I realise that I'm not exactly an experienced or skilled player, and despite my efforts, I can't mod to save my life. I'm probably going a little out of line by saying this, but I feel like I should.

Freelancer was the first open-ended game I had ever heard of (and with the exception of DSO is still the only one I've ever played). And despite the somewhat clumsy control interface (for me at least, and apparently a number of other diehard joystick jockeys) and slightly dated graphics, not to mention a total lack of realism in the size of or distance between planetary bodies, I've kept coming back to it. It's the only game that I know of that's seen this many mods (which probably number in the thousands if you include all of the various versions), and it's not such a stretch to say that in terms of longevity and player loyalty, it's one of only a handfull of truly great games out there. I'd even go so far as to say that it has become the candle (or at least one of the candles) against which many of us, hold these newer games.


Is it possible that we're judging these new games, both DSO and SF a little too harshly? It's pretty much the consensus that DSO sucked, but at least it offered some mod support. I can't afford a subscription to Fileplanet or Gamershell, but eventually I'll get the demo of this thing.

Edited by - ghostshrike1 on 6/2/2007 7:03:42 AM

Ok, I managed to get the demo... Can't even play the thing. The options button in the main menu doesn't work. and it wouldn't respond to any inputs from my joystick. Of course without an option menu I can't determine how to command the ship at all. It might be the fact that I'm using it on my laptop, because the only other computer in the house is 4 years old and was not outfitted for gaming. Without an option menu, I couldn't alter the graphics settings. The framerate was extremely low as a result.

Ghost.

When you press the Play icon on your destop, you see the button options and you get to change controls and ghaphics.

Joystick does not work in the demo but does in full game and in-game options does work as well.

Downloaded the demo from GamersHell. Got a corrupted file message when I tried to extract the files. Used both Winzip and WinRAR to no avail. Opera told me I got all the files I should have. Anyone else have this problem?

Ok, I see the little options box in the starting menu, and I'm ashamed to say that I don't know what some of these options mean.

Pixel doubling: Never even heard of it.

Shader model: It's set to 2.0, should I alter this setting (to 1.4 or 3.0, whichever makes it a little easier on the graphics card)

If I change the color from 16-bit to 32-bit, will it help increase the framerate?

What's this lighting option thing (what'll soft lighting do, and what's HDR)?

I've seen this on many games, but I have no idea what it means so I'll ask now. What's anti-aliasing?

Filter screen
Fine LOD
Sky box quality
Refresh rate
LOD distance

What do all of these mean?

I'm pretty sure that rendering distance is the distance at which an object changes from a high level of detail to a simple 3d model.


And to answer your question greyghost, I didn't seem to get that problem, but I downloaded it using internet explorer 7.0, and I used the 3dgamer free server (the east coast one. the west coast server stopped for some reason mid download)

Hmm well i dont even know the way you explain what they mean, i am not the guy to ask but they all help your graphics get better.

For some reason my ship has a tendancy to stop mid-flight. and it's not just my ship, but every other ship in the area. They all act like they're flying, but they aren't actually moving.

YO M8, the game is not the same than X series. I guess you havent played both enough. ABout SF:RU, I will give it more time to see how will go. And at some point, SF:RU resembles kind of Freelancer in the demo. I tried the Joystick in the demo but I guess is not meant to be yet and that is why the DEVS didnt leave you an option to try it (to use a joystick you have to get into the profile file and change 0 to 1) About X series, well, everyone has his opinion but as for myself I like it (no wing commander series or even Starlancer but it is OK for me) I think we just need to give them some time. This is just a demo so maybe the complete game will deliver far better to satisfy some of your expectations.

Edited by - RGHawk2000 on 6/3/2007 3:41:33 PM

Erm, not exactly sure about all questions and I am sure someone with more knowledge will in later

Pixel shaders. Was it directx 9.0c that had 2.0 shaders? Cards from around the 9800 (ATI) era have pixel shader 2. I saw a frame rate post on the official forums where pixel shader 2 had better frame rates than 1.4!

no idea why, dunno what they actually do!

All ships, and objects, are basically a collection of points - little dots, like a dot to dot drawing. These all get drawn, calculated, redrawn, moved etc each "frame" that is required. Many frames per second give the idea of image I mention that, because it's relevant to later parts - incase you don't know how it works.

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What's anti-aliasing?

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It's to do with "jaggies" - straight lines with apparent jaggy edges. Anti aliasing will basically make these lines "smooth". It's a calculation that is carried out on every line and surrounding pixels to make it appear smoother. So rather than blocky harsh edges, it's smoother and more pleasing.
But the added calculations may kill some cards that cannot manage all the data (I think).


Filter screen <- no idea wtf that is about. Guess it's another filter to carry out some task / alter appearance. basically that'd mean calculations. That'd mean more for the gfx card processor to do, and therefore slower frame rates (slide show).

Fine LOD <- fine level of detail. At different distances, you get different levels of details. If you were drawing a tree - at 100 yards you cannot make out all the textures of the bark, but up close you can... So why bother putting the little details when 100 yards away? Only add them when within a certain range. I guess this is to do with textures - which would be memory and transfer rate of data.
Sky box quality <-- no idea at all.
Refresh rate <-- how many times the scene is drawn per second on the screen.
LOD distance <-- distances that levels of detail alter/become apparent. back to the tree and bark again....


There you go, crap explanation and most likely insufficient or wrong in some cases
However, it's something to tide you (or anyone who is wondering) over for now




As for myself, definitely looking forward to the game. Can't play the demo - computer is too crap. All I did notice is the storyline / voices. Some bits were just 100% un-necessary, and almost cringeworthy. Could have done with a quick read over by some folks - but I enjoyed the X games storyline and look forward to giving this a bash.

Oh yeah, costed up a new PC system - £500... yikes, bit more than I hoped to be spending

May see if i can cut corners somewhere

Edited by - Chips on 6/3/2007 3:42:58 PM

YO Ghost, that it because maybe your graphic card could not handle some definition in the game design. I recommend you to try this:

- Open the option Box
- Decrease you LOD distance & Rendering distance
- Do it until the static objects and bouncing stops (you should have some bouncing there where you never change position)

I just don't get this. How is it possible that this machine can have so much trouble? I just bought it in January, and it's an XPS, a computer which was supposed to have gaming in mind if memory serves. Is it the fact that it's a laptop?

XPS, is it Dell?? Anyway, did you try to lowering the settings of LOD and Rendering?? it worked for me...

Yeah, it's supposed to be dell's big gaming model. Anyway, this is rediculous... I've never seen a game where ships maneuver, but not actually go anywhere. Also, your weapons don't do jack to the enemy. They're even less effective than those crappy Justice Mk I lasers that you get in the beginning of freelancer, at least they did some damage. It still shows promise, but they needa do a whole lot of work before I even look at buying it. That includes getting rid of that blasted comm chatter! At least on other games it's reduced in volume and sounds more like background noise... and it makes some sense. As I was approaching a gate, I kept hearing some pilot talking like she was in combat, even though there was nothing around. They also need to do some serious work on the ships, the AIs that is. Some of them were firing at absolutely nothing. And missiles fly all over the place in an erratic zig-zagging pattern.

Edited by - ghostshrike1 on 6/3/2007 7:07:29 PM

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They also need to do some serious work on the ships, the AIs that is. Some of them were firing at absolutely nothing. And missiles fly all over the place in an erratic zig-zagging pattern.

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Do you not think that just maybe there is something else wrong here?

eratic zig zag pattern? Reminds me of people running under lag...
Ships not moving? reminds me of lag...

Maybe graphics card drivers aren't up to scratch - or there is something not optimal.

Certainly not heard of anyone else saying they found it's gameplay like this... been reading up over at the egosoft forums - some people are moderately impressed with it.

So perhaps the game isn't running well on your system - hopefully that they can fix up in some respect with updates/patches. In the meantime, pop over to their forum - tell them your system, graphics card, memory - etc, the whole lot - and then say what the gameplay is like and ask if it's normal or not.