davidh

43yo physician, married, one grown son, two dogs, wargamer since AH's 'Waterloo' as a kid... Lots of extra time for 'CM' as I'm laid up right now with a broken collarbone (inline skating)

I'd second the recommendation of 'Company Commander' by MacDonald; it's well written and is exactly the right scale to complement 'CM'. John Antal's interactive exercise books 'Armor Attacks' and 'Infantry Combat' are good for learning small unit tactics, too. A couple of'bigger picture' books that I always recommend are 'Overlord' by Max Hastings and Paul Fussell's 'Wartime'. The latter is more a social/cultural history of the American experience in WWII, but is outstanding.

I think the problem is with the RAVE drivers for the 3DFx card. I have a Voodoo 2 card/12 MB in a beige G3 with a processor upgrade to 500 MHz and 320 MB RAM and 8 MB VRAM and still the Gold Demo renders in software, and looks worse than the beta did. I, too, have other games that use 3DFX's RAVE drivers and do OK, but so far there's something about CM that just won't fly. In other threads, Steve has said they're looking into it, so hopefully there will be a fix eventually. That, or you and I may have to get an ATI card with native RAVE.

Plenty of other RAVE games work fine for me, too, with the latest drivers and the old Voodoo 2 card, but for now at least, it looks like the gold demo doesn't. I don't know if Voodoo 3, 4, or 5 will do a better job with RAVE. Does anyone else know? Unless I could be very sure, I think at this point I'd get an ATI card. Heck, the way the technology continues to change, I figure getting a couple years out of a 3D card, much less the computer, is about all I can count on. That said, I want it to be clear that I think 'CM' is a fantastic product and game. I preordered long ago, wouldn't think of cancelling my order, got more fun out of the beta demo than out of many games I've bought, and have boundless admiration for Charles and Steve and BTS and battlefront for what they've done/are doing. I posted messages to MacGamersLedge, MacGaming, and InsideMacGames today asking them to spread the word about this outstanding game, and will be pushing it on (or buying it for) everyone I know who has a computer

Still stuck in 640x480 on my beige G3 even though it's maxed out on VRAM and has the 12 MB Microconversions Voodoo 2 (with latest drivers, Sprockets, etc.)

Sad to say, but I suspect those of us having trouble may have to upgrade our 3D cards. I have a beige G3/233 with a processor upgrade to 500 MHz, and a Microconversions 12 MB Voodoo 2 card and 320 MB RAM. The old beta demo looked OK (though not as good as on a friend's B+W G3 with the built-in ATI card), but now the appearance of the gold demo is much worse (and stuck in 640x480). On the other hand, I saw the gold demo on another friend's G3/400 Pismo (with the 8 MB ATI Mobility chipset) and it looks INCREDIBLE! So I guess it's time to change out my 3D card.

I was just teasing you a bit, Matt... The present tense phrasing makes it sound as if the Gold is a done deed now. ("The Gold version has...", instead of, "The Gold version will have...") Write my comment off to just one more person playing the waiting and guessing game Dave

Hey Matt, You just said: " The Gold version has several new American voices by the way..." Slip of the tongue, or is something about to happen that you're not sharing? Dave

I just got a copy of 'TacOps 3' (which everyone should buy if they haven't before... heck, buy it again even if you did before so the Major has enough money to develop 'TacOps II'). Anyway, the CD came in a slipcover, in a paperboard envelope, which was in a padded mailing envelope. It was in fine condition; no mauling evident.

Thank you, Steve, for the tip. That was what happened. Dave

Just so you know... When I went to the 'smilies legend' page from the reply page, I was unable to simply 'back' out, and eventually had to jump out via another bookmark. This using Netscape 4.7 on a Mac.

I preordered the game long ago, and I would be happy to have BTS charge my credit card now, regardless of when the game is actually released. Why? Because I have complete confidence they will be releasing an extraordinary game soon. Because they've been working like demons for months now without any appreciable income, and they may need it, if not to get over the hump, then at least to be able to see some early fruits of their labors. Because they deserve it, having provided a demo that's already given good return on my investment. Please note, this is NOT a ploy to try to get them to release the game sooner than they've said they could. I fully support their plan to hold on and keep tweaking until they feel the game is fully ready for release. I just think this might be a way for me, and others who frequent this site, to show some material support for their efforts.

Did you install all three extensions and make them all active? You should have: 3Dfx GlideLib2.x vers.2.56.00.04 3Dfx GlideLib3.x vers.3.03.00.06 3Dfx RAVE vers.1.0d15 Otherwise, what is your hardware/OS setup? (I know exactly how frustrated you feel... before I got the newer drivers I tried to play in software rendering and it HURT!)

Go to the 3Dfx website and download the latest drivers. I have a Microconversions Game Wizard Voodoo2 12 MB card, and had the problems you're having until I did this. The drivers posted at Microconversions website are out of date and useless. Good luck, and post here again if you're still having trouble.

OK... an update to the problem I noted above and hopefully some help in case someone else has a similar problem. I went back and tried one more thing. Normally I leave the RAVE and Glide extensions both on for the MicroConversions card (it's never been a problem with any other app). This time I disabled just the Glide extension, and lo and behold, the game started and runs just fine. So the takehome message, if you have a MicroConversions VooDoo 2 card, is to have the RAVE extension on, but the Glide extension off. Great game, by the way <g>.

Well, this is a surprise. I use a Mac G3/233 (beige) with 320 MB RAM, OS 8.6, and a MicroConversions GameWizard 12MB 3Dfx card, with the latest drivers for Glide and Rave that are still at MicroConversion's website. When I double-click on the CM Demo icon to start the game, I get a black screen and no cursor. By randomly clicking the mouse all over the place I occasionally get a 'beep', but no activity, and to get out must reboot (Cmd-Cntl-Power). (The usual Cmd-Opt-Esc to get out of a busted app doesn't work). I've tried different screen resolutions; no help (normally I run in 800x600). I've tried different color depths; no help. I've tried expanding memory; no help. Any ideas or suggestions?

The only problem with giving yourself and not OPFOR thermal sights is that it seriously unbalances the game, i.e. you will have a tremendous advantage, and will develop bad habits. Try the game with both sides having thermal sights, or both sides having smoke that defeats thermals. Or, better still, exchange modern units for early 1970's ones that don't have thermal sights. It'll make you a better tactician, and will be better training for CM.

My thought exactly. If the Mac version is ready, how about releasing it? Not to start a fight amongst the battlefront.com folks, but I note that MajorH didn't hesitate to release his version of TacOps3 for Windows first rather than waiting for the Mac version to be ready.