1. Remember that our knowledge of physics only describes 8 percent of the stuff in the galaxy. The other 92% does not obey our current “laws” of physics (dark matter, dark energy).

2. The theoretical speed limit is “the speed of light in a vacuum”. It seems unsurprising that neutrinos might travel faster than the speed of light in _the atmosphere.

3. Time dilation, and the theory that FTL matter moves backwards in time, assume that time is linear and ever-increasing. What if time is not always like that? We currently have no way to know.

We have very little experimental data about matter moving near the speed of light. It will not surprise me at all if we someday discover that our understanding of space-time and the speed-of-light “limit” are primitive.

Even our understanding of “matter” could change._

marcusmadgwick wrote:
next generation starfyre studios mod 2.6
i am stuck on the race in dublinwhen i past the final ring gate the game does not continue

I found this post in the archives:
Starfyre Studios - Returning to the Hood with Hovis

In mods with increased cruise speed, beating Hovis is easy if you do NOT use cruise speed. The reason for this is that Hovis will miss gates because he is traveling too fast.

Just use afterburners (I slide through the entire course to keep up both speed and afterburner energy).

I have not played the Starfyre mod, but the post says that Hovis is crippled in this mod, so you may have to wait for him to catch up to you at the end of the course. You must return to the Hood with Hovis in order to dock.

Hope that helps.

(Decoding Hexadecimal)…

Note that there is no ‘0F85’ in there to be found.

It appears that you are looking at the “Simple Data Types” converter built into Hexplorer, Maverick. In this case, you do not want to decode the hex values – you want to modify the hex values directly.

Go to the address and just look at the bytes there. If you see “0F85”, then you are in the right place. If not, then something is wrong – either in your technique, or in your version of Freelancer.exe.

Note that there are several common Freelancer.exe’s floating around. There is the original, from the Freelancer CD. There is also a “no-CD” version that many players use for convenience (with our purchased Freelancer CDs safely stored somewhere). Also, many mods modify Freelancer.exe. So it is important that your version matches whatever instructions you follow.

If you modify the wrong byte, then the results will be unpredictable, as you have already discovered. And, by “unpredictable”, I mean that Freelancer will probably crash.

Does that help?

B

Don’t forget Cowboy Bebop, the excellent music from the animé series about bounty hunters in a Freelancer-like universe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwvIp399JRo

Reducing the video performance slider is the most likely of those changes to reduce any screen lag problems.

(It also will reduce the heat generated by your graphics adapter, by the way.)

Anyway, I am glad that you solved your problem.

Good luck.

I am not necessarily saying that you are having heat problems. I am simply pointing out that nothing you have said rules it out, and some of your beliefs are incorrect.

For example, Intel has far superior power management over AMD. Chips don’t really manage heat, but less power means less heat. There is a cool video on TomsHardware that illustrates this point. It shows an AMD chip and an Intel chip playing Doom 3 without their heatsinks. The AMD chip actually catches fire, while the Intel chip merely slows down.

Keep working at it. You will solve it.

Well, I hope that you track down the source of your problem.

FWIW, room temperature is almost irrelevant. Electronics, especially graphics adapters, generate a lot of heat, which is quickly dissipated if enough air flows by. Without sufficient airflow, heat builds up rapidly. It doesn’t matter whether the room is freezing, if the air next to the chip is 100 degrees C.

Most laptops pull in air from the bottom and push it out the sides. Don’t look for warm air (that is the exhaust). Instead, look for intake vents. Blow air past them (or toward them) to cool the laptop.

Also, AMD chips tend to generate more heat than Intel chips.

I do not know what BF2 is, but a different program will use your computer differently. It is possible that some games might create less heat than Freelancer, but Freelancer is well-known for it. FL may not be the hottest game ever made, but it is definitely hot.

warlordfmike wrote:
a game such as this on a new laptop shouldnt to me cause alot of heat.

On the contrary, any DirectX game will generate a lot of heat on a laptop, and Freelancer is notorious for it.

Feel the case, top and bottom. Is it warm when you have the lag problem? If so, then it is probably heat.

Here are two good solutions for laptops:

1. Raise your laptop off the desk, allowing air to flow freely under the laptop.

Then add an external fan, such as a small desk fan, to blow air under the laptop.

2. Use a laptop cooler that blows air up, toward the bottom of the laptop. Many coolers blow air down, which is stupid… it fights the fan inside your laptop.

You can make one yourself (hint: 12v case fans will work on 5v USB power – they will spin slowly, so use a large fan.)

There are many laptop coolers available. One that is cheap and highly functional is: Cheap Laptop Cooler (for desks, not for the lap)

warlordfmike wrote:
I have one problem with Widescreen not sure what it is.

Are you certain that you experience the lag only when in widescreen mode? Does it happen at 800x600?

And does the lag happen after running for a few minutes? Perhaps during an intense battle?

Heat is a common cause of intermittent lag. Make sure that your fans can exchange air freely, and consider adding addition fans to keep your computer cool.

If it is a heat-related problem, then it is important to fix it. Heat will shorten the lifetime of your computer – sometimes dramatically.

What are you trying to accomplish, Moonhead?

If you want the features of the JFLP.DLL, then just install the .DLL. It is the easiest and highest quality way to get widescreen support in Freelancer.

The JFLP Patch is essentially an SDK. I wish that it were named that way to avoid confusion with the .DLL.

Yes, your installation order is correct. And, yes, it would be bad to install any other SDK or patch over the JFLP Patch… you would be mixing SDKs.

To attempt to apply an SDK to an existing mod is… difficult. Perhaps extremely difficult. And what result do you hope to achieve?

Adoxa made a determined effort to combine the best of other SDK’s into the JFLP Patch. If you were starting a new mod from scratch, then JFLP Patch would be an excellent SDK to start with. I have not noticed any problems with it, and I use it quite a bit.

So, yes, for an existing mod you should probably not try to change SDKs.

FriendlyFire wrote:
I know that.

If you understand the chemistry, then what are you arguing about? Or, if not really arguing then I misunderstood. Anyway, here is further explanation, just in case:

Silicon and arsenic are poison to humans, but they might be a normal part of a Horta’s diet.

SiO2 is stable, on Earth, at STP, in absence of catalysts, but that does not mean that it is inert. The same could be said of C02. But it does not really matter to our previous discussion because these are molecules rather than elements.

Consider chlorine and sodium. They are both extremely reactive and toxic, but sodium chloride (table salt) is both stable and a required part of our diets. The molecules have very different properties than the elements themselves.

The reason that semiconductors work is because of the magic of valence-four elements. They react with just about anything except for Group 18 elements. While the reactivity of carbon and silicon is low, they are far from inert.

The NASA announcement proves that our previous notions of “life” are wrong. It was widely believed that life required carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. Now we know, for certain, that other chemistries can also work.

This opens the door to the possibility of life in other temperatures, gravities, light, radiation, and atmospheric environments. The big deal here is that it means that universe could be teaming with life, although it might not be anything like terrestrial life.

In other words, what is “toxic” to you may not be toxic at all to a Horta… or to other alien life forms.

Le malheur des uns fait le bonheur des autres, non?

@Moohhead: Yes, the Horta analogy fits NASA’s announcement perfectly. As for my nickname, I answered, and gave you the entire story. You never responded. Check your PMs from several months ago.

FriendlyFire wrote:
arsenic is another matter entirely because while silicon is mostly inert, arsenic is some really nasty stuff.

While arsenic might be a more potent toxin than silicon, both are toxic for similar reasons… they can replace elements that are required for life-supporting organic molecules, including DNA.

Both carbon and silicon are in Group 14, and have a valency of 4, which means that they will react with just about anything. Truly inert elements are in Group 18 with a valency of 8.

This is similar to Lancer’s point that arsenic and phosphorus are in Group 15. From a Periodic Table point of view, arsenic is to phosphorus as silicon is to carbon.

That is why I mentioned Hortas.

LancerSolurus wrote:
After taking a look at a periodic table, I can see how arsinic could be used in place of phosphorous. It is directly below it which means it has pretty similar properties. The same could also be said of the other elements making up a dna strand.

Right, it is the same idea as the Horta, which is based on silicon rather than carbon. It is yet another Star Trek prediction proven.

Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer!

adoxa wrote:
As much as you all may think so, I am not omniscient.

Wait… what?! I don’t believe it!

The error suppression turns out to be moot. I previously suggested that he comment out the error suppression that he doesn’t like. He got somebody else to do that for him (and he neglected to tell me that he did it). Your code is nicely modular, so that is an easy task, thank you.

Apparently the urgency is reduced on the keystroke for launch, as well, although I still think that it would be a convenient solution for jflp.dll users in general.

adoxa wrote:
Ah, so you’re on a base, loading a save that’s on a base, and so the camera doesn’t get updated. Yeah, I don’t think there’s anything I can do in that situation, so looks like the key will be the way to go.

Yes! That is exactly the situation. It does not happen often but, when it does, getting off the base is a pain.

I can handle the situation when I am playing, but the topic came up in a discussion about using jflp.dll to add widescreen support to Crossfire. OPR8R wanted a bulletproof solution, and jflp.dll is the closest thing, but this one use case is still an issue. A keystroke was the best idea that I could come up with.

(Personally, I use Console to provide the keystroke(s), but that is no good to distribute with Crossfire because its other features could be used as cheats.)

adoxa wrote:
I’ll have to change the keymap, too,

Keymap? Oh, you mean for the SDK/patch (jflp.exe)? Yeah, that is up to you. I was only thinking about jflp.dll. I suppose the keymap would be a good way to manage a keystroke.

adoxa wrote:
How do you switch between windowed and full-screen?

Right, I meant in between sessions. Sometimes I load the game fullscreen and sometimes windowed – it depends on what else I am doing at the time.

Oh, one more thing that OPR8R asked about: He believes that the errors suppressed by jflp.dll are real errors that he can reproduce and fix (except for fate disappear). I did not know enough about the errors to discuss them with him. I suggested that he ask you about them directly, but I guess he is too much of a hermit for that!

(PS: This is a current situation – the discussion came up in the context of the Crossfire 1.82 release, which is either in or near test phase. Not to pressure you or anything… I just thought you might like to see jflp.dll used in (another?) major mod. )

Update:

Since the stuck-on-base problem most often occurs when restoring a saved game, it may very well have to do with screen resolution changes. I flip back and forth between windowed mode and full-screen which could contribute to the problem.

A launch key would solve the issue, permanently, for all cases.

Of course, if there is any way to force the initial screen to use the correct settings (after loading a saved game), then that would be even better.

adoxa wrote:
Use [jflpac.dll] instead of jflp.dll, not as well. The sole difference is it ignores fovx (and fovy) altogether, always calculating it.

Got it… that’s cool.

I just assumed that the “anti-cheat” in jflpac had something to do with disabling strafe and roll, and I missed the docs so I could never tell for sure. Thanks for the explanation!

As for how to replicate the stuck-on-base issue, sure, I would have given you step by step instructions if I thought that you did not know about it. As I said, I thought it was a known issue, since you have answered questions about it in other threads.

Sure, F3 should be fine.

adoxa wrote:
It would be better if the icons were visible in the first place, though, which should already be happening, so why isn’t it? Wrong cameras.ini (fovx needs to be zero for JFLP to calculate the right value, or use jflpac.dll)?

Interesting… I thought it was known that the first screen after restoring a save can be missing the top menu, which is what requires a launch in order for JFLP to begin fixing the FOVX?

Otherwise, JFLP does the job perfectly, in all of my, um… “testing”.

Yes, all fovx values in cameras.ini are zero.

I have not tried jflpac.dll, but thanks for reminding me. Is JflpAc installed by adding a line in DaCom.ini as well? Your distribution does not include the source for it, and the only doc I could find is a short paragraph in jflp.txt.

Yes, or alt-tab out, change screen resolution to 4:3, launch, then re-set screen resolution.

But the goal here is to add widescreen support to a popular mod, without requiring workarounds.

I have used JFLP.DLL quite a bit, and the only thing it really lacks is the ability to launch via keystroke.

@Adoxa: I was talking with a server operator about adding widescreen support to his mod, and he liked some of the features of JFLP but the potential problem of a player getting stuck on a base was a show-stopper for him.

It occurred to me that you have keystroke launch in Console, but Console could be used to cheat, so that’s no good for him.

Would you consider adding keystroke launch to JFLP.DLL? That would make JFLP the perfect widescreen tool.