Freespace 2 OS X!

[GonzoRob]

I'll be having a go with this tonight as I found my FS2 game disks yesterday. Its still in my top 5 games of all time, and the ability to play it on my PB has got me all excited? Is widescreen supported - or am I just asking too much?

you can try just edit the .ini and type in the res ... let us know your findings
Rob

 

[Falleron]

I'm certainly going to give this a go.

 

[Soulstorm]

Well, ive been playing for a while now - and im loving it. I've tried to install the high res-vp packages (put them in my freespace game folder next to the binary - created a (HOME)/Lib/FS2_OPEN/data/cmdline_fso.cfg with ' -glow -spec -jpgtga -pcx32 -ambient_factor -rlm -loadonlyused -fps ' in it) However i dont think they are working.. the game looks great but im not getting a 'fps' counter and the models looks the same .. so im probably doing somethign wrong

It is nice playing a game at 1280x1024 on my powerbook though

thanks again for porting this game
R

I have installed the game and have downloaded all media packs (not just the models, but also the hires effects and textures). My graphics were completely altered. Try this configuration into the command line:

-no_fps_capping -glow -spec -rlm -dualscanlines -2d_poof -loadonlyused -ambient_factor 83 -jpgtga -nobeampierce -targetinfo -fps -allslev

I use that. Note that in this release, bump mapping and realistic shadows have been disabled because they had some problems. But that doesn't mean that the media packs found in the official SCP homepage do not improve the lighting of the game. The textures should load just fine, just use the configuration I give you and post any problems here, if you have any...

I think it's a great port... as soon as mtr has finished the installer, the thing will be complete for everyone to enjoy. I will alter my original post in this thread to have all the new information, so that new visitors can see the progress without having to read all these posts.

EDIT: Look at my first post on this thread: I have updated it with more information which I think will clear things up a bit

 

[Darklord]

good now that i put the sdl folder in the libray/frameworks on the hard drive the program now works well except for one thing when I start i nolonger see the actualy intro movie. I see a white box and the sound to the movie plays but no movie any way i can fix this or will i have to wait for the next release

 

[Soulstorm]

good now that i put the sdl folder in the libray/frameworks on the hard drive the program now works well except for one thing when I start i nolonger see the actualy intro movie. I see a white box and the sound to the movie plays but no movie any way i can fix this or will i have to wait for the next release

You don't have to do that. That is expected. If you want to eliminate this problem, just download the media enhancements, found in the SCP hopepage in the downloads section (look for a link in my first post).

The problem resides in a bad logo at the start of the game, and since with the media enhancement the logo is replaced, mtr thought there wasn't going to be any problems.

Relax, that doesn't mean that you can't watch the intro movie. just go to the tech room and select it to see it. It will play just fine.

 

[GonzoRob]

thats it

looks great... still runs at 1280x1024 on a PB .. probably because ive got lots of ram ..
very happy - fantastic port.. i've let a computer-games journo friend of mine know about it (works for CVG) he might do a feature on it...

R

 

[Piarco]

thats it

looks great... still runs at 1280x1024 on a PB .. probably because ive got lots of ram ..
very happy - fantastic port.. i've let a computer-games journo friend of mine know about it (works for CVG) he might do a feature on it...

R

Anything that could help bring such an awesome series back from the grave would be great! Would LOVE to see Freespace 3.

And as I don't thank people enough, cheers for all the directions Soulstorm.... hopefully I'll be flying a Herc later tonight!

 

[Darklord]

Thank you for all your help thus far however im still having minor dificulties.
how does one bring up the command line? Ive checked the /user/library/FS2_sourc/data/ for the command line file but one does not seem to exist. Mabe permissions kept the program from building one i do not know. (thogh that seems likely.) If some one could send a command line file to my email adress herecomethej@sbcglobal.net that would be very helpful.

 

[Soulstorm]

Thank you for all your help thus far however im still having minor dificulties.
how does one bring up the command line? Ive checked the /user/library/FS2_sourc/data/ for the command line file but one does not seem to exist. Mabe permissions kept the program from building one i do not know. (thogh that seems likely.) If some one could send a command line file to my email adress herecomethej@sbcglobal.net that would be very helpful.

Actually, the command line file will be created by you. Read the Read-me in the FS2_Open release. Check what you will create and how will you write the commands.

The command line is nothing more than a plain text file in the "~/Library/FS2_Open/data/cmdline_fso.cfg" location.

To see the available commands, check my first post on this thread for additional links.

EDIT:I modified my first post to answer even more questions, so that people don't search the entire thread to find it.

FS2_Open for OS X was based on the icculus.org project. Then some guys named tigital and mtr got involved with it. I didn't mention that in my first post, and it was entirely wrong to emphasize on one person only. So, according to tigital (in another forum)

...if you had, you would have seen that the porting to osx was not done by mtr solely, as you state, but instead is based on the icculus.org linux port to SDL...I was the person who figured out most of the endian byteswapping, without which we didn't have models, networking, or much else...mtr had been working on bringing the fs1 experience a lot, and then helped out with more networking and sound/movie byteswapping...then he moved more into the fs2_open project, which is about where I had to stop much work on it because I needed to make money to eat and pay rent: oddly enough, not many people contribute donations to open source game developers, but everyone loves free stuff...

I'm terribly sorry that I forgot to mention tigital and that the project existed before (in cvs I think) in icculus.org. I'm also sorry that I forgot to mention that the first betas I had played were done by both (according to what he said), who worked based on the linux sdl port, and were hosted at www.tigital.com. Sorry, and I hope I have cleared things up a bit...

 

[AP_piano295]

Ummm. dum question but do we need to have the game in the first place for this all to work?

 

[Darklord]

i see, but could some one send their cmd file anyway. When i created one i had trouble with how the individual commands were layed out.

Aslo i had a suggestion, With all the graphics updates that are being done would it be possible to increase the star feild density to something more realistic?

 

[AP_piano295]

Im betting that im kinda getting anoying to all you people who really know your way around a computer so just a couple more questions.

1.will this ever be released in a simple download double click and install set up? (like americas army and every other game I can think of)

2.If not could I maybe get a basic list of instructions on how to install, without computer jargon if possible.

Hate to be a bother but this game looks pretty cool and you cant beat the price if theres a double click and hit next next next install coming out in a month or two then ill just wait.

 

[GonzoRob]

look at the first post on page one .. 99% of info is there

the hardest bit is getting all the game files on your mac - i'd advise virtual PC and a bit of time

 

[AP_piano295]

look at the first post on page one .. 99% of info is there

the hardest bit is getting all the game files on your mac - i'd advise virtual PC and a bit of time

dont have vpc I thought all I had to do was download then I have the files on my mac.

 

[Verto]

Installation Instructions: Mac OS X

1. Download all 3 disc images from http://freespacezone.com/. They are compressed as .RAR files, extract them wherever you want.


2. Rename the 3 disc images with the extension .BIN instead of .ISO; they were mislabeled.


3. Download Bin2ISO (linked to earlier in this thread). This is a command line utility. Run the program on all 3 .BIN images. After all 3 images have finished being converted, you can delete the .BIN versions. The syntax for running it is:

sudo chmod 777 /(path to)/bin2iso (this only has to be done the first time)

/(path to)/bin2iso (path to .BIN image) (path to where you want the .ISO image to be)

3. Create the Freespace2 directory structure. It goes as follows (these are folders):
CODE

Freespace2
   data
       cbanims
       effects
       fonts
       force feedback
       freddocs
       hud
       intelanims
       interface
       maps
       missions
       models
       movies
       multidata
       music
       players
            images
            multi
            single
            squads
       sounds
       tables
       voice

4. Download File Juicer (http://echoone.com/FileJuicer/FileJuicer.html) and drag the app to your Applications folder.

5. Launch File Juicer and mount the first ISO image. Drag the file "data1.cab" onto the File Juicer window and let File Juicer finish extracting stuff from the file.

6. Open the folder (on your desktop) called "Data1 Juice". You can delete the Executables folder. Move all ".vp" files you find to the "Freespace2" folder. The contents of "Hud_Config_Files" go in the "players" folder, and the contents of "Data_Directory_Files" go in the "data" folder. The contents of "Fred_Docs" are not essential, but they can be moved to the "freddocs" folder if you wish.

7. Mount the other two ISO images. These two images have the uncompressed data on them, so you don't need File Juicer.

8. Move all ".vp" files except "warble_fs2.vp" (for some reason this one's on all three discs) from the images to the "Freespace2" folder. Move all ".MVE" files to the "movies" folder and rename them to their lowercase equivalents.

9. Download the Freespace2 application (http://www.evula.org/tnjo/freespace2.zip). Put the two files from this in the "Freespace2" folder. You may wish to tweak the .ini file, but it should give you good performance the way it is right now.

10. Let 'er rip.

A quick note is that you may notice that the game appears to slow down alot as soon as the FPS hits 120. That's the game's framerate cap but it's my theory that the engine keeps going past that point (aka generates frames at more than 120 fps) but then drags the gamespeed down to keep them displaying at 120. I'll try to hack out the framerate cap, but for now just keep the details at maximum and it should stay below 120 most of the time.

Another quick note: Joystick HIGHLY recommended!!!!!! The game plays fine without it, but if you have one USE IT! (Lotsa buttons = good thing)


========

The above post was taken from the Apple Corp Forum which was linked to earlier, and was originally posted by Fireball

I am having trouble downloading the .rar and haven't been able to install Freespace either through the installation instructions I've posted or other means; I put this here simply to make this hopefully more convenient; I am in no way responsible if these instructions cause your computer to disintegrate.

=========

Now, my question is, would these instructions work with the .ISO files that are linked to in the first post, in swooh.com ?

 

[Merf]

Anyone network play this game yet?

Merf

 

[7254278]

So did a graphic installer come out yet?

 

[Soulstorm]

NOTE: Some reported problems with the disk images downloaded from freespacezone. The disk images are mislabeled. Change their ending to .bin instead of .iso.

Also, the second link that I provided as a download location is down atm. So, look for the disk images here:

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/39309975/m/115003814731/p/1

 

[Agilus]

These instructions are really overly complex. Why don't the developers just put this thing together right? Is it really that hard to put together a Mac Application, or to even just put all the necessary files into a single image so it's easy to mount and get started?

 

[7254278]

These instructions are really overly complex. Why don't the developers just put this thing together right? Is it really that hard to put together a Mac Application, or to even just put all the necessary files into a single image so it's easy to mount and get started?

My thoughts EXACTLY

 

[AP_piano295]

Lets get a double click install that doesnt make me thing WOOT

 

[Santaduck]

I'm working on an installer which will just be point and click and simple to use. I'm not making as much progress as I thought though. But that's probably because I'm making an installer that works on every platform supported by the game. If I don't make serious progress tonight, I'll go ahead and release a script that will do all of the work and you'll just have to do what it tells you.

To MTR and Verto:

If you do end up making an OS X fileset distro which includes either a script, GUI installer (Packagemaker?), or a detailed FAQ for a manual install using only the distro, I would be happy to mirror the download over at www.macologist.org 's download page. PM me here for details.

 

[mtr]

So did a graphic installer come out yet?

No, unfortunately. I got ambitious again and decided to make a full-blown installer than can handle the CD-ROM files, download and install MediaVPs, and handle updating. I've been extremely busy lately with work and fixing major bugs in FS2_Open so that CVS is usable again. I'll get back to it as soon as I can.

These instructions are really overly complex. Why don't the developers just put this thing together right? Is it really that hard to put together a Mac Application, or to even just put all the necessary files into a single image so it's easy to mount and get started?

It is together right. The game data files aren't included with the APP because they can't be for legal reasons. The MediaVPs aren't needed and if you can't figure out how download and copy them to the right place then someone else will have to come up with better instructions since I can't think that basic. The instructions are overly complex but as has already been mentioned, most of that is not needed.

The individual VPs from the original CD ISOs can be downloaded from a FTP site. It's a conflict of interest for me to list that URL but it has already been posted in this thread if I'm not mistaken. You don't need an installer for them, just download, uncompress from RAR/ZIP (whichever it is), and copy the .vp files to the same directory as the FS2_Open APP. That's it.

Also it's not "developers" it's just one developer, me. "Me" works on all of the three major operating systems totalling 7 achitectures, both the SCP and icculus.org code bases, the TBP mod for cross-platform support, and owns a business which takes up most of "Me's" time. "Me" has also actually own a Mac for 2 months and before that borrowed/stole one when "me" could get away with it which wasn't often and means that 90% of all development was done blind. If you can do a better job than "Me" for the OS X version then are welcome to it. Otherwise, shut up.

If you do end up making an OS X fileset distro which includes either a script, GUI installer (Packagemaker?), or a detailed FAQ for a manual install using only the distro, I would be happy to mirror the download over at www.macologist.org 's download page. PM me here for details.

When it was obvious that a true installer was going to take more time than I could give I looked at the PackageMaker route but I don't know enough about the internals to actually get anything working. My next thought was for a detailed FAQ with step-by-step instructions and a simple command line program for installing the files off of the original CDs. Unfortunately I haven't had the time available to me to do that either. If you already own the CDs though then there is no legal issue to getting the single VPs off of the FTP site. The problem with me telling people that is that I am a developer on the project and I can't so obviously support copyright infringement or I'd quickly get on the bad side of Volition. I would be happy to assist anyone who would like to make available such instructions however.

As soon as I do have the full installer for FS2_Open which will be used on all of the platforms then I'll let you know.

 

[Agilus]

mtr, I apologize for coming off so critical in that last post. I wasn't aware of the legal issues, which surely complicate things. Ugh. I also come from a development background, and try to take care that software I produce isn't a pain to install. After using Linux for about five years, part of the reason I moved to Mac was so I didn't have to spend a lot of time screwing with my OS and applications to make them work. It's a just a peeve to me that even on Linux, a lot of times I can just run apt-get (Debian) or emerge (Gentoo) and have something install, and for games I want to run on my Mac, especially FOSS ones, I have to jump through a bunch of hoops that involve installing other programs I don't otherwise need, moving files, renaming files, etc.

Again, I apologize for jumping on your back. Developing 7 different builds would be a pain, and I understand that it's just a hobby project.

On a different note, I think a fairly simple bash or perl script might simplify this process a bit, and not take too long for you to put together. For any legal downloads, you could just have the script pop open an instance of safari at each download web page, and have the user do the installation. Just a suggestion.

I had the idea to install the program and then try to put together an easy(ier)-to-install App package, but my wife convinced me that I have my own hobby projects to spend time on. Also, I didn't realize the crappy legal implications. It's too bad the company won't release this old software to the community. I may have to see about trying to find an old copy of this game, since it sounds like fun.

 

[mtr]

mtr, I apologize for coming off so critical in that last post. I wasn't aware of the legal issues, which surely complicate things. Ugh. I also come from a development background, and try to take care that software I produce isn't a pain to install. After using Linux for about five years, part of the reason I moved to Mac was so I didn't have to spend a lot of time screwing with my OS and applications to make them work. It's a just a peeve to me that even on Linux, a lot of times I can just run apt-get (Debian) or emerge (Gentoo) and have something install, and for games I want to run on my Mac, especially FOSS ones, I have to jump through a bunch of hoops that involve installing other programs I don't otherwise need, moving files, renaming files, etc.

Again, I apologize for jumping on your back. Developing 7 different builds would be a pain, and I understand that it's just a hobby project.

Not a problem. I tried to be a little funny with my response so you wouldn't feel too bad.

Installation is an issue for Windows and Linux as well and it's a problem for everyone involved. Everyone involved with SCP gets asked on a weekly basis how to install everything and to explain what it what and do you use recent builds or release builds and which MediaVPs do you use, etc. I get it a little worse since I get that question on every single platform. Needless to say it gets on my last nerve every once and a while. No matter the platform you really have to be up on everything involved with FS2_Open to understand what files you need and where all to put them. That's why I decided to just go ahead and take the time to make a complete, easy to use, cross-platform installer. It's going to take time to get done and tested and get all of the other developers and certain others in the community on board with the final product. Everyone has to suffer in the meantime but it will pay off in the end.

On a different note, I think a fairly simple bash or perl script might simplify this process a bit, and not take too long for you to put together. For any legal downloads, you could just have the script pop open an instance of safari at each download web page, and have the user do the installation. Just a suggestion.

The problem with that (and the main reason I haven't done it already) are the hosting problems given the amount of server space needed and the bandwidth requirements not to mention the possible legal issues of putting it up for download. For this reason they don't like the direct links to get out of the community and tend to change download locations when they do get out. Writing the script would be easy, maintaining and constantly supporting it isn't something I'm willing to spend time on though.

I had the idea to install the program and then try to put together an easy(ier)-to-install App package, but my wife convinced me that I have my own hobby projects to spend time on. Also, I didn't realize the crappy legal implications. It's too bad the company won't release this old software to the community. I may have to see about trying to find an old copy of this game, since it sounds like fun.

It will get easier with time and as we get the various platform support worked out. Even Linux support didn't hit CVS until earlier this year, after 2 years of work on it. Nearly every utility and installer is for Windows so it's just taking time to get more people used to the idea of multi-platform. I've gotten some of the other developers working some with Linux and a couple of others are playing around with OS X so the situation is getting better. Various new tools for working with models and artwork and VPs are getting written with cross-platform in mind from the start. The Freespace community is historically a Windows group, even some of the original game developers at Volition thought Linux support was a bad idea. They have since changed their tune but it's still an uphill battle sometimes.

Also remember that I've really only been using a Mac on a regular basis for nearly 2 months. I have a big *nix background so getting me used to the Mac way of doing things takes time as well. Hell, it was a major thing for me to create a DMG for the first time instead of just uploading a tarball of the APP.

As far as the company releasing the game goes, it's not their fault. They released the source code for the engine (though missing several things that they didn't own the rights to) and the data is copyright to them. The problem is that they don't have distribution rights to it anymore so that can't give it away. This is why it's almost impossible to find for sale too, the publisher just stopped shipping it. I'm not even sure if anyone actually knows who owns the rights to it at this point but it's deffinitely not the great people who originally created the game.