Install Order: Character Tool, Patch & FFX2

[life_matrix]

It's been a while since I last played Freedom Force and I'm having some real trouble with the installation procedure. Specifically, I'm experiencing some really weird behavior by the FF Character Tool and I suspect that I installed the 1.3 patch in the wrong order.

I believe I had installed the 1.3 patch immediately after the game, then the Character Tool. Problem is, when I load up custom meshes and skins with the Character Tool, it sometimes shows some weird mesh flaws and/or keyframes that are not completely connected. By "mesh flaws" I mean that there might be obvious gaps in the mesh. Or, more commonly, the right forearm may be completely disconnected from the rest of the arm. And some of the meshes look really weird when animating. For example, I might try the animation for "run" and the legs just flop around like the guy is running on invisible legs and a 2nd pair of paralyzed legs are flapping around in the wind!

This happens for some of the meshes, but not all... Also, I can take meshes I'm having trouble with, copy the exact files and folders over to my other PC and... the problem is gone. It definately has something to do with my 2'nd PC. Whether it's an improper installation or a hardware compatibility issue, I don't know.

I tried to fix this by reinstalling the 1.3 patch again. But nothing changed. Then I tried to reinstall the Character Tool. Still no change...

[life_matrix]

I remember there used to be a thread that described the exact order in which to install the patches and addons. However, I can't find it anymore. So what is the correct order for these??

* Freedom Force install CD
* Character Tool
* Patch 1.3
* FFX2 v2.6 Gold
* EZ FX v5.1
* (Alex's) EZ Hero Utility v2.6

[life_matrix]

Hello?...
Surely, isn't there's someone reading who knows the answer?
(Slow weekend, I guess.)

I can't test out the new skins and meshes I'm creating until someone helps me figure out the install order...

[Previsionary]

I don't recall the install order myself beyond:

• core game
• patch

since anything else I added, I usually merged. Anyway, install order has nothing to do with the problems you're describing really. That sounds more like a graphical error. Have you tried updating your graphic card?

Anyway, here's the list snatched from alex's site:

Good thing you asked, you definitely need to install certain things in a certain order. Skins, meshes, and self-contained mods can be added at any time, but special ones like EZFX and FFX need to be done just right. Here's a recommended order:

- Install FF (duh)
- Install Character Tool (good to have if you're skinning)
- Install FF Editor (needed if you're modding or manually installing FX or voice packs)
- Install FF patch v1.3
- Install EZFX 5.1
- Install EZ Danger Room v2.0 (adds a watch mode and some MP maps)
- Install FFX Squared v 2.3 full
- Install FFX Squared v 2.4 Update Patch V2
- Install FFX Squared v 2.6 Update Patch V2
- Install EZ Hero v2.6

[vortex]

Good thing you asked, you definitely need to install certain things in a certain order. Skins, meshes, and self-contained mods can be added at any time, but special ones like EZFX and FFX need to be done just right. Here's a recommended order:

- Install FF (duh)
- Install Character Tool (good to have if you're skinning)
- Install FF Editor (needed if you're modding or manually installing FX or voice packs)
- Install FF patch v1.3
- Install EZFX 5.1
- Install EZ Danger Room v2.0 (adds a watch mode and some MP maps)
- Install FFX Squared v 2.3 full
- Install FFX Squared v 2.4 Update Patch V2
- Install FFX Squared v 2.6 Update Patch V2
- Install EZ Hero v2.6

[/quote]

I was wondering if anybody could expand on this installation order, inserting any further instructions we may need to folow.  ie., which steps require you to merge .dat files, when to run FFX control Centre, etc.  Also, I found this step (from the FFX site) rather confusing:

If you've installed EZFX, then rename fx.dat to oldfx.dat and rename ezfx.dat to fx.dat to get a merged fx databse for FFX and EZFX5.0. For later versions of EZFX, get the merged databases off Alex's Freedom Fortress.

I dcouldn't find said .dat's on Alex's site!  Are they included in the download of EZFX5.1?

Anyhow, I'm still having problems which I outlined in this thread:http://freedomreborn.net/archive/index.php?topic=43630.0
I've uninstalled and reinstalled several times, yet still have the same problems with custom AI's.  There must be something that I am doing wrong!  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!