CMBB text problem

[Guest Stuart J. Vincent]

I having a problem with the text on the battlefield screen.

The text in all other parts of the game is fine.

The text that appears on the battle screen is blurred and I get text from the counter appearing in the various boxes on the status bar at the bottom of the screen, so unit info on my troops is not displayed.

Also in the hotkeys menu all the options state “Click this window to remove”.

Can anyone help?

System spec.

Win 98

Pentium 500MHz Processor

Mother board Chaintech 6BTM (6BTM0817)

256Mb RAM

Hercules 3D Prophet 4000XT 64Mb

Direct X 8.1

Hercules 15.084 driver

[ September 01, 2002, 09:20 AM: Message edited by: Sgt. Grunt ]

[Schrullenhaft]

This is a problem with the Kyro drivers that exists under Win9x/ME (Win2K & XP don't have it apparently). It's a problem that hasn't been fixed by the drivers since the beginning.

To fix this problem you need to disable a feature of the drivers in the Registry. This can be done on a game by game basis. The following key needs to be added into the registry:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PowerVR\KYRO\Game Settings\D3D\Barbarossa to Berlin DEMO.exe]

"DisableCopyBlt3D"="1"

I believe a key may already exist for the CMBO Demo, in which case you can edit it for the actual executable name of the CMBB demo (and eventually the full version of the game).

The easy way to do this is to copy the text starting with 'REGEDIT4' all the way to "1" (including quotes on the number) to an empty Notepad file. Name the notepad file 'cmbbdemo.reg' and then save it. The icon for the file should be a registry file (little blue blocks), which you can double click and add to the registry.

[ September 01, 2002, 02:10 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Guest Stuart J. Vincent]

I did what you said but the situation hasn't changed, will the full version of the game be different? Does it write to the registry?

I don't have any problems with CMBO.

[Schrullenhaft]

The changes should be applied at the instant you load up the registry files. However I'd suggest rebooting just in case.

If that doesn't do it, then open up the registry editor and check for that key. Oh, and I forgot one thing, you need to change the executable name since it is actually the name of the Beta and not the Demo. That should fix things.

In fact I just corrected the post above, so just repeat the procedure with the registry corrections I made and it should fix things.

[ September 01, 2002, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Guest Stuart J. Vincent]

I did try your suggestion it hasn't made any difference. I checked and the correct entry is in the registry for the demo, rebooted the computer but no difference. I had added some screen shoots so you can see what is happening with the text.

1. It is blurred which I can live with if necessary.

2. I get strange text in the status boxes at the bottom of the screen. Open ground showing in several boxes in the first picture and show land marks on in the second. Most of the time you get the terrain type showing in those boxes or if ‘Landmarks’ is toggled on then they show.

[Schrullenhaft]

Use the 'Default' settings for 'DirectX Optimization' in the Display control panel and then see what you get. The fuzzy text should have been fixed with the Disable Copy Blt in 3D.

I'll have to run the Demo with the Kyro. I know the Beta/Full version works with this fix (this is a Hercules Kyro II 4500).

[Guest Stuart J. Vincent]

Default settings don't help.

The Hercules 3D Prophet 4000XT 64Mb is a Kyro 1 chip I think.

[carbo]

Damn!!.

I have the same problem with the text, and I fixed it with your suggestion of the cmbbdemo.reg

But now I've another problem (the same I have with CM). The explosions, smoke and tanks seem transparent.

Could you tell me how to un-do the cmbbdemo.reg, because I think I prefer the other problem. Anyway should be better if you tell me how to solve both problems

[Schrullenhaft]

No it's a Kyro II chip. It only has 32Mb instead of 64Mb of VRAM and a lower GPU clock speed, otherwise they're similar.

I just tried the fixes I suggested myself (manually editing the registry) and they definitely work with the CMBB Demo. I'm running the 15.0084 drivers, DirectX 8.1 and Windows ME in this particular instance (it should be similar enough for your setup - Windows ME & 9x share the same driver).

I suggest opening up the registry manually and checking that the settings are actually there (the 'directory structure' is listed in the above key). If the key name for the file is different at all from the actual file name for the CMBB Demo, then it won't setup those settings for the game. If the registry entry isn't there then you'll need to manually insert them, which I can instruct you on if necessary.

[Schrullenhaft]

The 'transparency' problem is a known bug with the drivers. I don't know how you would be able to play the game for any amount of time with the text problem since it affecta all the info you get in the game. I'm not even sure if reversing the registry settings will actually get rid of the transparency problem.

If you're willing to live with a large performance hit, you can get rid of the transparency problem by doing this:

Go to Control Panels > Display control panel > Settings tab > Advanced... button > 3D Optimization tab > Direct3D tab (default) > under the Control Full-Scene Anti-Aliasing make sure the setting 'Application specified anti-aliasing' is selected. Check mark the 'Enable External Depth/Stencil Buffer' and under that check the 'Enable External Depth/Stencil Buffer Storing'.

This should help with most of the transparency problems. In conjunction with the registry setting for the text CMBB should run OK on the Kyros. There may be some other problems, such as you can't use FSAA without messing up CM (if you can live with the small transparency problem and not use the above listed settings than you can use FSAA).

To get rid of the registy setting open up the registry editor (regedit) and browse to the above listed key. Highlight the Executable filename key (in this case it would be 'Barbarossa to Berlin DEMO.exe') and delete it. Once you close the registry editor the change should take effect.

[Guest Stuart J. Vincent]

Can you post details on how to manually add the registry entry please?

[ September 02, 2002, 08:56 AM: Message edited by: Sgt. Grunt ]

[Guest Stuart J. Vincent]

Schrullenhaft,

Thanks for your help, in the end I renamed the CMBO demo registry entry to Barbarossa to Berlin DEMO.exe and it all works OK.

[ September 02, 2002, 01:43 PM: Message edited by: Sgt. Grunt ]

[Raven88]

I've the same video card as Sgt. Grunt and was having the same probs with the text , but after Schrullenhaft rename it in the registry from CMBO demo to Barbarossa to Berlin DEMO.exe fix it now works just fine.

Can i take it that just another registry entry edit will fix this same prob again if it shows up in the full game?

btw. thx for the demo fix Schrullenhaft.

[Schrullenhaft]

Yes. It's the 'DisableCopyBlt3D' function. You can create a new key with the exact same settings, but with the new executable name for the full version of CMBB (which should be 'Barbarossa to Berlin.exe').