Elite / Frontier Short introduction and Performance/sound issues

[chefcook]

NICMOD 1.3 framedop and gamecrash @ high planet detail from orbitview-> Normal ?

Hi all,

I have installed the NICMod 1.3. When i am in high Orbit over a planet like earth or mars, where many cities are and cpu is stressed, in high Planet detail mode i start losing fps and the game crashes. Does ANYBODY have experience with that? It would be a progress for me, if i only knew if that is NORMAL or not, because then i dont even have to try trial and erroring, so please, just a short notice would be great if anyone knows.

Im going to write the developer of NICs mod an email. I dont know how to contact these alt.fan.elite pages forums and dont know if they are up to date.

I see that the NICmod contains some of the features of anisotropics balance mod. Mostly Bugfixes. It seems the balanced prices, rewards and so on are not included. Anyone perhaps playing one of these mods?

Or does someone know if these bugfixes called "hacks" in NicMod were already included in glffes anisotropic mod?

I would be very happy if somebody could give me an idea. I see 32 views but no reply, perhaps its always the same person who checks, but i find it a little sad. Actually, its great to see the new mods.

Looking forward to some replies,
chef

 

[chefcook]

Is it possible to delete someones own thread or to change the title?

Chef

 

[Steve O B Have]

Welcome to the forums - I think the issue is that not everyone who looks at these forums are well versed in the mods you mentioned.

I think your contacting the people who have written the mod is the best course of action.

I hope you enjoy your stay here!

 

[Steve]

Hi all,

I have installed the NICMod 1.3. When i am in high Orbit over a planet like earth or mars, where many cities are and cpu is stressed, in high Planet detail mode i start losing fps and the game crashes. Does ANYBODY have experience with that? It would be a progress for me, if i only knew if that is NORMAL or not, because then i dont even have to try trial and erroring, so please, just a short notice would be great if anyone knows.

Yeah, I get exactly the same thing; it seems to be linked to the hack that doubles the planet detail. Unless the author of Nic's Mod has any ideas, it's probably best just to temporarily switch off the hack (Ctrl-1) when you're around Mars or similar.

Im going to write the developer of NICs mod an email. I dont know how to contact these alt.fan.elite pages forums and dont know if they are up to date.

I see that the NICmod contains some of the features of anisotropics balance mod. Mostly Bugfixes. It seems the balanced prices, rewards and so on are not included. Anyone perhaps playing one of these mods?

Or does someone know if these bugfixes called "hacks" in NicMod were already included in glffes anisotropic mod?

I don't think they were, and apparently AnisoFFE introduced more bugs

I would be very happy if somebody could give me an idea. I see 32 views but no reply, perhaps its always the same person who checks, but i find it a little sad.

Well, I was reading the forum at work but they frown upon posting to such sites, so I had to wait until I got home to reply

 

[chefcook]

hello, yes thank you for your answers.

I think im just gonna play it, playing anisoFFe with new GL Grafix. and its great, it is huge. I hope i wont encounter any bugs too soon.

Last time i quit playing it was because the anisortopic mod just crashed my game after a special point of time. No matter where i was, what i did. It always crashed.


I love the Prices of the goods varying within a system, that the ships drop more cargo and the rewards for missions are somehow more motivating.


Just for the graphics, i played Nics Mod 1.3, the one with planethack, for testing. Its just unbelievable to me how MUCH more realistic the surface becomes (even if still cheap actually) by that hack, and no other game can cope with what FFE or Elite 2 can do. those flights over planet surfaces. Just flying at 18000 kmh through a planets atmosphere, rounding the planet until the city appears across the horizon, and you approach it. Fly over the sea, fly over mountains.

And the planet hack gives so much more detail to the planet, flying above green areas looks like flying high above a forest for me. Still activating my phantasy, still leading to an excellent experience.

And the game delivers such a great feeling of SPEED. Just turn the nose to the right angle, quickly switch to ineye view to be sure youre not heading towards a mountain, then just fly 100m deep at 18000kmh or so (cant do more within atmosphere) and look from 100 feet distance from upwards, with some angle or without, and see the ground doing (Woooooosch) rush by.

It is just unreached, i love it.

thanks, im feeling home. But i wont get addicted again, those times have to be over .

Cu soon,
chef


PS, well i think thats off topic here. But i had to tell First time being on a board concerning Elite1,2,3. First time Talking to other players of that game. Always used to post on x3 forums since 2007. Cu soon

 

[DraQ]

(cant do more within atmosphere)

Buy yourself a Falcon, it can do at least 21k.

 

[chefcook]

thanx for the tip

any ship even faster?

 

[DraQ]

thanx for the tip

any ship even faster?

I don't think so. Falcon has the best thrust/mass ratio of all ships, the only problem is relative lack of space aboard.

 

[Patch61]

Where does one find these mods? I have Googled and come up with lots of extraneous links.

 

[chefcook]

Hi Patch61,

you can find the downloads here:


http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Hires/hiresffe.html


The Links on that page are working !


Have fun!

Concerning myself: Ive already encountered a bug with glFFE with anisotropics mod :
I have advanced with my federal ranking so that i can accept assasination missions now.
I havent tested it yet with the other Assassination jobs on the bulletin board.

But my mission subject jumps to cegreeth and when i jump after him from next to his hyperspace departure cloud, i arrive in that system with 60 km/s and cant do anything about it. His arrival cloud as well as mine is gone, far away, and i cant find it any more

When i try to shoot that ship after it launches from the starport, the game crashes ! Perhaps its only on that special mission, but i was a little disappointed at first and didnt continue ...


In Elite2 Frontier, i could always turn spacedust and background stars off, and i could always find hyperspace arrival clouds as a white pixel, no matter how far away they were! Unfortunately, this doesnt work now !

And i dont know how to mark an object as target in the spacesystem view (where you can zoom on the single planets). It was possible to target on any ship in a system that way in elite2 ! I cant see ships any more in that view, but i also cant mark anything, because the corresponding button is missing ! I already have that little mod that replaces respectively adds some missing high res console symbols.

Am i doing something wrong or is that normal? Or is it due to anisotropics mod ?
Am i asking too many questions again?

Chef

 

[Steve]

And i dont know how to mark an object as target in the spacesystem view (where you can zoom on the single planets). It was possible to target on any ship in a system that way in elite2 ! I cant see ships any more in that view, but i also cant mark anything, because the corresponding button is missing !

Unfortunately this feature is missing from FFE

 

[chefcook]

hi steve,

it actually worked with FFE ! I doesnt work with that newly designed Highres control panel ! In FFE you clicked on that green square and then on your target, and it worked ..

But ok, you dont have an idea about that crash bug i told about or that jumping into a system and having a speed of 60 kms or so ,do you ?
:/


well cu
chef

 

[DraQ]

In Elite2 Frontier, i could always turn spacedust and background stars off, and i could always find hyperspace arrival clouds as a white pixel, no matter how far away they were! Unfortunately, this doesnt work now !

It should work in ordinary JJFFE and any other non-GL version.

And i dont know how to mark an object as target in the spacesystem view (where you can zoom on the single planets).

In standard cockpit there is green rectangular icon in the upper part of the combat/astronav console. If you use other cockpit instead of the fugly original one, there is always a hotkey (which I don't remember, but try 'T').

I cant see ships any more in that view

Unfortunately this feature is missing from FFE

Which is one of the areas where FFE actually sucks. Along with mangled equipment locations on some models, fugly cockpit, worse in-system lighting engine, lack of clouds, and some royally screwed up planetary properties. Lack of full orbital map functionality is particularily painfull if you're into piracy, orbital mechanics or need to find your exact location in the system. Orbital map in FE2 simulated effects of gravity allowing you to finely tune your position and relative velocity vector to put your craft into desired orbit, in FFE the only method is "for my orbit to be stable I need to go about that fast in more or less that direction" which requires great deal of practice to be even marginally useful and isn't very precise anyway.

But ok, you dont have an idea about that crash bug i told about or that jumping into a system and having a speed of 60 kms or so ,do you ?
:/

That's Cegreth. The less said, the better. Try manually landing on that terraformed planet on close orbit around white dwarf in this system (those imperials sure are nuts) or on Canopus 1 [6,-6] (I've only managed the latter in FE2) if you want something to brighten your day (quirte literally in the latter case)/excercise in frustration (depending on who you ask).

 

[chefcook]

It should work in ordinary JJFFE and any other non-GL version.

So that means i have to spare that option in gl version ? thats sad, as i just started playing the latter!

In standard cockpit there is green rectangular icon in the upper part of the combat/astronav console. If you use other cockpit instead of the fugly original one, there is always a hotkey (which I don't remember, but try 'T').

Thanks for that tip. Thats useful !

Which is one of the areas where FFE actually sucks. Along with mangled equipment locations on some models, fugly cockpit, worse in-system lighting engine, lack of clouds, and some royally screwed up planetary properties. Lack of full orbital map functionality is particularily painfull if you're into piracy, orbital mechanics or need to find your exact location in the system. Orbital map in FE2 simulated effects of gravity allowing you to finely tune your position and relative velocity vector to put your craft into desired orbit, in FFE the only method is "for my orbit to be stable I need to go about that fast in more or less that direction" which requires great deal of practice to be even marginally useful and isn't very precise anyway.

Eh, i agree on the point concerning the clouds and the lighting ! I got used to the cockpit, it was a great improvement compared to Frontier !

The rest i didnt realize so much. What do you mean by planetary prperties? Sometimes the gravity is tooooo high for a not sooo laaarge planet ! U mean that for example ? ^^

I didnt know that in Fe2 gravitational effects were simulated in that system view ! Or what do you mean by orbital map? Tha map which you could view all planets of a system, dont you ?

That's Cegreth. The less said, the better. Try manually landing on that terraformed planet on close orbit around white dwarf in this system (those imperials sure are nuts) or on Canopus 1 [6,-6] (I've only managed the latter in FE2) if you want something to brighten your day (quirte literally in the latter case)/excercise in frustration (depending on who you ask).

The less said, the better ? then Im interested in hearing more ^^
well, its a relief to hear thats not happening in every system ! But the crash i wont be able to avoid i think? Im just going to load a former save and cancel that mission. Just take another..

And ill try that landing Perhaps i already did that once, did that look so special in Fe2 too?

Greetings,
Chef

 

[DraQ]

So that means i have to spare that option in gl version ? thats sad, as i just started playing the latter!

Well, saves are mostly compatibile.

The rest i didnt realize so much. What do you mean by planetary prperties?

Well, atmospheres (both apperance wise - see Titan in Sol, or any ice-water world - and aerodynamics wise - for example, small barren spheres of rock have atmospheres they shouldn't have and large gas giants don't, etc.), axial tilt (zeroed in all cases), some orbital characteristics in more complex systems (see co-orbital period of main binary in Alpha Centauri and gas giant Lagrange no longer in it's Lagrangian point), etc.

I didnt know that in Fe2 gravitational effects were simulated in that system view ! Or what do you mean by orbital map? Tha map which you could view all planets of a system, dont you ?

The one that shows you entire system in scale. It has forward and backward buttons allowing you to set the time point. In FE2 all ships and other small objects were treated as if they were moving with given velocity without thrust when calculating their future/past positions. You could fly near a planet at roughly right distance and velocity in set-speed mode, enter orbital map, see if those parameters yield stable orbit you want, exit and make adjustments, check again, and just turn engines off when satisfied. Your ship would then orbit the planet along predicted path. Of course FFE doesn't display positions of ships (even yours) so this functionality is lost.

The less said, the better ? then Im interested in hearing more ^^

Well, it's a mess of a system. Five stars, including two white dwarfs, two brown dwarfs, impressive number of planets and satelites, etc. Suffice to say, that frame of reference selection algorithms (alreadyless reliable in FFE than in FE2) throw hissy fitss most of the time there, and automatics in general are mostly worthless. Try persuading your autopilot to land you on the sole inhabited planet in the system (which happens to orbit the more massive of the two white dwarves really close) to see what I mean.
Terraforming planet on low obit around a white dwarf in quintuple system is a lunacy as well, but I figure that those inbred imperials could use some radiation induced mutations to spice their gene pool up .

well, its a relief to hear thats not happening in every system ! But the crash i wont be able to avoid i think? Im just going to load a former save and cancel that mission. Just take another..

I have no idea about the crash. You can always try standard JJFFE, saves are compatibile and differrences between Nic's and vanilla are few (just don't use missiles).

And ill try that landing Perhaps i already did that once, did that look so special in Fe2 too?

Canopus or Cegreth one? Cegreth is ****** difficult due to planet's orbital velocity and proximity of massive body meaning intercepting speedy planet without correct velocity readings. Canopus 1 almost skims the surface of Canopus - same problems with frame of reference plus joys of landing on an incandescent world nearly immersed in star's chromosphere. I only managed to pull it off in FE2, in FFE I got 24km from planet's surface but not a single sensor showed anything right, so I had to pull out.


what? Why is "bloody" censored? It's not even a proper swear word.