Madmatt

Just an update guys, I have added 40 more pics to that gallery! Check them out! I had to change the original 21 image names so you will want to update your image links above. Madmatt

To go along with the video we released last week, we have tasked our new Battlefront Combat Photographer (flintlock) to take some new screenshots of the Battle for Moscow Add-on in action. Check out the 61 new screenshots from our Pics, Videos and Wallpapers Page. ToW Gallery Madmatt [ June 19, 2007, 10:50 AM: Message edited by: Madmatt ]

I know, its not the patch itself, but 1C prepared a short little video showing off some of the enhancements in the upcoming patch. Features covered in this video are the new vehicle reverse movement behavior, more dynamic handling of orders, the addition of movement waypoints and lastly new gamespeed options. Right now, its only on YouTube, but other sites will be picking up the video soon and I will add them to the server list. Theatre of War Video Gallery Madmatt

I know, its not the patch itself, but 1C prepared a short little video showing off some of the enhancements in the upcoming patch. Features covered in this video are the new vehicle reverse movement behavior, more dynamic handling of orders, the addition of movement waypoints and lastly new gamespeed options. Right now, its only on YouTube, but other sites will be picking up the video soon and I will add them to the server list. Theatre of War Video Gallery Madmatt

You guysa might be instrested in reading the latest sticky post by SIO on the topic of modding. Madmatt

No actually we can't get that specific as to the date. Testing continues though as I have detailed in some other forum posts. Madmatt

Tom, Originally we thought we could release the add-on separate from the patch, but in order to add support for new campaigns (like the Battle for Moscow campaign) it is now necessary to release the patch and addon together. Total file size is (at the moment) about 200 megs but that amount could still go down or even up. Madmatt

As we get closer to the release date more and more vehicles and models are now ready to be shown off. Check out the new 32 pictures detailing vehicles such as the BMP-1, BRDM-2, BRDM-2 ATGM and other variants of the main Stryker vehicle. Combat Mission: Shock Force Screenshot Galleries In addition to these exciting new pictures, we have also been updating the Combat Mission: Shock Force Blog with lots of updated game info. Recent blog posts included topics such as: Overview of Stryker varients Overview of select Syrian Armored Vehicles Ovewrview of Unconventional Warfare in CM:SF

I can say some good stuff. The current patch we are testing was made using a new compiler. The updated compiler, so far, is exhibiting increased performance on multi-core and hyper threading CPU's. For example, for one tester with a AMD 64 bit CPU, he is noticing substantial performance increases across the board. Testing with other CPU types continues. Madmatt

We are currently testing a new patch version that was prepared by 1c late last week. The new patchwas assembled using a newly updated compiler which should result in increased performance and stability for multicore CPU's. Already, testers with AMD 64 bit chips have noticed increases in speed across the board. Mission play balancing and testing is also going on. I have no firm date for release of this patch as yet but I am considering releasing a "beta" patch if it looks like it will take too much longer. I will have more info later this week on that idea and other patch details. Madmatt

Its a holiday in Russia today and tomorrow so you won't be hearing anything from them until later this week, but we received a new internal test version last week (version 1.3.0.56) and are currently testing with it. The biggest change with this version is that it was assembled with an updated compiler. The main benefit of this new compiler should be increased performance and stability for various CPU's. Our testers with AMD 64 bit CPU's have noticed nice speed increases. Testing with other CPU's is continuing. As to the patch release date, I only ever said we would TRY and get it out by the end of May, but once that looked like it wouldn't happen, I said as much. Sorry that post was missed by some people but this patch will not be released until I feel it is ready, and as of right now, it aint ready, but it's feeling close. If it looks like it going to be too much longer though, I may go ahead and release a beta patch to the public, although for a lot of reasons, I hope I wont have to do that as they can sometimes cause more headaches then to just wait and release an official patch. Lets see how far we get with testing this week and then I will re-address that possibility. Madmatt

I have read this thread and I haven't said NO yet have I? Not sure what 1C might say though, it is their code afterall...Give me some time to 'broach' the subject with them.... They are Russian afterall... Word of advice, don't use words like "crack" and "hack" though... Madmatt [ June 07, 2007, 03:36 PM: Message edited by: Madmatt ]

I dont know you1, i have a x850Xt card and never get lockups so i dont think thats the issue. What type of CPU do you have? Madmatt

We are working on stability improvements with multiplayer in the first patch and those improvements will continue in subsequent patches as well. You might notice better results by unchecking smooth unit movement though and try a slower speed (even if your on a LAN). Madmatt

You hvae a Nvidia video card, please review my Troubleshooting Guide for some tweaks that might improve performance. http://www.battlefront.com/products/tow/troubleshooting.html#performance_tweaks Madmatt

When you placed the order, you also got the license code sent to you (its the same code you used to authroize the download). Just save that code somewhere. You can have the game *installed* on as many computers as you want, but you can only have it licensed (and playable) on two at a time. Madmatt

That's certainly a fair question. There are two main reasons that its not being released right this moment. #1 The new Battle for Moscow 10 mission campaign (which it looks like we will just package with the patch) is still being play tested and balanced. #2 I want to try and stick as much as I can into the first patch, but I won't delay it unnecessarily. Madmatt

Just a quickie update, the patch is still being worked on so it won't be out for this weekend. We are trying to get at least *some* multi-core optimizations into the first patch, but this may not appear until subsequent patches. Final determination and approval on the patch contents will probably be made next week with a release following *soon* after. I can't define how "SOON", soon will be though. The patch, as is adds, some nice new features and fixes (LOS tweaks, waypoints, better AI behavior etc...) but I really wanted to see some performance improvements across the board, but those might not be able to get into this first patch. Hopefully I will have more details next week on where things stand. Madmatt

Just a quickie update, the patch is still being worked on so it won't be out for this weekend. We are trying to get at least *some* multi-core optimizations into the first patch, but this may not appear until subsequent patches. Final determination and approval on the patch contents will probably be made next week with a release following *soon* after. I can't define how "SOON", soon will be though. The patch, as is adds, some nice new features and fixes (LOS tweaks, waypoints, better AI behavior etc...) but I really wanted to see some performance improvements across the board, but those might not be able to get into this first patch. Hopefully I will have more details next week on where things stand. Madmatt

I think you might be the same guy I am working on in email, but you asked where to find the Nvidia drivers, you can do so here: http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp Also, with that Nvidia card, be sure and do the following as detailed in my troubleshooting guide (located here: http://www.battlefront.com/products/tow/troubleshooting.html) #1. Obviously the first thing to do is make sure you have the very latest video, sound and DirectX software installed on your computer. Here are links for some of these files. For Nvidia Video Cards, go here for the latest drivers http://www.nvidia.com/page/home.html For ATI Video Cards, go here for the latest drivers http://ati.amd.com/ For the latest version of Microsoft DirectX 9.0c (April 2007 update), go here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en #2. For those with newer Nvidia cards (and possibly older ones as well), some people have had success by selecting "Extension Limit" to OFF in their Nvidia control panel. This option only seems to appear in the newest Nvidia drivers and for certain video cards. #3. In addition to the Extension Limit setting, some people have reported performance increases can also occur by setting the "Threaded optimization" to OFF and Triple Buffering to ON for Nvidia cards. Your results may vary. #4. Make sure your video card is power enough to run the game. In recent days the developer 1C has provided new information on what video cards and chipset's WILL and WILL NOT work with Theatre of War. If you have the following video chipset/card, the game will NOT WORK. Mobile Intel® 900, 915, 925, 945GM/GU Express Chipset Family Nvidia GF440MX and earlier Nvidia GeForce 5600 and earlier ATI Radeon 9550 and earlier #5. If your video card does not fall into the list above, but the game still isn't launching make sure you video chipset/card fully supports Shaders v2. That is also a requirement to run the game. Check with your video chip/card documentation to find out that info. #6. For those people with Vista, be sure and Right-Click on the desktop shortcut your using to launch the game and select the "Run as Administrator..." option. #7. There may be a conflict with the codec needed to run the intro movie. You can either reinstall the codec itself (the file is called "wmv9VCMsetup.exe" and is located in the "codec" folder of your game), or you can simply rename the file title.avi (also located in your game folder) to something else (for example title.bak). That will cause the game to skip trying to play the movie. #8. Some people have been able to get their game to launch by adjusting their Antistrophic Filtering and Anti-Aliasing settings in their video card control panel to "Application Preference", please consult your video cards docs to learn how to do that. #9. If you have a dual display currently configured on your computer, disable the secondary monitor and see if that allows the game to launch. Madmatt

I replied to this already in email, but let me do so here as well: Its odd that you were asked to reboot after installing the game, thats not normal. Did you install anything else along with the game? You might want to try and boot Windows up in Safe Mode and see if that at least allows the computer to come up and then just to be safe, remove the game, the codec and Adobe Reader (you can do this all from the Add-Remove Programs utility found in the Windows Control Panel.). Once you have confirmed that the computer is booting back up to Windows properly, go ahead and JUST re-install the game (no codec, no Adobe). Then see if that works, then install Adobe Reader. You dont really need the codec for anything other than to see the intro movie. Let me reiterate though that nothing with the game should affect Windows in this way, so you will want to look at anything else that could have done this such as a possibly faulty harddrive or other type hardware issues. Those types of problems will usually only come to light after a reboot, and the fact that this occurred right after installing new software could be coincidence. By the way, when you reboot, do you see the BIOS screen which appears and counts the memory and everything? What about the Windows Logo as Windows loads up? Madmatt

Be sure and follow the directions in my TroubleShooting Guide, especially this section: http://www.battlefront.com/products/tow/troubleshooting.html#exit2desktop Madmatt

So far in testing of the patch, it looks like the save and load features (boith regular and quick) are working as intended now. Testing continues of course. Madmatt

Sorry guys, that video isn't ready for prime time and wasn't supposed to have been accessible at this time. I am still trying to figure out Youtube's wonky interface. Hopefully Martin will have some other videos soon to keep you appeased. By the way, CMSF has been featured in some nice new previews recently, check out http://www.battlefront.com/products/cmsf/news.html for details. Madmatt

The DVD patch is not really needed unless you want to try and play other people via Multiplay. Another, patch (for all game versions) is being worked on that fixes a great many other issues so you might just want to wait until that is released. Madmatt