[AV8R]

Just finished the campaign - very nicely done! So much better that the original (what was Volition thinking?) At least this version has a story line you can actually follow and doesn't leave you all alone at the end to kill the Hades with lasers while hiding in the ship's crevices from endless waves of Lokis (at least that's how I did it). And the addition of beam weapons was certainly a nice touch! (expected in FS2 - scary in FS1).

A couple of questions, though, on the last mission:

1) Does anyone else have an issue with the Hades going "transparent" when viewed from certain angles? (I can see stars through it - it becomes like a thick wireframe with missing panels. Maybe my vid card doesn't have enough memory [256MB]?) It also did this on the mission where you have to scan the Hades' subsystems.

2) After the Hades' destruction and everyone leaves to celebrate - I noticed a ship way off in the distance above the planet (Deneb 4?) which also showed as a flashing green blip on my radar. So, being the curious sort, I routed all energy to engines and afterburned all the way there. 10 minutes later (I was in a Zeus - not exactly a speed demon) I discoverd an intact Orion-class destroyer. Upon moving to this side with the landing bay I read the name of the ship - the GTD Legion. Wasn't this ship a plot catalyst in Silent Threat? (I believe it was the GTI command ship that was supposedly destroyed in some major battle which caused the eventual fragmentation of the GTI). If so, is this the ship that gets blasted by the Lucifer's beam weapon and left with a gaping, flaming hole at the beginning of Freespace 2?

I'm hoping the last question would tie up some loose ends (mostly plot lines) in my head....

[headdie]

In answer to point 2.  The Legion was gutted but not totally destroyed during the Battle of Deneb by the Lucifer, also ST:R concludes with the Hades being destroyed in Deneb, both events clarified by text in the opening cine of FS2.  Though not stated at the time the Orion seen killed during the opening of FS2 intro was confirmed by Volition not to be the Gatatea but another destroyer and the community was allowed to christen it the Legion and it came to be speculated to be a GTI ship hence the secrecy and why it's presence in the system never revealed to the player.  Now fast forward the cutscene a little and you see the the mangled engine sections of what looks distinctly like a Hades class with text which I believe states the location as Deneb, hence the ending of ST:R and as the cutscene rolls on you pan out off the planet and the Legion is still in orbit when the Colossus flies by suggesting the ship was never recovered, hence it still being there at the end of ST:R.

[Goober5000]

What headdie said -- but with fewer runon sentences.

Thanks for the comments AV8R.   I don't know what's going on with the Hades model, but I suspect our modeller guy will be around later to see this.

[mjn.mixael]

We've had no other reports with the Hades like that issue. My guess is a hardware issue. But a debug log will help if you can reproduce the problem.

[AV8R]

In answer to point 2.  The Legion was gutted but not totally destroyed during the Battle of Deneb by the Lucifer, also ST:R concludes with the Hades being destroyed in Deneb, both events clarified by text in the opening cine of FS2.  Though not stated at the time the Orion seen killed during the opening of FS2 intro was confirmed by Volition not to be the Gatatea but another destroyer and the community was allowed to christen it the Legion and it came to be speculated to be a GTI ship hence the secrecy and why it's presence in the system never revealed to the player.  Now fast forward the cutscene a little and you see the the mangled engine sections of what looks distinctly like a Hades class with text which I believe states the location as Deneb, hence the ending of ST:R and as the cutscene rolls on you pan out off the planet and the Legion is still in orbit when the Colossus flies by suggesting the ship was never recovered, hence it still being there at the end of ST:R.

Thanks for the confirmation/clarification.

[AV8R]

We've had no other reports with the Hades like that issue. My guess is a hardware issue. But a debug log will help if you can reproduce the problem.

Possibly. My system is a bit weak (I keep it around for older games):
PIII @ 1Ghz
512MB RAM
ATI 9550 256MB RAM, AGP-4X

I run the SSE optimized EXE and have most of the MediaVP options turned on - and it still runs remarkably well for a PC its age (methinks the use of OpenGL as opposed to DirectX is what makes this possible). The only time it gets choppy is when there's a lot of ships on screen (like the final ST:R battle), but that's most likely a processor limitation not a video limitation.

I looked again and realized that the Hades only looks like this when viewed from below - on all other sides (above, both sides, front and back) it appears solid.

If I can figure out how to create a log for you I will.

[mjn.mixael]

Instructions here.

[The E]

Umm.

With all the recent advancements, FSO can't really be described as an"older game" anymore.

[AV8R]

Umm.

With all the recent advancements, FSO can't really be described as an"older game" anymore.

When I said "older games" I meant games like the original FreeSpace game (released in '98 I believe). 13 years in the computer world is centuries in dog years.... 

What I find remarkable is how well this port runs on old hardware. So if you're not sure whether or not this port, with its high-polygon-count models and other eye-candy, can be played in your hardware, take a look at the spces on my PC above and just download it! You won't be disappointed. 

[AV8R]

Instructions here.

Before I was gonna go through all of that, I had a feeling something wasn't right with the model. So, I located the .IPX file for the Hades, deleted it, went back into the Tech Room and let it recache the ship (which took a good 15 minutes). When it was finished, viola!, the Hades now looks the way it's supposed to look.

So just to see it in context, I reran the mission where you have to scan the Hades subsystems. Nicely detailed. Unfortunately, it's now so detailed that my ancient PC was begging for mercy (frame rates really dropped).

Conclusion - ST:R is finally gonna make me upgrade my old gaming rig.... 

[Goober5000]

Well, you can run ST:R without the medivaps if you need to.

[Mongoose]

And if the Hades model is the only ship that's giving you trouble, you can even extract the low-poly retail model and put it in your MediaVPs directory, so that it's used instead of the high-poly one.

[AV8R]

Well, you can run ST:R without the medivaps if you need to.

Yes, but, that wouldn't be any fun now would it? 

[AV8R]

And if the Hades model is the only ship that's giving you trouble, you can even extract the low-poly retail model and put it in your MediaVPs directory, so that it's used instead of the high-poly one.

Alright guys.... stop trying to talk me out of upgrading my rig! (it's been a long time coming - trust me).