carcer

Fraps should work, it's what I captured the screen shots with. I haven't tried it's video capture though. brief update on the reshade- seems that when installing reshade the collection of standard effects is needed and I can confirm that for whatever reason the reshade opengl file messes with selection placement and unit placement. So far just a minor annoyance but I had to temporarily delete the reshade files to place units in trenches within the scenario editor. Not sure why the reshade opengl does this.

Wanted to chime in as well on some of the AI behavior I've seen. After working on a test scenario for Omaha Beach (CMBN) I've noticed that tank HE splash seems to displace infantry as well. I kept having the issue of German infantry in forward trench lines displacing to the rear out of sight trenches making the defense ineffective. Two other peculiar things I noticed with the US infantry is if there's a smoke spot the infantry will converge in mass inside the smoke and if I put deep water tiles 100-200 meters away they would displace towards that for the elevation cover. I would guess that means there isn't a distance restriction on displacement for best available cover? Either way it's fairly annoying for single player. Doesn't seem to be that much of an issue for the modern title though probably due to dug in defenses being a rarity.

Omaha West Test Map Here is a download link to a test map/mission: http://www.mediafire.com/file/549pvytaalvvc48/omaha_test_map.rar Both huge map and mission which might not be comfortably possible without using the nvidia profile inspector found in this forum: http://community.battlefront.com/topic/96330-some-performance-and-quality-tips-for-nvidia-users/?page=7. Playing turn based wasn't too bad, 40-50 seconds when reinforcements arrived, but the rest was smooth sailing. Recommend a decent rig though. The test mission shows most of the first wave (A-B-C Co 743rd Armor , C Co 2nd Rangers, A-F-G Co 115th Infantry, and 2 boat teams of the 121st Engineers). No objectives or mission parameters have been made, just a force on force example. Last set of reinforcements land at the 15 minute mark. Notes I'm going to work on the map for a while after this and play close combat; maybe someone better at scenario design could jump in. Need to wait for a patch and voice concern as well since the AI behavior with the new upgrade severely depletes the potential for entrenched positions among other things (if there's a deep water tile 100+ meters away the US infantry would make a backwards break for that every-time they were pinned down, "we shall swim back to England"). Love the new infantry spacing and Withdrawal AI plans (sounds useful though I have no idea what it does) at least. The map is still really really rough with the D1 draw messed up after I did an elevation correction. The boat teams are mostly correct except for same boat arrival times. I've split landing forces in half with the second half landing on the next reinforcement wave. Doesn't seem like the German howitzers are being used and don't know why. Haven't added mines yet either. 743rd- deleted 2 out of the 4 boats from B Co as it seems they were sunk before landing, deleted 1 boat from C Co for the hell of it, and A Co boats get complicated. Seems 1 took on water and 1 lost its engine before going in, 1 hit by artillery, 1 with a damaged ramp having to return later in the day, and another 1 only got off 1 Sherman before being hit with artillery (maybe ?). Some sources say A Co had 6 boats, others 8, so I went with 6 and all the casualties above to give A Co a total of 4 shermans so that life is hard.

Correction; I've decided to stick with the critical hit scenario indefinitely. Should have the test scenario up in a week or so. I believe JonS is correct in breaking up the whole thing in pieces, which translates well with adopting the board games 16 scenarios into CM. Since the scenarios are cross referenced with the same units this could become a campaign. The only exception is that I would leave out the current mission I'm working since a lot of computer's might not be able to handle it; releasing it as a stand instead. In theory this would be the 16 scenarios, a campaign with most of the 16 scenarios so unit casualties carry over, the gigantic mission I'm working on now, and background informational research in a pack. Probably wouldn't be complete without an old school remake of "Ranger Challenge" either. If this is a hit I may have to break down and go for critical hits 'omaha east' as well. I wish advanced squad leader games weren't so freaking expensive. Are there other squad leader missions that people have transcribed into CM successfully? Note on research: My initial assumption/theory based on reading material that this battle had flawed attack plans was completely inaccurate. I thought the plan was to attack the draws straight on but this is untrue. The plan was to have a connective front along the entire beach. Even if landing between the draws was a viable option (ocean current/visability), artillery would have just concentrated there any way. I also thought that there was a 600 meter gap in the Germans field of fire for small arms which is also untrue. The majority of WN maps and research leave out enfilade mg positions dug into the side of the hill. Overall it would have royally sucked to be in the first wave.

I appreciate the clarification Sgt. Squarehead and the info JonS. I'm beginning to understand how the A.I. works as well as the objectives and exit zones. I like the idea Combatintman mentions about short mortar reinforcements with small amounts of ammo. Good info to keep in mind scenario dependent. The A.I. support on the lowest setting (harass) is pretty intense but works for this one. Might even need to add German ammo dumps for resupply depending on what ammo counts really were but then again once the mortars are out of ammo the heavy artillery really does start to represent nuisance fire (10 minutes into scenario). I noticed that adding multiple AI support targets gets more of the artillery into the fight with closest mortar position firing on painted target. I need to try to see if the TRP's will work better now that the assault wave is a more starting force. Before I had just the DD tanks for the first five minutes so what would happen is the spotters would direct heavies on the tanks when the infantry was landing in different sectors. Currently still trying to hurry to get first wave test mission out. So far I've corrected terrain elevation, correct landing spots, and then just been trying to balance. Whats left is to fix some terrain clipping, touch-ups on sea wall, add a few bushes/trees, special assault company composition for infantry, and a little more balance. Lately I've tried messing with the idea of having A/743rd (6 tanks) land in front of Les Moulins five minutes late because a lot of Omaha scenarios have that happen. After extending research on US side it seems the scenario I've been using as a base only focuses on 2 battalions of 116th in the first 2 waves plus supporting elements. Sounds like a lot of units but it comes together to a battalion strength battle for the boats that made it in. I completely forgot there's a whole 3rd battalion. The object of the critical hit scenario is to accomplish 3 of the following: clear road up the d-1 draw, clear road up the d-3 draw, capture 3 strong-points, have about 10 squads on high-ground, or clear lane through obstacle belt (can't really be modelled in CM?). The scenario takes place from 0630 to 0900, 40 game turns, and company size German reinforcements at turn 21. Not sure if I want to stick close to just that or go in the direction I was trying to go before which would probably be more arcady. Arcade like in the sense that 3rd battalion could have platoons represent companies, full map in play representing most of the day, give support vehicles later on like the priest howitzer or halftrack howitzer, and have a different force composition similar to the table top game flames of war or something? The current issue is that once the US tanks get the upper-hand the Atlantic wall falls pretty quick. The strong-points might still be difficult to assault since the German infantry AI really just re-positions to the rear trench lines, (Maybe it's possible to get them to return with an AI plan?), but still it's high casualties for first 10 minutes (pretty historical) and then not that many exciting things afterwards. Maybe the test mission will prove different?

The exit zones might actually be an issue for me later on. I was under the impression you could do it for specific units, but if it's for an entire force eek. My only experience and knowledge of the exit zones plus where I got the idea from was one of the allied market garden missions where you exit 1 company of airborne troops while the rest hold onto objectives. For now the simple AI support plan works well for the beta test but once I go back for refinement it'll be fun to play around with the mortar idea. The exit zone issue is that my intention will be to have exit zones for ranger units so that the player will have to decide on picking up exit zone points, or using available rangers to help hold objectives instead. Historically the 5th (might be wrong too many units) ranger battalion (about company strength in man power) was suppose to land at dog green and then proceed to point du hoc if they didnt hear that the point was taken as a plan B. I guess radio comms didn't go out that the point was taken so they land on omaha at dog white and get tied up defending vierville instead. I think maybe a platoon didnt get the memo and pressed on to the point before German units were able to set up ambushes on the route.

Thanks for all the feedback. The area target for mortars sounds interesting and a go to if I can't get the mortars into action enough. So far the solution of: having the pre-support bombardment hit with the US first wave converged into a starting force works pretty well. With the support AI set to suppress it seems like the German artillery doesnt expend all their ammo and eventually switches back over to spotters setting up targets (not sure though). I added 6 trp's as well just incase (AI isnt quick enough without pre-bombardment). I also screwed up in the balance and over looked that the amount of Sherman's in front of dog red were throwing things off. Even though trying not to be too rigid with historical at this point; history might support the decrease. Originally I had A/743rd with 15-18 shermans (2 m4a1's and 1 m4 [represents m4 dozer] loaded into each LCTa mk5 boat), but looking at various sources these LCTa boats had a lot of trouble and never dropped off the full company. One source only gives a total of 6 shermans making it in, works well with game balance, so 6 shermans it is. I've added more concrete german bunkers too . This is to represent the double embrasure improved MG positions carved into the side of the hills. Might even have to turn some of the bunkers into actual MG ones instead of just having a crew or set AI ambush groups for decent engagement ranges. Mission balancing sucks lol. Here is an unmarked and unfinished aerial photograph overlay to show what I'm talking about. The double embrasures are the red squares off of the trench lines. https://photos.app.goo.gl/PpPsR7NCr3gKU2Lm1. How the mission is going so far (spoilers): Really intense for the first 10 minutes with the tanks per-occupied on AT guns while the infantry tries to make it to the shingle under artillery and mg fire. A/116th broken as per real life but I've managed to get a decent amount of f/116th to the shingle. Situation at 10 minutes seems to be that the Sherman's gain upper hand but not in a good position (middle of map) to provide adequate support so player will have to start figuring out how to re-position them. Dog red is where I want it with infantry at the shingle fighting but not able to do much else. Dog white seems to be working well, WN still holding up with gap teams making it to the shingle to start blowing gaps. Still need to add gap assault teams as reinforcements to dog red and dog green as well as the rangers at the charlie to conclude the 1st wave. Mission parameters are looking like the time covered will be from 0630 to around 1300 condensed in a weird way to make it a 2 hour'ish mission. Help with elevation: I've combined elevation data from the sources given in this forum with the google earth elevation method. I just used the real values, i.e. if it says 45 meters on the line I went with 45 meters, but noticed that CM direct elevation doesn't go below 5 meters. Does that mean I need to treat the game's 5 meters as 0 and add 5 to all my values? In this way most of the beach would be 0 elevation (5m) but then if I have an elevation line for say 10m I would actually want to make it 15m in the game?

Thanks Sgt. Squarehead, I'll play around with that 'target' order and see what all that does. Noticed I made a stupid mistake as well...because I added German mortars as a specialist teams they don't have radios, so c2 links were broken.

Yup definitely need help with the artillery and landing force plan. Hmmm I'll add names in credits to mission design. mission design issues involving spoilers: The basic force pool template that I'm working with for the first wave is that the mission starts off with B and C companies of the 743rd off dog white sector having a pissing match against the shore guns. 5 minutes in 116th F Co with the 743rd A Co landing in front of dog red while 116th A Co lands at dog green. At 10 minutes that gap assault teams land (2 dog red, 3 dog white, and 1 dog green). 15 minutes in G Co of the 116th lands in dog red while C Co of the 2nd ranger battalion (plt strength) lands at Charlie. German heavy artillery includes 3 105mm batteries and a battery of 5 280mm nebwrf 41's. What should happen/intention, is that German artillery dishes out a heavy toll on the first waves. What I want to progress is a build up with follow on waves in the dog white sector for the player to use as a flanking force to the right or left to get the units in front of the draws unstuck while blocking German reinforcements. What's happening instead is that I can't get the German heavy artillery into action. I thought maybe having pre-planned support AI with the German artillery coming in at 5 minutes as reinforcements to hit the oncoming infantry would work, but instead it seems the support AI is only for artillery on map at beginning of mission. Maybe it would work better with support AI plan for the mission to begin at the 5 minute plus mark above with the gap assault teams for dog white starting the mission with them as well. Reinforcements then would be the gap teams for dog red and green landing 5-10 minutes in and then G Co of 116th and the rangers landing 10-15 minutes in. Idk ideas?

Thanks desertfox, that link helped me fine tune the US reinforcement pool and gives a great account for how the battle proceeded. With more testing it's becoming obvious that the only fun/tactical possibility is to condense timelines with artistic liberties and a focus on establishing a beachhead instead of taking out the strongpoints. So far in the test dog green holds true, dog white falls pretty quick from tank support (will have to redesign wn70s terrain to be more resistant), and dog red doesnt last long. for AI artillery support, is it best to use the support AI option by painting areas? Would mortar crews still target specific targets in painted areas?

update: currently working on the mission with the map. Trying to get a working force pool for the first large wave landing between 0630 and 0700. This test composition depicts the action of the 743rd tank battalion, 2 companies from the 116th infantry regiment, and 3 gap assault teams. A lot of units but so far loading times on turn based aren't a bother and only takes a bit longer when reinforcements arrive on the map. I'm drifting more towards force pools out of the board game bloody Omaha which in turn is going in the direction of a direct adaptation. The historical composition doesn't work out too well for game balance but at least I can keep trench lines and gun positions to their historical placement. The Germans get 3 added AT guns in speculated positions that turned out not to exist and I'm turning improved MG positions (wooden bunkers) into concrete pillboxes. In the book mentioned above I found out that wn70,68,66 had these improved firing positions dug into the hill with dug out slits facing out the sides for enfilade fire so I believe the CM pillboxes represent this pretty well for how hard that would be to shoot even though it's not concrete; plus gives tanks something to shoot at. Once the test composition is at good standing I'll put it out for download if anyone wants to play around with it or get a preview. JonS I was wrong about not needing more tanks. Even though CM isn't a complete realistic simulation; it's clear that in mission testing that armor landing with the infantry company, as was the case with dog red, greatly improves survivability.

Glad to hear about the updates and thanks for the info! Really stoked for CMSF2 someday! Almost overwhelmed by the amount of play and replay value that all of the CM families represent.

it's not really studying to be a programmer but I can email you when I get a chance for a drag and drop download and if that doesn't work the terrain tiles for the Z folder from the media fire download still look pretty good on Combat Missions movie mode if you've ever put mods in the Z folder before.

That doesn't sound good. On the reshade main page it says that it requires a windows plateform and directX end-user runtime installed. The directX is on the reshade main page. Maybe that's why? Could also try this tutorial that helped me figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H-FD7FGzTo&t=321s

Best I can do for a readme 1. Download the reshade program from https://reshade.me/ The version I used for this mod was 3.0.7 2. Once downloaded click on the install (ReShade_Setup_3.0.7) which will lead to a pop up window asking to select game. Select the combat mission exe location of the combat mission game you’re applying the reshade to such as computer->local disk->program (86)->battlefront->combat mission black sea->CM black sea.exe. Next it’ll ask to select rendering API where you'll choose openGL. Last it'll ask if you want to download a collection of standard effects where you can select no. It should then read- installing CM...succeeded/done and you can exit. 3. Download the Mod from https://www.mediafire.com/?gb3cj7sca338x8x 4. Extract the WinRAR ‘carcers reshade and texture mod’ to its own folder location. 5. Open the newly extracted folder ‘carcers reshade and texture mod’, go into ‘textures for Z folders’, go into the combat mission game your applying the mod to, copy and paste the terrain bmp files found in that folder into the games Z folder. Example computer->local disk->program (86)->battlefront->combat mission black sea->Data->Z->. If a Z folder does not exist create a new folder, and name it Z in the combat mission data folder. 6. Back into carcers reshade and texture mod folder, go into ‘reshade for main directory’. Copy and paste both the folder ‘reshade-shaders’ and the file ‘carcers preset beta’ into combat missions main directory. Example computer->local disk->program (86)->battlefront->combat mission black sea. 7. set-up the reshade to work by starting up the game. Once in the main menu, f2 brings up the reshade user interface. There may be a tutorial to click through or skip. With the reshade user interface up they’ll be a tab for settings. In the settings tab you can choose which key binding turns reshade on and off. I use the tab key but I have to be careful not to press tab with the user interface up as it messes with the settings. The reshade will not work for main menu screens or loading screens so you’ll want to be able to turn it on in game. Go back to the home tab in the user interface and if not already selected, select ‘carcers preset beta’ from the reshade UI drop down menu. Press f2 to exit. 8. Load a CM mission to play. Make sure that shadows and shaders are turned off in the game. Hotkeys I believe are alt-w and alt-r to turn on and off. Next press the key binding to turn on the reshade such as the tab key. Enjoy. Recommended in game settings: vertical synchronization on 3D model quality best 3D texture quality better Antialias on High priority process on Tree detail high Shaders and shadows off Recommended profile inspector for Nvidia cards: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/Orbmu2k/nvidiaprofileinspector/build/artifacts Setup for profile inspector found on this forum: http://community.battlefront.com/topic/96330-some-performance-and-quality-tips-for-nvidia-users/?page=7 profile inspector settings used: Frame rate limiter 40 fps (v1) Antialiasing – combined (mode + setting) application – controlled/off Antialiasing – gamma correction on Antialiasing – mode override any application setting Antialiasing – setting 32xS [combined: 2x2 SS + 8x MS] Antialiasing – transparency multisampling enabled Antialiasing – transparency multisampling setting Q – (default, mixed mode) uses application detection Antialiasing – transparency supersampling supersampling Anisotropic filtering mode user-defined/off Anisotropic filtering setting 16x To Uninstall textures and reshade: Delete associated mod files in the z folder, delete reshade-shader folder in the main directory, and delete the file ‘carcers preset beta’ and the 3 ‘opengl32’ files from the main directory.

Oh I see, for reshade setup. Haven't had time to write up a step by step guide but the readme I was referring to is in the mediafire download. For the reshade setup exe the first option should be select game, which you'll select the combat mission exe location such as computer->local disk->program (86)->battlefront->combat mission black sea->CM black sea. Next it'll ask you to select rendering API where you'll choose openGL. Last it'll ask if you want to download a collection of standard effects where you can choose no- not necessary for the mod (or yes if you want to play around with shader effects on your own). It should then read- installing CM...succeeded/done and you can exit. After that, the mediafire download containing the mod, has the files for the main directory of the CM game and corresponding files for the Z folder. I'll still put up a better guide but maybe that'll help.

Shouldn't be an .exe; I compressed the file folder as a winrar to be extracted to it's own folder location which would have the readme, a folder with all the files for the Z folder, and another folder for the main directory of whichever CM game. Thanks for bringing it up though I'll see if I can write up a better install tutorial later tonight and post it on here.

Yes, almost forgot to mention. So far though there's only terrain textures for CM normandy, CMRT/BS, and a few for CMFB to go with it. I plan to add the rest of the textures, color match with satellite images, and do CMFI as well. Any feedback is welcome especially with light levels on whether the game is too dark or too light. Originally I tried my own hand at using real life colors for foliage and terrain which failed miserably, so this was the next best thing I could go for. Another issue that might come with this mod that I'm noticing while playing CM myself is that sometimes you have to zoom in to a direct spot for area target commands and artillery. It might just be CM because it's doing this to me even with reshade off, but still could be from the reshade. Will have to test. For now I'm going to go back to working on my Omaha Beach map .

Carcer's Reshade and Texture Mod Release (Beta) Finished a well usable beta release to get feedback from, found here: https://www.mediafire.com/?gb3cj7sca338x8x Screen-Shots: https://goo.gl/photos/CGpBPY3m19EoW5Q56 https://goo.gl/photos/7EPXpi9vVo3Qyd6t8 https://goo.gl/photos/AmYYxouE7R2nsN5E8 https://goo.gl/photos/D2XCZTs4a52ZYMUN9 https://goo.gl/photos/rsQWRVSN2gKMsdW46 Information I've included a brief tutorial for easy installation in the ReadMe file along with all the following information in this post. You'll need to download reshade 3 found here: https://reshade.me/ I have also been using a Nvidia profile inspector found on this forum with the suggested settings: http://community.battlefront.com/topic/96330-some-performance-and-quality-tips-for-nvidia-users/?page=7. The profile inspector for Nvidia cards really helps the game's performance to the point CM plays better on higher graphical settings. Suggested in game settings found in the ReadMe. It is extremely important to turn shadows and shaders OFF or else there will be ground clipping issues among others. Hope this reshade and texture mod works for others and not just for me to enjoy. My Rig Windows 7 home premium AMD FX™-6300 six core 3.5Ghz processor 16GB RAM GeForce GTX 970 4GB 1920 x 1080, 60Hz HD monitor

Sweet, finally received the book Atlantikwall Omaha Beach by Alain Chazette (all in French though eek seems I'm learning how to read wee-wee). This book has everything that I was looking for and now kind of pissed by how difficult it was just to obtain the info. I would post some diagram pictures in the book but then with copyright's and despite being against most copyright's I feel it would be more appropriate to just a post a picture of the common's aerial photography that I can number and draw trench lines on. I'm now able to get an accurate depiction of Les Moulins as well as all the gun turret positions that funny enough are visible on the aerials if you know what your looking for. The new curiosity that I have is that there are these Wellblech (aluminum roofed) shelters for AT pieces. Not really sure what their use was yet or that they even existed before.

That's a really cool conversion map Thief2125 and looks like you did a great job. Combined with your other release I'm actually interested with the fighting in Hungary now to the point that's what I'm hoping the next RT module is if there is one.

Thanks for all the comments. Love the Strange Love pic Slim. The preset is a reshade ver3 preset that goes over main graphics. Should be an easy copy and past drop for install with the tab key as activation. I was going to include terrain textures from the game Men of War Assault squad 2 but still waiting for permission to do so. I'll experiment working on CM stock graphics to see if I can get the same affect. The reason I was moving away from stock terrain is because they reflect too much light, so maybe darkening them or something would work.

https://goo.gl/photos/mwHLWRCyC8i6fMBr7 screen shot of newest update. Took me forever to figure out how to do a mask that will protect the HUD so I can begin working on different depth of field focuses. Seems my goal is morphing into an avoidance of the go to brown outs, blooms, de-saturation, and over saturation while attempting to keep color and create decent depth.

Seems to work out for CMFB pretty nice as well (using Aris clouds). It's like a whole new game; don't even need an engine 3 anymore. https://goo.gl/photos/os8fbTtNXhk8L7HK6 I'll have to figure out what presets I was tweaking to give proper thanks to the person that discovered them. I believe they're presets from HerrTom. I still have more adjustments to make, terrain tiles to pick, figure out a field of depth, and maybe dabble into clouds but not sure if clouds has an affect on the source lighting.

I've been messing with a re-shade preset I found on these forums for good effect along with the terrain textures I've been using. I'll put out both the re-shade and terrain tiles when it's more finished. https://goo.gl/photos/kWGSej66ykgHmadZA https://goo.gl/photos/mhHq1tSMrwdnyJiF8