MikeyD Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 1/2 res terrain doodads!!!!! Get it at our favorite site: http://www.cmmods.com/ If you're frustrated with a computer that automatically down-samples art, THIS IS THE MOD FOR YOU! 1/2-resolution doodads of grass, steppe grass, bushes, rocks, marsh plants, wheat, etc. CMBB's doodad art has held up remarkably well to the resolution cut. These certainly look better on screen than blurry overly down-sampled art! And as an added benefit you'll have much sharper vehicles too. This mod is highly recomended. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchlstrt Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 Thanks, this is interesting. Are you on a Mac, & if so how much does it seem to help. Can't get at my Desktop right now to check for myself. Speaking of Macs, I was wondering if upsampling everthing would 'fool' BB into downsampling one step to StandardRes. This would be a lot of work to try, or peferably one could use some batch-file processing thingie. Anybody know (or have) a Program that would be appropriate for this? strt 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted March 7, 2003 Author Share Posted March 7, 2003 I'm on a mac and it definitely makes a difference. Up at least one resolution grade, even more depending on the terrain used. I've never seen my tanks look so pretty! I got the idea last night and worked like a fiend til 2am getting it done. I'm happy I did. Try it in conjunction with the lo-res grass and snow on the mod database. One thing I did forget, though. I apparently neglected to downsample the snow-covered winter rocks. ooops! [ March 07, 2003, 12:49 PM: Message edited by: MikeyD ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchlstrt Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 I've already DL'd it so if you fix this please post a notice. Thanks again. strt 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbertles Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 How can you tell if your computer is automatically downsampling (the scurvey dog!)? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchlstrt Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 It always will at some point if you cram enough different Units & such into one Game. A lot of us Mac types were whining about the fact that it seems to do so much too quickly on a lot of our machines. For a fair amount of my personal whining, (including pictures!) do a search for "Mac Downsampling Pics". Sometimes the effect is more or less clear than on this Unit (Romanian R-35), depending on how intricate the Graphics are. strt 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eden Smallwood Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 Originally posted by MikeyD: And as an added benefit you'll have much sharper vehicles too.No, I think an "added benefit" is the ability to grow flags of the Motherland as crops!!!! <a href="http://angelfire.com/mac/programming/cmbb/KickButt.html" target="_blank"> AND BY "CROPS" I MEAN TOTALLY SWEET!!!!!</a> This mod is highly recomended.No kidding!! Eden 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franko Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 What is "downsampling?" 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchlstrt Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 Lowering the size & therefore the resolution of the Graphics. It shows up as 'blurrierness'. The pics refered to above illustrate this effect. strt [ March 09, 2003, 12:40 AM: Message edited by: mchlstrt ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbertles Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 warning - computer-dope post... Ok, I have a dual chip G4 tower (mac of course) with (according to my system profiler) an NVDA GeForce4MX. I tend to run the 17" flat screen at 800x640 (which seemed plenty big for me). After searching and reading the downsampling threads, it is still not clear to me whether my beast is downsampling or is just muscling through. Any insights? [ March 09, 2003, 10:39 AM: Message edited by: jbertles ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecumseh Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 Originally posted by jbertles: warning - computer-dope post... Ok, I have a dual chip G4 tower (mac of course) with (according to my system profiler) an NVDA GeForce4MX. I tend to run the 17" flat screen at 800x640 (which seemed plenty big for me). After searching and reading the downsampling threads, it is still not clear to me whether my beast is downsampling or is just muscling through. Any insights? All Geforce cards on the mac cause downsampling in CMBB, even the 128MB GF4. I'm looking forward to testing this mod tonight...thanks MikeyD [ March 09, 2003, 07:21 PM: Message edited by: tecumseh ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlatCmdr Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 I have to add myself to the list of those not understanding the particulars behind this topic. I have noticed the blurring of features, especially vehicle markings, so I know this problem applies in my case. What I'm not understanding is what, if anything, can I do about this. I'm using G3 system with an ATI-128k Rage card with 8mb RAM (I know, ancient but there it is) Someone mentioned "fooling" the system by adjusting "up" the resolution grade. Is this effective, and if so, how is this done? Thanks in advance. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlatCmdr Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 I have to add myself to the list of those not understanding the particulars behind this topic. I have noticed the blurring of features, especially vehicle markings, so I know this problem applies in my case. What I'm not understanding is what, if anything, can I do about this. I'm using G3 system with an ATI-128k Rage card with 8mb RAM (I know, ancient but there it is) Someone mentioned "fooling" the system by adjusting "up" the resolution grade. Is this effective, and if so, how is this done? Thanks in advance. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted March 10, 2003 Author Share Posted March 10, 2003 PlattCmdr, sounds like you and I have the same system. Good old G3s. This is (more-or-less) how game resolution works in CMBB. You pick a scenario or Quickbattle and hit Go. The computer locates all the art files needed to display the game and calculates how much video memory is needed to properly display, then compares that number to your video card. If the scenario needs more memory than you've got, the game automatically starts selectively dropping numbers of doodads and trees to be displayed, cutting the resolution of the images, etc. until it arrives at a number that your video card can handle. That's why on small maps with a few units the tank markings and uniforms look sharp, and on huge maps with Battalions facing eachother the same tank details are blurry. Lower resolution terrain takes some of the burden off the computer and it's (SOMEWHAT) less likely to downsample the images into blurriness. [ March 10, 2003, 11:37 AM: Message edited by: MikeyD ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HolzemFrumFloppen Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 Hmmm... So will this mod help framerates on slower PC-based systems? Anyone had any experience? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted March 10, 2003 Author Share Posted March 10, 2003 I don't really know about frame rates. My old mac is not exactly super-powered but it takes a lot of burning buildings on a map before I see my frame rate start to go down. I suspect (based on not much) the frame rate has more to do with polygon count (complexity of a map) and LOS calculations that with the resolution of bmp textures. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drumscape Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 So im assuming that if using a g4 w\128 and i dont notice a problem than this patch would be uneccesary? or will the addition of more and more mods(which, im sure all of us mod addicts will procure )to the engine make it a helpfull honey in the future? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecumseh Posted March 10, 2003 Share Posted March 10, 2003 Tried the mod on my G4 733 w/GF2MX. There was no improvment to the downsampling I suffer from. So this mod may help macs that are really struggling, but does not seem to help macs that downsample because of driver/cmbb incompatability. Makes sense really! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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