Gurra

This is what the event viewer tells me: Faulting application barbarossa to berlin.exe, version 0.0.0.0, faulting module barbarossa to berlin.exe, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00167121. I have had CMAK installed and working perfectly for 6 months. Installed CMBB two days ago. Today, first actual play, this happens. The game locks and when switching to desktop, that little pop up tells me there's an unhandle exception. I will try reinstalling directX. Could it be something else?

That was that. I will now refuse to play anymore until Tom's mods are finished.

Thanks very much. I'll be investigating this.

I was hoping that there would be some good site with insignias and stuff that would be useful when modding. Does anyone know of such a site? I tried searching but had no luck.

Since it was requested, I did a map that covers both Italy and Northern Europe - halo style - to go with the default interface graphics.

Oh yes! I know you´ve emailed me. I will see what I can do. Do you want in the same style as my Normandy map?

Uploaded to CMMODS. I missed all the black camo shermans from CMBO, so I tried it out on the Firefly in CMAK. If time and patience are with me, I might continue to do the rest of the Shermans. Wouldn´t it be nice to have for all Normandy scenarios?

I got tired of the plain yellow SPW 231 that has a nasty habit of showing up in a lot of the Normandy scenarios for CMAK, so I have posted a three tone camouflage version at CMMODS that is also weathered and with totally redone wheel hubs. They kind of begged for it. I must confess that I have been somewhat sloppy with the camo scheme's overall fitting, but it's not that appalling. Try it and see what you think.

Thanks, MikeyD. But you know damn well that I was going to be grateful for these skies

I´m glad you decided to give it a try. ...try SOME MORE! I´m actually humble, but have problems with attitude.

Ehh, you certainly got a point there : I was actually thinking of Battle of the Bulge (or the alps? and onwards...

Now it really starts to look like it. I don´t want to ask for too much, but will you be doing dusk and dawn + plus winter version of this too, in rapid time (please)?

Ahh... good. Downloading as I type. You know, you might as well do a Normandy set too, while your at it.

Yes, and seriously, this must be the most needed mod since people ever started working with shapes and colours. Where is it? I have been waiting for this a long time now.

Thanks for your help. I´m slowly making some progress now - with my first mod Since it is not so easy to teach subtle Photoshop techniques in a forum thread, is there any tutorial or tips and tricks site in particular that you could direct me to? There are loads of tutorial sites on the internet, but very few that concerns this kind of thing. I found an excellent one that covers the use of masks to apply camo, for instance, and that really boosted me. Anything that comes to mind?

Hmm. I would be glad to contribute to such a tutorial, but after some more testing, it seems I haven´t succeded. Andrew, exactly how should this kind of mask behave? After I have followed your instructions letter by letter - and I´m sure there is no mistake - I end up with a mask that behaves just as if I paint with an opacity set to about 50 - 60 percent. Is this the thing?

I think there was an answer to my hardships! Most interesting. I have succeded in creating something that to a certain degree preserves the details. Now I have to build on this. Thanks to Andrew, and thanks to all of you for your answers. (I might just be back... )

Again: Ahhhrrrrgggggmphfmohaaaa!!!!!!!! EMLIGHTEN ME PLEASE! (for the last time) Program: Photoshop 7.0 Vision: Various vehicle mods. Problem: Masking Used resources: Gautrek's How to mod(Basic tutorial), Photoshop literature, internet, trial and error, agressivness, despair, suicidal tendencies. Results so far: none. The tutorial on Gautrek's home page is decent enough, except for one thing-it´s Paint shop. And that is crucial when it comes to one thing; the masking, since the method described there doesn´t seem to work out in the same way in Photoshop. Now I need to know: all of you that create mods for vehicles, is there a simple way to mask the details, preserving the contours and so on, or do you actually spend hours and hours on creating a mask, bit by bit? Or do you (not) simply create your own details, by hand when needed to? Maybe I have got the wrong end of the stickle: I thought that masking was done in a couple of minutes, and then the actual deploying of art and camo was done in a couple of weeks. It´s not that I am totally unaware of various methods to achieve a result, at least theoratically, but it´s the fact that none of these methods do seem to work good enough. !!!!If anyone with insigt could just reveal to me how to achieve the same kind of masking in Photoshop as mentioned in Gautrek's mod tutorial, life would be perfect!!!! I bet Picasso never had to figure out how to put the brush against the canvas. :mad: If there isn´t a good answer to this, I will crawl back in to the cave and only come out to paint Tamiya plastic kits when I recive one for christmas. Gurra

Oh, that was sloppy of me. 13410_atfspw you can delete. That is just a rest from the workshop. It´s the MG, but I have chosen not to alter it in any way, and the game will use the summer version by default if no winter bmp is present. So: delete. The 63406x.bmp is very much a part of the mod. There shouldn´t be an 'x' there though. I will update the mod at CMMODS today. Sorry

Well, I for myself tend to be more interested in the west front era of the war than the Italy one, even though the latter one has it´s own interesting bits. That´s why I´ve done my own "mod set" that brings the illusion of the west front -partly a mix of old but good stuff for CMBO and partly own stuff. I´m working on a "light snow pack" with various elements that would fit nice with the Battle of the bulge. And these SPW´s are inspired by this setting.

Yes. Basically so. Three winter mods covering 250/1, 250/7 and 250/10. A must have for the Battle of the bulge... Gurra

I must modify my own words... Am I the only one that more often than not find myself enjoying the game for what it is in all its glory, rather than enjoying the amount of ones own success. I do actually give a damn about winning in this game, but I am also very much occupied with the sensation of how genuinly fantastic it is that this game really exist. And now that is does, I don´t see any limitations for the future as how to reach an even more convincingly illusion of WW2, building on what´s already there. I believe BFC are some clever and insightful people. And until they release the new iteration of the series, it would be true genius to release the KT in a patch to make CMAK the final and worthy omni-potential game environment in the CM universe. Right?

Hmm...comforting hearing I´m not the only one going through/having gone through obsessive optimizing. I´m thinking about what MikeyD said. He enjoyed playing with those "clown colour" skins. And then Jack Carr's point on the ASL mod, on which I agree totally. I can understand very well the joy of playing with those simple skins, it puts the weight very much on the tactics. So do ASL, as Jack Carr pointed out. If you have close to perfect graphics, you may loose that fine "board game tactics feeling", and instead focus on the visual action instead. And my conclusion still is: I want both in a good balance. And CMAK actually looks very nice, compared with CMBO. It was just the infantry that was a little stiff after yesterdays exercise...

Eyecandy.

How do you people experience Combat Mission's environment, and what are your opinions about the graphics importance? It came to mind, since I for myself spends quite some time trying to find mods and making own mods to make the game prettier, which leads to this neverending spiral of optimization, instead of a neverending spiral of play. This kind of habit is reasonably nice anyway, even though it is also a kind of hollow experience, since the game fests one imagines will be the result after hard work of graphics fiddling, very seldom come true. Instead, the new beautiful terrain elements or vehicles that´s been installed calls for actions taken with what is left unaffected. I reckon a lot of people nurse the opinion that the graphics are of no importance. Yes, I agree with that to a certain degree. Better graphics will not make CM a better game. That´s how it is. But, if the computing result and the mechanics of wargaming would be the only thing of interest, then I could more or less stick with a complicated board game. You can win or loose according to your skill in such a game. Am I the only one that more often than not don´t give a damn about whether I´m loosing or winning? What I do give a damn about is how I have experienced the journey to either victory or defeat. This is a bit exaggerated, but true in it´s essence. I remember there was a post in this forum a while ago about what different people wished for the next game engine when it arrives. I do not remember the people behind the posts, but somone asked for better animations, specifically for infantry in various situations. Another one said that he couldn´t care a less. I find that reply hard to believe. Wouldn´t we all want the possibility to control an environment with actors in it, that appears as almost the real thing? I played through Call of Duty some 6 months ago. That is at certain times a very good game. The play isn´t much different from any old FPS; the experience is a huge difference. Maybe the sound does the best job, or maybe, it is situations when you suddenly stop to look at the Germans you just shot: their faces express something. And that makes you all of a sudden very aware of what you are doing. Perhaps I wouldn´t want CM to include agony and death horror, but I would welcome true to life animations for both infantry and vehicles along with that much asked for "battle play back", because if that were the case, Combat Mission would be the BEST GAME EVER MADE IN ALL CATEGORIES. Action and intelligence nicely blended into one irresistable package. Perhaps this is a worn out issue, but I would really find it interesting to hear others opinions in this matter. Gurra