Hello Friends,
this is a brief description of the TESTED and READY FOR USE
MODS , INNOVATIONS and NEW MISSIONS for Comanche Gold, made from the game fans .


Many Thanks for Death_Wish_Decker, Flyboy, DavidC99, Reticuli, Kevin Bax, ADHS, Dolores, flogger83, "Command Group 07", Theron Jackson, Deon van der Westhuysen, S3ti and all other enthusiasts and helpers involved .


- Comanche Gold Universal Trainer from Death_Wish_Decker - The Universal Solution / ALL IN ONE / for Comanche Gold !

- Fourth CG MOD from Flyboy and Kevin Bax - allows the game to run on Windows7 and Windows Vista directly!

- First CG MOD from Flyboy and Reticuli: unlocks hidden "in game" menu that allows 1024x768 resolution and doubles the terrain, foreground and object details.

- Second CG MOD from DavidC99 and Reticuli - unlocks hidden "in game" menu that gives the possibility to save your game,
the options to watch, takeover and continue your saved game, also dives "freeze universe" and "no damage" player options.

- Third CG MOD from Flyboy - changes the original Comanche Gold sounds with the sounds of Comanche4.

- 10 custom missions from Flyboy - standard Mission Editor.

- 6 custom missions from "Command Group 07" and Theron Jackson - standard Mission Editor.

- 2 custom missions from DavidC99 with many innovations.

- 1 custom mission from Dolores with many innovations.

- 16 custom missions from ufolev - with innovations, 8 of them are connected in the First New Custom made Comanche Gold Campaign - " Diamond River " .

- CGoldIP from DavidC99 - Windows7 direct multiplayer connection tool .

- Online Multiplayer Manual via KALI from ADHS.

- Map exchange and triggers usage methods from DavidC99 - gives how to change maps subsequently and add event triggers in fan made missions.

- Map exchange method from flogger83 - allows to overcome the "10 maps" limitation of the Mission Editor and the idea for map import from Armored Fist2
and Delta Force1! Added 14 maps from Armored Fist2 and 35 maps from Delta Force1 for custom mission building. Now we have all together 142 maps!

- Changing the player or wingman aircraft from flogger83

- CG Resource Pack 1 from Dolores Contains a lot of models, converted mostly from Armored Fist 3 and a new music track, converted from F-22 Lightning II

- Virtual Computers - VirtualPC, VirtualBox, Parallels Workstation and VMware Workstation allow the Game to overcome all hardware and OS limitations.

- PPJoystick from Deon van der Westhuysen for real or virtual Windows98,XP,Vista,7 OS allows to use in the Game your mouse instead of a joystick.

- Comanche Gold Antialiasing Solution from S3ti - Workaround to get Comanche hardware rendered and antialiased /for Nvidia video cards/.

- Comanche Gold FreeLook Mode - allows to fly and observe simultaneously which is not shown neither in the keyboard chart, nor in the game manual .


All listed improvements can be examined or downloaded from the dedicated for them topics in SimHQ helicopters forum :-)

Add the following features:

• TCP/IP support.
• Manual IP selection to join.
• Automatic IP selection via Novaworld.
• Windows 7 multiplayer support by way of TCP/IP.

Forgive the poor quality as I was in a hurry, but here's a sample of the game running in Windows 7 in multiplayer via TCP/IP:



I tested this myself, and have cracked the IP encoding scheme that was used by the game. Now we can join by IP and use TCP/IP. This means, if we choose, we can effectively ditch Kali.

Now granted, I had a whole list of connection issues and troubles, but I did manage to get it to connect by placing both machines on the same subnet, disabling all firewalls between them, etc. etc.. It may not be perfect, and it may take more testing, but I did manage a connection, and that is the important part.

What is the point of having TCP over IPX? Well, for one, Windows 7 doesn't support IPX, so that means Windows 7 users can't play over Kali unless they do this hackish IPX installation which has only been reported, to my knowledge, to work for the 32-bit version of Windows 7. Windows 7 users can, however, play over TCP. By figuring out how the game allows for TCP/IP, we can now include Windows 7 users in the game for online sessions.

The next steps:

• Make the game run on Windows 7 with the CD.
• Figure out if we want to switch to TCP/IP to accommodate some Windows 7 users.
  • Bad side:Hosting will be a major issue for some, as the host has to make sure all of his settings are perfect.
  • Good side:People joining won't have to worry about most connection settings. Just set it and go. Practically all issues are placed upon the host.

I say we give it a try at least!

You got it to connect! Congratulations! By the way, DavidC99 and myself spent over 5 hours last night on Kali discussing and testing all this. When it got to 4.00am my time, I decided to bug out. I'm pleased David stayed on and got some success.

I think I'm almost there with the connection issues.

Ports needed by hosts and clients:

• Inbound and outbound 2300-2400 TCP

Port needed by hosts only:

• Inbound 47624 TCP

Port needed by client only:

• Outbound 47624 TCP

There may be more ports to open. I believe that users with simple network environments will be able to work this out just fine in general. For those who care, this is what the game actually appears to do:

1. Host begins waiting for connections.
2. Client attempts to join.
3. Connection is made, or else the entire attempt dies.
4. Host attempts to start a new connection to client.
5. Connection is made, or else the entire attempt dies.
6. Client attempts to start a new connection to host.
7. Connection is made, or else the entire attempt dies.
8. The client has now joined the session.

This is a very stupid method in my opinion. The host should be receive a connection, accept it, and that's that. There's no reason for multiple connections like this -- and certainly no reason whatsoever to have the client and host each initiate their own connections, as that requires clients explicitly to open ports for incoming connections -- and it sounds like it'll make it difficult for people on the same LAN to get in on gaming sessions.

Nevertheless, this appears to be what we've got. If all goes well, we'll be able to use either NovaWorld's system -- which still appears to work to some degree, by the way -- or else I can provide a program later that will enable a player either to host a game or join by IP, or even both.

I got this up and running on my end despite all of my own security issues. I'll need someone with a fair bit of knowledge of being able to open ports on his own system to test this with me, preferably on TS3 so we don't have to worry about seeing a chat window while the game is running and we're messing with settings. Once we have this set up, we'll be good to go live.

Good news is that Windows 7 users will be able to play Comanche Gold multiplayer natively without all of this virtualization and go-between software, as long as someone else with a CD is playing on the session.

So it would appear you're not thinking of using Hamachi then? I thought with that it would basically be objective complete.

Hamachi is more geared toward private groups, being a program essentially to create a VPN. I was under the impression that we want a more public atmosphere, allowing anyone to get in on our sessions. If we use Hamachi then anyone who wants to game with us will have to be allowed to join our virtual network -- and that's not the ideal solution.

If we can get this to work with just opening a few ports, it's probably a safer and more advisable option.

I got Comanche Gold to Load and Play / Fly in Windows Vista. It needs some modding and work, taking time, but doable and should be repacked in a week to play with all terrains / missions unlocked.

First install the Comanche Gold Demo and then open it's root folder to do the modding / have your Comanche Gold Disk in the Disk Drive....




You have to mod the Setup.cd file to where your Comanche Gold Disk is at: Default was C: for the Demo. D: or consecutive for your CDROM or another one pertaining to where your game runs from. This plays the intro videos and unlocks the folders to play the missions.

It involves modding the Demo folder, using Ravens PFF Utility and finding the file in the Cgold.PFF called IDEMO.MNU and placing Fly Boy's WC3.MNU in the demo root folder ( as it over rides the packed one when loading) and renaming it to IDEMO to over write the IDEMO.MNU and then some editing by notepad in the top of the file headers of Fly Boy's file WC3.MNU file to open all missions / unlock them for play so the default menu will have all missions available to click on.

It loads and runs fine and has the higher resolutions without problems / lag.

The PFF file in the demo called: Cgold.pff needs to be repacked with the files or replaced by your disk's PFF files using the PFF packing / Raven's Pff utility.

Endstate: It loads and runs on Vista. It will require repacking the Cgold.pff from my Comanche Gold's game's cd pff for all of the mission guidelines and to run when comparing the WC3.MNU to IDEMO.MNU and going into the terrains / files of the .PFF.

It is doable and will just take some time to repack the appropriate files to meet the coding parameters.

Thanks DavidC99, FlyBoy and ufolev for the initial ideas and talk throughs.

Additionally, you can use 7Z zip program to look at exe's and unpack accordingly to mod.

El_Lobo - you might just be a genius! If you could write up a step-by-step guide on how to do this procedure and provide the modded IDEMO.MNU, I will surely - if it's OK with you - add it to my site where you will get full credit for this particular find.

I had got so far with this idea of using demo files in the full game, but got stuck after I got a revert to main menu after the mission should have loaded.

Does the menu music and in-game music work?

Awesome dude!

Oh, and welcome to the forums!

I tried to run some simple tests with simplifying some of these steps on Windows XP, but I naturally could not get it to load a mission because I didn't repackage nor did I extract everything as required (since this would take a really long time). One problem I was able to identify with this is that the Demo exe doesn't appear to allow for the secondary DirectSound option. No matter what the Wsetup.cfg file says, it appears to grab the primary one. This mainly means comms are dead in the water for this new patched version unless I'm missing something... Since the demo is stripped down, I imagine we might be missing other features as well.

The underlying issue is that the Comanche Gold executable is doing something stupid (ie. probably bug-induced stupidity) soon after it detects that you have the CD loaded in the game. This is causing a crash on Vista and Windows 7, but not on Windows XP. The ideal solution is to identify what causes the crash and then provide a patch for it.

I would be all over this solution provided here today, but for two reasons:

1. As already stated, the Demo exe lacks.
2. The amount of work to downgrade CG to be Vista/Windows 7 compatible is a lot. It requires a massive restructuring of the PFF files -- or at least a lot of extracting.

Nevertheless, this might be a sort of simple fix for those interested. Not only that, but we could seriously write an auto-extractor or auto-repacker tool that could apply this fix as needed.

Won't the extracted/modded files simply work if placed in the CG Demo install folder like for the full game?

I don't believe the demo looks for any PFF file except CGold.pff. You would have to extract everything from Resource.pff and KDV.pff -- not to mention the extra files from Comanche Gold's CGold.pff file. Whether you repack them or not into a new CGold.pff is up to you, of course...

Ah OK. So what you're saying is I can have several hundred loose files sitting in the demo folder OR I can take several hours to repack them all into the CGOLD.PFF file?

Not much choice then!

Hence why I suggested either:

1. We ditch this and patch the real problem; or else
2. We have a program do the packing and unpacking automatically.

The first option is the ideal one; the second one may be slightly more practical, at least in the short run, for users of Vista or Windows 7. If we could find a way to extract files from PFF files from the commandline (as opposed to using a graphical user interface, like the current PFF utility we're using), I could possibly supply a very simple script to automate the entire process.

I know why you suggested what you did - I was just explaining the situation in a literal sense - as if to highlight how impractical it would turn out to actually be!

I understand what you guys are saying.



I extracted and copied all of the PFF files to the demo directory - multi-selecting and dragging to select them all. After unpacking them and trying to run other missions, all I kept getting was error codes on file loading other than the original mission for the demo when trying to load the missions. It is not working.

The missiles and cannon bullets freeze on the screen in mid air and stay stationary. It worked for the one mission and then the others were not loading. It has to be the exe and internal parameters for resources to access.

Oh well it was worth a try to get it working in Vista. It is the Exe that must be modded as said earlier. I used 7-zip to look inside the Demo.exe and it had some interesting text. I did not compare it to the text in CG3.exe yet.

If you want to extract all files from the PFF utility, then the following might work:

1. Open all of the PFF files in question in the PFF utility that need to be extracted.
2. Select the first file in the list.
3. Move the scrollbar to be positioned at the bottom.
4. Shift-click the last entry.
5. Confirm that it appears every file is selected.
6. Extract. Note: If you want to cleanly pack them, move them to a directory one level inside your Comanche Gold directory. If you're using the Demo, this is a new directory inside the Demo director. For example, if the demo is located in C:\CGDemo then you could extract the files to C:\CGDemo\repack

If you'd like to take all of these extracted files and repack them via script into CGold.pff without doing it manually, then the following might work:

1. Backup a copy of CGold.pff.
2. Place the following script inside a .cmd file (as long as it has an extension of .cmd, it can be named almost anything) inside your CG directory (or the Demo directory if you're using that):
   Code:

   for /f %%a IN ('dir /A-D /b') do @call pack.exe CGolf.PFF repack\%%a

3. Replace "repack" in the script with the name of the directory you made earlier.
4. Run the script.

Disclaimer: Try this at your own risk. I haven't tested most of everything here.

Hi DavidC99,

Eugene and I tried Hamachi for CG trying to connect via IPX, and it didn't work. No surprise, while Hamachi USED to work for IPX connections in many games, it seems to have stopped. Whether this is a limitation on the Hamachi servers, or Microsoft patches to the IPX/SPX stack, I don't know. BUT your TCP/IP method seems like it should work over Hamachi as it does for Longbow2. In LB2, Hamachi overcomes a serious issue where connections will not work under normal conditions if the Host is behind a router.

Any way you could make your fix available for testing over Hamachi? We are both using Windows XP, so it should eliminate a lot of issues.

If you're still interested in it, what exactly are you asking me to release? Just the join-by-IP program I've written for Comanche Gold?

Yes, that would be a big help.

Kali has been down acouple of dayz now. Jay said he is working on getting it up and running soon. I'm interested in this program DavidC99 also. Would be a great back up plan.

Thx !

I'll try to release it soon. I've been busy, but an emergency happened this week that further cut back on my free time. Now that things are slowly winding down just a little bit, I'll try to work on this, since it's technically already done -- or very close to it.

Before I do, I should mention -- everyone ought to make sure they have their networks setup properly (ie. open the ports required...) or this isn't going to do much really. Also of note, you don't need Hamachi for this program to work. I suspect some people are using Hamachi solely for the purpose of firewall bypassing, which seems a little over-the-top in my opinion, but if it works and you guys are happy...

The reason I mentioned Hamachi was that one of your caveats was having the machines in the same subnet, which is probably impossible direct TCP/IP but could be accomplished with a Hamachi virtual network.

No, sorry, that's old news. I did discover the problem with that, and direct connections do work. I was able to play directly with Flyboy at one point using straight TCP/IP. The hard part is getting the ports open and forwarded as needed, since most people never have to do it.

That is good news!! Most of the folks I game with have all the default DirectPlay ports open already...plus others as games require non standard ports, so that should not be an issue.

However, it IS an issue as when David and myself connected he claimed to be having the time of his life while my game was very laggy and unsynchronized. We tried all the port forwarding, firewall hacking and everything and we simply couldn't get my end of the bargain to run smoothly. So, even though I appeared to have all the Windows Firewall settings entered and configured, we simply couldn't find the right ports to open in my router firewall. Bear in mind that we were both running on Win7 (I think David was) and that is indeed what this tool is intended for, direct TCP/IP connection on Windows Vista/7.

Recluse, I'm guessing that you are getting a bit excited over this tool so that basically you and Eugene can have a go at CG MP, right? As you know, me and you both have registered versions of Kali and we hooked up fine with that. It's only Eugene's stubborn-ness that won't allow him to get Kali! It does however appear that Kali has been offline for a while now though.

You know, coffee just isn't as good on a Sunday morning without the Comanche zippin through the Cool Desert Night chasing Grandpa around. Yup Kali's still down and I'm having withdrawls. any chance we can Beat test that puppy David .. hell I'll buy ya lunch?

Hi Mako, good to see you still posting here! I never did get what it was about that 'Cool Desert Night' map, I personally prefer Co-Op or at least a change of Head-2-Head map ONCE in a while!

Keep in mind, due to my lack of time after a real life emergency and subsequent rushing through this, this is not of the quality that I would prefer. I apologize. Any bugs or difficulties should be reported immediately, since I didn't really even run it through a proper testing phase.

Tool Release: CGoldIP

I have fixed it up a little bit since testing it with Flyboy, so it's good if people don't use the one that was being used privately during testing. Please consult the documentation inside. Read it very particularly, since this tool must be used as written or else there is a high chance it will not work.

Thanks David. Much appreciated.

Well, I guess we shall see! Kali being down for an extended period is a good reason to have a Plan B. Speaking of Plan B, I have been meaning to ask you this, and perhaps this thread is a good place to put forth the question:

Why was Comanche Gold rather than Comanche 4 (supposedly more advanced, though I have never had the experience) the focus of your intense MP efforts? Probably a simple answer, like, "NO MP COOP IN C4", but I thought I would ask

Well, Recluse, simply because CG is a classic that 'the few' have fond memories of and wanted to be able to play again online. And, for the fact that CG, as you know I've told you a thousand times before, models the Comanche much more realistically than in C4. OK so CG is not exactly LB2 for it's complexity, but as you also know from me telling you a thousand times before, the Comanche was so much more easier to fly and operate BECAUSE it was so advanced. In C4 you really are just flying an arcade first-person shooter, but in CG you do actually get to employ real tactics and the sensation of sitting 2 feet above ground level in a valley waiting for a Hind to blindly fly over the top of you before you rack his 'hind with the 20mm is simply unmatched. And graphically, although not hardware-accelerated like in C4, some feel that the graphics in CG are much more 'organic' and you get a really good sense of low-level detail and flight speed.

First of all... thx David for your time with the mod, appricate it bud. Can't wait to check it out.

Well said on your last post flyboy to Recluse, I was really torn apart to see how C4 was planned out and it only stayed on my pc for no longer than an hour... I was kinda upset with the purchase on that one especially when having high hopes with a CG upgrade. Made everyone realize how special this game "CG" was after all the hipe/ trailers of it. As you mentioned, the Cool Desert Night map is favored by me and Grandpa mostly because it is the shortest distance to the fight zone WP1 and I'm mainly a fighter, I like that map the best of all the other choices when it comes to Melee. I'm not saying I dislike Co-op missions and the other maps, I just like to fight in that Comanche around Maui.... and I waste no time getting there to battle it out with Grandpa, thatz what both of us like to do and we are both on the same page when we connect and get in our little room. So basically... my love for the game is in the fight in the Cool Dessert Night map.

And Recluse... I haven't forgot about ya, and I'll say it again as I did years ago, thx for sending me LB2.

Ya'll have great day !

10,001st time is the charm!

David, I joined SimHQ for the sole purpose of saying "THANK YOU!" for your work on this. I haven't actually connected with anyone for a game yet because it apparently doesn't work in Mako's Win98 machine, but I have no doubts that it will work equally to Kali.

What I did yesterday was get a connection between two applications of CG running in this machine. Of course all I could do was establish the connection and get into our usual "Cool Desert Night", but I'm convinced you've done a super job by just that.

You wouldn't believe how many hours I've spent searching for a means of directly connecting CG through the years because Kali, which has been our only way to get a network connection after Novalogic ended their support, has gone down many times as it is right now.

Great achievement! Most appreciated!

If his game is acting upon input from CGoldIP, but a connection fails to occur, then the problem is likely a network security problem. Blocked and/or non-forwarded ports could be an issue. Also, it could be that a software firewall hasn't granted both applications (ie. Comanche Gold and Direct X's network program) permission to access the Internet for both incoming and outgoing connections. The good news is that I didn't do anything too complicated with this program, so Windows 98 should be just fine.



I'm glad you thought of doing this. This was one of my own testing methods. For those who care but don't know already, an alias IP address for your own machine is always 127.0.0.1. This makes such testing somewhat easy no matter what your IP address actually is. Of course, this is only for internal testing from one machine to itself.

Perhaps we should try to get a TCP/IP party going on some time soon -- perhaps on the weekend -- and see how well TCP/IP works for Comanche Gold. We'll probably have to find a decent meeting place, like the SimHQ TS3 server.

One major problem is that Win98 doesn't recognize the P switch (set /p), so the join command has to be executed manually.

Another problem (from our telephone conversation) was that his browser keeps coming up even with those 'update' files deleted, but after my testing I don't think that's a problem. His CG stays minimized after running either the join or host command.

I put those files back here in XP Pro, then just closed the browser when it came up, and it worked perfectly. Also, selecting the client instead of the browser seems to work exactly the same.

I'm going to guess that Win98 just isn't capable, but then I haven't been at the keys of Win98, so I can't say for sure.

Thanks again!

Beat you to it! I was going to perhaps start a new topic for feedback on your program, but, I see posts are still being made here so I won't take the liberty of creating a new topic and will simply add here.


CGoldIP Program Report

Last night, Eugene, Recluse and myself had a chance meeting in TeamSpeak. Well, it was a chance meeting for me to them. Recluse and myself did a test run before Eugene finished what he was doing, and with Recluse hosting, I connected first time and we entered a mission.

Later, with Recluse hosting again, Eugene and I also connected first time (ahem, Eugene didn't quite have it figured FIRST time, but he got there). We played through two missions. Note that both Eugene and Recluse have Windows XP.

Now, Recluse and Eugene both reported some lag, but Eugene later reported pretty strong lag when my game was smooth.

As I was the only one running on Windows 7 - what your program was actually designed for, please allow me to add my side of the report...
Connection was flawless, therefore as far as your program goes - your mission is complete. However, the fact that I had Windows 7 presented its own problems.
* I had to change my desktop screen depth to 16-bit color as otherwise, in-game the whole screen was blues and pinks! (you knew this anyhow, just adding for sake of adding)
* As CG is technically 'broken' on Win7, I had no sound at all.

And because of my infamous router security, I had to turn OFF my router firewall to be able to connect. Just for the purposes of confirmation, I did also try to connect with it ON, but it would simply not do it.

So, summary-wise, here is how it is:

Program: What you promised to deliver you have done, perfectly. Nice job! However, the fact that the program was indeed made to be able to play CG online via TCP/IP on native Windows 7, well, this leads to another problem...

Windows 7/My Router: I, for one, was only able to connect with my router firewall turned OFF, even though I had all suggested ports opened in both my Windows and router firewalls, as well as the required programs allowed access through the Windows Firewall. Players will have to change their desktop color depth (OK no biggie). Players will experience no sound. Lag-wise, it was no better than with WinXP/Kali and in some cases I think it was worse. Switching between windowed and fullscreen, as well as changing screen res in-game, had a noticeable effect on client-side frame-rate drop.

The connection between Windows 7 to Windows XP machines has been confirmed as GO! Therefore the connection of Windows 7 to Windows 7 machines should be a GO! But the entire solution for CG MP via TCP/IP on native Windows 7 has not been met and there are still flaws to overcome. The fact that most of the issues encountered relate to Win7, it would appear that, at least for now, the CGoldIP program is a reasonable, lightweight alternative to Kali for people with, ironically, only Windows XP machines.

That concludes my report!

Hello Flyboy....

After my tests I'm going to predict there is no lag difference, because Kali is doing the exact same thing. Either way you are directly connected to the other player(s) through TCP/IP, only that Kali is using a bridge between IPX and TCP/IP.

Note that the Kali tracker (that's been down for days now) is only for establishing the connection. The IPX protocol used is with the Kali files that are installed in each computer.

When Mako gets this operational on his end I'll be able to report with accuracy because I know exactly how much lag is normal between us....

Take care....

Hi Grandpa and welcome to the forums!

I'm sure you'll be a valuable asset in accurately reporting any lag issues that occur when you're testing, and will no doubt be able to give David higher-quality assessments of his program than I could (from what I've gathered you are capable of).

Well Flyboy, you're probably giving me too much credit, but I have been playing CG on line since the dial-up days.

What you will not believe unless you've used a monitoring program is the extremely small amount of data exchange through an entire game. The speed of connections Vs lag doesn't really matter as I've played near perfect games through dial-up. What does matter that that no packets get lost, because the loss of just a few packets causes an 'out of synchronization', and the worst thing about CG is that it has no built in auto-synchronization. Providing the connection is solid enough the packets will eventually 'catch up', but it will never catch up through a less than stable path.

Since day one the most major complaint about CG has been the lag, which is actually just frame skipping. There has been many ideas, many different things tried, but the lag is part of it and will always be a part of it.

Still, in my opinion CG is the best game ever written. No, it's not so elaborate as most of the latest high-tech games and simulators, but no other offers what CG does.

Take care....

Here is a little modification i made playing with the AI files.

Uh oh, flogger83 has caught DavidC99's bug! He experimented with different player aircraft models, buy did you experience any animation or function issues? You obviously couldn't pull your landing gear up! Am I right?

Another member a short while back, Dolores I believe, found that AI files from Armored Fist 3 could be imported into Comanche Gold. Maybe something worth thinking about. Dolores never came back to tell us more about his/her tests though.

I see that was your first post, so, welcome to the forums!

Thanks flyboy. I was messing around with the playbuff.ai file i switch the comanche model with apache but the game crashed with an error message "attachment point missing" i renamed the apache.ai to the playbuff.ai but the game crashed again so i tried a little trick.
I renamed the apache.ai to deadefam.ai that is the AI file for a crashed comanche with external hardpoints.
The i started a mission, crashed my comanche and quickly turned on "IP Remote Control" on the edit bar then pressed F2 and it worked.
It workes with any AI file. But there are some problems you can't pull up the landing gear, can't fire any weapons and it's difficult to fly.

A few points regarding what some people have said:

• I supplied batch files to make it easier, but the real functionality is obviously in the program. I suppose I could write a workaround for the "set /p" part, but that seems tedious and not really worth it to put a lot of time into this aspect.
• Backing up and removing Browser.htm from the Comanche Gold directory might stop the browser from opening in Windows 98.
• Comanche Gold sound should be fine with Windows 7. You might want to check your Comanche Gold sound settings.
• The program itself doesn't cause any lag or even do anything directly over the Internet. When it minimizes, Comanche Gold essentially searches for instructions on how to proceed; my program merely supplies the desired information and terminates. If you experience any problems with lag or such, it's related to Comanche Gold and not likely anything to do with my program at all.

David, I didn't type any of that expecting extended work from you. It was merely meant to be for your information. Based on my tests it doesn't matter if the browser does come up. Just close it, run your program and it functions the same...

There's too many differences between Win98 and all the following versions to even get into. Of course you already know that, and, that it's very difficult (if not impossible) to make anything work in everything. You've done great!

In case anyone cares, Kali is back up. Just change the tracker address in the setup from "tracker.kali.net" to "tracker.kali.net:2213". Don't change anything else.

Later Y'all....

I was thinking -- I believe I noticed that if Internet Explorer is the default browser, Comanche Gold will open it. Otherwise, if you have Firefox or some other browser set as your default, it may not open it.

Well possibly you're right as I use Firefox, but as I said, it doesn't make any difference in XP anyway because CG opens into the selected join or host after closing the browser and executing the appropriate 'CMD' file. And, it has to do the same in Win98, if it's going to work. My old machine has a hard drive controller problem and won't boot up, or I would have already reported to you what's causing the issue.

Mako's email has been down for the last several days so we've been pretty well cut off on further experimenting. Note that we haven't given up yet.

Wasn't Comanche 4 the last game in the series?I still have it on CD.Wouldn't it be better to commit work on the most recent version or was Gold which I think was one of the older games a better product?I can't remember.Been a long time.

Yeah C4 was the last game in the series, but again, yeah, CG was a much better product. All C4 really had as an advantage over CG was graphics, but then again some old-skoolers even think that the CG graphics are more 'organic' and have more depth and feel than the fairly uninteresting 3D-accelerated C4 ones - especially terrain. This is indeed a very brief summary directly answering your questions, but if you'd like me to elaborate further - please tell me - I can talk about this sh*t for hours!

I found another fan who substitutes comanche with other aircrafts.





:-)

Cool!

Hi there, I wondered if it`s possible to make new landscapes with the editor or other tools?

Comanche Gold Mission Editor allows to use only 10 terrains:

01. Green Cropland Day
02. Green Isle Day
03. Green Hills Sunset
04. Snow Mountains Dawn
05. Snow Isle Day
06. Snow Mountains Sunset
07. Desert Dunes Night
08. Desert Dunes Day
09. Desert Plateau Day
10. Guantanamo Bay Sunset

You can see the pictures of all 93 Comanche Gold terrains here:
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3218869/all/Comanche_Gold_Terrains.html

BUT IT IS POSSIBLE to use all other terrains for your custom mission
and if you want I can describe how you can use desired terrain
through standard mission editor

ufo :-)

93? Wouldn't have thought that there are so much terrains!

Very nice, but I think it´s not possible to make an all new terrain or is it? Just thought about stuff like Grand Canyon or something

this is an example for terrain parameters that you can substiute , moderate or combine
this is a combination between terrain, sky, clouds, day or night and more




some friends like DavidC99 and Dolores share that they can
create own custom terrains and objects but they have never explain how do they make them :-(

ufo

I can not create an entire new terrain but I can use entire new combination of present terrain parameters
and to overcome limitations of the Cimanche Gold Mission Editor

ufo

The real challenge for me is not only terrain building but creating the new interesting mission scenario
because there are limitations in the Mission Editor in IF THEN trigger situations
for comparison such limitations do not exsist in Comanche4 mission editor

ufo

Hmm looking at that user.mis file you posted above it looks like the colormap and heightmap is "just" stored in simple *.pcx files...
Thanks for the info I'm gonna have a closer look at it

Custom objects for custom CG missions have been taken from other NovaLogic games such as Armored Fist 2, before. It MAY be possible to convert/import terrains from other NovaLogic games too. But I think if that is the case, there's not much point as there are ample stock terrain types for Comanche missions, especially now ufolev has found that missions can be customized further by altering terrain/sky/cloud combinations.

You're kinda right Flyboy, there are ample terrains. But still I would like to see the possibility to make new full customized maps.
Those heightmaps are pretty easy to generate and to edit. And with new colormaps (maybe even photos overlayed) it may be a way to get the terrains more detailed.

The problem I ran into at a quick approach is that the *.pcx files from the resource.pff used for the terrains seem to be no standard format and can't be opened or edited in any picture editing software. Importing new terrains in a standard .pcx format also doesn't work, comanche just gives an error when loading it.

Maybe someone has an idea about this? Could be worth a try imho...if we could figure this out

Hi, this is the Delta Force 1 singleplayer demo map imported into Comanche Gold!



This is a link to the mission to compare!



I overrode the Free Flight Training Map, thats why the Map Objects are a bit out of place.
Also the Colour and Heightmaps are still of the old terraina.
I haven't yet managed to import it into the Mission Editor, but i'll keep trying.

Hi flogger83,

very good video and a good potential for maps source for comanhe gold :-)

is it possible to use map from armored fist ?

ufo

Awesome, flogger83!

I'd love to see that arctic map from Delta Force 2 with the penguins imported into CG!

I managed to import the armored fist 2 demo map into Comanche Gold!



But still no luck with the Mission Editor, i used the hex editor to import the map but the Mission Editor
crashes when i load the map.

Ok here is how to Swap Terrains in the Mission Editor.

First you open the .mis file of a mission, in this case we take the last mission of Frozen Friendship which is c3m8.mis.
Then you look for the lines marked in red!



Then you open the editor.exe with a Hexeditor and look for the terrains .pcx files.
Then you override the lines in the Hexeditor with the ones in the .mis file.



The first three .pcx files are the most important. If you are swapping a snow map for another snow map you don't need the last three
.pcx files.
You have to be careful that the number of letters match the ones in the hexeditor.

This is the new map added to the mission editor.

very good and clear method.
many thanks for sharing.

what hex editot do you use?


ufo

I use the hexeditor XVI32.

is this a right place in the mission editor?

Yes! As you see the name of the Terrain is also there and you can change it.

I would always swap a snow terrain with snow , green with green, night with night etc.

one more question please :-(

is there a way to import a new 3Dobjects in the mission editor ?

like these
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3481430/Comanche_Gold_A_kind_of_late_C.html#Post3481430

I haven't tried it yet. But it might be possible to swap 3Dobjects with the Hexeditor or you could change them in the mrf file, also with a hex editor.

thank you for the answers !

I have no patience to try your method for map swapping with the mission editor LOL

ufo :-)

No problem. I've managed to add the Armored Fist 2 demo map to the mission editor.





You just have to extract the pcx files from Armored fist 2 and import them into comanche golds resource.pff.
Delta Force 1 Maps crashes the mission editor.

Positive feedback - it works !

the Hexeditor correction





the new mission in corrected Mission Editor view





the new mission In Game view



Many thanks again for flogger83 ! ! !


ufo :-)

Wow, I´m quite impressed by you guys

Nice work flogger83 and ufolev!

with the help of flogger83 I have imported 14 maps from Armored fist2 into
Comanche Gold , next I will try to import maps fom Delta Force1 too.



































ufo :-)

Nice! I forgot to ask, are you able to collide with the new terrain and does the collision map match the terrain shape?

I do not change nothing in Armored Fist 2 maps, I only check whether they can be used in Comanche Gold
Sorry maybe I can not understand the question :-(

ufo

Basically, when you hit the terrain with weapons and your chopper, do they impact where they should do?

I do not see nothing unusual in the weapons usage

this is a video from the weapons usage test

There's something i couldn't try with armored fist 2 map because i only have the demo. Is water being recognized as water in the game?

Here is a custom mission with sound triggers, just to show you that it's now possible.
I reversed the method ufolev posted here, how to load an original mission as a custom mission and
added the triggers with a text editor.

Hello flogger83,

Can you share your C.PCX,D.PCX and M.PCX files from your ArmoredFist2Demo
because in mine Demo they are different - you can download and use them :
A2M2_C.PCX
https://www.box.com/s/c40cc06d7bc68d0d55ec
A2M2_D.PCX
https://www.box.com/s/de350a0c6ba151303986
A2M2_M.PCX
https://www.box.com/s/3f82852299c2e4cd8aa7

If you want I can upload here all PCX files which you need :-)

on your question about the water - I do not see water in Armored Fist2 maps :-(

The first discoverer of the "reversed method" for adding of "in game music", sound and text messages, event triggers in .MIS type file
is DavidC99 - look at the missions "Bunker Bashout" and "Lowering Odds".
and I used them too in my missions "DEAD OR ALIVE" , "VIOLATOR" and "SAR" - you can see it on their videos.

I have added you on the top in the beginning of this topic as a one of the innovators of the Comanche Gold
because of the idea for map importation in standard mision editor.

ufo :-)

Thanks for adding me. Here are the demo map files.

Gamefront

hello flogger83

thank you for the files

i tried to insert manually pcx d,c,m and pcx d,c,s files in the mis file from DeltaForce1
but when i start the game comanche sinks in the ground and the game fails because comanche dies


DFB1_C.PCX


DFB1_D.PCX


DFB1_M.PCX


maybe these files do not match to comanche

it is a pitty :-(

ufo

Hello Ufolev, try leaving out the d,c,s files. With the Delta Force 1 demo i only use the pcx d,c,m and it worked.

OK but what were the other corresponding files dcs in mission editor please

or what was the name of used terrain in the mission editor?

I used one of the Green maps, because the Comanche Gold green d,c,s files correspond with any other green map.

OK, the season for Delta Force1 maps in Comanche Gold is already open :
Here are 34 new maps.


One fly with Comanche over the Delta Force1 Map



You can test it personally
1. extract and add these 6 .pcx files in Resource.pff with fwo raven pff utility
https://www.box.com/s/eb13442a1ae70d230d00

2. - get this .MRF file, put it in comanche directory and start it like an user created mission
https://www.box.com/s/79ac579871a3e2c3d723



some of the other DF1 charts:













ufo :-)

Very good, ufolev!

I'll add the DF1 test map to my website. I really like the look of those DF1 terrains, especially the arctic one with the icy water.

If you like it now you can get it for personal test
1. these 6 .pcx files must be extracted and added in Resourse.pff with pff utility
https://www.box.com/s/91c7de287f6cdee22b56

2. get the user mission file
https://www.box.com/s/96fe3ece68e60e8e6cc1


or just see the video

Excellent, ufolev!

It's a shame that map was only available in multiplayer in DF1, and there was no singleplayer mission based in it (from what I remember).

Just a question: Are you sure those .PCX files you say you have to put in the .PFF file can't just be placed in the CG install folder like all other mods so far?

these PCX files are the new terrain files

Yes you can just extract and put them all in your Comanche Gold install folder - I have tested your suggestion and it works for me.

ufo

I have just tested the two test maps that ufolev posted links to above, and can confirm a few things...

1) You only need to put the .PCX files in your CG install folder - no need for messing about with .PFF files.
2) Player helicopter and weapons collision models seem to work perfectly - no clipping issues.
3) Water is treated like land - no splashes when shot with rockets and you don't sink into it if you crash over it.

One question: Is the map that gets shown on the cockpit MFD screen the exact same terrain file as the actual terrain, or is there a separate file for that? It always amazes me how accurate the map is with regards to the player's position over the terrain.

The MFD Maps are the same as the Terrain Maps, it's also the same one used in the Briefing.

I think the problem with the Water occurs because the Pcx format of Delta force 1 is slightly different than the Comanche Gold and Armored Fist 2 format.

I can view the delta force 1 pcx files with a program while the Comanche Gold and Armored Fist Pcx files can't be viewed.

flogger83 is right

there are 8 pcx files for decription the desired terrain


but 3 of them are main

color_map dfm13_c - you can see it in the mission intro, in the mission editor and in game MFD - button "I"



elev_map dfm13_d - you can see it in the mission editor - button "F3"



detail_map dfm13_m - you can see it in the "in game" MFD - button "I"



and all 3 have the same coordinates - they view the same terrain main tile


ufo

Cool, it really simplifies things by using the same file for the actual terrain AND cockpit displays AND briefing.

I guess that's why where you are on the MFD map screen you are precisely over the actual terrain. Genius!

I think with most sims they use one file for the briefing map, another for the MFD map and then yet another file for the terrain - and all in different file formats! This method obviously exposes itself to inconsistencies.

OK, so it's been confirmed that Delta Force 1 and Armored Fist 2 maps work in CG. But now what about DF2 and AF3? And what about maps from NovaLogic's F-22 Raptor, F-16 Multirole Fighter and MiG-29 Fulcrum!? I guess 'technically', all Voxel Space engine games could be used?

But you really want much more resolution for the briefing maps, and much more for the terrain itself.

Years ago I did a lot of work with fng2k moving terrains between Gunship and EAW / Strike FIghters, he also imported terrains from M1 Tank Platoon.
Thats clearly a different format than the Commanche files, but looking at his website might be useful, for tools and info.
I've written a few tools for terrain editing, don't know how useful they would be...

Cheers
Keith

We have near 20 user created missions and near 150 terrains - Do we really need more terrains?
Who will use them?

Also the problem is that the differences between Comanche Gold and DF2/AF3 are increasing too much.
and you will need many conversions to fix these differences.
If you compare AF2/DF1 and Comanche Gold in game objects like vehicles, buildings etc /even terrains/
you will see that they are almost identical and this is a clue that this is the limit of map exchange
ArmoredFist2 , DeltaForce1 and Comanche Gold have the same maps


for comparison
Comanche Gold map


Delta Force1 map




Comanche Gold map


Delta Force1 map


Armored Fist2 map



Comanche Gold map



Armored Fist2 map




ufo :-)

Keithb77 - Long time no see! Thanks for the input, I still have your LB2 terrain programs hosted on my site!

ufolev - Well you always seem to be pushing the boundaries so I just thought it was the 'next step' to try out terrain maps from other NovaLogic games. Indeed we do have 'enough' terrains!

Hi Flyboy,

Next step for me will be 1 comanche mission over Armored Fist2 terrain and 1 over Delta Force1 terrain

Armored Fist2 mission will be easier because here the mission editor can be used directly,

but Delta Force1 mission will be harder.

I will describe in separate topic how to use a terrain for mission creating with non direct usage
of the mission editor.

ufo :-)

I've managed to import a Delta Force 2 map into Comanche Gold but the end result is not perfect.



To make Delta Force 2 map work you must convert the color map which is a jpeg 24 bit to a pcx 8 bit.

You also have to lower the Elevation map to 16 colors then increase it back to 256 colors (8bit),
Comanche Gold will give you an error if you don't do so.

The problem with Delta force 2 maps is that they are higher detailed than Comanche maps thats why the color
map uses 24bit instead of 8bits.

Hi flogger83,

you are real pioneer in Comanche Gold user-post-development :-)

Where Flyboy create his MOD and increase the resolution to 1024X768
we had a problem with discolorisation of the ongoing game and the solution of
the problem was to be decreased the colour quality from 32bit
to native for the game 16 bit

I hope this will be useful info for you


ufo

That terrain looks damn fine, flogger83! I knew you could do it!

Strange that DF2 uses .JPG files for the colormap, would have thought it better to use a lossless quality file format.

By the way, flogger83, I'm a little disappointed that you're not using my Comanche engine and rotor sound files mod!

The change of ( cPCX dPCX sPCX ) group and the ground change on one Armored Fist2 chart example:


mstr_d.pcx, mstr_s.pcx, mstr_c.pcx


snip_d.pcx, snip_s.pcx, snip_c.pcx



msr1_d.pcx, msr1_s.pcx, msr1_c.pcx



msr2_d.pcx, msr2_s.pcx, msr2_c.pcx



ufo

I tried to change those files but only with a slight improvenment, we really need the original files to get delta force 2 terrains with the same kind of detail into comanche gold.

If you mean the original terrain files from Armored Fist2, Delta Force1 and Delta Force2 ?

Delta Force1 terrain files .PCXs :
https://www.box.com/s/80a8d21998229226bd79


Armored Fist2 terrain files .PCXs :
https://www.box.com/s/f3b393553fd8c66ab7a3


Delta Force2 terrain files .PCXs :
https://www.box.com/s/82715c8480a7078bb8c6


DF1 MISSIONS descriptions :
https://www.box.com/s/78275223b558ae264676


AF2 MISSIONS descriptions :
https://www.box.com/s/02e1074387ba8203ef7d


ufo

I think what flogger83 probably means by 'original files' is without having to go through the conversion process. Am I right?

the rest of the Armored Fist2 maps imported in Comanche Gold


























ufo

I will post for a TEST imported in Comanche Gold maps from Armored Fist2


"How to use" note

If you only want a test fly over the Armored Fist2 map
download the archive file and decompress it, place .mrf file and all .pcx files in Comanche Gold folder and start the .mrf file like user created mission

If you want to create own mission with the Armored Fist2 map
download the archive file and decompress it, place modified Editor,exe file in Comanche Gold folder,
insert all.pcx files into RESOURCE.RES file with FwO-Raven's PFF editor
open the modified Editor.exe file and choose NEW mission then choose the Armored Fist2 map from the list
now you can work on your own mission with the Armored Fist2 map



Comanche Gold with Armored Fist2 map 05

download
https://www.box.com/s/7499abd1fc995dfce751

video presentation


enjoy

Comanche Gold with Armored Fist2 map 01

read "How to use" note above

download
https://www.box.com/s/1e77066a411f5a0ed8f5

video presentation


enjoy :-)

Nice!

Hi All,
Comanche Gold is like an Easter Egg - always when you decide that you know everything about it - wait for a surprise :-)


Let me introduce to you Comanche Gold FreeLook Mode which is not shown neither in the keyboard chart, nor in the game manual ?!


while you fly on F2/F6 you can independently rotate the camera view everywhere with these buttons :


"Home"/"End" - 180 degrees up/down ,
"Delete"/"PageDown" - more than 360 degrees left/right ,
"Insert" or "PageUp" restore the centre view.





This opportunity is an open door for Track IR observation LOL
Test it Yourself !
ENJOY :-)

I already knew about this, but as it had little practical use I never bothered to highlight it.

It would be nice if you could slew the cannon to where you look, but it is always fixed forward.

Good NEWS For Cmanche Gold Today !

Our friend - Death_Wish_Decker already has posted for download his Comanche Gold Universal Trainer!

in this topic :

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3791130/Comanche_Gold_Universal_Traine#Post3791130

Many Thanks!
ufo :-)