I know! But is a secret...

www.evochron.com

Hi there Desert3142. Welcome to the SSC! You could try Oolite, Pioneer , Scout Plus, Genesia or  FFE3D. All of these are free "Eliteish" remakes.

Hi Desert3142!

If you do decide to try FFED3D (Frontier: First Encounters - Direct3D) - and please do(!) - then for the easiest start I'd recommend downloading and unpacking the Ittiz beta3 pack first, then add the FFED3DAJ v1.10a patch over the top of it and then add the nanite2000 texture packs which were created specifically for this patch: Enhanced planet surfaces, Enhanced metal surfaces and Cockpit icons and Planetary information graphics.

Configuration settings are in ffed3daj.cfg which you can edit in notepad, and as you have a lot of video memory then I expect that you can set:
loadPanelTexturesToVideoCard=1
loadCabinTexturesToVideoCard=1
loadGameTexturesToVideoCard=1
loadPlanetTexturesToVideoCard=1
loadTerrainTexturesToVideoCard=1
That will cache a lot of the graphics onto the video card instead of using up system memory.
You can then try setting modelPreLoad=99 with 32bit windows, and certainly so if you have 64bit windows. This will try to load all of the game models into memory - but if you have any issues such as objects with bright white surfaces, e.g. the asteroids in the intro sequence, revert to modelPreLoad=2
(please see the FFED3DAJ_readme.txt file for more information!)

The executable to play will be FFED3DAJ.exe

With respect to Elite-Dangerous, well to be honest it's still in Beta and I think that the requirements are still liable to change. BTW if you have a more powerful desktop PC on the network, then you may also be able to stream the game via Steam to your laptop - it worked (briefly) for me anyway! (didn't figure out joystick however)

I've an old quad-core Q6660 which has a new budget GTX 750ti dropped in it. It'll do around 30fps minimum in beta2 (improved) but I've seen some pauses in and around stations which are either network or CPU (88% on all 4 cores) ... time will tell ...
If you are part of Elite-Dangerous beta, "go with the ride" for now as I think we'll only really know requirements once it gets released, and probably until then any lower detail settings will be work-in-progress anyway.

All the best,

AndyJ
(FFED3DAJ)

(Oh - and BTW thanks Geraldine for all the support!! )

I definitely second the Evochron recommendation.  It is an extremely under-rated game.  It has significant problems (which are not worth getting into here unless you're interested), but with the lack of space-sims in the last 15 years, it is one of the best.  Also, although it is worse in every other aspect, it does have one huge advantage over Elite: it actually feels like you are flying a space-ship.  (The flight model in E:D is much more arcade-like.)  

Also, you might try X3.  It is a lousy flight-sim, but it is a pretty great economy simulator, and allows you to build a much larger trade empire than most games.   

As for Elite: Dangerous itself, although I have found paying extra for the beta to be worth it, I would not recommend you try it on that machine.  There are some performance oddities (although it really seems like the biggest ones are server-side), and it's rather buggy.  I personally would find compounding bugs with low performance to be much worse than dealing with one or the other.  If they do a good job optimizing and bug fixing, you may very well be perfectly happy playing it on that machine on very low settings, but I'd definitely wait for the full release.

yes, I think that's a good point actually.
Only pay for and play the beta if you can reconcile that it is actually a beta - not the finished game.
There have been a lot of complaints in the forums from people who seem to expect a bug free, optimized version of the game and are then disappointed when it's not, or when stats get wiped with a new build...
beta is an early 'taste' not the finished product.
I would tend to think that your graphics card currently isn't strong enough and I believe your chip is only dual-core where they are recommending 2Ghz+ quad core minimum...
There are people who have been buying PC's and laptops for 6 months+ to play which is just daft - wait for release or even a little while after for things to settle down, and if you need to and want to upgrade, well relatively speaking it'll be cheaper anyway - such is the progress of PC's...

(I'm going to wait to see if I can stream from my desktop to my aging laptop before either get upgraded!)

Guys i wanna thank you all to have answered 🙂

However

Caleb: (Evochron) seems preety good on graphics but i have doubt on game mechanics..

Geraldine: Your space simulator are interesting especially Oolite that reminds me E:D but are too old.. i want a beautiful experince

AndyJ: As i said to geraldine.. i'm looking for something with good graphics..

ExpandingMan: X3 seems interesting but i don't really know if it would be funny as E:D

AndyJ: Intel core i5 is a quad core built after intel quad generation.. graphic card is a part of a problem i make you an example

I Can Run: Battlefield 2 with all settings High, Enemy territory Quake Wars with high settings, Cod4 too, cod2 too

Look at this (Enemy Territory: Quake Wars chopper)

My PC actually support this graphics.. it's not like Elite but if exist a simulator with this specs it would be GREAT 🙂

You could have a look at DarkStar 1, Space Force and Galaxy On Fire 2, should be able to find them all on Steam or GOG. The first two are getting on a bit, Darkstar from 2006 and all of em are bog standard Elite clones (the first Elite that is).

Otherwise most of the shiny graphic cockpit simulators are still being worked on apart from X-Rebirth which is being tweaked.

PINBACK: Thanks i probably try Dark Star One and X3: Albion Prelude. I also will try Elite: Dangerous when it will be released hoping that my pc will support it.. If somone else has some suggestion on other game i appreciate 🙂 🙂

 

However

Caleb: (Evochron) seems preety good on graphics but i have doubt on game mechanics..

 

Just out of curiosity, which game mechanics are you referring to?  It is pretty much like Elite-lite, but with a better flight model (although I'd not necessarily say that combat is "better" overall because the weapon mechanics and AI are so much worse).  

Not really trying to convince you or anything, I was just curious.

i have doubt on game physics.. In this video the player is entering in the atmosphere and i don't see so much realism... and buildings on the planet are scaled badly

I see.  You're right, atmospheric physics is certainly not realistic (building a true hydrodynamic flight model would require a lot of development time to say the least).  However, that's a pretty small part of the game, and the space flight physics are more realistic than the vast majority of games.  (There is a speed limit, but in the majority of circumstances you are unlikely to reach it.)  

If you're looking for realism, I hate to tell you that E:D has a completely unrealistic flight model.  This was a crushing disappointment to me when I first started playing it, I wouldn't have been so upset but many of FD's claims about the flight model are extremely misleading.  It's still one of the best arcade-like flight sims I've played, but there's something heartbreaking about having such a cartoonish flight model in what is otherwise an astoundingly realistic universe.  Definitely worth buying, but hopefully fair warning will save you some of the frustration I had.

Anyway, play what you want of course, but I thought Evochron fit your bill extremely well and is one of the better modern space-sims out there, so I thought I'd ask.

I agree with you.. However I tried x3 and it didn't inspire me.. I tried darkstar one and it doesn't install on my PC..

I will try also evochron.. But why this game if it is so good than others sim it's not promoted noone talk about it and in this forum there is no section dedicated to it as for x3, elite, etc...

The SSC does have a section dedicated to all the Starwraith games including Evochron. You can find it here. There is even some of the early versions of the combat orientated games and demo of the later ones in the download area here.

Thanks! i Will take a look at these forums and try the simulator! 🙂

If you are using Windows 7 this thread may be of some help http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/973-darkstar-one-need-help/?hl=darkstar with installing Darkstar 1

Take a look at my vids. about Evochron Mercenary 🙂

PvP (Driver and me)

PvE (7 players online)

Same video, iron man camera:

Artistic vids:

Info:

Expansion Edition: Authorised Evochron Mercenaries' Technical Guide: http://evochron2.junholt.se/guides/EvochronMercenariesTechnicalManual(ExpansionEdition)OctRevision.pdf

And yes, i love Evochron Mercenary xD

Jumpgate

Seriously just get Edge of Chaos + Mods - on your hardware with will run fluidly and you will see why this is a space sim classic. It's like Elite in that there is trading /piracy  / missions / docking and a storyline but the mods let you go open world if you want that. Still best space flight model there is. It's the closest thing you will find to ED as it is now that will play on your hardware.

About $4/£2 on gog.com  http://www.gog.com/game/independence_war_2 price of a cup of coffee (small)

I'm assuming you're on Windows 7 it will run on that and XP fine  - I was playing it on XP on a 3000 GHZ single core with a AGP card no problem.

If you get it LMK - I have all the mods on google drive. 

 

 

Configuration settings are in ffed3daj.cfg which you can edit in notepad, and as you have a lot of video memory then I expect that you can set:
loadPanelTexturesToVideoCard=1
loadCabinTexturesToVideoCard=1
loadGameTexturesToVideoCard=1
loadPlanetTexturesToVideoCard=1
loadTerrainTexturesToVideoCard=1
That will cache a lot of the graphics onto the video card instead of using up system memory.
You can then try setting modelPreLoad=99 with 32bit windows, and certainly so if you have 64bit windows. This will try to load all of the game models into memory - but if you have any issues such as objects with bright white surfaces, e.g. the asteroids in the intro sequence, revert to modelPreLoad=2
(please see the FFED3DAJ_readme.txt file for more information!)

The executable to play will be FFED3DAJ.exe

BTW thank you fot your hard work    

 

 

Seriously just get Edge of Chaos + Mods - on your hardware

What kind of mods?

Mods are ship and system mods from designersmodders including ultimate freeform. Two open game mods Torn stars unstable space and gold rush. http://www.i-war2.com