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Looking for Bitmap Charts


DARoot

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Greetings, All.

Having come back to the "classic" CM games after a long hiatus [i tried the Demos of CMBN and CMFI, and found I prefer the gameplay in the originals, and am certainly more familiar with them], I've now caught the "modding bug."

Anyway ....

I need some information:

(1) To the best of your collective knowledge, has anyone posted a comprehensive guide to the various bitmap numbers in CMAK (and CMBB) showing what they correspond to in-game? I have 2 such Guides/Lists for CMBO, that I downloaded from the old "Combat Missions" website back in

2001, and they have been VERY handy references. [One was by Manx and Wolfe, which also listed all the mods that applied to, say, the Panzer IVG/Panzer IVH/Panzer IVJ]. The other I don't remember the author [it just categorized the bitmaps as, for example, "Trees -- 500s" or "Water -- 641-646 [Ford = 673]."

One of them also highlighted all the bmp conflicts (such as between British and American Shermans).

I've searched, but can't find anything like this nowadays [Did find some "templates" for creating scenarios, though].

If you've got something like this on your hard drive or a backup disk someplace, or know of a download link that still works, could you please post it?

[The crew (Streety, et. al.) that produced the "Western Front Total Conversion" for CMAK MUST have had/made something like that to help them keep track of all those 9,000+ CMAK bitmaps they changed in their mod. If anybody on that team is listening, would you be willing to share?]

If not, I'll have to try to make my own [i'll start with the CMMOS "FileList" text files, and work through the entire CMAK BMP folder].

Big job. And then, there's the in-game testing to double-check ("discount doublecheck?) ... You can save me a lot of work if you know where I can find a Bitmap Chart that somebody has already done.

I really need one for what I want to do.

(2) Has anyone done any work in a hexeditor, to locate and attempt to edit the Unit and Vehicle names and specs?

[We can assign special "Unit Names" in the Scenario Editor, but cannot change the display of (for example) "Marder II" to "IJA Type I Ho-Ni", or give it a different gun, or faster/slower speed].

Yes, I know we cannot distribute "hacked" versions of the CMBO-CMBB-CMAK executables.

I'm asking about,er...,"Mini-Tutorial" type guidance, that us End-Users can use to make changes for our own selfs only.

DARoot

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Hi DARoot,

I think all the bitmap number and availability charts (for both CMBB and CMAK) that I refer to for my work are from here: http://www.webandofbrothers.de/tablescharts.htm

Plus there's some other interesting stuff on that page.

But note that there's no uniform data - its just for the vehicles and armour. And note that some vehicles/armour numbers on these simple spreadsheets are a bit messed up because they don't always take account of the models that share bitmaps. And they don't include winter numbers (I think you need to add 50,000 to the summer bitmap number but would have to double-check that as it's been a while).

I've asked around for a uniform list but no luck - I should have made my own up while modding but instead did it all by trial and error and taking my cue for the right uniform numbers from David Inglett's and Andrew Fox's mods.

Oh, by the way, I'm afraid there was no "team" as such for the Western Front Total Conversion mod - it was just me, but I also reused/remodded (or otherwise built on) lots of others' previous mods or ideas in addition to all my own twiddling, so I wanted to properly credit them all.

As far as I know you can't edit the game data - I once tried to edit the infantrymen's names (by opening the .exe application in various text editors) but although I could find and change the names this way, the .exe file thereafter doesn't run. But I'm no expert - a program geek might be able to do it with what you mention, but Battlefront might not be too happy. I've asked Battlefront if they'd be interested in an update (or release of code etc) and they declined.

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You're welcome. Just thought I'd qualify my comment about those spreadsheets - any minor messing up is not down to whoever made the charts but instead mostly due to the game's sometimes slightly screwy numbering system, some (seemingly unused) residual CMBB bitmaps in the CMAK set, and the sharing of some bitmaps (especially artillery, which is probably why they aren't in the charts either - just too messy).

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Yes, you are quite right. I've already encountered recognizable discrepancies in the CMMOS "FileLists" for CMAK uniform graphics (and, they generally don't include the helmet bitmaps, which means checking out a few of the individual uniform mods from the GreenAsJade download site -- we stand on the shoulders of giants who have gone before), and some "extra" unused bitmaps in the CMAK BMP folder (possible leftovers from the CMBB engine, you say?), all of which needs to be sorted...

I've already begun my little project, and discovered some very interesting things that I wasn't aware of, or seen documented in other posts on this Forum [although, admittedly, I have not read EVERYTHING here yet ....] --

-- The "default" BMP folder in CMAK v1.04 contains 7,100 separate bitmap files [numbered 0 through 503516];

-- Infantry/soldier uniforms span bitmap numbers 9000 - 9997 (with some skips), but the "default" CMAK contains NO "winterized" uniforms [i haven't checked the vehicles yet, but the terrain bitmaps (trees, ground, etc.) DO contain "winter" versions].

This helps to (partially) explain why the "from the factory" CMAK has 7,100 bitmaps, but your [Streety's] "Western Front for CMAK" mod contains over 9,000 bitmaps [because you DID include them, as well as some "alternatives"];

-- "Winterized" infantry uniforms are formed by adding a "5" to the beginning of the corresponding "default" uniform bitmap [e.g., US infantry bitmap 9506 becomes 59506 for the "winter" version];

-- Somebody, somewhere, discovered this. It's not documented in the CMAK manual (and is different from CMBO, which added "1" to the beginning of the existing bitmap number to form a "winter" version), but is read by the Game Engine and works, so -- we don't ask too many questions ....;

Just goes to show you -- there really is no substitute for "trial-and-error" and "do-it-yourself"....

Another interesting thing I learned -- Trying to pin down exactly when "Early War," "Mid-War," and "Late-War" uniform transitions occurred (and whether the change applied to all troops at the same time, or to each nation, or region, individually), I discovered that it is possible to "finagle" the Scenario Editor and the Game Engine to make troops (and formations) appear at different times OUTSIDE of the Game's default "Availability" parameters -- with some caveats.

[Choosing "All Regions" in Parameters of the Scenario Editor allows access to all troops of all nations, regardless of their historical availability in that Region, but the Timeframes permitted are still restricted -- e.g., no Canadians available anywhere until July 1943].

Example -- CMAK spans July 1940 through May 1945. US troops first become available for assignment to scenarios in November 1942. They use "Early War" uniform bitmaps [CMMOS Set 1] from November 1942 - May 1943 inclusive; They use "Mid-War" uniform bitmaps [CMMOS Set 2] from July 1943 - April 1944, and "Late War [CMMOS Set 3] from May 1944 - May 1945.

[And CMAK makes NO troops available from any nation in June 1943]. US Airborne are only available Mid and Late.

However, you can "force" the Game Engine to recognize (for example) the US "Rifle Squad '45" formation even in December 1941 [although they will wear the "Early War" US uniforms], by manipulating the Scenario file a few times.

Still fiddling with this -- Got some VERY strange uniforms on Italian Motorized troops in 1944 [italians are not usually available after August 1943], but the regular Italian Infantry was fine in 1944.

We learn by doing.

DARoot

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Hmmm, that's some interesting finds via the Editor! Hardly ever use it myself - I mainly live in solo-gamer Quick Battle world.

I don't use CMMOS so can't comment there.

Yes, over 9000 bitmaps in Western Front and that's not even a complete replacement of CMAK (i.e., desert buildings and terrain are bypassed, and users should themselves also add Gurra's Westfront interface mod). No, there's no winterised uniform, vehicle or armour bitmaps in the default CMAK set except for tracks and tyres (I think). Yes, the winter-ability of the CMAK .exe to allow winterised bitmaps is a legacy from CMBB's variation of CMBO.

Yes adding the 5 in front of the uniform is the same as adding 50,000 to the number (i.e. 9,005 + 50,000 = 59005) and its probably more useful to think of it as adding 50,000 because when you get to the late-war armour, some winter numbers start 5, 6, 15 or 16, depending on how low or high the summer/default bitmap was numbered, but when you add 50,000 you get the right winter number for all uniforms and armour. but NOTE that this does not include the armour side-view icon bitmaps that appear down on the interface when you select a piece of armour. Some mods incorrectly include a winterised version of that icon but it doesn't show in CMAK.

And adding 500 to the summer building number gets you the correct winter number. But the other terrain bitmaps are not part of that numbering scheme - and they (and the winter buildings) are not game-optional (i.e. if missing you get a blank or failure instead of the game simply reverting to show the summer version like it does for uniforms or armour).

Another thing I found is that if you don't use the Italy armour bitmap numbers that are in the 100,000s (i.e. those that are so numbered to make them different from where an early-war desert version of the same model also exists), and then load an Italy game, the game gives you the earlier bitmap. I suspect CMBB would act in the same way (i.e. let you keep the grau version into the late-war). I explored this because for Western Front you could remove the 100,000s summer/default numbers and keep the German grau and BritCom green if you wanted. However, when doing that in CMAK you'd have to keep (and possibly renumber - i.e. subtract 100,000) from any of the 100,000s winterised late-war versions if you have and want to still use them.

And I don't think I ever quite figured out the early-mid-late transitions except to vaguely appreciate that "early" was desert, "mid" was 1943-Italy and "late" was 1944-45. But I'm sure you've already reached that point.

There's no June 1943 fighting in CMAK because it was essentially a quiet month in between the end of the North Africa campaign (May) and the start of the Sicily campaign (July). You've probably also noticed that you can get some odd effects in May 1941 due to the inclusion of the Crete bitmaps.

Yes, the helmets are a PAIN! Especially the US (why so many if they're mostly duplicates? but yet still too few, and erratically shared out, so you can't dedicate them). And other odd sharing of other uniform numbering too. All of which even major modders didn't always figure 100% correctly. So don't take them as gospel - remember that all modders were themselves on a journey of bitmap exploration over the years they modded.

With hindsight I could have built a half-decent database through my work, and I'm sure some might scream at me for not doing so, but when I started I never planned to release my work as a mega-mod (nor really considered myself a "modder") - it was just a very private labour of love over 2 to 3 years, done in sporadic efforts with no ultimate grand plan. Then I returned to the forum and saw that despite CM2 there was still some interest in Sealion, so did my best to tidy up what I'd done so far and put it out there (with no pretence at having figured it all out - for indeed I haven't).

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However, when doing that in CMAK you'd have to keep (and possibly renumber - i.e. subtract 100,000) from any of the 100,000s winterised late-war versions if you have and want to still use them.

Oh, sorry, no need to renumber in that instance, just keep the winter ones - but remember that for the CMAK Germans they'd be yellow-based winter and not grau-based (unless you changed them with imported and renumbered CMBB winter grau versions). Ok, I'm done.

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