[Xenmasterqwerty]

Hey guys, first time posting here. I've been using and enjoying FSO for quite a while now, and I love it. That said, I'm wondering how to maximize visual quality.

I have a very fast computer so that won't be an issue. Using MediaVPs 3.6.12 and RC7 with new shaders. In the launcher (Windows, 5.5g), I have enabled specular, glow maps, environment maps, mipmapping, lighting on missiles, normal maps, 3D shockwaves, post processing, soft particles, FXAA, 3D warp, flash upon warp... Color depth 32-bit, Trilinear filtering, Anistropic and Anti-Aliasing cranked, high settings, large textures, everything maxed in game.

I'm a bit confused about FXAA. Does it work out of the box or do I need new files? Also, I have an Nvidia card. Are there any driver side options I could tweak to increase fidelity? If so, which?

Finally, I've happened upon screenshots of ship models that are of much higher quality than the ones included. Where can I find these, and do you guys have any specific recommendations?

[MatthTheGeek]

Nah, FXAA is built-in, you just need to enable it in the launcher. You can also set a preset level via command line.

As for the higher quality ships, I guess you refer to stuff like this or this or this. Those ships have been completed after the current MediaVPs release and some are available as separate downloads in the FSU board. For now, you just have to dig around and put them in manually. Eventually they will be included with the next MVP release.

[Crybertrance]

No driver-side settings have any considerable effect in FS iirc (unless you disable Post-processing and force driver-side SSAA). Also, you might want to tweak the default lighting settings through the custom flags to suit your tastes. Go here for the details and for some sample settings

You may also want to download the Deferred Lighting build. However, idk if the RC7 would be better at this point.

e: Also,

 

[jr2]

I would recommend wxLauncher.  It has presets for lighting settings and explanations, as well as links to the information on different options you can enable or disable.  You can always use 5.5g as well if you have any problems (you shouldn't, but if you do, let us know so we can fix it).

EDIT: I forgot to add, you don't have to install wxLauncher to the FS directory, it installs to it's own directory, then finds FS and launches it, that's the way it was designed.  I suppose you could always install to \FS2directory\wxLauncher\ if you wanted to, though...

[The E]

You may also want to download the Deferred Lighting build. However, idk if the RC7 would be better at this point.

No, you do not want to do that. Deferred lighting builds, like all test builds, are not intended for people new to FSO modding, come with no warranty, and are quickly superceded by official releases.

[Colonol Dekker]

What E said

I'm guessing you selected MediaVPs as a mod too ja?

[Crybertrance]

I would recommend wxLauncher.  It has presets for lighting settings and explanations, as well as links to the information on different options you can enable or disable.  You can always use 5.5g as well if you have any problems (you shouldn't, but if you do, let us know so we can fix it).

EDIT: I forgot to add, you don't have to install wxLauncher to the FS directory, it installs to it's own directory, then finds FS and launches it, that's the way it was designed.  I suppose you could always install to \FS2directory\wxLauncher\ if you wanted to, though...

And I always thought wxLauncher was Mac/OS X exclusive... Gave it a go just now, much better than the Windows one imo.

e: Does wxlauncher support the -mod custom flag?

[headdie]

I would recommend wxLauncher.  It has presets for lighting settings and explanations, as well as links to the information on different options you can enable or disable.  You can always use 5.5g as well if you have any problems (you shouldn't, but if you do, let us know so we can fix it).

EDIT: I forgot to add, you don't have to install wxLauncher to the FS directory, it installs to it's own directory, then finds FS and launches it, that's the way it was designed.  I suppose you could always install to \FS2directory\wxLauncher\ if you wanted to, though...

And I always thought wxLauncher was Mac/OS X exclusive... Gave it a go just now, much better than the Windows one imo.

nope, ironically enough wxLauncher is setup to to be universal platform and get round the headache of the retail based launcher being Win only

edit:

fixed quotation to be less confusing

[Kolgena]

The one thing that you can force successfully driver side (which you should) is AF. Freespace looks tons better with AF, especially on bombing missions where you're flying along capital ship hulls.

Unfortunately, this will give you weird white dots behind thruster bitmaps, but you learn to ignore that

[jr2]

as for wxLauncher supporting -mod custom flags, I would think so, as it does have a line for custom command line arguments.  Try it and see?

[The E]

Of course it supports mods. Would be kinda stupid if it didn't.

[jr2]

I think he meant other than through the selectable mod list (I guess that would be, mods that don't have a mod.ini in their folder).  I'm assuming wxLauncher is smart enough to combine any custom -mod entry with any selected mods (MediaVPs, e.g), right?  I'm not on my laptop or I'd check.  Even if it didn't support that, you could always select "no mod", then add your own -mod string, e.g., -mod mediavps_3612, my_custom_mod , at least until it did support integration of selected mods and custom mod entries.

[Iss Mneur]

I think he meant other than through the selectable mod list (I guess that would be, mods that don't have a mod.ini in their folder).  I'm assuming wxLauncher is smart enough to combine any custom -mod entry with any selected mods (MediaVPs, e.g), right?  I'm not on my laptop or I'd check.  Even if it didn't support that, you could always select "no mod", then add your own -mod string, e.g., -mod mediavps_3612, my_custom_mod , at least until it did support integration of selected mods and custom mod entries.

Well firstly. wxLauncher will not recognize a mod folder as mod folder if it does not have a file called mod.ini in it.  The file can be empty, but it has to be there.

As far as custom -mod entries, it actually has nothing to do with the launcher.  FSO itself will add all -mod entries together.  So if you want to add other mod you can just put -mod in the custom flags section and FSO will figure it out.  Having said that, there is little reason to do the mods manually when you have the mod list, and I actually curious what you need to use it for?

[Crybertrance]

As far as custom -mod entries, it actually has nothing to do with the launcher.  FSO itself will add all -mod entries together.  So if you want to add other mod you can just put -mod in the custom flags section and FSO will figure it out.  Having said that, there is little reason to do the mods manually when you have the mod list, and I actually curious what you need to use it for?

I basically segregated all the new FSU releases (HD mainhalls, HTL'd ships, HD Subspace effects, etc) into several "mods" each containing a separate mod.ini for easy management which worked perfectly in the 5.5g launcher. So, my windows launcher custom flags would be:

Code: [Select]

-ambient_factor 5 -no_emissive_light -spec_exp 2.0 -spec_point 4.6 -spec_static 4.8 -spec_tube 5.0 -ogl_spec 40 -fov 0.40 -mod updated_ships -mod updated_effects -mod updated_assets -mod updated_effects_fsport -fxaa_preset 9
Now, in wxLauncher, I entered this in the custom flags box

Code: [Select]

-mod updated_ships -mod updated_effects -mod updated_assets -mod updated_effects_fsport -fxaa_preset 9
However, none of the mods see to activate (I get the fugly old mainhalls, none of the newer HTL's, etc)
Hence, my asking if the -mod flags work in wxLauncher, because they work without hitch in the 5.5g


e: fix'd a typo: mods=/=mads

[Iss Mneur]

Hmm. Well, am going to have to ask you for a FSO debug log and the wxLauncher profile dir (which you can find at %APPDATA%\wxLauncher, just zip up all of the files in the directory).  Because what you are trying to do should work fine.

[Crybertrance]

Hmm. Well, am going to have to ask you for a FSO debug log and the wxLauncher profile dir (which you can find at %APPDATA%\wxLauncher, just zip up all of the files in the directory).  Because what you are trying to do should work fine.

Okay, I played "Return to Ross 128" in ST:R on the debug build.

fsopen.log

(Attached: wxLauncher profile dir)

[attachment removed and sold on the black market]

[Iss Mneur]

Hrmm. Well, I see what the problem is.  wxLauncher puts custom flags after the mod line, whereas apparently the 5.5 launcher puts the custom flags first.  I don't see wxLauncher changing that behavior because custom needs to be last to allow flag overrides. Because I don't have time to deal with this problem right now, I have created an ticket on the wxLauncher issue tracker, see issue 90.

However, try this as a work around.  Create a "mod" directory called cybertrance_updated_str and in that directory put a mod.ini that contains the following:

Code: (mod.ini) [Select]

[launcher]
modname=Cybertrance's Updated ST:R
[multimod]
secondarylist=updated_ships,updated_effects,updated_assets,update_effects_fsport,fsport_mediavps,fsport-str,fsport,mediavps_3612


[Crybertrance]

However, try this as a work around.  Create a "mod" directory called cybertrance_updated_str and in that directory put a mod.ini that contains the following:

Code: (mod.ini) [Select]

[launcher]
modname=Cybertrance's Updated ST:R
[multimod]
secondarylist=updated_ships,updated_effects,updated_assets,update_effects_fsport,fsport_mediavps,fsport-str,fsport,mediavps_3612


Hmm.. This would imply that I would have to make such a ini edit for every other mod I have (exactly the thing I wanted to avoid in the first place )
Anyhooo, I hope its fixed soon, 'cuz the other features in wxLauncher are impressive!

Thanks for the help!

[Iss Mneur]

Hmm.. This would imply that I would have to make such a ini edit for every other mod I have (exactly the thing I wanted to avoid in the first place )
Anyhooo, I hope its fixed soon, 'cuz the other features in wxLauncher are impressive!

Thanks for the help!

Yes unfortunately it does mean that you need to make the mod.ini's for each mod that you have.

No problem.  This is how we make wxLauncher better.