Schrullenhaft

I would still guess that something is missing from the installation. These are the instructions for installing CMSF and any/all of the modules (from the Battlefront Helpdesk): https://battlefront.mojohelpdesk.com/help/article/127930 What version is CMSF when you run it 'unpatched' ? If it is less than 1.10, then you will potentially have missing BRZ files once you patch to 1.21. I've uploaded the 1.10 patch that I have to DropBox (a 245MB download, not sure how fast DropBox is to download from): https://www.dropbox.com/s/tr1tdysuc4ccwb3/CMSF_v110_Battlefront_Patch.exe?dl=0 Make sure your Norton autoprotect is turned off (during the download and installation processes) or possibly have it scan the files manually and see if it will accept them. Some patches can get quarantined or possibly deleted though, so perhaps have an off-disk backup before scanning the files. This is the directory listing of a CMSF 1 v. 1.32 'Data' directory:

I keep forgetting that the modules are part of the main download for the game now. So any Engine 4.0 Upgrade installer should have the module content as part of it now. As long as your installation was downloaded and installed AFTER the 'Fire and Rubble' module was released then you would have the content already. If not, then you may need to download the latest CMRT 4.x Engine download and reinstall the game. To activate the license key for Fire and Rubble look for an 'Activate New Products - CMRT' shortcut either on your desktop, in the 'Battlefront' listing in the Start Menu or browse for it wherever you installed CMRT (it will be in the 'root' of the game directory). Launching this should bring up the licensing dialog and you can copy-and-paste your license key in there and make sure you get the 'success' dialog and it should show a green box for the 'Fire and Rubble' module on the final screen listing the activated products.

Check your email, especially the spam/junk folder and see if you've been emailed the receipt with a download link. The 'Process' status doesn't seem truly indicative of the sale's/order's status.

From the Main Menu > Options > is the 'Sound' ON (there is a 'Music' too). I believe the Alt-S may override this setting, but I'm not certain. What audio device are you using, analog or digital (optical or SPDIF) speakers, analog headphones (Mini-din audio jack) or USB speakers or headphones ? Any utilities that may control audio ?

Is this CMSF1 or CMSF2 (the only version that is currently available in the Store) ? This issue usually occurs because there are some missing BRZ data files. For CMSF1 it will often be that a particular patch has not been applied. The patches for CMSF1 were not cumulative, so you needed to patch with intervening patches to get all of the BRZ files that the game needed. For CMSF1 I'm not sure if just the 1.21, 1.31 and 1.32 patches are all that is needed or not to be fully patched. Again, you will need to at least install these 3 patches, in order, to get all of the needed BRZ data files. Make sure to make the correct selections during the patching process (which modules you have and the correct directory for the game installation). Otherwise you will have missing modules or you'll get requests for license keys of the modules you don't have (or haven't activated yet).

In my opinion the 'out of graphics memory' error is most likely an issue with the video driver. Which particular Radeon driver are you using ? I had been under the impression that the latest ones worked. I'm also not aware of any Windows Update that would cause this problem either. If necessary, you may need to use an utility such as Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) (download links are towards the bottom). I highly suggest reading the text on this download page or looking at YouTube videos to familiarize yourself with how this works. Before running the tool, download the various drivers (full downloads, often a few hundred megabytes in size) you want to try beforehand. One of the suggestions is running the utility while you're disconnected from the Internet so that Windows doesn't attempt to install a replacement driver for you. You will also want to run this tool in SafeMode; here are the methods to access SafeMode from Microsoft (you need to open the drop-downs for each particular spot you can perform this from). Video driver installations probably won't work in SafeMode, so you'll need to reboot in order to install the particular video driver (but you may want to remain disconnected from the internet until you've finished installing the driver).

What are you using for audio, USB headphones, analog speakers, etc. ? The CM series has had problems with the Nahimic audio software in the past, but I believe that problem is usually related to the copy-protection system and results in the game not starting up at all (rather than intermittently, like you're experiencing). I'm not specifically aware of a setting in the Nvidia control panel that would prevent the game from running or causing it to crash. Do you have a separate profile for the game or are you using the Global Profile for the game ? If you're on a laptop, then definitely create an unique profile in the Nvidia control panel for the game since it is possible that the game might be running on the Intel integrated video. Intel integrated video can usually run the game, but some drivers don't do too well with the game (usually text issues, but possibly crashing or simply not running the game). For the Nvidia profile for the game I would recommend having these settings (not an exhaustive list of all possibilities): Preferred graphics processor: High performance Nvidia processor Triple Buffering: ON Vertical Sync: Use the 3D application setting Image Scaling: OFF Anti-aliasing - FXAA: OFF (this may help with text corruption with it off) Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance (not sure if this has any effect on desktop setups) For Windows 10 20H1 and later, the default/preferred graphics has to be set from: Start Menu > Settings > System > Display > Graphics settings (text link at the bottom) > Graphics performance preference > 'Desktop' should be the default selection then click the 'Browse' button to search for the game executable (buried in the Steam folder). Once selected there should be a listing for that program now. Click on the 'Options' button and select the 'High performance' option, which should be the Nvidia display adapter. This setting OVERRIDES the Nvidia control panel setting, so double-check this if you're on a laptop. I wouldn't think that any of the above Nvidia control panel settings would result in crashing if they weren't set to the above settings, but I have heard of such an issue before, so it is a possibility. You can also turn off any anti-aliasing settings, DSR, etc.

Have you recently updated the video driver for your RX 570 GPU ? Supposedly the latest drivers work which would be 22.2.2. Users have reported that 21.12.1 has worked for them, but if not you can try the 21.8.2 WHQL drivers (for Windows 10 64-bit). Some users have reported that the 21.8.2 drivers still had out-of-memory problems that appeared to be addressed with the 21.12.1 drivers. So you can try downloading the 22.2.2 drivers and uninstalling your current ones (make sure to reboot after the new drivers are installed). If the game still doesn't work, then you can perform an installation of the 21.12.1 drivers (with an uninstallation of the current drivers first) and finally you can install the 21.8.2 drivers if those don't work (again, with an uninstallation of the current drivers beforehand).

Was there a recent change (hardware or possibly an OS reinstall) of your computer ? Something likely 'tripped up' the copy-protection system to think it was possibly running on a different computer. If Battlefront's technical support person ('BFCElvis') doesn't reply directly to this thread, then you can (and may want to anyway since you'll probably need to communicate your license key) open a ticket with the Helpdesk (click on the blue '+ new ticket' button in the upper right). You'll need to login (with your Battlefront 'Store' account to my knowledge) to open the ticket and fill out the detaills. Elvis should be able to send you an utility to 'reset' your license key and allow you to reactivate the game (and possibly add an activation to the license key(s) if necessary).

With the current copy-protection system: No. There's no resource available to the end user that shows what license key has been used, after-the-fact. To my knowledge the Helpdesk also does NOT have an utility that can tell what license key has been used. I don't know if they have database/utility that can tell the number of activations used or remaining on a license key (I suspect not, but I'm not sure).

Was this the 1.08 patch from the Battlefront site or did you download it from somewhere else or possibly use something from Matrix ? I'm not specifically aware that the patch installs any sort of USB driver/emulator. The Battlefront game patches typically do NOT have an uninstaller for the patch. You usually have to uninstall and reinstall the whole game to go back a version (or occasionally install an older patch if only the game executable is getting replaced in the patch - a solution that probably will not apply here to this issue). If you go to the search bar/icon on the Windows desktop and type in 'Control Panel', this should bring up the Control Panels. Go to the 'Device Manager' control panel and see if there are any devices that have an exclamation point or some other warning about the device's status. I assume that you might see something under the 'Mice and other pointing devices' and/or 'Universal Serial Bus controllers' sections. Double-click on any device that is coming up with a warning (you can also right-click on the listed device and select 'Properties' from the popup menu to do the same thing). On the 'General' tab, under the 'Device Status' section, what error code is being given for the device ? What specific USB device (or devices) is giving the error ? Do you have an unique mouse or some other USB device that requires a driver that is not supplied by Windows 10 itself ? The DirectX error you might be seeing I believe is unfortunate, but expected. I think some of the UI DLLs for the game have issues with Windows 10 and going to a 'windowed mode' was the only solution. I'll have to experiment with an install and see if I duplicate any similar issues.

Check your 'junk mail' for an email that should have the download link and license key. This should come relatively quickly (within an hour would be my guess).

I replied with an answer in the other thread you mentioned this issue in:

I don't know if the 1.08 patch addresses this issue or not. On the patches page that lists the games it mentions that the latest patch is available from Matrix Games (who now distributes the Strategic Command series). However I can't find any info in the Matrix forums about applying any of the SC: WW1 patches to the Battlefront version (the Matrix and Battlefront versions will install to different directories too). Applying a Matrix Games patch would likely result in a dialog box that will request a Matrix license key and the Battlefront one won't work to my knowledge. If the 1.08 patch does NOT get the game running under Windows 10, you may want to contact the Battlefront Helpdesk (click the blue '+ new ticket' button in the upper right and login with your Battlefront Store account, if you remember it). They MIGHT have you run an utility to delete your current activation and with the 1.08 patch run the game again and see if it offers to be activated again and possibly works. If that doesn't work, then you may want to contact Matrix Games technical support (click on the 'Contact Support >' text link in the 'Help & Support' section). You'll want to explain that you have the Battlefront version of Strategic Command WWI and you would like to know about applying the Matrix Games patch. I don't know if this may involve a discounted purchase or if the patch will work with the Battlefront installation and simply over-write it, etc. (and potentially NOT require a Matrix license key or some generic key for Battlefront purchasers). Hopefully they can direct you to a solution.

Per your screenshots it appears that both CMFI and CMRT are fully activated with their modules. So no further activation attempts should be necessary on this computer (assuming you don't reinstall Windows or significantly change the hardware). What is the exact problem that you're seeing attempting to run either CMFI or CMRT ? Is CMBN on this same computer and working ? Is Defender the only security software that you're running on this computer ? The DEP exceptions shouldn't be necessary with the current CM games. They WERE necessary with the original CMSF and CMA games that used a different copy-protection system that could trip up DEP. The current copy-protection system doesn't work in the same manner and DEP exceptions shouldn't be necessary. Are you running this game on a laptop ? If so, does it have a 'dedicated GPU' such as a GeForce or Radeon in addition to the Intel integrated video ? If it does, then you may need to add settings/profiles within the GPU's control panel to tell it to run the game on the dedicated GPU. Some laptops may have an utility that turns on a 'performance' mode that uses the GPU rather than the integrated video. If you haven't done so already, you can launch the games by right-clicking on them and selecting 'Run as administrator' from the popup menu. This normally shouldn't be necessary, but with some setups it may be necessary to run the game. If you installed the games with a different user account, then it is possible that the game can't see the scenario and campaign files (if you're seeing blank lists where these should be). The main game installations under Windows should default to the 'Program Files (x86)' directory (a custom selection can be made during install to have it install elsewhere), with some of the data files getting installed within a 'Battlefront' directory in the user account's 'Documents' directory. If the 'Data' directory in the main game installation directory is missing or empty, then the game will come up with a black screen since it can't find any of its graphics or sound files.

The vast majority of the space taken up by the games is in the .brz data files. These files hold graphics and sound. I'm not sure why it is so large with the 4.0 Upgrade. Often there are replacement graphics or audio files with the newer .brz files, but the older versions of these files are also kept in earlier (lower numbered) .brz files. CMFI with the 4.0 Upgrade is also over 16GB in size. I believe these older files are kept the same for possible compatibility purposes. The 3.0 and 4.0 Upgrades are all-in-one installers that can include other modules. CMFI has two modules and with CMRT there is now the 'Fire & Rubble' module which probably increased the number and size of its .brz's.

Did you receive an email with the link ? If not, have you checked your Junk/Spam email folder to see if the email went there ?

miatch - if you purchased the 3.0 and the 4.0 Upgrades, then you DO NOT NEED THE ORIGINAL BASE GAME LICENSE KEY. For CMBN there is also the 2.0 Upgrade. What license keys you will need depends on what exactly you have purchased. If your purchase involved a download ('download + mail delivery', 'download only', 'pre-order'), then the license key is in your Battlefront Store account. If your purchase was a 'mail delivery only', then those purchases had a license key printed on a sticker that was usually attached to the disc-case or possibly the manual. The license key was NOT recorded in your Battlefront Store account for these types of purchases (perhaps they are now though, but not back then). For a purchase that was a 'mail delivery only' and you've physically lost the case or manual that had the license key sticker, then contacting the Helpdesk would be the only solution (where, I assume, they can confirm your purchase and provide you with a replacement license key). For licensing, depending on what you've purchased, these are some possible scenarios (for CMBN). It's really recommended to purchase the 4.0 Upgrade, which will require the 3.0 Upgrade. If you don't have the 3.0 Upgrade, then there are 'bundles' of the 3.0 and 4.0 Upgrades that will upgrade any of the previous versions to 4.x. Installing the game with the 4.0 Upgrade all-in-one installer will simplify the process with just a single installation for all of the possible CMBN content. The 3.0 Upgrade is also similar in that it will provide all of the content that is compatible with the 3.x version of CMBN: 1) Just the base CMBN game on its original release (v. 1.x) and no upgrades or modules: You will need the Base Game license key. This will NOT work with Windows 10 and you will need at least the 2.0 Upgrade license key in order for the game to work in Windows 10. For Windows 10 install the 2.0 Upgrade BEFORE attempting to activate the game (otherwise you'll get an error). 2) CMBN + Commonwealth module bundle: The 'base game' license key, which will activate both the base game and the Commonwealth module (you MIGHT need to 'activate' that license key twice - double check the 'success' screen to see the 'green boxes' to confirm what has been activated). This license key will NOT work with Windows 10 and you will need at least the 2.0 Upgrade license key to run the game in Windows 10. For Windows 10 install the 2.0 Upgrade BEFORE attempting to activate the game. 3) CMBN + Commonwealth module: The base game and the Commonwealth license keys. Again, for Windows 10 you will need the 2.0 Upgrade. Install the base game, then the Commonwealth module and then the 2.0 Upgrade BEFORE attempting to activate the game. You will need all three license keys to activate all of the purchased content. 4) CMBN + any modules + 2.0 Upgrade + 3.0 Upgrade: You will need the 2.0 Upgrade and 3.0 Upgrade license keys, along with any of the modules you have. Use the 3.0 Upgrade all-in-one installer for the game (nothing else should be necessary to install). The 2.0 and 3.0 Upgrade license keys will be necessary to activate the base game, the base game (v. 1.x) license key should NOT be needed. Any modules you have will need to be activated to access that content. 5) CMBN + any modules + 4.0 Upgrade: You will need the 3.0 Upgrade and 4.0 Upgrade license keys to activate the base game. The 2.0 Upgrade and original (v. 1.x) base game license keys will NOT be needed. Any module license keys will be needed to activate that content.

I assume that you have logged into your Battlefront Store account (https://www.battlefront.com - click on the 'Login' button in the upper right) and you're attempting to download the installer file for CMRT, is that correct ? Or are you clicking on a purchase confirmation email that has the download link in it ? If you're trying to download the file from the Battlefront Store, then once logged in, click on the 'My Orders' text link. In here you will have to browse your orders, clicking on either the 'Order ID', 'Order Type' or 'Click to view' text to see the details of each order. Within these orders should be your license key (unless it was a 'mail delivery only' order) and a link to the download. For the original, Engine 3 version (game version 1.03), click the 'checkmark' on to the above left of the folder icon for the Windows or Mac version and then click the blue 'Download' button to the lower right. This will download a file named 'Files.zip'. Extract this file with either the built-in zip decompression of Windows (or Mac) or possibly use a 3rd party compression/decompression utility like 7zip/WinZip/Bandizip. Using a 3rd party utility to decompress the files is sometimes necessary because the decompression might end up with corrupt files and the 3rd party utilities seem to have fewer instances of this. If you purchased CMRT AND the 4.0 Upgrade for it, then download the 4.0 Upgrade installer INSTEAD. You will NOT need the original (1.03) version of the game to be installed. The 4.0 Upgrade installer has all of the needed files to install the latest version of the game. If your purchase of CMRT was fairly recent, then you will have the 4.x version of the game in the download link in your order for it. When it comes to activating/licensing the game you will need the license key that is in your order. For the 4.x only (recent purchase) you will need only that license key to activate the game. If you purchased the original version and the 4.0 Upgrade, then you will need both the ORIGINAL (v3 Engine) license key AND the 4.0 Upgrade license key. Typically you'll want to activate with the original license key and then the 4.0 Upgrade license key. If you purchased the Fire & Rubble module, then the 4.0 Upgrade download (or the 'recent purchase' download) will have that module's content already included in the installer. You do not need to download and install anything else with this installer to get that module's content. You will however need to activate it with the license key for that module. Typically you'll need to click on the 'Activate New Products' link that MIGHT be on your desktop, or the Start Menu bar group under 'Battlefront' or you may have to browse for the link in the Windows Explorer File Manager. The file will usually be found at (with a 'default' location install): C:\Program Files(x86)\Battlefront\Combat Mission Red Thunder\Activate New Products - CMRT Double-clicking this file should bring up the licensing dialog box to type in or copy-and-paste your license key(s).

I see that you're using a Radeon RX 480. If you're using a fairly recent video driver, then you may want to DOWNGRADE to an older one. I believe the 21.8.2 WHQL drivers (for Windows 10 64-bit) should work. I don't know if this is the actual cause of your 'Out of Memory' error, but there were problems with the Radeon drivers in the recent past and I don't know if they were fully rectified yet or not.

Is this a laptop or a desktop, I assume it is a desktop (with a high-res monitor) ? With laptops that have both integrated Intel video and a dedicated GPU, you may have to force the game to run on the dedicated GPU. Methods to do this can vary, usually it can be done with the dedicated GPU's control panels by adding a profile for the game. Other times it may require a change in a particular video utility that controls which video chip is running an application. If this is a desktop (where integrated video will not usually be the culprit), have you already disabled FXAA in the Nvidia Control Panel ('Global' or specific to the application) ? There is also an 'Image Scaling' setting that I have set to 'OFF' (I'm only running 1920 x 1200, though). Another possible problem may be 'scaling'. I'm using Windows 10, so I'm not absolutely sure how similar Windows 11 settings may be. With Steam you may need to find the actual game executable and create a shortcut link to it on your desktop for convenience. Otherwise it MAY be possible that the Nvidia controls may be using the 'Steam' presets. In Windows 10 you can right-click on the game icon and select 'Properties' from the popup menu. In here go to the 'Compatibility' tab and go to the bottom and click on the 'Change high DPI settings'. In here go to the bottom section 'High DPI scaling override'. Click the check-box for 'Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by:' and make sure that 'Application' is selected in the drop-down box. Another thing to try when it comes to scaling (at least with Windows 10 - it may be located a bit different or have different options in Win 11) is to go to Start Menu > 'Settings' > 'Display' menu option (on left, typically the default selection) > 'Scale and layout' section > here you likely may have the scaling above '100%' with high resolution displays. You can adjust this for your entire desktop (with fonts and icons appearing much smaller, if you do) or you can click on the 'Advanced scaling settings' just below this. In the 'Fix scaling for apps' section you can TURN OFF the slider button for 'Let Windows try to fix apps so they're not blurry'.

In the past the developers have expressed no interest in the Pacific theater for the CM series. My assumption is that they believe that the lower levels of armor in these battles may lead to lower levels of interest from most potential buyers (compared to theaters where armor played a larger role). For a number of buyers the lower amount of armor models may suggest that they're not getting as much value out of these more infantry-centric games than the ones where armor is more prominent. Another issue is the importance of fortifications, which is a bit of a weak spot with the current CM engine. This would be especially true of the island-hopping campaigns and a bit less so with other Asian theater campaigns. So I don't imagine that there will be a Pacific theater game anytime soon, but the developers have surprised us in the past. The 'Cold War' game wasn't something that Battlefront had any interest in doing, but some testers convinced them and did a lot of the research and grunt work to get the game made. However Cold War does have quite a bit of armor, so it may not be an apples-to-apples comparison with the possibility of doing the same thing for the Pacific theater.

This error is actually mentioned in an article in the Battlefront Support Knowledgebase: Error message: "Could not initialize graphics display. REQUIRED: 1024 x 768, 32-bit color."

SF2 exists because the CM engine saw significant changes after the release of CMSF1. All of the other games saw updates with newer engines, except CMSF1 and CMA (which Battlefront doesn't have all of the rights to). With all of the module content that was created for CMSF1, it was decided to update the engine (and the models, scenarios and campaigns) to work with the newer engines. CMSF2 wasn't a rewrite of the game's storyline nor were there many equipment changes. While a BS 2.0 that mimics the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine would be interesting, I highly doubt it would get made. To my knowledge CMSF2 was actually a bit of a pain to do since it required a lot more work than initially thought. I don't know if a module could be made for Black Sea, utilizing different dates, that would depict the current conflict or how it might progress from now. Strategically the conflict might seem a bit one-sided if it were strictly between Russia and Ukraine, though some combat at CM's level might be interesting (Javelins and suicide drones - if they could be modeled realistically).

Where did you purchase CM Black Sea (I assume this is the game you're speaking about), from Steam, Slitherine/Matrix or from the Battlefront site ? What laptop model do you have ? What Windows version are you running ? Do you know if your video driver is up-to-date or not ? Do you know if you have just Intel (integrated) video or do you also have a dedicated GPU (GeForce or Radeon) in your laptop too ?