Mezentius
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Actually, if your card doesn't support D3D9 Overlay, that's a good reason to use DXVK — one of the reasons that the library is useful (beyond the performance bump) is that it allows you to get around spotty DX9 support in newer cards. And even slightly older Nvidia drivers (within the last 4-6 months or so) should support Vulkan 1.3, which was introduced in January of last year. Your milage may vary, of course, but if you're experiencing other issues with SB and can't find a solution, it's possible that DXVK might actually solve them, so long as you're using the latest version and not the dll that was floating around the discord recently. Good luck— sounds very frustrating! -
- For a brand-new gfx card, see https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases and make sure you're using the latest version (which is 2.1 currently, not the 1.10 from the first post in this thread). - Make sure you copy from the "x64" folder, and copy both d3d9.dll and dxgi.dll. (Do NOT use the dxvk.conf listed above.) - Vulkan 1.3 is required so using the latest graphics drivers is a must.
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I don't mean to open a can of worms here-- this is really more of a question for my own edification. Ultimately, after "baking in" the magnification ratios of the internal optics, every sight just has some apparent field of view (FOV) that it covers, right? So is it not possible to set the render camera FOV dynamically so that it produces the correct sight FOV through a fixed overlay, based on the user's monitor resolution? In other words, if you were to make the sight picture overlay occupy the same proportion of vertical space on every monitor (say, 80%), then wouldn't it just be an issue of setting the render camera's horizontal FOV to (<screen width> * <sight FOV>) / ( 0.8 * <screen height>)? If the answer is, "yes, but we can't do this for various reasons relating to engine architecture," fine -- but was just wondering if my reasoning was correct in general, or if there are more interesting/complicated optical factors being modeled here.
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Just wanted to say thanks for your train sim recommendations. I picked up Run8 v3 after your post and am having a great time with it—and I'm not even much of a train guy, aside from enjoying John McPhee's book, "Uncommon Carriers" (which might as well be the user manual for Run8, as documentation is a little bit on the sparse side).
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SF is not an entirely faithful depiction of the ASL rules, I’m afraid — it deviates in certain ways, and I’m not sure the developer has thought through the implications of those choices. For example, in ASL, you can combine FP from multiple squads onto a single enemy hex as a single attack, so long as those squads are adjacent to each other (it’s called a fire group). In SF you can’t do that, so all piecemeal attacks are resolved individually and can be shrugged off as low FP attacks on the results table. I’m not sure why SF made that particular change, as it almost certainly leads to quagmire if you can’t coordinate fire on individual hexes. (And the fire group rule isn’t even bolted-on chrome from one of the optional modules—it’s literally in the ASL starter pack.) But perhaps that was an oversight and will be addressed in an update? (Full disclosure: I don’t love ASL myself—I think there are probably better tabletop rules for infantry combat these days—but if I were going to tweak the rules, I definitely wouldn’t have changed that one.)
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Nah I'm the clueless one! After some tweaking, I had much better luck with dxvk-async, which is a fork of the project you linked. Saw the same huge improvement in frame rate, and now Reshade is also a lot more reliable in missions with weather. Thanks for the recommendation -- it's a literal game changer! EDIT: It's possible dxvk would work too-- however in both cases I think it may be necessary (for me, at least) to also copy the dxgi.dll into the ../Release/ directory in order for this to work. Also, if you want to try dxvk-async, which is advertised as producing much less stuttering, you'll also want to copy the attached file into your ../Release/ directory to enable it. dxvk.conf
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Noticed the same thing recently in Connaugh's "Elgin Marbles" scenario. Soft targets pulling up in front of the PT-76 were completely ignored.
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This unofficial CMO scenario remains the gold standard for ground combat: Defensive Operation, 3rd Regimental Combat Team (3CT) in Nayoro It proves you can do it, but you have to do so much custom scripting to fight against the game that the juice doesn't really seem worth the squeeze. At some point they may improve the ground combat modeling but unfortunately it's just not there yet.
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I understand the sentiment—and I'm of course biased (full disclosure: I'm the author of the PBEM mod for Command)—but it's worth trying it out if you haven't yet. It is somewhat different from the base game in that when you play Command with the PBEM mod, you are not giving orders in real-time—you give orders in distinct phases, and watch your units play them out simultaneously, WEGO-style. It makes the game more about delegation, planning, and command delay as opposed to real-time micromanagement. (Somewhat comparable to a PvP game in the Combat Mission series, if you're familiar.) I've been working on this framework for almost a year to make sure that it's stable, reasonably easy to use, and fun to play, and it's been great to see the community picking it up and running games with it. The CMO team is of course planning their own official RT multiplayer, as far as I know, but this PBEM mod will likely remain a different experience from what they have in development. (But thank you for the link to active Harpoon 5 groups—would love to dip my toe into that at some point as well, time permitting.)
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If anyone here plays Command: Modern Operations, today's the last day to sign up for the first-ever PBEM tournament! https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=5098638
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Got it -- thanks!
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Hi, I was considering finally taking the plunge for the Steel Beasts PE full ‘dongle’ license but noticed that shipping is paused for the holidays. Does that mean that I should wait to order until the new year, or will the temporary key likely cover the delay until shipping resumes? I’m in the continental US if that makes any difference. (And not in any particular rush— just wanted to know what was most efficient.) Thanks!
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This looks incredible—looking forward to it. It really is a fascinating conflict about which, as you say, it's hard to find reliable information. I recently read a great paper about the war from the Iraqi perspective; here's the link if it's useful to you or anyone else.
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t-55 DIY Control Panel via iPad/MIDI
Mezentius replied to Mezentius's topic in Tutorials and How Tos
Ah ha—I think I see the issue. I believe you've dragged in a shortcut to the Steel Beasts.tbms file, not the file itself. (Notice that the file is currently only 8KB—the actual TBMS should be closer to 118KB.) It's very easy to do this accidentally in Windows due to the lousy iTunes interface. I would delete the 8KB version in there now, and instead make sure that you drag in the actual TBMS itself. Let me know if that works for you. (And if dragging always produces that weird shortcut, try the Add File... button instead.) -
t-55 DIY Control Panel via iPad/MIDI
Mezentius replied to Mezentius's topic in Tutorials and How Tos
Hi Wax—after you click on the white plus icon, are you able to drag upward? Further down the menu, you should see an option marked "Load Pages" under a submenu called ITUNES DOCUMENT FOLDER. You should click that, select the "Steel Beasts" preset, then hit the "Load" button at the top right. -
Hi everyone -- wanted to share a method I've used to create a wireless touchscreen control panel for Steel Beasts, using an old iPad I had lying around: What you need: -a Wifi network -an iPad -TB MIDI Stuff ($4 on the App Store) -MIDI Translator Classic (free) -rtpMIDI (free) [NB: TB MIDI Stuff hasn't been updated in a while and can be a little buggy. You can use TouchOSC instead which is more reliable, but the controls end up looking a bit too slick for the inside of a tank, in my opinion.] What you're creating is a custom control interface that sends MIDI note messages over the local network. If you were a musician, you might use this to trigger samples during a performance—but instead we'll translate those musical notes into keystrokes which will be played back on your Steel Beasts computer. Step 1) Install TB MIDI Stuff on your iPad, open it up and hit the button that looks like a small wrench. Make sure the following settings are correct: MIDI In: TB MIDI Stuff In MIDI Out: WiFi Network: Session 1 Background Mode: On (It should look like this) Then you can create a new interface using the "+" button -> "Add a new page": Once you have a blank page, you can go ahead and start adding custom controls. Let's start by adding a simple Drum Pad, which is basically just a touch sensitive button. Once you've sized and placed the button to your taste, highlight it and click the "i" button to open up its settings. Scroll down to "MIDI Messages" and select it. Add a new MIDI Message and choose "Note Message." Change mode to "Send Only" then set the Note value. These range from "C-2" to "G8" and are coded as musical notes on an octave scale. You can choose any note you'd like, as long as you choose a different note for each button. Now go ahead and click "Done" in the window. And save the entire page by clicking "Done"->"Save Page" on the top left. Now that you have a working button which sends a signal over the network, you just have to set up a server on your Steel Beasts computer to receive that message and translate it into a keystroke. Step 2) Install rtpMIDI and start it up. Under "Session," click the "Enabled" checkbox. Then find your iPad under the Directory listing and click "Connect." It should look something like this: Step 3) Install MIDI Translator Classic and start it up. Under the "MIDI In" menu, select your computer. Then click "Preset" -> "New". Now you're ready to translate each button's input into a keystroke. Click on "Translator"->"Add." Double-click on the new entry, which should bring up the following window. Click on the "Incoming" tab, then click the "Capture MIDI" checkbox. Now press the new button you made on your TB MIDI Stuff control page in Step 1. You should see something like the following come up: You'll notice that two messages have come in. One starts with a "80" and the other one starts with "90". The "90" message is the "Note On" (button down) message, and the "80" message is the "Note Off" (button up) message. We want to trigger the action as soon as the button is pressed, so you should select the "90" message. It will be copied into the message bar like so: Now click on the "Outgoing" tab, then change the Outgoing Action type to "Keystroke Emulation." Type in the key you want to trigger when the button is pressed, then click "Apply." It should look like this: Voila! Now you have a button on your iPad which will trigger a keystroke on your computer via the wireless network. You can now go ahead and repeat this process for as many buttons as you need. I've made a 'universal' Steel Beasts controller, but of course you could make custom pages for each tank if you'd like. In theory you should be able to do a lot more with TB MIDI Stuff than just push buttons—e.g. use the accelerometer on the iPad to turn the tank left and right by turning the iPad like a wheel—but I'll leave that for you guys to discover. Hope that was helpful, and let me know if you have other questions, or if any of this was unclear. EDIT: To get you started, I've attached my presets for TB MIDI Stuff (Steel Beasts.tbms) and MIDI Translator Classic (steelbeasts.bmtp) configured as above. To load the TB MIDI Stuff preset, connect to your iPad via iTunes, go to File Sharing->TB MIDI Stuff, and drag-and-drop it into the Documents area. To use the corresponding MIDI Translator preset you can just load it up in the program. (Please note that MIDI Translator Classic logs notes as one octave higher than they appear in TB MIDI Stuff—so for example, if MIDI Translator Classic says the note is a C4, you want to program your button in TB MIDI Stuff to fire a C3.) steelbeasts.bmtp Steel Beasts.tbms
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For the record I had the same issue -- was unable to restore it from the tray, even after closing it and deleting the mutex. I had to reinstall the Map Tools a couple of times before I got it to work reliably (and I don't dare click on the X that minimizes again)
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Version 1.0.0
133 downloads
This is a large alternate-history scenario in which the Israelis preemptively invade the Sinai before the Yom Kippur war in 1973. You are in command of a combined-arms battalion and tasked with seizing two Egyptian strong points in 4 hours, before night falls. The Egyptian defenses are both randomized and reactive to your assault plan—as such, the scenario will play out slightly differently every time you try it. Singleplayer: Yes Cooperative: Yes Head-to-Head: No Your forces: M60A1, Shot'Kal, AMX-13, M113A1, infantry, engineers, and mortars Egyptian forces: T-62, T-55, PT-76, BTR-50, and ATGM teams (This is my first scenario for Steel Beasts -- any comments and suggestions you have would be very helpful!) -
Hi -- I sent @Ssnake an email about this, but posting it here just in case it gets caught in the spam filter, or if the resolution is useful to anyone else. I purchased 12-months of Steel Beasts on Jan 13, and everything has been working fine, but today SB produced an error message when I tried to start it: "One of the following licenses is required: -CodeMeter 100146:11111 Failure reason: CmContainer entry not found, Error 200. -CodeMeterAct 5000173:71091 Failure reason: The Firm Access Counter has a value of 0 - the en-/decryption cannot be performed. Error 38." What should I do to resolve this? Thanks!
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I really enjoyed this one— it's very satisfying to watch the ambushes unfold as you take apart the column. The friendly units already seem like they're in great places, and I could imagine a harder version in which you have to scramble to get your units into good positions before the enemy arrives.
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OPERATION POWERPACK- U.S. INTERVENTION IN DOMINICAN CIVIL WAR 1965
Mezentius commented on Connaugh's file in COOP Small
Any chance you could update this mission for 4.1? I tried to do it but without the original .ter file many of the buildings are missing in the city. Thanks! -
Just to throw this into the mix, I'm curious what everyone thinks of this recent NY Times story which also questions the reported reliability and effectiveness of DPICM, based on its performance during Desert Storm: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/magazine/steel-rain-army-artillery.html From the article: Also noted is the significant tendency for the dud munitions to explode later, injuring friendlies or civilians. (just bought SB this week and really enjoying it btw!)
