok, but in the main menu and in the game i have these black bands across the screen, sweeping upwards, all the time (I just installed NFS:Undercover the other day, and that runs ok). Doesn't seem to impede performance, but it's annoying as hell 

From what i could figure, it's some matter of (in)compatibility between my OS, OpenGL and FSO.

I've got an upgraded Toshiba Satellite A100-011 (C2duo @ 1,83, GF7600 256ddr2) and i'm running Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard (x64).
Drivers are all up to date; video driver is the modded Xtreme-G Mobile 182.06m from tweakforce.com.

I *DID* find a supposed fix for Win7 + OpenGL, which required activating "Block transfer" in "Back buffer flipping mode", in the OpenGL settings in RivaTuner (under Back/depth buffering). The only thing that changed, was to make the whole screen black (while i could hear the intro music). One press of Escape went to the pilot selection menu (i assume; the music changed), and a second press got me back to the desktop.

If anyone has any ideas, i'd appreciate them. FSopen ran great on XP64 (before it cr*pped out on me a few months ago).

Cheers,
Chris

[The E]

Errm

Sorry, but there are so many customized things in your setup that isolating probable causes and finding solutions is kinda hard (Since it is impossible to recreate that setup).

You should definitely post a fs2_open.log, though (Instructions on how to generate one can be found in the Support FAQ stickied here)

[portej05]

There's a heck of a lot that could be going wrong there...

What is the difference between nVidia and these tweakforce drivers? (I've never heard of tweakforce).

[KhronX]

Ok, i've produced a log-file. Not sure if it was supposed to happen, but i had to do it "blind", since i couldn't see anything from the game itself, while running windowed.

The tweakforce drivers are optimized for better quality and performance (albeit i haven't had the patience and willpower to benchmark and compare). I haven't had any trouble with them before; i ran their drivers when i had XP64, fwiw.



[attachment deleted by admin]

[The E]

Okay first up:

Code: [Select]

Searching root pack 'D:\gamez\freespace2\mediavps\MV_Complete.vp' ... 4988 files
Not only is mv_complete deprecated (Go to the mediavps release thread and get the officially supported ones. Do NOT forget to download the patch as well), your copy is corrupted.

Code: [Select]

Initializing OpenGL graphics device at 1280x800 with 32-bit color...
  Initializing WGL...
  Requested WGL Video values = R: 8, G: 8, B: 8, depth: 24, double-buffer: 1
  Actual WGL Video values    = R: 8, G: 8, B: 8, depth: 24, double-buffer: 1
  OpenGL Vendor     : NVIDIA Corporation
  OpenGL Renderer   : GeForce Go 7600/PCI/SSE2
  OpenGL Version    : 2.1.2
Please set both your desktop and your in-game colour depth to 32 bits.

Code: [Select]

  -mipmap
This commandline option should not be used. It does not do what the description says it does.

[portej05]

KhronX: The drivers aren't from the manufacturer, and may not be as stable as manufacturer drivers. We can't support drivers that we can't trust.
The specs for the graphics cards (particularly nVidia cards) are not public, so any 'optimisation' and 'tweaking' is most likely guess work, and we don't know what they may have missed or damaged.

[KhronX]

Ok, i updated the MVP's, got the 3.6.10 final exe's, and the 3.6.11 r5862 (normal and SSE2).
De-activated mip-maps in the launcher.
Both my desktop and the launcher settings are on 32bit color depth.

Still acts just the way it did before, unfortunately...

I guess i should try some "mint" drivers then, huh?

[Herra Tohtori]

Could you try running in window (or full screen window)?

I've had black screen issues when firewall acted up and the screen just went black. Running in window makes the firewall warning easier to see at the very least if that's the case.

Another thing that came to mind is if the Vista/7 UAC is acting up. Haven't exactly heard of this kind of symptoms before but hey, we're talking about computers here...

[KhronX]

Nah, the "screen going black" thing was only when that "Block transfers" was activated in the RivaTuner OpenGL settings. Other than that, when it runs "normally", i get these black bands moving upwards, from the bottom of the screen to the top. Something between how a CRT looks like, when shown on tv, and the tearing you might see with Vsync off.

Later edit: Those "black tearings" are visible only on the mouse cursor, the pilot list, and the text on the bottom of the screen, on the pilot selection screen. And on the whole screen, in the main menu / main hall.

Speaking of which, turning Vsync on and off didn't seem to affect anything.

[portej05]

Did you try manufacturer drivers?

[avancouw]

It's a sad thing with laptops - due to manufacturers and vendors being unable to work nicely together, you simply can't use 'supported' drivers and keep anything up-to-date. Said 'supported' drivers are shipped with the original OS slipstream shipped on your system, never again updated. After years, even. You know, it'd be extremely easy for nvidia to keep a feature matrix on hand and incorporate laptop support into their official drivers. Lazy.

If you want to try vanilla (but up-to-date) nvidia drivers for your video card, try www.laptopvideo2go.com. It's mostly unmodded. just a few device codes and inf tweaks to get the newest drivers to recognize that they do, indeed, support your chipset.
Worth a shot, maybe.

[blidrob]

I'm not sure if I'm using the forum correctly, but I have a graphical issue as well. For some reason, when I load some missions from mods and the like, the 'starfield01.pof' can't be opened. I've attached the error log, debug log and a pic of what it looks like in-game. I'd appreciate any incite into the matter. I apologize again if I'm not posting properly, as I've never done so before. Thanks!

[attachment deleted by admin]

[The E]

My advice would be, since there seems to be nothing fundamentally wrong about your setup, I would advise opening up the missions themselves and replace "starfield01.pof" with "starfield.pof".

[blidrob]

The E, thanks for the reply. I opened the VP file for twilight, as it was having this problem, yet there is no 'starfield01.pof' listed in the files. Any ideas?

[The E]

Extract the missions from the vp, and use a text editor to replace all instances of "starfield01.pof" with "starfield.pof"

[blidrob]

Thanks again The E. Great help. I have another question. After I've altered the mission files, do I have to somehow save or reinsert them back into the .VP file, or do I need to extract the entire .VP? I don't see a way to save my changes in the VPVIEW program. Only extract. I appreciate the help.

[General Battuta]

Just save the files in the twilight/data/missions directory (assuming this is for the mod 'twilight' and the folder is called 'twilight'), creating it if necessary.

No need to reinsert into VPs.

[blidrob]

Thanks E. Worked like a charm, but there's still something missing and debug isn't catching it during mission load time.I've attached the screenshot and debug log. Whatcha think?

[attachment deleted by admin]

[General Battuta]

What's missing? The big green wireframe is meant to be like that; it's just a projection of a node location on your HUD.

[blidrob]

...a node? lol. Pardon my ignorance. I'm not too familiar with the game yet and it looked so much like the missing model that..well..yeah..Thanks E

I mean ...General...

I feel silly. The General's been helping me and I've been calling him E... discipline is in order!