Freespace 2...deep-space fighting

BountyHunterSAx · Post by **BountyHunterSAx** » 2007-10-11 02:07am

So after watching the first space-battle in AOTC, I found myself craving a good deep-space dogfighting simulator; something that could pull off the epic clash of ships flying in every direction simultaneously. That's when I found the abandonware game Freespace 2.

Freespace 2 is one of those rare cases where the game is near perfect, the marketing atrocious, and the programmers decide to release the source code rather than 'going down with the ship.' As a result; updated modernized graphics make FS2 an absolute beauty to play; and the immersing storyline and gameplay elements are to die for.

Out of curiousity; i know there was a good star-wars themed deep-space fighting game released for the PS2 - but am unsure which one it was or what it was called; anyone know?

-AHMAD

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2007-10-11 02:13am

Oh for fuck's sake...what do you think the Gaming and Computer Forum is for?

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2007-10-11 02:15am

You'll find there are a couple Freespace 2 fans around this board (myself included), and yes, it is still a great game, especially graphically enhanced by the SCP project.

While I'm not sure if there was any Star Wars space shooter for the PS2, the ultimate in that category has to be the X-Wing series for the PC, my favourite being TIE Fighter.

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2007-10-11 02:54am

The best thing about Freespace 2 is the fan campaigns, in my opinion. Sync, Transcend, Derelict, Blue Planet, and many more I can't remember off hand are all just great. Even better will be when one of the TCs finally releases a campaign. Star Fox, BSG, Wing Commander, I'm looking at you guys. Also, the Star Wars mod seems to be finally getting its act together, at least as far as models go. Fingers crossed about ever seeing a campaign from them, though.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-10-11 02:54am

Oh Great Scott! Should I just make a stock post?

Long story short. If you're playing the home of the underdogs version, stop now.
The freespace community, over the past 4 years, has taken the engine and upgraded it to semi modern standards, significently enhanced the graphics and enabled dozens of mods from B5 to nBSG.

This is the online installer(19MB).

Download this, give it a folder on a hard drive that has atleast 4GB of room(for later mods). Download, untick the OSX crap, untick the demo, untick Sync and Transcend, and enjoy.
ONce finshed DLing(an overnighter for me), go into that folder. Create a shortcut(optional) to the Launcher. Run the launcher, give it the fs2_open_3_6_9.exe as a target. Go to the flags, tick everything graphical(if your PC can handle it). Tick gameplay flags and the rest as you want, I usually leave them blank except for pre-loading sound.
Now, go into the mods tab, open and mark the folder mediavps. This is shiny graphics. Click apply and launch.

If you wish to play FreeSpace1, you just enable the mod fsport. Bear in mind there are a few bugs, which Edi can talk about for a while(

) that I can help you to get around if you find them. Enjoy.

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2007-10-11 02:57am

Untick Sync and Transcend? Are there newer versions available he should download instead, or are you just depriving him?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-10-11 03:11am

Alan Bolte wrote:Untick Sync and Transcend? Are there newer versions available he should download instead, or are you just depriving him?

I dislike non voice acted campaigns, I can't read that fast while dogfighting. True, if he doesn't mind that, go ahead.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-11 03:25am

So it's not 'how to set up SCP' it's 'how to be an elitist like Ace and remove content because he doesn't like it'?

It kinda boggles the mind there are still people who give a shit who aren't playing SCP. I mean, nobody plays space fighter games anymore, but it wouldn't take much to find the better version. Crazy, crazy.

One day the models might be done and fixed. That'd be nice.

BountyHunterSAx · Post by **BountyHunterSAx** » 2007-10-11 04:11am

Personally, i've played the SCP version with good settings, and the HOTU version and - while one can CLEARLY tell the difference - I don't think the extended load times are worth it.

Also - sorry to start this in the wrong messageboard; I must have missed this forum when first looking - thanks for the move.

-AHMAD

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-11 08:22am

You're wierd. Retail is so hideously ugly it's virtually unplayable. Load times aren't serious with the newer builds - there was a time where they were retarded (2-3m per mission).

Darkevilme · Post by **Darkevilme** » 2007-10-11 11:46am

Ace Pace wrote:Oh Great Scott! Should I just make a stock post?

Long story short. If you're playing the home of the underdogs version, stop now.
The freespace community, over the past 4 years, has taken the engine and upgraded it to semi modern standards, significently enhanced the graphics and enabled dozens of mods from B5 to nBSG.

This is the online installer(19MB).

Download this, give it a folder on a hard drive that has atleast 4GB of room(for later mods). Download, untick the OSX crap, untick the demo, untick Sync and Transcend, and enjoy.
ONce finshed DLing(an overnighter for me), go into that folder. Create a shortcut(optional) to the Launcher. Run the launcher, give it the fs2_open_3_6_9.exe as a target. Go to the flags, tick everything graphical(if your PC can handle it). Tick gameplay flags and the rest as you want, I usually leave them blank except for pre-loading sound.
Now, go into the mods tab, open and mark the folder mediavps. This is shiny graphics. Click apply and launch.

If you wish to play FreeSpace1, you just enable the mod fsport. Bear in mind there are a few bugs, which Edi can talk about for a while( ) that I can help you to get around if you find them. Enjoy.

Okay, and what do i do when the launcher crashes trying to reference fs2_open 3_6_9, every time? play starcontrol 2 some more?

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2007-10-11 11:58am

Darkevilme wrote:Okay, and what do i do when the launcher crashes trying to reference fs2_open 3_6_9, every time? play starcontrol 2 some more?

I dunno? Get the crashlog and figure out what the exact error message is so someone can fix it? Maybe search the knowledge base on the Hard Light forums?

I mean seriously, in the time it took you to be snarky, you could have probably figured out the problem and started playing.

BountyHunterSAx · Post by **BountyHunterSAx** » 2007-10-11 12:56pm

Retail is hardly 'hideously ugly' in my book; but yes - I am weird. I enjoy a good deal of retro-gaming so I guess sub-modern-par graphics don't bother me. I've never felt that my visual experience with the Wii was lacking after playing the PS3, for example.

To each their own.

-AHMAD

Darkevilme · Post by **Darkevilme** » 2007-10-11 02:35pm

Problem resolved, though it did take longer than it took to be snarky.

Edit: And for the record, twas sound drivers that needed to be pokified.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-10-11 02:44pm

For the record, this is the universal installer for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux (32bit & 64bit).

I'm using it right now, since I somehow lost the game a few months ago.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-11 04:53pm

BountyHunterSAx wrote:Retail is hardly 'hideously ugly' in my book; but yes - I am weird. I enjoy a good deal of retro-gaming so I guess sub-modern-par graphics don't bother me. I've never felt that my visual experience with the Wii was lacking after playing the PS3, for example.

To each their own.

-AHMAD

Thanks for ignoring the substance of my post and pretentiously stereotyping me in the same breath. Unless your rig sucks - in which case it's not 'retro gaming', it's 'budget gaming' - newer builds of SCP don't have serious load time issues, and they can be mitigated by not using all the vps anyway, since you don't care about the laughable retail 'textures'.

I hear I don't understand playing old games and am really superficial when it comes to graphics?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-10-11 06:50pm

Stark wrote:You're wierd. Retail is so hideously ugly it's virtually unplayable. Load times aren't serious with the newer builds - there was a time where they were retarded (2-3m per mission).

Two three minutes can occure only in the following circumstances:
1) You're creating compressed versions of alot of things for the first time.
2) You're precaching an audio heavy mission.
3) You need to create mipmaps for a model for the first time.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-11 10:45pm

No fucking shit Ace, that's what I just fucking said. Christ on a fucking motorbike. ONCE UPON A FUCKING TIME, SCP loadtimes were REGULARLY minutes per mission. NOW they ARE NOT. Do I need to say it again for you? Slower perhaps? Or are you going to pretend SCP didn't have a long period where it had absolutely humongous loadtimes, which probably put this guy off?

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2007-10-12 12:46am

Speaking of longass load times, this installer is taking forever. Ah well, I'll just leave it overnight.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-10-12 03:06am

Blue Planet, for the record and since I just finished playing it, is an excellent mod. Sync, and Transcend, along with Blue Planet, are now my favorite fan-made mods.

If anyone mentions Derelict, I'll mention how it crashes horribly and is therefore unplayable.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-10-12 03:06am

Stark wrote:No fucking shit Ace, that's what I just fucking said. Christ on a fucking motorbike. ONCE UPON A FUCKING TIME, SCP loadtimes were REGULARLY minutes per mission. NOW they ARE NOT. Do I need to say it again for you? Slower perhaps? Or are you going to pretend SCP didn't have a long period where it had absolutely humongous loadtimes, which probably put this guy off?

No, I'm just pointing out, this situation could still happen.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-12 03:08am

rhoenix wrote:If anyone mentions Derelict, I'll mention how it crashes horribly and is therefore unplayable.

There's problems with the new version? The original retail version is broken, but the BR version is fine for me. You're probably missing some assets, due to the hopeless hodge-podge of vps required to run everything in SCP.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-10-12 03:11am

Stark wrote:There's problems with the new version? The original retail version is broken, but the BR version is fine for me. You're probably missing some assets, due to the hopeless hodge-podge of vps required to run everything in SCP.

Quite likely - I just installed the files from the release thread (SCP version) on the Hardlight forums, and it crashes before it even finishes loading the first mission. Apparently the fix is to downgrade to 3.6.8 vp's, but I'm not feeling that ambitious.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-12 03:16am

Yeah, I haven't messed with my vp setup since I got all my favourite campaigns working. The barriers to entry for SCP can be pretty high, because it's a pain in the fucking ass to get all the shit you need to run stuff without trawling the forums for ages. Shivan had a nice pre-built install, which was self contained, but I'm not sure if it's still there.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-10-12 03:18am

Stark wrote:Yeah, I haven't messed with my vp setup since I got all my favourite campaigns working. The barriers to entry for SCP can be pretty high, because it's a pain in the fucking ass to get all the shit you need to run stuff without trawling the forums for ages. Shivan had a nice pre-built install, which was self contained, but I'm not sure if it's still there.

Shivans big package should still exist, but it's far behind the times, he's working on a new one...
Working for the past year.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Freespace 2...deep-space fighting

Freespace 2...deep-space fighting

SCP vs. HOTU version

Retail vs SCP

Re: Retail vs SCP