MikeyD Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 I FINALLY solved most of my downsampling problems on my old mac! After constant screen downsampling problems, last night I decided to do something about it. I cut the resolution for ALL ground cover - sand, rough, grass, snow, light snow - by half (512 x 512 pixels to 256 x 512 pixels), giving my old 16 meg video card significantly less to think about. The BIGGEST resolution gains came from *drastically* reducing the game's hi-res SKY art. The distant hills now look pretty darned grainy, but that's offset by my new ability to see the individual buttons on AndrewTF's uniform mods! And I'm seeing my own mods sharply for the first time, almost like I've got a new eyeglasses prescription. This would be a monster 'mod pack' to upload, and I'm not sure how many of us old duffers remain out there struggling with downres'd screens from outdated 16 meg video cards. If there's a clamor for a down-res pack I can put something together for cmmods.com. Or I can simply relate how I did it and what files I did it to for those three remaining guys who'd want/need to try it themselves. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Kruger Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 I say... tell us how you did it! Congratulations as well! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junk2drive Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 pheasant plucker did a 8 bit mod a while ago. lots of debate as to whether it makes a difference. johnnymo3 did the spr mod in low res too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted June 10, 2004 Author Share Posted June 10, 2004 A year or two back there were lots of low-res mods done for CMBB, including a REALLY necessary low-res grass mod which helped low-end machine users considerably. I suspect there's proportionately fewer low-end users playing CMAK these days, so less call for those reduced-res mods. A bmp file doesn't have to stay proportionate. A square grass tile is 512 x 512 pixels. Modders making low-res art often cut both numbers in half to 256 x 256. This actually reduces the file to 1/4 size, not 1/2. A drop the original art might not be able to take. Decreasing just one number to 256 x 512 pixels will cut the resolution right in half. Sure, the bmp file will look odd but it'll import just fine. As long as you keep with pixel dimensions of 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, etc. the bmps will import okay. I believe the sky bmps were something like 512 x 1,024 pixels and I reporportioned the art down to just 128 x 1,024. A BIG ugly jump, but it freed-up my video card for rendering troops and tanks. It'll be a few days before I can get back to you with all the bmp numbers of what got down-res'd in my experiment. [ June 10, 2004, 01:09 PM: Message edited by: MikeyD ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junk2drive Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 if i take sky from bo and bb (1024x256) to ak, the pic stretches too. trees and clouds get bigger. you are saying you can shrink original art, and it will display as intended, only less resourses needed? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted June 10, 2004 Author Share Posted June 10, 2004 You can't swap skies between CMBO and CMAK because the 'sky' is set up differently. Different arrangemet of bmps in different orders. Like trying to apply a PzIII skin on a Tiger. Any bmp in the game can be stretched and reproportioned (within the number limits above) and will still import correctly on the polygon. For example, the original bmp for the Stug F driver's side visor was too tiny for me to work with so I made the art twice as tall just so I could see what I was doing. Imported just the same. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kilroy Lurking Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 How old is an old Mac? I first ran CMBO on a Rev-B iMac (233) - but it was NBG for CMBB! I then "inherited' my son's B&W (400) which with the stock16mb video card was OK - but I forked out for a Mac Radeon 7000 32 mb card which was a big improvement. (never had any "no fog or dust" problems either) OK here is my Question.. Is it worthwhile from a CM playing point of view to upgrade the CPU? Maybe I could then play the Large and Huge scenarios. Anyone out there with an upgraded rig? Or do I just wait for CM2 which will (hopefully) run on OSX but will probably need more horsepower anyway? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markl Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 If you get the chance please post the low res mods, I could use them on my old PC and not have to fight the kids for the newer on all the time. Cheers 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted June 10, 2004 Author Share Posted June 10, 2004 A faster CPU should speed calculation times as the AI is 'thinking' but I doubt if it makes a quality difference in playing the movie (Since I don't really know what I'm talking about I expect tech-heads to now stomp on me). Being a cheap b*stard, I'm more into customizing the game to fit my machine, rather than customizing my machine to fit the game. To quote former California governor Jerry Brown, "Less is more". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanok Posted June 11, 2004 Share Posted June 11, 2004 Originally posted by Kilroy Lurking: OK here is my Question.. Is it worthwhile from a CM playing point of view to upgrade the CPU? Maybe I could then play the Large and Huge scenarios. Anyone out there with an upgraded rig? Or do I just wait for CM2 which will (hopefully) run on OSX but will probably need more horsepower anyway? I have a 730 processor and a GeForce 5200 128 mb video card and I still can't play the large and huge scenarios. I even added quite a few low-res mods to the game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Kruger Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 Just a question... how can you tell armor and infantry and what not are being downsampled? I thank you in advance for any replies. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanok Posted June 14, 2004 Share Posted June 14, 2004 Originally posted by Herr Kruger: Just a question... how can you tell armor and infantry and what not are being downsampled? What do you mean? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Kruger Posted June 14, 2004 Share Posted June 14, 2004 How can you tell when your graphics in CM are being down-sampled? Is this the wrong way to phrase the question? Sorry, I'm not very strong in PC terminology or knowledge. I assume since the original poster found a way to avoid down-sampling of armor and other things that there must be a way to tell when things are being down-sampled... :confused: Color me confused. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewTF Posted June 14, 2004 Share Posted June 14, 2004 When things are downsampled they become blurry and indistinct. When they're not they're crisp and clear and show details nicely. You'll know when things are downsampled when you see it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted June 14, 2004 Author Share Posted June 14, 2004 If you don't know what downsampling is you don't have downsampling . One way to check. Are vehicles in big scenarios significantly blurrier than vehicles in tiny scenarios? Do your rock graphics sometimes have saw-tooth edges twice as rough as the rocks in scenario before? No? You don't have a downsampling problem. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogdan Posted June 14, 2004 Share Posted June 14, 2004 Hello there, What's the graphic card of your old Mac, MikeyD (master modder :cool: ) ? Is it an ATI one ? If it's the case, please have a look here and here . It may help someone with that kind of card. However, the downsampling method might be the only solution, IMHO, to improve framerate for old machines 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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