Fuerte Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 Two turns per e-mail is enabled if the file name starts with "2-" characters, e.g. 2-PBEM001.txt. Both players must have PBEM Helper . Warning: This feature is beta. Operations (switching to next battle) probably do not work, and end-game sequence may not work in all cases. That said, if you have an opponent that you TRUST, then this makes PBEM game much more enjoyable, and faster. You get two full turns (view, plot, view+plot) after the setup phase is over. The trick is that the opponent's password is sent with the game file, encrypted, and that password is used to skip the other player's view turn, so that you can view and plot moves for your next turn in advance. When the other player's view turn is skipped, the ordinary bmps are replaced with black ones, so that you don't see anything, and the movie is quickly fast forwarded to the end. The only things that you may see are the colored squares under the units, and messages about penetrations etc. Even these can be avoided by setting the viewing angle away from the battlefield before you hit Done or Go. This is how it works. On the left is the ordinary PBEM sequence, on the right is the two turns per e-mail sequence. We have two players, A and B. The first two turns is the setup phase. A turn is generated when there is a separating horizontal line. On the right, two turns are sent to the opponent at each time (in one file), the first view file is just dropped (marked with d). When a player views other player's turn, hidden, it is in brackets. </font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;"> A B A setup -> 001 | -> 001 B 001 setup -> 002 | 001 -> 002 ------------------- A 002 plot -> 003 | 002 -> 003 B 003 plot -> 004 | 003 -> 004 ------------------- | A 004 view -> 005 | 004 -> 005d | (004 -> 005) B 005 view+plot -> 006 | | 005 -> 006 A 006 plot -> 007 | 006 -> 007 ------------------- | B 007 view -> 008 | (007 -> 008) | 007 -> 008d A 008 view+plot -> 009 | 008 -> 009 | B 009 plot -> 010 | 009 -> 010 ------------------- | A 010 view -> 011 | 010 -> 011d | (010 -> 011) B 011 view+plot -> 012 | | 011 -> 012 A 012 plot -> 013 | 012 -> 013 ------------------- | ... etc.</pre> 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 I don't understand yet, but :cool: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbg2112 Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 Ingenious, but -- This is exactly the kind of thing I'd like to see Battlefront actively embrace and enable. Seems to be any number of us geeks with skills, motivation, and time to add all kinds of things that will really add to CM's value but will always be peripheral to any particular release... I guess the idea is that during the engine rewrite, while slinging code, Charles could just say, "hmm, could the CM geeks use an interface here that wouldn't violate the game's integrity and wouldn't blow the schedule", and if so, give us hooks to add all kinds of value. Everybody wins, but of course, the devil's in them details somewhere..... I know Charles, if he reads this, is probly thinking, "yeah, right", but I think it could be done, even if only in a few places initially.... Anyway, thanks for the indulgence....... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karch Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 Fuerte, thanks for the mention. I'm a "Stinkin Mac User" and can't use the program. But kudos for automating it. Almost makes me want to switch over to a PC. There are hundreds or even thousands of BMPs. How does the program replace/move/rename the existing BMPs with black ones. Would you mind elaborating on that a little bit? I'm really curious. If you trust your oponents, this is really the way to play. It is REALLY FAST. You play one whole turn per email and get to watch 2 movies each email exchange. Each email exchange contains 2 files instead of one. Try it for a lightning fast PBEM game. Great job guys. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aka_tom_w Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 this does sound very cool! But as another Mac user I am wondering :confused: How the heck does it work :confused: This whole Mac OSX NO mapping mission NO COMMOS no 2 turn PBEM thing ALMOST makes me want to upgrade to a PC! :eek: (and it HURTS to say that) -tom w 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 you mean downgrade to PC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jussi Köhler Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 Fantastic work Fuerte! I tip my hat to you if I had one! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted February 20, 2003 Author Share Posted February 20, 2003 Originally posted by karch: Fuerte, thanks for the mention. I'm a "Stinkin Mac User" and can't use the program. But kudos for automating it. Almost makes me want to switch over to a PC. Thanks for the kind words! There are hundreds or even thousands of BMPs. How does the program replace/move/rename the existing BMPs with black ones. Would you mind elaborating on that a little bit? I'm really curious. It's really simple in fact. I created one black bmp, called cmbb_bl2.bmp. It is a two color 16x16 bmp, all black. Then I have a list of all needed interface bmps, that I don't want to replace. I make a folder bmp_black, copy all interface bmps to it and replace all other bmps with the black one. And it works, just rename the bmp folder to bmp_original and bmp_black to bmp, and vice versa. The code for implementing this is in CMBB.VBS, it is VBScript code. I think that Mac should have VBS as well, if it has IE5/6. CMBB.VBS interacts with PBEM Helper via COM, so you can't run it directly, but all the implementation details are there, including the automatic loading of turn, sending the password, generating a file that contains two turns etc. You can view the CMBB.VBS file, if you can open PBEMEXE.ZIP. If you trust your oponents, this is really the way to play. It is REALLY FAST. You play one whole turn per email and get to watch 2 movies each email exchange. Each email exchange contains 2 files instead of one. Try it for a lightning fast PBEM game. Great job guys. I agree, in my tests this works very good, and it is fast. Thanks to you! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Windsor Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 I'm intrigued. How are people getting on with this and does it work with CMBO too? Teddy 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted February 20, 2003 Author Share Posted February 20, 2003 Originally posted by Edward Windsor: I'm intrigued. How are people getting on with this and does it work with CMBO too? Teddy It is trivial to add it to CMBO too, just about copy CMBB.VBS to CMBO.VBS. It should work the same. If someone starts a new game with this system, it will take a few days until he gets to the 2turns/e-mail phase (if one e-mail/day). Unless he tests it by himself, as I did. [ February 20, 2003, 05:15 AM: Message edited by: Fuerte ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aka_tom_w Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 Originally posted by Colin: you mean downgrade to PC I was joking about the upgrade to a PC comment. (I think) :confused: -tom w 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSColonel_131st Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 Wow, I'm already a geek and half a Mc Gyver, but you guys must be uber-nerds and Thomas Edison Clones. Kudos for such a clever idea, and for making it work without going into the programm code itself. What are you using to automatically manipulate the CMBB interface (replacing mouse clicks?) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted February 20, 2003 Author Share Posted February 20, 2003 Sorry guys, the loading of PBEM.PBM file directly from e-mail program didn't work right, a new version 1.3.277 is available. I had another idea: It would be great if there was a tool to change from normal playing mode to fast mode, and back. Changing back would work always, in fact just renaming the file does this (without the 2- prefix), changing to fast mode only when view+plot is just done. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted February 20, 2003 Author Share Posted February 20, 2003 Originally posted by RSColonel_131st: What are you using to automatically manipulate the CMBB interface (replacing mouse clicks?) Sending mouse clicks and keyboard presses. The idea was originally in One Click. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Olesen Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 I have played people I trust a good deal, and really like these ideas, but one opponent is using a mac. So I started thinking of ways to work around this. I'm also a bit reluctant to relinquish cobtrol to a pbem helper program, though I will take a look at it. I have no problem with - and like - handling my pbem files manually. Setting up two bmp directories, one of which contains "black" bmp's should be doable. At least on the PC. I'm not sure how this would work on a mac. So would a different icon, pointing to a batch file that renamed the bmp directories before and after running CMBB. But I'm again not sure how this is done on a mac. I'm not sure you can start CMBB and get it to load a game file, though. A command line argument would be the obvious choice, but I expect that it doesn't recognize those. I tried dragging a file onto CMBB, but it didn't recognize it. So Send To shouldn't work either. I suspect I'm out of luck here, and again I have no idea how the mac works. I'd appreciate some info on these issues. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russellmz Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 did you consider making the camera go to maximum zoom on a 5 or 6 level view instead of black bmps? or shift camera view down at max zoom on camera 1 to get someone's foot at worst? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted February 20, 2003 Author Share Posted February 20, 2003 Originally posted by russellmz: did you consider making the camera go to maximum zoom on a 5 or 6 level view instead of black bmps? or shift camera view down at max zoom on camera 1 to get someone's foot at worst? You could do this manually before hitting Done or Go, but you have to do it by yourself. PBEM Helper has no idea when this should be done. OK, there could be another hot key for this... change view, click Done or Go or both, and enter the file name. But then you would have to change the view back... again PBEM Helper might be able to do it automatically. But I think that current solution is better, because it requires less user intervention, and is less error prone. Having the black bmps solves the problem of not seeing the other player's movie replay... almost. I originally thought about adjusting the screen or DirectX settings, but I didn't know how to do it. It would be better solution, the whole display would be black. Or displaying a black full screen window in front of CMBB screen, but I think that it would minimize the CMBB screen and sending mouse clicks would not work. Perhaps I could change the display to energy saving mode. All ideas and suggestions and hints are most welcome... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAT Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 I hope I've read the posts correctly. One solution is to make the bmp 'pink'. This will make it invisible, right? Is there a way to define a 2nd monitor (fake) and send the output to there? Just some thoughts. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvio Manuel Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 :eek: Wow, great frckn idea Fuerte!! It's amazing that it's taken this long for someone to come up with something that apparently isn't even rocket science to code! (though it's quite advanced for my humble brain) I'll drop in again in a few days and maybe give it a try. Cheers! SM 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted February 21, 2003 Author Share Posted February 21, 2003 Originally posted by JAT: I hope I've read the posts correctly. One solution is to make the bmp 'pink'. This will make it invisible, right? Is there a way to define a 2nd monitor (fake) and send the output to there? Just some thoughts. I don't know how invisible bmp is better than black bmp. 2nd monitor... perhaps, but sounds very advanced! It might be possible to get rid of the penetration etc texts that are visible. There are a couple of bmps, 0.bmp, 1. bmp and 2.bmp, that contain just letters. If these are made black, then perhaps we don't see the text? But this requires that CMBB is closed and restarted before fast forwarding the other player's movie, it would be a bit slower. But perhaps it should be done. Then the remaining problem are the unit bases, colorful squares behind the units. Simple solution would be to turn these off, but I like to keep them on. It is easy to switch them on and off, but you probably forget to do it... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WineCape Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 As an avid PBEM Helper user before this new current invention/idea by Fuerte (and Karch), I will be following this thread with curiosity. Well done Fuerte! If you can make it work via a practical, fool-proof way, consider yourself richer with 6 bottles of South African wine as just reward for your current and continued efforts with your e-mail program. Sincerely, Charl Theron -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- </font>Sponsor of the (now infamous) Invitational (Ari Maenpaa)</font>Sponsor of the 2 WineCape Tourneys (Fangorn’s Brazilian customs drank the wine prize up! + KiwiJoe)</font>Sponsor of the Nordic Championships in honor of Nabla (His scoring system revolutionized CM tourney play)</font>RoW I/II/III/~ tourney sponsor (Wreck/Ali+Kanonier+Jon_L/~)</font>Grateful donateur to the drinking habits of BTS (Baldy received the Fat Bastard Chardonnay!)</font>”Thank You” donation send to Manx (He used to run the “sexiest CMBO modsite on the net”)</font>Donation send to Team Boots & Tracks for their splendid RoW II scenarios</font>Donation send to Gordon Molek for his outstanding CMMOS utility (Thereby making the installing of CM mods a breeze)</font>Sponsor-to-be of Pengville’s “Gamey Bastard” tourney (In honor of Seanachai + Lars for showing an act of kindness to an outerboarder - Well, bribery does pay.)</font> I have never read a review that made me less sure of humanity's ability to finish out the decade, let alone the next millenium. Obviously this 'Reviewer' [of CMBB] is capable of using a computer, and even finding employment (or at least the right to display their almost inspired lack of intelligence under the auspices of an organization), but it's equally clear that they're both incapable, and unashamed of their inability, to actually come to grips with something that requires more intelligent focus and mental participation than an arcade game. On this planet thousands are daily made homeless, crippled, and even killed in pointless and heart-rending incidents of political, ethnic and religious conflict. If any such incident had managed to whack this reviewer, we'd have to consider it worth the anguish –Seanachai, CMBB Forum, 10/12/2002. [ September 02, 2003, 02:35 PM: Message edited by: WineCape ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ichthys Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 This is a great idea. I had thought about something like this once, but my idea required a "neutral" third-party server that would automatically play the movie fast-forward and return the result. For trusted opponents this scheme removes the necessity of a third-party server. For "trustworthiness-unknown" opponents, or tournaments, a server-based solution running a program like this would be great. [ February 21, 2003, 12:10 PM: Message edited by: Mare Ichthys ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted February 21, 2003 Author Share Posted February 21, 2003 Originally posted by WineCape: Well done Fuerte! If you can make it work via a practical, fool-proof way, consider yourself richer with 6 bottles of South African wine as just reward for your current and continued efforts with your e-mail program.Huh! I just uploaded version 1.3.285, it still had problems with the hot key thread (there is a new hot key F5 for entering the next numbered file name) and loading a PBEM.PBM file directly from e-mail program. It should be fixed now. I have two first fast games going with my regular opponent, still on early phases. My friend had problems with PBEM Helper, so it was not fool-proof yet! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted February 22, 2003 Author Share Posted February 22, 2003 Originally posted by Mare Ichthys: This is a great idea. I had thought about something like this once, but my idea required a "neutral" third-party server that would automatically play the movie fast-forward and return the result. For trusted opponents this scheme removes the necessity of a third-party server. For "trustworthiness-unknown" opponents, or tournaments, a server-based solution running a program like this would be great. Yeah! It could be done. After a turn is generated, the file is sent normally to the opponent, but also to this secure server, that has both player's passwords. The server would fast forward other player's movie replay, and send the file back. It would work! I could add the automation of sending to the server to PBEM Helper... and creating the e-mail server should be quite easy as well. Of course the server needs to have CMBB installed, and there is a copy protection in CDV version, I don't know about the U.S. version. One server can't handle very many requests, because it takes time to load the graphics. OK, loading black graphics is much faster. HUH! It all sounds possible. I just checked that Outlook Express can't launch external programs when e-mail is received. Outlook can.... I might start doing this server stuff once I get the trust mode working reliably. Oh no, more work... :mad: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Olesen Posted February 22, 2003 Share Posted February 22, 2003 Originally posted by Fuerte: I just uploaded version 1.3.285Fuerte, what is the correct uopdate process? Can I just download the executable and cpy it onto the install directory? Or should I install the whole thing, and do I need to uninstall if I do that? It would be helpful if you posted update instructions on the pbem helper page. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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