Fuerte Posted February 22, 2003 Author Share Posted February 22, 2003 Originally posted by Robert Olesen: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />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. </font> 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Olesen Posted February 22, 2003 Share Posted February 22, 2003 OK, but it might be helpful to let us know when the usual order of business applies. Just for those of us that are meticulous Assumptions are fine, unless they are incorrect. In this case I will assume that I can download the exe only. 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 Robert Olesen: OK, but it might be helpful to let us know when the usual order of business applies. Just for those of us that are meticulous Assumptions are fine, unless they are incorrect. In this case I will assume that I can download the exe only. Yes. The executable download contains all the necessary game definitions (.ini and .vbs files) and a couple of DLLs that were not in the original full installation file. So in almost all cases it is enough to download this smaller file only. Only if it does not work, then perhaps the full installation file contains some updated system component. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted February 24, 2003 Author Share Posted February 24, 2003 I finally realized that the full setup didn't always contain the latest files, and there were other problems as well. So I made brand new installation packages, please download from the link below. We have now entered the fast phase in the two games with my opponent. It works great! It is almost like playing with AI, you get two full turns, except that there is a human opponent. The problem with unit bases has to be solved, though. I have an idea: patch CMBB process memory, change the blue/red squares to black. The AntiCensorshipLoader already does this, it changes WG text to SS, so it should be possible. For now, just change to viewing direction away from the battlefield before hitting Go. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted March 2, 2003 Author Share Posted March 2, 2003 PBEM Helper v 1.3.290 (2.3.2003) released: New: Pressing F5 while saving a file in CMBB will send a mouse click before sending the next numbered file name. New: CMBB has Trust/Secure button in game Edit F2 window. This tool changes the game mode from standard secure mode to fast&trust mode, and back. New: CMBB fast&trust mode should work with Operations as well, with a little help from the player. I am still trying to patch CMBB memory so that the unit bases would not be visible when skipping the other player's view turn. Stay tuned! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karch Posted March 2, 2003 Share Posted March 2, 2003 Wow, talk about picking up an idea and running with it. I am REALLY impressed. Scott 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imported_Hiram Sedai Posted March 2, 2003 Share Posted March 2, 2003 I've used PBEM helper off an on for close to two years now it seems. Love it!! I still have two versions of it on my computer. Question - is this newest one still in beta format? Also, can it be used to play people who don't use PBEM helper at all? Its a great help when I have approx 10 opponents but am a bit hesitant to download beta software. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted March 3, 2003 Author Share Posted March 3, 2003 Originally posted by Hiram Sedai: Question - is this newest one still in beta format? Also, can it be used to play people who don't use PBEM helper at all?It seems to work OK, although I just found out that if you have started CMBB, and then Alt+Tab:ed to PBEM Helper, and start another game, then it does not work correctly. I have already fixed it, will make a release tomorrow. You can use PBEM Helper with opponents that don't use it, just don't use the .PBM format. And of course this new fast&trust mode requires that both have it. Bad news: It seems that making the unit bases black is much harder than I thought. I don't know where CMBB has that color information... Charles, drop me e-mail and tell me how you do it! Or better yet, load the color from some external file, or bmp. Perhaps it does it already, but I just have missed that bmp. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Javaslinger Posted March 3, 2003 Share Posted March 3, 2003 bump 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted March 6, 2003 Author Share Posted March 6, 2003 We just finished our first fast&trust mode game, in two weeks, having 63 standard&secure turns, about 20 game turns, and 13 e-mails in my mailbox. Almost unbelievable! This is three times faster than normal PBEM. We had two minor glitches, both fixed in the latest PBEM Helper release, I hope. 1.3.292 (6.3.2003) Fixed: The fast&trust mode asked to send empty turn in the end. Fixed: Hopefully fixed a random case of corrupted fast&trust mode file. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Windsor Posted March 6, 2003 Share Posted March 6, 2003 That's very impressive Fuerte. I really want to try this, but while I trust my opponent not to peek I'm not sure I can restrain myself. Any update on the unit bases yet? Teddy 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted March 7, 2003 Author Share Posted March 7, 2003 Originally posted by Edward Windsor: That's very impressive Fuerte. I really want to try this, but while I trust my opponent not to peek I'm not sure I can restrain myself. Any update on the unit bases yet? Teddy There is no problem if both players remember to set the view away from the battlefield before hitting Go in the last View+Plot phase (normally you load three ordinary turns: View, Plot, skip other player's View, and View+Plot). We saw each other's movement a couple of times, it was very fast, it didn't spoil the game. It would be better without this problem, of course. I have not quitted trying to solve it, just taking a break! Another problem is the morale display, the text should be hidden. While I didn't notice it, my opponent did. It could probably be solved by replacing the font bmps (0.bmp, 1.bmp and 2.bmp), but I believe that the whole program should be restarted before viewing the opponent's movie, and after that, because the fonts are loaded only once. It would make the process slower. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Windsor Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 Thanks for the reply and enjoy your break. Teddy 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted March 7, 2003 Author Share Posted March 7, 2003 Puuh... release 292 had a bug, fast&trust mode didn't work, sorry for that. A new version 1.3.293 is available. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 Originally posted by Fuerte: Bad news: It seems that making the unit bases black is much harder than I thought. I don't know where CMBB has that color information... Charles, drop me e-mail and tell me how you do it! Or better yet, load the color from some external file, or bmp. Perhaps it does it already, but I just have missed that bmp. Charles probably won't be seeing this, everyone's busy... try e-mailing some of the team, that tends to work better at times like this. But, and sorry if this is a stupid question, why not just turn unit bases off? Shift+B or Shift+Q should do it. -Okay, just read what you wrote earlier! But couldn't it be done just before going through the film? PBEM Helper could do it as a macro, no? The problem would be, if you had them switched OFF, then it'd switch them on again. [ March 07, 2003, 05:53 PM: Message edited by: Sergei ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted March 8, 2003 Author Share Posted March 8, 2003 Originally posted by Sergei: Charles probably won't be seeing this, everyone's busy... try e-mailing some of the team, that tends to work better at times like this. But, and sorry if this is a stupid question, why not just turn unit bases off? Shift+B or Shift+Q should do it. -Okay, just read what you wrote earlier! But couldn't it be done just before going through the film? PBEM Helper could do it as a macro, no? The problem would be, if you had them switched OFF, then it'd switch them on again. Right. I am currently studying DirectX API, trying to find a way to change the global gamma settings... does not seem to be possible. I have a Gainward EXPERTool utility, that changes the global gamma/brightness/contrast settings and with this tool you can set the display black, but I guess that it only works with nVidia graphics cards. It also has a utility to change the monitor power saving mode to Stand by, Suspend and Off, all will blank the display. I have not found a Windows API function that does this reliably yet. I think that I have to study device drivers next, monitor and graphics drivers. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanachai Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 Hmmm...considers...I say we take Fuerte out and burn him as a witch. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 Originally posted by Fuerte: Puuh... release 292 had a bug, fast&trust mode didn't work, sorry for that. A new version 1.3.293 is available. My friend and I downloaded 1.3.293. but we still have a problem with fast&trust mode. Setup phase(first 3 mails) works ok, but after that game starts to “forget” orders given in every second turn. Example: Turn 4 “view,plot,(skip view),view+plot” I receive mail, give orders(1), see movie but none of my previously given orders(1) are executed, then I look at “black screen”=opponent’s movie, and at the end I give new orders(2). When I receive next mail from my opponent, orders(2) are execuded ok, but orders(3) are “forgot”. And so on…. Is it a bug or am I doing something wrong? :confused: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted March 10, 2003 Author Share Posted March 10, 2003 Originally posted by BB: My friend and I downloaded 1.3.293. but we still have a problem with fast&trust mode. Setup phase(first 3 mails) works ok, but after that game starts to “forget” orders given in every second turn. Example: Turn 4 “view,plot,(skip view),view+plot” I receive mail, give orders(1), see movie but none of my previously given orders(1) are executed, then I look at “black screen”=opponent’s movie, and at the end I give new orders(2). When I receive next mail from my opponent, orders(2) are execuded ok, but orders(3) are “forgot”. And so on…. Is it a bug or am I doing something wrong? :confused: It may be a bug, I'll check later today. But it is also possible, that you did something wrong... In turn 3, you should do Plot,(skip view),View+Plot only. In turn 4 and onwards you do the full View,Plot,(skip view),View+Plot. It sounds like your opponent does not do it correctly... as if he only does View,Plot. He may have a problem on his side. But then you should not be able to do the second View+Plot... I don't know, it sounds confusing. One possibility is that your game is in incorrect phase: You or your opponent skips your Plot phase, not View phase. Your description sounds like you do "Plot,View,(skip view or plot),Plot", instead of "View,Plot,(skip view),View+Plot". Where is your View+Plot? How did you start your game? Renaming an existing game so that it has 2- in the beginning is usually not enough, the latest version has a Trust/Secure button in Edit F2, that guides you through the mode change. If you started the game in fast&trust mode (the first saved setup phase game already contained 2-), then everything should work without problems. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted March 10, 2003 Author Share Posted March 10, 2003 Originally posted by Seanachai: Hmmm...considers...I say we take Fuerte out and burn him as a witch. I feel cursed already, because when I finally found a Win32 API that should do the trick, SetDeviceGammaRamp, it turns out that I can only make the display darker with it, not completely black: "SetDeviceGammaRamp doesn't allow all gamma ramps. It checks the gamma ramp; if it is too complex, such as the red flash when the player is shot in Quake, it rejects it." So a black gamma ramp is too complex for it. All hope is not lost, however, the corresponding device driver function DDIGammaRamp should work. DDIGammaRamp Sets the ramp on direct color display boards. The export ordinal for this function is 32. </font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;"> BOOL DDIGammaRamp( LPDEVICE lpDev, BOOL fGetSet, LPARAM lpGammaRamp ); </pre> 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB Posted March 11, 2003 Share Posted March 11, 2003 Originally posted by Fuerte: How did you start your game? We started new game like this: A) I created new QB game in CMBB,entered password, picked up my troops and saved it as “2-Game”. Then I exited CMBB, opened PBEM helper and “2-Game.txt” was detected(status: NEW). After editing (F2) my opponents e-mail and my password(same as in CMBB), I sent(F4) pbem.pbm file(status changed to WAIT). My opponent opened pbem.pbm from Outlook Express, edited(F2) his password in Pbem helper, and pressed play(F9). CMBB started, he picked up his troops, and pressed F5 in the file dialog box. Game ended, and he sent(F4) pbem.pbm file to me. A) I opened it, pressed play(F9) and dialog box appiered: Turn: 2 Processing multiple turns when Turn>=3 CMBB started, I entered my password manualy, and did the troops setup. After hitting GO button and F5 , status in PBEM helper changed to SEND. I sent it (F4). My friend opened pbem.pbm again, did the troops setup, hit GO button, then F5. Then “Skip view” appeared ?!?!?!? After that he gave orders to his units, hit GO, F5 and SEND A) When I received file in Pbem helper and pressed F9 this came up: Turn:4 Processing: View, plot,(skip view), View+Plot ?????? CMBB started, I gave my first orders, hit GO, F5, and a false movie came on. My previous orders was not execuded… What do we do wrong? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted March 12, 2003 Author Share Posted March 12, 2003 PBEM Helper assumes that you do the following: A) Setup your units Setup his units A) Plot moves for your units Plot moves for his units A) Plot moves for your units, skip his movie, view your movie and plot moves for your units again This works if you start a predefined scenario. I have not tested this with Quick Battles. If you in quick battles first select your units, and then your opponent selects his units, then PBEM Helper should do two extra normal turns before starting the process multiple turns. If this is the case, then you can manually edit your Turn #3 in Notepad, and change it to Turn #1 before playing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted March 16, 2003 Author Share Posted March 16, 2003 Just uploaded the latest version of PBEM Helper. It has now support for Quick Battles where you purchase your units (it asks in turn 3 if you want to change to fast&trust mode, just answer No, and change in turn 5 instead). It also changes display colors to violet, so that red and blue unit bases are not visible anymore, when you skip the other player's movie replay. It uses SetDeviceGammaRamp function... it couldn't make the display black, but this solves the unit base problem completely. Also some penetration and other texts are not visible any more, but some still are, although the color difference is so small that they are hard to read. I have a feeling now that this feature is complete... please try it! 1.3.295 (16.3.2003) New: CMBB fast&trust mode changes the display violet when skipping the other player's movie replay, so that the red and blue unit bases are not visible anymore. Fixed: CMBB fast&trust mode supports Quick Battles, and other improvements. New: In Options / "Test screen blanking" you can test if changing the display colors to violet works on your machine. It will change the colors for one second. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuerte Posted March 17, 2003 Author Share Posted March 17, 2003 I don't know why I missed this for so long... I guess that because it was impossible to set the display black with SetDeviceGammaRamp, all other colors would fail as well! 1.3.298 (17.3.2003) New: CMBB fast&trust mode changes the display grey when skipping the other player's movie replay, so that you don't see anything. New: Hot keys Win+0, Win+1, ... Win+9 to set display gamma, so that CMBB night scenarios are more playable. Win+0 is the default gamma, Win+9 is the brightest. You can disable this in Options / "Enable gamma hot keys". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Windsor Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 Fuerte, I have to say I'm very impressed - a few months ago you went up in flames and now you have risen phoenix-like from the ashes. Or something. OK, now here's the rub. I really want to try this ... but the only problem is I mainly play CMBO. Please, please, please can you fix it for me to enjoy "two turns per email" on the Western Front? Yours sincerely, Edward Windsor 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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