Newbie Question

[Lionfish]

I have been playing West Front and the rest since they came out and I am VERY glad that you have rereleased the series. It is a fanatastic game.

My question is about graphic resolution. It is quite hard to see the troops and tanks in 3D mode on some maps. The graphics are good, it's the resolution I think. Of course I don't know how much coding would need to take place to increase the resolution or rework the graphics. Of course I would never expect a 3D engine or anything of that nature.

Even the new games (with simple graphics) Advance Tactics are higher resolution and easier to view.

Questions.

1. Will a future patch address a higher resolution in the future?
2. Has any mods come out that increases resolution or new graphics?

Again, this is not a flame or a put-down - as it is one hell of a great game. I love it. It is just that an improvement in the resolution would make this game so much better and EASIER to play.

Thanks again for bringing the Campagin Series back!

[Jason Petho]

ORIGINAL: Lionfish

I have been playing West Front and the rest since they came out and I am VERY glad that you have rereleased the series. It is a fanatastic game.

Glad to hear you think so!!

ORIGINAL: Lionfish

My question is about graphic resolution. It is quite hard to see the troops and tanks in 3D mode on some maps. The graphics are good, it's the resolution I think. Of course I don't know how much coding would need to take place to increase the resolution or rework the graphics. Of course I would never expect a 3D engine or anything of that nature.

Which particular zoom modes are you having an issue with? There are 3 separate 3-d zoom modes. While view 3 is pretty much useless, the views 1 and 2 are still pretty useful. View 1 especially on a high resolution monitor.

ORIGINAL: Lionfish
Even the new games (with simple graphics) Advance Tactics are higher resolution and easier to view.

Any chance of posting a screenshot so I can see?

ORIGINAL: Lionfish
Questions.

1. Will a future patch address a higher resolution in the future?

If so, it will be in the far future.. maybe 1.05 or 1.06.

ORIGINAL: Lionfish
2. Has any mods come out that increases resolution or new graphics?

Not that I am aware of, although I have been wrong before!

ORIGINAL: Lionfish
Again, this is not a flame or a put-down - as it is one hell of a great game. I love it. It is just that an improvement in the resolution would make this game so much better and EASIER to play.

Perfectly understood, thank you!

ORIGINAL: Lionfish
Thanks again for bringing the Campagin Series back!

Being one as passionate as I am, along with the rest of the team - Campaign Series Legion and the Beta Brigade, thank you!

Jason Petho

[Lionfish]

You are right the 3 level of 3D zoom is pretty worthless.
However, I did see a message from Sarge about changing to 24 bit.
Since the orginal game was in 16 bit, updating the graphics to 24 bit (or even 32 bit) might make them more viewable.

One issue is the "bleeding" of the units into the background without the base on.
Another is the "pixilated" shadow affects.

The game is great and I will take a stab at playing with some of the BMP graphics.
Did you ever review Sarge's 24 bit graphics? I didn't see them in the Mod section.

Thanks again for the quick response

[roeddog]

lionfish,

I'm not a hacker so this is more an assumption than fact. I have a few games from Matrix and have noticed that many are played in the lower resolutions; 1024X768 800X600 etc. Also searching the forums for future purchases I have seen the same thing. I can only conclude that since Matrix takes our old DOS and earlier Windows favorites and updates them to run on XP/VISTA that they would have to re-write the game engine code to add higher resolution abilities. So, rather than basically tweaking our favorites and adding more goodies they would have to start from scratch which would (major assumption here) not fit their business model and make our old favs even more expensive.

I use to read posts with requests like "Just add "X" to the game, it can't be that hard to do!" and think yeah! that would be a great feature why DON'T they just add it. Then...
Several months ago I started playing around with Microsoft's Visual Basic and Visual C# Express Editions and the light bulb came on. Just writing a simple program with say 100 lines of code and I want to add "X" can't be too hard! Wrong! Adding this code effects how that code works, which causeds another line to abort which means I have to start over if I want to add a what appears to me (as the end user) a simple thing to do... you get the point. I still read post with "just add X" and agree with the requestor but now I understand why it takes so long, i.e. patch wise to add it or why it's not even considered for inclusion in a patch or as a feature in a new release.

So, while it is annoying to play WitP on a 27" wide screen monitor, with a native resolution of 1680X1050, in 1024X768 I am thankful that Matix still put it out along with all the other games they issue, especially the CS since I have now figured out how to get rid of the white flash in Vista !

Regards,
Jeff

[Lionfish]

ORIGINAL: roeddog

especially the CS since I have now figured out how to get rid of the white flash in Vista !

Regards,
Jeff

White Flash?

[roeddog]

Yeah, when the screen moves to show action or I move it, it goes completely white for an instant. Gets really annoying when there's alot of action.
Only happens in Vista from what I understand and even then only to an unlucky few. I figured out that if I set the windows theme to classic it doesn't do it. Matrix will get it fixed tho

Jeff

[Lionfish]

I just got a new Tablet PC (Asus R1E) with Vista. Good to know....I have not ported over CS yet - but it should be living on there shortly.

I wonder if playing CS is Tablet mode would be easy?
I do rely on the keyboard for things - but I am sure most of it is able to be accessed is the menus.

[Lionfish]

ORIGINAL: roeddog

lionfish,

I'm not a hacker so this is more an assumption than fact. I have a few games from Matrix and have noticed that many are played in the lower resolutions; 1024X768 800X600 etc. Also searching the forums for future purchases I have seen the same thing. I can only conclude that since Matrix takes our old DOS and earlier Windows favorites and updates them to run on XP/VISTA that they would have to re-write the game engine code to add higher resolution abilities. So, rather than basically tweaking our favorites and adding more goodies they would have to start from scratch which would (major assumption here) not fit their business model and make our old favs even more expensive.

I use to read posts with requests like "Just add "X" to the game, it can't be that hard to do!" and think yeah! that would be a great feature why DON'T they just add it. Then...
Several months ago I started playing around with Microsoft's Visual Basic and Visual C# Express Editions and the light bulb came on. Just writing a simple program with say 100 lines of code and I want to add "X" can't be too hard! Wrong! Adding this code effects how that code works, which causeds another line to abort which means I have to start over if I want to add a what appears to me (as the end user) a simple thing to do... you get the point. I still read post with "just add X" and agree with the requestor but now I understand why it takes so long, i.e. patch wise to add it or why it's not even considered for inclusion in a patch or as a feature in a new release.

So, while it is annoying to play WitP on a 27" wide screen monitor, with a native resolution of 1680X1050, in 1024X768 I am thankful that Matix still put it out along with all the other games they issue, especially the CS since I have now figured out how to get rid of the white flash in Vista !

Regards,
Jeff

Fully agree...however, Sarge has updated some of the graphics to 24 bit. See his Smoke and Explosion screen shots. So it is possible to update the bit rate - getting better quality. He mentioned in his post "Smoke Graphics" that at 32 bit it was just black. But 24 bit (from his explosion graphic) looks GREAT!

I hope that he uploads it soon. I wonder how much it would take to update the maps and other items to 24 bit. It "MAY" improve the graphics tremendously - without a rewrite of the code.

Note: I am in the financial software business (not a programer - just designer and developer) - but I hear all the time from the programers how hard it is to rewrite code.

I would hope the graphics update would be rather a simple task (maybe time consuming) but simple - without to many code changes.

[vadersson]

The Vista White Flash issue is a know problem with a fix.  Check the messages in the support forum or look for a thread I started on it awhile ago.  It is a really easy thing to fix.

Thanks,
Duncan

[roeddog]

Wow, can't believe I missed that[X(], thanks Duncan[&o]

ORIGINAL: vadersson

The Vista White Flash issue is a know problem with a fix.  Check the messages in the support forum or look for a thread I started on it awhile ago.  It is a really easy thing to fix.

Thanks,
Duncan