Multi-Install Question

[Ghostrider]

Just looking for some thoughts on how people manage their multiple installs. So far, I have just kept 4 completely seperate and independent ones. I have divided them into early and late war (basically up to Guadalcanal and after Guadalcanal) USN and USAAF. I'm all PTO.

I have used Martin Wright's ACMan and ShipMan to stay within the plane and ship limits, and use desktop shortcuts for each install and it's associated mission builder. I've backed up entire installations onto DVDs.

Recently, I have been using Morton's CFS 2 Utility - I like the fact that it manages your theaters/installs and also sets up your quick combat file. You can substitute any given plane or ship for another in missions.

I'm intereted in hearing other's thoughts on what's the best way to handle their mulitple installs. What would I gain or lose from consolidating into one install? I'd lose the ability to have UIRES screens specific to each install , but I'm not too worried about that. Would just use a nice mix. I also like having somewhat of a "security blanket" of multiple installs - screw up something in your effects folder, for example, and just grab a "good" effects folder from another install and overwrite it. Maybe one "backup" install would accomlish this. The downside of this is it takes four installations of everything I like that's common to all installs. Obviously, Morton's utility makes a lot more sense from a HD space standpoint.

Anyway, I'm just interested in hearing how folks are handling this. I know there are a lot of differrent ways of doing it, and maybe we can all get some ideas from each other. Thoughts, anyone?

[kelticheart]

Hi Ghostrider,

I use Jean "Bomber" Cornichon's Easy Multi-install method.

It can be downloaded in the "CFS2-Other" section at Simviation.

Basically, it's a single CFS2 install, with all legacy folders multiplied by the number of theaters one wants to set up, with different names than the stock ones and a series of batch files than just go about and rename each and every folder when switching theatres.

\ AIRCRAFT
\ CAMPAIGNS
\ GSL
\ MISSIONS
\ OBJECTS_DP
\ PILOTLOG
\ QC
\ SCENEDB\WORLD\SCENERY
\ SCENEDB\WORLD\TEXTURE
\ SCENEDB\INF\SCENERY
\ SCENEDB\INF\TEXTURE
\ SHIPS

are renamed each time, including all necessary files like airbases.dat, scenery.cfg, CFS2.cfg, country.cfg, description.dat.

In the four years I have been using it, I was able to separate neatly the Western emisphere theaters from the Pacific, including land textures, stock and addon scenery objects, plus 100 aircrafts dedicated to each theatre.

It means ignoring the installed planes limit, because each time I can choose 100 ETO, or Med/North Africa, or Eastern Front, or Pacific or Korean War models. More than enough to run varied theatre environment.

Everytime I switch theatre my batches delete also all filelist.dat files, allowing a fresh rewrite and correct install.

I keep all of my addon sceneries in an external folder and call them as needed through a path command in the scenery.cfg.

I highly reccomend this simple, yet brilliant method.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[Ghostrider]

That's great, Kelticheart - see, I didn't even know about JB's technique! I will look into that as well - now what do you do for mission builder? Does ignoring the limit eliminate the use of MB?

Thanks for the input, and I'm glad you were not affected by the earthquake!

[Jean Bomber]

Hi ,
The multi install that Kelti use seems more develloped that the multi install 1.01 I've made ,mine is more basic but stay available for (only) six theatres .Anyway the 1.01 was called like that cause I've had in project to do a 1.2 with 10 or 12 ETO but today A new version 1.x could be possible with 12 ,or more... ,with the new options listed by kelti as

\ AIRCRAFT
\ CAMPAIGNS
\ GSL not in 1.01
\ MISSIONS
\ OBJECTS_DP not in 1.01
\ PILOTLOG
\ QC
\ SCENEDB\WORLD\SCENERY not in 1.01
\ SCENEDB\WORLD\TEXTURE
\ SCENEDB\INF\SCENERY not in 1.01
\ SCENEDB\INF\TEXTURE not in 1.01
\ SHIPS not in 1.01
\ UIRES

and some other news options like

airbases.dat
scenery.cfg not in 1.01
CFS2.cfg not in 1.01
country.cfg
description.dat. not in 1.01

Kelti ,are you ok to make a new 1.2 upgraded set of the multi install ? with these new options that in this time the use was not so evident as the GSL and about a specific scenery.cfg that could allow to use for the same area in different time and airbase period version and allegiance .
about the MB that was principly the use of it to do missions on other ETO with the planes for, that motive to do a multi install ,the MB works with the ETO you choose before launch cfs2,the space gain in the HD was also the goal ,in this time if I remember my HD capacity was around 40 Go and the multi install was a way to minimize the expansion of the cfs2 game and addons folders.Today with some 160, 200 or 500 Go HD capacity this aspect seems not so important but that multi install was a way too to organize the game and allow to install some addons one time for all the six ETO .
Ghost don't be afraid about the read me I've tested a trial version of Reverso pro to make it ....the translate results was sometimes weird
if you find any issues with it we could help you ;)

JP

[Ghostrider]

Merci beaucoup. mon ami!

[kelticheart]

...Kelti ,are you ok to make a new 1.2 upgraded set of the multi install ?....JP

Of course, my friend! :wavey:

If you want, I can e-mail out to you a copy of all of my batch files, which show clearly what they move, where and why.

My e-mail address is:

kelticheart@libero.it

I can also explain why I further developed the batches, I am an old DOS lover, according to my scenery needs and the hope of having CFS2 running more efficiently by not loading in RAM unnecessary elements, for example, of the Pacific war while I am flying in ETO.

I must give Bearcat241 the credit of having indicated me the correct path I thereafter walked during these years. When I downloaded MultiInstall v.1.01, I truly knew very little about how the simulator engine works. BC's patient and precise guidance helped me greatly to comprehend the bigger picture and eventually led to any succesfull further development of the original idea I did.

One thing must be said, without a basic knowledge about how CFS2 files and folders interact, installing and making MultiInstall work correctly represents a rather steep learning curve. Of course, a good computer ops knowledge is necessary as well, not meaning one needs to be a systems analyst to make it work. Nevertheless, understanding what batch files are and how they work, means a computer knowledge at least slightly above average. A friend of mine, who has been working with computers for ten years now, but he's not interested in OS knowledge, finally gave up in trying to install all the addons I was passing on to him and ended up taking CFS2 off of his HDD. His loss.....

This is not meant to discourage anybody, rather it aims to spur people in learning more in depth this wonderful CFS2. The dividends paid in the end, in terms of playability and pure satisfaction, are indeed handsome.

I never had the opportunity of thanking you for this absolutely brilliant solution of many CFS2 shortcomings, being the first one the ridicolous 100 planes limit per \AIRCRAFTS folder.

It was unthinkable for me having PTO and ETO aircrafts sharing the same folder. Apart from the historical absurdity, 100 aircrafts is simply a too small limit to represent satisfactory WWII theatres with all the plane models involved on each front. On the other hand, with 100 theatre-dedicated planes one can have quite a variety in the same theatre. Your arrangement resolved all of that.

Not speaking of all the improvements that came along in the last few years, like Psullykeys' different textures for stock ground objects, divided by theatre. This was one of the main reasons which prompted me to develop further your original concept, along with dedicated GSL files, containing only the ground objects necessary for each theatre.

Thank you again, because you opened up a whole world of CFS2 potentials for me and, I am sure, many others with your idea!


:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:




....I will look into that as well - now what do you do for mission builder? Does ignoring the limit eliminate the use of MB?

Thanks for the input, and I'm glad you were not affected by the earthquake!

You're welcome GR, and thanks for your concerns!

You do not eliminate MB at all. By having a dedicated QC folder and file, containing a quick combat file with ONLY the aircrafts involved in any given theatre, MB works perfectly and I can assure you MB could care less if the stock PTO planes are there or not.

As long as the models listed in the QC file are present in the \AIRCRAFT folder and their folder names are exactly the same, MB works flawlessly.

The only MB quirk that can't be eliminated happens when you open it and, even if your CFS2 is positioned in any theatre but the Pacific, MB places you always in the same spot: in the Solomons over Guadalcanal.

It's just a reminder of what CFS2 was born for and it only forces you to waste a few extra seconds selecting a different Operation area. Once you are positioned where you want, you can create/edit anything you like in that area.

The same goes for ships and/or vehicles, object_dp's (which I divided in ETO and PTO taking care of CFS2 1800 dp object limit - who needs Japanese 800kg armour piercing bombs in Russia? -), stock sceneries and runways, unnecessary if you are flying in Europe or North Africa/Med fronts.

BTW.: What I like most with this arrangement is that, when I do Free Flight sight-seeing or plane testing, I only see in FF airport selection list the runways for that specific area. No ETO runways when I am in the PTO and viceversa.




Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[Rami]

There is an alternative method in addition to that. I have seven separate copies of CFS2 on my hard drive. To minimize space, I have utilized many of Jaxon's techniques for file sharing.

I have a centralized system for aircraft and ship models, scenery layers, and sounds, that way I don't have to have four separate versions of Sander's scenery for each of my Europe-based installs, nor four separate soundpacks for my P-40c Tomahawk. I can also run seven installs on one install of Rhumbaflappy's new mesh and watermasks.

Each of my installs is theatre-specific, and the aircraft and scenery are tailored accordingly. The advantage I've found is that I can use Ajax's overhaul UIRES interface (and a couple of others) to give each CFS2 install a unique look.

Here's an aircraft model entry:
normal=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\CFS2 Models\Curtiss P-40c Tomahawk\p40c_hawk

A sound entry:
alias=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\CFS2 Engines\Single\Allison V-1710-33

A ship entry:
normal=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\CFS2 Models\SHA_MERCHANT\sha_merchant
crash=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\CFS2 Models\SHA_MERCHANT\sha_merchant

And a scenery.cfg entry:

[Area.013]
Title=DEM mesh LOD 8
Local=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\CFS2 Scenery\Scenedb\DEM mesh LOD 8
Active=TRUE
Layer=13
Required=TRUE
Remote=

[kelticheart]

Yes, Rami.

With Easy Multi-Install all you have to do is multiply your \UIRES folder as many times as your theatres and drop in each one Ajax's splendid theatre interfaces.

Mine looks like this:



\UIRES (being this the current active theatre, let's say PTO)
\UIRES_ETO_WEST_early
\UIRES_ETO_WEST_late
\UIRES_AfricaMed
\UIRES_ETO_EAST
\UIRES_Italy
\UIRES_KOW

Each time, it looks like a brand new WWII simulator that is being fired up!

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[Ghostrider]

Wow - as usual, you guys exceed all hopes and expectations when a question is asked - some great techniques there, and I will look forward to exploring them! As I have gotten the four installs I use tweaeked just how I want them - still a work in progress - I can't help but think there must be much more efficient ways of organizing files which are common to all, and those which are theater-specific.

Thanks again for the input, and I'll follow up with more questions as I go - :wavey: I hope a lot of others can benefit from this discussion as well.

[egypt23spitfire]

.........I too am a avid user of JB;s excellent proggie, and run 12 installs

.........a new version taking into consideration the above ideas will be well received by me as i never really got the scenery drop down box working right(my dumb)
.

.........:ernae:just luuuuv this little dat sys:ernae: