Cardinal Fang

Madmatt sez <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Just a quick watchout for you and that Fancy Smancy Voodoo card. BE SURE to get the newest and most up to date drivers for that bad boy. Some people have reported graphics anomolies with the Voodoo chipset and they are usually fixed with the newest drivers from 3dFX. Madmatt <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> My anomalies (i.e. lockups) weren't helped by the latest drivers. I think my combo of Aopen sound card and Voodoo 3 2000 (and who knows what else) was causing the game to lock up. So far turning off the 3D direct sound and turning off the weather (fog causes the game to lock up) seems to have done the trick. I think most people aren't having the same problem as me but I thought I'd let you know. If I'm ever feeling motivated enough (hey the games working now even though I don't get fog) I'll try switching which PCI slots things are in. Hell, I think I've tried everything else short of wiping the drive and starting over and I do NOT feel like doing that. Cardinal Fang Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition!

Howdy! I have a Voodoo 3 2000 PCI card and although I've had trouble with lock-ups I haven't had any problems with the textures. I ran the game with the 1.04 drivers and am currently using the 1.05 drivers. This is with Win98. What seems to have fixed the lockups is disabling 3D sound and turning off the weather. Apparently fog causes my machine to lock up. I know this doesn't address the problems you're having but I wanted to let you know that not all Voodoos are experiencing the same problems and that it might be something else in addition to the video card causing your problem. Hope y'all get it worked out. Cardinal Fang Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition!

Don't know anything about the search function but I do have a Voodoo 3 2000. I have the PCI version of the card. I haven't had much trouble EXCEPT in CM. Then again I also don't play that many other games. I had difficulty getting the drivers to load when I first installed the card but I've had no problem updating the drivers since then. The only other game I play with any frequency is Red Baron 3D. I've had no problem with the Voodoo 3 in that game. I had a lot of problems with CM though. When the search function is back up and running do a search on Cardinal Fang and you'll see that most the messages that made me a member have been on the Tech forum. I can't say the my problem with CM is from the Voodoo 3 since I suspect my sound card has something to do with it too. What seems to have helped is turning off Direct3d in the sound card and turning off the weather in the game. If I play scenario with fog, even though I can see the fog fine, I'll get a lockup. So how's that for a long post that doesn't really tell you anything? But that's my experience with the Voodoo 3. Cardinal Fang Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition

Another way to tell the living from the dead is to hit shift-g which turns on the warning labels. The dead units will have a label saying "eliminated" while the live units....well.....won't. So it seems to be that with a quick shift-b or a shift-g that little red spots for the dead units aren't necessary. In my opinion of course. WHICH IS INFALLIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sorry 'bout that. forgot my meds. Again. Cardinal Fang Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition!

Sniper sez <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Cardinal Fang, yup, i know, i read those when they where posted, even on the old board. I've been a reader on this board for more then a year now. just to clearify, the thing about optics has never been truely explained yet, what the advantages are for what vehicle and why. I would like to see an table or something, I just like numbers (I know as for the tiger1, it had the most accurate gun af all German tanks (even better then tiger 2)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> About Optics being explained BTS sez in http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/001449.html <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>We really didn't do much with aiming devices. There is no data that we could find that would allow us to model the differences accurately. In general, at this point in the war, the German and Western Allied vehicles were on a par for the most part. Sure, some vehicles had better visibility/optics than others, but we really felt it was better to not just start making this stuff up because that is the ONLY thing we could do.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> In the same thread Fionn sez <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I think the point is being made that: a) given equal training US crews could gun almost as well as the Germans and the difference is almost impossible to quantify SO c) since it was a small difference and any quantification would have been complete guesswork it was left out. I can tell you lots of cases where experienced US tankers outshot green German tankers and for the main part the difference between two crews in tanks is due to : a) the experience of the crew the characteristics of the tank (armour and gun). BTW since its a tank simulator it has to pay homage to the differences in gunsight. CM isnt a tank simulator so doesn't. I was a lead tester on that game you are talking about and a lot of discussion went into the scopes there when we first got the alphas over a year ago now. I think CM's decision is right since a 10% or more German aiming advantage would be hard to justify in many cases. (they used complicated sights).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Fionn also sez <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Coincidence rangefinders are very difficult to operate and were prone to damage. if damaged the Germans had to rely on a secondary sight which was WORSE then the rugged US primary sight. Kills beyoned 1 km were RARE. I know some of you ahve read about them in books and presume they are common but they aren't. Sub-1km I would say US sights are quite adequate. Lastly but not leastly go check out the rangefinders in German tanks and US and British tanks for yourself. I've sat in German, US and British WW2 tanks and checked out the rangefinders and quite honestly I didn't find anything uber-amazing about the German rangefinders. Certainly they allowed a more accurate shot once properly zoned in BUT they took longer to zero in on the enemy's range (which is why Wittmann's gunner Bobby Wol (sic) standardised his rangefinder to 800 metres and did aiming by eye and NOT using the rangefinder... In FACT I've jsut shown why SOME crews found them so complicated to use that they did NOT use them ... how's that for a crappy addendum to a rangefinder.. So slow and difficult to use that crews simply left it be ) Again, I think they were close enough in performace to US sights at normal ranges that we can simply agree they were equivalent.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Fionn also sez (He can be wordy ) <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>For long-distance shooting German optics were better BUT the peculiarities of German turret traverse system design and the length of time they had to callibrate their coincidence rangefinders all played HUGELY important factors which you're forgetting. At short distance most German crews admit to NOT USING their coincidence rangefinder but simply setting them to a set distance and estimating by sight how much farther or closer the enemy tanks were. I say that most German tank crews admit to NOT USING THE RANGEFINDER once targets were within 800 metres. Go read your reports on Bobby Woll in which it is clearly stated that this was his method of aiming. Combat Reports and personal reminisces are notoriously skewed to the spectacular. E.g The record the 1 hit at 2 km but forget the 5 misses at 300 metres... When attempting to scientifically establish the accuracy of a gun/sight complex (since the sight CANNOT be viewed as separate from the gun in reality) one SHOULD give laboratory results FAR more weight than crew reports (which are usually inherently flawed).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Fionn also sez more good stuff like having to model all the different German sights since they were not all of equal quality but I'm tired of cutting and pasting and I want to play CM! And yes I know the Fionn is not BTS but he did seem to have a lot of input and I did put BTS's quote first. In regard to tables BTS sez in http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/004572.html <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>We don't use tables. We use a far more sophisticated series of equations for everything related to tank gunnery in CM. And yes, we model the effects of movement on the part of gunner and target.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That seems pretty clear about the sights to me. What more are you looking for? I hope this helps (I really hope that the quotes work!), Cardinal Fang Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition!

Howdy, I don't know how much help this will be but I used to constantly have lock-ups. What has seemed to work for me is disabling 3D sound on my sound card and turning off the weather. I was also running at 640x480. I've recently been trying 800x600 and it seems to be stable. I hope this is of some help. Cardinal Fang Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition

Howdy folks! The following links: http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/004572.html and http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/001449.html are brought to you by the Search Council-"Remember, Before You Ask It, Search It!" If you do a search on optics you'll find more topics and more info although some of it is old. I hope this helps! This is unrelated but I want to mention it, I'm playing the user-created scenario Valhalla, I wanted to get more experience using larger formations before going to the historical scenarios and besides this one is fun!, and I have a brave M5 tank that has killed TWO Jagdpanthers! Both from the rear of course, one at 200 meters and the other at 22 meters. Yes, 22 meters. It was awesome using the 1 view and locked on the Stuart when it came over the rise to see the Jagdpanther on the reverse side facing AWAY from it. It still took 3 or 4 hits to kill it too. Cardinal Fang Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition!

It's because I've actually been playing the game. Here's what working for me. (So far) I've set the resolution for 640x480. I've turned ambient sound off. I've disabled 3D on my sound card secondary buffer. (I'm not a techie it's just an option I happened to check in the AW724 sound card tools) I've turned weather off. It sucks not having the ambience of the fog but aparently it was the fog that was doing it. Actually I'm not positive that was entirely it since I've had lock-ups in scenarios without fog but that was before I started "tweaking". So far I've only played tiny or small scenarios. I've loaded up a huge scenarion and it seemed to run fine. Right now I'm afraid to change anything since it seems to be working but eventually I'll at least try 800x600. Some other things I am/was considering: Changing the location of my sound card to another PCI slot Actually going through all the WAV files and making them 22Hz instead of 44Hz. (At least I think that's possible.) Right now I'm not going to do anything except play the game. I just wanted y'all to know that apparently it is possible to get CM to work on at least some of those systems having problems and that it looks like fog might be a likely culprit for some lock-ups. Good Luck, Cardinal Fang Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition!

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms- oh damn! Does my old heart good to hear all the Monty Python quotes. And yes I know that Cardinal Ximinez actually says those lines but I always liked the name Cardinal Fang. If you'll excuse me I have a comfy chair to fo fetch.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise...our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency. Our three weapons are fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope...Our four...no...amongst our weapons...amongst our weaponry are such elements as fear, surprise...I'll come in again

Pfalz XII, I knew with a name like that you'd likely be a Red Baron 3D fan. I haven't played the SP mode in ages. I know that a lot of work has been done but I barely find the time to fly MMP or wrestle with CM to load up and play a SP campaign. When/if you start playing MMP look for J37KardinalFang. I don't fly as often as I used to but I'm still around. Failing that look for anyone with a J37 in front of their name be careful though they're an odd bunch. In regard to CM I played a coupl eof turns of a medium sized scenario last night and things seemed okay. I might try bumping up the resolution to 800x600 but I'm afraid to mess with it since it seems to be working now. Cardinal Fang Here's my squadron's web site: http://members.tripod.com/J37_BW/J37.htm

Pfalz XII, I have the latest drivers and, I assume the latest 3dfx tools (1.05 drivers) and although I see an alpha-blending, which is set to automatic, I do not see a video display. Here's what I have under Direct3D: 3d Filter Quality - set to automatic Alpha-Blending - set to automatic Level of Detail Bias - set to 0 Z-Buffer Optimization - set to Enable I've really no idea what any of that means. The refresh rate is "optimal". I've really no idea what the refresh rate is for my monitor. It's an old Dell 17" and I've never been able to find out the information on their web site. The monitor setting I use is the Dell VS17 and I found that setting through trial and error. Even with this monitor chosen I have to recenter the screen if I go to 640 x 480. An update on the lock-ups. I started a the scenario "A Walk In Paris", it's listed as medium in size, and I had no problem running through 4 turns. I then exited out and started up St. Anne's Chappele which is the scenario that kept locking up. I turned off the weather and played through 5 turns with no problems. I turned the fog back on and almost immediately had a lock-up. Shouldn't my VooDoo 3 2000 be powerful enough to show the fog? If so could it be the combination of fog and the sound card or something? Maybe I could just ship my computer to BTS and see if they can figure it out. Now THAT would be customer service! I keep meaning to ask you, Pfalz XII, if you play Red Baron 3D. I ask because of your name of course. Cardinal Fang Actually Got To Play A Few Turns Of CM

Schrullenhaft, Now I'm even more confused. I didn't think to check for an IRQ conflict with the ISA card. I did however make sure that the AW724 drivers were removed before installing the VIBRA. I wasn't surprised to find the VIBRA card wasn't plug-n-play since I thought that ISA cards weren't plug-n-play. When I had WIN98 look for non-plug-n-play cards it had no trouble finding it and installing drivers. But since reinstalling the AW724 something new has been added. I decided to turn the sound card acceleration all the way down and then take the video card acceleration down one peg at a time. With video down one it still locked up. When I took down two the game looked really ugly, it had started in 640x480 and I had no fog and no transparent buildings. Also it looked like it was at 256 colors instead of 16. However I did run through 7 turns with out a lock up. There's no way I was going to be able to play with the game looking like that. I also had no tracers and the fps seemed to be about 3. I then remembered etsjcp saying they had luck with turning off the "fog tables" well my VooDoo 3 2000 doesn't have a setting for that but I decided to try a DYO battle instead of St. Annes Chapelle (which is tiny but includes fog). I set all the accceleration back to max but turned off the something in the sound card under Direct Sound that was under a sub heading called "secondary buffer" called "Disable 3d". When I started the game I was surprised that although it looked better I still didn't have transparent buildings and the fps was still low. I ran a couple of turns and there was no lockup. I then exited the game and moved the prefs file out. I set my display at 640x480 and went back into the game. It looked good and, I was suprised to find out, it ran fine! I played a quick 9 turns and there were no lockups! That makes me htink the fog is a problem but I'd had lock-ups in other scenarios that had no fog. I'm sure this made no sense what-so-ever and you're probably as confused as I am. I'll try so more experiments with other scenarios and see what happens. Is anybody familiar enough with the VooDoo card to guess what settings might work? A very very confused Cardinal Fang

The saga continues...... Here's the latest. I was going to switch sound cards with a friend of mine and see if that made a difference. Well, I was over at his house and I had removed his sound card, I was a little dissappointed to see that it was an ISA card and not a PCI card but other than that I was looking forward to trying it out. I asked him what kind of card it was and he said it was a Pro Audio Spectrum 16. I said that's cool as long as it's not a Yamaha based card. He looks at the card and says "Uh oh". "What?" I say. "This chip says Yamaha on it" he says. "Damn" I say. I take a look at the card and sure enough there's a chip on it that says Yamaha. I figure that if it's a Yamaha problem switching with this card is pointless so I put his card back in. After the cookout and on the way home I remember that I have an old ISA card sitting in my closet and I figure I'll try that since I already had my sound card out. I find the card and put it into my system. Since it's an ISA card Win98 doesn't detect it on boot. I decide to try CM without the sound card installed. To my surprise the game starts. It lasts a whole two turns before it locks up solid. Depressed but still a tad hopeful I tell Win98 to look for new hardware. It manages to find the card and install the drivers for it. It's an old Sound Blaster 16 VIBRA card. The system boots up and everything seems fine. I start CM and hit the GO! button. The turn plays out. I hit the DONE button to try another turn and guess what happens? Yep it locks up. At this point I'm too numb to be that upset, after all I've been trying to get the game going for weeks now. I yank the card, figuring if I'm going to have a card that doesn't work I might've well have a new one. As I'm putting the Sound Blaster card aaway I think to look at the card. Sure enough there's a little chip on it that says Yamaha. Sad really. So, do y'all suppose it's still the sound card ( I would think so considering that the demo works and the only difference is tha the sounds are 22Mhz instead of 44Mhz) and what cards are out there that aren't based on a Yamaha chip? Could it be maybe the mouse driver? Maybe I'll give PowerStrip a try next. Sadly, Cardinal Fang

Unfortunately my two most common (not favorite) sayings are: "Maybe this combination of settings will work" "Damn" presses ctrl-alt-del has the puter locks up again. :-( Hopefully switching sound cards with a friend will let me play the game. Cardinal Fang Just wanting to post somewhere other than the Tech forum.

Thanks Charles but "been there, done that" :-( I've done everything except take the card out. That's one reason I wasn't quite sure it was the sound card until the demo worked. I'm planning on switching sound cards wiht a friend of mine to see if that clears it up. You can be sure I'll post the results. Thanks for the reply. I just had another thought (Gee two in one day!) perhaps it isn't a hardware or a software problem. Perhaps the little elctronic soldiers know how poorly I'm going to command them (they've been watching me play SPW@W maybe) and they're refusing to fight! That might be it! It's not the sound card it's mutiny! Cardinal Fang Daring To Hope Tha He Might Get To Play CM

Thanks again for your help Schrullenhaft! Even if PowerStrip doesn't help with this particular problem it still looks like an interesting porgram. I've another test I'm going to do. I was talking to a friend of mine with whom I'm having a PBEM game of SPW@W. I had just finished telling him that me and my girlfriend would be over to his place for a cookout on Sunday when suddenly a little bell went of in my head as some synapses closed. I asked him what kind of sound card he had and if it would be okay if we switched. He said he had some version of a Sound Blaster and that it would be okay if we switched cards. He also said that since he's planning on upgrading his machine soon that there was a good chance I could just keep it. The only thing he didn't know was if his sound card was a PCI card or not. So hopefully by Monday I'll have a different sound card and I'll be sure to post the results. Cardinal Fang Have Comfy Chair. Will Travel.

Pfalz XII, sigh. I was hoping I wouldn't have to crack the case for awhile. It'll be a little while before I can afford to buy a sound card anyway so I'll have time to yank the card and make sure that it's the problem. There's one question though, will CM work without a sound card? Okay there's another question (and it's a big one) is there anything BTS can do to help resolve this problem? Cardinal Fang No One Expects The Spanish Inquisition!

Howdy folks, Check out the "An interesting observation" thread. It looks like my problem is probably my sound card. It's an Aopen AW724 which is a Yamaha based chip. CardinalFang Have Comfy Chair. Will Travel.

Okay here's the results of my latest attempts to fix my lock-ups. 1) Renamed WAV directory. Result: Game played from the CD. Game locked. Managed to get to the task manager and get out of it. 2) Removed WAV directory (I'm a slow learner) Result: Game played from CD. Game Locked. Had to Reboot. 3) Removed SoundCard from hardware profile. No sound. Game locked up. Had to reboot. 4) Installed the Yamaha 1040 drivers to replace the Aopen 1040 drivers. Game locked up. Had to reboot. 5) Reinstalled the Aopen drivers and came here to post the results. So it looks like I'm hosed unless those wise, kind, intellegent,and (I'm told) good-looking folk at BTS can somehow find away to fix it in the upcoming patch. Pleeeeeease?? Even if the solution is to disable sound entirely or something. (Hey, I'm grasping at straws here) In the meantime I think I should start the "Buy Cardinal Fang A Good Sound Card" fund. Cardinal Fang Trying To Smile Through The Pain

Charles, Thanks for the information. It seems like the sound card is the likely culprit then. I do have the latest drivers. However Aopen doesn't actually fill me with confidence. They have a program that will check their web site for new drivers. Which is nice but it asks if you want to "doanload" the drivers. Also with the Aopen tools they give you the option to "upgrate" the drivers. <sigh> I guess I'll start saving my pennies for a new soundcard. In the meantime I'll try the Yamaha drivers instead of the Aopen ones. Also could you tell me if the games requires sound to play? I was thinking of removing the soundcard from my hardware profile and seeing if I could play the game then. I think I've done all I can with the soundcard controls. I'll let you know what results I get. Unless I somehow manage to fry something. :-P Thanks for the help. CardinalFang Have Comfy Chair. Will Travel.

Scott, Part of me is saying that the demo is working because of the patch. However, the bitter cynical side of me (which is much bigger and louder) is saying that the demo is working because it's a "stripped down" version of the full game. I really hope the patch will fix everything but I don't know if the 1.03 patch is dealing with lockups are just tweaking the game and squashing a few bugs(and apparently the bugs are few and far between if the game works on your system). I have a couple of things I want to try but I didn't get around to them last night. One, that I mentioned somewhere else is to remove the soundcard either from the profile or physically and the other, which I just thought of this morning, is to rename the wav directory and see if the game will run without it and if that helps the lockups. For some reason I have a hunch that it's a problem with my soundcard. Of course, my hunches are usually wrong. Cardinal Fang Have Comfy Chair. Will Travel.

Well for me anyway. For those of you who have been following the (so far) neverending saga of my struggle to get CM to run something new has been added. I got it in my head to download the latest CM demo and try to play that. Well I've just come from playing 5 turns with no sign of lockup. Now for most of you 5 turns won't sound like much but in my case I haven't been able to play through more than one turn without a lockup. This makes me wonder what makes the demo work on my machine and the full version lock up tight. BTS? Any ideas? Cardinal Fang No One Expects The Spanish Inquisition!

Pfalz XII, Nope, nothing overclocked on my machine. I think it MIGHT have something to do with the sound card. One of the error messages I got referred to a VXD file for my sound card and I reloaded an old game last night and in the readme it said that Yamaha based sound cards (like mine) cause that particular game to randomly crash. I should've specified that my sound card is a Yamaha based card in my system profile. When I get a chance I'm going to remove the sound card from my hardware profile (in lieu of removing the card physically) and see if it makes a difference. Schrullenhaft suggested removing the card awhile back (I think) but I didn't want to crack the case again. Cardinal Fang Have Comfy Chair. Will Travel.

It's obvious that some of us are having troubles with CM locking up on our systems. Currently there are three or four threads regarding this issue. I thought it might be helpful if those of us who are having trouble would post their system specifics in one thread. I also thought it might be helpful if some of those lucky folks who aren't having a problem would post their system's specifics as well to let us know what does work. Here's my system which does NOT work AMD K6-2 500 64MB PC100 RAM VooDoo 3 2000 PCI Card with 1.05 WHQL drivers Aopen AW724 PCI sound card with 1040 drivers Logitech Mouse with 8.32 drivers Kenwood 42X CD-ROm WIN98SE There are NO IRQ conflicts My lock ups can occur at anytime and with any level of hardware acceleration. Cardinal Fang Have Comfy Chair. Will Travel.