http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/ ... 5341082135
and saw this
RXman on Ubi Forum wrote: Posted Wed February 07 2007 06:38 Hide Post
Well lets see if I can explain what I mean. You probably know all of this but bare with me, please.
Considering ver 4.04 thru 4.08 and the switcher concept.
BTW I want to thank you for encourageing me to look into this, your first 071 switch patch lit my old smoldering programming fire. (not since the Amiga have I been inspired such!). And the French switcher guys who had the original idea.
Anyway, a switcher program must activate (move into game folder) any important files (.dll .exe .SFS -so far) that were CHANGED with it's version or any later version.
Every patch installs some files that are not changed and are accessed only with it's version and/or later versions, determined by the "files.SFS" file and these do not have to be acconted for. So lets see what needs to be changed.
0: Every version changes the "files.SFS" file so each switch must copy it's own to the game folder.
1: Starting point version 4.04. Looking forward we see that the "il-2FB.exe" and the 4 main ".dll" files will be changed, I also noticed the French guys included the [colot=yellow]rts.dll file [color] (*1) just in case, so we'll make them available.
2: V 4.05 Pe-2 changed the .exe so we must put the new one here, or as the French did, just put the old one instead. It also added the fb_3do15.SFS file but that's fixed so no need to account for it.
3: V 4.07 Here is where the action is. Those 4 .dll files and the il2FB.exe are changed. So we need the new .dlls and the .exe (*2)
4: V 4.071 beta, here is added the new fb_3do18.SFS and fb_3do18p.SFS, these were installed with the patch and normally wouldn't be changed, but this is a beta and the first one is changed. So we must make it available, temporarily anyway.
5: V 4.08 this changes that fb_3do18.SFS from the 071 patch so we need it as long as we want to use 071 sometimes. Everything else in this patch is extras and don't count.
So to have every version available (404 405 407 4071 408) from any other version the switchers need there own versions of these files in their folder.
404 - files.SFS, 4 base .dlls, il2FB.exe, rts.dll
405 - files.SFS, and run 404 for the rest
407 - files.SFS, 4 new .dlls, il2FB.exe
4071-files.SFS, fb_3do18.SFS, and run 407 for the rest
408 - files.SFS, fb_3do18.SFS, and run 407 for the rest
PS: If 4071 is not wanted later you could eliminate it and the fb_3do18.SFS from 408, just be sure your game is at the 408 state so you don't lose the correct version of the file. (*3)
BTW I also came across a problem in my case. I have the game on a WinXP machine but do most everything else on an oldder Win98SE machine. When I brought the uncompressed switcher over to the W98 machine and worked on them a little some dos file naming problems creeped in. Esp due to the spaces in the "IL-2 Sturmovik 1946" folder name. This can be avoided by using "" where necessary (inside the .bat files) and avoiding spaces when possible.
Does this make sense ?
This message has been edited. Last edited by: RxMan, Thu February 08 2007
- *notes
(*1) rts.dll is the "no CD version"
(*2) .exe needs to be replaced with "no DVD" version if thats what you're using.
(*3) this means from the Il2_ver08m Switcher folder Not from main folder
I can't see any need for continued use of the switcher apart from any participation in Joint Ops, or maybe online with newcomers that dont have the latest version.
(whatever happened to Airhawk and that Altar Boy chappie?
)
I'm surrounded by grumpy old men!
