Gordon

One of the basic intents of McMMM was that it would be able to sensibly install BMPs and WAVs from all Mods that are out there. As far as I know, it does this. I would love to take a look at a CMMOS-compatible Mod that someone feels McMMM can't sensibly handle... maybe CMMOS has moved up a notch in complexity since I looked at it last? Cheers, GaJ. </font>

Ok, here's a sneak peek at my long term, "from scratch" King Tiger project. As you can see, there's plenty of Kwazy Dog's original art work that I haven't replaced yet, and plenty of fiddly-bits left to do on the BMPs that I have worked on. I hope to have it completed sometime before CMx2 ships. Gordon [ December 20, 2003, 08:55 PM: Message edited by: Gordon ]

I couldn't agree more. The stock textures in CMAK are fantastic (I love the Hetzer and there are several "exotic" camo schemes I'd love to apply to it), and especially if one considers how long Fernando and Kwazy could afford to spend on each vehicle in order to get all the vehicles into the game. Modders can afford to take orders of magnitude more time on their mods and many don't end up the equal of the original vehicles. Enjoy the game for awhile before you run off and start modding it. The only reasons you'll be seeing the FlaKtrack mods from Marco and me, and the Caunter Matildas is that they were in progress as part of CMAK development. Gordon

GaJ, I don't think you understood the point of my post. McMMM can not claim to install/support/handle CMMOS mods unless it supports all the features of CMMOS mods. Otherwise, the CMMOS mod(s) installed by McMMM may not be fully functional, and the mod user won't know it's broken until things look screwed up in-game (in which case they may end up blaming the mod's creator for the problem). Granted, McMMM can support the simplest, most basic of CMMOS mods, but those are the kinds of mods that don't require the power of CMMOS. So, please continue to advertise the simplicity and ease of use of McMMM, and add features/functionality as you see fit to address the needs and concerns of the users of McMMM and I wish you the very best of luck in your endeavor. Few people realize how much time and effort people freely give to create 3rd party software and mods for the Combat Mission family of games. However, I believe it causes too much confusion and does a diservice to the mod community when you and others state that McMMM can handle/support/install CMMOS mods when it really can't, because, as you say, in order to do so, you'd have to re-invent CMMOS in order to support all of it's features. Gordon

GaJ, I'm curious. Does McMMM support overlay mods? Can McMMM support installing the same set of options across multiple mods? What about application of Conditional, Advanced and Exact rules? CMMOS is about more than just slapping and removing suffixes off of BMPs. The supposed complexity of CMMOS and file lists and rule sets was not created by me out of a perverse whim, but rather, was created to support a certain set of features desired by the mod creator/mod user community at the time (CMBO). You see back in the day (CMBO), due to texture sharing among different units in game, simply installing a mod for 1 vehicle could impact the graphics of several different vehicles (the US and British Shermans is a prime example with their shared turrets). Also, there were a lot of unit-specific mods (e.g., British Guards Armoured Division, German 15th Panzer Division) that become a little tedious when you have to apply the same mod option separately to 15 different vehicle mods and 3 separate infantry mods. CMMOS was designed to push some of the complexity of dealing with such difficult, complex decisions off of the mod user and onto the mod creator, giving the mod user simple push buttons and menus to select the various different options that mods supported. So, good luck with McMMM, which seems like it's becoming popular, but please do not claim to support CMMOS mods until you can support ALL CMMOS mods. At which time, I'll be happy to remove CMMOS from the community as irrelevant. Gordon Molek

Rob, CMAK, CMBB and CMBO. Gordon

Michael, Yes, I am retired. At least I think I'm the Gordon who retired. It's possible that I'm not actually him, but am really a replicant placed on Earth by the evil galactic empire to undermine the modding community. If so, I'll always miss myself, as I thought I was a pretty swell guy. But anyway, for the sake of argument, let's assume that I am actually me. Yes, I am still retired. Compared to the time I was spending on CMMOS, modding and helping other modders, it was a full time job. Now I just dabble occasionally (the Matilda was done for CMBB, and just recolored), and Marco took my rough sketch of the FlaK halftracks and really made them a sight to behold. I'm actually still fiddling with a from scratch King Tiger for CMBB, but it's going very slowly as I can't work on it 8 hours a day (more like 8 hours per month). But anyway, enough about me. Here's another preview of Marco's exceptional FlaK guns, with improved, accurate gunshields. Gordon

Y'all may want to check out CMAK/CMBB/CMBO FlaK Halftracks mod for news on the upcoming Bergman-Molek Productions International mega mod. Gordon

Y'all may want to check out CMAK/CMBB/CMBO FlaK Halftracks mod for news on the upcoming Bergman-Molek Productions International mega mod. Gordon

Ok, the latest product from Bergman-Molek Productions International will feature the world's first CMAK/CMBB/CMBO mod. Yes, you guessed it, the long-suffering FlaK halftracks (and associated FlaK guns) have finally been given the deluxe treatment (well, Marco did the FlaK 37 and Quad 20mm before, but these are even improved over those), and the mods will be useable across all three games. First up, the dunkelgrau versions: Second, the desert versions: Third, how about sand over dunkelgrau? And finally, late war camouflaged. Also on the production line are my improved and updated "from scratch" Matilda II textures with caunter camouflage scheme. Of course, I can't do anything without going overboard, so you'll have several different styles to choose from. This one is designed to blend with the standard CMAK color scheme: The second is based on photographs of the Matilda II at Bovington: And the third is based on other historical sources (that I can't seem to find right now, but trust me) Don't worry, I've also got a caunter version of the captured Matilda II used by the Germans, so if you play the Germans you can still go waltzing in style. So, look for these at a mod site near you in the near future, and expect lots of bells and whistles when the CMMOS versions are released (once CMMOS for CMAK is available). Gordon (for Bergman-Molek Productions International) [ November 24, 2003, 07:15 PM: Message edited by: Gordon ]

The German's used a smokeless propellant in their shells, so there was less combustion residue, so German guns should be less black on the ends than Allied guns. I suspect that a lot of the apparent color difference (in black and white photos) could be attributed to the paint being worn by the barrel cleaning brushes. The blue or white wavy under-painting on the Firefly and Wolverine barrels is called counter-shading. When sunlight strikes the barrel of the gun it makes the top lighter and the bottom appear darker. By leaving the top painted dark and painting the bottom light, it reduces the contrast of the barrel and makes it less visable from a distance, hence making the barrel look like a normal 75mm barrel (or so the theory goes). It's why many prey animals are similarly dark on top and lighter below, in fact that's where the idea came from. Gordon

Andrew, The whole issue of who's had the first CMAK mod is currently tied up in the courts, and will probably take decades of litigation to untangle. Still in all, very nice work (as always). Gordon

Andrew, The whole issue of who's had the first CMAK mod is currently tied up in the courts, and will probably take decades of litigation to untangle. Still in all, very nice work (as always). Gordon

CMMOS has a fairly complete list of all BMPs and WAVs for both CM:BB and CM:BO. They're simple text files so you can read them with your favorite editor. Gordon

Isn't it "00000128.wav"? Gordon

As a public service, please see: this thread for a CMAK bone Gordon

Madmatt, Just a slight correction. Different gun. Jagdpanther: 88mm Pak 43/3 L/71 Panther: 75mm KwK 42 L/70 On the mis-identification side, same engine noise. And I see Michael beat me to it Gordon [ August 11, 2003, 11:12 AM: Message edited by: Gordon ]

Bogdan, Yes, you can change the resolution of a BMP, that's what the CMBO "high-res" mods were. You can even change the aspect ratio of a BMP if that helps you when modding, as the graphics engine stretches the image to fit the model. Gordon

Bogdan, Although I'm no expert artist, AFAIK, there is no way to completely remove the existing camouflage pattern from a BMP, let alone stripping off the zimmerit coating. Ideally, at least for the camouflage pattern, you'd be able to equalize the color and brightness of the image so that all the camouflage colors were equivalent and the pattern would disappear. It's just not possible in practice. The closest that can be done is to clone a blank patch onto the other colors, but you end up with a very patch-work looking end result and preserving all the details is a major pain. That's why most modders eventually transition to the "from scratch" mode of operation and start with a blank BMP and re-draw everything from hand. Of course one has to have a certain artistic capability to do so... Gordon

I just want to know how long those dudes on the right are going to be able to keep hiding in that last clump of snow before it all melts and they have to scrape off all that winter whitewash. Top-notch, exemplary work as usual. Gordon

Andrew, Very nice job as always. If you want ideas for a more weathered/faded looking flag, you can look at my "Der Schweinestall, Dunkel Grau" halftrack mods which include flag options. Gordon

Ok, you had me scared there for a minute. That white arrow BMP is actually an overlay BMP for CMMOS. What CMMOS does is take the full BMP and then cut-and-pastes the white arrow on top of the full BMP (it really can save a lot of space in CMMOS mods, but makes it harder for non-CMMOS users). Gordon

Andreas, You're welcome. "white front disappear" :confused: Gordon

Lee, They were released "way back in the day", along with Makjager's, Kwazy Dog's, John Tucker's and mike8g's JgdPz IV mods, so they might have gotten lost in the shuffle. I'll probably be releasing the "port" of my winter JgdPz IV as well. Gordon

FYI, I've uploaded a moldy oldy to CM Mod Database. It's a port to CMBB of my mono-color and hastily camouflaged JgdPz IV mods for CMBO. Besides the basic options, there's also plate versus mesh schurzen, zimmerit, steel road wheels and plated over bow MG port. If you enjoy it, you also owe a thank you to mike8g and Fernando as the original CMBO mod was based (in part) on their mods. Gordon