Two questios.....

[Tread Head]

I am kinda a new guy so if these ?'s are silly forgive me.

1. In order to post a JPG. the JPG. must already been online some where right? So if I wanted to post a CM screen shot I would first have to post it at a webpage somewhere and then use that address to post it?

2. I have a new "Super" computer. My wife bought it. Speed is great but sometimes it seems like my graphics are lacking. When I see other peoples screen-shots they look more defined and sharper then what I see in a typical screen-shot of CM for me. It is not a MOD issue, I have all new MODs for my units. I was thinking more along Resolution. How do I increase the screen 'res' on CM?

Thanks....

[Schrullenhaft]

1. Correct. In order to post images to the forum they have to be hosted by another web-accessible server. There are some free services out there, but they're disappearing or have very mixed reliability (or direct-linking issues).

2. To change the resolution in CM you need to delete the CM prefs file. On a PC this is typically found in the C:\PROGRAM FILES\CMBO directory. The file is called Combat Mission Bynd Ovr Prefs. Delete this and the next time you run CM it will take you through the resolution selection process. It will not, however, offer a resolution that is higher than your current desktop resolution, so you may need to increase your desktop resolution first before running CM to select the resolution.

Do you know what video card you currently have ? Some of the "detail" you've seen in some screenshots is achieved with FSAA (Full Screen Anti Aliasing - it smoothes out the "jaggies" along some edges). Increasing the resolution can help a bit here, but if you're zoomed in close at Level 1 an increased resolution may not make a whole lot of difference that close in.

[Tread Head]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I am using a NVIDA or whatever its called with the newest update, (so the IP games work)

Is there a way to tweak the system? I have plenty of power and space on this system to spare. (My wife uses it to do the bills, i use it for CM only.)

(newest biggest fastest personal Compaq outthere 1.2 gig speed, 256 or so Ram 7200 speed 40 gig HD, the upgraded 3d and video card, and upgraded sound card)

[Schrullenhaft]

What OS (I assume it is probably WinME) and what version of the NVidia drivers are you using ? I'm guessing that you have some sort of GeForce card in your Compaq, which should be capable of FSAA. However if you're running Win98 or WinME, enabling FSAA will cause problems in CM (particularly with the info bar at the bottom of the screen).

I'm not sure what to recommend in the 'tweaking' department. There are 3rd party utilities that you can install that can be used to overclock your video card's hardware (which is not permanent and is almost always done with software) or change various settings on your video card. One good source is Guru 3D and there are plenty of other good sites on the internet. A word of warning however; CM is particularly sensitive to overclocking of the video card. Some other games and standard 2D apps may not be as sensitive to overclocking to the extent that CM may be (because CM can really stress the memory and 3D functions of the video card). Typically overclocking the video card's memory provides the biggest gains in speed, but it is also the likliest method to cause problems in CM.

Otherwise the best recommendations are to have as few programs and utilities running in the background while playing CM as possible. People quite often unintentionally slow down their computers by installing all kinds of useless and questionable software, which eats up available memory and clutters up things for the CPU and OS.

[ 09-08-2001: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[MajorH TacOps Developer]

>Treadhead said ...newest biggest

>fastest personal Compaq out there

Compaq still makes good computers but in the last couple of years they have developed a reputation for dragging down prerformance severely due to layering on a host of little programs that are always running in the background. Most of these programs provide special keyboard features related to browsing the Internet. Others are "Compaq knows best" system support utilities that may or may not cooperate well with similar Windows op system srevices and utilities. Some of these programs can best be described as advertising support items.

Bottom line - all of that garbage sitting in memory and or running all of the time eats up system resources and memory, increases startup time, and reduces your processing speed for real applications.

I bought a 500mhz Compaq Pentium III last year for coding use. On day one it took longer to compile TacOps than a clean 133 mhz Packard Bell Pentium I. Over the course of a tedious week of deleting unneeded garbage I eventually attained an increase in processing speed of several 100 percent.

For more info visit ... http://www.cexx.org/craputer.htm

[Stoffel]

the major is completely right.

I too have a Compaq,from work.

Which run all this crapp too,I deleted most of it but I am never going to buy me a compaq myself.

Its more expensive than other brands and gives you problems with upgrading,because you need to buy Compaq products

Soon I will have a new one,cant wait till its here,and it sure is no Compaq again

[Pzman]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Stoffel:

the major is completely right.

I too have a Compaq,from work.

Which run all this crapp too,I deleted most of it but I am never going to buy me a compaq myself.

Its more expensive than other brands and gives you problems with upgrading,because you need to buy Compaq products

Soon I will have a new one,cant wait till its here,and it sure is no Compaq again<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well it wont happen much soon Compaq was bought out by Hewlett Packard.

[eba]

Tread Head-

Your new Compaq is plenty fast and will run CM (and most any other game) just fine. But you definitely can improve its performance by shutting down all the hidden programs that load at startup. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and you'll see everything you have running. Odds are you don't need (or even recognize) 99% of it.

You can use that screen to close down whatever you don't need. You actually can close everything but Systray and Explorer, which I usually do before playing a graphics-intensive game.

You can also go to System Information (it's probably under System Tools in Programs/Acessories). Go to Tools/System Configuration Utility/Startup. This menu allows you to select what programs load at startup. You can change your selections whenever you want and then just reboot.

Play around with it a bit. You'll find that you really don't need 99% of the stuff that Compaq loads at startup.

[MajorH TacOps Developer]

I/we should not be picking on just Compaq here.

These days, any brand of PC is probably going to come out of the box loaded with a dozen or more CPU, memory, and resource hogging (always resident) background programs. The PC manufacturers probably feel they have to do this so that their advertised "special feature" list has as much stuff on it as the competition. Most consumers don't realize the performance costs of these features.

The real sin here is that the manufacturers make it way too dificult for knowledgeable users to disable or remove these special features. In my case I was not able to completely defeat all of Compaq's idiot features until I reformatted the hard drive and installed a separately purchased, non Compaq, version of the Windows op system.