Nicholas Bell Posted February 4, 2001 Share Posted February 4, 2001 Availble at my site HKL Feel free to post it on your own site if you so desire. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 Great, I suggested this feature a while back, because the last time I checked the grass wasn't green in the middle of December and January. I'm downloading this right now. I could write up a batch file to swap out these terrain elements if you like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Bates Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 How can it be muddy without people walking all over the grass, I'm not trying to be difficult or anything. Maybe the grass should be a darker green to reflect more ground moisture. ------------------ Rugged Defense England Team Website: http://combatmission.portland.co.uk For all our AARs ------------------ "I drive over farmyard animals in my farmyard tractor, then I laugh afterwards."--CavScout [comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 I think it should have been labeled "dead winter grass". I have just spent the last hour or so, writing up batch files and adding the file suffixes. Only problem is that I can't figure out how to create an Icon file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tris Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 Looks better, Nicholas. I'll try it out as soon as Maximus posts the batch files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicholas Bell Posted February 5, 2001 Author Share Posted February 5, 2001 Frankly, it looks more "realistic" but is a lot harder to play on. The camouflage and colors of the units really do make them blend into the terrain. Turn on bases when plotting is a must. I've also noticed that the color and darkness changes a lot dependent on the month of the scenario. My set is funky looking in summer time. I only use it in November-March. The various non-snow Ardennes battles look much better. I was motivated to do this because that Puffendork battle I'm working on just didn't look right "in the green." If anyone with more experience at doing these mods (that means practically everybody!) can improve the set or make it easier to use, please do! (and let me know so I can download it Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tris Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 You might also want to experiment with the different skies available--that'll change the overall light balance. [This message has been edited by Tris (edited 02-04-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juardis Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 Yo Nick, very very nice. Good job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 Anybody that wants the batch files can email me at davem@shawneelink.net. What I did was to make Nicholas's tiles low-res (193K) instead of 7xxK. And added in the horizon low-res counterparts by copying them again and renaming them starting with 1500 instead of 1550. So rename files 1550-1569 to 1500-1519 to get the horizon tiles. And then add a _w (winter) suffix for these "muddy" tiles and an _s (summer) suffix to whatever grass mod you're using. [This message has been edited by Maximus (edited 02-05-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 Ok, to avoid anyone else the embarrassment, I'll be the one to ask (I doubt I'm the only one not to know)... ...how do the batch files work? I downloaded one with a Kangaroo mod from somewhere and clicked on it. No idea what it did...will this automatically switch back and forth between two sets of mods? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tris Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 Why did you render them low-res? I can understand that as an option, surely, but not as some this-or-nothing offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitty Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 Originally posted by Tris: Why did you render them low-res? I can understand that as an option, surely, but not as some this-or-nothing offer. "Offer?" This guy took a lot of time to make something and he's made it available to anyone who wants it for no charge. Whatever resolution he chose to make it in and why is his business and it seems to me that we should be grateful to have any mods at all considering no one's getting paid to make them. Not trying to attack you but the tone of your message kind of struck me as odd. If I misinterpreted it, I apologize. Kitty ------------------ Hamsters at War! Chicks With Tanks Lorak's FTX "I'd rather the Bees than your Mask of Shame." - Stuka The True Blue Aussie Slang Source The Unofficial Vic Bitter Website Jesus Dress Up! The McNoldy Group Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuckyStrike Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 This mod looks REALLY good, thanks for posting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tris Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 Offer?" This guy took a lot of time to make something and he's made it available to anyone who wants it for no charge. Whatever resolution he chose to make it in and why is his business and it seems to me that we should be grateful to have any mods at all considering no one's getting paid to make them. Not trying to attack you but the tone of your message kind of struck me as odd. If I misinterpreted it, I apologize. There was no "tone," just the question, and a simple one at that. I'll go through it slowly with you. Someone made a mud mod for various landscape features. A second gentleman came along and said he'd make batch that would allow users of the game to access these files and switch them in and out without having to go in and rename a lot of files. That's fine. But then he came back and said that while he was writing this batch he also took the liberty of changing the original mod which wasn't his work but someone else's from hi-res to low-res. That's fine, too, I suppose, for anyone who prefers (or needs) to have low-res variations, though it occurs to me that this batch would be just as handy for its first stated purpose: to access the original mods. For all I know the batch will access both sets of files somehow, but until I receive an answer on that I'm in the dark. Any clearer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 Originally posted by Tris: Someone made a mud mod for various landscape features. A second gentleman came along and said he'd make batch that would allow users of the game to access these files and switch them in and out without having to go in and rename a lot of files. That's fine. But then he came back and said that while he was writing this batch he also took the liberty of changing the original mod which wasn't his work but someone else's from hi-res to low-res. No, no. You misunderstood. For one, hi-res grass is one of the biggest culprits of framerate hit. Secondly, Nick Bell, used DD's Hi-Res grass to do this. Which I have no problem with either. On my machine, because I use every other Hi-Res mod I get my hands on. (I'm one of the beta testers for Marco Bergman's Hi-Res Shermans, BTW) Therefore I really can't afford to use Hi-Res Grass. So therefore, I Itake the HUGE 512x512 pixel bmp and shrink them down to standard low-res dimensions by cutting them down to 256x256. This cuts the file size by over 500K. A big difference! The batch files I made do NOTHING to the original mod. They just automatically swap out the green ones for the brown ones and vice versa. HOWEVER, you must add suffixes to the end of the file names for this to work. An '_s' for your Summer (green) grass and a '_w' for your Winter (muddy/brown) grass. Where you may have been confused is that the grass tiles that extend from the battlefield to the horizon bitmap are supposedly low-res grass files, that get stretched and distorted by the game engine. They are (or can be) the same as the hi-res battlefield grass files but instead of using the 1550-1569 file range, they use the 1500-1519 file range. ------------------ "Upon my signal, unleash Hell."--General Maximus, Gladiator "Aim small, miss small."--Mel Gibson, The Patriot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted February 5, 2001 Share Posted February 5, 2001 On the other hand, I found that these new brown grass files were WAY too dark. I found that if you lighten them up with FOUR click-ups on the Brightness setting, they look more realistic. Also the Plowed Fields I lightened up too with THREE click-ups on the Brightness and FIVE click-ups on the Contrast Again, for the confused Tris, this does not change the original mod for you. I just changed them on my machine. Here's what the lighter grass looks like: Note I didn't install any of the "muddy" tree bases. [This message has been edited by Maximus (edited 02-05-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dog Posted February 6, 2001 Share Posted February 6, 2001 Originally posted by Michael Dorosh: Ok, to avoid anyone else the embarrassment, I'll be the one to ask (I doubt I'm the only one not to know)... ...how do the batch files work? I downloaded one with a Kangaroo mod from somewhere and clicked on it. No idea what it did...will this automatically switch back and forth between two sets of mods? Hi Michael, Probably easiest to explain through an example. Let's say I make a mod of a _very_ simple tank that only has one BMP - "3400.bmp". I want (2) versions of this tank, one with camo and one without, so I make 2 versions of the BMP, and name one "3400_camo.bmp" and the other "3400_nocamo.bmp". Note that since the game uses "3400.bmp", neither BMP in the set is directly useable. I then write a couple of batch files. (A batch file is a simple program that will run in a DOS window in Windows 95/98, and will automatically execute a series of DOS commands.) Since one of the DOS commands is "rename" for renaming a file, I can have the program rename "3400_camo.bmp" to "3400.bmp" in my Camo Simple Tank batch file when I want the camo version, and my other batch file rename "3400_nocamo.bmp" to "3400.bmp" when I want the non-camo version. In each case the original game BMP is overwritten by the new version I have chosen. Now, I attach a Windows shortcut to each of my two batch files, select an icon for each shortcut, and I have a way to click on an icon to get a camo or non-camo version of my simple tank Typical CM batch files are generally somewhat more complicated, and include error checking, path redirection, and sometimes subprograms and more, but the fundamental thing that happens is that the DOS "rename" command goes to work and sets up the mod for you, so you don't have to identify and rename all the BMPs manually. - Old Dog Old Dog's CM Central The CM Photo Gallery! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicholas Bell Posted February 6, 2001 Author Share Posted February 6, 2001 How about sending me the low-res version and I'll post both on my site? Along with the batch file stuff. As I indicated, I'm no expert at this stuff, and appreciate the help. Especially changing the table top from green to brown to match. Anyone who wants to use my stuff as a basis of their own is fine. Heck I used 3 people's work combined. The lighter version image above is easier on the eyes, but looks more like dead grass than mud. But maybe not a bad idea? Took a lot of tweaking of the hue, staturation, etc to get that mud to look like the mud I became so familiar with while in the service in Germany. Stuck the boots right off 'yer feet <g>. Anyway, I'm sorry I didn't think about a low-res version. I've never had a frame rate problem and always use high-res stuff, so it didn't even cross my feeble mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted February 6, 2001 Share Posted February 6, 2001 Originally posted by Nicholas Bell: How about sending me the low-res version and I'll post both on my site? Along with the batch file stuff. Well I would but the zip file is 5.6MB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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