High-Resolution Frontier First Encounters

Recently there have been some great advances in the FFE code to allow play in high resolution. Currently there are two versions of hi-res FFE available...

FFE D3D

A Russian-based re-working of FFE with great graphics

glFFE

Well established and bug-free program

FFE D3D

FFE D3D is an exciting new project by DreamZzz in Russia. As the screenshot below shows, the FFE engine has been completely overhauled and is producing some stunning graphics; the planets and sky/space are hugely improved and a number of the ships have been updated, including the ships shown here

Various people have supplied updates of the classic ships as well as the buildings and spaceports which feature in the game. These are easily downloaded and incorporated into the game to replace the older, less detailed versions

• Download the game from Space Sim Central
This site also contains downloads of the upgraded ships and buildings which can be added to the Models folder in your FFED3D install

• The alternate cockpit graphics shown in the above picture can be downloaded from here

• The developers can be contacted at the English section of the Elite Russia forum here

Tips

• If the icons on the control panel disappear, set the full-screen resolution in the ffewin.cfg file to 1280x1024
• If you're using Windows Vista and you find you need to click just below each icon to activate it, refer to this Frontier Forums post

glFFE

glFFE has been programmed from the JJFFE code by kolijoco and makes use of the OpenGL graphics system to offer increased resolution. Instead of the original 320x200 screen, resolutions of 1024x768 and beyond are easily within the user's reach! In addition, the old low-res cockpit has been replaced with a cool new high-res one, making the game look even better

The basic gameplay remains the same but, as you can see from these screenshots, the game looks a lot nicer due to the increased resolution. Little details like the flashing signs on the Frontier planets and the small spinning radar dishes on some of the ships are much improved and in some cases are properly visible for the first time. Generally the ships show a huge improvement, many small markings becoming apparent

Playing glFFE on your PC

To play this version of FFE, you need to be running Windows and your graphics system needs to be compatible with OpenGL 2.0 (but see Nic's Mod below), although the source code is available to anyone brave enough to convert it to other systems

If you already have JJFFE running on your computer you can go straight to point 3 below, otherwise...

1. Download and install shareware FFE from The Elite Club
2. Download and install JJFFE into your firstenc directory
3. Download and install glFFE into your firstenc directory

glFFE - Nic's Mod

This is a very useful and well thought-out further modification to glFFE. Among the improvements...

• Easy switching between full-screen and windowed mode
• Optional doubling of planet detail
• Use of jpg & png graphics, rather than bulky bmp
• Beta Lyrae crash fixed
• Improved compatibility with older graphics cards - now compatible with OpenGL 1.2

Nic's glFFE mod can be downloaded from here - copy it into your firstenc directory

Replacing missing icons on the glFFE control panel

Desipte Kolijoko's best efforts, some icons are missing from the control panel and default to the original, ugly, low-res ones. After a bit of tinkering, and trial and error, I've managed to fix the issues with the camera and MB4 mining machine icons.

1. Backup your glffe.cfg file to somewhere safe
2. Download two new files from from FrontierAstro
3. Extract the two new files from the zip into your firstenc directory

The next time you run glFFE, the camera and MB4 should show proper hi-res icons.

Click here to download an alternative console graphic, courtesy of Richard Valongo
Note:- This will only work with Nic's Mod of glFFE.