Jump to content

Introducing Unofficial Vehicle Database Beta for All!


Recommended Posts

Introducing UCMBBVDB 0.3 Beta for All!

FAQ:

a. What is UCMBBVDB ?

UCMBBVDB is the Unofficial CMBB Vehicle Database. This is a standalone database program containing most (except Assault Boats) of the vehicle details found in Combat Mission:Barbarossa to Berlin.

b. Is this program finished ?

This is in version 0.3 beta. Basically the file format/structures are completed. You can modify data and even add/delete records though this is not advisable. Currently, vehicles are sorted via Force/Country/VehicleType/VehicleName. There is also a table view to browse quickly. Later releases will focus on advanced searching, sorting.

c. What/Which data are included and what is not included:

Most of the tank.xls spreadsheet found in http://users.erols.com/chare/cm/ (Chris CM database) has been populated into the database.

- Blast Details are not included in this release

- Placeholders are made for Rarity and Cost (June 41,42,43,44 May 45) but the data is NOT populated yet

- Placeholders are made for Vehicle Icon (Top Right Corner) but not populated yet, you can drag and drop an image into the placeholder and the data will stay for that record/vehicle

- Placeholders are also made for a Photo Album of maximum 4 pictures per vehicle. Drag and Drop images into the Album, and click on the bottom grey bar to enlarge the picture.

d. What platform does the UCMBBVDB run on

Current Platform support are: OSX, Classic and Windows. (*updated* 5th march 2003).

e. Is this program free or is there a charge ?

Well, this is community-ware, there is no charge. The runtime program created by Filemaker is also royalty-free.

f. I am interested. How can I help out ?

Well, I need help to populate the database and also to spot inaccuracies in the database. If you are keen, start adding pictures into the database, and I will use your database (with your permission with credit-due) into the final UCMBBVDB.

g. How can I download the database/program ?

For mac OSX users, you can download the whole proggie here:

http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/CM2FM/UCMBBVDB-0.3B.sit

For mac classic users, you can download the whole proggie here:

http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/CM2FM/UCMBBVDB-3B-Classic.sit

For Windows users you can download the whole Proggie here:

http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/CM2FM/UCMBBVDB-win.zip

h. Where are the customary screen shots ?

1.jpg

1. Main screen. Use this for Modification and page by page navigation. Note the Top right corner icon, click on it to go table view, to access records by browsing. Note that Table View here is READ-ONLY.

2b.jpg

2. An example of Modifying data in the Vehicle Type, this uses pop-up menus where possible and the values are mostly defined. Note the "Edit.." line at the bottom of the menu, you can add additional vehicle types.

3.jpg

Tabs. The first tab is the ARMOR tab, followed by OTHERDETAILS, and RARITY&COST and lastly Pictures.

4.jpg

5.jpg

Clicking on the grey bar will result in the below:

6.jpg

This allows the attached picture to be enlarged.

enjoy!

[ March 05, 2003, 10:56 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm a FileMaker programmer. When you buy FileMaker Developer, you are given a cross platform Win/OS9/OSX CD and can make runtime solutions for all the platforms. Just find the install CD and install the tools onto a PC and you can create a runtime solution for Windows. I think that the Mac runtime apps are Carbon apps and will work on both OS9 and OSX.

We use Macs for most of our development work but of our hundreds of clients, only have 1 Mac client. In fact, we won't be buying any more Macs at the office either. The only thing that will probably be staying is our OS X server for file serving, mail serving and our OS9 DNS servers since I'm not concerned about hackers breaking into our Mac boxes like with Windows. But that's for another thread.

You should have all the tools you need to make a Mac/Win database. I think I did it my self about 1.5 years ago, but never posted it. Good job. Look into the Install Anywhere installer app. It's a bit tricky to use, but then you can create installers for Mac and Windows for free.

Scott

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Updated to reflect windows, Mac Classic and OSX versions.

Windows

--------

http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/CM2FM/UCMBBVDB-win.zip

OSX

----

http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/CM2FM/UCMBBVDB-0.3B.sit

Mac Classic

-----------

http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/CM2FM/UCMBBVDB-3B-Classic.sit

all comments can be posted here or email me at laxx@myrealbox.com

enjoy!

laxx

(ps. taking a break for now)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

question of fair usage

----------------------

if I were to download images from the web and populate the database with the images to compliment the data, would this constitute plagarism ?

I am assuming there is no modification done to the pictures, just a matter of attaching the images to the database.

or would I need to seek permission from every author that I took the images from ? (eek!)

eg.

king.jpg

or perhaps just leave the graphics out of the DB and let the end-users populate them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not a copyright expert, but if I had to guess I would say that it would be a copyright violation to post someone's pictures without their permission. That said, there are probably non-copyrighted pictures out there somewhere, maybe an WWII miliary training manual or something.

Also, I can't get your DB to install under Windows. I've tried downloading the zip file and then clicking on the UCM**** Solution.EXE file, and I get messages that FMCOR10.dll is missing. Am I missing a read-me somewhere?

Finally, I am also working on gathering cost data, by experience level and would be interested in coordinating efforts. My e-mail is tmreiter@yahoo.com

Thanks,

76mm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Laxx

I have your database / installer working under WinXP without any problems ... I'm not sure how much I will actually use it ......

but that is no reflection on the quality of the work, I have chris' data sheets all printed off and the Strategy Guide

and dont use them as much as I should ...

Nice work :cool:

I think you'll find there would be a copyright issue with most of the pics .... especially as you dont know if the websites you take them from have actually adhered to the copyright themselves !!

And while real world pics are good ...Personally - I'd be happy to see CMBB pics of the vehicles in the database ... perhaps a BFC original in one pic, a winter mod in another or maybe some front / side / rear views from the game.

After all it is a database of vehicles in the game !

Lou2000

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback.

Bad news first:

- Doan populate or make changes to the database yet. The next release will not have a migrate function and the database will be back to the original. Of coss you can open both programs and drag and drop the images but it can get quite tedious.

Good News:

----------

- Expect Version 1 out by early next week. There will be three basic screens: (a) Form Screen for viewing and making changes and adding images, (B) List Screen for sorting ( i have coded in sort routines, and yes, all fields can be sorted (eg. rarity, costs, cannon size, length etc !) except for armor and lastly © Advanced Search screen.

Other Comments:

--------------

- Additional enhancements will include a Comments Tab screen, for adding comments, or text.

- I will most likely not have Blast Values in the next release. This requires scrubbing/normalising of the spreadsheet into a database readable form. I will leave it for future releases. (yes, by then, I will have figured out how to do a safe and painless migration smile.gif )

- As advised here, I will not include any Images for fear of copyright infringements, I will leave the flag details in there and perhaps one/two sample screens.

Request:

-------

- Please comment on Typos, incorrect wordings ("United States" instead of America or USA, "Russia" instead of Soviet Union etc). Also I am not sure if the flags are correct representation. If there are no serious disputes, I will leave them as-is.

- Some comments on Secondary Sorting.

Alot of the fields are Primarily sort on the Field (eg. Turret Speed) and then Secondary sorted on Vehicle Name. eg.

Vehicle Name Turret speed

(Secondary) (Primary)

Panzer IIC Slow

Tiger (Early) Slow

Tiger ausf E Slow

or would it be more useful to have a secondary sort by Force (axis or allied) or by countries (perhaps a Tiertiary Sort) etc.

Turret Speed is an obvious example. What is not clear are things like COST of machine in June 1944, would a secondary sort of Countries, AFVs or Force be more useful ?

eg.

Vehicle Name Cost (June 1944) Country

---------------------------------------

Tiger Early 100 germany

Tiger Early 100 hungary

Ferdinand 100 Germany

I am no grog as my member number clearly shows smile.gif

cheers!

laxx

[ March 06, 2003, 03:20 PM: Message edited by: laxx ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excellent!

However I just tried sorting by silhouette and it doesnt seem to do it quite right. Most of the vehicles are in the right order but then it goes wrong - the king tiger is out of order and a lot of tanks that follow its silhouette of 135. The Romanian 222 has a silhouette value of 13 - is that right also? It appears alongside the KT at the point where my sort goes wrong.

Otherwise a very hand tool...

Cheers

Al

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the feedback, a simple problem that needs fixing, the ROF is in TEXT format and not numerical, hence it will sort in ascending order:

1

12

13

1443

2

3

which is clearly incorrect, let me make the changes, I have to figure out how to resolve russian flame tanks which have two rate of fires... smile.gif

edited shortly after: yup, confirmed the changes to numbers is the correct solution, expect this in the next release early next week.

[ March 06, 2003, 03:31 PM: Message edited by: laxx ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Alastair Anderson:

The Romanian 222 has a silhouette value of 13 - is that right also?

Hmmm. Definitely a typo. :( I'll have to fix that. A list of fixes is in the Tips and Tricks Forum.

Nice work, laxx. Sorry it isn't more readily convertible, but nobody ever said it would be easy. tongue.gif

- Chris

[ March 06, 2003, 05:24 PM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

*** interim version : 0.6 *** is available for download. It fixes most of the Sorting problems, has a much better sorting and intuitive menu under List View.

To install, delete the old UCMBBVDB.FP5 Data file and copy the new datafile into your exising UCMBBVDB folder.

The new datafile can be downloaded at:

http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/CM2FM/UCMBBVDB.zip

A couple of enhancements:

* Clicking on Records in the List View will jump into that record in Form View.

* All column headings in List View is clickable for Sorting. Except those in beige color which is non-Sortable, ie. Armor Values and Pictures.

* For PSI settings, because there is TEXT and NUMBERs, the sorting does not work properly either way, hence I have decided to put in a number in front of the text. So: 0Poor 1Ave 2Good.

* Fixed the 222 armored car sil typo

I really like this version, hope you will try it out and comment on it.

cheers!

[ March 07, 2003, 02:07 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stage #1

--------

Well, if you are starting from Scratch,

download the file which best describes your system:

Windows

--------

http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/CM2FM/UCMBBVDB-win.zip

OSX

----

http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/CM2FM/UCMBBVDB-0.3B.sit

Mac Classic

-----------

http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/CM2FM/UCMBBVDB-3B-Classic.sit

Stage #2

--------

Unarchive your files, if you using Windows, use winzip, if you using mac, use stuffit expander

It should produce a folder called "UCMBBVDB Solutions Folder"

DELETE the file UCMBBVDB.FP5

Stage #3

--------

Download the latest update file:

http://www.web.ms11.net/retro/CM2FM/UCMBBVDB.zip

Stage #4

--------

Unarchive the ucmbbvdb.zip file, using stuffit expander or winzip

It should produce a file call UCMBBVDB.FP5

Stage #5

--------

Move this file into the "UCMBBVDB Solution FOlder"

Stage #6

--------

Double Click on UCMBBVDB Solution to run.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...