Freespace 2 OS X!

[Soulstorm]

General Info last updated: May 18, 2007
After freespace 2 was considered abandonware, it became legal to download the full game. At first it was Windows only, but after the source was released to the public, it has been upgraded (to the point that one may think it is a new game) and now it runs on linux and os x!

Some people will be bored to read the instructions scattered into the thread, so I edited this first post to reflect the changes that have happened the last 1,5 year:

You need the original game content. Grab it here:
1) http://www.freespacezone.com/
2) DOWNLOAD THE INSTALLER
Notes for d/l link 1: This will give you the original game CD's in ISO format. THere are two ways to install the original game: The first is to use Virtual PC. The second, is to follow these instructions (look at the middle of the page)
Notes for d/l link 2: This will give you a few kbytes java program that will install all the files necessary to play FS2_Open. I personally recommend that, as it will help you skip the next steps of the install process. It will also allow you to download the additional media vps content, and additional mods.

You need the FS2_Open Application (for those who don't use the java installer):
--Grab it here:

(optional)You will want the additional media vp's (installable via the installer)
These add much to the eye-candy of the game. You can download them here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/ind...c,39905.0.html

(optional)You will need to check this page for command line arguments (you can skip this step if you use the installer):
This page (clicky!!) contains the command line arguments that you may want to mess around with in order to take full advantage of the FS2_Open's advanced features (in graphics and gameplay).

(Recommended)Download the FS2_Open OS X Launcher (also downloadable via the installer)
Download the OS X Launcher here. It will handle all command line arguments available as of release 3.6.9. You can try it, and please send bug reports and recommendations!

And that's it! You may play FS2:

--Interesting links:
Hard Light: In there you will find the Freespace 2 wiki with many info about the game and FS2_Open, and in the forums you will find the latest betas, final versions of FS2_Open, and much more.
Official FS2_Open website: Many downloads and information inside

--Other info:
Using the Command line:

First of all, you may want to play FS2_Open at higher resolutions than 640x480. If you want that, go into "~/Library/FS2_Open/fs2_open.ini" and open this file. In there you can modify the game's resolution and texture bits.

Since FS2_Open was released for PC, some people were gathered to enhance the textures, models and sounds of the game. So they produced new data files, which can be placed in the same directory as FS2_Open and enhance your graphics experience by also taking advantage of FS2_Open's new capabilities. These can be found at the links that I gave you above.

When you download them, you should alter the game's command line log which is in "~/Library/FS2_Open/Data/cmdline_fso.cfg". If there is no such file, then create it. A list of available configuration options is here. Note that the command-line file MUST BE WRITTEN AS PLAIN TEXT FILE"!

And for those that asked me: No, I haven't been involved in the development of FS2_Open. I just like the game, I have had access to the very early betas of FS2_Open, and in the very first version of Freespace 2 for OS X (from tigital, who based the port into the icculus.org port of the game to SDL, and mtr, who got involved mainly with the networking/movies/sound). I had the time to sit back and manage to install the game despite all the difficulties at the time and I thought it would be useful for the readers to have a decent post with instructions to enjoy freespace 2.

Personnal notes:

FS2_Open for OS X was based on the icculus.org project. Then some guys named tigital and mtr got involved with it.

Originally Posted by tigital

...if you had, you would have seen that the porting to osx was not done by mtr solely, as you state, but instead is based on the icculus.org linux port to SDL...I was the person who figured out most of the endian byteswapping, without which we didn't have models, networking, or much else...mtr had been working on bringing the fs1 experience a lot, and then helped out with more networking and sound/movie byteswapping...then he moved more into the fs2_open project, which is about where I had to stop much work on it because I needed to make money to eat and pay rent: oddly enough, not many people contribute donations to open source game developers, but everyone loves free stuff...

I'm terribly sorry that I forgot to mention tigital and that the project existed before (in cvs I think) in icculus.org. I'm also sorry that I forgot to mention that the first betas I had played were done by tigital and mtr (according to the quote above) who improved the existing icculus.org project, and were hosted at www.tigital.com. Sorry, and I hope I have cleared things up a bit...

Enjoy the game!

[WolfgangK]

now how do I install the content from the 3 disks, on the Mac? Is there a way to use a windows installer in the Mac OS?

[cc bcc]

^^ What he said. I'd like to install this. Maybe you can include instructions for this very important issue in the opening post. Kind of said to find out it can't be installed after downloading 2 GB..

edit: To clarify, the install instructions are much much much to difficult for a simple guy like me. Can't figure out what to do! Guess I'll have to wait for an OS X installer. Any idea when that will be released?

[WolfgangK]

Perhaps you need Virtual PC or something to install it into a directory...and then bring the files over from there? Unfortunately I have neither a PC, or Virtual PC, so I don't know how I'm supposed to do the install.

Oh well, sounds like a great game, and I'm sure the guys worked hard to port to the Mac. Too bad these 3 cd's will function as coasters for the time being.

[Hoef]

Excellent news .... Soulstorm, will you be able to provide some instructions on MR? Hate for everyone to wade through gekky style instructions....

[mtr]

I am working on a GUI installer to get all of the files off of the original discs. It should be easy enough for everyone to use. I'll try and get that done this weekend and post a link here.

If you can't wait (and can figure out how to use it) you can grab unshield and extract the VP files from "data1.cab" on the first disc. You should be able to copy the rest of the .vp and .mve files from the other two discs. Just make a directory somewhere for the game on you hard drive and put all of the files in there.

[Guitarius]

So...what is it? A space shooter you say? Is it good? I remember I downloaded the Marathon games, and those were great. I forgot to save them when I reformated.

Anyone got a link to those by any chance?

[Poff]

Originally Posted by Guitarius

So...what is it? A space shooter you say? Is it good? I remember I downloaded the Marathon games, and those were great. I forgot to save them when I reformated.

Anyone got a link to those by any chance?

Do a search on the forum. They might even be on the first page..

[mtr]

Freespace 2 is a space combat sim and though it doesn't really aim to be realistic in the "sim" sense it is extremely fun and very addictive.

There are two different projects for FS2 (just to make things extra confusing ), the icculus.org project and SCP (Source Code Project). The icculus.org version has support for the original FS1 plus the Silent Threat add-on and of course the original FS2. The icculus.org version is a "port" so it doesn't really add anything over the original Windows release except for bug fixes.

You can get FS1 and FS2 binary releases of the icculus.org version from www.tigital.com or just go to http://icculus.org/freespace2 and get instructions on how to get at the code in CVS. There are no forums for the icculus.org version so just use the one on Inside Mac Games or start something here.

SCP makes FS2_Open which has many new features and graphics capabilities over the original Windows retail version. Hardware requirements are quite a bit higher with FS2_Open but if you can handle the specs then it's certainly worth it. If you are interested in the changes that have been made graphically then you might want to take a look here: http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscreenies/index.php

Soulstorm has a direct link in his first post to the FS2_Open binary release for OS X. Forums are here and have a special section for cross-platform development things (Linux, OS X). And the official website is http://scp.indiegames.us though that is mostly Windows stuff.
I'm "taylor" on those forums.

[iJon]

How exactly do we use this unshield program to extract those cab files. Since it isn't as easy as drag and drop I'm going to need some help.

jon

[Patmian212]

Yeah can some on tell us EXACTLY what to do toget this game running on osx.

[iJon]

Originally Posted by Patmian212

Yeah can some on tell us EXACTLY what to do toget this game running on osx.

Yeah, someone is about to win "Worst Instructions" award for the day. Come on people, I need a new game to play at work

jon

[ijimk]

not sure if this game intrests me i like more games like star craft and such



Bring on SC2 !!!!

[quackattack]

I used to play Freespace back in the day. That was a great game! I never tried FS2, but am really excited to try it now.

I am downloading as I type, but if someone could post detailed install instructions I think we would all appreciate it. I have a feeling I may have some issues.

[mtr]

I need the original discs in front of me to detail unshield's use so I can't give any sort of detailed instructions at the moment. Doesn't really matter though, the GUI installer will be released in about 2 days. Then you won't have to worry about it. If you can't figure out unshield then just hold on a little bit longer and you'll be able to use a simple installer.

[crap freakboy]

Minimum requirements might be a good idea, especially considering the size of the dl. thanks.

[quackattack]

Originally Posted by crap freakboy

Minimum requirements might be a good idea, especially considering the size of the dl. thanks.

System Requirements:

Minimum:
* Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later
* PowerPC G4 867 MHz or faster
* 512 MB of memory
* ATI Radeon 7500 or NVIDIA GeForce2 with 32 MB Video RAM
* Original game data files + a minimum of 60 MB of disk space
* OpenAL 1.0 framework installed

Recommended:
* Max OS X 10.4 or later
* PowerPC G4 1.2 GHz or faster
* 1 GB of memory
* Video card with 64 MB of RAM, 128 MB for all effects enabled
* Original game data files + a minimum of 260 MB of disk space

[AP_piano295]

Originally Posted by quackattack

System Requirements:

Minimum:
* Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later
* PowerPC G4 867 MHz or faster
* 512 MB of memory
* ATI Radeon 7500 or NVIDIA GeForce2 with 32 MB Video RAM
* Original game data files + a minimum of 60 MB of disk space
* OpenAL 1.0 framework installed

Recommended:
* Max OS X 10.4 or later
* PowerPC G4 1.2 GHz or faster
* 1 GB of memory
* Video card with 64 MB of RAM, 128 MB for all effects enabled
* Original game data files + a minimum of 260 MB of disk space

kinda demanding stats when was this game first released

[Patmian212]

Anyone successfully install this yet?

[mtr]

Originally Posted by AP_piano295

kinda demanding stats when was this game first released

It was originally released in '99. But of course the point of FS2_Open is to push it far beyond that original release.

We are talking about going from this:
http://www.freespace2.com/picview.cfm?screen=18.jpg
and this:
http://www.freespace2.com/picview.cfm?screen=vol2-7.jpg

to this:
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscreenies/deimos.png
and this:
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscr...perseusred.png
and this:
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscr...lict/hercs.jpg
and this:
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscr...levcloseup.jpg
and this:
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscr...hisubspace.png

And you don't get there with "Voodoo 2 or above" as the video requirements.

[Patmian212]

Originally Posted by mtr

It was originally released in '99. But of course the point of FS2_Open is to push it far beyond that original release.

We are talking about going from this:
http://www.freespace2.com/picview.cfm?screen=18.jpg
and this:
http://www.freespace2.com/picview.cfm?screen=vol2-7.jpg

to this:
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscreenies/deimos.png
and this:
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscr...perseusred.png
and this:
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscr...lict/hercs.jpg
and this:
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscr...levcloseup.jpg
and this:
http://fs2source.warpcore.org/wmcscr...hisubspace.png

And you don't get there with "Voodoo 2 or above" as the video requirements.

AHHHH Heck those screen shots really wanna make me play now. Can anyone please tell hme how to install it on mac osx STEP BY STEP.

[GonzoRob]

ok, I installed the game via virtual PC, then copied it over to OSx, there are pre-installed version of the game easily available on the net (check forums) and there is an installer for mac - again check forums already linked in this topic.
Im running the game at full res on my little powerbook and, wow.. its friggin ace. Anyone managed to invert the mouse yet.. not a fan of space sim controls

R

[mtr]

Originally Posted by GonzoRob

Anyone managed to invert the mouse yet.. not a fan of space sim controls

Go to the control configuration screen in game and select the control axis you want to invert (mouse controls are the same as joystick axis controls) and click the invert button.

Mouse sensitivity doesn't work that great but I'm working on a fix to replace that particular part of the code that will be more appropriate in a cross-platform world.

[GonzoRob]

Originally Posted by mtr

Go to the control configuration screen in game and select the control axis you want to invert (mouse controls are the same as joystick axis controls) and click the invert button.

Mouse sensitivity doesn't work that great but I'm working on a fix to replace that particular part of the code that will be more appropriate in a cross-platform world.

Good luck mate, so far the project is fantastic...

[GonzoRob]

been struggling with inverting the axis, i cant seem to get the control options to invert.. ive removed both the X + Y options, replaced the Y for an X.. however there doesnt seem to be an option for a 'Y axis joystick/mouse ...'
slightly confused

any ideas to what im doing wrong ??

cheers
Rob