Mon Sep 08, 2003 9:45 am
Helpful Info Regarding Large Mods
Since I am a support technician, I though I would share some information with you that will help alleviate most of the problems people are experiencing when they are playing large Freelancer mods.
Make sure you are using the latest version of DirectX 9, which is DirectX 9.0b , since this fixes a large number of Freelancer problems people tend to blame mods for causing when they are not causing them in the first place. Also having the latest WHQL certified drivers for you video card and sound card will help if you are experiencing certain problems such as choppy video, screen artifacts such as splotches and black areas, and lots of static in the sound effects or music.
Whenever you want to play a large mod, delete your Freelancer directory which is installed at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer by default. Do not uninstall the game using the control panel and expect to get the same results because you will not.
Backup your saved games which are located at C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Games\Freelancer replacing the Username with whatever your user account name happens to be. This way you can go back to playing with your old saved games when you switch mods. After you made your backup, make sure to delete the Accts folder located in the Freelancer folder. You can safely leave the PerfOptions.ini file since that is where Freelancer saves your game options, so it will not interfere with any mods.
Realize that while Freelancer Mod Manager (FMM) is a great utility, sometimes it doesn’t remove all the edited files when you disable a mod. A large number of problems users experience is because part of an old mod is still there while they have activated a new mod. This tends to be more of an issue with larger type mods since it happens with them more frequently than with smaller ones.
Reinstall Freelancer using the default settings. Just remember that some mods tend to run better without the 1.1 patch applied to Freelancer, so check the mod documentation for further information regarding version compatibility. More likely than not, you will need to reinstall FMM as well. Just uninstall FMM from the Add/Remove Programs control panel and then reinstall it. You can disregard the notice that pops up since you installed a fresh copy of Freelancer and it will not apply to you.
After FMM is installed, double-click the .flmod file for the mod that you downloaded and FMM will extract and add the downloaded mod into its Lists of mods window. Activate the mod you wish to play by clicking on the green Activate mod checkmark and start Freelancer either through FMM or using the normal Start Menu or Desktop icon shortcuts.
After doing all this, you will experience the best possible experience with any large Freelancer mod. There has been mods that were buggy and crashed a lot before I did the things I mentioned. But now, they have been very stable and most of them do not crash anymore. While doing the things I mentioned will not guarantee that the mod will never crash of lockup your game, it gives the mods the best possible setup to be run from and removes any files or setting left over from previous mods. Even though this sounds like a lot of work to do, in reality, the things I have mentioned do not take much time at all and the benefits are more than worth it.
I hope this information has been helpful to you. Feel free to send me your questions, comments, or suggestions about the things I have mentioned in the post. Feel free to add any general info that I may have forgotten or overlooked.
Take Care,
- KyleOdin
Edited by - KyleOdin on 09-09-2003 02:47:49
Make sure you are using the latest version of DirectX 9, which is DirectX 9.0b , since this fixes a large number of Freelancer problems people tend to blame mods for causing when they are not causing them in the first place. Also having the latest WHQL certified drivers for you video card and sound card will help if you are experiencing certain problems such as choppy video, screen artifacts such as splotches and black areas, and lots of static in the sound effects or music.
Whenever you want to play a large mod, delete your Freelancer directory which is installed at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer by default. Do not uninstall the game using the control panel and expect to get the same results because you will not.
Backup your saved games which are located at C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Games\Freelancer replacing the Username with whatever your user account name happens to be. This way you can go back to playing with your old saved games when you switch mods. After you made your backup, make sure to delete the Accts folder located in the Freelancer folder. You can safely leave the PerfOptions.ini file since that is where Freelancer saves your game options, so it will not interfere with any mods.
Realize that while Freelancer Mod Manager (FMM) is a great utility, sometimes it doesn’t remove all the edited files when you disable a mod. A large number of problems users experience is because part of an old mod is still there while they have activated a new mod. This tends to be more of an issue with larger type mods since it happens with them more frequently than with smaller ones.
Reinstall Freelancer using the default settings. Just remember that some mods tend to run better without the 1.1 patch applied to Freelancer, so check the mod documentation for further information regarding version compatibility. More likely than not, you will need to reinstall FMM as well. Just uninstall FMM from the Add/Remove Programs control panel and then reinstall it. You can disregard the notice that pops up since you installed a fresh copy of Freelancer and it will not apply to you.
After FMM is installed, double-click the .flmod file for the mod that you downloaded and FMM will extract and add the downloaded mod into its Lists of mods window. Activate the mod you wish to play by clicking on the green Activate mod checkmark and start Freelancer either through FMM or using the normal Start Menu or Desktop icon shortcuts.
After doing all this, you will experience the best possible experience with any large Freelancer mod. There has been mods that were buggy and crashed a lot before I did the things I mentioned. But now, they have been very stable and most of them do not crash anymore. While doing the things I mentioned will not guarantee that the mod will never crash of lockup your game, it gives the mods the best possible setup to be run from and removes any files or setting left over from previous mods. Even though this sounds like a lot of work to do, in reality, the things I have mentioned do not take much time at all and the benefits are more than worth it.
I hope this information has been helpful to you. Feel free to send me your questions, comments, or suggestions about the things I have mentioned in the post. Feel free to add any general info that I may have forgotten or overlooked.
Take Care,
- KyleOdin
Edited by - KyleOdin on 09-09-2003 02:47:49