The General BugFixing/Playtesting thread for FFED3D+mods

[Zak Gordon]

A couple more screenshots with things to consider:

1. Pop in of planets/suns when flying towards/away from.





In FFE a planet would change from the 'blob' graphic to the planet texture at around 315,000 km, and the scale of that transition was smooth enough as the 'blob' was close to the size of the texture planet at transition.

In FFED3D this transition happens around 350,000 km and is much more drastic. The 'blob' graphic is about half the size of the scale compared to FFE and the planet when it pops into view is about 8 times the diameter of the blob it replaces, so you get a much bigger 'pop' effect that is a little unrealistic. The screens above show the smallest size for the planet texture currently, and the 'blob' that replaces it.

What files determine the size of the smallest planet skin(when it pops into view), or the blob graphic that represents distant planets? I think we can make this transition smoother?

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2. Running out of vertical(and horizontal?) space in the system info screen:



Take an example like 70 Ophiuchi (sector -2,0 left of Core Systems), where the size of the planet graphics can push some planets right near the edge of the display on the vertical, as shown with the faint red arrow! I've seen other systems where this might be happening on the horizontal also.

Is there a danger a planet with a starport could be in this zone, and is it maybe a good idea to try to fit all planets in this screen? Which would require what, smaller size textures for the planet and suns?

Edit: This is actually a default FFE issue, so probably not something we can fix.

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3. This is autopilot bug from FFE, so it has always been one of the games bugs:





Anyone else notice you reverse your facing direction before/on landing? Doing the Wiccan Run start on Hope and flying on manual from Blackelk to Old Curry, i use autopilot for the last part to line me up for a manual landing, and on the descent i use the time controls to speed up time for the last bit to avoid the crash-bug and sinking into landscape bug. I usually use the second speed setting once i am about 30m up. So i did and suddenly i'm completely facing the opposite direction compared to the rest of the descent.

In the sceenshots above you can see that i am facing inwards towards Old Curry port. But the whole descent down under autopilot had me facing outwards, so 180 degrees the other way. Maybe part of the reason why the autopilot so often crashes you? Possible to fix or not?

Also in that second screenshot i want to talk about new textures and why going Hi-res is not always the best option. I've highlighted (very badly in 'paint') that pylon behind my landing spot, and you can see that bit of architecture in various space ports. Notice how it seems 'blank' or with little actual visible detail on it. I think is just due to the Hi-res texture that replaced the deault one.

So i just wanted to mention that, so when using a hi-res texture replacement it might be good to ensure it contains interesting detail to stop it looking 'blank' when rendered in the game. There may be a number of these type of hi-res textures that could probably do with being adjusted to make the texture stand out a little more, while keeping the hi-res setting?

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4.Just some screens showing some of the graphics work/adjustments i've been doing, and that i'll be uploading for people to get at sometime soon:

New resized direction cursors, based on the original FFED3D ones (and better than my quick hack previous version!):



New nebula for the navigation screen, based on the Ittiz ones that don't 'clip':



A few shots of the current/newest work i've been doing on Suns and Planets in the system info screens:

Sol System (Mars, earth and venus correct etc):



Eta Cassiopeia:



Belafa system (new Brown Dwarf):

 

[Zak Gordon]

Just for Andy (sorry it is not much fun!). I mention an occasional crash on startup issue at the bottom of the first post (in the Bug List), which looks like this:



And here is the windows error report if that is handy for you:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/bwnxc3dl77ewcdd/FFED3DAJexeCrashappcompat.zip

(To anyone in general, I've also updated my graphics download files (ZGtexturesMod.zip) in the other thread, and when it is fully finished i'll see about uploading it to spacesimcentral etc)

 

[Zak Gordon]

Looking through the FFED3DAJ_readme.txt i'm trying to get a better understanding on the section that deals with models and textures and the settings in the configuration file.

For example ModelManagerFrequency, what does different values here do? Default is 100, so would 500 make the game too slow, load models quicker etc?

ModelCacheLimit is default on 45, how many does the game contain overall (to give a better idea of what might be a Max value here etc)?

ModelManagerAgeDrop is set at 0, but i have used the example setting of 500, and what difference should i be seeing for this (or not maybe?)?

Also in relation to the ships that have the 10 different skin options (a great idea btw), what is the plan here in terms of expanding this to more ships, or are we at a limit currently in terms of resources etc.

And what types of models are taking up most of the resources, maybe there is a way to reduce this load by having smaller res textures? What do you envisage being the best way forward here?

 

[Styggron]

I need to do some catchup. Andy gave me his outstanding version and I also use Ittiz's version......

 

[Spacegamer]

Uploaded the unfinished Cobra Mk1 to SSC here http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/files/file/1037-cobra-mk1-model/

 

[AndyJ]

Sorry for the lack of response, was away at Leeds music festival over the long bank-holiday weekend... still a bit frazzled and broken tbh lol

1st Thanks Spacegamer for the model, have downloaded and been killed by it a couple of times already!

Re. the issues... yeah I'm not going to be able to fix an autopilot parking 'the wrong way'. ever. I've come to regard the autopilot as an AI like the Johnny Cab driver in the original (Arnie) Total Recall - who occasionally will have a bad attitude and ruin your day! Parking facing the wall rather than the beautiful sunset is rather lucky, compared to it actively flying you straight through a planet/sun/space-station! I think that if it had been easily fixable, JJ would have done so years ago.

Planet pop-up may in part be due to FFED3D's drawing of circles which I know is broken... really need to figure out the Scale parameter for submodels... At present the 'primitive' versions of the Mantis ship engine and the Lifter's cargo both draw spheres of the right size, but there's another tiny one floating at nuclear reactors that can't be right. Lights on pylons aren't drawn the correct sizes yet either. Have started to look at this, but not sure yet if the correct values are being passed through from the original game and they're undocumented on the JongWare site. Anyway on/near the top of my list.

Not looked at the crash report but would bet it's DirectX related. That code is 'functional' to a point... but let's say needs some TLC to get it working correctly!

Other points - fully support new models and textures but maybe we should have separate threads to evolve those rather than all lumped in here? (helps to show more activity too!)
Some high-res textures are quite different to their originals in the FFED3D pack - e.g. the camouflage skins for Cobra Mk1's. This can lead to some bland looking models unfortunately.

Oh yeah, cache settings. The ModelCacheLimit setting is the important one. And I have sort of assumed that no-one is trying to run with less than 2GB. ... If you are trying to run on 1GB then you'd probably need to set the option to use primitive models only, and tweak from there what shaders and hi-res textures to use.
There are 465 documented model ids - some of which are really collections of other models, texts or generic parts such as engines, landing gear. Around 200 of these have been replaced and are located in the Models folder. In any case, there are more than can be loaded now along with the hi-res textures into a 32bit game's 2GB memory space. (and no, it can't be made 64bit)

The other two cache options are really for lower spec system users, as it provides a way to force the drop of models during game time, rather than have the game hog system memory with unused models. These settings are experimental and possibly not needed but I left them there 'in case'. (My test sample of PCs was, well rather limited!)

If you are low on memory, then yes try to keep textures smaller - use the low-resolution skies, turn off multiple skins etc. There are a couple of models -osprey I think that have 2048x2048 textures by default, but can be resized down to 512 or 1024 - not just for memory sake but because not all video cards support those resolutions.

 

[Zak Gordon]

Sorry for the lack of response, was away at Leeds music festival over the long bank-holiday weekend... still a bit frazzled and broken tbh lol

Sounds good! And you survived

Re. the issues... yeah I'm not going to be able to fix an autopilot parking 'the wrong way'. ever. I've come to regard the autopilot as an AI like the Johnny Cab driver in the original (Arnie) Total Recall - who occasionally will have a bad attitude and ruin your day! Parking facing the wall rather than the beautiful sunset is rather lucky, compared to it actively flying you straight through a planet/sun/space-station! I think that if it had been easily fixable, JJ would have done so years ago.

True, and i pretty much see the auto-pilot as 'untrustworthy' (but vital), so treat it's use with care. I was hoping it might be just a negative value in place of a positive (or something like that) in the 'landing code', but yeah if it was that easy to fix it probably would have been done already.

Planet pop-up may in part be due to FFED3D's drawing of circles which I know is broken... really need to figure out the Scale parameter for submodels... At present the 'primitive' versions of the Mantis ship engine and the Lifter's cargo both draw spheres of the right size, but there's another tiny one floating at nuclear reactors that can't be right. Lights on pylons aren't drawn the correct sizes yet either. Have started to look at this, but not sure yet if the correct values are being passed through from the original game and they're undocumented on the JongWare site. Anyway on/near the top of my list.

I had hoped it was in the 'control_dist' settings in the config maybe, but no it looks like something else.

It might also simply be a screen resolution issue in relation to the new higher-res layer that FFED3D uses, the old planet at distance 'blob' is probably just being scaled to the new higher resolutions so it never gets to the same size before the transition to the planet textures for when that 'pops' into view?

Not sure what can be done here unless it is easy to make that planet texture 'pop' into view at about half it's current starting size (or double the distance away)?

Not looked at the crash report but would bet it's DirectX related. That code is 'functional' to a point... but let's say needs some TLC to get it working correctly!

Well like i said it is a rare crash at start issue, it doesn't seem to cause any other issues, i can simply try again and it loads up fine. I just thought i should mention it as i haven't seen it in the other versions (although that may in part be to not launching those as much as i have been with your mod!).

Other points - fully support new models and textures but maybe we should have separate threads to evolve those rather than all lumped in here? (helps to show more activity too!)

Good idea. I work slow (lots of other things to do) and in general like to be sure any graphic changes i do look 'better', but yeah i'll aim to run a separate thread for that work (new graphics, changed texture sizes etc) and once it is at a decent stage aim to get those type of changes hosted on spacesimcentral. I've mentioned it here mainly so people know that my version of your mod might look a little different, but it IS the base game and the AndyJ mod really! (so any bugs/issues are relevant)

Some high-res textures are quite different to their originals in the FFED3D pack - e.g. the camouflage skins for Cobra Mk1's. This can lead to some bland looking models unfortunately.

The space ships, by and large, look better with these textures (the reflective metallic look is very nice also), the little glitches are a slight distraction, but while we don't have a full set of the really fancy ship textures, the hi-res replacement 'default' ones are fine.

It is more the memory footprint of them i am wondering about (this covers the fancy textures also). My experiments have so far shown that taking, for example, a 512x512 texture and making it 256x256 (or even 128x128 in some cases) causes no real noticeable difference in game visuals, but taken over all those size of textures in the game, can save on memory usage and improve performance.

I'm currently creating a new FFED3D+AndyJ mod build based on these texture size reductions.

Oh yeah, cache settings. The ModelCacheLimit setting is the important one. And I have sort of assumed that no-one is trying to run with less than 2GB. ... If you are trying to run on 1GB then you'd probably need to set the option to use primitive models only, and tweak from there what shaders and hi-res textures to use.

As per the stats in the OP, my memory usage is fine (i think) in all versions of the game (Ittiz standalone less so, but it works longterm).

So much so that what i've been trying to do using your mod is get all the ships to NOT load in separately(so behave like default FFED3D and Ittiz mod in this respect), so i've been trying different settings in your config file to try to make them all load in at start, just to see where i am memory wise. I figure if i can run default FFED3D fine, with the same memory usage as your mod ontop, then i can get away with the better visual aspect of having the ships not only load in when i first view them?

Would it be possible to add that possibility to your config file in a future version as it seems if i use AndyJ mod i have to have the new ships textures 'pop' in when viewing them?

Some control in the config file for this might be good for those that can handle the memory usage.

There are 465 documented model ids - some of which are really collections of other models, texts or generic parts such as engines, landing gear. Around 200 of these have been replaced and are located in the Models folder. In any case, there are more than can be loaded now along with the hi-res textures into a 32bit game's 2GB memory space. (and no, it can't be made 64bit)

The other two cache options are really for lower spec system users, as it provides a way to force the drop of models during game time, rather than have the game hog system memory with unused models. These settings are experimental and possibly not needed but I left them there 'in case'. (My test sample of PCs was, well rather limited!)

I think it a good idea to keep them. I don't use them, but there may people with much lower spec systems that would like to try the game. Choice is good

If you are low on memory, then yes try to keep textures smaller - use the low-resolution skies, turn off multiple skins etc. There are a couple of models -osprey I think that have 2048x2048 textures by default, but can be resized down to 512 or 1024 - not just for memory sake but because not all video cards support those resolutions.

Thanks for the pointer on the osprey, yeah once i get around to ship specific textures i will see about reducing all the large textures and testing how it looks and how much memory and performance improvements i can squeeze out of that.

Thanks very much for your input here Andy, i'm getting adjusted to the game-versions and having a great time back in FFE. What a difference some updated graphics can make, and your work is awesome so please continue

Oh one last thing, the lua extensions:

#laodingscreen_tips.lua - who did this originally? Can we add more start up tips or even have it cycle through a few while loading up?

#define.lua
#missions.lua
#ships.lua

These were responsible for the constant attacks when doing a simple trade run right? It is a good idea to remove them imho, as they make the game pretty impossible from game start.

Still the lua thing is an interesting option, maybe other things (more balanced/interesting than spawning pirate attacks on the player) can be added to the game using them? What are your thoughts on the Lua stuff?

 

[AndyJ]

You won't be able to load everything in. I did have the option to pre-cache the lot but testing showed it couldn't cope with for instance the Ittiz package. It's not a great idea to max out memory usage up-front as this then leads to issues with the game being unable to load music/sound effects as required. For this reason, I altered the load sequence in v1.02 so that the standard game textures are being loaded before the models, to make sure too many models won't prevent them from being cached.

I think Technomag69 added the lua stuff to the sources originally.
I changed the loading screen tips in the last build though so that they are more in-keeping with the game and readable... previously it was showing quotes from "Men-in-Black" in Russian!
The hints are defined as comma separated strings (contained within double quotes) and the upper limit of the randomize function should match how many there are... currently 11.

The other scripts aren't supported anymore nor included in the patch. They'd been implemented on top of the anisotropic mod in later builds of the google source to try to tweak/balance it, (they didn't affect the canon FFE game.)
But whatever changes had been made to that mod had made it extremely unstable with lots of object pointer corruptions - so in the last build I had little choice but to replace the whole aniso mod with the code of the original 0.9c mod.
So they're not plugged into anything now, and TBH I don't think the Russians had gotten very far with them anyway. They only exposed a couple of functions - probably were just early tests - and there's certainly not enough there to add new content etc.

If you're suffering constant attacks, then either you're playing the Aniso mod, which is notoriously and deliberately difficult in that way, or you're visiting systems that have some level of danger. FFE was *always* challenging when starting out with a poorly equipped ship... you just have to pick some safe trade routes & haul goods until you can start upgrading - and save often!! tip: save before hyperspacing into a system, as enemy ships are generated when you arrive there...

Just noticed the missing fuel range circle in your original post. Good spot. It's the cabin background culling it, they must be on the same .z plane. An easy work-around is to set drawCabin=0 in the .cfg until I fix it.

 

[STABB666]

It's been bugging me...

Apologies if you did fix this already and I didn't see it, but were you able to solve the control panel selector button issue with FFE3D? I added the workaround that at least means it isn't blank, but does the AndyJ mod have it fully working now?

A secondary one that only happened once so far in FFE3D, is where I bought an Asp Explorer at Boston Base in Barnards Star and wasn't able to launch. It kept sticking with the launch door opening and closing.

 

[AndyJ]

yes, the console buttons display their icons correctly now - Dreamzzz had fixed that but it never made a build. I've also tweaked the lighting in combat mode and got the combat/autopilot/landing indicator lights working. loads of other fixes if you've not tried it yet. Fullscreen mode is still fragile with regards to losing focus, but this will be looked at in due course. You'll need the 3 zips from here (alternatively at the Russian site here which is an English thread) to add over the top of an FFED3D install - the new .exe files, supporting/missing core textures and also optionally the examples of multiple textured models, e.g. the Vipers...

Don't know about the second issue, but most likely will happen in original (JJ)FFE if you load the game into that? FFED3D is essentially a wrapper around that, handling draw and sound requests. Not an issue I've heard about or seen myself

 

[STABB666]

Excellent...

yes, the console buttons display their icons correctly now - Dreamzzz had fixed that but it never made a build. I've also tweaked the lighting in combat mode and got the combat/autopilot/landing indicator lights working. loads of other fixes if you've not tried it yet. Fullscreen mode is still fragile with regards to losing focus, but this will be looked at in due course. You'll need the 3 zips from here (also at the Russian site) to add over the top of an FFED3D install - the new .exe files, supporting/missing core textures and also optionally the examples of multiple textured models, e.g. the Vipers...

Don't know about the second issue, but most likely will happen in original (JJ)FFE if you load the game into that? FFED3D is essentially a wrapper around that, handling draw and sound requests. Not an issue I've heard about or seen myself

Nice one. Your hard work is very much appreciated, not that JJ didn't keep my addition fed for many a year, but I'll look forward to the shiny. Now if only I can remember my username for spacesimcentral...

 

[Zak Gordon]

You won't be able to load everything in. I did have the option to pre-cache the lot but testing showed it couldn't cope with for instance the Ittiz package. It's not a great idea to max out memory usage up-front as this then leads to issues with the game being unable to load music/sound effects as required. For this reason, I altered the load sequence in v1.02 so that the standard game textures are being loaded before the models, to make sure too many models won't prevent them from being cached.

Yeah the Ittiz pack is easily the most memory intensive, which i why i play your mod ontop of the default FFED3D game, just gives much more headroom.

So for those not using the Ittiz pack we can have no config tweak to try to avoid the ship poping effect? That's a shame as it definitely is one of the very noticeable 'downsides' of your version

That's speaking as a 'graphics are not that important to me' type of guy.

I think Technomag69 added the lua stuff to the sources originally.
I changed the loading screen tips in the last build though so that they are more in-keeping with the game and readable... previously it was showing quotes from "Men-in-Black" in Russian!
The hints are defined as comma separated strings (contained within double quotes) and the upper limit of the randomize function should match how many there are... currently 11.

The other scripts aren't supported anymore nor included in the patch. They'd been implemented on top of the anisotropic mod in later builds of the google source to try to tweak/balance it, (they didn't affect the canon FFE game.)
But whatever changes had been made to that mod had made it extremely unstable with lots of object pointer corruptions - so in the last build I had little choice but to replace the whole aniso mod with the code of the original 0.9c mod.
So they're not plugged into anything now, and TBH I don't think the Russians had gotten very far with them anyway. They only exposed a couple of functions - probably were just early tests - and there's certainly not enough there to add new content etc.

If you're suffering constant attacks, then either you're playing the Aniso mod, which is notoriously and deliberately difficult in that way, or you're visiting systems that have some level of danger. FFE was *always* challenging when starting out with a poorly equipped ship... you just have to pick some safe trade routes & haul goods until you can start upgrading - and save often!! tip: save before hyperspacing into a system, as enemy ships are generated when you arrive there...

I'll check it out again (with those lua files back in) but it was the normal non-Aniso mod version where i was noticing lots of death. And i'm used the the normal level of death in FFE (well JJFFE, which is what i've been playing for over a decade or so now!), so this felt like something extra. I'll run some checks to be sure, but it sure felt like once i removed the three other lua files (not the 'loadingscreentips' one) i suddenly wasn't dying each flight. I could be wrong, so i'll report back on this perception.

It's a shame we couldn't do more with those lua extensions, some extra mission types, journal entries etc. Ah well, what has been achieved so far with all the mods that came from JJFFE>FFED3D is pretty amazing as it. We can't have it all i guess. If only FFE had been written in C++ (we can dream right).

Just noticed the missing fuel range circle in your original post. Good spot. It's the cabin background culling it, they must be on the same .z plane. An easy work-around is to set drawCabin=0 in the .cfg until I fix it.

Cool, thanks for the 'temp fix', and glad to help, that is my reason for all the horrendously long posts etc

EDIT: btw we have been relegated! What was the deal with the move here? Too popular? Not a big deal, but a small shock when i came to try to find the thread the other day!

 

[Steve]

We have been relegated! What was the deal with the move here? Too popular? Not a big deal, but a small shock when i came to try to find the thread the other day!

I guess FD just wanted to clarify which games are which

By the way, I'm finally able to do some more playtesting of AndyJ's mod, now that I'm computing again. My old machine completely gave up the ghost - wouldn't even boot up - so I splashed out on a new rig. Hopefully one that is good for Elite Dangerous when it comes out..

Ever tried to get up and running like you were before your computer died? One word folks - BACKUPS

 

[AndyJ]

yeah well tbh I was scared to hell even to release an updated patch for FFED3D so I hope that I'm not treading on toes, perhaps discussing it here isn't so wise, but it's with best intentions; keeping up the interest whilst we eagerly wait for their next instalment... it still amazes me digging in how much detail there was that didn't come across within the 320x200 resolution... DB is probably as close to a hero for me as it gets (after ayrton senna) and Elite was a major factor to getting me into programming:- I had it for my Christmas present on the ZX Spectrum and was mortified to open the box and find that the lenslock was missing... turned out it was the re-released 128k version that didn't need it, but which also had a standard Sinclair font, and a rubbish 'S' icon for being in range of the space-station. Probably one of my first ever programming endeavours was to 'remaster' my cassette with a loader that fixed the font and that cruddy symbol! (And from there, a career began!)
Sorry to hear about the PC Steve, Ouch!
Backups! That thing we all know we should do, but somehow put off until the day after we needed it! And god knows I've had enough hard drives die on me by now to have learned lol but we never really do, do we!

 

[Geraldine]

Andy, I wouldn't have any worries about posting details of your updates for FFE3D on here. I have been constantly updating my Pioneer thread since 2010 with news from the dev team and I know Frontier have no problem with that. Besides David himself was asked during the kickstarter what he thought of the re-makes, his reply? I think they are really cool.

Onwards Andy, your doing great work here that is appreciated by many, me included.

 

[graham.reeds]

Sorry to hear about the PC Steve, Ouch!
Backups! That thing we all know we should do, but somehow put off until the day after we needed it! And god knows I've had enough hard drives die on me by now to have learned lol but we never really do, do we!

I do! I started off with CD, then when I got to 4 CD I forked out couple of hundred for a single layer DVD burner. Once that got beyond 4 discs and dual layer dvd were too expensive I went with an online backup service that promised unlimited backups to which people abused. Instead of simply code and photos I added music to the backup which now is in excess of 100 GB.

The 'unlimited' got dropped by the provider due to abuse.

The online option is the best nowadays. I spend £50 per year on backing up my PC. Fortunately I have not had to test the restoration feature yet. I keep meaning to checkout the current crop of providers to see what the cost /offering is.

 

[Zak Gordon]

Probably one of my first ever programming endeavours was to 'remaster' my cassette with a loader that fixed the font and that cruddy symbol! (And from there, a career began!)

Awesome I came to Elite 'late' as i'd gone for an Atari 800, so i had to play Elite around at my friends house on his BBC Mirco. It wasn't until i had an Amiga that i had my own version of Elite with Frontier. Now i have Elite Plus, FFE and the various forms like Oolite and now FFED3D

My first computer was a ZX81 and i programmed an ASCI face that animated to 'say' (no sound on that machine so it was all lip reading and text!) "Hello Zak, Do you want a game of thermo-nuclear war?"

I really wanted that to be the default that greeted you on powering on the '81, but it was not the same having to launch it from tape! We were all living in our imaginations for much of that early period of computer games

 

[Sir.Tj]

yeah well tbh I was scared to hell even to release an updated patch for FFED3D so I hope that I'm not treading on toes, perhaps discussing it here isn't so wise, but it's with best intentions; keeping up the interest whilst we eagerly wait for their next instalment... it still amazes me digging in how much detail there was that didn't come across within the 320x200 resolution... DB is probably as close to a hero for me as it gets (after ayrton senna) and Elite was a major factor to getting me into programming:- I had it for my Christmas present on the ZX Spectrum and was mortified to open the box and find that the lenslock was missing... turned out it was the re-released 128k version that didn't need it, but which also had a standard Sinclair font, and a rubbish 'S' icon for being in range of the space-station. Probably one of my first ever programming endeavours was to 'remaster' my cassette with a loader that fixed the font and that cruddy symbol! (And from there, a career began!)
Sorry to hear about the PC Steve, Ouch!
Backups! That thing we all know we should do, but somehow put off until the day after we needed it! And god knows I've had enough hard drives die on me by now to have learned lol but we never really do, do we!

Don't worry about it.

Frontier and DB as Geraldine said are .

Keep them coming.

 

[Steve]

Sorry to hear about the PC Steve, Ouch!
Backups! That thing we all know we should do, but somehow put off until the day after we needed it! And god knows I've had enough hard drives die on me by now to have learned lol but we never really do, do we!

Nope, fortunately I have all my passwords stored on an ancient Casio Digital Diary - which I bought almost exactly 14 years ago - so I can log back in to all the various places I need to.

I started off with CD, then when I got to 4 CD I forked out couple of hundred for a single layer DVD burner. Once that got beyond 4 discs and dual layer dvd were too expensive I went with an online backup service

That's exactly where I'm at. I've got about 6 DVDs filled up with music, photos etc, but more and more I'm coming to rely on cloud-based storage

Don't worry about it.

Frontier and DB as Geraldine said are .

Keep them coming.

Hear hear

 

[AndyJ]

just a drive-by to say that v1.03 is out there at the usual places.
I'm heading off to run the gauntlet of this year's Correfoc at the Barcelona Mercé festival (a health&safety official's worst nightmare) so in case the demon pig does burn me to a bacon crisp this time, here's the latest and greatest. Hopefully will be back start of next month, or the Devils got me!
Ooops taxi in 4 hours... nite, nite!

change log:
2013-09-18 - Version 1.03:
+ Hyperspace range circle displays on the System star map.
+ Correction to FFED3D DrawRealSphere routine which was drawing small spheres with a hole left at their top
(e.g. spheres on lifter cargo at default start) or in the case of atmospheres, the sphere could be seen to
interact with other shapes. (e.g. when zooming in on Merlin in the planetary view, at a certain point it
would inherit parts of Aster's panetary rings or draw spikes out of the screen). This might be why
atmospheres weren't activated in the FFED3D v1.12b++ and source code. The underlying problem was an incorrect
calculation of how many verticies it needed to reserve in the vertex buffer when locking it.
+ More colour corrections. System star map grid is correctly drawn with green lines, Purple/orange on adverts.
+ Added option in cfg file to use a darker green for living planet surface colours, enabled by default as the
original bright day-glo green has proved to be somewhat unpopular!
+ Specific fix for displaying cargo Jettison and Parcel/Passenger delivery headings in a green text.
+ Fixed Planetary map was not immediately displaying a White Dwarf when it's the focused object.
+ Fixed shutdown hang when using the "Quit" menu option.
+ Added a NIC mod code fix into the Anisotropic mod to allow travel to Pleione. This fix is enabled in the .cfg
file in the [PATCHES_ANISO] section, "PleioneTravelHack=1".
Because it was described as being a 'a total hack' I've implemented it this way so that it can be disabled
with value 0 in case it creates other problems!
+ Removed 'Insert CDROM' message from the new Anisotropic build where videos are missing.
+ Added support for the original cabin bitmaps, specify DrawCabin=2 in the config file and they should be
present in the game .exe folder. Alternative/higher resolution images in png,dds or tga format can be placed
in the Textures folder and will be loaded in preference. DrawCabin=1 or missing cabins will use tex96.
+ Communication videos can optionally be drawn with transparent background as in FFE.
+ Separate settings for disabling atmosphere and water shaders, were all under usePlanetShaders setting before.
+ Fixed the brief display of the cabin prior to the initial splash screen.
+ Game can now be switched between Windowed and Fullscreen modes using CTRL+F12, and it will resume from a
minimized state. (There are issues remaining with panel textures etc, see the read me file for more detail)
+ Option to automatically pause the game when minimized. This will also pause the intro to save CPU, so note
that when resuming to a paused intro screen, click in the screen to bring up the start view, and then click
the x1 game speed button to begin game time - the button will already be lit by default but the game will
still be paused. This option, pauseGameOnMinimize, is enabled by default.
+ Vent texture isn't randomly draw over the background of the save/load screens.
+ Input area is blanked out before entry of a new commander or file name.
+ Replacement Space station model is drawn during the entire intro. It is mapping the missing intro models
453, 463 and 464 to the game models 74 and 238, re-orienting and scaling as required.
+ For completeness, added support for the [TIMER] section and "maxfps" setting into the .cfg file as the JJFFE
code still uses it. High frame rates may aid attacking pirates, so I'm exposing this setting as a safeguard.
+ Missiles expose skin/color numbers 0 to 7 to identify their type.
+ Proximity mines draw correctly when fired. This was an FFE bug causing only half of a real mine to be
drawn, model 5's commands set Local[0] to -1 but model 4 (the actual mine) checks for non-zero to indicate
that it is a mine mounted on a missile rack. Objects 4 and 5 can also be distinguished with individual .X
models now if someone wishes to create them!
+ Fixed blanking out of an area at the bottom of Inventory/Communication views.

- Removed panel.X from the patch package as installing over an initial FFED3D v1.12b++ caused a mismatch with
its textures. Users should use the JSGME mod switcher and activate "SteveT - Cockpit mod for FFED3D (Base)"
instead if they wish to use the high-poly version. (this is the one with rounded console lights).