Newbie needs some answers please

[Reggie Mental]

Newbie here, but been playing IL2:1946 for over a year now and still love it.

Favourite aircraft are I16 Typ24 for manouverability and clear vision, being an open cockpit, Me262 (all marques) for speed and firepower, although it does suck as a jabo (What was Adolf thinking?) He162C, because its so simple, versatile and effective and similarly the Do335 V13, whether shredding bombers or ground attack, it's awesome.

Anyway, why am I posting?

I don't think I'm getting the best out of my PC setup. I'm running a 6GB, i7 processor machine that is pretty much top notch currently, although my gfx card is the upper end of mid range (ATi Radeon 5570 1024mb) I don't think the gfx card is holding me back though. My monitor is 1920x1080 16:9 HD I'm still running V4.07m as shipped on CD-ROM.

So here is a number of questions.

1. Whilst IL2 is a few years old now, what is the maximum res I can get? Currently the best seems to 1280x960x32, DirectX, Stencil Buffering on. Will a new(er) patch allow me to tweak it any higher and make full use of my monitors highest res?

2.Where can I download the patches?

3. How do I install the patches?

4. Do I have to install them in order, ie; 4.08 then .09, .10 etc?

5. Will the splash screen on launch update, and show what version I'm running?

6. My mission editor does not work. I've looked at the tutorials on other sites and followed them carefully but it seems that certain fields and options are simply missing, so I can't progress. Will update the version with patches cure this?

RSVP

Reggie