AndrewTF

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by sbg2112: :eek: is right! Now that you've got a terrific "factory-fresh" jeep, maybe you could put a little dirt and wear on it? Oh, and you've got some "pinkies" on it....<hr></blockquote> Thanks, and, uh, read the 2nd paragraph of my first post...

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Michael Dorosh: Showroom perfect, but I like it anyway! How about a slat-grille version, like the early MBs? Incidentally, how come none of the Commonwealth modders use khaki drab paint? All the restored vehicles I've seen have been more brown than green - including stuff in Jack Guthrie's collection, etc. Not a criticism, just a question. I thought Canadian (at least, possibly British) vehicles were painted this brown colour predominantly from 1944 on. Has anyone done serious research on colour chips? I love the pioneer tools on this one especially! You might want to put a bridging disc in place of the passenger side headlight, also - I believe that was standard for Brit and Canadian jeeps.<hr></blockquote> Thanks, Michael. This is just a slapped together fake commonwealth version. I just put Canadian unit markings on it and upside-down stars. I will adjust the paint color to a more khaki-brown color and add a bridging disc, per your suggestions, in the final version. And of course it's showroom clean! I just trotted it out of the factory this evening for the first time!

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Panzerman: Does the word "WOW" cover this? And to think that he made this mods on a MAC... <hr></blockquote> ...Hey, what can I say, the Mac is a superior piece of equipment. Excuse me, I have to go now and burn an offering at my shrine to Steve Jobs.

Oh, yeah: does anyone know the BMP number for the Jeep tire tread? If someone could let me know I'd appreciate it.

Ok, time for another preview. This time it's the hi-res Jeep mod that's been under wraps in the Top Secret Mod Development Lab for some time. (Translation: I started it a long time ago, got bored with it, but decided to finish it up now). It's not quite done yet--it needs a little fine tuning (like getting rid of excess pink spots), and some dirtying up. Mr. Gordon Molek has kindly agreed to do his famous "Mr. Freeze" act and winterize these babies when they're done. and let's not forget our Canadian brothers: (a British version will also be forthcoming).

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Rupert_2: Nice work, though they do look like bunch of Biffa Beef's from the Beano comic !! :eek: [ 11-07-2001: Message edited by: Rupert_2 ]<hr></blockquote> Arrgh--culture gap! I wish I knew what the Biffa Beef's are... :confused: I don't remember ever seeing the Beano comic in the States.

I thought it would be super-cool to make some tropical-issue shorts for the DAK. Unfortunately it looks pretty weird on the regular Heer soldiers, as the 3D model for the legs represents the trousers bloused out of leggings. It kind of works with the FJ, since they have straight legs: It still looks kind of funny, and from certain angles it looks like they're wearing khaki-colored spandex cyclists shorts, but I think it's acceptable enough to include for those of you twisted enough to want to use them. Dig the blue socks!

Does modding drive you insane or are modders insane to begin with? :confused: I guess it's kind of a chicken-or-the-egg question, isn't it? [ 11-06-2001: Message edited by: AndrewTF ]</p>

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gordon: Andrew, I KNOW you're agreeing with me. I just wanted to take the opportunity in responding to your post to make sure that noone else misconstrued my position. Sure, shoot me a copy of your Jeep mod and I'd be happy to take a look. Be warned, I'm just in the final testing of a "full monty" (all the usual suspects, UK, CA, US, etc.) Jeep mod based on Feldgrau's original Jeep mod and including whitewashed and snow-covered versions. Providing you don't consider it a conflict of interest, I'd be happy to drop some snow all over your Jeep. Gordon<hr></blockquote> I KNOW that you KNOW that I KNOW that you're agreeing with me, I think Maybe I'm just going insane. My Jeep, though far from perfect, is pretty swell, so I'll send it to you when it's ready. I kind of lost interest in it after starting on the uniform mods but I'd like to finish it some day and get that sense of accomplishment that a finished mod provides I think I also got overwhelmed by all the different variations that I could make. I'll narrow it down to US, British, Canadian, and generic. I'll also make one slathered with mud, for those who must have mud. And dust. BTW, I won't consider it a conflict of interest, as mine is a Ford Jeep and not a Willys model, so it's different.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gordon: Andrew, I couldn't agree more, and just wanted to make sure that everyone understood that I was in no way disparaging any form/method/style of modding over any other. They are all, as you put it, labors of love, and I appreciate them all. Gordon [ 11-06-2001: Message edited by: Gordon ]<hr></blockquote> Geez Gordon, I'm agreeing with you!!! I didn't think you were disparaging anyone. It's just that someone else declared some mods "real" mods and that got my bent out of shape. Just to be clear, even I don't think all mods are created equal. Some of the cut and paste jobs are pretty obvious and just plain look bad. I also think I kind of confused myself in my little diatribe--I guess I was also ranting against the [WHINE]it's not dirty/damaged/weathered enough[/WHINE] crowd. I understand that the "mudded and dusted" mod attitude is a valid one, but it gets pretty annoying when after spending days working on a mod somebody shoots you an e-mail saying for example "the uniform isn't wrinkled enough and looks too clean." Don't use them then. Better yet, modify them (with permission of course ) so they look the way you want. BTW, I also dig the ambush half-tracks. That's my new favorite vehicle mod BTW, again: I'm on the verge of (maybe) finishing the Jeep mod that I've been working on for months now. Would you be willing to maybe apply some groovy Gordon Molek winterizing on it like you did to Marco's and Fernando's vehicles? I really like the look but don't have the patience to figure out your technique.

I'm going to have to agree with Gordon and Michael--some dirt and wear and tear can be ok, but I like to see what the vehicles look like! I use the Gordon/Marco Shermans--gotta love that camo Firefly --as well as Fernando's Panthers and Pz IVs, etc. What's concerning me in this discussion is this this talk of "real" mods vs. "cut and paste". While I agree that there are some pretty obvious "cut and paste" jobs out there (like tanks with road wheels that go off at tthe wrong angle, etc.), I think that making this kind of a distinction does a disservice to many hard-working mod artists who do use this technique as a basis for their work. I use a sort of "cut and paste" technique to achive the photographic quality of my uniform mods, but this doesn't just involve plunking down a photo of a uniform (as someone once asserted about my German uniforms), but literally hours of retouching, painting, and fabricating in Photoshop done to achieve the end results. I imagine that the same amount of hard work goes into many other "cut and pasted" mods. Like most artistic endeavors the pain and sweat of mod creation is seldom seen, only the finished product, and this makes it look easy. As someone who creates mods in both "real" (Kübelwagen) and "cut and paste" (uniforms) styles, I can honestly say that sometimes what may seem the "easier" of the two is really more difficult to do, at least for me. Anyhow, sorry for rambling on, but this talk of "real" mods vs. "not-real(?)" mods got me going. Most, if not all mods are labors of love, made because they're something WE as mod artists want to see, and they are shared for free to the CM community. If you don't like what's out there, then do what I did and go make some of your own ! [steps down off soapbox]

One idle afternoon last week I made a CM map of the area of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park where I work--the museums, Japanses Tea Garden, Stow Lake, etc. It's kind of creepy just how accurate the maps can get. Previewing certain sections of the virtual Park was just like being there, only with lots of European buildings... Of course I made sure the weather was set to "fog"! I haven't actually made a scenario to go with it yet.

Shameless, self-serving bump.

I just finished Death Traps by Belton Cooper. It's a memoir of his experiences in an armored unit in the ETO, where he arrived in July, 1944. He worked in an armor maintenance and recovery unit, working at the front line looking for knocked out tanks to recover, repair, and reissue. It's a fascinating and sometimes gruesome (gotta clean out the inside of a knocked-out tank) look into the workings of US armored units, and a great read.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by MikeT: That is some lovely work. Care to do some freelance work for CMW? MikeT<hr></blockquote> Whattaya have in mind? My REAL freelance work is getting a little in the way of my CM mod work these days, but I'm game.

...of course the Luftwaffe is represented as well: I'd like to release it as a full North Africa "playset" for use with DFDR, so I'm working on the allies, too. It may be a while, though, as my copious spare time is limited these days.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Michael Dorosh: Are those desert boots, or are they ahistoric canvas gaiters? Desert boots would have laces, no?<hr></blockquote> No, they are historic canvas gaiters . DAK wore them with the low desert boots or regular Wehrmacht boots. The high desert boots that you're probably thinking of are proving difficult to model in CM, but I'm trying.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Cubbies Phan: Some notes: Tunic looks a bit too washed out to me. If you have some real live pics for reference then I might change my mind. [ 10-31-2001: Message edited by: Cubbies Phan ]<hr></blockquote> Umm. Ok. This version is supposed to look washed out, as that's how things got in the desert. It's not done yet, anyhow. If they had been ready to show at the time I would have posted pix of the dark version. I'm doing two sets, since people always whine that my uniform mods are not dirty/weathered/washed out enough, and then Maximus goes and makes a version with some weird filter applied to make them look "wrinkly." Patience. [ 10-31-2001: Message edited by: AndrewTF ] [ 11-07-2001: Message edited by: AndrewTF ]</p>

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Captain Wacky: Hey Andrew, whatever happened to your pants mod? It looked great!<hr></blockquote> Uh, I just moved and things have been a bit chaotic. I need to consolidate all the files and then upload them from work, as I lost my DSL connection when I moved out into the woods where I am now. Thanks for the reminder. I'll get them ready for release soon.

From the depths of Super Action Pack™ Products' ultra-top-secret Mod Development Lab comes a sneak preview of the Super Action Pack 5 playset for CMBO. As you can see it's still in development, but coming along nicely. Anyone wanna guess what the theme is this time? More to come... Should be available in time for Xmas. [ 11-07-2001: Message edited by: AndrewTF ]</p>

I've had the 8600 from new, and just resisted the temptation to buy a new Mac. I put in a Powerlogix ZIF card with a G3 400 processor, pumped up the RAM to (so far) to 416 MB, and added the Radeon card. It runs most everything pretty well, and outperforms or performs as well as most iMacs and G3 machines I've encountered. Apparently there is even a workaround to get OS X to run on machines without the G3/4 motherboard, so there may be life in the old 8600 yet. What's nice about these older machines is that they were made to be upgraded, with tons of expansion slots, etc. I friend of mine who runs his own special effects company out of his house (he used to be head of computer graphics at ILM) was still using heavily hot-rodded Performas for some tasks until very recently...

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gyrene: A quick to tell apart the original tray loader iMacs is this: Rev A (Original Bondi Blue):233 mhz, no microphone hole above screen, no notch on mouse button, metal cover on side covering mezzanine slot. Rev B (Still Bondi Blue color):All same as above except for built in microphone above screen. Bigger drive & better video card were a few of the internal differences. Rev C (Five colors):266 mhz, mezzanine slot gone. Finger notch on mouse button (To help find which way is up on hockeypuck) Bigger drive & better video card + faster CPU were other differences. Rev D (Five colors):333 mhz. Last of the tray loader iMacs, last iMac with removable (Thus upgradeable) CPU card. CPU speed was the main difference from th Rev C model. All tray loader iMacs have a 66mhz motherboard clock speed. The 350mhz Ruby & Indigo models were the next in line, the first slot loaders, along with the first DV model the 400mhz Graphite. - All have 8Mb of video RAM & faster video cards, one piece motherboards at 100mhz with integral CPU & PC100 memory replacing the older 144pin SO-DIMMs of the older iMacs. I wish Apple would put a 32mb Radeon on the current generation 700mhz iMacs & bump the motherboards up to 133mhz & the PC133 standard. That would be a sweet set up. Gyrene<hr></blockquote> Ah, thanks! It's the wife's computer, I'm just trying to get CM to run so my brother and I can drink beer and play two-player CM over my home network. I guess it is a Rev D, then. For some reason I thought they stopped at Rev C. Shows what I know. Yeah, I put a Radeon in my 8600, and it works great. Would be nice to have that in an iMac would be nice. It's still a great little computer and I don't think you can beat the performance for the price. I just talked a co-worker into buying one and turning away from the PC Dark Side...

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gyrene: Scroll'n half ( ) is right about the Open GL update. Are you sure you don't have a Rev D iMac? Rev C's are 266 mhz. Picky, beer-fueled post. Please ignore and move along. Gyrene<hr></blockquote> Hey, mine was a beer-fueled post, too! I always thought that this machine was a Rev C iMac, as it's the last of the original style. I could be wrong, as iMac taxonomy is not my strong point.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Schrullenhaft: What OS are you running ? Have you updated the ATI drivers and/or are you using the OpenGL extension that comes with the 1.12 patch (OpenGL 1.2.1) ? If you change the desktop resolution have you deleted the preferences file too ? Have you applied any graphic mods to your copy of CM on the iMac or are you using the default textures ?<hr></blockquote> Have not updated the ATI drivers--maybe that's the reason, as the cheesy ATI card in the iBook runs CM just fine, but of course it's running OS 9, not 8.6 as with the iMac. Thanks, this gives me something to start with.

I tried to search for this problem on the forum, but couldn't find anything. I'm getting a strange problem trying to play CM on a Rev C 333 G3 iMac--when starting a battle everything goes ok until I get to the "loading 3D graphics" screen. Eventually you can hear birds chirping and artillery rumbling but the scenario never fully loads and the loading screen (w/the flags) never goes away. Any ideas on what's causing this? :confused: Yes, I've tried setting the screen resolution to 640x480. The game runs just fine on my hot-rodded 8600 and on my iBook(!).