X BTF: How to improve graphics on a modern computer

[WedgeA]

I found the original X BTF CD International Version (1998) while clearing out for summer. I always wanted to play an X series game.

I got it to start, however, the graphics is really grainy eg. I can't make out what the question choices are when talking initially to the Teladi Pheonix. Then when targeting each station or habitat, I can't see sone of the statistical information.

I have a Intel i5 4670 3GB with an Ge Force 660 graphics card.

What is the optimum graphics setting and sound setting? Is there a mod or later release version that can improve the graphics?

Many thanks fur any help. I know it's an old game but I want to give it a chance.

[Cpt.Jericho]

AFAIK there are no upgrading mods for BTF. The problem with the menu is, the higher you set the resolution, the smaller the letters get. Also a resolution other than 4:3 on the original release version results in menus that are partly off screen. This patch should help.

Other than that you can put your video card into overkill mode by using max AA/AF settings. Even modern low-end cards can do that with BTF.

[TycHouse]

AFIK X-Tension was a major improvement on XBTF, kinda a bonus pack. Not sure if it had any graphic improvements but you should definately obtain and install it.

[WedgeA]

AFAIK there are no upgrading mods for BTF. The problem with the menu is, the higher you set the resolution, the smaller the letters get. Also a resolution other than 4:3 on the original release version results in menus that are partly off screen. This patch should help.

Other than that you can put your video card into overkill mode by using max AA/AF settings. Even modern low-end cards can do that with BTF.

Thanks Captain. That download helped and I'm at Seizewell right now. I'm trading energy cells and gonna get the SETA.

Is there a detailed Walkthrough. Found one in German but not English. Or is it more fun to find out what's happening as I go along?

House, I've heard that X games are tortuously hard to get into and so I'm starting with X BTF, as I have it already. If I like the game play style, I'll get X3 Terran Conflict, which a lit of players say us the best in the series.

[pjknibbs]

I'm not sure that BTF will really tell you much about TC's game play style. BTF is severely limited in a lot of ways; no inter-sector communications (so, if you want to pick up some money from your factory on the other side of the universe, you've got to fly there in person and do it), very limited control over ships you own but aren't flying, only one ship in the game that you *can* ever fly, no station complexes, and no missions that aren't part of the plot. Oh, and the universe is around a quarter of the size it is in TC and there's a much smaller variety of ships to encounter.

On the plus side...Xenon destroyers are really scary, I guess? Oh, and the little tractor which ploughs the fields in the Wheat Farm is kind of cool.

[Vacuity]

If you have a desire to play the "old-school" X-games with more limited ship choice, no God engine, original interface- and menu-style, internal docking, et cetera, X2 is a very good choice.

If you want the best X game and experience, X3:AP has the best mechanics and ships, but the experience is marred somewhat by the annoying war going on around Omicron Lyrae, making X3:TC an arguable "best".

I tried X:BTF, but found it a little too difficult to actually *do* things compared to X2, let alone X3:TC and AP.

Slightly OT, but reminiscing about the older games: the Bayamon was one of the most awesome ships in the game; it should never have been removed from X3.

[pjknibbs]

Slightly OT, but reminiscing about the older games: the Bayamon was one of the most awesome ships in the game; it should never have been removed from X3.

Didn't they wreck that ship badly enough when they included it in X2? I dread to think how ugly it would have been in X3!

[Threesixtyci]

That old game is likely setup to run at 640x480 or something... Just the way things were in the 90's