Happy birthday to PPM! 25 years old!
October 01, 2025 - 01:17
One vision, one birthday, ladies and gentlemen! The purpose of this news post is to celebrate our birthday, which happens on September 30th. PPM is now 25 years old! Yes, 25, and we are still alive! It is hard to see C&C community sites alive and active these days. Some of them still are, others lives in death!

Our story started 25 years ago when a group of people got together to create a mod for Tiberian Sun called PPM: Final Dawn. We have seen many things being released here, except PPM: Final Dawn. Don't worry, one day, it's still in our plans.

Then, we arrive at the moment when I usually recap everything that happened this year. I am not going to do that this time due to real-life time constraints. This year has been tough because I have a job, I need to pay my bills, and sometimes we have some distressing events with strict deadlines to solve. It just happened to happen in these recent weeks. To make things worse, recent denial-of-service attacks on this server did not help things at all.

However, it is worth mentioning the beautiful celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Command & Conquer franchise conducted by the people from CnCSaga and all mods and community sites that took part in it. Browse them to find many mod releases, and even an interview with Louis Castle. Although it is worth mentioning that the event is over right now.







So, I have at least 4 items on my backlog, and I want to release at least one of them in the next 30 days as a gift to celebrate this date:

1) An TMP Editor with a new way to paint terrains for TD, RA1, TS and RA2.
2) One or more tools to make a more realistic render of voxels from TS and RA2.
3) A MIX editor for C&C Remastered Collection
4) A new completely original tool to rule them all. The others are not exactly original. No more tips here.



This is no myth!


At least one of them will emerge in the next 30 days, since the strict deadline problem should be gone by October 20th (and I hope nothing absurd shows up after that, but it is beyond my control).


And we cannot end this news post with our birthday cake....



















A stealth cake #Tongue. I just couldn't resist the joke!

Posted by Banshee
Comments (2)
Phobos Build 48 has been released!
September 10, 2025 - 11:34
One vision, one purpose! Phobos Build 48 has been released by Starkku moments ago. For your information, Phobos extends the modding features from Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge and, unlike Ares, is completely open-source. The changes from Phobos Build 48 were announced with the following words:

Quote:
Disclaimer: development builds are inherently unstable and may contain improvements that will be changed and adjusted before the stable release (as well as bugs), with less stability guarantees.

Phobos development build 48 is up!

Changes compared to build 47:

Migration info:

  • IsSimpleDeployer units now obey deploying facing constraint even without deploying animation. To disable this, set DeployDir (defaults to [AudioVisual] -> DeployDir) to -1.
  • Vertical=true projectiles now default to completely downwards initial trajectory/facing regardless of if their projectile image has Voxel=true or not. This behavior can be reverted by setting VerticalInitialFacing=false on projectile in rulesmd.ini.
  • Vertical=true projectiles no longer move horizontally if fired by aircraft by default. To re-enable this behaviour set Vertical.AircraftFix=false on the projectile.
  • Weapons with Airstrike=true on Warhead will now check target eligibility for airstrikes regardless of weapon slot. Use AirstrikeTargets=all on Primary airstrike weapon Warhead to restore previous behaviour.
  • UseCenterCoordsWhenAttached has been replaced by enumeration key AttachedAnimPosition. Set AttachedAnimPosition=center to replicate effects of UseCenterCoordsWhenAttached=true.
  • Units' LaserTrails will no longer lag behind by one frame, so it needs to be repositioned (Previously, units with faster speeds may need to be positioned further ahead).

Note: This was originally introduced in Build 44 but no migration notice for it was ever put up and the functionality got bugfixes in this build

  • PowerUpNAnim is now used instead of the upgrade building's image file for upgrade animation if set. Note that displaying a damaged version will still require setting PowerUpNDamagedAnim explicitly in all cases, as the fallback to upgrade building image does not extend to it, nor would it be safe to add. PowersUpToLevel=-1 upgrades still do not work correctly PowerUpNAnim and such buildings should forgo using explicit upgrade animations.

New features:
Vanilla fixes:

  • Separated the AirstrikeClass pointer between the attacker/aircraft and the target to avoid erroneous overwriting issues (by NetsuNegi)
  • Fixed the bug that buildings will always be tinted as airstrike owner (by NetsuNegi)
  • Fixed an issue where computer players did not search for new enemies after defeating them or forming alliances with them (by FlyStar)
  • Fixed an issue where airstrike flare line drawn to target at lower elevation would clip (by Starkku)
  • Fixed the bug that damaged particle dont disappear after building has repaired by engineer (by NetsuNegi)
  • Projectiles with Vertical=true now drop straight down if fired off by AircraftTypes instead of behaving erratically (by Starkku)
  • When Speed=0 or the TechnoTypes cell cannot move due to MovementRestrictedTo, vehicles cannot attack targets beyond the weapon's range. Area Guard and Hunt missions will also become ineffective (by FlyStar)
  • Fixed an issue that barrel anim data will be incorrectly overwritten by turret anim data if the techno's section exists in the map file (by CrimRecya)
  • IsSimpleDeployer BalloonHover=true units with DeployToLand=false are no longer forced to land when hovering (by Starkku)
  • If DeployingAnim with Shadow=true is played for unit currently in air its shadow will now be drawn on ground (by Starkku)
  • DeployingAnim now supports both Normalized=true and Reverse=true (by Starkku)
  • DeployingAnim using unit drawer now also tint accordingly with the unit (by Starkku)
  • Jumpjets in air now can correctly spawn missiles (by TaranDahl)

Phobos fixes:

  • Fixed the bug that AllowAirstrike=no cannot completely prevent air strikes from being launched against it (by NetsuNegi)
  • Fixed an issue that FireAngle was not taken into account when drawing barrel in TurretShadow (by CrimRecya)
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes caused weapon/warhead detonations from features such as ExtraWarheads, animation damage or Crit.Warhead to unintentionally move from its intended position (by Starkku)
  • Fixed the bug that armor multiplier of new attacheffect will have extra take effect once if restricted warheads (by NetsuNegi)
  • Fixed an issue that units' LaserTrails will always lags behind by one frame (by CrimRecya)
  • Fixed customized WarpAway anim's wrong definition (by Ollerus)
  • Fixed PowersUpToLevel=-1 upgrades potentially displaying wrong animations (by Starkku)
  • Fixed ForceWeapon.InRange not working when target is not TechnoType (by CrimRecya)
  • Fixed parsing of DropPodTrailer from INI (by Starkku)
  • Fixed issue with ReturnWeapon not always firing off correctly (by CrimRecya)
  • Fixed animation damage logic applying invoker/owner inconsistently between weapon & warhead (by Ollerus & Starkku)
  • Fixed an edge-case issue with Phobos' selection handling code crashing with Veinholes (by Starkku)
  • Fixed AmbientDamage.Warhead not working for waves (by Starkku)
  • Fixed SkirmishUnlimitedColors not being checked if Phobos runs without Ares active (by Starkku)
  • Fixed number of *.ApplyFirepowerMult options  (f.ex anim damage, crit) ignoring veterancy firepower modifier (by Starkku)
  • Misc. code optimizations & fixes (by CrimRecya, Ollerus, NetsuNegi, Kerbiter, Uranusian & Starkku)
  • Misc. documentation improvements (by DeathFishAtEase & Kerbiter)

Fixes / interactions with other extensions:

  • Convert.Deploy displays 'NoDeploy' cursor if the new type is not allowed to move to the cell due to SpeedType etc. (by Starkku)
  • Fixed an issue that Ares' Type Conversion not resetting barrel's direction by FireAngle (by TaranDahl)


You can find more information about Phobos by visiting the Topic at PPM Forums, Official Website, and Discord Channel at C&C Mod Haven. Download the latest version of Phobos Here. That's all, folks! Stay tuned at PPM for more news coverage on Phobos!

Posted by Banshee
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Mental Omega Act III - DevLogs #1, #2 and #3
August 19, 2025 - 12:17
The state of the world remains dangerously unknown, but the little new information that exists on it is revealed to you through Mental Omega Development Log videos — the third of which was released just last week.

It's been a while - the Mental Omega DevLog #3 (August '25) is here! Introducing new units, changes to some features you already know, a big new skirmish/multiplayer mode and.. MOre. From the revisions of Foehn Spinblade and Blast Furnace systems, to the entirely new special units that you will see in unique game modes, but also very likely in the upcoming missions - this DevLog has it all for our players.




But, if you missed them, we've released two other DevLogs with many more units for Allies, Soviets, Yuri and the Foehn Revolt. We also continue to showcase crucial quality-of-life changes brought to the players by the programmers working on the Phobos Engine Extension DLL, and we make further use of the good things Ares Expansion DLL has already made possible for the Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge modders.




Among the most notable additions are new features such as the ability to set waypoints or put aircraft built on airfields into guard mode, queue buildings in the sidebar, use a dedicated left-hand sidebar for superweapons and key support powers, and - finally - place any structure freely on trees. With Phobos no more manual deforestation will be needed, these terrain obstacles will no longer hinder base building.




To see all the newest units that will be available in the next version of Mental Omega, check out the Development Logs we are regularly posting on our YouTube Channel or images in the ModDB Gallery.

We're not done yet. Stay tuned for even MOre.

Posted by Speeder
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D-day's 23rd Anniversary and rebirth
June 06, 2025 - 12:02

Its June 6th D-day, this day marks the 81st Anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, launching the liberation of France during World War 2. But this day is also the 23rd Anniversary of the D-day mod for Red Alert 2.
 


It has been quite some time since I last posted any updates for D-day (7 years in fact!). The lack of updates was mainly from being burnout from social media and online activity in general, for several years I didn't do anything online at all. I however continued my work on D-day during my time offline. I've added over 200 new units to the mod, along with new buildings and terrain. I also added a completely new country to D-day, which I'll post more about in a future update. I've also incorporated the Phobos and Kratos engine expansions into D-day, which I've used to add many new and exciting features and abilities to the mod. 
 
 
I plan to start posting updates on D-day more regularly but, as you can imagine I have a huge backlog of new things to post about tho. To start things off I've updated the D-day website, the unit list of every country has been updated, with some sides having a few small changes and others some quite significant ones. For example the American Marine Corps sub-faction has been expanded and the British pre and post war units have been reworked.   
 
New pages have been added for Poland, China, Sweden and Czechoslovakia too, so you can finally see some of their new units and what I have been mainly working on over the past few years.  
 
  
 
 
 
Here is a preview of a few of the new units from these countries.
 
Polish PZL P.11
 
 
Chinese M4A4 Sherman

 
Swedish EMIL 58 "Kranvagn"

 
Czech 152mm ShKH-TVP



Posted by Mig Eater
Comments (4)
Open Source SHP Builder 4.0 is the next in line!
April 02, 2025 - 06:35
Hello again! And it is still April 1st in some places on Earth, so we can finalize our "Too Good to be True" with this announcement on schedule. It is about time to reveal our plans to conquer the world for all of you! You know? He who controls the past commands the future! The problem is when the past is really tough to control! And that is the case of OS SHP Builder and its horrible code. I have been working for over a month to reform the code and most of its structures, starting with the document itself (splitting it from SHP (TS) file format), UndoRedo, TempView, Session control, and several other components. The code I have here is quite different from 3.3x already, but it incorporates all its features, so don't worry about that.

We have goals for the upcoming OS SHP Builder 4.0.

  • In a very low term:

    • Auto-Save Session: You will be able to resume your work if the program closes unexpectedly.
    • Undo/Redo History Viewer: You will be able to view a Window with all your Undo/Redo history (and also see the recent ones on Undo and Redo buttons) and move to them if you feel like it.


  • In a medium-term:

    • Tertiary color selection in addition to Primary and Secondary colors.
    • Redesign of the Brush buttons: We will have the following set of tools available: Select, Magic Wand, Color Selector, Add Selection To Collection, Brush, Stamp, Shape, Fill, Replace Color, Transform. Each tool will have a set of options where you will be able to choose "Type, Shape, Size, Range/Scope and Color Options. Let's explain each of these things below

      • Select allows you to select a box, ellipse and other shapes in the image. Once selected, you can move these pixels in the image or copy and paste them elsewhere.
      • Magic Wand is a selection tool based on Flood and Fill.
      • Color Selection is one of the remaining things of OS SHP Builder 3.x, where you can select the color from a pixel.
      • Add Selection to Collection allows you to add the selected pixels as a new image in your collection, and you will be able to reuse it on Stamp for your upcoming sprites or even share it with the community, in a later time.
      • Brush allows you to paint shapes using the selected colors in the picture. You will be able to brush customized shapes using your first, secondary, and tertiary colors. You will also be able to brush using effects such as the ones you know in OS SHP Builder 3.x, such as Snow, Damage, etc.
      • Stamp works similarly as Brush, but your selected colors do not affect the shape you are using to paint. You can use it to place a Nod logo in your unit or use some of the likings of Dark Elf's Copy and Paste Pack in a very friendly way.
      • Shape allows you to create rectangles, ellipses, and other polygonal shapes.
      • Fill is the evolution of Flood and Flll with additional options.
      • Replace color allows you to replace colors on the current selection according to the options you choose.
      • Transform allows you to rotate, mirror, flip, erode, distort, among other transformations on selection.

    • And the options:

      • Type allows you to choose the variations of the tools.
      • Shape pops up a list of images or vectorized graphs to be used as the shape of your tool.
      • Size allows you to make your shape bigger or smaller.
      • Range/Scope allows you to limit the scope affected by the tool. It can be inside the current selection, at the current frame, all opened frames from the same SHP, new frame, new SHP, etc.
      • Color Options allows you to choose if the primary, secondary, or tertiary colors will affect your tool or not.


  • In a very long-term:

    • Generative AI support (requires an external tool, yet to be released):

      • AI will be able to generate new stamps, given a user prompt.
      • AI will be able to select parts of the picture, given a user prompt.
      • AI will be able to code and execute a chain of commands, as a modding assistant, given a user prompt. (You will be able to save this command if you like its effects).



Other than that, expect a faster and more stable tool with fewer memory leaks and well as surprises. I will continue supporting OS SHP Builder 3.3x while 4.0 has not been released. Right now, I am finishing reforming the whole code of the program making it support the new Document structure. Because this change affected almost every line, I am not being able to compile the current version of the program. So, I have no screenshots yet, sorry. The next step is to resume the Session saving.

Once we have a feature of the low-term list, I plan to make it public on the OS SHP Builder's SVN. If you have any suggestions and feedback, post it here!

Posted by Banshee
Comments (5)
PPM Community News Coverage will resume shortly!
April 02, 2025 - 05:32
Hello everyone! It is still the first day of April in places like Hawai, so, our "Too Good to be True" event continues! We have two announcements to do before it ends. One of them would be a release, but it will definitely not be possible to be a release, because the effort to release it has proven to demand too much effort. And despite all my efforts (I have been sleeping terribly these days), I couldn't finish it.

So, let's go to the announcement number 1!

And the announcement is.... from April 2nd on, we will resume our usual community news posting job.

It is something that I stopped doing back in January to focus all my efforts on the next announcement. But now I have no more deadline, I can work more calmly.


Now, you must be wondering what was the surprise that I am still working and I was supposed to deliver today, right? Check the next news post.... soon!

Posted by Banshee
Comments (4)
Open Source SHP Builder 3.38 Beta 29: It is in the grid!
April 02, 2025 - 05:14
Welcome back, Commander! And first of all, a big thanks to wow4ik81 for the feedback on the latest Open Source SHP Builder release. We have received reports that Show Grids was displaying an error. Even when it did not display an error, it had a weird behavior. But fear not! Reinforcements have arrived with Open Source SHP Builder 3.38 Beta 29, which makes the Show Grid feature work better than ever before!

For those unaware of what is being written here, Open Source SHP Builder is a pixel art editor dedicated to old Command & Conquer games, such as Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert 1, Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2, and the modern OpenRA. It is free, and open-source. It allows you to edit any .SHP animations and graphics used by these games.  It provides a friendly user interface and its own set of features to help you create cameos, quickly,  replace colors (changing faction from units, for instance), create snow or crashed versions of buildings, import and export several kind of graphics taking into account singularities from all covered games, among many other features. Here is the official announcement that I have posted on Open Source SHP Builder's SVN about Open Source SHP Builder 3.38 Beta 29:

Quote:
This revision comes with a fully functional Show Grid for TS and RA2. It works better than in any other previous version because I have re-coded the whole thing from scratch in a much smarter way.




If you are curious about Open Source SHP Builder, visit the Official Website to obtain further information about it. Grab the latest version of Open Source SHP Builder by clicking Here. That's all, folks! Stay tuned at PPM for more news coverage on Open Source SHP Builder!

Posted by Banshee
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Open Source SHP Builder 3.38 Beta 28 is out! A late welcome to the 64 bits era!
March 31, 2025 - 21:50
Howdy everyone! Our beloved April 1st has started in China, Japan, Russia, Australia, and it begins with a big surprise:  a new version of Open Source SHP Builder called Open Source SHP Builder 3.38 Beta 28. For those unfamiliar with it, Open Source SHP Builder is a pixel art editor dedicated to old Command & Conquer games, such as Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert 1, Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2, and the modern OpenRA. It is free, and open-source. It allows you to edit any .SHP animations and graphics used by these games.  It provides a friendly user interface and its own set of features to help you create cameos, quickly,  replace colors (changing faction from units, for instance), create snow or crashed versions of buildings, import and export several kind of graphics taking into account singularities from all covered games, among many other features. The changes from Open Source SHP Builder 3.38 Beta 28 were announced with the following words at the SVN:

Quote:
OS SHP Builder has finally reached the 64-bit era! We have revisited its code to support newer Delphi IDEs and 64 bits. With 64 bits, OS SHP Builder will be able to use more than 3GB of RAM, which allows you to use bigger zoom levels, load more images at once, among other things. The IDE change has also forced us to use different libraries for PNG and GIF support.


Do you believe in that? The last version of OS SHP Builder that brought a new feature was released over 1356 days ago... which is close to 4 years ago. So, it has been a while, isn't it? Now, the support for this beloved program resumes, and we will be fixing bugs as soon as our community reports it, preferentially in our forums.

The 64-bit conversion was not trivial. I had to edit a bunch of files and dive into several .asm codes to adapt them to 64 bits or convert them into comprehensive code. Assembly is not something that I handle well. It took time, but it was worth it, and hopefully, we will see more interesting features appearing in OS SHP Builder from now on!



For further information about Open Source SHP Builder, visit the Official Website. Download the latest version of Open Source SHP Builder Here. And this is all for today! Enjoy Open Source SHP Builder and provide your feedback about it so it can get better. I hope you enjoy it!

Posted by Banshee
Comments (3)