Horizon mods

[Kingfish]

Lately I've been on a Normandy kick, and would like a horizon mod that would be better suited for these scenarios. I'm thinking gently rolling hills much like the English countryside that was used for the Sealion battle pack.

Any suggestions?

Oh, and how does one install a mod?

7 years into this game and I've yet to install one.

[Philippe]

Nothing could be easier.

First, let's talk about what you're probably looking for.

Go to cmmods.com. If you haven't joined, do so. One nice thing, though, is you can set it up to remember your password. The bad part of that is that if you're like me, you'll forget it from time to time and have to keep creating new identities.

Once you have download privildeges at cmmods, go to the CMAK section. When you click on CMAK mods you'll see a short list of items. One of them is Search, which is a pretty good search engine. Another is Newest Mods, which will usually be your first stop. But the one you want is "By Designer", and the designer's name that you want to click on is Mikey D.

When you click on his name you'll see a list. You're looking for sky and horizons, so that will usually show up in either 'Other' or 'Terrain'. In this case you want 'Other'. You'll see another list, and in the middle of the list youll see three items:Sky, Normandy, Clear, dawn/dusk, and cloudy.

Go into your hard drive and under C:\Program Files make a folder called CMAK Mods. Then, go into your CMAK program, find the BMP folder (it's the big one with all the textures in it), copy it and paste it into your folder called C:\Program Files\Cmak mods. You might want to rename it something like BMP_Original.

The reason you've just done this is that I guarantee you'll make mistakes. Having a permanent, accessible back-up of your bmp folder will save you a world of nuisance.

Now, go back into that CMAK mods folder and make a second folder called SKY. Inside that folder make two more folders: name one of them BTS (or BFC if you prefer) and name the other one Mikey D.

Now go back to CMMODS and download the three zip files by Mikey D with the words Normandy in them.

Unzip them into the SKY/Mikey D folder. Now to make your life easier at this point I would make another folder with a throwaway title like TEMP or WIP or whatever you want. When you unzipped the three Mikey D folders from CMMODS it created three more folders (one for clear, one for dawn/dusk, and one for cloudy). Inside each of these folders are bmp files with numbers for names, and other files -- usually readme files and (since it's Mikey D) a very useful jpeg illustration that shows you exactly what you're getting. Put the bmp's from each of the folders into your TEMP (or WIP or whatever you called it) folder.

You'll see a group of bmp's. Make a note of the bmp numbers using any method that works for you. Go into the folder that you made at the start of the process called BMP_original and make another copy of those files. Paste that copy into the BTS folder inside your SKY folder. What you've done is that you've avoided touching the BMP folder inside the CMAK program any more than necessary, and you've made an exact copy of the files that Mikey D's mod will replace. And the reason that you've done that is so that you can switch back and forth between the mod and the original at will.

The last step is simple. Copy all the bmp's from the Mikey D Temp (or WIP or whatever) folder and copy them directly into the BMP folder in the CMAK program. Never copy anything into the BMP_Original folder that you set up inside your CMAK mods folder.

If you follow this procedure you will always have absolute control over any mod that you install, and can reverse it instantly without damaging the integrity of your CMAK program's BMP folder. You will also start to go quietly mad, and once you've got the method under your belt you'll look around for a program like McMMM which does most of this for you mechanically. I would strongly recommend that you make your first few modding forays manually.

One odd thing that a lot of people forget -- the program only shows the textures that were in the bmp folder when you launched it, so don't mess with the contents of the BMP folder while the program is running -- always exit CM before you do anything to it.

I know you don't need anywhere this much detail, Sergio, but I thought that this would be a good time to spell everything out since we seem to be getting a few new recruits courtesy of the Anthology pack and CMSF.

And if you think this was something, you should have been there when Gordon Molek tried to teach me how to use zip files (he has the patience of a saint, and I just couldn't get it).

[GreenAsJade]

Wow, that sounds like a lot of hard work.

You could get the Mod from CMMODS, and get McMMM at the same time (it's under Mod Managers).

The follow the nice friendly instructions on the web about how to install mods with McMMM and save all the fafing around with files and folders

GaJ

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Please do. McMMM makes it ridiculously easy.

Still can't believe all the wonderful scenarios you've crafted while looking at pure stock CM.

[Kingfish]

Believe it. I still enjoy the neon green trees of CMBO on occasion. A part of me actually wishes I could play with the pre-Alpha, Charlie Brown Christmas, metal Pine tree graphics. There are pics of it somewhere on the web. Classic stuff.

Edit: Here it is. Just click on the pic

[ November 20, 2007, 05:21 PM: Message edited by: Kingfish ]

[Kingfish]

OK, I've checked both options.

Philippe,

Thanks for typing the whole process out for me, but midway thru my head exploded.

BTW, did you ever get your apartment situation worked out?

Gaj,

Looks like a killer program, but I'm only going to change the horizon, so can't see the need for DL the whole kit and caboodle for a couple of mods.

So, suppose I wanted to change the horizon for good. No turning back to the default mountains. Can't I just d/l from cmmods, copy / overwrite directly to my bmp folder and call it a day?

[hoolaman]

Yes you can. Thats what I mostly used to do with mods. If I didn't like it I would find another mod to download and overwrite with that too. I never bothered making a copy of the whole original bmp folder because it is pretty big.

If it all gets screwed up you have a backup of the originals on your game CD after all. Just reinstall. Its easier to back-up your scenarios and your downloaded mods and do a clean install.

[Philippe]

If you want to make a permanent horizon switch you can copy the mod directly to your bmp folder.

You will also end up copying a bunch of things that don't belong in there, but at the end of the day they shouldn't interfere with how the program runs. In about a year you'll glance inside your bmp folder and wonder what those files that aren't bmp files are doing in there...

You might want to take a look at David Inglett's CM Normandy mod. It's basically a parallel install of CMAK limited to Normandy material. If you have the space in your hard drive this is probably the way to go. He's also put together CMETO, which is the rest of CMBO redone as CMAK. One of the reasons I did the CMAK scenario sort was to have complete sets of scenarios that went with each.

And the apartment situation is still a mess, albeit a different one. Hope to have it worked out next year.

[Kingfish]

OK, stupid question #1,

I d/l and copied directly over the original BMPs, accepting the overwrite option, but the mountains remain. I tried relaunching the game, and even switching from Italy to all combined but with no luck.

What is the "trigger" that gets the mods to appear?

[bruce90]

Google Jonesoft. Go to the site download the Jonesoft Generic Mod Enabler.Its a tiny download. Install it in the CMAK main folder, run it once. It will create a folder called Mods. Put your mod in that folder.Enable it. It's in the game. If you don't like disable it. you are back to the original mod.It's so simple I can do it.

[Philippe]

Sergio, the trigger is method.

If you were trying to download the three Mikey D Normandy zips that I mentioned, each one of them unzips to a folder, which has another folder inside of it. The second folder has the bmp's you want, and a jpeg, and a readme file.

So if you look in your cmak/bmp folder you will find that you now have three folders that you didn't have before. The CM program does not look inside folders, and that's why the sky textures aren't changing.

That is also why it is always best to unzip to a mod holding folder so you can see what you're doing to yourself. And while you're doing that, you really, really, really should go into the cmak/bmp folder and make back-up copies of the files you're replacing.

[Kingfish]

Finally got it to work now. Looks great with the Goodwood scenarios I have in the works. Thanks to everyone for their help.

[Philippe]

You may have just taken the first step on a long and slippery slope...

[Kingfish]

You may be right, but from this point on I am going to back up the originals. The Normandy horizon mods don't seem that out of place in, say, Tuscany, but the houses are region specific.

[David I]

Kingfish,

I have been playing your scenarios for some time and they are, for the most part, great.

Now welcome to your first snort of modding. Remember that the first dose is free.

For total emersion into what CM has to offer, you should be playing your Normandy games in "CM Normandy" and later scenarios in "CMETO". Pretty easy to set up and then you, like me, will become a total................

Unrepentant MOD SLUT!

DavidI