Schrullenhaft
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Posts posted by Schrullenhaft
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I've heard of issues like this before, but I don't know what causes it specifically. It's best to go back to the player that first generated a 1MB file and have them redo their turn (that resulted in a 1MB PBEM file) and see if they generate an appropriate sized file.
I assume that even if you do nothing, the files should still be fairly large. Make sure that the directory that the PBEM files get written into is 'whitelisted/excepted' within whatever security/anti-virus software you use, just in case it has truncated/messed up the file as it was being written. Such interference, with this type of result, should be extremely rare, but it would be worth doing just in case.
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The 'preferences.pfc' file is just the Preferences file that holds your settings such as those in the 'Options' menu and the last set of selections in a Quick Battle. To my knowledge the file will be created on a normal exit from the game. So run the game, checking the settings you want in the 'Options' menu and then exit the game. The file should get written. I don't think that the absence of this file would be causing your crashing.
On my main computer I run a GeForce 2070 Super with NOT the latest drivers, so that likely isn't the problem.
Some users have run into issues with Windows Defender (though most haven't), but I believe it will usually result in the game being unable to run AT ALL (being blocked from running). If you have another anti-virus/security program installed it will typically deactivate Windows Defender from running its active protection functionality (which is typically what interferes with programs).
Are there other games you've run on this computer for an hour or more that do NOT crash ? What I'm getting at is if there are any stability issues with your computer that CMSF2 may be bringing out. Usually CM will stress the CPU more than anything else. But with crashing related to hardware I would assume that the crash would bring down the whole computer/OS and not just the game alone.
Do you know what other programs may be running in the background ? Outside of some Nahimic sound control software I'm not particularly aware of any incompatible programs that interfere with CM.
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Are you looking at your 'order' in an email or are you looking at your Account online ? Both should include a link to the 'Sharefile' (hosting service) download of the game. The directions for finding the file are mentioned in my previous post in this thread.
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What file "downloaded" ? I'm not specifically aware of any update as of yet via Steam of CMSF2. Are there more details about the file that failed to "validate" via Steam ?
Is CMSF2 currently crashing after the reinstall (the '1-2 hour crashing to desktop') ? Were you able to run it for more than 2 hours in the past ? Do you know if you updated some drivers or something that may have changed about your computer since it wasn't crashing running CMSF2 ?
What anti-virus software do you run ? Sometimes 'disabling' it doesn't truly work (a number of anti-virus/security programs continue to do something when they are 'disabled'). Have you added any exceptions within the anti-virus software for the CMSF2 game directory and/or game executables ? Usually, though not always, you get a notification from your anti-virus software when it has shutdown a process that it thinks is a security threat. However when security/anti-virus software is a culprit in a game not running it usually results in the game not running at all or crashing immediately after launch.
Do you get a specific crash message when the game 'crashes to the desktop' or does it simply disappear with no message ? What videocard and drivers do you have installed ? I'm not specifically aware of any drivers that are incompatible, other than Intel integrated video drivers having occasional problems running the games (these will most often be encountered on laptops).
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I believe that would be the case once a 5.0 Upgrade comes out.
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With the latest 'Upgrade' installer it is typically assumed that you will need to provide the license key for that particular upgrade and the previous one. So in the case of the 4.0 Upgrade you would need the 4.0 AND the 3.0 Upgrade license keys. The exception to this depends on when you purchased the base game and what version was released at the time of purchase. So if you purchased CMBN and the 3.0 version was current, then your BASE GAME license key is version 3.0 and you would need that AND the 4.0 Upgrade license key if you are to use the latest installer. If you purchased the CMBN base game and 4.0 was the current release at the time, then your CMBN base game license key is sufficient to use the latest installer (a 3.0 Upgrade key would be unnecessary in this situation).
Uninstalling and reinstalling the games should NOT make the license key activations disappear. As long as the OS remains the same (i.e. - not reinstalled from scratch) and your hardware remains fairly the same (some hardware upgrades will trip the copy protection system - especially if there are a number of them at the same time or cumulatively). So uninstalling a game completely and reinstalling it should NOT require relicensing the games/modules. If the reinstallation includes new content (an Upgrade or a module, etc.), then you would need to activate the appropriate license key to see that new content. Otherwise it is present, but unusable. With Upgrades though, you'll need to activate that new license key to play the game at all (since the all-in-one installer will now be based on that particular Upgrade).
The full installers simply make it easier to distribute the game with all of the content and the latest patches. So there is no painful reinstallation of the games in any particular order (which confused a lot of people when it came to a game like CMBN). In CMBN's case if you purchased the Commonwealth module after having updated the game to the 3.0 Upgrade, then you would have to REAPPLY several patches and Upgrades all over again to get back where you were previously, but with the Commonwealth content now available (whereas before it wasn't present at all). There was also confusion as to what patches were necessary and which ones were a 'rollup' that included everything before it. Customers would be missing .BRZ files if they didn't get all of the correct patches installed. The all-in-one installers do away with this problem.
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Correct. CMBS and CMFB do NOT have a 3.0 Upgrade. Both games were Engine 3.0 at release. So only the 'base game' license key is necessary to get them working, if you have installed just the original game. If you have installed the 4.0 all-in-one installer, then it should need both the 'base game' AND the '4.0 Upgrade' license key to get it running.
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I made my purchase of the 3.0 Upgrade around October 2014. I can't recall if I was a little late to that release (i.e. - it had been released earlier than that).
I believe CMBS and CMFB were originally released as Engine 3 games and thus only had the 4.0 Upgrade. With CMBN, CMFI and CMRT they had 3.0 Upgrades and would need those license keys too if you were doing a fresh install of the 4.0 Upgrade 'all-in-one' installer.
So:
CMBS, CMFB: Base game license key + 4.0 Upgrade license key
CMBN, CMFI, CMRT: Upgrade 3.0 license key + Upgrade 4.0 license key
This licensing should get the games to run the 'base game' content. Modules and Packs would, obviously, also need their license keys activated for them to work.
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If you have the 4.0 Upgrade for CMFI, just download that link (the 'all-in-one installer'). It will simplify things quite a bit.
I can't recall exactly what version 1.20 is. I would think it is Game Engine 3.0, but I'm not sure. The original base game for CMFI is Engine 2.0, so there are 3.0 and 4.0 Upgrades for it. If you purchased CMFI at release, then you would need the 3.0 and 4.0 Upgrade license keys to activate your new install fully (for the base game). R2V should require the 4.0 Upgrade to run (2.10). The latest patch/version is 2.11.
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Uninstalling and reinstalling with the full installers should NOT require you to reactivate any of those games and modules that you have already activated. For example, if you delete your install CMRT and reinstall it with the full installer that includes the Fire and Rubble module, you should be able to just run the 'Activate New Products' shortcut to activate the Fire and Rubble module and you should be good to go. You should NOT need to activate any other license keys.
However if you're installing on a new computer (for the first time) or you have significantly upgraded your computer with different hardware (CPU, motherboard, possibly the video card, etc.), then you WILL need to activate with all of the license keys again. A reinstallation of your OS can also trigger the need to reactivate.
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35 minutes ago, Erwin said:
If I purchased the 4.0 upgrade I need to enter the 3.0 upgrade code (not a 4.0 upgrade code)??
You will need BOTH. This will be true for CMFI (which had 3.0 and 4.0 Upgrades). CMBS and CMFB were originally released as 3.0 Engines, so the base game license key and the 4.0 Upgrade license key will be necessary for them.
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The Warsaw Pact officially disbanded in mid-1991. The Soviet Union itself dissolved at the end of that year.
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1 hour ago, Erwin said:
Hmm... With my own install problems on a new computer, did we try that?? I thought that the "full install" download included all the upgrades. But, I can't recall if I entered an upgrade license key. (And aren't we on 4.0 Upgrade??)
If your purchase of the base game occurred AFTER the 4.0 Upgrade was released, then you only need that base game license key. If you purchased the 4.0 Upgrade, then you would also need either the 3.0 Upgrade or the base game license key (if your purchase of the base game was AFTER the 3.0 Upgrade was released). This just confirms that you're using the 4.0 Upgrade legitimately (i.e. - you have purchased the base game before and NOT just the 4.0 Upgrade, which costs less).
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Do you need the '3.0 Upgrade' license key to get it fully working ?
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So the issue you're running into with the CMBN install is that it doesn't bring up the activation window and therefore you're not seeing any of the modules ?
I'm not sure why the game would come up without bringing up the activation window (especially on a new computer that never had the game installed and activated on it before). Have you tried launching the 'Activate New Products' shortcut (which you may have to find within the main CMBN game directory) ? Activate with the 3.0 or 4.0 Upgrade license key (or the base game license key if you purchased a 4.0 version of CMBN). Hopefully this works and you can see the 'success screen' with the green boxes listing what has been successfully activated so far. You would need the following license keys for a 4.0 install of CMBN with everything (though 'bundles' may provide more than one activation with a single license key):
3.0 Upgrade
4.0 Upgrade
Commonwealth module
Market Garden module
Battle Pack
Vehicle Pack
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Unfortunately there is NO way to scale the UI or text. They are all fixed-size bitmaps that will not independently scale from resolution.
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9 minutes ago, Artkin said:
Perhaps it is just CMBN being less efficient than the newer games, which is certainly a thing.
If the games are all on the same engine, then this isn't really a thing. The difference will typically be in the complexity of the map and what is on it. On average a CMBN map is likely to have a lot of foliage and possibly a number of buildings, while a CMSF2 map may have a lot of open ground with some buildings spread around (or in a built up area). Buildings in CM are definitely frame-rate killers.
An Intel integrated video (or almost any 'integrated video') is likely to lag with larger maps. There are fewer 'cores/execution units' and a much lower memory bandwidth with the Intel integrated video compared to a dedicated video card/GPU. This memory bandwidth is noticeable when it comes to moving textures around on screen, which is what is happening when you're scrolling around a map in CM.
When it comes to playing CM I DEFINITELY recommend getting a decent video card. If it is the only game that you play, then you don't need to spend a lot of money on getting the very best since the performance difference between a mid-ranged video card and a high-level enthusiast card in CM probably won't justify the price difference. A new game engine may change that in the future (a few years from now, possibly), but the current game engine really won't see that significant of a difference. So a RTX 2060 would likely suffice for many users and a RTX 3080 would generally be overkill. However prices on video cards right now are insane with so many being used for crypto-currency mining. A GeForce GTX 1660 would also be good, but even prices for those are really high. If necessary you can go all the way down to a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or 1650 and you should have fairly decent performance. I would consider a plain GTX 1050 as probably the lowest you should go on the Nvidia side. You start getting into models that lack memory bandwidth and it will show while playing CM. On the AMD Radeon side I would go with a RX 560 (as a minimum) or better.
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Do you know if your laptop has a 'discrete GPU/video' ? Most laptops using Intel CPUs will typically be using the built-in Intel GPU (on the CPU), but some laptops have a dedicated ('discrete') video chip/GPU (often Nvidia GeForce, but possibly AMD) which provides MUCH better performance than the Intel GPU. Often CM games may actually run on the Intel GPU even if one of these dedicated GPUs exists in the laptop since the drivers may not detect that the game could benefit from the dedicated GPU. In this situation typically adding a 'profile' within the GPU driver's control panel for the game will often get it running on the GPU rather than the Intel video. With Windows 10 there is a control panel option to tell programs what video chip to run with (outside of the GPU's control panel). However a vast majority of laptops out there typically only have the Intel/integrated video/GPU.
I don't have a specific build recommendation, but the following guidelines should work well:
CM benefits the most from a fast CPU. For a majority of its tasks it will mostly only use a single core, so more cores don't really help it (at least with current versions of the games). So get the fastest CPU you can reasonably afford with good 'base' and 'turbo' clock speeds. I'm not specifically aware if Intel or AMD works better with CM. Intel tends to have a somewhat lower memory latency in their CPUs than the AMDs, but either manufacturer should work fine with the game.
Nvidia GPUs tend to do the best with the CM series. AMD drivers usually work well in most situations, but the game still loads a bit slower with AMD GPUs. The amount of video RAM (VRAM) that the video card has shouldn't be too much of a big deal. Some people who may load up a lot of graphics mods might push some video memory setups, but anything with 2GB or more should be absolutely fine.
The CM series are 32-bit games, so they don't directly benefit from memory over 4GB. The game is 'large address aware', so it will technically use up to 3GB of memory/address space. 8 or 16GB of RAM would be fine for most systems (though, again, the game won't use those larger amounts). Anything above that would only benefit other programs or general use of the computer. Windows does utilize unused RAM in a caching mechanism, so sometimes more RAM could help general performance if you run a lot of apps, etc.
SSDs will be common for most computers and the games will typically benefit a little during loading and game saves, but other than that they typically won't affect CM's performance.
You will probably hear/read a number of posters complaining about video performance in the game, low frame-rates, mediocre shadows, etc. The current CM series utilizes the OpenGL 2.x API for programming graphics. This was the current/newest version of OpenGL at the time the game engine was originally designed (2003 - 2007). There have been some improvements over the years, but the game engine still primarily utilizes OpenGL 2.x which involves the CPU a lot when drawing the screen. Newer, 'faster' video cards may only marginally improve the speed of the graphics in game. So the latest and greatest video cards will not miraculously improve the speed of the game's graphics. However most video cards should be a significant improvement over the Intel integrated video/GPUs (they have more memory 'bandwidth' and 'processing cores' than the Intel built-in GPUs).
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31 minutes ago, IMHO said:
Since I changed my preferences to system processes it's not anymore.
What exactly did you change ? Have all of these settings been reversed to what they were originally or just some of them ?
Typically the most notable difference between running on the Intel integrated graphics and a discrete GPU was the text quality in the initial menus. These will usually be splotchy and somewhat blurred by the routines in the Intel drivers (texture compression or anti-aliasing, I don't know what). I don't know if all Intel drivers experience this issue or not (it might not happen on Macs), but it is often a quick indicator of running on Intel graphics.
Once inside the game I'm not sure how much of a difference there may be in 'draw distance' between the Intel and discrete GPU. There likely may be very little difference between the two (despite the obvious advantages that a discrete GPU may have). Did you notice a difference in the past before you made the changes to the system ?
When you measure load on the GPU, do you do it with a dual display setup or do you minimize the game to view the measurements ? Are you using the Task Manager or some other app to measure load ?
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3 minutes ago, IMHO said:
It's irrelevant IMO. For a vehicle to be fired upon even simple gunner's target acquisitions and decision to fire would take seconds so an average ATGM speed would suffice.
Correct. Spotting and target acquisition would be the more common difference between victor and vanquished rather than actual missile speed (in an ATGM vs. ATGM engagment). But a bullet or small caliber gun shell can be quicker than many of these man-portable ATGMs and a long flight time for the missile can be interrupted by some quick spotting infantry or IFVs, etc.
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As a guess, I believe that missile speed is modeled in the game. So there's a mild possibility that a faster ATGM could knock out the gunner for a slower ATGM and disrupt the guidance of that missile. SACLOS was the dominant guidance type for ATGMs of this period, but I don't know how distinct the modeling is on the various systems, other than their imaging (thermal/IR or optical).
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These are PATCHES that require a copy of the game to be already installed. If you want the All-in-one installer for each game you will need to go into your ACCOUNT. Login from the main Battlefront page (upper right) > 'My Orders' link > look for the order that has your latest version of the game (reviewing each order by clicking the 'Click to view' link); this can be either a fairly recent purchase of any of the games or (most likely) the 4.0 Upgrade for each game. This will have the link to the all-in-one installer for that game. If you didn't purchase a 4.0 Upgrade for a game, then the 3.0 Upgrades typically should have the fully patch 3.x version of the game. Anything earlier than this will NOT have an all-in-one installer. Typically you shouldn't need to patch or install anything else for the game, all patches and modules (if there are any) should be included in this installer.
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Per this Wikipedia article on the Semovente da 47/32 the HQ tanks had additional radios and an 8mm Breda MG that is disguised as the 47mm. I'm not looking at CMFI at the moment to see what the actual model and specs are in the game, so I'm unsure of CMFI's depiction in this case.
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... and another post, to mostly satisfy my occasional OCD about such matters and beat a dead horse about wishes for this game.
My prognostication on possible future modules in the European theater (modified from my original post to suggest a model that would work with the game licensing):
1. Update TOE for US/Soviets to '91 (now '79 - '91). Include US Airborne and Soviet VDV ('79 - '91 TOE), these formations/units would be unique to this module (along with the US '83 - '91 TOE). Add winter textures for terrain and units (base game and 1st module).
Future modules would have a TOE from '79 - '91 for their respective additions, have corresponding winter textures and include/activate the expanded Soviet TOE to '91 that originally came in the first module. This would satisfy the requirement that modules don't have content that require anything beyond the base game.
2. West Germany / East Germany
3. Britain (BAOR) / Poland / Czechoslovakia
4. Canada / Netherlands / Belgium / Denmark / Austria (?)
Modules that would probably be unlikely to be made, but would be cool if they did show up:
5. France
6. Italy / Yugoslavia / Romania / Hungary
7. Norway / Finland / USMC / Sweden (?)
8. Turkey / Greece / Bulgaria
Modules that would be HIGHLY unlikely to be made, but could possibly be 'constructed' by modders to some extent, assuming the first four modules listed above are actually made:
9. Gulf War '91 (though the data wouldn't match for the Iraqi export versions)
10. Iran - Iraq War '80 - '88 (same as above regarding 'export' models and Iranian customizations along with an inaccurate small arms list)
11. India - Pakistan War '71 (probably too far of a stretch and would still lack quite a few units - assuming Centurions ever make it in)
The Arab-Israeli wars ('67 - '82... earlier conflicts may be too much work) would seem to need enough additional models and weapons data that it probably would require a Battlefront-created module to do it any justice. However past statements by Steve suggest that they wouldn't want to touch such content due to the negative politics that can surround such subject matter (even if they are only historical conflicts).
I have no clue as to what may actually be possible when it comes to further content for this game. It has unfortunately taken Battlefront much longer than expected to create modules for many of their games and the same situation can easily (and quite likely) repeat here. The 'Fire and Rubble' module for CMRT should be released BEFORE CMCW gets released (in my estimation), while work on the final module for CMFB and CMBS would be on the table in this time frame. However with the 'sandbox/non-historical' nature of this particular game, some content may be easier to produce (scenarios and campaigns) and the TOEs may be easier to research (to a certain extent).
PBEM turns not generating correctly for large battles
in CM2 General Tech Support
Posted · Edited by Schrullenhaft
Incorrect bug reporting info.
So to recap; you were able to generate one or more turns successfully, by going back to the last valid PBEM file (50MB or so in size), but you have now experienced the same problem with the 1MB PBEM files, correct ?
Though it may not resolve anything, try again (with the ORIGINAL last good 50MB file your opponent generated). However this time both you and your opponent should issue NO NEW ORDERS when it is your turn to do so. See if the files maintain their size or again drop back down to the 1MB invalid files. If this has worked (the files are now back to the proper size), then issue the new orders, but keep track of EXACTLY what new orders you issue and to what units. Both you and your opponent will need to do this. If the problem returns then we can submit a bug report which would have the following:
1) Specs of each computer (OS/Windows version, CPU, memory, video card, video driver version).
2) The PBEM files, to include the first batch with the last good file and then the next file that was bad and then the second batch with its last good and first bad file.
3) A list (from each opponent) of the orders they issued right before the files went bad.
4) Both passwords for the PBEM game.
This is a bit tedious, but it may help find whatever may be the bug. The more we can document to consistently reproduce the bug, the greater likelihood that the problem can actually be addressed. I'll try to reproduce (with your files) what you've experienced with a clean (un-modded) install of the latest version of CMBS (what you have) and then report it to the bug-tracking system if I reproduce the problem. When it will get looked at I wouldn't know. Right now Charles is quite busy with the pending releases and other programming chores and I don't know his workflow of when he looks at the bug reports to resolve them.