[htooms]

mouse cursor is invisible in my gog edition of freespacce. its there as i can click stuff, but its invisible. it works ok in game too. any fixes?

[General Battuta]

mouse cursor is invisible in my gog edition of freespacce. its there as i can click stuff, but its invisible. it works ok in game too. any fixes?

Are you running FreeSpace Open?

[htooms]

no. do i have to?

[General Battuta]

I don't know, but honestly it's worth your time - it'll fix a lot of bugs that the retail version has on modern OS (probably including this one), get you much better tech support, and, with the MediaVPs, get you really gorgeous graphics too.

[Parias]

There is every conceivable reason and argument towards running FSOpen. You really have no reason to pass it up - not taking advantage of it is just asking for problems.

[headdie]

Quick history lesson,
- The part you probably know, Back in the day (1999 to be exact) Volition released Freespace 2, the sequel to FS1 using an updated version of the original engine.
- The part you probably dont know, A few years later due to legal problems relating to Volition and Interplay going their separate ways Volition could not develop any more games in the FS setting so released the source code for the games engine which they still owned in its entirety to the public using a proprietary not for profit licence.  After a while a community gathered interested in using the released source code to improve the engine and slowly but surely the SCP came to be churning out the occasional revised code for the game in their spare time, these are the FreeSpace Open builds we see today.

The nice thing about the FSopen builds is they dont effect the retail exe rather they use there own.  Apart from an FSO exe the only other thing you need is one of the community launchers as the retail one does not support FSO in any way shape or form.

The advantages of FSO builds are:
- Continual development, so even if your bug is not fixed now, a quick hey guys, this is happening! stands a chance of seeing it fixed
- DEBUG builds which make hunting down bugs possible and provide the guys here the technical details needed to help you
- Engine optimisations so the game more efficiently, not so much of an issue playing retail but it makes some of the mods more playable on mid to low end systems
- playing Mods is only really possible in FSO and when installed you are not stuck with them because you can select and deselect them in the launchers, mods range from the MediaVP media updates, community attempts to expand on and extend the FS story, too mods that are not even set in the FS universe, its your choice (WoD) is strongly recommended in this category
- All the while retaining the ability to play vanilla Freespace 2 as and when you want

To get FSO you can do one of the following
- Use the link at the top right of the forum
- Manual FSO Instalation

- Optionally if you are feeling up to it you can follow the 3.6.14 RC threads, which is the current Release Candidate for 3.6.14 which will be the next "Stable" build. 

Stable builds are the benchmark builds which have been bug tested as much as possible to minimise bugs and code errors

[jr2]

htooms, do you by any chance have your pointer trails enabled?  If so, can you try disabling them?  This worked for me when playing certain games on Steam (iBomber Defense, a few others) -- the cursor wasn't visible in the menu until I disabled pointer trails, then after I did, everything worked great again.  I think I remember having this problem with FS years and years ago and not remembering how I fixed it.  Pointer trails may have been the solution.

[htooms]

pointer trails already off. had shadows on, turned taht off, no change. also, all the links talk about FreeSpace 2 when installin FSOpen. I only wanna play FreeSpace.

[General Battuta]

pointer trails already off. had shadows on, turned taht off, no change. also, all the links talk about FreeSpace 2 when installin FSOpen. I only wanna play FreeSpace.

You can play FreeSpace via FreeSpace Open (using the FreeSpace Port).

[Jeff Vader]

But yes, you need FreeSpace 2 for that to work, since FSPort is a mod for FS2. But most likely it is considerably easier than trying to get FS1 to run.

[htooms]

But yes, you need FreeSpace 2 for that to work, since FSPort is a mod for FS2. But most likely it is considerably easier than trying to get FS1 to run.

wow. im confused. is there a step by step guide. im using fs1 and fs2  gog edition.

[Jeff Vader]

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=78710.0 for FSO.

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=76733.0 for FSPort.

[htooms]

ok thx i will give it a shot.