[Need help with CMMOS]

aragorn2002 and PhilBohin,

Please e-mail me at "gordonemolek@poboxes.com" and we'll get you squared away.

Gordon

[Confessions of a CMMOS hater.]

It's really up to the modders and the gamers to determine what topics CMMOS covers. So, get lobbying for Terrain and I'm sure it will be covered. Cry loudly enough for racing stripes on Italian AFVs and somebody will do it.

Gordon

[Confessions of a CMMOS hater.]

Le Tondo,

I've very glad that you finally tried and enjoy CMMOS. I try to make it easier to use with each release. Unfortunately, with the new features of mod and rule-set installation, I didn't anticipate the problems that some people would have, but I hope to correct them in future versions.

MrNoobie,

Looking forward to seeing them.

Enjoy,

Gordon

[ November 20, 2002, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: Gordon ]

[Announcing my retirement from modding]

Thank you all for the kind words. To respond to the many comments/questions:

Marco,

I'm sure you'll manage quite well, and send me a setup whenever you feel like it.

Franko,

I'll try to put your rant in the best possible light. As I stated, this is not a reaction to anyone or anyone's posts. This has been something that I've been thinking about for a long time and now happens to be a pretty good time.

Pud,

Enlightenment is one aspect, yes.

Rex_Bellator,

Well I shudder to think that you still have some of my horrible early mods. I think I did learn a thing or two in the interim though.

Pascal DI FOLCO,

I'm afraid that trying to balance scenarios would drive me nuts. My hat is off to all the scenarios designers out there.

Marcus and Thin Red Line,

I made all my mods primarily because I wanted them. If other folks liked them, so much the better. In fact, I really got started down this long path because Marco made a truly outstanding Sherman Firefly mod and I wanted a camouflaged version of it. So the stuff of legends was born.

However, right now I have to reprioritize my life and modding has moved down several rungs. The best way to handle the situation is to go "cold turkey" (as I tend to be somewhat compulsive about what I do, in case you hadn't noticed).

It's possible that eventually the "bug" will hit me again and I'll take it up, but with the quality of KwazyDog's stock graphics and the cadre of established modders and young-turks, I doubt that my lack of production will be even noticed. And I don't say that out of false modesty, I just feel there will be plenty of mods to keep everyone happy.

Hoopenfaust 101,

Part of my planning for this event was the creation of the CMMOS Cabal and "Pig Pen." Send me an e-mail at "gordonemolek@poboxes.com" and I'll add you to the Pig Pen mailing list, and along with your secret decoder ring you'll receive a free copy of the tutorial for creating the muddy dirty tanks and you'll also be able to exchange ideas with and pick up pointers from other modders. Anyone else who's interested, please drop me a line.

Tracer,

Of course. As I said, I intend to continue supporting the mod community in general and the CMMOS cabal in particular. After all, if it wasn't for the gracious advice that Marco, Makjager, KwazyDog, Fernando and others have given me over the years I would have remained a "hack."

Matt,

Ya gotta catch me first. Bwa ha ha!

Gordon

[ November 20, 2002, 04:38 PM: Message edited by: Gordon ]

[I can't add unit markings with CMMOS! Why??]

MJO,

Please run CMMOS and attempt to apply the markings option you are having trouble with and then e-mail the file "CMMOSLog.txt" to me at "gordonemolek@poboxes.com" and we'll get you squared away.

Gordon

[Announcing my retirement from modding]

I just wanted to let the forum know that I am retiring from modding. And just so that we squelch any speculation right from the start, this has nothing to do any recent postings or posters. I have been considering this for quite some time now, and having gotten CMMOS v4.00 and an initial batch of mods for CMBB "out the door" made this seem like as good a time as any. There are a couple of my mods still in the pipeline, so I won't disappear immediately.

Also, I'll continue supporting CMMOS and the CMMOS mod community to the best of my ability, but almost 3 years of modding is enough for me. It's no longer as much "fun" as it used to be and there's no shortage of great up-and-coming modders who far surpass me in talent.

Best wishes,

Gordon

[Some advice - Please read...]

Rob,

Regarding your KV-1 m40 problem. I've tried applying the Soviet whitewash option first followed by MrNoobie's KV-1 m40 and vice versa and was not able to see a problem. Could you run CMMOS in the sequence that causes the problem and e-mail me the logfile (CMMOSLog.txt) at "gordonemolek@poboxes.com" so that I can try to figure out where the problem is?

If you downloaded the KV-1 m40 from the CM Mod Database, then it is not a CMMOS mod, but which version (date) of the mod did you download (so that I can make sure I have the matching version as I think MrN's gone through several iterations).

tracer,

Yes, I am registering all "official" CMMOS rule-set and rule assignments to prevent conflicts between 2 (or more) people releasing different mods that use the same rule-sets and/or rule numbers. This is to reduce the problems for the users of CMMOS, so that they don't have to deal with mods that destructively overwrite each other. I have NEVER refused anyone a rule-set or rule number request. Do I have time to track down every mod that's published to beg a mod author to publish a CMMOS version of their mod? Do I have time to do CMMOS conversions for every mod that's published? No, I do not.

Pvt.Ryan,

I have set aside portions of the rule-set and rule "name-space" for unofficial or "house" use, but of course, one uses them at their own risk.

Gordon

I wish this thread had "CMMOS" in the title so that I could have found it sooner to address some of these issues.

[CMMOS question for winter mods?]

Winter textures are only used by the game when there is snow on the ground. If it's winter and there's no snow, the "summer" textures will be used.

Gordon

[Hmmm. I'm thinking it might be time for another team rumble.]

So, if you're feeling the same way, let's chat about what might make a good CMBB team rumble topic.

A game or operation? Time frame? Forces?

I was thinking of having 2 COs, who actually exchange the turns (rather than having a GM input both turns). Other than that, it's open season.

Gordon

[What is CMMOS?]

CMMOS allows easy swapping of mods (both graphics and sounds).

If you're not into mods it doesn't buy you anything.

Gordon

[For those having trouble with CMMOS 4.00]

Leutnant Hortlund,

If I understand you correctly, you have a sub-folder within your CMBB folder where you downloaded mods, CMMOS_v4.00.exe and rule-sets. You then ran CMMOS_v4.00.exe and selected that same folder as the installation folder. An error occured during the installation process and your mods folder was empty.

I performed that sequence of steps on my Windows 98 system and everything worked without a hitch.

What version of Windows are you running?

Thanks,

Gordon

[CMMOS v4.00 Released!]

Originally posted by Lindan:

Is a manual included on how to get it installed and where to put all the files?

(I didn't dl it yet, but had some problems with the "old" cmmos for cmbo.)

I got it to work after a while and it's a really fantastic tool, but it was a long time ago and I can' remember what I did and how it worked..

Yes, there is a manual updated by Old Dog named "User_Readme.rtf" in the CMMOS install folder and Sitzkrieg has posted a very nice step-by-step guide which can be found at:

Step-by-step

Gordon

[CMMOS v4.00 Released!]

Originally posted by WineCape:

Gordon,

I believe your wines are on their way...

Sincerely,

Charl Theron

</font>

• Sponsor of the (infamous) Invitational (Ari Maenpaa)</font>
• Sponsor of the 2 WineCape Tourneys (Fangorn + KiwiJoe)</font>
• Sponsor of the Nordic Championships in honour of Nabla </font>
• RoW I/II/III/~ tourney sponsor (Wreck/Championship pending/~)</font>

Thanks, looks like I'll need a good stiff drink.

Gordon

[CMMOS v4.00 Released!]

Originally posted by benpark:

First of all thanks for this great utility.

Secondly-I was having a bit of trouble (before reading the instructions...), and tried starting from scratch after trashing my original CMMOS folder (I did back up all of the Rulesets etc. for my CMBO CMMOS). Now I cannot get it back up-I get a message that reads:

"Took exception while attempting to read CMMOS Path from Registry"

I also can't seem to get the setup to run through completely to the point where it shows up as an installed program.

Any ideas on a remedy? I am pretty PC illiterate, I use a Mac for everything but games, so please speak slowly and loudly...

(I'm running under the harsh taskmaster Windows ME)

I would suggest re-installing CMMOS which should clear up the registry problem. Then, if you are still having trouble, you can e-mail me a description of the problem and a copy of the file CMMOSLog.txt form the CMMOS install folder.

Please e-mail to "gordonemolek@poboxes.com".

Thanks,

Gordon

[For those having trouble with CMMOS 4.00]

Originally posted by theike:

Have the **** installed, and now downloaded the rules for the 3rdtime......please dear god, let it work this time and not all disappear again!!!!

Where has my cmbb game gone to?

isnt it ns not to be ablle to play?

must say...great cmmos

theike,

I don't quite understand your post. Can you please e-mail me at "gordonemolek@poboxes.com" with a copy of the file "CMMOSLog.txt" located in the CMMOS install folder and a description of the problem(s) you are having and I'll try to address them.

Thanks,

Gordon

[For those having trouble with CMMOS 4.00]

Originally posted by SaTyR:

My OS is Windows 2000 Pro (with SP3).

When I placed the mod zips in ...\cmmos\cmbb\mods, added the rulesets and the mods in CMMOS (the preview images were shown at this point), it never gave me the options on the mod selection screen, I alt+tabbed, went to ...\cmmos\cmbb\mods and manually examined the mod zips... they were all EMPTY. And by empty I mean they had a size informed in the description but when tried unpacking nothing showed inside. Went back to the CMMOS, tried viewing the mods again and the previews were gone too (I could remove the mods but couldn't then add them back, for the zips were EMPTY). I am no guru so I do not know what causes this on my (and by the posts here, some of yours) system, but the problem for me is minimal, just re-downloaded the zips and relocated them to a different folder (aptly named modzips... clever me ) and PRESTO ! everything works just fine.

And I repeat, I'm no guru, but I've worked with PC systems from the days your main OS was DOS, so I just tried again, tried different solutions and came up with a way that works (for me), didn't feel the need to start the umphteenth HELP! of ANGRY! thread about it. Can see how modem users and PPL used to modern PC "plug&pray" tech might get a bit upset tho' (this rant brought to you by: "Nerves: tell me why to bumb the FAQ thread again just for it to descent back to the oblivion because of idiotic whiney threads").

Glad to see you intended the ...\cmmos\cmbb\mods folder to work the way I first tried to use it and glad that on some PPLs OS it does. I't doesn't on mine for some reason and just wanted to give a warning or an advice to those having problems like me. Thanks again for the CMMOS 4.0, it's great now that I got it working.

I'll find out if any of the CMMOS testers have Windows 2000 Pro so they can try to reproduce this. There might be a difference between how the various Windows OSes handle these sorts of file locking issues.

Gordon

[For those having trouble with CMMOS 4.00]

Originally posted by Leutnant Hortlund:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Gordon:

Leutnant Hortlund,

You placed the mods in the CMBB mod sub-folder?

Please e-mail me at "gordonemolek@poboxes.com" as I'd like to completely understand what happened.

Thanks,

Gordon

I'll answer here instead since I cant access my mail from work.

After I installed CM2, I created my own folder inside the CM2 folder. I thought it would be convinient to have all mods in one place. I named this new folder "mods". During the past weeks I've downloaded all mods into this "mods"-folder. I have kept all the zip files there (including the 250+Meg realcolor mod).

So, anyway. I downloaded the cmmos file, together with all the mods that are avaliable at the cmhq-site. I also downloaded all those "rule sets".

Ok, so now everything is inside my "mods"-folder inside my "cm2"-folder.

Next I decide to install cmmos, so I run the .exe-file. I can see how it unpacks alot of zip files. "Good" I think.

Next thing I get an error message. I dunno exactly what it said. I figure "ok, I'll just try that again". But my "mods"-folder is empty. Everything is gone, all zip-files, all txt-files and that cmmos.exe file.

"Hoorayy" I think.

No worries though, Im sitting on broadband at home, so it will only take an hour or two to download all that stuff again.

Regards

Steve</font>

[For those having trouble with CMMOS 4.00]

Originally posted by General Tacticus:

Just one problem....

...I've successfully installed and used various "pigpen" mods - no problem there (so, I seem to know what I'm doing )...however, while I can install the rule set and mods for the "Winterfarhzeuge, dunkelgrau", CMMOS does not create any buttons for me to use the mods...

here is a excerpt from the log

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">WARNING: Key file "53470.txt" has an invalid extension

WARNING: Key file "57240_ww.txt" has an invalid extension</pre>

A couple of .bmp's need renaming, perhaps??

[For those having trouble with CMMOS 4.00]

On the great "Done/Apply" debate by jKMkIII and Lt. Bull:

It's that way because that's the way it is.

I thought that "Apply" is pretty indicative of the function of the button. The window doesn't automatically close in case you change your mind and want to select a different option.

Gordon

[For those having trouble with CMMOS 4.00]

Originally posted by Lt Bull:

Gordon,

The file is it's way.

I can see that having CMMOS "remember" what has been installed could be tricky given that different buttons can change the same BMP.

Now I can't say exactly how CMMOS works, but I would imagine that it might be possible to use an "installed mods log file" that gets updated whenever a certain "FileList" type relating to a certain mod is called up and accessed when a user clicks on the button in CMMOS. When this occurs, the name of the mod that is being installed is put into a "slot" on the "installed mods log file" relating to THAT particular "FileList" type. If there is the name of a previous mod in the slot, it can be either deletd and replaced, or simply moved down the list and the new name added to "active" slot position (so as to retain a complete install history).

The program could then scan the "installed mods log file" and read what mod had been installed for each "FileList" type (if any). This could then perhaps trigger a format change to that particular mod button in CMMOS to show it in a highlighted colour (indicating that it was the LAST mod installed to have exclusively accessed the complete "FileList" type for that vehicle/terrain etc.

Just a half assed idea of something I don't really know too much about. Any sense in it?

Lt Bull

Lt Bull,

Ah, but here's the problem. Since CMMOS inherited and expanded on the old batch file system that was first used for switching options for mods, CMMOS doesn't really know/care that much about "mods". It processes "rules" which are just instructions to rename/manipulate BMPs. Those BMPs can span multiple "mods."

I'm constantly thinking about ways to enhance CMMOS, and I'll certainly add this to the pile, but there's a lot of ideas competing for my limited (spare) programming time.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Gordon

[What is CMMOS and should I get it?]

CMMOS is "CM Mod Option Selector". It is a utility that allows swapping different mods and different options for mods (e.g., unit markings, aerial recognition panels, etc.) with a couple of clicks of the mouse. A rule-set is the CMMOS terminology for a group of related mods (e.g., Dirty Grey German Vehicles", "Winter Soviet Vehicles", "Buildings", etc.

I believe it's a useful tool, but then again, I could be biased.

Gordon

[For those having trouble with CMMOS 4.00]

Originally posted by Lt Bull:

Gordon,

As I have said, I have conducted what appears to be the same "test" as you (having the rule-sets and mods originate in the "GEM Software Productions\Cm Mod Option Selector\CMBB\Mods" folder) but had the issues I described.

I am using Win XP Home (SP1).

Just another question on CMMOS. From what I gather, you can not use CMMOS to check what MOD is actually installed (if any) in your current CMBB or CMBO setup. This would be a very good feature. Is there any chance that such a feature could be incorporated into CMMOS. IIRC, I remember using a similar mod manager program for EAW and it was able to "remember" and display what mod set was currently installed.

Lt Bull

Yes, we've definitely got a discrepency here somewhere. I believe several members of the test team have tried CMMOS on Windows XP. If you could try to repeat the experiment and e-mail me a copy of the CMMOSLog.txt file from the CMMOS install folder that might be helpful.

"gordonemolek@poboxes.com"

Regarding CMMOS "remembering" which mod options have been applied, that's problematic. Given that several different Icons/buttons can cause changes to the same BMP, it's not as simple as it would seem. In fact, CM Mod Manager also tended to lose track of which mods were actually applied if you applied mods individually.

It's something I'll continue pondering, however.

Thanks,

Gordon

[CMMOS Question..]

Originally posted by bob9017:

Got the CMMOS 4.0 and followed all directions for the rulesets and then got almost all the current mods. However the Pig Pen mods are not showing up in the proper tab. The Russian mods show up OK.

Anyone else noticed this.

May have done something wrong but don't think so.

Please e-mail a copy of the file CMMOSLog.txt from your CMMOS install folder to "gordonemolek@poboxes.com" and I'll take a look.

Thanks,

Gordon

[For those having trouble with CMMOS 4.00]

Originally posted by Lt Bull:

Still, it seems unusual that if you manually put them there yourself (and then tell CMMOS that they are located there), they will not work with CMMOS.

Lt Bull,

It is designed to work that way, and it does work that way on my system. I also just verified that I could install a rule-set and then a mod when both were in the mods folder, so that doesn't seem to be an issue.

One question for the people who seem to be having problems, what OS are you running?

Thanks,

Gordon

[For those having trouble with CMMOS 4.00]

Old Dog is correct in that the CMMOS Mods folder is where CMMOS stores the mods that have been installed (as well as the configuration information for the installed mods and the backed-up BFC textures from mods that have been applied).

I can honestly say that I've never tried putting a rule-set zip in the mods folder, but I can try it to see if that might be what is causing the problem.

Gordon