IL-2 Campaign Installer v1.0

[TheEnlightenedFlorist]

Update: IL-2 Campaign Installer is now IL-2 Campaign Tool. Functionality has been added.

IL-2 Campaign installer is a piece of software that will install campaigns for you.

To install a campaign, first download and extract it to your hard drive. Open IL-2 Campaign Installer and select the directory containing the campaign by clicking on "Campaign". Next, tell the program where your Steam directory is by clicking on "Steam". Select the root Steam directory. Finally, click install and hope for the best.

Doing a "file integrity check" in Steam will make any installed campaigns disappear from the list. Use the backup function to bring them back. The program makes a backup every time a campaign is installed or uninstalled, or if you hit the button. Progress should be saved. ;)

Campaign builders: The installer assumes your "poster" image is named Poster.bmp and campaigns have been made correctly.

I haven't seen many campaigns floating around (and none in English). Hopefully this encourages more people to make campaigns. Please let me know if you find any bugs and if there are any features you would like to see (besides an uninstaller :grin:).

Update: An uninstaller has been added. I cannot guarantee correct uninstallation of campaigns not installed by this program. Added a function to backup and restore the campaigns.ini file. Also, renamed program to work around Microsoft's BS.

Update v1.1: The program will now attempt to find the Steam path on it's own. It may or may not work on XP (or even other Windows 7 installs), however, you can still manually select the path.

Airwarfare Link (http://airwarfare.com/sow/index.php?option=com_jdownloads&Itemid=53&task=view.download&catid=16&cid=109)

[Gamekeeper]

Brilliant little tool, as Steam will wipe any installed campaigns when checking integrity of files a back up utility would be a good additional feature or even separate utility.

To help campaign builders out there can you tell us what files need to be in place for campaigns to install and work correctly?

[TheEnlightenedFlorist]

To help campaign builders out there can you tell us what files need to be in place for campaigns to install and work correctly?

I don't make 'em, I just install 'em. ;)

Look here. (http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/showthread.php%3Ft%3D68769&usg=ALkJrhhT6eBqK5F3LcJ4iXgaf5gW-Mp-7Q) Starting at #4.

It seems you need to create a file named Campaign.ini and put the order of the missions in it. Then you need to create a base mission called "Campaign" and make a briefing in a certain way. Also, a picture can be used for the Campaign menu.

I've attached the campaign I used while testing. Hopefully, along with the post I linked to, it will make things clearer.

Steam will wipe any installed campaigns when checking integrity of files a back up utility would be a good additional feature or even separate utility.

If I remember correctly, Steam only overwrites the campaigns.ini file. The actual campaign data remains. What we really need is a second campaigns.ini file in addition to the original. That way campaigns can be easily added, but there is no risk of accidentally deleting the original campaigns and if it does happen, they can be restored using Steam.

[von Pilsner]

Great idea, hopefully soon there will be lots of (English language) campaigns to use it with. ;)

Thanks for putting this together.

[TheEnlightenedFlorist]

Updated: An uninstaller has been added. I cannot guarantee correct uninstallation of campaigns not installed by this program. Added a function to backup and restore the campaigns.ini file. Also, renamed program to work around Microsoft's BS.

As Airwarfare is currently down, I will update that link later.

[Gamekeeper]

We're back up now, our hosts had a power outage

[Ataros]

After the recent patch there is no need to edit campaign xml manually.
http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=68629&p=1646257&viewfull=1#post1646257

Here is an example of how to make your campaign:
TstCampaign.rar http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=136504&d=1309250431

put everything in the root of the game >> AddIns. Respectively, add tst.campaign.xml item containing menu path and the path to the campaign handler, which is to be located in 'parts' directory (the game scans all the xml in folder AddIns). In your mission folder will actually be the campaign files. In parts \ tst \ src \ Campaign - sources, TstMission.cs - base class for the mission, TstCampaign.cs - campaign handler. When working in the campaign "My Documents \ folder games \ mission" will create a folder "tst" in which ini file with campaign progress is located, and of all that is needed for the progress and statistics can be written there. Thus no need to change any source configs for your campaigns, Steam updates will not overwrite anything, and installers do not have to split hairs overwriting stuff.

[TheEnlightenedFlorist]

After the recent patch there is no need to edit campaign xml manually.
http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=68629&p=1646257&viewfull=1#post1646257

I wonder if there's a world record for least amount of time a piece of software was relevant. :lol:

[dflion]

After the recent patch there is no need to edit campaign xml manually.
http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=68629&p=1646257&viewfull=1#post1646257

Thanks 'Ataros' for this post and thanks 'TheEnlightenedFlorist' for all your efforts to get the campaigns working.

I have just been looking at the three Russian BOB campaigns in detail and they have done an excellent job. I am now busy converting my 'single mission' campaigns (Spitfire Dawn and JG26) to proper campaigns.

One thing I did notice, is that for some reason, when you finish a mission in the campaign, then come out of the simulator, when I came back to carry on with the next campaign mission, I had to start from scratch again, in two cases. At other times it went onto the next campaign mission ok.

Have you any thoughts about what is happening here?

DFLion

[dflion]

After the recent patch there is no need to edit campaign xml manually.
http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=68629&p=1646257&viewfull=1#post1646257

Do you have to manually create a .cs file, or if all the .msn file are put into a file structure within COD, does this action automatically create the campaign's .cs files?

I am not a 'programmer' but willing to learn. I know the .cs files activate the campaign mission's actions, triggers etc. Can you just put a 'copied' basic .cs file into the game structure to get the campaign activated. When I learn the programming language, I will alter them later?

DFLion

[Ataros]

Sorry, I do not know anything about campaigns as never flown nor created any yet. I just translated a post from a developer.

.cs files are usually related to missions I think. At lease to make a script working in online mission it has to have the same name as mission file.

In the campaign Spitfires over Dunkirk you can see the same, each mission has a .cs file with the same name. And yes, these .cs files are created manually in C# Visual Studio for instance. Check out the (1) link in my sig.

[TheEnlightenedFlorist]

Do you have to manually create a .cs file, or if all the .msn file are put into a file structure within COD, does this action automatically create the campaign's .cs files?

I am not a 'programmer' but willing to learn. I know the .cs files activate the campaign mission's actions, triggers etc. Can you just put a 'copied' basic .cs file into the game structure to get the campaign activated. When I learn the programming language, I will alter them later?

DFLion

For the most part, you can just recompile naryv's example. You just have to edit a few path variables depending on where your campaign will be stored and change some names. Naryv says he will create a generic .dll that will make it easier to make a campaign. However, it will take away a lot of the customization possibilities and you will still probably want to write scripts for your missions. If you don't know Java or C#, I suggest waiting for that.... And learning C# in the meantime. :)

[dflion]

For the most part, you can just recompile naryv's example. You just have to edit a few path variables depending on where your campaign will be stored and change some names. Naryv says he will create a generic .dll that will make it easier to make a campaign. However, it will take away a lot of the customization possibilities and you will still probably want to write scripts for your missions. If you don't know Java or C#, I suggest waiting for that.... And learning C# in the meantime. :)

Thanks, for this information 'TheEnlightenedFlorist'. My eldest son is a computer programmer and he is going to help me, when he has time. I have done some previous work with C# but need a refresher, I have just downloaded it from Microsoft.

DFLion

[jamesdietz]

I don't know how it works or why we need it ...but it does! Many thanks!!!