Hello all. I've searched this forum and tried Support with no luck. When I launch Freespace the opening scene plays fine and the main screen appears fine except the text at the bottom of the screen flashes on and off very fast. Upon checking other screens, any text flashes in this same manner. I tried to run the tutorial mission and found the HUD flashes too. This renders the game completely unplayable. I'm running Windows XP SP3 with an nVida graphics card. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

Have you considered playing FS1 through FSport and the Freespace Open Engine? That would almost certainly fix your problem.

Otherwise, I'm not sure. It could be your graphics drivers - have you tried changing them (either upgrading them or downgrading them)?

This doesn't sound quite like your problem, but thought I'd post it here just in case:

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/freespace_series/freespace_1_distorted_text

You can also try the hard-light.net forums for help. They deal with tech support for Freespace Open and Freespace.

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=151.0

Thanks for your suggestions Dave but I had already tried those (and MANY other things) to no avail. However, I finally got it working. Here's how: One of my earliest attempts was to download and install a glide wrapper into the Freespace directory. It didn't work but I left it there anyway. After trying several more things, including the RegEdit distorted text fix (which didn't work either), I went to the Gog\Freespace directory and double-clicked on the FreeSpace.exe file. A small window opened with some options to choose from. I don't remember exactly which ones ended up working, but I do remember one of them was Glide, which I selected. Ever since then the game has run fine. I don't need to launch FreeSpace.exe any more. The regular fs.exe run from the desktop shortcut works ok. Thanks again!

glad it's working, good hunting!

That is no joke, but your nVidia driver is too NEW. DirectDraw is broken there. Just downgrade the driver to version 285.62 or something older and original Freespace 1 (and 2) will work just fine.

I was having this very same issue earlier today so I went to the freespace folder and clicked on the freespace.exe file. When I did that a window opened up that allowed me to choose between playing the game, adjusting the settings or quitting. When I went to the settings option I didn’t see anything having to do with glide. I did however have the option to shut off all graphics acceleration under the video tab where you can choose which graphics card you are using.

Once I did that the problem was solved. I didn’t have to mess with my video card drivers at all. I hope this helps. :)

Downloaded Geforce Driver version 306.97 via Windows Update. It looks like this regression has been fixed. Can anyone confirm this? (Please make sure, that you switch to Direct3D when testing).

You sir are a genius. :) This won't work with FS2, but now I can play FS1 again.:) Thanks again.

A bit to add to this one, regarding Nvidia GTX 700 series cards.

Freespace (and Longest Journey btw) require Nvidia driver versions 285.58 or earlier to avoid the blinking.

This isn't a problem with older GTX cards that the older drivers support, such as a GTX 260.

HOWEVER, I just upgraded to a GTX 760 and found that the older drivers no longer support the GTX 760--the installer doesn't detect it as compatible and won't install.

I even tried leaving the old 280.26 drivers in place after installing them with the GTX 260, then swapped in the 760. The old drivers did actually successfully run the 760, but the blinking still happened anyway. Upgrading to 320.49 drivers with the 760 didn't help either.

Summary: On a 700 series Nvidia card, some other workaround besides Nvidia drivers will need to be used.

I think I'll hang on to my GTX 260, to swap it in when needed.

Fixed my Nvidia problem too. Thanks :)

fixed my problem too