Recomendation prior to beta
 

I would recommend that everyone uninstall the game and empty all cache and other applicable folders so there is no garbage left over causing problems that people have experienced in the past.

make the beta a clean install as to get the most relevant and clean data to provide sound feedback to the dev's

S!

Sounds like a good call, will probably do this when the real patch is out and leave the thing downloading overnight!

It's supposed to do this for us these days.

actually how do I reinstall the game? I downloaded it via Steam but I have no idea how to uninstall the game and reinstall it again, assuming that i dont have to buy it again to download it...;)

If i remember correctly you have to right click on the game name and select remove local something

and where would this be?? In steam? My own account?

yep

I would also recomend people don't get thier hopes too high!

They made alot of changes! Thus there are alot of chances for new bugs to sneak in! Lets just hope the fixxed more than the broke! ;)

Do not forget to defrag game files after installation and patching.

What about the controls setup? Should one take precaution to save these first, even if I do not uninstall the sim? I am fairly new to this sim and have spent many hours setting them up and creating a joystick file for my Cougar for it.

it's always worth saving the configs if youve spent time carfully setting them up anyway

Just throw out your old machine, burn your clothes, sell your home, change your name and move out of the country so that the old version of the game doesn't find you

I'll wait till its really out and then see.

lol

Something else to remember, for those that are planning to back up their files, is to backup your missions/mission objects and skins folders incase there's an "overwrite".

Save your controls as a seperate file regardless, I occasionally get a ctd that causes the entire sim to reset as if it is a clean install.

10-4 - so I gather all I need to do is click on save as in the control menu in the sim, name it with a unique file name, and all will be well? Doing this saves everything within the controller menu, ie key mappings, axis assignments?
Thanks,

+1 :-p

:)

silly boy....its in your mind...its always been there ...you cant hide from it!:shock::twisted:

Better yet, wait for the official release version, let Steam update your install and not have to mess with all this geekage.

Yeah that is what I am thinking, especially being as how I have not had it that long and have only actually flown it for a couple of hours now.
In my case, this might be the smartest way for me to go.

you forgot take a dump or two....

EL you do remember we have had problems in the past with a patch/Beta because of the Cache folder...all i am suggesting is that everyone start with a clean slate to give a more accurate assessment of the patch.

hahah

You people with the uninstall whole game and reinstall with this mythilogical reason that it will be more cleaner is quite funny. There is no point in doing this. mind as well believe in magic.

all you have to do is delete your cache folder.. and not waste your time and hard drives time uninstalling and reinstalling the game and patches for no reason at all.

This is not 'geekage' methods this is just pure clueless mentality

Clueless?

In the old IL2, you would sometimes lose settings or files, and for a mission builder, or skin lover/downloader, an ouce of prevention CAN, and has saved a ton of time.
Perhaps you don't have as much to lose incase of "an accident". The warning intends no foul, so why treat it like one? (don't answer that). We've "been there and done that", and I'll admit that towards the end, the patches for IL2:46 didn't overwrite anything and all was good.. but it's just a friendly warning, that's all.

No need for all that voodoo. Clear your cahce, back-up the personal files (controls and stuf like that) and enjoy the beta. :)

Yep, i for myself will just dl the patch (IF), empty cache and start playing... :grin:

Horrido, Allons!

As mentioned above the new patch should do this, but right before installing a CloD patch you can clean your cache: 'C:\Users\<USER NAME>\Documents\1C SoftClub\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\cache\' by deleting everything in that folder (it will all be rebuilt when you run the game next).

You should probably back up your .ini files in 'C:\Users\<USER NAME>\Documents\1C SoftClub\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\' before you run the beta installer.

This game installs everything important in (one of) two directories so there is not really any advantage to uninstalling/reinstalling over using steam to verify the game files (I don't think this game relies too much on registry entries).

STEAM STUFF

Verify integrity of game cache

1. Load Steam
2. From the Library section, right-click on the game and select Properties from the menu.
3. Select the Local files tab and click the Verify integrity of game cache... button.
4. Steam will verify the game's files - this process may take several minutes.
5. Once the process is completed, the Check Window will automatically exit.

Defragmenting Game Cache Files

Game Cache File (GCF) fragmentation may result in increased load times and sound skipping or stuttering - to ensure your Game Cache Files (GCF's) are stored contiguously, please observe the following process:

1. From the Library, right-click on the game you would like to defragment and select Properties
2. In the Properties window select the Local Files tab
3. Click the Defragment cache files button
4. Once the defragmentation process has completed, you will be presented with a report detailing the extent of fragmentation

Happy Beta Testing!

Quite so, yes. Don't forget to get rid of the old Mrs also, it's essential for a clean install.

Addy,

i like your humour!:-P

Humor?...yes of course! I was only joking. *cough! cough!*

you should format C:\ before installing the patch !

Agree, reinstall is not absolutely necessary.

I will
1) rename the Documents\1C Softclub folder (to have a backup)
2) check files integrity to rebuild missing/broken files
3) defrag using a 3rd party utility like Gamebooster (always finds defragged files for me even after Steam defrag)
4) install patch
5) defrag again.
6) copy controls settings file from backed up 1C folder to the new one

This is uninstall business sounds funny.
It reminds me of this guy who was telling me how he runs the DotNet installer a couple times a week to "clear CODs graphics". Swore by it....

I told him he was probably wasting his time... it would have taken me too long to explain exactly how pointless and irrelevant it really was.

I'm planning a sacrificing a live chicken before I install the patch myself... I couldn't get anything larger on two weeks notice.

My life, IL2 community making life hard for itself again, the only thing that you need to do is clear the shaders and cache:

1. Install Beta Patch

2. C:\Users\username\Documents\1C SoftClub\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\cache - Then delete all the loose files, leaving the shaders folder

3. Then go into the shaders folder and delete the contents leaving an empty folder


This ensures the game will repopulate with the new shaders and cache.

Simple.

lol! That's priceless! geeezus some people. Also, your chicken sacrifice is useless, I've tried all the different barn yard animals and came to the conclusion that you have to sacrifice 3 1/2 cows every second week, but only during the summer months. Rest of the year a monthly sacrifice of sheep will do, only sheep though and every third full moon.

P.S The game still stutters over big cities though.

Shouldn't be a problem since a lot of people probably uninstalled this months ago...lol! :)

I concur and the reason is quite simple.

The next patch is beta, which means that it doesn't get installed automatically through Steam, but manually by the user.

If you uninstall and reinstall through Steam, you'll have exactly the same version, same files, etc that you had before uninstalling. Steam installs the latest release version, not betas, so uninstalling/reinstalling will just spend an hour or two of your time for no change in the game's files at all.

In both cases, you would have to manually extract the beta patch on top of the exact same files, which are the files included in the last release version.

The only difference between uninstalling or not, is that a "fresh" install will be "blank", meaning that

1. the configuration files (control settings, graphics options, etc) will be back to default settings after reinstalling and
   
2. any custom missions and skins will have vanished

In other words, simply moving your config files and extra missions/skins outside their folders (or just renaming them), followed by telling Steam to verify integrity of the game files, will yield the exact same files without having to waste time uninstalling, downloading and reinstalling the entire software.

Plus, like always, clear your cache folder before launching the sim with the beta patch for the first time, to force the game to rebuild its shader cache.

BD is your game set-up like everyone else's? are you running any mods? have u in the past? has everyone tweaked and tuned there game the exact same way you have? People have been dicking around with this game for a year changing this tweaking that trying MODS ..etc It would be really helpful to the devs if we all worked from a vanilla aspect of a fresh install with default settings to give a healthy cross section across varies quality rigs.

I mean what's a couples of hours to reinstall when we have been waiting for a year anyways...:)

p.s sorry i forgot to mention saving your skins/missions and joystick config files in the original post...its just second nature to me :)

So you are saying you can drop the beta patch in from out of the box COD ? or do we need to patch to the last up date?

if you have a box version than steam would update to the latest version then you would apply the BETA patch.

Also please take a minute to register at IL-2 bugtracker to be prepared to report bugs and vote for them after the patch is out. Luthier visited the bugtracker just yesterday. Hopefully we can get some hotfixes if needed in case many people vote for them.

http://www.il2bugtracker.com/project...ues?query_id=1

Called it! ;)