Ill try to get the polys down to at least 6K, and thanks for the tons of help, Bejaymac it is very very much appreciated.

Leedude

Ok, I am having another problem, right at the end of the to-do list.
I am trying to modify resources.dll to include different labels on buttons like new game and multiplayer. WHen i try to edit them in flidref(the german dll program), after entering in what i want to replace new game with, it just doesnt make any change.
When i try to do it in fled-ids, it says Error: EndUpdateResourceFailed: 110 after i click save ids name. I cannot find this particular scenario on these forums anywhere.

Well pointed out Harrier, can't beleive I put 99999 as I usually change everybody elses to 9999, although when you think about it 3500 would probably be better for ships.

Leedude get resHacker to edit resources.dll its also what you use to change the version number on the exe and server exe. I don't know if its on TLR but Chips has it on Pathfinders.

**shuffles of with a new headache**

Leedude,

Have you right clicked on the .dll and looked at properties?... Is the read only attribute checked?.. if so, uncheck it so you can edit it.. When Flmm activates a mod under 'options' the: "make modified files read-only when a mod is activated (prevents tampering)" - option is normally checked and most .dll editors do not have an option to tell you so.. you simply get error messages like the one you describe..

Dunno if this will help..

Harrier

Nope,it isn't read-only.
I thought you had to edit the exe to change the version number.
Is it legal to edit resources.dll?
As i said earlier, I like to keep on the right side of the law.

Thanks again for the TONS of help given.

Leedude

It's legal as long as you don't plan on selling your mod, M$ only get upset if you try and make money from their stuff. The only gray area is the exe, its legal to edit the version number but nothing else, as M$ put a "version" column in the MP server window to help seperate different builds or mods. The version number is the only thing you can edit with resHacker as the rest is C++ or VB or some machine language similar.

resHacker is a resources editer like FLEd_id but it wasn't built purely for FL.

**shuffles of with a new headache**

So i have to edit the EXE to change the version, but it is ok to change anything in resources.dll.
Is this right?

Leedude if the legal side of things bothers you then don't do any modding, as technically all modding is illegal as your modifying someone elses property, but because it lengthens the life span of a game they let us do it within reason. A major reworking of the source code however is a real no no, but altering a couple of strings in a resource file isn't worth their attention.

Just watch what and where you alter things as I'm sure that some of the empty parts of the dll's are used by the exe as reference points, and any change in these points will cause a crash.

**shuffles of with a new headache**

Leedude,

In a nutshell.. any modding is illegal.. if you look at the EULA ... However some things have been shall we say 'overlooked'..

Historically it seems the big issue is money...(remember the "email scam" a couple of years ago? ) - so long as we do it for free.. we should be ok.. and it's mods that have extended the life of Freelancer and put more money in Microsoft's pocket ..

Changing the version number is a necessary thing in order to run mods in multiplayer so it seems that is generally accepted as ok, the same goes for the .dlls, some changes are needed to provide an 'individual flavour', and it seems that the recent delvings into the .exe files have caused no real problems to date.. tho I think it unlikely that the source code will be released anytime in the near future..if at all.. Mind you this is only a personal opinion.

Bejaymac,

As I said it's a fairly moot point but after the model has been run through FLModelTool and the bounding boxes added, you can set lodranges that are very close to Freelancer ones.. of course it is better to use .dds for this as dtx3 provides lods that can be matched pretty well to the Freelancer type lod ranges.. in the early days.. (*cough*) lods were more of an issue.. with many arguments as to what was best.. with ranges like 0, 1000 etc..(upper limit) being used for light fighters, with bigger ships maybe going somewhat higher - around 1200 -1500 (upper limit) and about 6k for battleships, the arguement being that you could not see the detail on any ship under that..

Harrier

Lets just say you wont get into trouble for editing any of the Freelancer files...

Other software is a different story...

While not *technically* legal to mod the .dlls MS seem not to mind us doing it as long as we change data not their actual code. As MS are aware of this site we would have heard by now if they were unhappy