The GLFFE Thread
- Thread starter essezeta
- Start date
If someone corrected the object tilt (Uranus is the most noticeable example)/rotation/orbital position errors in FFE (ok, orbital position might not be noticeable in most cases, but, for example, La Grange in Alpha Centauri system should stay in it's La Grange point);
fixed methane, ammonia and corrosive water worlds;
and added clouds and trees, FFE would surpass FE2 in every aspect.
fixed methane, ammonia and corrosive water worlds;
and added clouds and trees, FFE would surpass FE2 in every aspect.
glffe and videos
I just discovered the glffe update for frontier my favorite game of all time!
I really like the update and its inspired me to have a go at playing the game again, as it all looks quite nice.
I know some people find them annoying but I like them, Im having some problem with it with the videos on the board screens, my videos work fine in jjffe, but in glffe they only play the sound from the videos.
Has anyone managed to get the videos working in glffe? Or is this not ready yet?
I just discovered the glffe update for frontier my favorite game of all time!
I really like the update and its inspired me to have a go at playing the game again, as it all looks quite nice.
I know some people find them annoying but I like them, Im having some problem with it with the videos on the board screens, my videos work fine in jjffe, but in glffe they only play the sound from the videos.
Has anyone managed to get the videos working in glffe? Or is this not ready yet?
GLFFE Pleione bug and solution.
I ran into a bug during the Turner's Requiem quest that, although hinted at in the GLFFE patch notes, was never fixed. I searched, but could find no workaround online.
The bug happens after you recieve Argent's Quest and try to hyperspace to Pleione. It happens whether or not you have figured out that you need a jammer and nuke. As soon as you arrive in the system, it crashes to desktop. Reloading from an earlier save made no difference.
However, i did find a workaround, and here it is, for those people who are stuck like i was:
-Save your game just before the jump to Pleione.
-Exit the game and DL and install JJFFE to a different directory.
-Start JJFFE and load the game you saved previously.
-Hyper to Pleione and save the game.
-Exit JLFFE, Start GLFFE and load the game. You're now in Pleione and shouldn't have any more troubles.
So basically, JJFFE doesn't have Pleione problems, and the game saves are compatible with each other.
Hope this is useful to some.
I ran into a bug during the Turner's Requiem quest that, although hinted at in the GLFFE patch notes, was never fixed. I searched, but could find no workaround online.
The bug happens after you recieve Argent's Quest and try to hyperspace to Pleione. It happens whether or not you have figured out that you need a jammer and nuke. As soon as you arrive in the system, it crashes to desktop. Reloading from an earlier save made no difference.
However, i did find a workaround, and here it is, for those people who are stuck like i was:
-Save your game just before the jump to Pleione.
-Exit the game and DL and install JJFFE to a different directory.
-Start JJFFE and load the game you saved previously.
-Hyper to Pleione and save the game.
-Exit JLFFE, Start GLFFE and load the game. You're now in Pleione and shouldn't have any more troubles.
So basically, JJFFE doesn't have Pleione problems, and the game saves are compatible with each other.
Hope this is useful to some.
Last edited:
Michael Brookes
Game Director
Thanks for that, although even JJFFE fell over at various points during the Thargoid missions, on my system anyway
Thanks for that, although even JJFFE fell over at various points during the Thargoid missions, on my system anyway
Well, all i meant was that JJFFE doesn't always crash on entering Pleione.
Anyway, i've done all the thargoid missions now, and the only bug i encountered was that one.
Last edited:
GLFFE Freezeup.
Hi there!
I've been a fan of the Elite series since I first came across the DOS port of Elite Plus back in the early 90's. Frontier is still my favorite in the series-- I think First Encounters lost a few points for how cluttered and sloppy it seemed (particularly many of the new ships, which seem unfinished), but even so it's a grand game.
So, on to my problem. I can run several of the reverse engineered versions of the games without problem (GLfrontier, JJFFE), but I'd really like to try GLFFE, and can't get it to work at all. I'm running a Win XP system, though it seems to be an older model. The straight up version of GLFFE won't start at all-- a window pops up for a tenth of a second and then vanishes. I'm going to guess maybe my openGL isn't compatible. But, the funny thing is when I try the newer 'Nic's Mod' version, it /does/ seem to start working. The initial title screen with the spinning 'Frontier' logo appears, does its thing, and vanishes... and then the program freezes dead and won't go on to the title sequence. Is this still an openGL issue? If so, why does the first screen work and then die? Anyone have any advice on getting the thing to work, or has anyone else had this same issue?
Thanks for lending an ear.
Hi there!
I've been a fan of the Elite series since I first came across the DOS port of Elite Plus back in the early 90's. Frontier is still my favorite in the series-- I think First Encounters lost a few points for how cluttered and sloppy it seemed (particularly many of the new ships, which seem unfinished), but even so it's a grand game.
So, on to my problem. I can run several of the reverse engineered versions of the games without problem (GLfrontier, JJFFE), but I'd really like to try GLFFE, and can't get it to work at all. I'm running a Win XP system, though it seems to be an older model. The straight up version of GLFFE won't start at all-- a window pops up for a tenth of a second and then vanishes. I'm going to guess maybe my openGL isn't compatible. But, the funny thing is when I try the newer 'Nic's Mod' version, it /does/ seem to start working. The initial title screen with the spinning 'Frontier' logo appears, does its thing, and vanishes... and then the program freezes dead and won't go on to the title sequence. Is this still an openGL issue? If so, why does the first screen work and then die? Anyone have any advice on getting the thing to work, or has anyone else had this same issue?
Thanks for lending an ear.
The latest version of Nic's mod (v1.3) was released to, among other things, allow users with OpenGL1.2 to play the game. If you're running v1.3 it should work irrespective of which version of OpenGL you've got, so my guess is something else is amiss.
What that might be I'm not sure; I've never had this problem occur. Sorry.
What that might be I'm not sure; I've never had this problem occur. Sorry.
Hmm, well, I will add this for information's sake; the first few lines of the stderr.txt file:
INFO: OpenGL 2.0 not supported. Exit
INFO: GLEW_EXT_paletted_texture supported. Exit
INFO: GLEW_ARB_texture_env_combine supported. Exit
INFO: GLEW_EXT_texture_env_combine supported. Exit
96.jpg alpha mask not loaded: Couldn't open 96_alpha.png
title.jpg alpha mask not loaded: Couldn't open title_alpha.png
I think the first line definitely confirms that the regular GLFFE won't work, as it states 'OpenGL 2.0 not supported'. The next few lines are vague to me, though perhaps someone with more computer savvy can translate. The last two are curious, as they seem to point to missing replacement graphics files. I've downloaded Nic's Mod 1.3 twice now, and can't find any trace of them. I also peeked into the bitmaps the standard GLFFE uses, and turned up blank as well. I'm puzzled, but as the modified graphics are supposedly optional I'm not sure they'd shut the whole game down. Second oddity, if I use the replacement bitmaps from the standard GLFFE package, the whole window closes out after the Frontier card flips. When I use the PNG's in Nic's package, it freezes and has to be ended on the task monitor to close.
Much curiosity.
INFO: OpenGL 2.0 not supported. Exit
INFO: GLEW_EXT_paletted_texture supported. Exit
INFO: GLEW_ARB_texture_env_combine supported. Exit
INFO: GLEW_EXT_texture_env_combine supported. Exit
96.jpg alpha mask not loaded: Couldn't open 96_alpha.png
title.jpg alpha mask not loaded: Couldn't open title_alpha.png
I think the first line definitely confirms that the regular GLFFE won't work, as it states 'OpenGL 2.0 not supported'. The next few lines are vague to me, though perhaps someone with more computer savvy can translate. The last two are curious, as they seem to point to missing replacement graphics files. I've downloaded Nic's Mod 1.3 twice now, and can't find any trace of them. I also peeked into the bitmaps the standard GLFFE uses, and turned up blank as well. I'm puzzled, but as the modified graphics are supposedly optional I'm not sure they'd shut the whole game down. Second oddity, if I use the replacement bitmaps from the standard GLFFE package, the whole window closes out after the Frontier card flips. When I use the PNG's in Nic's package, it freezes and has to be ended on the task monitor to close.
Much curiosity.
The stderr.txt file confuses things a bit, because my own version says "INFO: OpenGL 2.0 supported, proceeding" but Nic v1.3 isn't supposed to look for OpenGL 2.0
The next three lines don't appear in my stderr file; these also appear to be openGL errors. Again it's confusing; if the texture is supported, why exit?
Ignore the last two lines; I get similar errors but they aren't fatal, something to do with the replacement cockpit graphics.
Contrary to my previous answer, it does seem to be an OpenGL problem that you have. It might be worth downloading the latest drivers for your gfx card, or if you have the latest, replace them with an older version.
Contrary to my previous answer, it does seem to be an OpenGL problem that you have. It might be worth downloading the latest drivers for your gfx card, or if you have the latest, replace them with an older version.
I will have to look into that, then. I liked the idea of Nic's Mod because it seems to be incorporating (optionally) some of the features from the Anisotropic Mod with higher resolution graphics and fewer bugs. Pity, but, I guess until I get this sorted out I'll have to stick with JJFFE and variants. The high-res hack of JJFFE looks just wonderful, but now if I go back to the Anisotropic Mod I'm reminded just how blocky the universe used to look in the old days.
Thanks for taking the time to try and help.
I will have to look into that, then. I liked the idea of Nic's Mod because it seems to be incorporating (optionally) some of the features from the Anisotropic Mod with higher resolution graphics and fewer bugs. Pity, but, I guess until I get this sorted out I'll have to stick with JJFFE and variants. The high-res hack of JJFFE looks just wonderful, but now if I go back to the Anisotropic Mod I'm reminded just how blocky the universe used to look in the old days.
Thanks for taking the time to try and help.
Are you really sure you are running with Nic mod for OpenGL 1.3
available there :
http://nic.dnsalias.com/FFE.html
And not with GLFFE for OpenGL 2.0
available there :
http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Hires/hiresffe.html
As i use FFE with a computer running with an older graphic card driver that is not OpenGL 2.0 compatible, i use Nic mod and never had such freezing problem.
Make sure you have correctly installed Nic mod version of glffe.exe , if you have the glffe.exe from GLFFE for OpenGL 2.0 it can't work
And if you use nic's mod don't worry too much about the stderr.txt , mine always have this when i run Nic mod
But it has no problem ingame.
But usually i don't play with Nic mod because of 2 reasons :
-during gameplay when flying around some station, Nic mod can just crash, something that never happen with JFFE and even with the 640x400 version of JFFE
-Nic for some reason removed the deccelerate action when you press the DEL key, in Nic mod when you use that key it set your speed to 0.
But in FFE and in JFFE, instead of just stopping at 0 you could entry negative value, allowing you to "fly backward".
Something not possible anymore with Nic mod sadly.
While JFFE is using software rendering instead of the very cool OpenGL, i always prefer to play with the 640x400 version of JFFE, more stable and does not remove the deccelerate thruster function.
http://www.antonl.com/ffe/
available there :
http://nic.dnsalias.com/FFE.html
And not with GLFFE for OpenGL 2.0
available there :
http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Hires/hiresffe.html
As i use FFE with a computer running with an older graphic card driver that is not OpenGL 2.0 compatible, i use Nic mod and never had such freezing problem.
Make sure you have correctly installed Nic mod version of glffe.exe , if you have the glffe.exe from GLFFE for OpenGL 2.0 it can't work
And if you use nic's mod don't worry too much about the stderr.txt , mine always have this when i run Nic mod
But it has no problem ingame.
But usually i don't play with Nic mod because of 2 reasons :
-during gameplay when flying around some station, Nic mod can just crash, something that never happen with JFFE and even with the 640x400 version of JFFE
-Nic for some reason removed the deccelerate action when you press the DEL key, in Nic mod when you use that key it set your speed to 0.
But in FFE and in JFFE, instead of just stopping at 0 you could entry negative value, allowing you to "fly backward".
Something not possible anymore with Nic mod sadly.
While JFFE is using software rendering instead of the very cool OpenGL, i always prefer to play with the 640x400 version of JFFE, more stable and does not remove the deccelerate thruster function.
http://www.antonl.com/ffe/
Last edited:
This is due to the hack which doubles the resolution of planets. For some reason, the hack crashes the game around some planets eg Mars. However, it can be disabled via hacks.txt, or toggled in-game with Ctrl-1 & Ctrl-2.
The decelerate key that I've always used, and it's still present in Nic's Mod, is the Right Shift key. The backspace key instantly changes your set speed to zero, which is quite useful, and then you can use Right Shift if you want to fly backwards.Are you really sure you are running with Nic mod for OpenGL 1.3
available there :
http://nic.dnsalias.com/FFE.html
And not with GLFFE for OpenGL 2.0
available there :
http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Hires/hiresffe.html
As i use FFE with a computer running with an older graphic card driver that is not OpenGL 2.0 compatible, i use Nic mod and never had such freezing problem.
Make sure you have correctly installed Nic mod version of glffe.exe , if you have the glffe.exe from GLFFE for OpenGL 2.0 it can't work
Yes... it has been correctly downloaded from Nic's site three times now, and installed into an appropriate directory containing nothing more than the shareware files for FFE (the sound effects, mission.dat, and whatnot). Once I confirmed that the normal GLFFE wouldn't load at all, it was deleted altogether from my system. The freezing problem remains using the Nic's Mod 1.3, as previously described. I guarantee all the files are lined up where they need to be. The last link you provided is, I presume, the high-res hack of JJFFE which I've mentioned that I already use. It is lovely to look at, but does not contain the Anisotropic mod, which as stated is what interests me about Nic's mod of GLFFE. Right now the only way I can play the Ansio Mod is in low-res version, which is disappointingly blocky after getting used to Anton Lindstrom's graphics hack of JJFFE, which improves the look of just about everything.
available there :
http://nic.dnsalias.com/FFE.html
And not with GLFFE for OpenGL 2.0
available there :
http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Hires/hiresffe.html
As i use FFE with a computer running with an older graphic card driver that is not OpenGL 2.0 compatible, i use Nic mod and never had such freezing problem.
Make sure you have correctly installed Nic mod version of glffe.exe , if you have the glffe.exe from GLFFE for OpenGL 2.0 it can't work
Yes... it has been correctly downloaded from Nic's site three times now, and installed into an appropriate directory containing nothing more than the shareware files for FFE (the sound effects, mission.dat, and whatnot). Once I confirmed that the normal GLFFE wouldn't load at all, it was deleted altogether from my system. The freezing problem remains using the Nic's Mod 1.3, as previously described. I guarantee all the files are lined up where they need to be. The last link you provided is, I presume, the high-res hack of JJFFE which I've mentioned that I already use. It is lovely to look at, but does not contain the Anisotropic mod, which as stated is what interests me about Nic's mod of GLFFE. Right now the only way I can play the Ansio Mod is in low-res version, which is disappointingly blocky after getting used to Anton Lindstrom's graphics hack of JJFFE, which improves the look of just about everything.
I am having a crashing problem with glffe.exe, except that in my case it takes down my computer completely. It freezes.
My system is this:
Windows XP Service Pack 2
AMD 3800+ X2 Dual Core processor
2048mb DDR2 RAM
nVidia 7950GT 512mb of RAM running the 175.19 forceware drivers
To run it I have the exe and DLLs etc in the FFE shareware directory. A window appears briefly before the whole system freezes. There is nothing in the stderr or stdout text files.
EDIT
Trying to run it under VMWare with Windows 2000 it reports that OpenGL 2.0 is not supported and exits.
My system is this:
Windows XP Service Pack 2
AMD 3800+ X2 Dual Core processor
2048mb DDR2 RAM
nVidia 7950GT 512mb of RAM running the 175.19 forceware drivers
To run it I have the exe and DLLs etc in the FFE shareware directory. A window appears briefly before the whole system freezes. There is nothing in the stderr or stdout text files.
EDIT
Trying to run it under VMWare with Windows 2000 it reports that OpenGL 2.0 is not supported and exits.
Having just posted that, I have found the problem! In my case at least, it was PC Tools firewall. The firewall tries to stop programs from running other programs or accessing their memory. It seems that the blocking of this causes the PC to freeze.
To fix it, either disable the firewall or add glffe.exe to your firewall and give them all permissions in the advanced settings in the applications section. The program must have permission to run other programs and access their memory.
I don't know if this has anything to do with the OPs problem but it is worth a try.
To fix it, either disable the firewall or add glffe.exe to your firewall and give them all permissions in the advanced settings in the applications section. The program must have permission to run other programs and access their memory.
I don't know if this has anything to do with the OPs problem but it is worth a try.
Well, it was worth a try, but unfortunately it didn't help. I added the GLFFE version included in Nic's Mod to my firewall permissions (I use ZoneAlarm), but still nothing after the initial 'Frontier' titlecard appears and flips around. The game still freezes. I think that's it for me, in this round. I'm going to just delete it and stick with the versions I know work, for now. Thanks, everyone.