V.14762 BETA Download Links

[justme262]

They enabled the lighting reflections and the planes are shiny! Very nice
I would like a change log with the official patch please.

AI still doing impossibly fast aileron rolls in high speed dives...

[TUSA/TX-Gunslinger]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

Just had a very small test and will keep flying during the night to see if there's any gameplay-issue improvements (Ju88 gyrocompass, bomb release joystick buttons working from bombardier's seat, etc).

I got my first launcher.exe crash today but i fixed it simply by restarting the sim, it plays the same as before (smooth on mostly medium settings on my 2 year old PC:i7 920, Ati 4890 1GB and 3GB of RAM, win7 64 bit) and everything looks good in regards to FPS, i even bumped one of my low settings to medium.



I also had to get the new .ini files (i didn't do it in the previous patch) that do away with a lot of redundant fields. I prefer to get everything in a working order first so i can actually test stuff, instead of having preventable errors give me "false alarms". There is by now a standard routine i do and every patch has been an improvement for me.

First, how to get the new .ini files (the configuration files). If you have only recently downloaded your copy from Steam you probably don't need to do this, i had mine installed early though so i had to change them:

1) Launch the sim, go to controls and select "save as", then tell it to save an .ini file somewhere you can easily find it. I had actually done this a long time ago, saving a "mycontrols.ini" file in my documents folder.

2) Go to documents\1c softclub folder and move the files conf.ini, confs.ini, confuser.ini to a backup folder.

3) Do the same for the files of the same name in steam\steamapps\common\IL-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover, moving them to their own backup folder.

4) Run the steam file verification tool . This will spot you are missing the .ini files (since you moved them to another location) and download the new ones. I have opened and compared the old and new files and their structure is different, so i can confirm this will give you the new files without having to mess with steam cloud settings, just keep the cloud thing off altogether.

5) Probably all your settings have now been reset. Go to controls and load the .ini file containing your previously saved control bindings, then click on the apply button. In my case it happened to keep them stored anyway. My realism settings and graphics options had also been reset so i had to reselect them and i think my transparent on-screen windows also changed so i'll have to customize them again. All in all it's less than 5 minutes of work for a cleaner, leaner config file structure so it's worth it.

I don't know if all this affects single-player career progress but i think it doesn't: i accidentally skipped a mission once and i manually edited another file to revert back to the previous "step" in the campaign but it was a completely different file, so i don't think campaign progress has been affected.

6) EXIT THE SIM. This is probably why i got a launcher crash the first time around (i had just applied the beta patch too, further complicating things) i didn't exit after changing graphics options and tried to fly a mission right away. Next time i just changed settings, restarted the sim and all was fine. It's generally a good habit to restart the sim when changing graphics options.


To get the beta patch up and running:

1) Assuming you have up to date .ini files keep reading, otherwise follow the above routine first.

2) Even if you have current .ini files, make sure you are as close to a stock installation as possible. I run with no mods (i am waiting for the SDK first) so it's relatively easy. I just backup anything i might want to keep or fear i might lose (mainly my controls settings), then run the Steam file verification tool.

3) Extract the beta patch file into the main game folder (steam\steamapps\common\IL-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover) and let it over-write anything it asks you to.

4) Go to documents\1c softclub\cache, select everything under that folder and delete it. This forces the sim to rebuild the shader cache and will prevent problems with graphic glitches and/or FPS that may be caused by running a newer version with cached shaders of a previous version.

Please do this before claiming visual bugs, reduced performance, etc, as it helps A LOT: i've never had degraded performance ever, every new patch is smoother than the last and i'm running a two year old PC.

This cache clean-up happens automatically when you install a live, official patch from Steam but i'm not sure if it happens with beta patches, so i do it manually just to be sure.

5) Start flying


When the patch goes live on Steam:
1) Either revert to the previous version by using the file verification tool, or just patch on top of the beta one.

2) Clear your cache

3) Go flying


I hope it helps some of the people having problems, it's been immensely helpful for me so i thought i'd pass it on.

Important Edit: Whatever you can test OFFLINE, do so. It's perfectly possible to join a server running a previous version when you are running a newer version beta patch and this will give you all sorts of glitches. You might be able to join but that doesn't mean the two versions are always compatible with each other. Luthier himself said so in one of the previous updates. So, test the aircraft behavior offline and when you go online to test multiplayer specific issues, make sure the server is also running the same version as you are.

Bug reports from multiplayer are pretty much worthless if the server and client are not running the same version. It's also why i don't go online yet, i spend most of my time not flying/playing the sim but testing, bug-hunting and compiling a FAQ for when the US release happens to help get people up to speed fast, so i don't want to have all kinds of "false alarms" caused by incompatible versions and/or mods when trying to see what works, what doesn't and how i can work around any remaining issues.

THIS SHOULD BE MADE INTO A LOCKED STICKIE!!!!!!

One of the main things we are missing is straightforward procedures. Too often I see problems and "bugs" that are clearly setup issues.

Much of the guidance and workable setup procedures for this sim are buried in long threads. It's no wonder users have so many issues that are attributed to the software.

Great job Blackdog.

Hopefully someone will capture this so it doesn't get "lost"...... Many of the stickies which exist on the forum - are pretty useless to users attempting to configure their systems. Remember Bearcat's stickies over at UBI for Il2? Why not here?

This forum is where everyone comes for real information vs hyperbole.

S!

Gunny

[Plt Off JRB Meaker]

Originally Posted by jamesdietz

Steam didn't seem to install this ...so I did it manually...Didn't seem to hurt anything , but didn't notice any great improvements either..Maybe it will take more than one flight?

It won't mate it is a manual Beta patch,bless.

[pirke]

now bf109 is spit killer

[baronWastelan]

Smoother, much smoother over big cities. May be my imagination but clouds seem to have much less hit on FPS. Also no more AI insta-bail, takes them a little while to get out. Looks like some effects have been updated too. Overall, a very strong step in the right direction!

[242Sqn_Prof]

Thanks for the Beta Luthier.

Problem Report : I'm one of the User's that has the On-line Map bug, where the map and the "clickable" portion of the airfield are misaligned. There was a workaround whereby you could turn off airfields and move the mouse one or two grids to the lower right, 5 o'clock position of the airfield and search and get a pop up "aircraft spawn" window and click on that.

I've installed the Beta and tried to get on-line to test, but it appears some work has been done on the map. The work around described above doesn't work now, so this may well mean that everyone with the bug can't get on-line into Multi-Player at all now.

My system specs are :

Win 7 Home 64 bit.
Gigabyte GA-EP44-UD3L Motherboard
Core 2 Quad Processor 2.33 Ghz.
4 GB Ram.
ATI 4890 Video Card, 1 Gb Ram.
Dell 1907FP 19 inch Monitor
Microsoft wireless mouse
Track IR-3
Saitek X-52 Pro Joystick

NOTE : I can't be certain what version the on-line server's I tested on is running, but I will repeat the test once I find a server that is certain to be running the Beta. I've just tried it on a server that is definitely running the Beta, same result, the work-around no longer works.

[jamesdietz]

SECOND FLIGHT:
WHOA!
i HAVE THE ABILITY TO CHANGE SKINS!(Finally!)
I HAVE A WORKING RT!
NEW MAP!
EVERYTHING IS A BIT SMOOTHER!
GUNS WORK WHEN BUTTON PRESSED!
FPS still could be a bit better...Ditto AI.Still can't get screenshots ..- BUT THIS IS THE BIGGEST iMPROVEMENT YET FOR MY RIG!
MANY THANKS!

[smink1701]

I think they fixed the 109's gunsight. With TrackIR you can line up your prey without zooming in. Fab !!!

[wilburnator]

Originally Posted by David198502

i dont want to complain, because this patch did some improvements, like the prop pitch of the 109.
though water stripes in land and opposite are still present.

but i really would like to have the performance the game had before the last official patch.
my framerates dropped from about 60 to 30....and for that 30fps i had to lower my settings pretty drastically.
also the stutters are still very apparent.and honestly,they seem to be even worse with this beta patch on multiplayer.
i dont know what you changed since the last official patch, but i would really love to see the game performing like it was before.because it ran pretty smooth once upon a time.

+1

Multiplayer GUI improvements aside, I see no gain, framerates remain the same and stutters are back , big time. The last time I saw fluid play was the beta before the last official patch.

I7 975E
Gigabyte ga-x58a-ud3r
2 x Powercolor PCS+ 6970 2 gig
6 gig Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 @2000mhz

[xnomad]

Just a quick one guys.

Everyone who is reporting MP issues; are you testing these on a server that has been patched?

If not then it doesn't count.

I'm at work so can't try things out till later.

I'm a bit bummed that apparently the ground control radio doesn't work.