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I found out what was going wrong with the smoke, and it was something that made me wonder how the renderer ever worked.  I had bypassed some code in the rendering system that set some important control flags based on the Z-buffer state, so rendering ended up in a messed-up state.

They might be getting sorted behind other things, but I'll take a look.

This build turned out pretty sketchy, so I'll try to get it straightened out by tonight.

What should I look for here?

For that particular change, just make sure the earthquake effect (last American mission), explosion shake, and seismic wave (Thumper shot) feel right.  The big thing is that their strength should no longer depend on frame rate.

[Update:]

Update: I fixed the disappearing smoke and Z-buffer problems (I think) and replaced the original build since it's still December 13th here.  

New build:
Battlezone D3D9 Executable

For those who want to help track down crashes with Visual C++ 2008 Express:
Battlezone D3D9 Program Database (unpack to the same place as the executable)

Anet libraries (submitted by Dx)
Compatible (works with normal BZ executable)
Compiled with VC++ 2008 (includes new winets2.dll)

Changes:

• Increased maximum number of smoke sources to 256 (submitted by Dx)
• Fix for getting 5 pilots when one jumps out out of Barracks (submitted by Dx)
• Send out player pings (submitted by Dx)
• Fix buffer overflow when joining a game (submitted by Dx)
• Automatic configuration of Z buffer setting (off for software, on for hardware)
• Switched all "shake" effects to Perlin noise and ensured "round down" float-to-integer conversion
• Fixed occasional floating-point invalid operation in the clipper when submitting a zero-vertex polygon (probably harmless, but still...)
• Linked with latest Anet headers and libraries (submitted by Dx)
• Fixed uninitialized member variables in Weapon, which could crash AI
• Possible fix for visual glitches in the shell
• Prevent camera view change after player dies (untested)

Usual reminders:
1. This build requires the Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redstributable Package
2. If using a retail install, rename the "splash" folder to "splash_" to disable Windows 7's compatibility layer
3. If running on Windows Vista or 7, make the install folder writable
4. If having trouble, try the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer

It was an easy fix, but a dumb mistake on my part (in 1997, mind you) in a core system that could have produced all kinds of problems.  Fortunately, the window of opportunity for it to cause trouble was extremely narrow. 

Setting the matrix in the Weapon's constructor function was the solution.

I loaded that save game and immediately got an invalid floating-point operation in Vector_Rotate().  One of the AI vehicles ("svlt1328_wingman") has a bad target direction vector since one of its weapons (an instance of "gtaggun") hasn't initialized its hardpoint world matrix yet.  AbleToHit() just ends up using whatever trash happens to be in memory.

That is a very serious flaw in the Weapon class, and I'm surprised that this kind of thing didn't come up more often.

Ah.  If you have the .pdb file in the same directory as the executable, you should be able to tell the debugger to load symbols using the Modules tab on the bottom left.  Just right-click on bzone.exe in the list and it should give you the option.

While the BZ1 version of the Pop Gun fires a rocket and the BZ2 version fires what looks like a Flash Cannon bolt, a "realistic" implementation of the weapon would most likely use an Explosively Formed Penetrator.  There's an interesting quote from a Washington Post article in the middle:

An EFP eight inches in diameter threw a seven-pound copper slug at Mach 6, or 2,000 meters per second. (A .50-caliber bullet, among the most devastating projectiles on the battlefield, weighs less than two ounces and has a muzzle velocity of 900 meters per second.).[/url]

BZ definitely needs a better logging and reporting system...

Anyway, I'll give the save file a run here to see what happens.

That's in GetTilePtr(), indicating that something is looking up a terrain tile far outside the mapped area.  Do you have a call stack?

I can try loading your save file if you put it somewhere I can get it.

Projectiles in BZ and (to a lesser degree BZ2) have relatively low velocities compared to their Earth-based counterparts (150m/s for the AT-Stabber versus ~1000m/s for the M1A1 main gun), so the Grizzly's cannon may work more like a recoilless rifle or automatic grenade launcher firing high explosive anti-tank rounds instead of kinetic energy penetrators.  Its projectile is even called "rocket", which would make a lot of sense given the relatively small size, light weight, and hover suspension of most BZ vehicles.

The M1A1 has an overwhelming range advantage, with its 120mm smoothbore cannon capable of single-shot tank kills at 2500 meters (>1.5 miles).  The AT-Stabber only goes out to 150 meters, and requires numerous hits to kill just about anything.  The Grizzly is, however, much faster and more agile. 

I'm much more familiar with the BZ2 editor since I wrote that one.   

Wow i learned something new in bz after only 12 years.

I worked on the game and I didn't know that.   

(In my defense, I never used the BZ1 editors.)

As super-awesome as high-res models would be, they'd make the rest of the game look crappy by comparison.