[avancouw]

Greetings all,

I've been lurking for a few days, so I could be sure I know how you guys want this info. I've had freespace open installed for a few days, played through the FS1 campaign and part of ST:R. I think I've found out everything that's wrong graphically with my install.

I used Turey's installer from the release thread, as of less than a week ago. I've noticed that when people mention 3.6.10, there are actually several different builds associated with this version number. Hopefully I've got the right one?

My issues are really minor but this is one of my favorite games of all time. If I could fix these small problems it'd be awesome.

  -- Only some of the mission briefings and videos are scaled to fit the window. As I'm running at high resolution, in some cases this makes it very difficult to read the text. Minor issue. The actual briefing text is fine, I'm just talking about, say, the wire images of planets and their names, for instance.
  -- In some missions, I seem to remember a fog effect when I originally played the game -- flying through a nebula, or an EMP cloud, for instance. In my install of FSO, where I should have some ambiance from the environment, my screen is clear. Makes it easier to see things, certainly, but something's missing there
  -- Cutscenes don't play at all. They're installed, and I can play them out of game. I notice that I don't have 'FS2OggCutscenes.vp' anywhere. just a directory with a bunch of .ogg files. Not really sure how to correct this one.

my log file is attached. If anyone can make some suggestions, I'll try your inputs Thanks.

Video: Geforce 9800M GTS (a few generations after nvidia fixed their M series chipset flop, this is generally considered a solid mobile chipset)
Drivers? 8.16.11.9156 [191.56] This system is a gateway FX laptop. As such I'm using the laptopvideo2go drivers. These are a simple rebuild of the nvidia drivers, no code modding, just some additions that allow the official drivers to recognize my chipset. See, nvidia's stock drivers have full support for every chipset they have manufactured recently, but they purposefully deny recognition of laptop chipsets for... business reasons. Really, in all truth, I'm running an identical rebuild of the official 191.56 x64 geforce drivers.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[avancouw]

As clarification, I didn't follow directions to the letter. My debug log includes firing up the game windowed, entering a briefing and launching a mission, then exiting the game. The mission I launched was 'The Last Hurrah' from ST:R. I believe it's supposed to have some ambiance, but it doesn't on my system.

[The E]

A warm welcome to you, Sir. It is good to see someone taking the time to familiarize himself with the proper procedures before storming in here with an error. Now, to Business.

Code: [Select]

Found root pack 'd:\tango1_fs2.vp' with a checksum of 0x4c25221e
Found root pack 'd:\tangoA_fs2.vp' with a checksum of 0x2e10c984
Found root pack 'd:\warble_fs2.vp' with a checksum of 0xd85c305d
The retail disc is no longer required to be in the drive. You may remove it at your leisure.

 -- Cutscenes don't play at all. They're installed, and I can play them out of game. I notice that I don't have 'FS2OggCutscenes.vp' anywhere. just a directory with a bunch of .ogg files. Not really sure how to correct this one.

Just move the .ogg files to FreeSpace2\data\movies (Create this directory if it doesn't exist).

 -- Only some of the mission briefings and videos are scaled to fit the window. As I'm running at high resolution, in some cases this makes it very difficult to read the text. Minor issue. The actual briefing text is fine, I'm just talking about, say, the wire images of planets and their names, for instance.

Not a real issue. The problem is that, at the moment, the animations (commonly referred to as cbanis, are not scaled up with the rest of the interface, but instead played at their original resolution.

 -- In some missions, I seem to remember a fog effect when I originally played the game -- flying through a nebula, or an EMP cloud, for instance. In my install of FSO, where I should have some ambiance from the environment, my screen is clear. Makes it easier to see things, certainly, but something's missing there

Screenshots please? I know that there were some changes to the way nebulae are rendered, but so far, it seems to work for most people.

I believe it's supposed to have some ambiance, but it doesn't on my system.

What do you mean with Ambience?

[avancouw]

See, that's the wierd thing. all the .ogg files are in data/movies, but the only video that ever plays is the banner. I don't get campaign intro cutscenes, or any of the others.

Now, bear with me on that screenshot, pushing printscreen in game doesn't seem to do anything for me. odd. Basically, all I'm saying is that I never get the nebula effect. I see far-off nebulas, but the game never renders me inside a nebula. Just leaves something missing. I'll try to get a screenshot...

Thanks!

[The E]

Screenshots should be deposited automagically in FreeSpace2\screenshots. Convert them to jpg or png and upload them here.

[avancouw]

okay, I should have known that . it was the tga format that was throwing me off.

So here's a shot of 'The Last Hurrah'. You can see nebulae in the background, but I'm not sure if they're rendered, or just textures. I believe the nebula should extend to the actual battlefield on this one. What I should really do is find a screenshot of someone inside a nebula for a particular mission, then go there and take a screenshot of myself playing that mission. Then I could post the two shots side by side.


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[The E]

Errr, no. That's perfectly normal. That's what it's supposed to look like, and how it basically looked like on retail (albeit with crappier textures).

That said, since you are playing the FSPort, FS1 had a different system for creating and rendering background nebulae, where instead of bitmaps they used quasi-polygonal gradients (Much like the system used in Homeworld 2).

There are a few Nebula missions that take place INSIDE a gas cloud, with lightning and stuff. Those look quite different.

[Jeff Vader]

It's been a while since I've played ST:R, but I don't think it contained any nebula missions. The orange things you can see there are nebula textures rendered on the background. That's what you usually have in open-space missions. Nebula missions occur completely inside nebulae and you can't see **** from the nebulae there. FreeSpace doesn't really have anything between the two states.

You'll get nebula missions in the FS2 main campaign (among other things). The fifth actual (non-training) mission occurs in a nebula.

[avancouw]

roger, so basically I have no real issues. Annoying that the cutscenes don't play, but I can live with it

Thanks for your time.

[Jeff Vader]

Annoying that the cutscenes don't play

That is rather strange. Could you list exactly what .ogg files you have in exactly what directory/directories?

[avancouw]

rather than type all the info in, I've taken a screenshot:



[attachment deleted by admin]

[jr2]

Can you do that in Detail view?  (right-click > View > Details IIRC)  I'm curious as to the size of the files.

EDIT: Wait-wait-wait... you played through FS1, not 2... the FS1 cutscenes should go in FreeSpace2\fsport\data\movies... do you have the FS1 cutscenes downloaded?

[Jeff Vader]

If those are all that you have and you mean that you haven't seen cutscenes during the FS1 campaign, the solution is quite simple: you don't have the FS1 cutscenes. Download them from FreeSpaceMods.net and place them to \freespace2\fsport\data\movies\ .

[jr2]

@Jeff: Darn.  You beat me. 

[avancouw]

strange, the auto installer put them in fsport/movies, rather than data/movies. At least now, after moving them, they'e all available in the tech room. So I guess I'll be able to see some cutscenes when I play the fs2 campaign, at least

thanks again!