CMSF Display Issue - Distant terrain displays as black tiles

[NotEnoughSand]

Hi,

Just set up a new system and I'm installing some older games including CMSF. Getting a weird graphics bug where any distant terrain is displayed as plain black tiles. Zooming in will display the terrain once it gets close enough. I've tried playing with windows compatibility settings, GPU software settings, and in-game display settings, so far nothing's changed anything. Any suggestions?

Running Windows 10 and an AMD Radeon RX 570.

[Schrullenhaft]

Is this CMSF1 or CMSF2 (the only version that is currently available in the Store) ? This issue usually occurs because there are some missing BRZ data files. For CMSF1 it will often be that a particular patch has not been applied. The patches for CMSF1 were not cumulative, so you needed to patch with intervening patches to get all of the BRZ files that the game  needed.

For CMSF1 I'm not sure if just the 1.21, 1.31 and 1.32 patches are all that is needed or not to be fully patched. Again, you will need to at least install these 3 patches, in order, to get all of the needed BRZ data files. Make sure to make the correct selections during the patching process (which modules you have and the correct directory for the game installation). Otherwise you will have missing modules or you'll get requests for license keys of the modules you don't have (or haven't activated yet).

Edited March 8, 2022 by Schrullenhaft

[NotEnoughSand]

CMSF1.

Just tried a clean reinstall and re-patching because I did get errors in the installation process, now that you've mentioned it. I got the same errors doing it again--as far as I can tell, the system is just denying the installer permission to add web shortcut links to the start menu. I have no idea how to stop that from happening or why it would matter. But, after another reinstall and sequential patching, I'm still having the same issue.

EDIT:  Started trying to run CMSF patchless with the intention of testing after each patch. I can run CMSF unpatched, the issue kicks on once 1.21 is installed.

 

EDIT2: tried running the patch installation with Norton autoprotect turned off. Same start menu link 'access denied' errors, same end result.

EDIT3: I think I see the problem. Even the "first" 1.21 patch is incremental and needs 1.20. 1.20 is in another folder here, but both versions of that need 1.10 or 1.11. My disk installs to 1.0 and I don't see anything that gets me from 1.0 to 1.10/11.

Edited March 11, 2022 by NotEnoughSand

[Schrullenhaft]

I would still guess that something is missing from the installation. These are the instructions for installing CMSF and any/all of the modules (from the Battlefront Helpdesk):

https://battlefront.mojohelpdesk.com/help/article/127930

What version is CMSF when you run it 'unpatched' ? If it is less than 1.10, then you will potentially have missing BRZ files once you patch to 1.21. I've uploaded the 1.10 patch that I have to DropBox (a 245MB download,  not sure how fast DropBox is to download from):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tr1tdysuc4ccwb3/CMSF_v110_Battlefront_Patch.exe?dl=0

Make sure your Norton autoprotect is turned off (during the download and installation processes) or possibly have it scan the files manually and see if it will accept them. Some patches can get quarantined or possibly deleted though, so perhaps have an off-disk backup before scanning the files.

This is the directory listing of a CMSF 1 v. 1.32 'Data' directory:

[NotEnoughSand]

Thanks!

I more or less did exactly this as you were uploading this. I found 1.10 elsewhere online and ran the patches all the way though. 1.10 being missing was the problem.

[Redwolf]

On 3/10/2022 at 9:27 PM, NotEnoughSand said:

Thanks!

I more or less did exactly this as you were uploading this. I found 1.10 elsewhere online and ran the patches all the way though. 1.10 being missing was the problem.

Never mess around with patches. Download a fresh all-in-one installer from your user account.

[Schrullenhaft]

I'm not certain if CMSF1 has an all-in-one installer. I think the closest thing may be the '3 Module Bundle', which probably doesn't have the base game (which may require that the base game be updated to 1.10 BEFORE installing the module bundle).