RockinHarry

A tripod mounted heavy machine gun is a complicated piece of machinery, that needs to be correctly sited to be effective. This is what the "deployed" state represents - it's not only on the tripod, but properly levelled and firmly positioned.

CM adds a time penalty to setting up machine guns inside buildings. This is supposed to abstract the difficulties of preparing the position - knocking out windows, moving furniture, creating a stable and raised base to fire from, etc.

Obviously it can still be a good idea to fire from buildings whilst deployed, but you need to allow for enough time to do it. The UI will show you this additional time. 

So just had a look at imported MDR in Blender. Only textures in use seem pasbrick and pasbrick1 BMPs. Blender files seem be the ones taken from the net or something. One can use these for detail editing and texturing to ones liking. But then likely needs some efforts to make them ready for Blender export. The ready made MDR´s seem largely simplified and then merged for Blender export versions. So retexturing only with the above mentioned BMP´s which leaves little to no options. Unless you try on detail UV map editing I guess. The remaining BMP belong to original Blender file and objects more detailed single sub objects/childs.
I´d replaced the 2 pasbrick files with my own ones (copy and enlargement of brick wall stock game file). This looks like this then:




This version is on some rubbled mole hill sort of. No building, but some (interior) walls added for giving some protection. Normal low brick and high brick walls added in CM 2D editor.




So that is what you can do with the MDR file alone assigning a single "one for all" texture.

So I tried the basic layout first. Both the ruins are size 16x16m so cover 2x2 action spots square. Dropped the MDR´s into flavor object type "large fountain", but ATM it´s not of much concern which flavor type to use.
Tried the enveloping modular building method with 2 times 8x16, 3 story high placed next to each other. The left one is flat rubble (Shift+Alt Click x3) and right one has 1 upper story left (Shift+Alt Click x2). Nudged the fake rubble flavor object so it fits well around the hollowed out modular building (removed most walls and windows, CNTRL - Click).


2D Editor view and setup

The buildings play as one´s used too, but off course looks need improvements. Guess Nigel´s Berlin mod is better suited for this than stock game textures used in my example. Also when pixeltroopers move up/down the staircase their floating in the air effect is more apparent here. Otherwise these should all play like normal.
But it all has interesting possibilities and other flavor - terrain combos got to be tried out yet. I guess Nigel has found a good number already.😎 

Lol No need to dispute!
 
I haven't said anything ethical about the mod itself. As has already been said, it's everyone's own business.
I was rather amused by how it looks under JM's Christmas tree when he finds something like that underneath!
 
 

I find it a little disturbing what's under your Christmas tree....😉

Can´t add to that Mark. 😅 Off course. But I´m speaking of a full game package UE 5.1, all inclusive. However...
UE 5.1 features look very interesting https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/unreal-engine-5-1-is-now-available
at least when it comes to basic hard- and software specs I feel prepared https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.1/en-US/hardware-and-software-specifications-for-unreal-engine/

Just found this under the tree !
JM
 

 
 
 

>thank you, yours advices, are really welcome !
 
JM

Gentlemen, (Ladies?)
for the next few days I'll be busy with the CM Holiday Tourney, casually playing games with friends, making a map or two (you know, actually using that tool 😉) and, oh, Christmas and family and all that real life stuff!
Thank you all very much for your kind words, your interest and your support over the last few... it's actually months now, isn't it? That was really inspiring! I know, there is still a lot to do until everything runs smooth enough, but we'll get there. 😉
In the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year! 🥳🎄🎆

And of course you are very welcome to only use the elevations part. 🙂 I see how doing the rest yourself can even be the fun part.
However, believe it or not, the main reason for me to develop this stuff is so I can use it myself. 😉 I'd like to do large maps for CMCW and I don't have the patience to place square kilometers of forest, miles of roads, hundreds of houses, etc. myself. Really no offense to the excellent scenario designers but if you compare e.g. the small, beautifully handcrafted maps of CMBN's Operation Epsom with the large maps in CMCW, the latter have much less detail. Some maps have only just one type of tree, for instance. For CMCW small maps are largely not an option and so I guess, even the authors had to sacrifice flavor in favor of making enough adequately sized maps within the time frame they were given. 
Now that's a matter of taste of course, some people are happy with abstracted maps. For me, immersion is an important part of the experience. Anyway, trust me, even with coming updates you will be able to only have elevations or roads or forests or whatever if you so choose. 😉
EDIT: But now let's not clutter Kohlenklau's thread with this kind of unrelated discussion.
EDIT 2: Aaand another note to self. Produce an overlay. Should be fairly easy to do...

Lovely footage! 😎 Wished we could disable building transparency. At least for screen capture purposes. Should be easy to do for BFC I think.

Thanks @Butschi If you got it all working then you´ll likely trigger many map makers releasing stuff that was deemed impossible or too laborous. Me included. 😁😎

we´ve come a long way since. 😎 Things that were deemed impossible by the "officials" are now daily bread and butter. Thanks to those who invented hacking MDR files and then @sbobovyc who made them accessible for everyone to try as well. Sorry to BFC, but that customer unfriendly monopoly had to be broken. I´d purchased far far less expensive games that allow database and geometry modding by default, so WTF?

My edits on crew member positions in halftracks was just minimal and I made sure that no intersections with vehicles "outer" armored type geomety takes places. I assume vehicles use sort of a hitbox used for various things and I think more detailed data could possibly be stored in META data section. Since one can´t see those hitboxes in Blender graphically, one can´t exclude that any crew position shift "can" have ill effects on their protction (from vehicle armor). That´s from my game testing and observations only. No new insights since then.

same here. No need to attempt a 100% conversion since even when all handplaced it´s simply impossible. Zig-Zag roads i.e or stuff that ain´t exactly 45 or 90 degrees orientation and such. I need nothing but terrain contours and slopes. What might possibly help for creating the map is load an exact copy of the topo map as an "o" layer in map editor. With slopes all in place I think one can work much faster and more acurate manually and don´t waste time on correcting stuff the auto generator can´t do appropriately. There´s always places one needs to or want adapting manually (i.e forests, built up areas) and when it´s just for visuals and eye candy. A very good approximation with some inaccuracies is perfectly fine to recreate a historical or what if type battle IMO.

I thought I would rattle off some of my thoughts and get some juices flowing!

My z folders, with an s, are filled with various "special editor overlay.bmp" files. Of course, they all get renamed a bit as they become "not the real one you use".
They collect up as a sort of memory lane of maps I may have INTENDED to do or maybe actually finished (I hope!).
Vitebsk special editor overlay.bmp
old ortona special editor overlay.bmp
when I get all Rambo, I sometimes go "seo krasny bor a.bmp" vs "seo kransy bor b.bmp"
...but the one you see when you load your specific CM title is THE special editor overlay.bmp
It is the pixel aspect ratio of the special editor overlay.bmp that MUST match to the CM dimensions meters aspect ratio.
if your map is 416m wide by 832m tall you can use any "special editor overlay.bmp" with pixels of the same "aspect ratio" which is 1 wide by 2 tall.
A very detailed special editor overlay.bmp could then be 1200 by 2400 pixels in shape. 400 to 800 is the same as 1200 to 2400 for the map editor,
It would not be stretched to fit! Use 1000 by 2400 and you would see it stretched oddly left to right.
You could grab a screenshot from google earth or an old WW2 Wehrmacht map and use paint.NET or whatever to get any image of the same ratio of pixels width to height.
My philosophy...
You can let your terrain map rectangle dictate your final CM map dimensions...
or 
You can let your desired CM map dimensions dictate what you must go grab from the the terrain map.
~~~~
I think you can see in the real world the areas of the terrain that will be a big time suck for little interest value payoff.
You then can decide to purposefully NOT have them in your map. Using the same 416m tall by 832m wide map TARGETED MAP SIZE, slightly move that "box" to the north to avoid some P.I.A.T. (pain in the arse-to create in CM) odd river fork! It just might not be worth it for the scenario.
For example: An Ardennes Bulge CM map could have SOME ugly terrain just to show some of the rugged nature of the offroads. But would you need just tons of it everywhere? At some point the exact modelling of the real terrain is so exhausting beyond the merits of showing it in the scenario. Right?
BUT with CMAutoEditor, maybe that Ardennes terrain creation is not so exhaustive and you can be leaning towards getting that exact lay of the land...
If I was able to be the "map initial elevation preparer cook" in the process, I would want to be working with a team that valued smaller maps and would not just go "huge" with multi km maps, battalion OOBs and a 2 hour scenario. The modern weapons of CMCW/BS/SF2 may demand this and maybe some long range WW2 armor or ATG action might be cool (Halfaya Pass) but MANY MANY battles/scenarios are fine for smaller maps, smaller OOBs and shorter lengths of time. A matter of taste to some degree of course.
Because after all, you still need a good AI plan for that "huge" scenario...
 
 

The overlay will stretch to fit the map size. Ideally you know the exact dimensions of the full source photo, and then set the map to those dimensions.

If the source photo is too small, then you'll need to create an image of the correct size in an editor, with a blank area around it, so that the overlay is representative of whatever the eventual size will be.

If the source photo is too large, you'll want to cut it down in an image editor to suit the scale you want to represent.

If the source photo represents everything you want to represent on the map, then you just need to change the map size to suit whatever the scale should be, and you'll be fine.

Buildings I actually prefer to place myself. Elevation, roads and rivers are another matter.

All true and wise. But the fact is that the number of released scenarios (for all CM games) is getting less and less. Personally I think the reason for that is that making a scenario is an exhausting process. And map making is the most exhausting part. Against the time the map is finished most scenario makers are suffering from a CM burn out. I know, because I have made a lot of rough and ready maps/scenarios for personal use, but never came close to releasing one of them, also because the attention and appreciation for newly released scenarios is limited. At the same time I enjoyed making and playing my own scenarios tremendously, sometimes even more than the most sophisticated and detailed scenarios from the small number of scenario masters of this forum (for which I feel nothing but admiration and gratitude btw).
I still think the only way to get more scenarios is to join forces. Hence my request to map makers who enjoy making maps, to help me with elevation maps of Goldap and Schirwindt. A map is a funny thing. It's like a painting, which can easily be 'overdone'. Layer after layer of paint and spending far too much time, until the joy is gone and it starts to feel like work, not hobby. My ambitions are far too large for my limited skills. The closest I ever came to a finished scenario was build on an elevation map which Kohlenklau/Phil made for me years and years ago. Still grateful for that, Phil.
Anyway, the only way to get more people into scenario making is collecting a 'Kampfgruppe' of people who enjoy research, making maps, experimenting with AI plans or another part of the process to produce a good scenario. Personally I will probably struggle on, not talented enough, a scenario dreamer indeed, but full of ambition. Goldap, Schirwindt, Lauban, Bautzen. Still so much interesting battles that haven't been covered enough. 
I'm delighted to see gifted modders like JM, NPye, Lucky Strike, RockinHarry and other mod magicians join forces and stimulating each other to perform miracles at the moment, not to mention the people taking part in this thread, who are simply brilliant and very helpful. The same would be possible with regard to scenario development.
Personally I will soldier on and I will get there eventually. And I know I have to learn myself, because we all have things to do. I will also learn to master this great elevation tool.
 

Well, doing the elevations for both maps doesn't cost much, just a few hours of CPU time. So from that point of view I'd give it a go, just out of curiosity.
The built up area chore is a thing, though. I mean, the-currently-still-not-quite-ready-enough new version of CMAutoEditor will do buildings for you but only if they are on the map. With aerial imagery it is easy enough to "paint" the buildings onto a map but if you only have a topographic map without any building outlines you'll probably end up placing them yourself in the Scenario Editor.
I also have to make a note to prioritize adding map rotation as a feature...

Some of my bloody moments ! (joking) 
Just a lillte procedure to created and apply some textures on a soldier !
Others advices are reallly welcome !
 

 

 
Than some references pictures (sadly but paying) of soldiers that I would like to added with so becaue I dont want to pay nothting I took only the pictures !
 

 

 

 

 
Than my models  Louis Vuiton, Cardin Diors, Castelbaljac, Versace, I have it all 😄 also Boss, this one was already in WW2 for the SS  german unitorms !
 

 
So lets start a try !

 
Procedure to apply sometimes some textures all is cut arms, head, hands like a puzzle...

 
Then apply and cut some textures step by step !

 
Also civilians 
 

 

 


 
To arrive to a result I think not too bad !
 
"Ladies" now is your time to take place !
 

 

 
Same with vehicles and so these guys can be one day on your screeen, I will also find the way to let it move here to replace the Bedford one day you will listening the engine on your screen !
 

 


 
So now you understand why I could need dead soldiers pictures !
 
 
We can already created this with mdr

 
 
or that 

Access to the mds we can created !
 
This 
 

 
or that 
 

In 1815 by Waterloo, to win or escape to the disaster of the battlefield, Wellington said
"God give me Blücher or give me the night" !
Me I say only BFC give me (us) the mds access (skeleton to created soldiers and peoples)!
Voila voila
JM
 
 

Weapons with the dead aren"t necessary, I think, JM. if it's simple to add, why not, but not really necessary.

New of the day 
 
Added two new candy eyes !
>Stalingrad Tractor
>Soviet dead soldier, with the German dead soldiers, they are only as alpha phase (only experiment) !
 
A word about dead soldiers
do you think they have to wearing weapons or let it without is important to finish the mod ?? 
When they are interresting and usefull for the game, I will prepare also airborne, british, ss, tanker, luftwaffe,...
for this I would like have some photos of dead soldiers from games, like I was already asked, the reason is, dead soldiers on the net are without textures, (that I have to created) and some models have already, but they are not free!! 
Just Infos of the Tractors !
https://mikesresearch.com/2021/05/30/soviet-stalinets-s-60-s-65-tractors/
 
Thus, just little touch left and right, than the mod with ambulances and red cross, and tents for my friend  @Aragorn2002,  @Artkin and (@NPye but you have to comeback to Stalingrad mod), this will be available soon,... of course, also, for all the others ones interrested ! (joking) 😝
and for @RockinHarry and @Lucky_Strike, the FO s list on my signature link !
JM
 

Hehe, I was hoping to make burnt ground as a flavor object, but they just don't really work very well because of the alpha transparency sucking big time for FOs. So I was making burnt textures for ground tiles, kind of have them working, but they're on a bit of a back burner for now. Difficulty was finding appropriate tiles for the variety of likely scenarios, I chose ploughed ground for towns and cities since it's unlikely to be needed but there was some random appearance of them that I needed to look at.
But Harry are you thinking of burnt vehicles? All of JM's excellent new models are blank canvases that we could scorch, but it would take some time to do. I'd have a go at some, but am just too busy and was unwell for the last week or so, have to make up some time and help get Nigel's Berlin over the line.
 

I will for sure make something that works, even if just for myself, and of course will release it eventually, I know there's at least one interested taker 😉