Finally able to view all of the quicktime movies

[Thomas Davie]

Odd, but until I downloaded QT 3.0 I was unable to view 3 of the CM movies. Dunno why, they all appeared as either blank or all black on both Macs and Wintels. Couldn't download em with either a 56k modem or a T1 at work.

Just moments ago with a cable modem I was able to view them. Odd. Shrug.

They look nice. Oh yeah, grab yourself the Star Bores movie trailer from www.apple.com if you head over there to grab the new version of quicktime.

Tom

[Big Time Software]

Ain't technology grand? http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/wink.gif

Glad you got to view the movies. I hope watching them has made your stomach more reassured!

Steve

[Thomas Davie]

Whoa, quick reply. Yeah, technology is fantastic. Considering that I lost everything on my hard drive during the install of the cable modem, I'm *very* surprised that it's taken me less than an evening to download everything that I'd accumulated over a month long period.

Well, looking at the qt movies of Combat Mission I don't know what to say. I didn't see what I was hoping for to be honest. I wanted a nice slow moving clear overhead shot and I didn't see one http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/frown.gif It was too quick and fuzzy for me to form any kind of opinion re: the graphics.

HOWEVER; I've never held graphics to be the most important part of a game and I'm not starting now. The gameplay, depth of subject matter, realism, documentation and AI are what do it for me. Even though I've got a 'whizzo' graphics card/monitor combo, I still play CGA and EGA games http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/smile.gif

Nah, I *know* you guys are going to come through; it's just that the most visually apparent portion of your game isn't important for me.... But that is part of the beauty of your game I think....it won't force people to play it a particular way. SO, if there happen to be old fogies like me who refuse to get dragged kicking and screaming into the modern age, why....it will humor us.

Tom

[Big Time Software]

>It was too quick and fuzzy for me to form any kind of opinion re: the graphics.

Yeah, we really didn't focus on the overhead shots because, ah, it's a 3D game http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/smile.gif The other thing is that overhead stuff doesn't look so hot squished down to 240 by whatever and then compressed to all Hell. There were, however, parts of 2 of the movies that were from overhead. But we had to keep things moving along because time is space/bandwidth. Believe me, we would *LOVE* to put up a 2 minute decent sized QT movie. But one look at the 11-25MB Star Wars trailers should tell you why we aren't going to do this! Not all of us have cable modems or T1s http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/wink.gif

Steve

[Andy Wilson]

I'm hoping that your objections to such a large chunk of movie are due to restrictions on your end of things. I know that I, for one, will download anything that you guys put up. This clunky machine with its 56k connection may have to stay on line all night to get such a massive file, but it would gladly be done. I'd wager that plenty of my fellow war gamers would share my oppinion.
In short: Feed Me! I want More Combat Mission!!! http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/wink.gif

Thanks.
Andy

[This message has been edited by Andy Wilson (edited 03-14-99).]

[Thomas Davie]

Andy, I'm guessing that Bigtime won't make, say a 50 mb demo because they don't want people getting mad at them http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/wink.gif

On a good day, I would get 3.5 kb/ sec sustained with my 56k modem, so ~12 mb/ hour. And I'm betting that there are people out there with 14k modems. Myself I had one from Aug/95 till Jan/99

You're right though; people would download anything, even a 200 mb trailer. Just takes longer and longer. I dunno, but if I had to pay on a per connect time basis like a lot of people in Europe, I'd pass though.

Tom

[Andy Wilson]

AK! Per hour basis?!?!? That's awful! When I was looking for an ISP, I didn't even consider an cantidate unless it offered unlimited hours! I guess I'm lucky! I get those unlimited hours for twenty five US dollars per month. I connect at no less than 52000 bps every single time, as well. Sheesh! I feel sorry for such unfortunate souls.

Andy

[Sten]

The ISP's aren't the real problem, most of them offer unlimited hours. The problem is that in Europe there is no such thing as free local calls. At least I haven't heard of any country 'cept US that has this. During evenings and weekends I can have a local call for slightly less than $1/hour, but that's as low as it gets. (In Sweden, that is. I think most other countries are more expensive.)
Sten

[Marko]

It's not really free calls that you Europeans crave, but untimed calls with a once only fee of say between 15-50 cents. http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/smile.gif Here in Australia, a local call is 25c irrespective of time connected. My ISP charges me $30/month, no time limits, no download limits @ 56k. The internet for most Australians is therefore still affordable. But I fear the day will come when the monopolistic bastards will start timing our calls and charging per minute. http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/frown.gif

[Sten]

If you ever find youself out of monopolistic bastards, just let me know, we have plenty where I come from. And being the generous soul that I am, I'd gladly give you some. http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/smile.gif
Sten

[Moon]

In Germany, AOL just moved from an hour fee ($3 per hour) to a flat rate for 60 hours per month (can't remember what the flat rate is)...

There are other ISPs out there and some do offer unlimited online time, but most are either slow (because so many people are using them) or have an overload with advertising...

Phone calls, even local, are becoming cheaper and cheaper, so for about 100 hours a month I pay about 15-20 US$. However, I am online mostly at nights and weekends, which is about 1/4 cheaper than being online during the day...

However, this is all pretty new. Half a year ago, I paid 300 US$ per month in total for 100 hours online... http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/frown.gif

[Lee]

Ugh! Having to pay for a local call is painful to even think about. http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/smile.gif I have a
cable modem, $40 US a month, unlimited use/downloads. The fastest I have downloaded
so far is a little over a meg every 4 seconds. The speed transfer speed was still
going up but I ran out of file to download. http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/smile.gif Problem is most sites can't feed me the data
as fast as I can take it. But even when I had a regular ISP with 28.8 connection I
regularly downloaded large files, I just started the download just before I went to
sleep and when I woke up it was done (except
the gigantic Mechcommander demo which took
11 hours!). http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/smile.gif
So, bring on some high quality QT videos for us Steve, let those of us who are willing to
DL the file have a crack at it. http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Lee (edited 03-19-99).]

[Lee]

Hmm, sorry about the spacing in my post above.
Somehow the spacing got all changed from how
it looked on my screen.
Hmm, why don't the goofs who program these
stupid message boards in the first place
make these white boxes where you put your
message twice as wide so we could type out
normal width sentences in a natural way?! http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/smile.gif

[Major Belles]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Thomas Davie:
Odd, but until I downloaded QT 3.0 I was unable to view 3 of the CM movies. Dunno why, they all appeared as either blank or all black on both Macs and Wintels. Couldn't download em with either a 56k modem or a T1 at work.

Just moments ago with a cable modem I was able to view them. Odd. Shrug.

They look nice. Oh yeah, grab yourself the Star Bores movie trailer from www.apple.com (http://www.apple.com) if you head over there to grab the new version of quicktime.

Tom

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm going to sound really dumb, but what movies are referred to here?

The Major

[Mannheim Tanker]

Hehe...the local calls in the US might seem free, but I wonder what the comparison is if you take into account all of the extra fees that get tacked on by the end of the month! Makes you wonder why they broke up Ma Bell...

[Pvt. Ryan]

Major, I think they are referring to CM previews that you could watch before the game was released. They are not not part of the released version of CM. As far as I know the only movie in CM now is the opening movie - which needs to be redone with the latest mods. http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/smile.gif

[patboivin]

Major,

Star Bores is Star Wars.

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/wink.gif

[Major Belles]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Pvt. Ryan:
Major, I think they are referring to CM previews that you could watch before the game was released. They are not not part of the released version of CM. As far as I know the only movie in CM now is the opening movie - which needs to be redone with the latest mods. http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/smile.gif[/QUOTE}

Thanks, both; Pvt. Ryan and patboivin; Ryan really answered my question; frustrating! http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/frown.gif Well, now I know not to look for them any more!