[ARSPR]

Hi, again.

After some PM's with Wanderer I have discovered what was wrong with the 2nd error. At least for me, the code WMCoolmon wrote in #118 reply needs an #End statement at the end.

Does anyone have any hint about the first one?

One suggestion about media vp's. Why don't you split adveffects in several vps for each group of effects (keeping all of them in an only zip file for download)? In this way it would be very easy to switch them on or off until you find the best configuration (quality vs. performance) for your computer without having to manually split the "official" vp.

[WMCoolmon]

It'd be a PITA to keep track of, and I think that generally, if you have a good enough system for part of adveffects, you have a good enough system for all of adveffects. The actual memory added on by each feature is relatively small, and the 'minimal requirements' pretty low. I have:

AMD64 3000+
1024 MB DDR400 RAM
GF6600 GT 128MB
SATA Hard drive
Audigy 2 NX.

This is basically the minimum requirements for games like Battlefield 2, and still gives crappy load times in HL2 with stuff set to high (even though gameplay is usually smooth), but can use adveffects with antialiasing on most missions and still have them be playable.

The biggest problems usually show up with the HT&L Aeolus, IIRC, although nothing in adveffects should effect that.

So...considering the number of people who got/are getting systems better than me for Christmas, overall it's easier for people to just individually extract the features they want.

Edit: Oh, and sorry about the #End thing. I'm too used to having a parser to check my syntax.

[CP5670]

On my old card I found that the adveffects had a fairly minimal framerate impact, but the high poly models really killed performance. It should work pretty well if you only remove that vp. (I still don't always play with those, since a few of them have some bugs)

[WMCoolmon]

Hmm..what bugs are those?

[Skippy]

Is it normal that some models take about 45 secs to show up in Tech room (when they load for the first time)?

Edit: (with 01/07 build)

[CP5670]

Hmm..what bugs are those?

They're small things, but I've found that they can affect gameplay. The Orion's engine subsystem is further inside the model than it used to be, which makes it much harder to destroy it using bombs and is making one of my missions significantly tougher, while a few of the Hecate's turrets are not quite the same size as the old ones (namely turret06, turret07 and turret08), so they are easier/harder to hit from a distance and slightly alter the difficulty in another of my missions. I basically use the models vp everywhere except those two missions.

By the way, I found this lying around on my hard drive that I made several years ago and may be a useful addition to the next media vp set:
http://home.comcast.net/~cp5670/shieldbv-01.ani

It just fixes that bug with the Bakha's shield animation in the original game.

[ARSPR]

Hi. I'm just an "user" of Freespace (I don't know much about coding) so maybe I've done something wrong, but I'm getting two "warnings" (after I close the windows, the game continues running) with latets builds and 3.6.8. vp's. I've deleted old 3.6.7 vp's, I have OpenAL installed and I've tried 29-12 and 07-01 builds.

1. First warning:

Just after the intro screen appears the game seems to hang to a black screen. Then if I press "Esc" key, I get a tipical  Ok-message window with the next content:

Window Title:  PlayWnd Sample
Message: FAILED(hr=0x80040154) in CoCreateInstance(CLSID_FilterGraph, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_IGraphBuilder, (void **)&pGB) (DShow error)
Buttons: OK (Aceptar in Spanish)

When I press "Aceptar" the game continues loading without problems and with sound

Hi, again. I'm getting this "error" in other situations. For example in the last FS2 campaign mission (the incoming transmision one), it apears just between the load progress screen (when the mission has just completed loading) and the briefing screen. Should I mantis it? I've never had this issue with previous builds and vps.

[karajorma]

Is it normal that some models take about 45 secs to show up in Tech room (when they load for the first time)?

Yes. The game is making a .IBX file all that time. When you next view the ship (in a mission or in the tech room again) the game simply loads the .idx file from data\cache instead of recreating it.

It may be an idea to distribute an ibx VP file later on as we get more HTL models. Otherwise we're going to have people thinking that the game has crashed when it sits still for 3-4 minutes making .ibx files for all the HTL models in the game.

[Mr_Maniac]

Do I see that right, that the missing "Fighter shockwave" is breakin "Special Explosion"?
At least for Fighters and the Meson-Bombs?

This breaks some missions. FS1-Missions and one FS2-Mission (you know - blowing up the knossos. The dragons should be blasted away by the shockwaves, but nothing happens).
And, of course, selfmade missions.
Or is it a code-bug?

[Skippy]

It may be an idea to distribute an ibx VP file later on as we get more HTL models. Otherwise we're going to have people thinking that the game has crashed when it sits still for 3-4 minutes making .ibx files for all the HTL models in the game.

I second that

[WMCoolmon]

There should be no fighter shockwave in the mediaVPs. But I don't remember adding a shockwave entry change for the Meson bomb, isn't that done with the special explosion thing?

[Mr_Maniac]

Well.. The whole Special Explosion "thing" isn't working...
Nothing...
Nada...
No shockwave...
Not for Fighters and not for the Meson-Bomb...

Oh... And while I'm at it, a little Bug-Report about the High-Poly Missiles
They don't look right in the Tech-room... They don't look like missiles at all...
In mission they work fine...

Screenshots:
Harpoon:


Trebuchet:


Stiletto II:


Helios:


But "not original" FS2-Missiles that use these models DO work (because it is using the helios.pof instead of the helios_tech.pof):
Helios - Fury MK VI:

[WMCoolmon]

Yeah, the techroom models have some kind of issue with them. Eventually I think I'm just going to make that a rotating version of the model, with the distance based on radius, however the tech models themselves are not centered and so wouldn't rotate properly.

[Trivial Psychic]

I suggested useing the "techroom center" option in MODview and having it key off that.

[JudgeMental]

Hrm, I've run across three issues that may or may not be related to the pack.  I'm on the 12/19/05 CVS build, with these beta VP's.

First, the Hercules mk I is invisible at medium ranges.  Plus, the model doesn't show up in the selected target screen when I actually target said Hercules.

Second, the Deimos is MOSTLY there, but there is a strip below the "nameplate" that extends half the length of the model where you can see completely through the Deimos.

Third, astroids must be phase-cloaked or something.  I can target them, but otherwise they don't exist.  I can't see them, shoot them, or even collide with them.

Screenies available upon request

[Trivial Psychic]

Are you using -jpgtga in your command line options?

[JudgeMental]

Nope.  I also just noticed that the Deimos is missing all but four tiny parts of the model in my target render screen... o_O

Should I be using the -jpgtga tag?

[Trivial Psychic]

Unless you're running an antiquated machine, -jpgtga is HIGHLY recommended.  What are your specs?

[JudgeMental]

Antique:-P  It's a PIII 700mhz (Dualie though!), 512MB RAM, and a GFFX 5200.  Adding in the tag seems to be working well.  However, is there a way to disable the new(ish) shockwaves?  They do murder to my framerates.

[Trivial Psychic]

I'm not that familiar with the new MV contents.  Its been a while since I played straight FS.