Fizou

Yep. I knew what you meant. My point was if you'd seen those movies enough those particular files would probably draw your ear. The second you hear the wav you are gonna go "Hey, that was such and such, from such and such movie, the scene where this and that happens" which in my opinion would take you out of the moment. The other problem would be getting clean versions without music and movie sounds being part of the clip.  And then there's the recording quality compared to other files. Mine, for example, aren't as clean sounding as some clips taken from other games. Like I said, it's all personal preference—what your ears enjoy. Someone could give it a try and see how well it sounds. Madmatt did an SPR mod for CMBO and it was so-so because of a lot of what I listed.
 
 
 
What's up Dietrich? Long time no see.
 
 
Mord.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cxtufr9i2tazqcn/HQS%202.1%20-%20Black%20Sea%20-%20Shock%20Force%20-%20Afghanistan.rar?dl=0     1. Put the "sound" in your Data/Z folder.  2. WATCH OUT! - If you have any sound modules you have to remove folders which mod changes, because sounds have changed names. Don't just copy and paste. If you do it both old and new sounds will remain!    - There are so many changes that too much to write about them (eg. I added the sound of flak for approaching aircraft )   just have fun;)     this version is almost ready, missing only the optional ambient sounds and noises for the Ukrainian infantry. Soon I will add approximately 50-100 sounds for Ukrainian infantry (radio chatter, etc.) - are mainly in Russian, as we know, many Ukrainians know only Russian language (mostly from the East) - Optional ambient sounds and vehicles   Please comment, it seems to me that everything is okay, but there's always something can be done badly

Thanks Mord and Vin, your words are much appreciated.
 
Vin, I also tried to fight the blurry distant textures (and tree differences) over and over again. Found a thing by chance: if you increase the resolution of the close texture (the one you see at closer distance, the "good" texture) you have to reduce the resolution (or dimensions) of the mini ground texture to reduce the visual difference.
 
For example: CMBS original terrain is 1024x1024 per tile, with the correspondent mini texture at 64x64 pixels. My higher resolution mod uses 2048x2048 closer textures, where the correspondent mini is sometimes a little 8x8 pixel image (!).
So I wonder this: considering that a large map, looked from far away, has more space covered by the "mini" textures than space covered by the large closer textures, is there really a big frame impact to the game engine -keeping in mind that there will be 8x8 pixel images instead of 64x64 at distace, and 2048x2048 at closer distance instead of 1024x1024?
I belive yes, there will still be an impact because the number of 8x8 Tiles needed to cover the 1024x1024 of a single closer tile is quite large.. (1.048.576 pixels), but, being of a smaller size it means that the far away mini squares will be many...
Not sure if all this profane and untechnical elaboration was clear...

Couldn't agree more Mord. Very good advice that greatly improves efficiency. I only wish I would have started saving templates, swatches, and organizing better any other references after making my first mod.
 
Another good piece of advice that can save lots of time depending on what you are doing is to use batch conversion commands when applicable. This can save lots of time. I'll be putting out a "right facing weapons" mod that better accommodates the text. After gathering all the weapon silhouettes using batch commands I converted all of them with just a few key strokes.
 
I'm downloading now Kieme. All looks very nice! I have some of your CMRT stuff too, so I am sure I will cherry pick to make a mix of what tiles I like best  with my current CMRT terrain mix + I have to get motivated to add a grid, and probably lower the resolution to eliminate terrain shimmer all together too. When it comes to terrain I go with whatever is the most distinct looking. I found that out long time ago the after I kept getting stuck in mud. This mod definitely looks the best I have seen in improving the separation between full and mini tiles for better draw distance look.

Absolutely the smartest and most important thing you can learn while modding. I can't count how many times I neglected to save templates thinking I'd never need them again. I learned that lesson well after redoing the CMBN portraits for like the third time and having to start completely from scratch each time. Now, I have templates with just heads, patches, you name it, so whenever I have to return to it I have a lot of the grunt work already complete. I won't make a mod now without having tons of templates saved for every little thing. It can save you tens upon tens of hours (as you know) having those files pre-made and ready to go...especially if you are updating something.
 
For anybody new to modding take this advice seriously, it will save you a lot of heartache.
 
BTW really nice work, Kieme.
 
 
 
Mord.

Glad you like this.
 
It's a hobby, but after some time spent modding CMSF and CMRT, after having learnt how to use the different instruments of a specific painting program, after collecting a lot of textures in a database, and after knowing quite well how the textures behave in game and what effectively is in the game, I must say that the modding process can be very fast; take the modular buildings, for example, I now use a simple method: find a good picture imaging a roughtly size of a 3-storey structure in game, medium size (smallr size will shrink the texture a bit, large size will stretch it); then mentally divide it in 3 parts and see if it can fit. If it does then I cut the part I need, resize it in a 2048x1536 image, or "master building texture" (which is exactly the size of the in game modular building, 3 storey high). Then I paste the image in a raw 2048x512 picture, make three of those (bottom/middle/top), and you got the most of the building done. Quick test in game (using a pre-made dedicated small map with buildings inside), check what it looks like near a soldier, check if it fits the other buildings, apply corrections to colors/definition/brightness etc., then add some weathering using decals. Then finish the details (such as balcony), find some matching door/window/longwindow from a pre-made database, finally make the normal maps using a free quick tool; one last in game check. The building is done. Could really make a lot of them, but if you need to make 30 clicks to find what you need it's not going to be pleasant to detail a scenario's map. That's why I will mod the 8 vanilla buildings and at max add 8 more new types, 15 clicks to browse the avilable buildings is more acceptable.

yes, it is "radio chatter" as the Americans and the Russians and the Poles .... - in addition, mods adapted to CMSF / CMA   Raiter   it was fixed, I will give it another version of the HQS for CMBN / CMFI / CMRT -

I could see where that would be kinda cool but a big problem is making everything gel together and I always aim for an overall aesthetic if that makes sense. As far as my voice mods go I try really hard to make the files unobtrusive to the ear. By that I mean, draw you in and immerse you but keep them generic enough that you don't get drawn to any one wav file. Essentially I want them in the background adding to the atmosphere not upfront in your face. If I had say some quotable snippets from movies in there I think it would break the realism. That's just my take on it. Once it's out there people can mix and match to get the best results for their own ears.
 
 
Mord.

Great news waclaw!

Thank you people, the buildings mod is 50% done, roads mod is 30% done, roofs mod not yet started, add-on for buildings is 50% done.
 
Meanwhile, this is the last ready to go mod I got, but I'm not 100% satisfied with it.
I wanted the modern concrete slabs in lieu of the vanilla blocks wall, because I belive that the original texture concept is more suited for a full urban setting, while in most cases we do need a modern wall to fit most situations and the concrete slabs are quite modern and common sight; the brick wall has Always been a troublemaker for me, you might want to consider this one as a gap filler (that's what I do) until someone comes up with a much better version:
 
Kieme CMBS alternative walls (HD) mod
 
Download link:
https://app.box.com/s/syqg4s9yz98y4vw8it85ik1b08fb2nh4
 
Changelog:
-new brick wall texture (modern red bricks) in HD
-new stone wall texture (concrete slabs) in HD
-new editor buttons for stone and brick walls
 
Notes:
-this mod is in HD (2x original texture size), despite that, it should have little impact on game performance since the original textures were of a very low resolution.
 
Previews:

Thanks, Splinty.
 
I have something in mind but need the right time to do it. I may actually be able to get some other "actors" involved this time. And if I do get then I'll probably be able to update CMBN's mod as well. But like I said, it's the timing, I live in an apartment attached to my uncle's house so I need to wait until he takes off (which should be fairly soon), I doubt he'd understand all the screaming coming through the walls.
 
 
 
Mord.

Kieme CMBS improved doodads mod
 
Download link:
https://app.box.com/s/6zw49zm80pzq860yd3q3p05qdl9ld8ws
 
Changelog:
-new bush in doodad brush
-new bush and weeds in doodad brush2
-new clover doodad
-reworked flowers4
-new marsh grass doodad
-new marsh reeds doodad
-new rock doodad
-new plant in weed doodads
-desaturated weed doodads
 
Preview:

I have one in the works, needs a little tightening up but will be available soon:
 

in a few days will be;) I have everything ready (voice for Americans and Russians - about 700 tones), but for now downloading a game with stunning speed, too 60kb / s (about 12 hours)
 
ps. will also be all the rest (motors, environment, guns, explosions etc - some 1,200 tones - 700mb)   - I have sounds for Polish infantry (I hope that in the next module)

Kieme CMBS alternative crops mod
 
Download link:
https://app.box.com/s/7aia2idxkivf2hfm8r7w6dzrnsf11piz
 
Changelog:
-new crop sunflowers (changes cabbages)
-new crop corn (changes potatoes)
-new texture for grain n.2
-sharpened texture of grain n.1
-new texture for sugarbeets
-new editor buttons
-new editor tiles

Kieme CMBS ground mod (HD)
 
Download links:
 
Part 1
https://app.box.com/s/ywtyid56b1t7dphm4fg7et7668q0egdg
Part 2
https://app.box.com/s/2arjajmarl8gd33j3j3bad939iks1n9l
 
Changelog:
-new textures for all terrain tiles (27) in HD (2x original resolution)
-new crater texture
-new distant ground texture
-new mini tiles
-new editor tiles for hard ground, pavement and pavement2
-new editor buttons for pavement and pavement2
Notes:
-download split in two for uploading reasons, can be placed in the same folder;
-this mod does not include a texture for "ground cobblestones", I suggest to use Aris' Combat Mission Red Thunder ground mod's cobblestone texture to improve over the original;
-this mod is in HD, which means its contents have 2x (or even 4x) the resolution of the original textures, therefore it will require more computer resources overe the official suggested requirements to be used without performance drops;

Gentlemen,
 
just a short impression of a new project I started today: a massive 4 x 3 KM map of the infamous Donezk Airport and its industrial/commercial surroundings and villages.
The map is based on this google map area:
 

 
 
A very early WIP impression:
 


 
Dont´t hold your breath: this will take a few weeks to finish......
 
Cheers
 
Tom aka TCMHQ
 
 

To bring it back down onto the street, a little elaboration on the plight of the Shia woman who apparently started this whole discussion.  I didn't actually relate the entire story. 
 
So, her father was a Shia doctor, who helped people in Baghdad, regardless of their sect or issue.  The Sunni insurgents had presented him with 'get out of town' warnings which he chose to ignore.  They abducted him, drove him around for a bit.  Stopped in the middle of a busy main street and put him out of the car.  They put a revolver in his mouth and pulled the trigger until it was empty.  We showed up about ten minutes later.  She arrived a minute or two after us.  
 
She was hysterical - who wouldn't be?  Her father had just been murdered.  She spoke fluent English, which was a bit unfortunate.  Hysterical behaviour in a foreign language is much easier to remain aloof from.  No one is immune to their emotions when seeing the results of such a killing.  Combat experience encourages keeping a lid on these emotions in order to remain focused on the job.  Deal with the emotion later in a safer environment.  Every member of our patrol felt a degree of compassion for this woman.  It would have been much easier for us to treat it as just another part of the job ("Best job I ever had...") if we could have treated her grief as background noise.  Not possible when she addresses you in your native tongue.  We did what we could to help and console her.  
 
Her remarks to us were all over the map.  Her main accusation was that we had invaded her country, assumed responsibility for its stability and we were doing a piss poor job.  Why were we allowing things like this to happen?  Where was the security that was needed in order to truly rebuild?  I really cannot defend against this; she was correct.  Even the following year when we began the "surge" we only had perhaps 1/3 of the personnel necessary to actually stabilize a place like that with a simmering ethnic hatred beginning to boil over.  We literally needed to have a squad on every street corner, learning the language, knowing the names and faces of everyone who lived there, and knowing who was actually doing what.  Driving around in heavy armored vehicles based out of mega-FOBs specifically designed to insulate us from the (hostile) population was sort of the exact opposite of what was needed.  However, I also have no desire to see the US commit the truly necessary 750,000 or so Soldiers  that were truly needed for US forces to stabilize Iraq.  Had we done so, we would still be there, and our 5k KIA would seem paltry in comparison to how many would have died actually doing the job right.  America didn't create the instability; we just catalyzed it by removing the oppressive regime that was keeping a lid on it.  The problem is the Iraqis themselves, not us.  
 
Once we had respectfully placed her father's remains in a body bag, and loaded him (at my direction) in the back of HMMWV, I asked her what she would like us to do.  At her request, we took him to the local Iraqi hospital.  After some hesitation ('can I likely survive being seen riding in a US HMMWV') she accepted our offer to ride with us. When we finally left her at the hospital, she was thankful for the little we had done for her.  My guys really were a bit miffed that I had created a gory mess that they would have to clean up in the back of the truck.  Their casual bitching about it was part of them trying to cope, to make it seem less tragic than it really was.  
 
In my minds eye, I can still see her eyes flash when she spoke to me, and the way she alternated between impotent rage and overwhelming grief.  I feel for her to this day, and hope that she survived.  If she stayed, and if she survived, I am confidant that she is doing something to help the situation, not further hinder it.  No real basis for this, just a feeling.  

Ever since I got a look at how RA forces look, I've been meaning to get them looking right. Currently the Russian army adopted one single color scheme seen here:
 

 
Current vehicles, I feel, are too bright (green shade), or too grey. This is my investigation into the tint that vehicles should have:
 

Noticing how the PKM gunner doesn't stand out from the rest of the vehicle (as in the picture), I think I'm on the right track, but being new to CM texturing, I'd like to hear input from local experts. Please ignore green windows and rims, this is just a color demonstration  .
For comparison, this is how current Tigr's look:
 

Roll tape, please:
 


 
If that's not trying to stir things up, then I don't know what is. The people who assassinated her father are the ones to blame and them alone. 

Thank you people.
 
Hopefully, I will find a good place to start uploading today.
 
 
Meanwhile, 4th building done, it's the only wooden one I'd like to keep (could port 4 of them from CMRT). I really dislike wooden modular buildings, because in most cases modulars are large structures, and large wooden structures are uncommon to say the least.

 

P

To the original comment on 'terrorists.'  Don't care what you call them, when someone is shooting at you you should not feel any particular remorse at shooting back.

Active-duty 24 year US Army Armor Lieutenant Colonel.  55ish total months deployed to combat zone, Kuwait, Iraq, AFG, since 9-11.  7 months in Bosnia (near Tuzla) as Tank Company CDR in 1st CAV in 1999 during Kosovo crisis.  200+ combat patrols in Baghdad in 2006 as Cav Squadron S-3.  Been hit by multiple IEDs on my vehicle, just missed getting SVESTed in Kunar AFG, shelled, mortared and RPG'ed on FOB and off, shot at, shot, rocks thrown at me, cursed, flipped off and given the evil eye on more than one occasion.  To the best of my knowledge no one has ever thrown a grenade at me or dropped a bomb on me.  Got to shoot my rifle at bad guys on exactly one instance in Kunduz, N. AFG in 2010.  Pretty sure I missed (got off about a half mag with my M-4 at 800ish meters at unseen enemy) but you never know.  Got shot in the chest by an IIS Iraqi Sniper with an SVD in Baghdad in 2006.  Bullet hit above my ESAPI and struck an aluminum rock climbing carabiner that was holding my M-4 on my vest.  Shattered that, and then penetrated 7 of 9 layers of flexible Kevlar in the vest.  Came in at a nice shallow angle so it didn't quite penetrate.  Knocked me A** over tea-kettle, and hurt me pretty bad.  3d degree burn on my chest from the impact, but 3 days recovery and good to go.  3mm left or right and I'm Maus tot (dead as a mouse).  Scary part is I know guys who got closer to dead than me.  Most fear I ever felt in combat was getting out of the armored HMMWV on first daylight patrol out after I got hit. 
 
Never scared when getting shot at, although apprehensive on a few instances.  Got in an ambush once - 'idiots' shooting at us in our uparmored trucks (baiting us into IED ambush - worked too!).  I saw a guy shooting at us, and my gunner was missing him.  I wanted so bad to open the door of the truck and snap one into his head with my M-4.  But I knew there were other guys shooting at us from other angles that I had not identified, and I decided (correctly) that my job was to lead the patrol, not get zapped shooting at the one damn insurgent I could see.  So I stayed where I was and bravely and brilliantly led the patrol straight into the IEDs!  My gunner got knocked unconscious (again) but thankfully no one else got hurt.  Extraordinarily frustrating to get hit with IEDs or shelled and be completely incapable of fighting back.  We were glad afterwards (including my gunner) that we at least got to shoot at them.   
 
On gore; slipped and fell on a chunk of fat blown out of a civilian guy's abdomen once at a VBIED scene.  If I hadn't fallen, I would have been out from behind cover when the 60mm round landed a dozen or so meters away a couple seconds later.  Fretted for months over the stain it left on my boot. Nothing would get it out.  We had to pick up an assasinated shia doctor once in Baghdad, whose body the insurgents left lying in the road.  Put him in a bag, just as his 20ish nurse daughter arrived on scene, going understandably nuts.  Naturally, she spoke fluent English and wasn't shy about laying blame for her father's death on the Yankee thugs who had invaded her country in the first place (as opposed to the Sunni insurgents who killed her dad just for being a shia).  Remember my troops became quite unhappy when I told them they had to put the body bag inside the HMMWV out of respect so we could take him to the morgue at the Iraqi hospital.  Doubly pissed at me when the bag leaked inside the HMMWV.  In Kunar, watched a guy pick up SVEST bomber's boot, leg still attached, and put in an ambulance.  War is gory.
 
Biggest fear - seeing kids get hurt.  I've dealt with seeing US troops hurt and killed - we all volunteered at some point, so it is bad but not unbearable for me.  Admittedly, never had a close friend killed while I was around, though an Afghan Army LT murdered my former company XO in AFG last year - I was pretty upset when I heard, but I was stateside at the time.  Adults getting hurt, well we all take our chances right?  It is a war.  Kids getting hurt sucks.  I have two kids.  I love them, and I just can't wrap my head around the idea of them or others like them getting hurt by us adult's messes.  My boss in Baghdad had a lady come up and ask him to get his medic to 'fix' her 1 year old son who got winged in the head by the AK round the insurgents used to assassinate her husband.  No, one year old kids don't survive getting 'winged' by an AK round.  He wound up gently holding this poor child's lifeless body for way too long, while trying to console her and explain that our medics could not bring him back.  I missed being there by about two minutes.  Have thanked God for that mercy ever since. 
 
Spookiest moment - clearing one of Saddam's command and control bunkers in Ameriyah.  Was very much like a scene out of Half-Life.  Big, dark concrete bunker that just looked like it belonged in a 1P shooter. 
 
Most vivid memory - locking and loading and doing last minute PCC's before rolling out the entry control point for patrols.  I remember the very distinct smells of diesel exhaust, Baghdad dust, FOB + local environment, the heat, the feel of the M4 in my hands, the 'tough' feel of my combat gloves, the weight of the HMMWV door, the taste of stale bottled water,  the tone of the radio speaker and the transition from casual Soldier banter to ready reports from the patrol and my crew.  The mental transition from relaxed and 'safe' on the FOB, to alert and singularly focused as we roll through the gate, accepting the grinding fatigue that we know is to come.
 
Concur with much of PzSauer's overall comments on US combat experience, leadership and psyche.  Love many aspects of the Army, hate others.  Best and worst leaders I've ever known were all US Army.  Constantly torn between the desire to go 'over' again and the love and opportunity of enjoying my life with my family.  Family is winning so far... 

Please