ob5idian

Good news! For the most part, the textures are done, and they're looking damn spiffy, if I may say so myself. I've gotten all of the spaceship, aircraft, space station and character skins out of the way. Now I just need to do some ground base and unit touch-ups. Then, I'll put the whole shebang into three zips (ships, ground textures/units, and "other") and send them off to either $ilk or Epsilon, whoever's willing to host them. If you liked the demo skin, you'll love the real set!

Come on, give a man a hand.

Okay, I've just finished updating the Battlecruiser mk.1's skin, and I'm happy enough with the results that I'm going to put the skin up for download. That's right, she's all yours. Here's how to install the skin: Proceed at your own risk! BC mk.1 skin 1. Copy your saves to a safe location (just in case something odd happens, which it shouldn't). 2. Go to your BCM install folder (ie: c:/3000ad/Battlecruiser Millenium/) and locate the "models" folder, and within that, the "textures" folder. 2. Copy "bcmk1-1.bmp", "bcmk1-2.bmp", and "bcmk1-3.bmp" to a safe location, ie up a folder. 3. Now, extract the files in the zip with the above names (all the .bmp files, there should be three) to the textures folder. If you're asked whether you want to replace the files, say yes for all three. 4. Start up BCM and start a new game with a Battlecruiser mk.1 as your CC. 5. Press f9 to get an external view, or alt-e to fly around your new ship. That's it. Easy as pie. Keep in mind that if anything bad should happen to your BCM game (which is somewhere between unlikely and impossible, but still merits mention), you're doing this at your own risk (and remember that Mr. Smart has nothing to do with this modification, so don't even think about asking him to fix things if you or the files screw something up). Remember, these skins are unfinished, and I still would like any comments you care to offer. Note: I can only vouch for these skins in BCM. Though they're likely to work with BCMG, no promises. However, if anybody with BCMG would care to try them out, please tell me whether they work or not.

No wonder you have such angst.

New input: Sebbish says D. Thank you Sebbish.

Okay, here's the plan. I've taken four shots of the Garid using four different combos of lighting, masking and opacity. They're all in one zip, which you can download here: Demo shot comparison. If you've the time, please help me out by downloading the zip (less than 1 meg.), looking at the images, and posting which (a,b,c or d) you like best in this forum. I'd also greatly appreciate any suggestions you can offer. Again, many thanks for your interest, and especially to Epsilon 5 for his generous offer of hosting space. By the way, Epsilon, how did you get those shots of your textures? I mean, without any shadowing and such. Thank you again, Epsilon, for hosting this file. By the way, again, if anyone runs into Mr. Smart, please as him to check out this test. His input would be supremely appreciated. [ 05-06-2003, 05:20 PM: Message edited by: ob5idian ]

Many thanks, Epsilon. I'll give you replacements for those (as the results improve) as soon as I finish skinning. Thanks as well to Fractux. I'll send word when I'm finished.

Actually, Eclipse, that's almost exactly what I'm doing right now, and, indeed, it does make the textures quite a bit clearer. Thanks a lot for the helpful info, though.

Okay, I've signed up for a second Tripod account, and have set up some .zip downloads of a whole bunch of demo shots. The fourth zip has the best pics, I believe, but they all help to give you some idea of the general effect. However, the my bandwidth will run out quickly, so hurry up and download! Downloads Note: these are demo images only, not the actual texture download. I'm still not quite finished, and hope to make things perhaps a bit more attractive before offering them up to anybody who'd like to check them out. And I think there is indeed a Questar in there somewhere .

And he spelled "ass" wrong, too. The nerve. Also, how did he mug you twice if, by your own admission, you enjoyed the first game?

Forgive me if this has been brought up already, but one thing that I've always wanted to see was more NPCs. Not necessarily smarter or "better" NPCs, just more. When you're hanging around Earth, for instance, it's odd to only rarely see the odd ship. If It's possible, I'd just like to see some traffic. The ships don't even need full AI, just some basic routing. Just window dressing ships to make space seem a bit more alive.

I've done every ship, basically, but now I need to go through and sharpen some (mostly the smaller ships), as well as perhaps add other effects, such as gloss or directional spotlights. I'll add pics to the website as soon as I can access it again. The effect that Epsilon 5 was using is similiar to the one I am, but the effect is much more pronounced in my version; most of all on the stations and largest ships. I've also updated character models, ground textures and the rendered static "station" backgrounds. On that note: Epsilon 5, would you mind putting up some of my example pics? You wouldn't have to have them on your site, just somewhere that I can link to here in the forums. I'd much appreciate it. [ 05-05-2003, 05:09 PM: Message edited by: ob5idian ]

I'd love to show you, but I have no way of hosting the images other than free Tripod, which has a bandwidth limit that's nowhere near enough for these large images. Also, I can't email them more than one or two at a time (hotmail), so unless someone's willing to give me free temporary hosting (only about 10 megs of space), I'm SOL. However, if you feel like being trusting, you can take my word that the new textures look quite nice. Just ask Sebbish. He saw.

Well, I'm all done. Every ship, character, weapon, building and object has been reskinned, along with new (again, "deeper") ground textures, planet textures, and a few other odd enhancements. If I find somewhere to host it, I'll put the whole shebang up for download in a Zip. Until then, check out the screens on the link above (unless its bandwidth has overflowed again). Again, the new skins aren't exactly revolutionary, but they do help, I think, give the ships a nice, realistic look. Later.

It would appear that my bandwidth has been exceeded. Shame. However, I've got pics of a probe, an ATV (it came out blurry, though, so I'll have to work on it some more), a Nightstar, a Starfighter, and some cityscapes with new, more 3d buildings. I'll keep working, but if anybody's interested in hosting a download or my example pics, I'd be grateful. Also, keep those comments/suggestions coming!

Okay, I just added a shuttlecraft, and I'm about to try a mining drone and a starfighter. If you love it, Sebbish, spread the word. I'd love some more feedback.

I'm uploading pics of a mk2 cruiser and an HAV. They'll be at the above link. Okay, here they are: more examples Here's a hint: use f11 to make IE fullscreen. That should allow you to see more pic at once. Enjoy. I'm particularly fond of the mk II. I like the really dark, ingrained look of it. I thought that would help to make it look more threatening. By the way, if anybody has SC's attention, please ask him to check out these pics for me. I'd really like his input. Note: I just added another example, an Elite Force Marine. I like this one, too. [ 05-04-2003, 06:32 PM: Message edited by: ob5idian ]

Did you check out the examples? If so, what did you think? PS: In case anybody's wondering, the new textures require no more processing power than before, and are not actually true "bump-mapping", only a rather good similacrum.

I'm not sure how this'll fly with the esteemed gentlemen at 3000ad. (if it doesn't, just tell me), but I've started to update some of the textures from BCM. Using a sort of simulated bump-mapping effect I've been able to add a bit more depth to some of the textures, and in the game they actually look quite nice. If anyone's interested in my work, here's a page with two (very large) examples: Examples These images are rather large (1024x768), so be patient. Notice the increased depth in the solar panels and nose of the mk3, and the more pronounced depth of the station. Notice also that even flat surfaces now have a distinct pockmarked look to them, more in line with what (I believe) a real space structure would look like after a few months of bombardment by space debris. Also note that these are rather poor examples, and that the effect is more pronounced in person. Again, I don't want to step on any toes, so if this isn't cool with anyone on the BCM team, especially Mr. Smart, please tell me and I'll do my best to remedy the situation. As for downloading the new texture set, well, give me a while on that.

quote:Going through the textures (and replacing some of them with new 32bit versions) What exactly do you mean by this? Were you somehow updating the textures, and if so, how?

Okay, just in case anybody else is having the same problem I was, I think I've found what was causing it. It seems that, God only knows why, my BCM.exe was running in compatibility mode (WinXP uses these to help older games run better). I have no idea why, but there it is. So, if your BCM is cutting out after the splash screen/logo video, check the properties of BCM.exe. It worked for me. Of course, updating all of your drivers, DX, WinMediaPlayer, and installing the SafeDisk fix probably didn't hurt.

Well, I'm completely buggered, now. The darn thing just started working, and I have no idea why. I uninstalled, reinstalled and patched directly to 1.08. When I tried it with a shortcut with /w1 at the end of the target, it worked without a hitch. Then, I tried running the EXE directly, and, lo and behold, BCM in all its 1.08 glory. I guess that means problem solved, I suppose. My guess is that I did something wrong with my earlier attempts at installing straight to 1.08 from within the BCM folder, or maybe it's just those WinXP demons dinking around with something. Thanks for all your help, though. I very much appreciate it. Special thanks as well to Mr. Smart, for not only taking the time to develop a great game, but to help us lesser beings through it. Now, if you all don't mind, I've got some battle cruising to do... [ 05-03-2003, 11:23 PM: Message edited by: ob5idian ]

I wasn't suggesting that the patches were bad , per se, but that something in them was causing a conflict on my PC only. The installation worked, and they seemed to find and replace everything just dandy. I don't think that the suggestions about save games are applicable, since I never saved before installing the 1.08 patch. I'll try the extensions you suggested, SC. As for whether or not the patches are actually corrupted or otherwise bad, I can't say. Nothing leads me to think so. The installations never did anything suspicious. If they're creating a corrupted file or something of the like, I should be able to say after trying the extensions, which I'll do as soon as I can uninstall/reinstall. To Darkling, the patches didn't fail to initialize, the game itself did after installing them (from within the same folder as the EXE, and indeed right next to it ). By the way, I'd like to say how impressed I am with the forum community here. I've rarely ever gotten a helpful forum response elsewhere, let alone from the creator of the game himself. Thank you for your help, and please be soft on a fledgling BCM player. [ 05-03-2003, 09:28 PM: Message edited by: ob5idian ]

To respond to SC's comment, I tried going directly to 1.08, and only when that did not work did I try installing patches incrementally. And, in response to Darkling, I tried going up a folder from BCM only after an install from within the BCM folder produced the same results as before (failure to initialize). On the topic of defragging, my PC defrags daily, though it didn't during my experimenting. I doubt, therefore, that it was hardrive fragmentation that was causing the problem. Again, since BCM works up to version 1.07, I can only guess that it's something specifically in the 1.08 patch that's causing the problem. As for SC's comment on patching BCMG with BCM patches, I only own BCM and have only used (to my knowlege) BCM patches. If I said otherwise, I was mistaken. Also, I'd like to clarify: the game is not really crashing, as in loading up and then kicking me to the desktop or an error message. The game simply doesn't start. After the logo video, the window just closes. No message, no black screen, not even a flicker. BTW, in response to fractux, the patches all install just fine (or, at least, they say they do). The problem, I believe, is not with the installation of the patches, but with something that they change within the game. Also BTW, just in case anyone was wondering, I do greatly enjoy 1.07. Aside from some menu oddities, it runs well. It's just aggravating not to have the latest and greatest. On that note, I was wondering: is the $10 rebate on BCMG for BCM owners still good, and if so, how do I redeem it?

I'm having the exact same problem. I installed BCM from the CD (fresh install), and it ran fine. However, when I patched it directly to 1.08 (from the BCM directory), the game stopped working. It simply brings up the splash screen, read the CD for a few seconds, then stops. No error message, no nothing . It's as if I never even started it. I also have DirectX 9.0, but I run on XP with all the latest upgrades (including SP1). I've downloaded the SafeDisk update, tried compatibility modes, and have the latest drivers for my video card straight from Nvidia (WHQL-certified). Update: I fiddled around a bit, and by installing the patches in the following progression, I got the logo video to play. Still no spacey goodness, though. 1.00.07-1.00.08 RC23-1.00.08 final Also, while experimenting, I ran into a little anomaly: when I install the patches from the C:/3000ad/ folder (above the actual BCM folder), they ask me to reboot after installing. However, when I install the patches (in any order) from within the BCM folder, they do not ask me to reboot. Should they or shouldn't they ask me to restart after patch installation? By the way, the game works in every version from 1.00.00 to 1.00.07, but any version of .08 stops loading after the logo video. I've even tried re-installing all of my drivers, D-X and Windows Media Player. No luck. [ 05-02-2003, 02:30 AM: Message edited by: ob5idian ]