freelancer-hd-edition/CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

[v0.7] - TBD

Visual

• Made sure that solars use the same Kusari textures as the Kusari ships
• Added new HD asteroid textures that look more like the ones from vanilla Freelancer
• Restored the original overlay color for Utility ships
• Added overhauled HD vanilla planet textures
• Added a Deband shader to prevent banding; makes gradients appear smoother
• Made trade lane lights easier to see by increasing the size and making the green lights blink
• Smoothened edges of the weapon beam effects
• Added a new faction flag rift image for Rheinland and Kusari which is now used for news stories about conflicts between Rheinland and Kusari

Features

• Installer updates
• Allow the fixed NPC paths in Multiplayer to be used together with the option that removes the level requirements for ships and equipment
• Updated the MultiIntro plugin to v0.2
  • Built using a different compiler to prevent false positives from antivirus software
  • Allows for ini-based configuration
• Added FL Save Convert, a tool that fixes save files suffering from incompatibilities related to starting story missions between versions 1.0 and 1.1 of Freelancer

Fixes

• Fixed a voice line cutoff when an order member says "All set sir" during the Mission 13 Toledo landing pad scene
• Reduced the height of the lamp light texture in the planet New Berlin bar to prevent Blix's artifact effect from being hidden during the story cutscene
• Fixed an issue that caused the custom explosion effects to cut off in some cases
• Prevented the Rheinland Battleship near Holman Outpost from Mission 7 to be visible when not flying to the waypoint quick enough
• No longer show blank ship control names in the options menu if the "English Text Fixes" option has been disabled
• Fixed a bug that caused Q's Men ships to attack the player after the race from Mission 6 was over
• Fixed an issue where a regular explosion effect would be shown instead of a Nomad explosion effect in some cases
• Added missing lights to trade lanes in some Border Worlds systems
• Fixed a visible cutoff of the Liberty Cruiser main gun effect
• Moved certain HUD maneauverboxes which are used by some bases up slightly to remove a pixel-line
• Fixed bugged space backdrops seen in the Helgoland and Aomori bars
• Perfectly centered the dealer window animations
• Changed the faction of Patrol Zeta 1 from Mission 2 to Navy to be consistent with the voice lines
• Gave the Navy fighters from Mission 3 a helmet in the comm window since they communicate in space
• Gave the Norfolk announcer from Mission 5 the correct Bretonia outfit and added a neuralnet accessory to his second comm
• Gave the Cali base announcer from Mission 7 an Outcast accessory
• Removed Juni's helmet from comm messages during Mission 4 where she was not in space

Misc

• Modified the Tekagi Transport loadout from Mission 8 such that it is consistent with what is being said in the voice lines
• Ensure the playerer ship is not invulnerable to the gas pocket field from Mission 7
• Show the custom version number on the main menu too if the "English Text Fixes" option has been disabled
• Allow Freelancer to use up to 4 GB of virtual memory instead of 2 GB
• Show hidden infocards for Juneau and Ithaca
• Updated the Zone plugin to v1.20 to allow capitalized entered and leaving zone messages

[v0.6] - 2022-08-27

Visual

• Added all remaining HD Base Interiors & Planetscapes
• Added HD vanilla starspheres for the following systems/regions:
  • Liberty
  • Bretonia
  • Rheinland
  • Unknown systems
  • Independent Worlds
  • Tau-37
• Added HD oceans
• Added HD skies
• Added improved Earth and water planet textures that look more like the originals
• Added HD vanilla ship textures that are more faithful to the originals
• Improved ship window textures
• Added improved HD station number textures that have a higher resolution
• Improved the Nomad asteroids
• Improved the Planet Pittsburgh cliff textures
• Added HD sun effects that look more like the originals
• Added a new set of alternative icons
• Improved the commodity icon
• Added higher resolution space cursor textures
• Improved cargo pod texture clarity
• Added HD mine and spike textures
• Character model and props changes:
  • Compressed textures to save space and reduce load times
  • Fixed artefact on Orillion's lip
  • Fixed ridge on the green glass
  • Removed orange stripes from Tobias' mustache
  • Improved several textures which were previously not as good as they should've been
• Denoised jump effect texture
• Added improved lava asteroids
• Added improved Badlands obsidian and mined asteroid textures
• Added HD organism effect textures
• Added more general improved HD effects
• Added optional Adaptive Sharpening
• Ensure all menu intros use space backdrops with stars
• Added the unused Neutron Star effect to Omega-41
• Added new optional explosion effects
• Improved the Mission and News vendor images

Features

• Installer updates
• Added more pitch variations for the NPC chatter as an option
• Added the DelayDisplay plugin which shows a cooldown timer for weapons that require ammunition
• Added the MultiIntro plugin which shows an unused 4th menu intro
• Allow the player to visit the lab on Planet Toledo

Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused the debris explosion trail effect to stretch out tremendously
• Updated the faction for the Alaska -> New York jumpgate to prevent it from being hostile in mission 11
• Added an engine to Battleship Arizona so it can properly move towards the Alaska -> New York jumpgate during mission 11
• flplusplus plugin changes:
  • Fixed an issue that caused Freelancer to crash when launching on some Windows installs
  • Improved timestamp logging
  • Removed sound-related patches that previously caused issues
• Assigned correct description names to the nebulae in Omicron Theta
• Corrected numerous German typos and inconsistencies in the English text resources
• Fixed typos and newline issues in the neural net and interface text resources
• Fixed seams in ST03b (Dyson Sphere system) starsphere
• No longer overwrite the neural net and Pirate voice audio files with English versions by default
• Fixed black space backdrops in Kensington and Waterloo station bars
• Applied general fixes to the space backgrounds in numerous bar scripts to ensure they represent an accurate view of the space the bases are in
• Prevented the Valkyrie from landing on the same position as the Anubis in one of the Planet Toledo mission cutscenes
• Reverted a change regarding asteroid draw distances that caused player ships to not be able to collide with some asteroids
• Corrected Frankfurt's nebula color on the nav map
• Ensure Juni will always say her last voice line in New York during mission 4
• Make Ozu and the Blood Dragon escort say something before and after encountering the first hostile contacts in Tohoku during mission 9
• Made the edges of the job board icon softer
• Ensure Ozu and Hakkera's ships use the correct engine effects during the Tekagi cutscene in mission 9
• Updated the MP Rep plugin to fix a crash that would occur on some Windows installs when the equipment or commodity dealer window is opened
• Ensure the correct help text is shown for the Change View button
• Fixed an issue that caused one of the uncloaking Rheinland ships from mission 5 to attack the player too early sometimes
• Updated the orientation of the Freeport station in the gasminer3 intro script so it's no longer upside down
• Fixed an issue that caused Benno Henning on Planet New Berlin to sometimes show an empty bribe dialog
• Fixed the double spaces issue in Zoner pilot names
• Centered the Scan Cargo window
• Replaced outdated jumphole infocards
• Removed a duplicate news entry titled "RHEINLAND ATTACKS LIBERTY!" from mission 9
• Use correct logos for news items from Los Angeles and Crete
• Made alarm (klaxon) quieter at the end of the final Battleship Osiris story cutscene

Misc

• Compressed nav map textures for faster load times
• Compressed several Manhattan base textures for faster load times
• Removed unused and unedited texture/configuration files
• Updated ReShade to version 5.3.0
• Ensure the user sees some explanations about ReShade on first launch
• Check "Inherit Color Profile" option in the default dgVoodoo config
• Reduced time between weapon list refreshes to 0.1 seconds
• Increased time between contact list refreshes to 1.5 seconds
• Added a Tonemap shader which will be used when the fullscreen windowed option is enabled
• Renamed "GMG Station Glorious" to "Mining Station Glorious"
• Added an ambient sound to the lab on Planet Toledo
• Changed icon of the track rings in the Dublin system to trade lane rings
• Added a description for the Racetrack Buoy in the Dublin system
• Decreased saturation and darkness for the ice white blue planet
• Changed the "WEAPONS OFF-LINE" text to "WEAPONS OFFLINE"
• Renamed "AMBIANCE" to "AMBIENCE" in the sound options
• Renamed "CUT SCENE" to "CUTSCENE" in the video options
• Revived the unused water planet menu intro from the original game files
• Updated the in-game version text so Freelancer: HD Edition's version number is displayed too
• Reduced the draw distances of the lower Unknown asteroid field
• Added the missing for sale ship in Omicron Minor Battleship Osiris
• Disabled encryption when save game files are created and saved
• Adjusted next and previous sub-target button positions slightly
• Removed an unedited icon file and several unused ReShade effects

[v0.5] - 2022-01-21

Visual

• Added HD Nomad Lair textures
• Added HD Dyson Sphere textures
• Added updated version of the HD Character Models addon (tremendously improved character textures over the previous version)
• Added support for native Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering
• Added higher quality startup movies
• Added improved HD Nebulae and Fog
• Improved HD Nomad, Pirate, Bretonia, Blood Dragon and Utility ship textures
• Added many HD weapon and misc effect textures
• Added an HD Smoke effect
• Added HD Base Interior tables
• Added HD weapon models
• Added HD equipment carts
• Added HD background stars
• Added HD vanilla HUD
• Added HD mouse cursors
• Added HD button textures and other icons
• Improved HD cockpits
• Improved the St03b starsphere
• Added HD Base Interiors (Proof of Concept) for the following bases:
  • Manhattan
  • Pittsburgh
  • Liberty Dreadnought
• Improved station textures:
  • Fixed outline for dome trees
  • Improved dome grass
  • Improved HD station numbers
  • Added HD base windows
  • Added HD light panel textures
  • Improved texture quality of previously original textures for asteroid stations
• Added HD cargo crates
• Added optional shinier reflections
• Improved overall reflections
• Added an improved explosion effect texture
• Improved the zoomed map by adding more, smaller stars to it
• Improved texture quality of some original ship textures
• Adjust colors slightly in the Ew05 and Ew06 (both Unknown systems) starspheres
• Added updated Maximized Draw Distances addon (enables high quality sphere rendering)
• Include a copy of ReShade with a basic, optional config (includes HDR, increased saturation, and bloom)
• Added optional player engine trails
• Added an HD jump effect

Audio

• Compressed HQ Music to 320 kb/s (fixes issues with Freelancer sometimes not looping or playing the music)
• Adjusted the cutscene music attenuation according to the differences in volume between the standard and HQ music

Features

• Made intro skips optional
• Made jump tunnel time adjustable
• Made the Dark HUD optional
• Made the Flat Interface optional
• Add possibility for users to choose a separate save game folder
• Increased max number of characters in the chat input box (allows for longer messages to be typed)
• Increased the max number of chat lines in the chat history window
• Made both Unknown systems appear on the nav map after visiting them
• Made the Text Strings Revision patch optional
• Added the Territory plugin with a custom config; shows which region of space the current system is in
• Added the Ranks plugin with a custom config; associates a rank with the playerlevel
• Added the HUDless plugin which allows players to hide the HUD
• Added optional no-story (open single player) modes:
  • Normal: the player starts on Manhattan with a basic loadout and a default reputation
  • Pirate: the player starts on Rochester with a basic loadout and an inverted reputation
• Ensured Bounty Hunter and Corsair ships have Corsair engines (like the NPCs do)
• Added "HDE" to the version text in the main menu to indicate that the Freelancer: HD Edition installation has succeeded
• Added an alternative base interior lighting fix
• Added flplusplus; allows for configurable draw distances, PNG screenshots, and more

Fixes

• Replaced Liberty Defender with Juni's Defender in Kress cutscene
• Adjusted the HQ reveal and exposition music so it has the same length as the original
• Reduced vanilla icon sizes in contact list so they can no longer overlap
• Fixed fog colors on the New York nav map
• Inverted the HD Moonblu Planet's color so it looks more like the original
• Ensured the Rowlett's Revenge weapon drop has the correct string reference (it used to be called Nomad Prototype)
• Reduced LODCurve in the dyson_city hypergate ale effect to ensure it doesn't look too dense
• When both the Dark HUD and Adv Wide HUD have been selected, the player will now actually get both
• Added a visit tag to the gravity buoy in Tau-37 so it can no longer be selected in the contact list
• Removed a purposeless hazard buoy on the outer edge of Sigma-17
• Centered the nav map animation in 16:9
• Fixed seams in some Bretonia starspheres
• Removed silence in the zone_nebula_nomad ambient sound
• Made the fog in the Liberty Dreadnought deck start right away, instead of 30 seconds later
• Moved Armored Transport in mission 13 cutscene so it's no longer on the same landing pad as the Anubis
• Mission 1 cutscene fixes:
  • Prevented the Transport ship from tilting downwards at the very start
  • Prevented Freeport 7 escorts from colliding with each another off-screen
  • Adjusted the angle and position of the 3rd Nomad attacker ship so it can fire torpedoes properly
  • Ensure the Nomad attacker ship's engines can't be seen as they are decloaking when the camera zooms out
• Properly despawn Freeport 7 so it can't be seen in New York during mission 1
• Ensured the Planet Houston -> Bering Jump Gate trade lane has the correct name
• Assigned a faction to the Alaska -> New York Jump Gate, and the Magellan -> New York Jump Gate so their names are displayed properly
• Lowered volume for music that plays when Orillion talks during a mission 13 cutscene
• Set numerous friendly jumpholes during story missions to neutral
• Prevent cloaked Rheinland Battleships from being visible during mission 7
• Turned down the volume of a rather loud voice line in mission 6
• Removed a screech in the HQ Omicron Battle music
• Applied engine fixes in the gasminer3.thn main menu script
• Disabled the D3D8 error spam in FLSpew (Freelancer log)
• Fixed uneven edges in HD main menu Freelancer logos
• Set the mine detonation distance to 8 (mitigates the mine collision bug)
• Added missing audio files from JFLP v1.25; fixes some incorrect NPC chatter
• Applied several vanilla compatibility hotfixes (prevents crashes when playing on vanilla servers)

Misc

• Increased asteroid field fill distance
• Multiplied the maximum docking initiation distance by 5x
• Reduced time between contact list refreshes to 0.5 seconds
• Allowed the current worth to be shown in Multiplayer
• Replaced manual hex edits with the Factions plugin for making several factions appear in the faction list
• Added a trail-less version of the CSV engine (unused)
• Reverted the solid gauge bars (still made the gaps a bit smaller than the original)
• Added the latest version of HUD Shift which centers all windows correctly
• Replaced Freelancer.exe's application icon with a Freelancer: HD Edition icon
• Replaced d3d8to9 with DxWrapper
• Changed dgVoodoo2 version to 2.54
• Added an FLDOCS folder with useful Readmes and documentation
• Include documentation regarding manual hex/binary edits for Freelancer: HD Edition
• Compressed R8G8B8 textures to DXT1 and DXT5 (saves space)
• Dropped support for installations via Freelancer Mod Manager

[v0.4.1] - 2021-08-25

Visual

• Added alternative effects

Fixes

• Fixed size of 16:9 Freelancer logos

Misc

• Updated zlib.dll for better performance in Multiplayer
• Added support for installations via a dedicated installer

[v0.4] - 2021-08-21

Visual

• Added HD Liberty news logo
• Added HD Nav map objects
• Added HD explosives and missile effects
• Added HD Ships
• Added HD Effects
• Added HD Bases
• Added HD Planets
• Added HD Cockpits
• Added HD Nebulae
• Added HD Asteroids

Fixes

• Improved HUD fixes for 1440p/4K screens
• Fixed contact list view icon
• Fixed trade request button in MP
• Fixed banding in Tau-37 starsphere
• Added MP3 Codec Fix

Misc

• Added support for running multiple instances of Freelancer on the same machine
• Added more sound and general options

[v0.3] - 2021-08-15

Visual

• Added HD Character Models
• Updated jump effect
• Improved reflections
• Improved system map
• Improved universe button on nav map
• Fixed starsphere & news images banding

Features

• Added console plugin
• Added Advanced Widescreen HUD

Fixes

• Added missing text fix for 4K users
• Realigned HUD so everything is properly centered

Misc

• Updated HUD Shift
• Improved Freelancer Mod Manager install script
• Updated dgVoodoo

[v0.2] - 2021-08-07

Visual

• Added Flat Interface
• Added HD Universe map
• Added HD Starspheres
• Added HD Mission & News images
• Added HD Startup screen & main menu logo
• Added HD system map
• Added improved reflections

Audio

• Added HQ Music

Features

• Added dgVoodoo2 as optional Windows 10 compatibility patch

Fixes

• Added bar script fixes
• Added 16:9 planetscape fixes
• Reverted trade lane map visibility change
• Moved the neural net bar 1 pixel up so the pixel line disappears

Misc

• Added Freelancer manual

[v0.1] - 2021-07-28

Visual

• Maximized draw distances for space structures, asteroids and effects
• Increased effect pool sizes

Features

• Added support for scrolling through menus
• Added support for zooming in turret view
• Allow players to be called differently in Single Player
• Show the remaining shield and hull points of the selected target as numbers
• Enabled NPC paths in multiplayer
• Made all planets spin slowly
• Show the names of zones as you enter and leave them
• Added all content from Jason's Freelancer Patch v1.25
• No-CD Patch
• 1.1 Patch

Fixes

• Removed unknown graphics card warning
• Disabled IPv6 addresses in the Multiplayer Server list
• Fixed friendly jumphole in mission 6
• Fixed many typos, grammar mistakes, inconsistencies, and more, in the game's text strings
• Fixed several incorrect/missing names and infocards in EW05, EW06, ST01, ST03 and ST03b (unknown and story systems)
• Improved infocards for unknown factions
• Improved Nomad group member names
• Prevent intentional frame drops from occurring

Misc

• Include player ships in ship filter
• Make the first and last trade lane ring in a sequence visible on the nav map after encountering them
• Set maximum level in Single Player to 40
• Direct3D 9 wrapper
• Make energy, shield, and hull bars solid
• No longer hide The Order and the Nomads from the factions list
• Removed cruise speed display limit
• Removed general speed display limit
• Show "Far" in contact list only at distances of 999.999K or higher
• Removed ESRB notice