aikidorat

thanks! just trying to make the tool better, more usable. And address these issues as the mods multiply seemingly exponentially. Seeing how CM2 wont be out for a while I figure I can update MCM3 in the near future..and possibly think of some new features to add in for MCM3 for CM2... Hmm, gotta think of a better title for that one! anyway, suggestions for improvements are always welcome. thanks again, and glad you like the program. dave

yeah, not a bad idea.. back when we decided to use G13, there werent many textures in there, and, frankly, I totally underestimated the number of textures (winter) we would have these days, as well as the size of the hi res ones! In retrospect, splitting it up would have been a good idea.. when time allows, I'll look into modifying MCM3 to allow you to save the winter mods in G11 or G13, along with a conversion utility to do so. However, it wont be soon, as life has gotten very twilite zone-ish lately, and lots of personal stuff having to deal with. Getting better, but going to take another month or so to work out (ie, before I can look at changing MCM3). As for CM2, I've talked with BTS about this and they are looking at options.. it will be taken care of one way or the other. totally amazed at the number of mods. If there werent so many, and time so short, I would have run into this myself. Still havnt seen it, but definately is happening. best, dave ------------------ History is made at night

works great. no compatibility issues, you only send a text file via email. and you simply have to try TCP/IP... too cool!

if you really want to use ResEdit to insert the winter mods, all you have to do is paste them into an existing resource file - CM looks for the "1" first digit in the resource ID, and if it finds it, places the winter mod into the game. If you look at the ID numbers (or bmp file names), the winter mods correspond to the 'normal' textures, just with the "1" added. a hint: MCM3 and CM Mac Mod place the winter mods all into Graphics 13. If you manually insert them and want to use MCM3 or CM mac mod later, be certain to paste them into G13. We did this to avoid having too large of graphics resource files, though we appear to have reached a limit lately (16 megs or so?). Sound mods: MCM3 has a mapping button to show where the graphics and sounds are located (which resource file the mod goes into). To use sounds, you need to convert them to mac system sounds, then use MCM3 or resEdit to paste them in. Easier with MCM3, though not as elegant as I would like. not much time to fix that right now, and it works. welcome to CM and mac modding! Give MCM3 a try, let me know what you think. thanks dave ------------------ History is made at night [This message has been edited by aikidorat (edited 02-22-2001).]

also, some of the mods have the wrong value for the pinkies, we call them, you'll need to fix those using Graphic converter or such.. for values, just search for the pinkies topic, as it's been discussed many times before.. good luck, and enjoy CM (oh, you could have used MCM3 to revert CM's data files back to the CD rom data files without having to reinstall it.. then agin, it's very simple to install so no big deal...) dave

Kilo, thanks for the offer... I just wanted to make sure mac users didnt salivate too much over what you are creating, then be disappointed when it didnt work. hopefully someone here will step up and offer to convert it to the mac (i dont have the time, and am rusty on Java). keep up the good work, and thanks for thinking of us mac users. best, dave ------------------ History is made at night

joker, have you downloaded MCM3 (Mac CM mod manager) from CMHQ? Or CM Mac Mod? a full color readme is included in MCM3 to help you convert the mods. Fully automated, works very well. if you still have questions, feel free to email me. best, dave ------------------ History is made at night

Just a reminder regarding the 'new' Graphics 13 file included with the latest patch. these are improved explosions from the original CD and have not changed from previous patches (as far as I can tell). if you want to use the new explosion graphics, and have used a mod manager (MCM3 or CM mac mod) to import winter cammo, do NOT simply replace your current G13 file with the new one. You will lose all the winter mods. here's the easiest way to import the new explosion graphics using MCM3: start MCM3 select the advanced features button use the pull down menu (on the right hand side of the program) to select your current CM data FOLDER navigate and choose the data folder on your hard drive that you use to play CM. then select 'Graphics 13' from the pull down list on the right hand side of MCM3 in the list box below the menu you should see a listing of all graphics in this file.. scroll down to the end to where you get to the explosion graphics (1720-1729) select 1720-1729 now, press the 'Revert Selected' button (do NOT choose the 'Revert Graphics 13 button, or you'll lose the mods) a window appears asking you to SELECT the mod file you wish to revert to. navigate to the NEW graphics 13, included with the latest patch, and OPEN it. MCM3 will automatically REVERT to the NEW explosion graphics in your existing Graphics 13. wah lah. you are done. Quit out and start CM with the new and improved explosions. There are other ways as well, but they involve more work. best of luck, happy modding and CM playing! dave ------------------ History is made at night

Looks good, lots of capability there! Good job so far! a few notes seeing how the screen shots are from a pc or similar, and you mention it hasnt been tested on a mac yet: CM for the mac places the graphics and sounds into resource files, not just a bmp or sound folder. I have the mapping information in MCM3 as a menu item, feel free to use it. (I've tried to standardize with BTS where graphics get placed (especially the winter cammo ones) so future mods and releases dont destroy earlier ones. You may not agree with all I did, but keeping the mac mod managers consistent helps all of us.) Also, graphics are converted to PICTS and saved in the graphics resource files... wavs require conversion to mac system sound format and then are saved in the sound resource files. Again, mapping info is included in MCM3 (note, there is one error for tcp/ip sound, which will be fixed in an upcoming revision to MCM3. It doesnt affect gameplay and is a minor fix). Oh, one other thing: CM likes to crash if the user modifies graphics/sounds while CM is running. At least on the mac. I love the idea of being able to preview the files even when zipped (MCM3 doesnt currently support that, not sure if it will in the future). You've got some neat ideas there, good luck and I hope it works out! (MCM3 and CM mac mod can be found at CMHQ) best, dave ------------------ History is made at night [This message has been edited by aikidorat (edited 02-10-2001).]

no problems here, 233 G3, 9.1. I havent had any conflicts with any of my third party software with OS9 at all. and, I like having my mac address and disk space. Kinda neat. dave (saving for a TiPB..)

thanks everyone. (blush) I take it that the suggestions helped, H2? Cool. Glad we could figure that out! as for PBEM games, email me and I'll fit them in as time allows. In the middle of 4 right now, but finishing some of them up. Not the best commander, but hopefully I'll offer up a challenging game. Reminds me, I have a small tweak to MCM3 that needs to be done. Nothing major this time, has to do with the new sound with v1.1 and where it maps to. I still havent figured out how to get MCM3 to convert the .wav files directly though. then again, havent spent much time figuring it out. been playing dave ------------------ History is made at night

cool post. Thanks for the tip. I'll have to try this out over the weekend. dave

sure looks like mac mask bleed to me. You just need to use GC or PS or some other graphics program to correct the pink color to that used as the mask. It is: H: 300 deg S: 100% V: 100% or 100% magenta (CMYK) or: grape-ish (crayon picker) or: R: 100 G: 0 B: 100 (those are all the same color. I wouldnt rely on the crayon picker though ) for a while I attempted to get each texture fixed, back to MadMatt, and updated for the mac users, but simply was overwhelmed by the number of textures released. I've better things to do with my time hope that helps. If not, there are a number of us here that can offer more assistance. dave ------------------ History is made at night

just a minor correction for the mac mod portion of the first post: winter mods are placed in Graphics 13. Mods for original textures (non-winter) are placed in Graphics 1-13 depending on their identification numbers. MCM3 includes a texture map to show the user where each mod is being placed. as for Vram and textures, not sure why but the gridded grass textures will not work with <16 megs of Vram. Even though these textures are in the resource files, they do not appear with the grids. Not sure if CM uses the CD rom in lieu of the gridded grass, or just doesnt show the grid for whatever reason. dave ------------------ History is made at night

H2, which bmp are you clicking on? I D/L'd the mod, and all the textures work with the exception of the bmps with a *letter* before them. and those shouldnt work. I didnt code MCM3 to remove letters *before* the number, only after. And I really didnt even do that, it just does it on it's own. so, the other bmps (with no letters) should work - do they? to use the bmps with letters before the numbes, simply remove the letter from teh file name, then use MCM3 to convert. NOTE: you may want to create a separate folder for the "A" and "B" mod, etc. That way you wont lose any of the mods when you change the name. if they dont, it's possible you need the utility to fix the file format that was either included with MCM3, or is available from CMHQ. that should do it. If it doesnt, please email me. I dont get to check the board as often as I used to, and if it wasnt for some kind mac user emailing me, I may have missed this thread. thanks! dave ------------------ History is made at night [This message has been edited by aikidorat (edited 01-18-2001).]

Looks like a few people are having troubles with it converting, while others are not. I'll try it out tonite after work, and see if I have any issues with it. in the mean time, if one of you can email me a screen shot of what is going on that may help. Hoopenfaust2: are you saying that MCM3 doesnt recognize teh mod file, or doesnt recognize the Graphics file? thanks! dave ------------------ History is made at night

have you had success with it before? Or is this the first time using MCM3? also, please describe in more detail what is (or in this case) isnt happening. It's hard to determine if there's a bug otherwise. If you can, let me know if MCM3 recognizes the Graphics 9backup file, or any other ones. and the mod you are trying to convert. thanks! dave

the gridded grass will only work with video cards that have more than 8 megs of Video ram, otherwise they wont show up. This means that the gridded grass usually wont show up on an iMac. and, you can use MCM3 or CM mac mod to convert the textures (as mentioned above). good luck! dave ------------------ History is made at night

a good tester is helpful too - find someone willing to look at your mods, and offer suggestions, comments, and praise (when earned) during the design phase. Preferrably, find one that will push you hard, making you get better and better, even when you get a bit frustrated with the amount of work it takes. right Makjager? dave ------------------ History is made at night

looks great! thanks to both of you for the hard work and persistence to get them working. more great mods! dave

Seems the bmps arent working on macs either, so you can discount that theory... besides, Makjager's Hetzer and JPz IV were created and converted on a mac, and there hasnt been any issues with them.... Hopefully they'll be fixed soon... dave

just a bump to get this back, and a tip that I completely missed last week in regards to using MCM3 to convert the new graphics 13 explosion graphics: Instead of using MCM3 to copy the new explosion graphics (from the NEW G13), you can use MCM3 to directly swap them out. how, you might ask? well, I included the ability to REVERT a graphics file, or selected resource ID numbers, by using the advanced features in MCM3. Originally this was intended to allow you to painleslly revert a graphics resource file to the original CD file, but you can use this to REVERT to any resource file named Graphics XX or Graphics XX backup. MCM3 verifies that you selected the correct Graphics XX or Graphics XX backup file before reverting, so you can not revert to the wrong resource file, which would royally screw the game up. You can also REVERT only selected ID numbers, and that is the easiest way (using MCM3) to convert the new explosion graphics provided with the beta patch. here's how: Open MCM3 - press advanced features button - CHOOSE the data folder you wish to view and modify (this will be your CM data folder on your hard disk that you play the game with) - Select Graphics 13 from the pulldown menu - Select the explosion graphics ID numbers (I dont have them handy, but they are the ones that are NOT in the 13000's.) - Press the REVERT SELECTED button - Use the dialogue box to select the NEW graphics 13 (provided with the beta patch). Make sure it is titled Graphics 13 or Graphics 13backup (safest to keep this in a separate folder) - MCM3 will then 'revert' the selected graphics to the 'new' graphics. viola! you're done. You can verify that the new graphics are in the correct G13 file before playing. just wanted to clarify that. Should work a-ok if you want the new ones. there are some other ways to do it with MCM3 as well. Let me know if you are interested.... have a great day! dave

just to clarify, MCM3 will convert the picts directly, once copied from the resource file. You do not need to convert them to bmps after copying them out (as pointed out a few posts above - thanks!). I'm going to see if I cant get a readme included in the patch for CM, telling the reader how to convert the new picts in graphics 13.....it may save some trouble later on. later! d ave

bump for shadow, as I want to figure out if this is a problem or not ------------------ History is made at night

Excuse me for poking my nose where it doesnt belong, but, based on what I read here, why is the _Core Mods_ checkbox ever allowed to be unchecked? Seems that this should not be an option. that way the user doesnt have to be worried about losing what is already installed.. also, could you have the PC CM mod manager create a backup of the folder before proceeding? I added this into the mac mod manager after my testers reported they would like it (instead of manually doing it), and it's a nice feature to have. I like how you have the launch CM button in your app, think I need to add that to MCM3 at some point. Good touch. just some thoughts... best, dave ------------------ History is made at night