Hi Reticuli, I seem to have more luck getting you here than I do via PMs don't I? Yeah if you could send me the CG-specific GlovePIE stuff that would be good. My e-mail address is on my site.
The term "necroposting" was invented by a person with no social memory beyond a year. People with a similar hangup are those o.k. with the internet being transient vapor.
Reticuli - I think in an earlier post you or someone said something about there being a BAR5 (in Hex Editor) in the CG menu that was still 'unexplored' or possibly expandable.
I hope it's OK to post to this topic, even though it's been quiet for so long. I've seen this one referenced in multiple places as a definitive thread on Comanche Gold modding, so it seems to make sense for me to post here what I have found.
BAR5 is indeed a hidden menu, although it's not empty on my installation of Comanche Gold. In fact, it contains some rather useful things, not the least of which is an ability to access some of the video recording-and-playback features of the engine. It might be possible to transfer video dumps from one copy of Comanche Gold to another, thereby either showing other gamers how one has completed a mission, or else helping someone along by letting him takeover after a hard part of a mission that someone else has completed.
This menu also contains some debug options, which make it look as if it was used in testing and design by the developers for object placement, among other things. With this menu I was able to "win" the Free Flight mission of the Training campaign -- something I couldn't do before, since there seemed normally to be no objectives to complete to allow me to win.
I'm rather optimistic that the movie features may prove to be some of the best things that could be found hidden in this game.
Greetings, DavidC99. I got your point, but i think this is a personall choise. I sacrifice a hidden menu with pointless (for me) functs to reach higher resolutions and after this i re-install and play (and online) the game again after 10 years. The 800x600 limit resolution (in 1986 was OK and the top for new game engines) was something that limited the game's attraction and playability.
I unlocked it by doing the same hex editing procedures found earlier in this topic. There are two places that it is mentioned. One is where the game defines its parent menu names. Another is where it defines the content of each menu. Once these both prove to be unlocked, you're good to go. So far, what I've seen here has been dealing with the latter, but we'll be dealing with the former.
First, I'll give you a screenshot, but before I do, I have to explain something. I went ahead when I was testing this and added another menu with my name on it just to see if I understood how the menu system works. Since I'm too lazy to take it out of this, you'll see it in the screenshot. Nevertheless, the Edit menu remains as is.
Now to achieve the Edit menu, look for the section in Cgold.pff that has this:
Code:
~BAR6
|X:0<|g Edit ~BAR5
<
>BAR1
Overwrite the "|X:0<" part with spaces, which is 0x20 value in hexadecimal format for an ASCII space.
Save.
Done.
I tested some of these options. Some pointers:
Load & Play Recording: Looks for a video file to playback.
Play Recording vs Play Recording w/no views: I don't know the difference between these two, yet, but playback and takeover appears to work fine.
Start Recording: Select this to begin a recording. It resets the mission.
Save Recording: Select this to dump a .rec file in your game directory named after the current mission.
Save .POS File: This dumps a .pos file in your game directory named after the mission.
Clear All Objects: It really does just that. Don't use it if you don't want everything to disappear.
Set Win Flag: This is all you ever wanted to get through that Free Flight Training Mission.
IP Remote Control: I wish I knew what this did.
The rest in this section: Not sure, but I certainly was able to damage myself with the "Take No Damage" option selected by crashing into a mountain. It might apply only to playback movies or to enemy fire.
Helicopter FM: This is normal simulator movement.
Edit n' Move FM: This is a debug/dev option to let you move the Comanche around. I think this may be useful if you're trying to figure out object placement for custom missions.
Note: The naming convention for saving and loading files is based on the current mission. So if you're doing Free Flight, the file name used for loading and saving a game recording could be "C1M6.REC".
Now -- let's think about how we can use these new features for good. I'm curious about a few things.
Will recording and transferring game video dump files to other users allow them to use the playback and takeover routines?
What in the world is the "IP Remote Control" feature? That sounds very... dangerous... fun.... what?
You no longer need to edit that large 'Cgold.pff' file because I found the file within that to edit. Note that PFF files are merely archives containing lots of game files.
I was thinking of getting a pff tool. I've now been convinced to do that, and I see all of the files within it and how to edit it.
Interestingly enough, if we don't need the Cgold.pff file, or even if we can repack our own, then in theory, this means we might be able to make our own complete campaigns -- even multiplayer compatible campaigns.
I'm starting to like this idea... I wonder how much work it would be to put a real campaign together.
I could, sure, but I have to disappear for awhile, and may not get to it today. If you want to do it yourself, it's just like I described earlier, without much difficulty. From your WC3.MNU file:
Code:
>BAR0
|0|w Game ~BAR1
|g Control ~BAR3
|g Options ~BAR4
|g Detail ~BAR2
|g Video ~BAR6
|X:0<|g Edit ~BAR5
<
This needs to be changed so that "|X:0<" don't exist. Overwriting with spaces should work, although I suspect you might be able to simply delete that substring without any consequences.
Is there a place where you'd like me to attach the new file once I get through with it?
I place the 5 spaces instead of |X:0< save it and nothing happens :-(
after correction it is look like this:
-----> Trigger Data ENDS <----------..>BAR0..|0|w Game ~BAR1..|g Control ~BAR3..|g Options ~BAR4..|g Detail ~BAR2..|g Video ~BAR6.. |g Edit ~BAR5..<..>BAR1..
I just tested this by taking Flyboy's WC3.MNU file and making the change in my last post by deleting the 5 characters. Hex editing the .pff file should probably be abandoned, especially if we can make our own modded pff files. The next challenge is to be able to easily swap between mods.
I've discovered the difference between Play Recording and Play Recording w/no views, by the way. The latter is the one we currently use whenever we issue a normal playback command in singleplayer. "With no views" means that it doesn't show you the camera views that were recorded with the video. For example, if you switch from cockpit view to external view during a mission, this is, in fact, recorded with the video dump. If you play the recording with views, then you will not be able to change camera angles, but you will be able to see the video through the eyes of the pilot as he switches from one camera to another. Very useful if you want to analyze a pilot's usage of cameras in respect to his awareness of the battlefield.
Incidentally, I've discovered prerecorded videos of certain missions left in the game by the developers. If you load these missions and then load the recording from the new menu, you'll be able to watch these videos. These are the following missions that come with recordings:
C5M2
C2M8
C6M1
C8M3
Remember, Training is C1. So C2 would be the first Silver campaign. The number after the "M" indicates the mission number.
Note: These videos don't necessarily show amazing gameplay.
I'm thinking about looking into making a campaign. Not sure if it can be done, but I may give it a shot.
The term "necroposting" was invented by a person with no social memory beyond a year. People with a similar hangup are those o.k. with the internet being transient vapor.
Have you checked BAR5 already ?
