[JackDandy]

Hey there, guys. I'm having some trouble.

I've tried using the latest installer offered on the site- it starts off well, but after some hours pass, it just seems to freeze and stop DLing the required files.

I'm using the latest version of Java, and Windows 7. Can someone help me? I really want to enjoy Freespace all over again.

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[General Battuta]

Hrmph. Because the Installer has been stupid lately, I would suggest doing a manual install. It's easy.

-Download the 3.6.12 Final Inferno SSE2 build from the release thread in Source Code Project; place it in your FreeSpace 2 directory
-Download WXLauncher (google WXLauncher)
-Download the 3.6.12 MediaVPs from their thread in the FreeSpace Upgrade Project forum, extract them to mediavps_3612 in your FreeSpace 2 folder
-If you want Blue Planet (which you were downloading here), go to the Blue Planet forum, download Blue Planet 1 and extract its files to your FreeSpace 2 directory, then Blue Planet 2 and do the same

You should be all set to go. Run WXLauncher, select the 3.6.12 Final Inferno executable, select the mod you want in the Mod tab (using mediavps_3612 for graphical enhancements on the base game, Blue Planet will use them automatically)

Questions? If you need any help just keep posting here, we like getting people set up.

[JackDandy]

Hrmph. Because the Installer has been stupid lately, I would suggest doing a manual install. It's easy.

-Download the 3.6.12 Final Inferno SSE2 build from the release thread in Source Code Project; place it in your FreeSpace 2 directory

Do you mean this one? Just wanna make sure I'm DLin the right files..
Also, will doing the stuff you wrote about give me the "port" to the first Freespace game?

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[Jeff Vader]

Yeah.

More detailed instructions here.

[JackDandy]

Okay, I did everything you told me to. So far so good.

One last question though- where do I put the individual mods/custom campaigns? Which folder do they go in? (Especially considering some come in several different packages- core/voice/etc)

[General Battuta]

A well-put-together campaign should extract into its own folder. Blue Planet 1 should extract to a folder called blueplanet1 in your FreeSpace 2 directory, and WiH to blueplanet2. Other campaigns will hopefully also create their own folders. You should not place them in any kind of subfolder or anything; the end result should be a folder called (modname) - don't alter this! - with several VP files inside it.

[JackDandy]

Okay, but take for example the "Silent Threat: Reborn" expansion pack for the FSport.

It comes in 2 zips- one "core" and one "voice". Where should I unpack them in? Or do they come with readmes on where they need to go?

[General Battuta]

Oh god, ST:R.

I am going to leave that up to someone with more patience as the FSPort install process is complicated.

[Shivan Hunter]

A better word IMO would be "convoluted". or maybe "needlessly convoluted". Or maybe

k I'll stop ragging on Port

Anyway, I think(!) all those vps (and the mod.ini) goes in one "ST:R" folder, which is selected in the launcher, and references the FSPort, FSPort mediavps and the normal mediavps using the mod.ini (Make sure you have 3.6.10 normal MVPs for this- I don't trust FSPort to work with the new ones).

So- extract to a folder, called something like "STR" (I don't think it matters because I don't think any mod depends on it), and select it in the launcher. If you have FSPort set up correctly, I think it'll work. If not... post up a FS2_open.log and we can easily see what's wrong.

[JackDandy]

Okay, we'll reach that in a sec, right now I have a slightly more basic problem.

I finished DLing FSport- I set up a FSport folder in my FS2 folder. The FSport folder contains two sub-folders (fsport and fsport_mediavps).
When I try to run the souped-up port (see picture), it just launches FS2 instead. Any help?
(Thanks for sticking with me btw)

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[Shivan Hunter]

I don't know why the launcher can apparently see the FSPort_mediavps in that case, but as you've described it, your folder structure is

Freespace
-FSPort
--FSPort
--FSPort_Mediavps

It needs to be

Freespace
-FSPort
-FSPort_Mediavps

so that you have a "FSPort" and a "FSPort_mediavps" folder in your main FS folder. Otherwise the actual data from neither one will be used.

[JackDandy]

Oh, there we go! Works like a charm now.

I'm sure I can figure out the rest as I go along. Thanks for the help, Hunter and the rest of you guys!

[CommanderDJ]

Just thought I'd pop in here and say

[QuantumDelta]

Could we please not recommend WxLauncher to new people? There are still some seriously frustrating issues caused by it -.-

[JackDandy]

Uh.. what issues? And what are the alternatives?

[Jeff Vader]

And what are the alternatives?

The Launcher.

[QuantumDelta]

Well the most annoying one is it just doesn't work with multi at all, not unless you've set it up on the normal launcher previously.
There are other less major little annoyances but it's improving all the time.

[Iss Mneur]

I don't know why the launcher can apparently see the FSPort_mediavps in that case, but as you've described it, your folder structure is
[snip]

wxLauncher can find them because it searches for any mod.ini file in the Freespace directory and assumes that it must be a mod, and then wxLauncher assumes that the mod.ini's are correctly formatted for whatever location it is stored in. Unfortunately, its not something that I can trivially fix.

Well the most annoying one is it just doesn't work with multi at all, not unless you've set it up on the normal launcher previously.
There are other less major little annoyances but it's improving all the time.

Oh really?
Do you know specifically what wxLauncher is missing? I thought I had stole all of The Launcher's incantations for starting FSO.

[QuantumDelta]

the other ones if I recall applied to the new sound code when it was in ant, dunno if it's fine now...

the multiplayer ones, basically the network tab doesn't actually do anything at all in wxlauncher, which stops people from playing completely, although this seems to be fixable if you load the old launcher then configure, then go back to wxlauncher.

Been a few months since anyone newish used wxlauncher and wanted a game / complained in chat so I dunno how current the info is :<