Registered: Jun 2003
Location:
Posts: 7

Alright, I know I've only just joined the forum and that it's a bit early to start with the questions, but there's rather a lot I need to know...

Firstly, I have a problem with both Freespace 1 and Freespace 2 - I have strange, fuzzy text. Now, searching the forums has revealed what causes this problem - the anti-aliasing found in Freespace. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what I can do about this. The thread here said that the problem can be solved by turning off "FSAA"... which I'm guessing means "FreeSpace Anti-Aliasing"

That's all nice and good... but how do I do that? There's no "Anti-Aliasing" option in the video tab in either game setup screen! What do I do?

Also... I hear fs2_open mentioned several times. What exactly is fs2_open? And is there a fs1_open? What does this file do?

I'd appreciate any help with this (especially the anti-aliasing bit) ad hope someone sees this. Considering what an excellent game this is, I'd really like to solve these mysteries.

Thanks in advance!

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Western Australia
Posts: 181

FS2_open is the result of a large community project that commenced when Volition released the FS2 source code, to upgrade the game. It fixes a lot of bugs and adds new features (which so far have proven almost as buggy themselves (That's being fixed BTW)).

Since V never released the code (and there wouldn't be much point, as the FS2 enine is just an upgraded FS1 engine) there is no FS1_open.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location:
Posts: 1234

Welcome to the FS community. Feel free to ask questions as we're already impressed that you bother to search first

FS2_open solves the problem of fuzzy text IIRC so that might be one way to go. The only real problem is that you'd lose the support for playing cutscenes as FS2_open doesn't have the support for them.

Anyway you can find the SCP site
[URL=http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/fsscp/index.php]here[/URL].

As for the antialiasing stuff unfortunately I'm in the position of knowing the problem but not knowing how to solve it apart from using FS2_open. I guess you'll have to wait for a GForce4 owner to pop up since they'll probably know better than me how to solve it.

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Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Sprinfield VA
Posts: 89

my guess is to fidel around with ur advanced graphics settings.

what vid card/os do you use?

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location:
Posts: 7

Thanks for the help so far... I hope that I can get this fixed without losing support for the cinematics though - I rather like them. :P

I'm using Windows 98 SE, and have a GeForce 4 Ti 4(somethingthousand).

I think I've already tried fiddling with the advanced settings and turning off Anti-Aliasing there earlier (to no discernible effect), but that was a while ago so I'll check again. After my exam tomorrow morning, that is.

Again, thanks for the help. Any more ideas are appreciated.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location:
Posts: 7

When you installed your video card drivers, there should have been utilities installed to provide you with control over your card as well.

I do not own a GForce but I am 100% sure they have a utility to adjust the video card behaviour just like ATI does.

Locate this utility, try looking at the display properties menu and look at the tabs there. It may be under "Settings" and then click on the advanced tab there. Or it may have its own tab under something like "3d card".

Once you find this, look for an anti-aliasing option and tell it to turn it off.

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Registered: Jun 2003
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Posts: 7

Oh cruel fate, why must you mock me?!

Well, I thought I had it all figured out, but it looks like I was wrong.

I thought this problem was caused by anti-aliasing, but it's quite possible that I'm wrong.

I tried various anti-aliasing settings on my video card, which had varying effects (they're the same for both Freespace 1 and Freespace 2):

NO Anti aliasing gave me the problem I've been experiencing all along - the sort of fuzzy text, with some pixels apparently misaligned and in odd places. Also, some of the briefing movies play rather weird, with a strangely-shaped batch of lines kind of breaking up the picture slightly (like in the first 'news item' in FS2 where you see the Lucifer emerging from Warp Space).

When I turned the Anti Aliasing up to higher settings it had a variety of different effects. The text sort of blurred together a little, whic actually HELPED the problem, since hte misaligned pixels become less obvious. Also, the movies played normally. However, the text got a weird, staggered sort of 'underline' effect, and the 2D scenes also became broken up by horizontal lines at times.

I've noticed that with the top anti-aliasing setting (4xS) I only get SLIGHTLY fuzzy text and the 2D backgrounds and movies play fine. However, the text IS still fuzzy.

I KNOW it wasn't like that before I got my GeForce 4 - with my previous card the text was crystal clear. The text is also clear with software rendering, proving that I'm not just imagining this problem.

What could possibly be going on? Why does my computer hate FS so much?

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location:
Posts: 1234

This is a known problem with FS2 and GeForce 4 cards. As I said before I have heard of ways to solve the problem but being a Radeon user I've never needed them.

One idea might be to get hold of the launcher for FS2_open and run it. I know that it messes around with the registry options for FS2 and it might actually fix the one that is causing you problems. Unfortunately that's a bit of a shot in the dark but the best I can do.

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Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Barrie, Ontario, CANADA!
Posts: 142

Yeah, its a reg tweak. either search the forums here or at HLP and there will be a step by step fix. solved my problems.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location:
Posts: 7

Thor, what is HLP? Also, what problem did you have that needed fixing?

On another note, I could not find anything on this forum when I searched for fs2_open launcher... I'm afraid I'm not making much progress here.

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Registered: Jul 2001
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Posts: 1234

You haven't heard of HLP!

Hard Light Productions was the other great Freespace community (I say was cause now that Freespace 2 Sector is back up there are 3 great communities ).

HLP is bigger than VWBB but I find both to be very useful for asking questions etc. HLP was originally a community for Modders but its grown quite a bit since it first started.

[URL=http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/]Click me to see how far the rabbit hole goes[/URL]

BTW if you haven't heard of HLP you might want to click on the link to my FAQ below. Lots of stuff in there you might not know!

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Questions about FS3? Questions about Fred? Questions about missions? Questions about adding new ships to your games?

[URL=http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/freespace/intro.html]Karajorma's Freespace FAQ [/URL] (now with added GE goodness)

Supreme Overlord of The Mercury Affair Campaign.

FREDder, Modder, Story design and general busybody for [URL=http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/mindgames/Background.html] Mind Games[/URL]

Last edited by karajorma on 06-19-2003 at 03:22 PM

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Registered: Jun 2003
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Posts: 7

Ok, slowly this is making me want to cry... I seem to be completely ignorant as how to do anything here...

First though, allow me to give a link here:

[url=http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/showthread.php?threadid=15484&]This is the exact problem I'm also getting[/url]

However, although solutions were suggested here, I'm STILL stuck because:

1) It says "Play with the D3DTextureOrigin Registry tag" (second post). But how am I meant to do this? I'm not a modder, I just like playing Freespace. I don't know the first thing about how I would go about modifying the FS2 registry (or the FS1 registry, seeing as they have the same problem). Can someone tell me how I would do this? Either link me or give me a guide or something - I've been searching for tutorials on how to do this for hours now and I've given up on finding one.

2) The 6th post mentions the SCP Launcher. Now, this sounds like some sort of GUI - type launcher that allows for more options, but I don't really know for sure. My problem is this: I cannot find the SCP Launcher on the SCP site. I looked in downloads, but didn't find it there, and Google got no matches. Could someone link me to it? Oh, and if it requires a huge amount of complex stuff to get to work, could I also get the instructions for it? If it needs extensions or something to work properly then I'd like to know them.

Finally, although I know this is demanding, I'd like to solve this problem in a way that won't force me to use fs2_open. It sounds like fs2_open is still buggy, and I want to see the movies in-game, and I want to solve the same problem for FS1 as well. If there's some sort of setting I can edit to fix or at least partly alleviate this problem I would be very happy indeed.

Thanks again... I'm sorry for needing such step-by-step instructions, but I just don't have the background knowledge on the community and mods that everyone else here seems to have.

(PS: I downloaded the .zip file that was linked, but I don't know if it will work and I'm reluctant to use it in case it's an older build of whatever is IN the file, or in case it permanently changes something in my FS2 that screws it or my computer up...)

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Last edited by Soul Reaver on 06-20-2003 at 12:42 PM

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Registered: Jul 2001
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Posts: 1234

Okay here goes. Lets see if we can solve this problem.

There is some helpful information in my FAQ but lets try to be extra helpful and get it all down in one place. If it proves the solution I'll add it to the FAQ and it may help the next poor sod who has this problem.

1) Editing the Registry.

The Registry can be got at by choosing run from the Window Start menu and typing in regedit. You may want to save a copy of your registry by using the export option in the file menu first.
After doing that we can get down to editing the registry itself. I would explain in detail how to do it but Setekh put up an excellent guide on HLP. You can find it [URL=http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=482&highlight=registry+hacks]here (look at the 2nd post)[/URL]
The changes involved in that guide are simply known as the registry hacks by the community. They improve the quality of the FS1 & FS2 graphics so you might as well follow that guide exactly while you're messing about with the registry.
Once you've done those things it's mearly a case of doing the same thing but this time altering the D3DTextureOrigin value instead. I had a quick look on the [URL=http://www.descent-freespace.com/ddn/kb/registry/]Descent Network Website[/URL] page for the registry hacks and it had the following to say about this particular value.

quote:

---

D3DTextureOrigin DWORD
Changes the way texture coordinates are mapped. This mostly affects text and explosions.
- 0: assumes center of texel is lowest value for uv
- 1: assumes uvs go from 0.0 to 1.0

---

Seems like setting the value to 1 or 0 are your only choices. Try one see if that works and if not try the other one.

2) If that fails to have an effect you may wish to try the launcher. I'm guessing that it only does the same things that the hacks we've applied manually do but if all else fails it might be worth giving it a shot. You can find the launcher [URL=http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/]here[/URL] on the SCP site

As for being demanding, I'm not suprised you want to see the FS1 & FS2 cutscenes as they are absolutely beautiful so I'll let you off

Anyway hope this all helps but if it doesn't don't worry about posting again

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Questions about FS3? Questions about Fred? Questions about missions? Questions about adding new ships to your games?

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: NS, Canada
Posts: 95

I got a copy of FS2:Sci-FiSotY yesterday!!!! woooohooooo!!!!!

So now I'd like to ask, would you guys recommend getting fs2_open right off?

and you're talking about a known problem with FS2 and GeForce4... are there many known problems between FS2 and GeForce2MX? I sure hope not!


Yayyyyyyy

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location:
Posts: 7

Woohoo! The problem has been completely fixed! Indeed, I think this might be worth adding to your FAQ, Karajorma. I took the liberty of writing this step-by-step guide for fixing the GeForce fuzzy text problem (for Windows 98 SE... but I assume it'll work similarly for most Windows OSes)... hope you can use it.

******
Fixing the GeForce-related Fuzzy Text Problem in Freespace and Freespace 2:

1) Go to:
Start -> Run.

2) Type in "Regedit", and click Ok

3) Go to the following folders:
For fixing Freespace 1:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Volition -> Freespace
For fixing Freespace 2:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Volition -> Freespace2

4) Backup your Registry, just to be sure. Do this by clicking:
Registry -> Export Registry File.
(Export "All" if you want, if you're worried you'll screw up something somewhere else by accident. Otherwise just export the selected branch.)

5) Select:
Edit -> New -> DWORD Value

6) Rename the newly created value to "D3DTextureOrigin"

7) Right-click on "D3DTextureOrigin" and select "Modify"

8) In the window that comes up, set "Value Data" to "1"

Voila, the fuzzy text will be all fixed next time you start the game!

******

Thanks a lot everyone for your help on this, I really appreciate it. I hope someone else will be able to use this info for fixing their GeForce problems too!

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Registered: Jul 2001
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Posts: 1234

Thanks for that. It will make it a whole lot easier to add it to the FAQ.

Glad I could (eventually) help you sort out the problem

Icer: I'd reccomend playing on FS2_open but swapping back to FS2 and playing the cutscenes from the tech room every once in a while The game is much poorer without them.

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Questions about FS3? Questions about Fred? Questions about missions? Questions about adding new ships to your games?

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Supreme Overlord of The Mercury Affair Campaign.

FREDder, Modder, Story design and general busybody for [URL=http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/mindgames/Background.html] Mind Games[/URL]

Last edited by karajorma on 06-21-2003 at 01:40 PM

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Registered: Jun 2003
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Posts: 7

Well, now to give you a total overview of the hacks I've applied. These should work for any GeForce card, I believe.

******
Freespace:
D3DLineOffset (1) (Fixes disappearing stars error)
D3DTextureDivider (1) (Increases the quality of the textures)
D3DTextureOrigin (1) (Fixes the fuzzy text problem)
D3DUseLargeTextures (1) (Increases the quality of the textures)

Freespace2:
D3DLineOffset (1) (Fixes disappearing stars error)
D3DTextureOrigin (1) (Fixes the fuzzy text problem)

Note that I didn't have the D3DTextureDivider or D3DTextureOrigin in Freespace 2, since you need special high-resolution textures for the ships to use them in the first place... Freespace 1 has them as standard, but Freespace 2 does not.

Even so, these hacks can be safely added to Freespace 2 if someone wants to make use of hi-res textures that come with user-made maps etc.

******

By the way Karajoma... I don't want to be selfish, but if you use my guide in your FAQ, would you mind giving me a quick mention? (Maybe even put up a link to my website in the FAQ beside my name if you use it... it's soulreaver.50g.com... though that's not really necessary). It would be kinda cool to get a mention in the FAQ - I'll feel like I'll get all this admiration and worship for helping all the GeForce people fix their problems.

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Registered: Jul 2001
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Posts: 1234

Click the link and check the technical questions section. It's already up (and yes you got credit for checking if the suggestions I made really did work ).

As for applying the hacks to FS2 go ahead and do so.

1) There are several campaigns where people have made mods which use high res textures

2) If you use VPView you can extract the maps from FS1 and put them into the Freespace2\data\maps folder. Instantly any ship like the Fenris, Medusa, Herc etc which appeared in both games will get improved textures.

EDIT : aha! So D3DLineOffset solves the disappearing stars problem That will definately have to go into the FAQ. I've seen a few questions about that particular problem too

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Questions about FS3? Questions about Fred? Questions about missions? Questions about adding new ships to your games?

[URL=http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/freespace/intro.html]Karajorma's Freespace FAQ [/URL] (now with added GE goodness)

Supreme Overlord of The Mercury Affair Campaign.

FREDder, Modder, Story design and general busybody for [URL=http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/mindgames/Background.html] Mind Games[/URL]

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