Guest Rollstoy Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 Hello all! I use to play CM at realistic scale settings and with unit bases switched on! From higher view levels, it is impossible to distinguish 1 man teams from each other (AT, HQ, FO, MG, ... ). What do you think of OPTIONAL symbolic unit type textures on the unit bases? This should be relatively cheap in terms of texture memory and computational cost and would make selecting units a lot simpler. One could toggle Unit bases off/plain/symbol with the assigned hotkey! Regards, Thomm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zamo Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 I like this idea, you mean like the little arrow for mg's and the little oval for armor? Like we used in the service and such as can be found on all of our old cardboard counters? yeah! That would be a way cool bridge of old/new and military. I think this would be cool, even though at this scale it probably wouldn't be necessary. Then you could turn off the animations and just watch the little rectangle with an S in it destroy the little circle with an arrow coming out. Imagine watching these little boxes fluidly moving over the ground...HAHAHAHAHA! I like it. It would be a hilarious event if everybody decided they liked playing with it that way more, and all of Steve and Charles 3d work would turn out to be for not! HAHAHAHA! I think I'm loosing my mind again. Zamo PS: I do think it would be a neat addition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple4Ever Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 This is a cool idea, but I think won't be done anytime soon.... Currently, all units use the same "generic" base "*.bmp" file (particular to the nationality, of course - gray, green, etc.). This would mean creating specific base "*.bmp" files for each unit type, and the necessary programming to "tie" each bmp to its appropriate unit type. I'm not a programmer, so my opinion could be complete *bunk* of course! Personally, I'm going to find the unit base bmp files in CM and modify them so they are similar to the ones found in the East/West Front series (stars for US, balkan cross for germany, etc.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt Steiner Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 Hi <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Purple4Ever: Currently, all units use the same "generic" base "*.bmp" file (particular to the nationality, of course - gray, green, etc.) Personally, I'm going to find the unit base bmp files in CM and modify them so they are similar to the ones found in the East/West Front series (stars for US, balkan cross for germany, etc.)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Check out a previous couple threads ref this very item. I asked if anyone could find the .Bmp (as i could not) and it would seem the game engine 'draws' these coloured polygons (?) in some other fashion not 'tweakable' by the uniniatiated ? I was trying to do as you suggest ie National flags as bases. But alas and alack we are thwarted Cheers ------------------ Sgt Steiner Belfast NI UK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rollstoy Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 Thanks a lot for the feedback! I am aware that this can only be introduced by modifying the source, not by modding! Nevertheless I think it is a neat idea, and at least I (who plays at realistic size and with bases on) have to follow command lines constantly to find HQs, and click through units to find special teams, at least during setup. And who can say, on first sight, where FOs are, for example in a big scenario! I know it is dangerous to call something 'simple' here, but since a few generic symbols would suffice, I think the cost would not be too high! And it is kind of a roster substitute, isn't it (Uahh, dangerous statement)?! On the other hand the unit bases could be too small from the distance, too, so maybe this idea would not work, anyway! Regards, Thomm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Galanti Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 I suspect the downside to this is that every extra texture (which bases would be) take up VRAM. CM has been designed to run on lower end systems. Since the wargame market is small to begin with, BTS didn't want to make the games market even smaller by requiring lots of VRAM. This is why vehicles share and reuse some panels. So, the questions isn't whether it could be done, but what other textures should be taken out if textures for the bases are added... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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