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Section Leaders:
Come here to get information and file downloads of any player submitted Sound and Graphic mods.
Introduction: Mods mods mods. They are EVERYWHERE and we have about every single one of them here at CMHQ. But which ones rock and which ones suck? Which one overwrites files on each other? It's all one big confusing mess and I have decided to make up this page to help clear the fog a bit. So with that in mind, let us begin our Tour de' Force -O- Mods. Please note, I have arranged this guide IN ORDER for ease. You should go down the list and install, or skip, the Mods in the order they are presented to minimize version conflicts. In cases where one Mod conflicts with another I will make a special notation.
PC Installation: We might as well start at the top. First off I strongly recommend that you either backup both your BMP and WAV folders or at the very least understand how to copy those directories off the CD. Mods will overwrite files in both directories and you need to know how to put the old files back in case you don't like how the mod looks or sounds. A good idea is to keep a copy of the mod itself you can look into the zip file and see which files were overwritten. Combat Mission (on the PC at least) uses an open architecture for its sound and graphics file and either can be viewed or played outside the game. Now please realize that the wave files will sound a little different outside the game and the graphics will just be single sided textures but it can help to pinpoint what files you need to put back to normal after you apply a mod. Ok, basic installation is pretty cut and dry, Always extract the mod into a temporary folder first then copy the wave files (indicated as they will be files that end in ".wav") into the WAV folder in your Combat Mission folder, default location C:\Program Files\CMBO\WAV. Say yes whenever you are prompted to overwrite old files. Now do the same with the BMP graphics files (indicated as they will be files that end in ".bmp") into your Combat Mission BMP folder, default location C:\Program Files\CMBO\BMP.
Mac Installation: Recently, two new utilities were released by some Mac users to allow for them to covert any graphic mod to work with their versions of Combat Mission. The Mac CM Mod Manager (MCMMM) was created by the MDMP team, and the CM MacMod, created by Bsoplinger. To use these programs you need to download any normal Mod. Once you do that, you can use either to covert, in the fly, all the graphics files to the native Macintosh format that Combat Mission uses. They both contain full documentation and can be downloaded HERE.
Winter Textures: Combat Mission ships without any Winter Textures for the uniforms, weapons and vehicles. However by copying, repainting and renaming certain files the game will allow units to have 'Winter Textures' instead of the default ones. These textures always have a "1" at the beginning of their names. Many Winter Mod sets are now available and they do not usually overwrite any default Combat Mission graphic file. Combat Mission will only use these new textures when there is SNOW on the ground. It does not matter what time of year it is at all, there must be snow on the ground to see the winter textures.
Which Ones To Apply: Very much a matter of personal taste but I can give a good rundown of the current offerings. I currently have probably more mods installed in my system than anyone else around so let me go through, in order, the mods that I think will get you the utmost enjoyment out of Combat Mission. One question you should ask yourself is 'How fast does Combat Mission run now?" If the answer is 'Kinda Slow' then you should stay away from any of the Hi-resolution grass textures sets (more on those later) other than that there is nothing about any of the other mods, sound or graphics, which should slow your system down at all once they are installed. Most mods contain files which are very close or same to the file sizes in the original versions. They are just newer or improved versions of the default files is all. There are now a few Hi-Res vehicle textures but it is doubtful that they alone will cause any system slowdowns.
Of Mods and MDMP's: MDMP stands for Mad Dog Mod Packs and they are designed and built from members of the original artist staff that worked on Combat Mission. Each pack (there are two currently) contain many new vehicle textures as well as a healthy dose of terrain and sound effects (only MDMP-1 has sounds though). The files themselves are large and there is no option for individual texture downloads. Each pack usually features at least one Hi-Res Vehicle Texture with a greater level of detail than the default texture the game ships with. Each pack is thoroughly checked for texture compatibility issues and is of the highest quality. The other types of Mods are 3rd Party and while the quality is usually quite good, CMHQ can't (and won't) provide any support other than the actual hosting of the files. Any questions or comments should be directed at the author of the mod and not the administrators of this site. We also make no claims of the completeness of functionality of the mods although I do try and test each mod as I receive it for any obvious issues. I also perform a quality screening and try and post only the best of the numerous submissions I get weekly. If you have a Mod and wish to submit it, please review the Submissions Guide Page located HERE first.
Lets Begin: Once Combat Mission shipped a few graphic anomalies were discovered. These could usually been seen in the game as little pink specks and spots on some textures. The cause of these pink spots is miscolored transparencies. You don't need to understand but you will want to grab this patch which fixes all the known ones within the game.
The BIggies: Since I did a part of this mod pack, I am rather fond of the Mad Dog Mod Pack-1. It's a great set to start with and will show you how much the game can be improved by simply tweaking graphics and sounds. This set will give you: many improved trees, new Jagdpanther texture, Winter Hetzer texture, a new building, many replacement weapons sound effects and more. It's is a big download so I suggest you start off with:
We will pick the grass a little later on as there are a wealth of choices there. Just this week I released MDMP-2 and it contains: StuG/StuH (all models), Panzer Mark IV (all models), Tiger Mark VIE (Hi-Res version), Tiger Mark VIE (winter version), Jagdtiger (Hi-Res version), M21 Mortar Carrier (winter version), M3 Halftrack (winter version), M3A1 Halftrack (winter version), M4A1 Halftrack (winter version), M5A1 Halftrack (winter version), Snowy grass (all 19 textures for grass), Snow Treebases, Winter German Uniforms (all varieties).
Give me the FX Baby: Only recently have people begun to play around with some of the internal special effects graphics in the game, namely Fire and Explosions. This next mod has a tangled backstory to it but the results are nothing short of awe inspiring. The file contains a massively reworked, 3D amplified and tweaked set of explosion graphics that just beg to be worshipped. This set also contains some re-worked fire graphics. While good in there own right, it will be the new explosions that will most catch and hold your attention. This mod turned out to be an odd combo effort by Dainius Kartanas, Tiger and myself.
Little Enhancements to the Interface: Ok, that's a good start but now it's time to really go Mod crazy. The next mod will give us some cool SS fonts as well as replace the new Commerce Friendly German Flags with the old fashioned Swastika ones. For this we need:
We follow up that work with some very cool new Victory Location flags which also have the Swastika in place. Now some of these files will overwrite the ones from above but that's ok. The set also gives you the choice of selecting Full Size or Half Size flags. The choice is up to you but I am more comfortable with the Full size. Either way the file is here:
The next little mod is a cool little 'Player Friendly' one that basically changes the In/Out Of Command radio graphic with a much easier to see and notice bright color scheme. Very well done and a nice game aid. And hey, it's only one freaking k in size!
This next enhancement mod changes the images for the different unit types in the Scenario/Operations Menu. These new ones are much closer to the ones actually used by the respective units.
Now for a bit of fun I would recommend checking out two sets of replacement unit Profile graphics. These are those little face graphics down at the bottom of the screen in the Unit Info box when you select a unit. These may require some renaming of files (especially the German ones) but are well worth it:
Bring out the Troops: We are rocking along now. Ok, next we will want to improve the look of some of the uniforms a touch and to do that we will add:
Once you have those you will want to add Maximus's (Maximi?) Winterized Axis and Allied Uniform kits:
For a complete change to the Waffen SS units I suggest you have a look at:
That mod is very impressive but it does change all the German Helmets to a new mottled camo print. One solution is to download the following mod and just copy the bmp for the helmet into your BMP folder (5015.bmp). Or, since it's actually a pretty cool uniform mod you could just as easily install the whole thing. It changes the normal late war Wehrmacht low quality uniforms to to the more greenish Feld Grau Uniforms.
Give Me Grid or Give Me Death: This next part will be a little tricky and everyone has an opinion on it. Just hear me out. You need to decide if You want to 'Grid it' or not! As you may know, Grid Overlayed Terrain is terrain textures with a opaque GRID superimposed over the landscape. The effect is interesting to say the least and will help in determining elevations in the ground. If you want them then you should just choose the right one from the following page. Be advised, some systems have such low video memory that the game will default to using very low res grass textures. If you install a Grass Mod and the grass doesn't change appearances then it's time to upgrade to that GeForce II! There is another option and that is to rename the 20 files (1 file per elevation level) that make up a full grass set. They will be named 1550.bmp to 1569.bmp in numerical order. You will need to copy those files and rename them to 1500.bmp to 1519.bmp maintaining the original order (i.e. 1550 become 1500, 1551 become 1501 etc...)
That's Some High Quality Grass Dude: If you aren't interested in Grids but you still want new grass textures then just visit the Grass Terrain Mod page below. The method above to rename files still applies if you have a video card with very low VRam installed. Again personal preference will decide which to choose but please be advised that some of those grass textures as Hi-res and will result in a slight slow down in the game: Without a doubt, the best grass available is from Richard Tremblett. His newest grass texture has the best combination of appearance and elevation discrimination and is a sight to behold. Nicknamed the 'Velvet" grass, it has gained a permanent spot on my hard drive for the foreseeable future.
There are a variety of other Grass textures set available and they can be found at:
You may also want to check out the two versions of Grass textures that we have with the MDMP-1:
Hi-Res Confusion: If you are confused about Low-res and Hi-Res textures it only applies to the size of the TEXTURE, not your screen resolution! If a texture is listed as Hi-Res it will be a little SLOWER on your system than a normal (low-res texture). What that means is that you can run the Low-Res version of the MDMP grass at high screen resolutions and in fact many people do. You can also run the Hi-Res grass in 800x600 mode for example. It only describes the texture size, nothing else. Think of Low-res as default and Hi-Res as more detailed but potentially slower, depending on your system speed and video card.
Why Not Just Change Them All: After releasing the best grass textures available Mr. Tremblett wasn't satisfied. He then began a project to recolor and tweak just about every terrain texture in the game to better blend with his Velvet Grass. While I don't necessarily recommend them all, the majority are quite nice and worthy of install.
Wheat (Summer and Winter) (1.2Mb) Trees (Summer and Autumn) (1Mb) Treebases (Summer and Autumn) (623k) Double Rail-Road Tracks (308k) Building Roof Tiles (red and brown) (61k) Church w/ stained-glass windows (517k)
Now we have some great looking scenery, vehicles and uniforms. Next up we will add some more of Ms. Deth's textures. This set has a lovely ice texture along with a nice snowy stone wall, all new water, ford and replacement stone bridge. You will need decide which water and bridge you like better (Richard's or Angela's) before installing this next mod. It's a toss up as they are both nice.
Getting Down and Dirty: Vehicle textures. They are the most asked for and most popular of all the Mods available. And for good reason. Nothing makes this game shine more than a well done tank texture. Now having said that, we are presented with a plethora of new mods to select from. Lets begin. These mods attempt to modify the stock textures by adding varying degrees of dirt, dust and normal weathering to the Allied vehicles. Here are the sets we currently have and were all done by the mod author, Tiger.
Is it Just Me or is it Cold In Here: Winter textures are just another cool feature that sets Combat Mission head and shoulders above the rest. While there wasn't enough time to include any completed winter unit textures in the game, Charles kept the functionality very much intact and the results have been a wealth of new mods. Let us start off with what I call the "Mega Pack" that we can build on to.
That mod will give us a great base of textures and we can now pick and choose what others to add-on. The first two mods are different versions of the Tiger Mark VIE and WILL overwrite the excellent Winter Tiger which is part of MDMP-2. I would recommend that you take a long look at the Winter Vehicle Mod Pages before installing any of the following kits.
You will need to pick which Panther variant you wish to install as they will overwrite each other.
And we wrap up the Winter portion of out show with some more cool texture sets.
Here Kitty Kitty Kitty: Everyone loves those cool German cats and as such they represent the most common of vehicle mods. First off we have many new Tiger mods to choose from but the game only allows us one (non-winter) Tiger texture to be loaded at a time. I personally prefer the Hi-Res one included in MDMP-2 but there are others that are also impressive. I would again recommend you take a nice long look at the pictures of the various vehicles before installing any of these mods. You can see them all HERE.
The next mod, while not historically accurate, shows how you can let your imagination go when making mods.
This next Panther mod gives us a bruised and battered Panther A that has definitely seen better days.
The last two tank mods give you a pair of Hetzer's to choose from. Both are based on historical patterns and you will need to decide which you like better.
While not as sexy as the tanks above, our last vehicle mod is an attempt to make the German truck look much more like the Saurer 6x4 truck that was commonplace.
March to the Beat of a Different Drum: While not mods as such, the following are some cool Military Marching songs that will certainly get you in the MOOD to play Combat Mission.
Burning Bridges Wherever I Can: This next mod is a replacement for the games opening theme music. While it's not the famous 'Burning Bridges' song from the opening scene of Kelly's Heroes, it IS the cool whistled theme.
And That's a Wrap: Whew, that's a lot of content but after applying even a portion of the listed mods your overall enjoyment of Combat Mission, both audibly and visually will be greatly enhanced. New mods are released every day and there is no way I can keep this guide updated with each new release. For that reason I will try and update this each month with full revisions and improvements. Feel free to contact any of the mod authors as they love to hear your comments and suggestions. The CM mod community may be new but they have proven to be enthusiastic, talented and totally committed to raising the bar even higher than game has already done.
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