The FFED3D Thread

Steve · Feb 24, 2013

Really enjoying playing beta1, now that the bombing targets appear where they should :smilie:
Also, the bug where the game would slow down and get quite jerky after 10-15 mins seems to have been eradicated; it runs nice and smoothly all the time now.

Most importantly, I have the joy of the bulletin boards again

(Buzz off and keep your nose clean!!!)

A few issues, mentioned elsewhere:-

The planet atmosphere is drawn in front of the space station as you approach it;
"Holes" in the planets, as viewed from certain angles when landed;
Flickering status bar at the top of the screen in fullscreen mode (very annoying);
Certain characters not displaying correctly eg. Kr[60 instead of Kruger60. I fixed these in a previous version by hacking the correct ascii codes, but a fixed compiled version would be better. Need to be careful though; the game sometimes doesn't tally your corrected name with the target system in a mission, and you can't then complete it
Trying to delete a commander file causes the program to hang. Again, not a big problem; I can simply delete them from the folder in Window$, but it'd be nice if it worked...

Those last two bugs, by the way, are not specific to the Ittiz versions; they've been around for a while.

These observations related to beta1; I've had to accept that my computer really doesn't like beta2!

Bingo Brewster said:
Where can I find a link to the torrent? The downloads I have tried from various sources seem to have a dll missing.

Do you mean d3dx9_29.dll? I just Googled and downloaded it separately.

Styggron · Feb 24, 2013

Bingo Brewster said:
Where can I find a link to the torrent? The downloads I have tried from various sources seem to have a dll missing.

Scroll up or check previous pages, Ittiz's made a post with the link. The first one was beta 1 and later beta 2. It is all in this thread....sorry I have to run else I'd post the link here now.

Ittiz · Feb 24, 2013

Stan Cask said:
Could you please seed

Hehehe, well I'm getting heavy snow right now and my power went out for an hour or so.

Ittiz · Feb 24, 2013

Steve said:
Really enjoying playing beta1, now that the bombing targets appear where they should :smilie:
Also, the bug where the game would slow down and get quite jerky after 10-15 mins seems to have been eradicated; it runs nice and smoothly all the time now.

Most importantly, I have the joy of the bulletin boards again (Buzz off and keep your nose clean!!!)

A few issues, mentioned elsewhere:-

The planet atmosphere is drawn in front of the space station as you approach it;

"Holes" in the planets, as viewed from certain angles when landed;

Flickering status bar at the top of the screen in fullscreen mode (very annoying);

Certain characters not displaying correctly eg. Kr[60 instead of Kruger60. I fixed these in a previous version by hacking the correct ascii codes, but a fixed compiled version would be better. Need to be careful though; the game sometimes doesn't tally your corrected name with the target system in a mission, and you can't then complete it

Trying to delete a commander file causes the program to hang. Again, not a big problem; I can simply delete them from the folder in Window$, but it'd be nice if it worked...

Those last two bugs, by the way, are not specific to the Ittiz versions; they've been around for a while.

These observations related to beta1; I've had to accept that my computer really doesn't like beta2!

Do you mean d3dx9_29.dll? I just Googled and downloaded it separately.

Have you tried it with the old ffewin.cfg? that file controls the majority of the planet detail. So if you switch it out you will lose most of the extra planet detail, but the game may run more smoothly. Also try turning the detail down in game. That works for me. I'm working hard to fix this problem, but it may take a redesign of the code that does planet generation.

gunbladelad · Feb 25, 2013

You can indeed simply edit in your desired amount of cash with Buffet - or give yourself a massive supply of whatever commodity you wish.

Buffet essentially allows you to change anything that's in the game as it happens.

Bingo Brewster · Feb 25, 2013

d3dx9_29.dll yes this is the one that always seems to be missing

Styggron · Feb 26, 2013

gunbladelad said:
You can indeed simply edit in your desired amount of cash with Buffet - or give yourself a massive supply of whatever commodity you wish.

Buffet essentially allows you to change anything that's in the game as it happens.

Understood but I was wondering if there is another way, ie any file I can mod myself without buffet.

Bingo Brewster · Feb 26, 2013

Styggron said:
I'm seeding both Ittiz's versions beta 1 and beta 2. Sorry my internet is very slow and unreliable though, I'll stay on as long as I can though. I am on daily just not 24 hours as this is a laptop. I know the others seed too so you should be able to get the file.

I set my upload speed to unlimited for you but the best it can do is around 14.5 - 15kB/s sorry....

If anyone else could seed the beta versions that would be great, at current speeds the download is going to take a few months.
Many thanks in advance :smilie:

Steve · Feb 26, 2013

Bingo Brewster said:
If anyone else could seed the beta versions that would be great, at current speeds the download is going to take a few months.
Many thanks in advance :smilie:

You may find, as I did, that your ISP throttles P2P traffic at peak periods. Best thing is to use something like BitTorrent and leave it to download overnight.

Bingo Brewster · Feb 26, 2013

Steve said:
You may find, as I did, that your ISP throttles P2P traffic at peak periods. Best thing is to use something like BitTorrent and leave it to download overnight.

Thanks Steve. I am using BitTorrent but have been connected for 4 days now and still only have 20%. I connect via a VPN so my ISP should not be able to see what I do in any case. Thanks for your help though!

Steve · Feb 26, 2013

Bingo Brewster said:
Thanks Steve. I am using BitTorrent but have been connected for 4 days now and still only have 20%. I connect via a VPN so my ISP should not be able to see what I do in any case. Thanks for your help though!

Wow, that is slow!

I'll leave the files seeding tonight, it may help a bit.

gunbladelad · Feb 27, 2013

I do recall reading up on how to edit savegames in FFE long ago, but if memory serves me correctly you had to decrypt the save file, make the changes then re-encrypt the save file again.

I'll do a bit of looking and see what I can dig up.

EDIT : This isn't what I saw before, but it's an archived site from the old Geocities pages that has some information on modifying First Encounters

http://www.oocities.org/timessquare/1350/ (contains several tools you'd likely use)

http://www.oocities.org/timessquare/1350/ffe-hack.html (Tells you how to modify the executable to get what you're after...)

Riker · Feb 27, 2013

Hey Stiggron, all the guides you could ever need I got in FFE zip file (300 pages manual, hand coded missions guide, fast start guide). Can't remember for life where I downloaded it from. Check your folders, they should be in docs map.

Wavey · Feb 27, 2013

Hi,I have noticed some people get the problem of having to click the button below the one they want on options .What worked for me was to start game then alt/tab out then open game again and then they work as expected

Sir.Tj · Feb 27, 2013

I've downloaded the file and am now seeding it. so, hopefully that will help the speed a bit.

nanite2000 · Feb 27, 2013

T.j said:
I've downloaded the file and am now seeding it. so, hopefully that will help the speed a bit.

I'm seeding again too. Is it helping?

nanite2000 · Feb 27, 2013

Alien said:
Does anyone know what file format the custom ships are?
Steve O B Have, do you know?

I ask because I have a list of XSP files of ship models that could possibly be used / converted for FFED3D http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=274276 Admittedly they are for X3TC and not FFED3D

I have no idea of how feasible that would be, so don't bite my head off if it is simply not possible.

Hey - just wondering. Did you make any progress with this?

I've been trying to find other ways of creating compatible models (like exporting buildings from Google Sketchup), but it seems the Pandasoft export for 3DSMax is the only way to do it.

Styggron · Feb 28, 2013

nanite2000 said:
I'm seeding again too. Is it helping?

Same seeding Beta 1 and Beta 2.

Styggron · Feb 28, 2013

Riker said:
Hey Stiggron, all the guides you could ever need I got in FFE zip file (300 pages manual, hand coded missions guide, fast start guide). Can't remember for life where I downloaded it from. Check your folders, they should be in docs map.

Ummm, you have just rubbed chocolate cake in my face and then told me not to eat it.

NOt sure what you mean by check my folders, but it would be really fantastic if you could tell me where you got the file from.

Riker · Feb 28, 2013

Hey, I did my homework

This is what you need:

http://ffeartpage.com/b2/ffe106.zip

Both Windows-ready FFE games (Jade's FFE and FFED3D) are in that file, as well as all possible guides you may ever need in Docs folder (including huge Manual with list of interesting systems amongs other things), and trainer program Buffet. D3D version as you may know has some bugs (no targeting tunnels, target sometimes doesn't appear in missions), but looks much better than regular version. You can get around those bugs by completing mission in regular version, then continuing playing in d3d (savegames are completely interchangeable between versions).

As for online resources, closest equivalents to Sharoma as much as I know are Jade's site that you already
know about, and that site in my link. There are also custom backgrounds on that site on Utilities page.

Enjoy

The FFED3D Thread

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