Is there anyone who knows CMMOS really well?

[civdiv]

For the life of me, I can't tell if this thing is working or not. I know it's a product of www.combatmission.com, but they don't have forums over there. I've got everything loaded up for CMBO, but I really can't see much of a difference in terms of the graphics. And though I am very good with computers, I swear, a lot of the instructions appear to be chinese to me.

I can post some screen shots, it just doesn't seem that the mods are turned on. And if I loaded up all of the rules, and all of the zip files associated withe rules (The ones on the same page), how come at least 50% of my icons showing that they do not exist?

And it seems like to activate some files, you have to select a random bmp file from your CD, if it is in the drive? That really makes no sense to me. Is this just a work around, are we tricking the machine here? Why just any old bmp?

Sorry if I sound stupid, but I'm just getting back to CMBO after over 18 months away from it.

[Philippe]

I'm deep underwater studying for my Series 7 and trying to survive in a new job, so I can't respond to this in my usual fashion.

However, if you do a search under my name and CMMOS you should come across several posts where I explain some of the ins and outs of getting CMMOS 4.03 to work (4.03 is the one you'll find at CMHQ).

Essentially you have to have CMBO installed to C:\Program files\CMBO, and CMMOS 4.03 installed to C:\Program files\GEM Software productions\CMMOS. Other configurations are possible in theory, but too much trouble for me to talk you through.

If you're talking CMBO CMMOS (as opposed to CMBB CMMOS) make sure everything is unzipped.

Make sure the bmp's with the proper extensions have been placed in the bmp folder. They won't overwrite anything.

If they aren't, the icons for that particular mod on the menu screen will have a big "wrong way" line drawn through it.

Rule of thumb: you don't see an icon, you don't have the mod installed.

Read all the CMMOS program notes several times. It is very necessary and will help you sleep.

Don't use any CMMOS files from cmmods until you are sure you know what you're doing.

Remember that to install a mod you have to hit the "Apply" button at the bottom of the control screen.

CMBO CMMOS works differently than CMBB CMMOS. It is simpler and easier to set up, but not as elegant to use.

If something doesn't happen when you expect it to, learn to read and interpret the CMMOS log file to figure out what might be going wrong. The log file will tell you interesting things like half the rule sets that you thought you had were installed incorrectly. But not succinctly.

Search and Readme files are your friends.

The CMMOS program was written by Gordon Molek, but it operates through a bunch of instructions (known as Rules and Rule Sets) that were written and tested by a group of editors in conjunction with Gordon. For one reason or another we've all had to move on with our lives.

[civdiv]

Originally posted by Philippe:

I'm deep underwater studying for my Series 7 and trying to survive in a new job, so I can't respond to this in my usual fashion.

However, if you do a search under my name and CMMOS you should come across several posts where I explain some of the ins and outs of getting CMMOS 4.03 to work (4.03 is the one you'll find at CMHQ).

Essentially you have to have CMBO installed to C:\Program files\CMBO, and CMMOS 4.03 installed to C:\Program files\GEM Software productions\CMMOS. Other configurations are possible in theory, but too much trouble for me to talk you through.

If you're talking CMBO CMMOS (as opposed to CMBB CMMOS) make sure everything is unzipped.

Make sure the bmp's with the proper extensions have been placed in the bmp folder. They won't overwrite anything.

If they aren't, the icons for that particular mod on the menu screen will have a big "wrong way" line drawn through it.

Rule of thumb: you don't see an icon, you don't have the mod installed.

Read all the CMMOS program notes several times. It is very necessary and will help you sleep.

Don't use any CMMOS files from cmmods until you are sure you know what you're doing.

Remember that to install a mod you have to hit the "Apply" button at the bottom of the control screen.

CMBO CMMOS works differently than CMBB CMMOS. It is simpler and easier to set up, but not as elegant to use.

If something doesn't happen when you expect it to, learn to read and interpret the CMMOS log file to figure out what might be going wrong. The log file will tell you interesting things like half the rule sets that you thought you had were installed incorrectly. But not succinctly.

Search and Readme files are your friends.

The CMMOS program was written by Gordon Molek, but it operates through a bunch of instructions (known as Rules and Rule Sets) that were written and tested by a group of editors in conjunction with Gordon. For one reason or another we've all had to move on with our lives.

Thanks for your reply, I'll puzzle my way through the various help guides and look for your posts. I just received CMBB-SE a couple of days ago. I got CMMOS (w/ my existing installation of CMMOS that I installed for CMBO) working perfectly for CMBB, but still no-joy for CMBO. When I goto 'configure' none of the mods are listed. The mod tabs show up, and I can click on the tabs and see the various mod icons. And I can even click on the icons and choose the various different variations (track shoes, air recognition panels, white star, etc). But when I hit configure everything is blank. The pictures of the mods don't show up, and neither does the mod tree on the left side of the box. I'll take a look at where CMBB-SE installed the actual mods automatically, versus where I did them manually for CMBO, and see if that may be the problem. I just thought, with CMMOS for CMBO, if the mod tabs showed up then I must have the mods installed in the right path. Now I am beginning to think the tabs show up as a result of the mod rules .exe, rather than from the mods themselves.

Oh, one other question. If the icon shows up, but the red circle with the line is through it, does that mean the mod rule exe is expecting that mod, but the mod bmps can't be found?

Does any of that make sense?

[Philippe]

The wrong-way sign essentially means that enough of the program is present to make CMMOS want to find a particular bmp number with cmmos extension in your cmbo bmp folder, but that it couldn't find what it was looking for when it tried. It probably doesn't guarantee that all of the program is in place, or that all of the required rules and rulesets are in place, or some combination of the two.

So the bottom line is that to make sure that the programming will work, you're better off safe than sorry.

My advice is that you go to the CMMOS section of Madmatt's semi-unofficial CMHQ (aka combatmission.com) and make sure you have downloaded all of the rules and all of the rulesets for cmbo cmmos. And it won't hurt to download the program itself if you have to (it's not that big) because I think what is on the website is slightly more recent than what was on the cd's.

Just be sure you look in all of the right places in the cmmos section, because it is easy to get confused and overlook things.

Once you have downloaded all the program, ruleset, and rule zips, shut down as much of your computer as you can. Then do the unzip and install routine. I mention this because that particular self-installer was very sensitive to programs running in the background.

After you're sure you've got the program installed, make sure you have all the bmp zips downloaded. Unzip them to a nice safe neutral place, then copy and paste the bmp's (but only the bmp's) to the cmbo bmp folder.

This is very different from how things work with cmbb cmmos. Cmbo cmmos is a manual process. In cmbb cmmos you have to use the configure button. In cmbo cmmos don't even think of touching the configure button. The configure button is not your friend, and it will confuse you even more than I do.

If you meditate on this a couple of times a day and give it a try very calmly when you have a lot of time on your hands and aren't in a hurry, eventually you'll get the hang of it. Then you'll reach true wisdon and realize that, just like swallowing, it's easier to do than to describe.

There's a version of cmmos at cmmods that was not put through the cmmos cabal's rigorous testing program, but that works on principles similar to cmbb cmmos. When you have mastered the versions that exist at cmhq to the point that you can switch back and forth at will and rewrite the rules and rulesets, then you will be ready for that version. For reasons that are too complicated to go into I prefer the cmhq version of cmmos, which is the one that I use.

Note that about 85% of the mods that you would want to experiment with are in cmbo cmmos. The number drops to about 35% for cmbb cmmos, and is probably below 10% for cmak cmmos. These percentages will continue to go down, because new mods keep coming out and the cabal doesn't exist anymore.

People sometimes bemoan this fact, and wonder why cmmos mods aren't being produced anymore. The reason is simple. The first two years I was involved with CM I did a lot of editing and as a result never had time to play the game. Editing and writing rules and rulesets is a thankless task and not much fun, and you eventually decide that since time is limited, you'd rather spend it playing and making your own mods, rather than fiddling with other peoples. A shame, because cmmos is really good at handling mod options.