Rahamy - How are the Matrix Battleground OOBs linked to their on-map 3D images?

[WarGameFanatic]

I don't know if you know the answer to these question, but here goes -

I know how the HPS OOBs are structured and linked to the unit bmp images, and I know how they're linked to their 3D images on the various 3DUnits100x bmp files. It is as follows -

Unit Description =
U [Unit Strength] [Class Rating] [Unit Type] [Unit Weapon] [Unit Picture] [3D Image] [Unit Name]

Now, when I looked for a similar OOB structure in the old TalonSoft/"new" Matrix Battleground series, I was very interested to find the following -

Unit Description =
U [Unit Strength] [Quality Rating] [Unit Type] [Unit Weapon] [Unit Picture] [State] [Unit Name]

Note that instead of the HPS "3D Image" category, we have the "State" category in the old TalonSoft/"new" Matrix Battleground series.

So, how does the old TalonSoft/"new" Matrix Battleground series program know which on-map 3D image to use for each unit? Where can that linkage be found?

And finally, if one were to mod the 3D infantry unit images in the old TalonSoft/"new" Matrix Battleground series in any way, how would one go about doing that?

Any help on this issue is much appreciated!

 

[trauth116]

JTS doesn't support those titles -basically what happened is that Matrix bought the rights to publish those titles (I think -from whoever owned the publishing rights from Talonsoft -not JTS) -you are only going to be able to get that sort of information from Matrix.

It has been awhile since I last looked at the Talonsoft stuff, but I thought they had a 'State' image in the unit portrait area -which should be that line on the OOB coding.

I really don't know how often Rich drops by to these boards -who knows, maybe he will be by -but - basically what the gist of your query is asking the official support guy for HPS/JTS for support for titles published by Matrix.

Aside from that, all the best with your modding efforts- that sort of thing is a hobby in itself .

 

[WarGameFanatic]

JTS doesn't support those titles -basically what happened is that Matrix bought the rights to publish those titles (I think -from whoever owned the publishing rights from Talonsoft -not JTS) -you are only going to be able to get that sort of information from Matrix.

It has been awhile since I last looked at the Talonsoft stuff, but I thought they had a 'State' image in the unit portrait area -which should be that line on the OOB coding.

I really don't know how often Rich drops by to these boards -who knows, maybe he will be by -but - basically what the gist of your query is asking the official support guy for HPS/JTS for support for titles published by Matrix.

Aside from that, all the best with your modding efforts- that sort of thing is a hobby in itself .

Appreciate the response, but I already knew all of the information you posted.

I was posting in hopes that someone could tell me how the on-map 3D images were generated in the Battleground series of games. I thought Rich may have been involved in the original design/development processes of the old TalonSoft/current Matrix Battleground games.

For anyone else who may be interested, I've broken the code since my last posting. Once you've made any changes to the ICONS3D bmp file, you then make a copy of that file and change the extension to .BIT. That will give you two new files, ICONS3D.BMP and ICONS3D.BIT. Now, go into the Matrix Battleground ACW game you wish to mod, copy the original ICONS3D.BMP and ICONS3D.BIT files and paste them into a new folder in case you want to restore them at a later date. Now, take your new files and copy and paste them into the game you want to modify. Start your game and this image is what you should see (Gettysburg sample - 2nd Day)-

View attachment 46039

Here's a second image -

View attachment 46040

 

[Andrew Bamford]

I believe that the 3d images are linked to the unit type. Thus the first infantry image near the top of the ICONS3D file relates to the standard infantry type "I", and those at the bottom successively to "Z" "S" "M" and "G" in that order.
Z is zouaves for either side, S is sharpshooters for the Union and blue coats for the Confederacy, M is blue coats with red caps for the Union and an alternative standard infantry for the Confederacy, and G is grey coats for the Union and blank for the Confederacy.

 

[WarGameFanatic]

I believe that the 3d images are linked to the unit type. Thus the first infantry image near the top of the ICONS3D file relates to the standard infantry type "I", and those at the bottom successively to "Z" "S" "M" and "G" in that order.
Z is zouaves for either side, S is sharpshooters for the Union and blue coats for the Confederacy, M is blue coats with red caps for the Union and an alternative standard infantry for the Confederacy, and G is grey coats for the Union and blank for the Confederacy.

Thank you! That's the final piece of the puzzle!