GunMod

Well, DirectX uses images uncompressed in 32bit format nativly. (16.7 million colors) Not being privy to the actual code used in CMAK I can't say if CMAK uses compressed texture formats or not. The 2x2 rule (where images have to be dividable by 2, 64x64, 128x128, etc) is for when compression is used. If texture compression is not used then the 2x2 rule isn't neccesary. Looking at the exe code with a hex editor I do not see any calls to texture compression. That doesn't mean it isn't there, I just can't find it. So I "think" the CMAK uses very primative DirectX 3D and doesn't full with the whole texture compression mess. That's good and bad. The good thing is the engine doesn't have to uncompress a texture before using it which allows fast load times. The bad thing is that texture sizes are effected by your system. The more RAM and video ram you have the bigger the textures can be. That's why new games use texture compression so they can have a 1024x1024 texture that uses about 64 megs of RAM only use a tenth of that. So what does that all mean to you? It means that really high texture sizes (1024x1024) and above will slow you down. It means you don't have to worry about the divide by 2 rule. It also means textures are considered to be 32 bit, checked against a hard coded palette (like how pink is transparent) to be shown in game. That means that even if you convert all the textures to 256 color ( 8 bit) the engine still has to apply its color rules to the texture so that transparency rules will work. So while you may save some space by using 256 color BMP's you wont speed the game up because the engine assumes all BMP's are the same. No, we have the problem of MipMaps. Does the game use Mipmapping? I think so. So does that mean the textures are in fact compressed? No. You can have a texture with mipmaps without it being compressed. Here is my "guess" on how the engine works. It takes a BMP in the BMP folder. It assigns it a set Mipmap regardless of color or size. I wish we could use DDS textures because you can define the mipmapping yourself to make really crisp textures. Now if your going for color accuracy what you would do is make a palette that encompasses all the major colors your BMP's would use. Convert all images to this new pallete. THis would keep all hues (colors) uniform in the game. For example, say you make Bush A, B, and C Bush A and C need to be the same colors. Instead of having to load up Bush A and Bush C and compare the colors you could make a master pallete and convert Bush A and C to this pallete and you would know that both bushes have the same colors. That of course has nothing to do with how the engine handles the files, it's just a way for you to make colors that flow. At the end of the day, the conclusion is that 256 color BMP's are only going to hurt you because you are limiting yourself to 256 colors with the only benefit being smaller size files. As for SIZE? Yes, Size does matter! A 128x128 texture will use half the memory of a 256x256 texture. a 128x128 texture uses 1/4 the memory of a 1024x1024 texture and so on. So if you can get away with smaller textures, do it. It does make an impact on performance. Colors = No Impact Size = Biggest Impact Now, all of this is by looking at hard coded data that I don't have the source to, so BF feel free to step in here and tell me if I'm dead wrong. I'm just going by what I can see. I hope that wasn't too techy. I'm not a very good teacher.

The biggest problem with doingthat, is IF you do not use a common palette file is the game engine still has to render in 16.7 million colors, so it has to convert the 256 colors up to 16.7 so your not really saving graphics bandwidth. You are saving harddrive real estate but that's it. Since the engine is DirectX and not software based using less than 16.7 doesn't help the game engine at all. The BIGGEST thing you can do to save graphics bandwidth is the actual size of the file. In other words a 512x512 size bmp knocked down to 256x256 and so on.

roflmao!! Yes, that be me And yes Tom, I think I might do a "real color" tm color mod for cmak Nice to see you remember me!

No no no.. The cat.. The cat was freaking hilarious "Are you Shrek?" - Insert - cat licking himself looks up with leg still cocked up in the air "For you Lady, I could be"

Ahh Stingray, First I have to have someone tell me "it can't be done" then I have to have a "Cease and Desist" order from Codemasters or Ubisoft to really get my modding blood flowing Anyone got an ideas of what CMAK is needing? .... warms up hexeditor... .... engages PSP 8........ .... inits 3DS MAX........ .... Crashes BSOD.........

I agree a 100% with you Kobra. A while back I was looking for some games to buy online and unless you want to play Bubble Pop or some other clikc click click game their just isn't a market for digital purchase of games. I can't understand why producers haven't gone this route. the tech is their for it, and the money savings would be huge. It's a lot easier to sell a guy a game for $50 online at 3:00 am than to have him wait until he gets off work, drives to the store, hope they have one in stock, the buy it. I've been disabled for 3 years now and it's very difficult for me to get out of the house so I'm limited to what I can find online, or ordering from a .com then waitng a week for it to ship and paying the shipping fees. I think digital downloads would be the next consumer wave that would sell big.

Runyan99, What's wrong with E-donkey/Emule? It's not adware in any sense. I use it a lot. I run Adaware, Spybot, Norton, Spyware Guard and none of them showed any problems with edonkey or emule once it was installed.

Wow, almost 3, 4 years since I've been on here hasn't? Just picked up CMAK and it's sweeet! Since I mod so much I changed my nicj from Gunslinger to GunMod for some of you old timers that might remember me. BTW, I have some free time for beta testing (like CM2) if any devs want to offload some work my way. cough, hint, spasm, red flag, cough cough cough

I have sent the 541k zip file to Chris for the pink problems I have been emailed about. After installing this patch, let me know if you find anything else. README: Thanks to: Chris Merchant Basil Kimmo Nummela Fizes some "pink" areas for RealColor Mod for CMBB Just extract contents to your CMBB\BMP folder. Allow it to overwrite the files.

Lars, look for other threads on this as some screenies are posted in those messages

Hey Guys, Guess what...

Come and get it! http://games.internode.on.net/ Go to downloads sections. Very fast server. Thanks again Chris

That would be true except for the fact that that is not all that I did. I also changed some of the graphics, for example, the flags, the splash screen and a few other files here and there. So rather than list every file I changed completely, I just encompassed the whole mod process as copyright.

To Whom it May Concern: I hereby officially close all PENG threads, consider them null and void, and announce myself supreme ruler.

cough bump cough