Sectorgame needs a release thread!

RELEASE: 3.6.10 Media VPs

Since January this year, spawned by the Beta, a new FSU team was established to bring to light one of the most awaited (and awaited... and awaited...) enhancements to Freespace.

To borrow from a prior Descent release, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.

Thousands of modified files spanning 200+ SVN commits and 6 test packages, countless sleepless hours (resulting in one team member receiving disciplinary action from the workplace), arguments both public and private, have all to come together to provide over 150 normal maps, significant reworking of existing and the addition of quite a few new effects, some as of yet unreleased HTL ships and every bug, potential bug and quibble addressed and crushed.

We hope you have a much more enjoyable time with the end results!

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Step 1: Ensure you have a working installation of Freespace 2

The MediaVPs require a working installation of retail Freespace 2. If you do not have the retail Freespace 2, it can be purchased from Good Old Games for $6 USD: http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/freespace_2

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Step 2: Get the latest Nightly Build and Launcher

• Nightly build 4985 or higher is recommended until an official EXE is released. The nightly builds forum.
• The latest version of the launcher is Launcher 5.5d.

Both the fs2_open_3_6_10r-20081207_r4985.exe and Launcher.exe should be placed in your root Freespace2 install folder. ie: "C:\Games\FreeSpace2"

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Step 3: Set up the mediavps mod directory

If it does not already exist, create a new folder called "mediavps" in your Freespace 2 install folder, and place the MV_*.vp files in there.
So, if you installed Freespace 2 to "C:\Games\FreeSpace2" then you would place these Media VP files into "C:\Games\FreeSpace2\mediavps"

!!IMPORTANT!!
If your mediavps directory does already exist, then it probably has some old VPs and other bits and pieces in it. Delete or move (completely out of the FS directory structure) ALL these old files, leaving you with an empty mediavps folder.

Next download the following components and place them in your newly created mediavps folder:

• Readme
• Mod.ini
• Launcher Graphic

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Step 4: Configure the launcher flags

• Open the launcher and go to the MOD tab and click "Select MOD". From here select the 'mediavps' folder and click ok.
• Go to the "Features" tab to activate the specific features FSO offers. The recommended settings are:
  ==> Graphics List:
  
  Enable Specular
  Enable Glowmaps
  Enable Environment Maps
  Apply Lighting to Missiles
  Enable Normal Maps
  (Personal preference) Enable 3D Shockwaves (switches shockwaves from always facing the camera to spawning with random orientations)
  
  ==> Gameplay List:
  
  Enable 3D Warp
  (Personal preference) Enable Flash on Warp (switches a simple flare effect on that flashes when a subspace vortex opens and closes)
  
  ==> In the "Custom Flags field" copy & paste (Without the quotes): "-ambient_factor 35 -ogl_spec 20 -spec_exp 15 -spec_point 1.2 -spec_static 1.5 -spec_tube 1.5"
  
  (Note, any of these settings and the others in the lists can be tweaked as desired. See the Wiki Page on Launcher Flags for more information on each:
  http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.ph ... _Reference )

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Step 5: Download the 3.6.10 MediaVPs themselves!

[OPTION 1] - Single VP containing everything:

MV_Complete.vp
FSMods ;; Sectorgame ;; Mirror
(To save on bandwidth, please use the torrent link if you are able!)
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1717551/1727794/ (For demonoid members)
http://www.demonoid.com/files/download/ ... 51/1727794 (To go straight to the torrent)

IMPORTANT:
Unfortunately we forgot to include MV_Music in the single large VP. For the complete package you will need MV_Music as well, even if you have MV_Complete already.

MV_Music.vp
MV_Music.zip


OR


[OPTION 2] - The individual component VPs:

Torrent Links:
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1717549/15550146/ (For demonoid members)
http://www.demonoid.com/files/download/ ... 9/15550146 (To go straight to the torrent)

MV_Core.vp (Minimum required for running FSO)
FSMods ;; Sectorgame ;; Mirror

MV_Music.vp
MV_Music.zip

MV_Assets.vp
FSMods ;; Sectorgame ;; Mirror

MV_Effects.vp
FSMods ;; Sectorgame ;; Mirror

MV_Advanced.vp (For users with higher end machines)
FSMods ;; Sectorgame ;; Mirror

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Step 6: Play and enjoy!

IMPORTANT: Known Issues

• Anyone experiencing graphical problems with the Shivan beams (typically people with ATI cards), please download these 16x512 resolution textures and paste the three files (SBeamAB, SBeamAD and SBeamAE) into "\FreeSpace2\mediavps\data\effects". If that folder doesn't exist, create it.
• If you are getting "Error: mv_strings-lcl.tbm is corrupt" at startup with a non-english FS install, extract 'mv_strings-lcl.tbm' from this file into your "\Freespace2\mediavps\data\tables" folder. If that folder doesn't exist, create it.

These issues will be more permanently addressed in the patch following the release of the official 3.6.10 build.

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For those of you wanting to use the MV_Advanced or MV_Complete VP but don't care for the Animated Glow Maps, here is a VP that will turn them off:
MV_AbolishAnimGlows.vp
FSMods ;; Sectorgame ;; Mirror

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Hashes File.
You can use a tool such as hashtab or the plugin for Firefox to generate the hashes of the big VP files as you get them to ensure they were downloaded intact.

**Fixes**
Shivan Beam effects operational
CoOp/Single Mission Corrections
Numerous model bugs resolved
Numerous map and effects issues resolved
Load optimizations and packaging for performance increases


**Features**
Load optimizations and packaging for performance increases (So nifty, it's here twice!)
New models and a LOAD of normal maps!
Balanced shaders for the best in performance and visual quality
Stellar Enhancements now In-Mission for Single and Multiplayer!
Species specific Secondary weapons for the Shivan fleet!

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A contents excerpt from the the Readme: FSU Staff:
DaBrain
Wanderer
Herra Tohtori
Zacam
Blowfish
Vasudan Admiral
Galemp

MediaVP Testers:
chief1983
Backslash
FUBAR-BDHR

Credits not found in the Readme:

Swantz @ FreeSpaceMods.Net for hosting, Thank You!
Launcher BMP used by this set of MediaVPs: Aardwolf

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Coming Soon:
MV_AbolishUberShock: Converts the shockwave back to simple3D while still allowing use of Advanced.
SCP Enhanced Multi-Missions package
Remaining Multiplayer Missions from root_fs2.vp
Single Player Gauntlets a la FSPort (but for FS2!)

**SUPPORT NOTICE**

While we took every effort we could to make gameplay as smooth and as rewarding as possible in this release, some things are always a matter of personal taste. Some people may feel creatively inclined to modify the resources within these VP's to their own ends. And as this is an open community project, you are certainly free to do so. But when it comes to the MediaVP's themselves, we cannot bug-fix or troubleshoot anything involving custom or modified content that was not created by the team for a specific effect (EG: The Abolish VP's.) So, to best facilitate fixes and future work, please only report issues with non-modified content.

*** If other people host via other trackers, PM me so I can update the Initial seed with them!! ***

I will be mirroring this soon, I'm still behind on restoring stuff to the server.

Awesome.

It's there! Finally! The moment I've been waiting for for half a year!
Thank you to everybody who worked on this!

Have added them to the original post

I seem to never see these MVP release threads on the HLP forum.

What, even after I posted it up all nice and pretty on the front page?

It are very prettyful.

What, even after I posted it up all nice and pretty on the front page?

I am blind.

Those vps are coolness

Ooh, an early christmas present from the team! Thanks guys!

I'll be trying these out now.

Don't think I'll be getting any Christmas presents this year...

Screenshots taken with the latest Media VP's would be great, if anyone has time, please take as many pretty pictures as you can and upload them to the Gallery at F2S.

Screenshots taken with the latest Media VP's would be great, if anyone has time, please take as many pretty pictures as you can and upload them to the Gallery at F2S.

I would, but whenever I do it they always manage to look horrible.