GunMod
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Posts posted by GunMod
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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.Originally posted by HENTZAU:Something you could try would be to pick up Irfanview http://www.irfanview.com/ and batch convert ALL the original tiles to 256 color bitmaps. I did that to CMBO the other day just to see what would happen and it didn't look bad at all. Really reduced the size of the files too. The ASL mods could even benefit from it. Irfanview batch converted every single tile in about three minutes, the pink stays pink so transparent tiles work fine too. Since its not sticking to one palette for every single file, 256 colors works fine for bitmaps in the game, IL2 FB only uses 256 colors in their aircraft, that should tell you something.
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.
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roflmao!!Originally posted by aka_tom_w:[QB] Hey!
Are you the guy that did the EXCELLENT Real Colours™ Mod
for CMBO and CMBB???
Because that was the BEST terrian mod for Macs and LCD screens
on Mac Laptops
will you do a Real Colours™ Mod for ALL of CMAK?
Was it you?
Welcome Back you are a Graphics MOD God Like Being!
-tom w
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!
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No no no.. The cat.. The cat was freaking hilariousOriginally posted by leakyD:[QB] Hey, I just can't get rid of the donkey, we got history, y'know?
"Are you Shrek?"
- Insert - cat licking himself looks up with leg still cocked up in the air
"For you Lady, I could be"
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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.........
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Lars, look for other threads on this as some screenies are posted in those messagesOriginally posted by Lars:How about a screenshot?
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Hey Guys,
Guess what...
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Come and get it!
http://games.internode.on.net/
Go to downloads sections.
Very fast server.
Thanks again Chris
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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.
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To Whom it May Concern:
I hereby officially close all PENG threads, consider them null and void, and announce myself supreme ruler.
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cough bump cough
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If you can grab the mod from Chris, your free to split it up into "sections" like you discribe.Originally posted by illo:Gunslinger,
could you post your subdued trees and treebases to http://cm.cozog.com/?
I think I can live without subdued vehicles etc.
But those trees look so much more realistic.
Just please keep the readme intact.
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I haven't been able to get a hold of Chris, the person I sent the mod to, so I need to know two things please:
Chris's website
and if the mod got posted.
Thanks
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I have no problems with anyone posting the mod anywhere they want as long as the follow the copyright and freeware (no charge) policy.
I actually had a company attempt to steal a mod I did for a commerical Operation Flashpoint add-on so I have to be very firm on the FREEWARE only policy or else I'll burn whoever does it like I did them
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I am assuming the mod has been ready guys?
Can someone give me Chris's website so I can see.
I haven't recieved any email from anyone about the mod, so please, someone let me know
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30? Total denial dude.Originally posted by Vader's Jester:Heh, heh, heh. I just went drinking with the hoodlums myself!
GS, my wife is three days older than you! How ya feel 'bout the big Three-Oh coming up?
Where is that awesome mod?!! :eek:
30 doesn't happen, it just sneaks up on you like a German bastage.
I'll be playing games when I'm 80 man. "I don't wanna grow-up" and I don't have to
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700+ megsOriginally posted by Agua:250mb? What does it come to on the disk? Just asking because the stock graphics are over 900mb.
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ROFLMAOOriginally posted by tracer:WOW!!, great work!!, One question though, how do you keep your wife ( or girl friend ) from leaving you? I start trying to get into modding, (and when your stll learning it's tough), next thing you know hours have went by and your other half is ready to kill you, LOL
Well, that is a tough question.
First of all, I'm disabled so I can't really go out and do stuff, so I do this.
Secondly, she would rather have me hiding away in my dungeon than running around with a bunch of hoodlums getting into trouble like drinking at bars or other things we guys like to do hehe.
Third of all, I would leave HER if she tried to make me stop
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As I have already explained, packing them into ZIPs would not work.
That 250 Ace exe hold almost 700 megs of data.
Ace compresses BMP much better than Zip or RAR.
If I were to break up the files into several smaller ones you would have a heck of a lot more to download.
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Sorry..
The only way that could be done is for me to recompress it and the way I have it compressed right now with WinAce it wouldn't be very cool.
To give you an example, the size of the file(s) is actually :
700+ megs !!!!
but Winace registered knocked that sucker down to 250 megs.
Can't ask for better than that.
I'm sure you would rather download one big 250 meg file than several that totals over 700 megs.
[ November 06, 2002, 01:44 AM: Message edited by: Gunslinger ]
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He is the one that came through with 250 megs for the RealColors mod.
I am uploading to him right now.
Should be finished in 5+ hours
Everyone give him a slap on the back
Low-Res Recommendations
in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps
Posted
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.