kmead

With Express, once the file size gets above 500kb it starts to screw up the text file. As detailed above, compressing it as a zip or hqx file will take care of the problem.

There were some diamonds in the Mac OSX thread. Okay, diamonds if you are a Mac owner....

Without a doubt Apple screwed the pooch in a big way on that one. I have tons of childrens educational CDs that won't run under OSX?Classic, not to mention several abandoned Apple technology doorstops sitting around collecting dust. Steve: This is great news. We really appreciate you even thinking about attempting such a thing. I think its a very good business choice if it doesn't appreciabley slow development or reduces performance and the quality of game performance under OS9 outside of X/Classic. If it doesn't happen, although I would be disappointed, I know you guys would not include it for the right reasons. Good luck in implementing the alterations. In any case, I think the work all of your are doing is absolutely fantastic on CMBB. I for one will be sure to have a machine that runs OS9.x.x natively just so I can appreciate it. I will be getting a MSW machine for my Dad along with CMBO and CMBB for him later this year, could you run them down to him in Dexter? Again thanks from all of us and godspeed on finishing before July 4! Karl

In regards to OSX, I have been using it recreationally and testing it for work. In general it works very nicely and can only get better. I personally think that from a business case standpoint OSX is the best possible thing Appl e could do. Having stuff like Maya ported to the Mac (I am an industrial designer also, lets hope Rhino will make the jump to UNIX) and who knows what to come is very encouraging. Due to my employers network we use Dave for mapping network drives and printing under WINS servers that suppress Appletalk "chatter". Dave works well under both OS9 and the new version under X. It allows us to utilize all network resources, and is generally benign relative to other software. I have been very pleased with it and suffered few problems on the 15 Macs I oversee as one of my many duties. Once our email system changes to something non Extra based we will be able to never log onto the corporate standard system (and there will be mcuh rejoicing....) in the meantime Hotmail and Yahoo suffice. Dave uses TCPIP only, allows us to log on to the network as if we were any other MSW user. Dave is put out by Thursby Software (no I am not employed or otherwise affilitiated with them.) In regards to Apple and the Rave API, I can understand and sympathise with Steve and Charles with their frustration over Apple dropping a "standard" without sufficient notice. On the other hand a more modern imaging model for a new OS makes alot of sense just as a new engine makes alot of sense for BTS to develop for CM. Apple had to do it just as BTS has to develop the new engine, it makes it easier and faster to create new iterations, add features and cost less to do it. It also has much greater potential, eventually you have to say its time to move on in order to move forward. One can only imagine where Apple might have been if Jobs could have developed his vision that he attempted at NEXT. I am not saying it would be any better off, but certainly at a very different point in its OS development. Oh and Steve, thanks for your patience with me when I was carrying the OSX torch last year. I don't disagree with your position on the development of your products at all. Given your resources you really have no other choice. I think that even if you had more resources, you are right that there really isn't a large enough number of X (now or in the next year and a half that are also in the market for BTS products) users to justify making changes now. Absolutely no offence meant, but CMBO has a limited lifetime before people will no longer respond to its graphics regardless of how great the game really is. (Please note that CMBO is my only game, and I truly love it so please don't flame...) CMBB will lose sales due to Apple's lack of Rave support, or its lack of OpenGL support. Will it be a make it or break it issue for BTS, likely not given the preponderance of MSOS buyers. The thing to keep in mind about Mac owners is that most of us will still be on the same machine between now and when CMBB is replaced or will be running on machines that have been just recently bought and will still run OS9.x.x Apple owners tend to keep their machines for extended periods, my revB iMac is still stable reliable and acceptable to use 3 years after buying it. My G4 towers are over two years old now and are running great, our NT boxes are also the same age and have to be replaced soon as they will not run our corporate software standards acceptably any longer. I am thinking about a new home purchase so I can utilize OSX and the new software products available, but in my case I doubt it will be another iMac, at least for my use (and I will certainly not be getting it to better run games). When CM engine 2 comes out, most Apple owners will definitely be on OSX primarily with fairly new hardware. The Apple hardware available then (assuming Apple is still around) will be much more capable and will seem like less of a step down in performance than they are perceived to be now. Bigdog, as has been suggested by others elsewhere in this thread, if you need a new Apple, go ahead and buy one. It will run OS9.x.x wonderfully into perpetuity, it will run OSX nicely for years into the future and CMBB will be excellent on a nice new graphics card... I wouldn't hesitate.

I strongly doubt its anything to do with the screen, more likely something to do with the Nvidia interface to Apple OS. I have been watching the incorporation of Nvidia products into Macs (as well as the various problems MSW users have) and am so far unimpressed with the quality of drivers and hardware implementation. I think I will stick to ATi...

My iMacDV runs 9.2.2 and CMBO runs just fine with no adverse effects of any type.

Sorry, meant to post to the general forum...

Just spent the night with a Cub Scout Troop on a Gato class sub last night. It was alot of fun as well as instructional. It really makes you respect submariners (and tankers as well) for the job they volunteered to do. It really took some incredible sacrifice to do it. If you ever travel to western Michigan please stop by http://www.silversides.org/. The Silversides We slept in the forward torpedo room. I was on the upper right bunk, sitting up was not an option .

John, How much actual memory do you have? Virtual memory is a really buggy way process that doesn't work well with games in particular. On all my Macs (2 here and the 15 I am the admin for at work) virtual memory is always off. If you have under 96Mb or physical ram, it will be very hard for your computer to run multiple apps at the same time. When was the last time you cleaned your CMBO CD? Is it shiny clean with no fingerprints on the underside? If it is dirty run warm water over it, squirt some dishsoap on it and softly rub it with your fingers and rinse it with warm water. Shake it primarily dry and then pat it the rest of the way dry with a soft clean towel. Do not use a circular motion in any of theses activities. When was the last time you did a reinstall of the system OS? You can do this without reformatting your HD. It will take fifteen minutes or so to do and can reap great benefits. Your iMac came with the CDs needed to do this. If you choose to go this route I can send you more complete directions to do this. Also for your computer I suggest OS 8.6 as the overhead of 9.x and beyond is a bit much for your computer and will consume alot more ram. As for the Open GL installer, it comes with the CMBO 1.12 upgrade you can download from the CMBO site here: http://www.battlefront.com/downloads/index.html , once it is unpacked you will see a folder for OpenGL1.2.1. Open that and double click on the install icon whichh looks like a page with a down turned corner and what looks like a floppy disk on it. It will unpack itself and make a icon on your desktop that says OpenGL Installer, double click that and install. I still suspect that you have a memory error, it is fairly rare, but your computers inconsistent behavior indicates that it might be. I will look around the web today to find a memory tester utility, your mac does check the memory at start up but mine didn't find the problem. In my case I would get all manner of frustrating crashes, incomplete startups, and so on. I am off to work, and later go with a cub scout pack to sleep on the USS Silversides (a WW2 fleet class submarine) so I will check back sometime on Saturday. I hope all goes well.

My, my John you are having a time of it. As for the earthquake related problems some of my Caltech aquaintances would strongly debate the relationship. I think I know exactly what is wrong but first... First things first. Is the computer plugged into a properly grounded outlet. My rev B iMac was very sensitive to this. Next I would reset the parameter RAM. This can be done using the correct key combo during start up or more safely using Techtool Lite (downloadable as a evaluation copy http://www.micromat.com/ ). I prefer the Techtool method as it writes a copy of the PRAM to disk so if you need it you can reload it. Next ensure the hard drive is indeed the startup drive. Turn off Virtual Memory under the Memory Control Panel. This is done by opening the Startup Disk Control Panel and ensuring the HD is the start up disk. Reinstall the OpenGL 1.2.2 update that you get with the CMBO 1.12 update. Now restart and rebuild your desktop. Once you have restarted look at how much room you have on your hard drive free. If you are under 200 MB start chucking stuff (OK back stuff up and clean off your HD to make some headroom). Check to see how much ram your Mac OS is using. If it is not leaving enough overhead for CM you can have bad things happen. I strongly suggest you have at least 190Mb of physical RAM to run the system, CMBO, and your web browser. Now this is what I think your problem is ( I had the exact same problem you are suffering): You have a bad memory chip or one of your memory chips should be reseated . My 128Mb chip was bad and was causing all sorts of funky behavior. I replaced it (after unneccessarily formatting the hard drive, taking the beast apart several times to check connections) and it has run perfectly ever since. The early rev iMacs are a bit difficult to open up but it can be done safely and easily. So, you may think this is a bit drastic, but it is what worked for me. I will post this and will go and gather some of the links to get techtool and how to open up your iMac (while you are at it go to CompUSA and buy a 20 GB harddrive on sale for $50 and install it at the same time you have it open). To open up your iMac: http://machardware.about.com/blramin.htm or: http://www.theimac.com/upgrade.shtml It isn't really as bad as they make it seem. Good luck and let me know if I can do anything else. Karl [ [ March 14, 2002, 07:02 AM: Message edited by: kmead ]

My, this is a good day. Thanks. With models of that caliber I worry that my drawing is extraneous. Ah well, its a good excercise to refresh my mind to what makes up a given vehicle. Thanks. Karl

Many thanks John, that was just the link I was looking for. What I suspected is indeed correct that is a leading arm arrangement and yes what I have so far depicted is indeed far too spindly for the loads involved Again thanks for the link.

Thanks John, I have those pics already as that is one of my many bookmarks. Thanks for the tip and yes that is absolutely a great site. Thanks for bringing it up. Unfortunately one cannot see the parts I am inerested in as Michael has pointed out. From what I can see, I believe now that it is a double leading arm as oposed to the trailing arm system I suspected it to be. One pic of the vehicle shows a good partial view of the castings that make up this arrangement. Thanks for the tips.

As to the road wheel, the issue in question is what you cannot usually see. I presume the first roadwheel has a trailing arm and the helical spring and shock act on the trailing arm. So yes, since it is based on the standard Pz1 there are plenty of pics. That area is perennially in shadow and mud so I have yet to see a clear shot. I have pics from Kubinka, APG and various others for reference. Thanks. As to OSX, on my iMac at home where this is being drawn it will likely be a while until I change as I have tons of kids software that I suspect will not run well under classic. They and my wife are the primary users of those machines anyway so it really doesn't do much for me there. At work once Photoshop and Cobalt are OSX I think we may changeover but not until. I have a ibook 600 14" that we are using to test OSX apps and general use for work. We have to run within a Windows network (and a very uncooperative IS group (and why they changed from IT to IS is beyond me as they are not interested in providing service)) so having Dave stable is a must to access printer servers and file shares for projects. I rather like OSX, it will be a while until its as polished as classic, but once it does it will be great and well worth the effort of changing over. The GUI over UNIX is very nice (especially if you used to have to wander around SGIs implementation) and will eventually allow for all we could ask. Keep in mind I have been using Macs since the 512 came out (and the IIe before that) so transitioning through new iterations of OS is nothing unusual. Think about the change from OS6 to OS7, it took some people years to move up. Since OS 7 it has been a steady progression through to 9. I think Apple is doing a good job of moving the mob to X it will just take a while, things like iPhoto and iDVD are very good tools to coax us over once our other tools are available.

To follow up, sometimes when buildings are placed on transitions from one elevation to another if the change is too great the building won't display. I too have had this occur and I suse a Mac so we cannot blame MS for this.

Yes, I wamt the weapon that fires in such tight carefully controlled patterns. Oh, as for the other mundane shots of ruined Europe... Very, very nice. Yet another wonderful upgrade for deepening the player immersion. [ March 10, 2002, 04:17 PM: Message edited by: kmead ]

This is merely a 2D drawing that would be used as the basis for a mod of this vehicle in CMBB. So, no it won't move. I could model it in a 3D modeller (or even this piece of software, Vectorworks) and render it as a unit. That will be a future project, although its nice to have good baseline like this. Thanks for the complement.

This is a work in progress, I have been using photos as reference, from some of the sites of ither CMBO forum members (many thanks).I just completed the tracks and running gear. I am looking for more detail shots of the leading roadwheel. Also if anyone has some pics of some of the stowage. I will be redoing the gun and am on the second rev for the vision ports. Given the scale this will be seen at I am not trying for perfection. Feel free to give pointers or if you know of some good places for photos (I gave my Dad all my books 15 years ago so I have only the web for reference. He lives in Dexter, Maine which is a bit of a drive from western MI ) Antway I will update with changes as it becomes more complete. Also keep in mind this is a screen shot that was reduced in size when it became a jpeg so there is alot of image degradation with circles not concentric and so on. [ March 10, 2002, 04:53 PM: Message edited by: kmead ]

The M3, M3A1, and M3 Hybrids totaled nearly 19,000 machines from May 1941 to Jan of 1943. The M3A3 was produced for four months for a total of 3427. The M5 and M5A1 were produced from 1942 to 1944 and 8,800 of that design built. All of the M3/M5 vehicles were replaced by the M24 Chaffee which was produced in fairly small numbers as well, @4400 total. So yeah, a fair number of M3A3s were produced, most went to the British (2/3).

I believe MikeyD meant to say the elevation was a shoulder mount not the traverse. The M3A3 was an updated version of the M3A1, it adopted a sloped glacis and side hull plates. It also saw the introduction of hull top hatches for the driver and radio operator. It really was a much better looking machine and regrettably was not produced in numbers. It was superceeded by the M5 series vehicles that were simpler to produce and basically just as effective armor wise in combat. From : www.wwiivehicles.com [ March 04, 2002, 11:07 PM: Message edited by: kmead ]

George R. Bradford has done most of the basic linework for you if you are willing to pay him for the use of his line drawings which are of very good quality and accurate. He makes them available in 1:35 and 1:48 scales. He does add a bit of shading to the lower surfaces. His charge is really pretty nominal given his quality. His fine work can be found here: http://www.activevr.com/afv/ The site has had over 2 million hits since 1995. [ February 24, 2002, 07:42 PM: Message edited by: kmead ]

Do you not have enough Vram to run at 1024? If you do have enough (8mb) you can trash your CMBO prefs and start the game at the higher resolution and it will run at that res and walla, no more res switching. All in all an odd problem that I haven't seen or heard of before, but then there aren't that many biege G3s using CMBO...

First and for most, CMBO is done. BTS has not made any upgrades since 1.12 which dates from Feb of 2001. They have stated that they wil not make any further cahnges to CMBO. We all agree that this is a regretable state of affairs, as this means we will have to wait until the new engine to see any improvements to the Western theatre of operations (well France to Germany, a future installment will cover the Mediteranean and another will cover Germany to France the early war). Hopefuly after the new engine is done we will see a revisit of the time from Overlord to Berlin. Now on to your post: Close wrote: Yes this would be nice, I may be wrong but CMBB may offer his facility. This feature was created to ensure that there was no way to cheat. Agreed, it is a bit frustrating, but due to the nature of the game play it was the only way to create a cheatless game. What you are suggesting would allow you to rerun the turn multiple times until you got the result you desired. This has been discussed ad nauseum and a search in the 1999 and 2000 archives will result in a number of interesting similar attempts to reorder the process. If you are interested in speed, play TCPIP and you will never complain again. I don't recall what happens in the game in regards to hills and the speed of uints. Keep in mind that the vehicles and their apparent motion are an abstraction and do not really represent actuallity. I am sure another poster will happen along to expound upon this at length. Umm, why? The escape key is way off in left field and on most keyboards is very small. The space bar is used alot and both lefties and righties need to use it. The space bar is large and equally available, I think the spacebar is the correct tool for the job in this interface. I don't think anyone will quibble on this one. We all would like better ways of choosing units and adjusting the paths that we direct them on. I hope something is being done for CMBB that will improve things in this area. BTS has spoken at length about what will be in CMBB, I don't recall anything about this, but I haven't been following things clsoesly of late. Perhaps another person will comment. Actually this replicates trials in the forest and are very useful for getting your armor around and about. So, they do make sense and idicate the various transitions seen in real forests. [ February 17, 2002, 06:40 PM: Message edited by: kmead ]

Ahh, another fine addition. And one of the cool looking ones too. Thumbsup

Amen. Actually, I would say that the interregnum of new members have really had a very good impact on the life of the forum. I have noticed that I spend relatively little time posting, I still read all that I am interested in though. I think we have had a large number of really knowledgeable, creative and willing to help newer members. We have also had a fair number of frustrating PITAs that thankfully have fallen by the wayside or been discarded. I truly regret that some of them suffered bannishment as some of them really had a good knowledgebase and could have been really positive contributors had they adjusted their attitude and approach. And the Marines, well... one makes do with what one is given. Have a great day off to chase Cub Scouts for the rest of the weekend.