Need some help with CMMOS

[ErikinWest]

I have just recently got CMMOS so I can start downloading large amounts of mods but im in a pickle.

I have downloaded and got CMMOS all the rulesets but when I try to add a mod nothing happens. I go to configure then I go to mod tab and press add. I go to the file and double click it. Nothing happens. I then close it and look for it under its category and nothing is there.

Could someone please help me! (I have read the manual many times with no avail)

Thnx,

Erik

[Philippe]

First, truth in advertising.

I can help quite a bit with CMMOS 4.03 for CMBO, and may be able to provide useful insight into the workings of CMMOS 4.03 for CMBB.

These can both be found at CMHQ, and, in the case of CMMOS for CMBB, on the CMBB SE mod disk which I don't think you have.

You'll have to tell us exactly what you've got, exactly how you tried to install it, and exactly where you tried to install it to.

CMMOS is a wonderfully flexible tool, but it requires a lot of care and precision to make it work.

So describe which CMMOS you're using and where you got it, how and where you installed it, what it looks like when you click on the CMMOS icon, and what mods, if any, you've managed to install.

If you haven't managed to install any, we can talk about one particular mod and go through the drill to make that one work.

Be aware that CMMOS won't work if a) it's installed in the wrong place; CMBB is installed in the wrong place; c) the rulesets and rules that run it for a particular mod and set of mods aren't installed; and d) the mod that you're trying to install in CMMOS isn't a CMMOS mod.

a) and are less important in CMMOS for CMBB than CMMOS for CMBO.

[ErikinWest]

Ok I have 4.03 CMMOS to start off. I installed it to the pre-programmed directory: C/Program Files/Gem Software.

Ok i got it CMMOS from CMHQ, when you click it (with the rulesets installed) you get a a lot of tabs at the top with Exit, Configure, Help, and Credits on the bottom. Then I click configure and added all the rulesets (I downloaded every ruleset from CMHQ).

So then I go to the mods tab in configure and click add and nothing happens.

I hope I have been more descriptive. Your help is still very welcome!

Thnx,

Erik

[Philippe]

Ok, we'll need to do a couple more things before we're exactly on the same page, but we're almost there.

Let's focus on one particular mod that we won't have too much trouble finding. Let's install Juju's Trench Mod, an important mod and a vast improvement over the standard graphics.

You're going to find it in the Miscellaneous section at CMHQ CMMOS. Make sure you've downloaded and installed the Miscellaneous Ruleset at the top of the page. Now download the zipped Jujus_Trench_Mod_Cmmos file and put it in an easily located and safe place.

Now fire up the CMMOS program and look at your control page.

Make sure that the menu option in the extreme lower right hand corner is set to CMBB and not CMBO.

Click on the tab that reads Miscellaneous. What do you see? If you've installed the ruleset you might see, among other things, an icon that read "BFC default trench bmp" when you move your cursor over it. [Let me know if you have that or not, it's important]. If you've managed to install the specific rule for the mod you should see an icon that reads "Juju's trench pack" when you move your mouse over it. You may not have this icon, and in that case I need to know. If you do have the icon and the mod is not installed, I would expect the icon to be greyed out, or to have a European one-way traffic indicator in its place. Otherwise you should see an icon with a trench (not the BFC bmp icon) in full 64 by 64 pixel living color.

So I need to know how much of that, if any of it, you can see. And the reason we're doing it with this particular mod is that you won't have a whole lot in that particular ruleset, so it will be harder for things to get lost -- the Schweinesstal dunkelgrau ruleset is about the worst place to learn CMMOS in, so that's why we aren't fixing your Pz 38(t).

This, by the way, is the first line of defense. Looking at these screens tells you what the program thinks you have. If you don't see something that you have in there, it means that you're either looking in the wrong place, or the program doesn't think you have it. That can be for one of two reasons: there's a mistake in the way the rule or ruleset was written (there are a few cases of this -- and it happens a lot when you roll your own), or you did something wrong when you tried to install it.

Now armed with this preliminary focus, try installing Juju's trench, and report back what you see. It's entirely possible that you won't see anything, and that's when the fun begins, because we'll have to figure out why.

[ErikinWest]

Ok this is quite good! I did DL Juju's Trench mod and it worked! I could see it and everything! So then I DL'ed something cool from CMMODS and it didn't work.

So I was quite distressed. So then I DL'ed a tank from the German Armor ruleset (at CMHQ) and it worked. So it seems that mods from CMMODS don't work but mods from CMHQ do work.

So now I need help getting the mods from CMMODs to work.

Thnx,

Erik

[Philippe]

Remember, a mod will only work in CMBB CMMOS 4.03 (which is what CMHQ and the CMBB SE Mod disk uses) if it comes from CMHQ or the mod disk, or you've written it to make it compatible. There are two or three exceptions, and as far as I can tell these are all CMMOS write-ups on the mod disk that were rushed into production without being fully tested. But in any case, almost all of the mods that you'll find at CMMODS aren't CMMOS mods. So to get them to work in CMMOS you'll usually have to do the conversion yourself.

The difference between what you'll find at CMMODS and what you find at CMHQ, by the way, is that the CMHQ material was produced by the CMMOS cabal, a team of about twenty [add favorite psychological insult here] who usually tested their work to the point of oblivion. The CMMODS rulesets are the work of one very talented individual occasionaly backed up by a tester. They are also written for CMMOS 4.05, but that's another story.

Making 4.03 material work with 4.05 material is not all that difficult, but you have to be familiar enough with CMMOS to make the adjustments. The advantage to sticking with 4.03 is that 98% of CMBO is sitting on the CMHQ website, tested, retested, and mulled over to the point of madness (mine, mostly). 4.03 does not handle CMAK, however, and 4.05 does. The problem, though, is again the single editor/tester phenomenon. The underlying program revision was done by Gordon Molek (the brilliant original author of CMMOS), but the editing work was done by one very good and talented editor but without a team of testers. And there simply aren't enough CMMOS writers around to keep it up to date. So the bottom line is you might want to look into McMMM for CMAK -- it doesn't have quite the same flexibility, but it tends to be there and fully functional when you need it.