I have Vista 64 but also dual boot with XP Pro sp3. Should I just install the game on the XP OS or is there any reason I should use my main Vista 64 OS?

Thanks for the help!

Okay
I posted my info on a new thread. 'Can not get IL2 Forgotten Battles to play on Vista x64'

I'm getting the pointer with spinning disc, then nothing (in OpenGL mode), or the "missing d3dx8.dll" if I'm in DirectX mode.

Had no troubles installing, just can't get it to run. Would this be the Securom issue?

Australian retail edition, on Windows 7 beta 64-bit.

Could a kind soul PM me a link to the US executuable file please.

Many Thanks

R

Hey ya'll
I think I may be needing that pm thats being hinted about

Thanks

Hi guys,

just got my copy and managed to install it ok using the original post, Now i cant get it to run i get the spinning **** icon then i get the error-

il2fb.exe-Unable to locate component.


Any clues on what i need to do next?

Could someone please send me a link to the US executable file, thanks!

RAT

On the off chance this may help someone and with Tully's suggestion, I am posting this guide here as well. Hope it helps folks out.

It seems nary a week goes by without another question about our favorite game and Vista. I decided to compile a guide which would include some of the work arounds previously listed from knowledgeable forum members and a few I have found as well. If you see any problems or notice errors, then PM me.

I will print it one time here but you can also download it in PDF form from the downloads section at mission4today.com.

IL2 1946 and Vista – A Mini Review and some Tips

Okay, so I am not a big Vista fan. About a year back, roughly the middle of 2008, I installed Vista Home Premium 64 bit on a standard 500 GB 7200 rpm hard drive within one of my home computers. This was before Vista Service Pack 1 and I found it to be buggy, slow, bloated and generally not up to XP standards and far, far below Ubuntu standards. Some major problems included long shutdown times or errors where Vista would say that it had not been shut down properly and then the whole install was found to be corrupted. Crappy drivers from Nvidia and ATI that did not work well and/or caused glitches in many programs or games. Installing Direct X 9.0c APIs (which many games need) often overwrote the newer Direct X 10 code and/or caused Direct X corruption, further complicating people's troubleshooting attempts. Vista did not play well with Solid State Drives which I use for their speed and silent operation or with many dedicated RAID controller cards. It took up anywhere from 600 MB to 1.15 GB of memory just to show the desktop (Ubuntu uses about 120 MB in comparison). Unsigned drivers in Vista 64 bit editions meant that installing any non-WHQL driver was tantamount to driving a steak knife thru your own thigh muscle slowly while also drinking acidic anti-freeze. The Aero interface was total **** (see Ubuntu's Compiz package if you really want a dynamic desktop with full 3D effects). Microsoft axed the acceleration of environmental sound and HRTFs in the audio stack which meant that sound cards could no longer pump out full surround sound. And the list could go on.....

Well, I decided to give Vista another shot since a year has passes almost, SP1 has been released and better drivers are now available for many hardware items. Why would I do this ?

The answer is simple – UBUNTU CANNOT PLAY DIRECT X GAMES AS WELL AS WINDOWS YET. WHEN IT DOES, THERE WILL BE NO MORE NEED FOR WINDOWS !

How does the improved Vista with SP1 work now ? Better, and many of the glaring glitches are gone but there is still room for improvement. Take a look at these results:

Vista HP 64 bit SP1 - Start Time from Power On – 1 minute 32 seconds
Processes Running when reaching desktop (with Zonealarm, Antivir and Setpoint) – 57
Memory Usage upon reaching desktop – averages about 910 MB
Time to start IL2 1946 4.08m – 6 seconds
Time to shutdown Vista 64 bit – averages about 6 seconds (but sometimes as long as 3 min)

Windows XP 32 bit SP3 – Start Time – 54 seconds
Processes Running upon reaching desktop (with ZA, Antivir and Setpoint) – 43
Memory Usage upon reaching desktop – averages about 380 MB
Time to start IL2 1946 4.08m – about 5 seconds
Time to shutdown XP SP3 – averages about 5 seconds

Ubuntu 8.10 32 bit – Start Time from Power On – about 27 seconds
Processes Running upon reaching desktop (default config) – 21
Memory Usage upon reaching desktop – averages about 120 to 140 MB
Time to start IL2 1946 (with latest Wine code) – about 12 seconds
Time to shut down Ubuntu 8.10 – about 1 second

(This is for a system running a Core i7 940 @ 3.8 GHz, ASUS P6T Deluxe V2, 6 GB Corsair Dominator @ 1866 @ 8-8-8-20, 4870 X2 Quad Crossfire, X-Fi Titanium PCIe soundcard, Ageia PhysX physics card, (when testing with only one 4870 X2 card), with Operating Systems running on one Western Digital 500 GB 7200 rpm drive)

I think you get the picture. So yes, Vista is getting better, but if you dont need gaming, well then....YOU DONT NEED VISTA. Anywho, enough blabber; What about IL2 1946 on Vista 32 bit or 64 bit, and some tweaks ?

Tip #1 – Install Location – I have not found a need to install IL2 1946 to a separate file outside of program files as many in the forums are suggesting. You can install it to the standard C:\Program Files without any problems if you do the following (You must be an administrator to do so):

1 – Once you install it, go to C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946

2 – Now look in the menu bar of Explorer and find where it says 'Compatibility Files' and click it

3 – Now look and find the secret conf.ini file, right click on it and select 'Properties'

4 – In the new window which opens, go to the Security tab at the top and in the middle of the window look for 'to change permissions, click Edit'. Go ahead and click Edit.

5 – Now for all three normal accounts you should have (System, your username, and administrators) make sure that the 'write' and 'modify' boxes are checked.

6 – Hit apply and then close out of all the windows.

Now you will not run into all the previous problems people were posting about in the forums because the all important conf.ini file can now be written to correctly (and without corruption of the kernel). After this you should be able to use patches, mods and add-ons fine. I will not go into all the technical details here, but installing a executable (like IL2 1946) into another location other than ProgramFiles sometimes creates problems within the registry and then this later manifests itself in other strange problems. (If you want the exact details and really know something about computer programing, send me an email)

Tip #2 – Modifying the Conf.ini File – The conf.ini file of IL2 1946 allows you to make many changes to the game such as setting custom resolutions for larger monitors or HDTVs, setting gore to 'on', getting better water and ground textures, and obtaining more detailed clouds. But in Vista you must first find the real conf.ini file. Many people go to the easily seen conf.ini file and dont realize this is not the 'real' one.

The real conf.ini file is found at C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 and then you must click on the 'Compatibility Files' icon in the menu bar of Explorer. This will show you a new window with several files and the real conf.ini file. Now before you can modify this file, I suggest you make a copy and save it somewhere else for save keeping. Now, in order to modify the conf.ini file and get those changes to stick, you must follow the steps in Tip 1 (above). After this, you can modify the conf.ini file with Notepad, and then click File → Save and it will truly be saved and show up in-game.

Tip #3 – Custom Resolutions – Lets say you have a brand new 24 inch monitor that runs at 1900x1200 pixels or a nice big HDTV that runs at 1920x1080. How can you get IL2 1946 to fill the screen correctly without leaving black bars on the sides of the screen ?

1 – Go to Tip #1 above and do that first.

2 – Read Tip #2 and make sure you understand what is taking place.

3 – Now go to C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 if you used the default install option. Click on the 'Compatibility Files' icon in the menu bar of Explorer. A new window will open.

4) - Look for a file called 'Conf.ini', open it up in Notepad or a text editor.

3) Look for the following lines of text, they should be near the top:

[window]
width=1920
height=1200
ColourBits=32
DepthBits=24
StencilBits=8
ChangeScreenRes=1
FullScreen=1
DrawIfNotFocused=0
EnableResize=0
EnableClose=1
SaveAspect=0
Use3Renders=0

4) Edit the lines 'Width' and 'Height'. These lines correspond to the resolution IL2 will display in. Enter in your screens native resolution or the resolution you want to play IL2 in.

Most 24 inch monitors are about 1900x1200 and many 30 inch monitors are 2560x1600. Most HDTVs are 1920x1080.

5) Look for 'EnableResize=' and set it to 0.

6) Look for 'SaveAspect=' and set it to 0.

7)Save the file, close it and run IL2.

For a full description of the different display options and other commands within the conf.ini file go here

Please note that changing any options within the 'Setup.exe' or changing the in game video settings will overwrite the conf.ini and the resolution changes you've previously made with a resolution IL2 supports if you followed Tip #1 above.


Tip #4 – Creative X-Fi sound card users - If you have a five year old Creative sound card or newer, chances are you can use it with IL2 1946 and Vista to restore EAX 1.0 effects that are coded into IL2. To do this, follow the following steps:

1 - Make sure that the Creative Alchemy Package is installed first. You can find it here

2 - Now go open Alchemy from the Start menu, and click on 'Add' and then 'Use Game Path', and type in:

C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946

and then click the 'Add' button

3 – Go and download this special EAX package from M4T with Winzip or 7Zip to your desktop. You will see two files (dsound.dll and dsound.ini)

4 - On your hard drive (where you installed IL2 1946) go to:

C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946

Now look for two files that Alchemy already installed there. They are also called dsound.dll and dsound.ini Grab these two files (and only these two files) and delete them.

5 - Copy and paste the two new files (from your desktop) into

C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946

These two new recoded files (which are almost identical in size) will now answer all EAX calls for IL2 1946.

6 - Now fire up IL2 1946 and test it out. You should have really nice audio now and this will help you on full real servers and those with limited icons when using Hyperlobby as well. If you previously used Alchemy with Vista, you will find these new sound files get rid of the echos and pops that some complained of in forum posts. I also made a tiny change in the EAX calls from IL2.

This does nothing permanent to your IL2 main install folder, and if you dont notice any difference or dont like the improved sound, simply go remove the two files and everything will be back to your original state.

Tip #5 – Hyperlobby Interface – Many folks try to install Hyperlobby with Vista only to find they have problems with mswinsck.ocx or other related files. Some folks can also use HL but only with nags or missing fonts. To fix these problems:

1 – When you run the HL executable (.exe) file, run it as administrator (right click → Run as Administrator). Some folks have had success by running it in compatibility mode (right click → Properties → Compatibility (tab) → click the box for 'run this program in compatibility mode for Win XP SP2' ).

2 – To fix this open your hyperlobby folder, skins, default. Open the config file, and press Ctrl+h. In the new window type ".." (two dots) into find what, and ... into replace with. You will need to do this with each hyperlobby skin you download.

3 – If you suffer from the nvlddmkm error then read the following thread found here

Well guys I hope this helps out and as I discover, or am emailed other tips I will include them. It's amazing that Microsoft supposedly spent about 6.2 billion US dollars to develop Vista and yet we still have to do all this.

I have a solution to these problems that works much faster, ….....GET UBUNTU.

Cheers – Jay


Note of Appreciation – I would like to thank Romanator of [^] Squadron for the second HL tip and WolfMondo for the original custom resolution tips.

Disclaimer – The author is a professional engineer and computer programmer but not a specialist with the Vista kernel. Try the following tips and if you have questions or concerns, email them to jayhall0315@yahoo.com.

I'm getting exactly the same problem as this fellow;

"I'm getting the pointer with spinning disc, then nothing (in OpenGL mode), or the "missing d3dx8.dll" if I'm in DirectX mode.

Had no troubles installing, just can't get it to run. Would this be the Securom issue?"

Running Vista 64 HomePremium. Fully patched, including drivers for GFX and mobo.

I'm guessing this is a Securom issue? I've got much older games (Caesar 3, for example) running fine on this install.

I've tried changing the user rights to the whole IL-2 folder (to full access for all users), plus turning on XP2 comatability for the executable.

Anything else I can try, or should I just use the DVDs as coasters?

Check PM's.

Hello, same Il2 1946/vista 64/scureom problem with my new pc...have scanned disk and confirm securom is present. Please could someone be kind enough to post a link to the us .exe file.
cheers

I'd request that a moderator add Windows 7 to the thread title. I managed to install the game by using the compatibility settings (ignorant of this tutorial) but it would not load, just time out after showing the image of the spinning disk. I cured it with a bit of software, of which I can say nothing more about here.

To anyone else contemplating running Windows 7, my experience has been good so far. But sadly, I now have to upgrade my video card, since the default driver for an X1950 does not support Open GL properly, and the Windows 7 drivers ATI released do not support such an "old" card.

quote:

Originally posted by repoman11:
I'd request that a moderator add Windows 7 to the thread title. I managed to install the game by using the compatibility settings (ignorant of this tutorial) but it would not load, just time out after showing the image of the spinning disk. I cured it with a bit of software, of which I can say nothing more about here.

To anyone else contemplating running Windows 7, my experience has been good so far. But sadly, I now have to upgrade my video card, since the default driver for an X1950 does not support Open GL properly, and the Windows 7 drivers ATI released do not support such an "old" card.

Install the cat 7.11's for vista, they should work fine in win 7. If they give you some lip about wrong OS then run the installer in vista compatibility mode.


Sevenalvan, check PM's.

No luck with those drivers. The installer would hang, compatibility mode or not. I managed to get some other drivers to install once (one of the nine series) but attempting to switch to Open GL would result in a flashing screen. So I gave up and went back to the default Windows7 driver. With it, when you try to switch to Open GL, the screen nearly locks up. It's time for me to get a newer card anyway.

Looks like i'm gonna need that securom fix, if someone would be kind enough to PM it to me. Thanks in advance!

quote:

Originally posted by gickhoward:
Looks like i'm gonna need that securom fix, if someone would be kind enough to PM it to me. Thanks in advance!

PM sent.

Oh....my....god...

I have the dreaded "spinning disk/securom" issue as well, but i would have never guessed the reason for it to be as dumb as this...

Can someone PLEASE send me a PM as well? It would be much appreciated.

I know calling support for this won't do any good, they'll just dodge the responsibility...

Ya'll are workin me to tha bone here, lol. PM sent.

Hi

I have followed the instructions given on this thread and get the spinning disc problem. I have the European version so it is presumably a Securom problem. I have been working on various fixes without any success, numerous reinstalls and registry cleaning with CCleaner, changing permissions, XP compatablilty settings and the whole thing. It is very peculiar how some people seem to have had no problem with installing on Vista whilst others like myself have had endless trouble.

I decided to install XP and dual boot Vista and XP.'46 works in XP but has no sound and runs at the speed of cold treacle - it is more like watching a slide show. After all the effort I am not sure I have either the expertise or inclination to tweak the XP setup so it is usable. Could I request one of Urufu-Shinjoro's very popular fixes please if the poor chap is not too exhausted? I have been without Il-2 for about 6 weeks and am getting twitchy - there is a Tiffie on a certain site which I cannot get my hands on and 21st Panzer Division are long overdue for a good pasting.

Pip-pip (and thanks)

Ouston.

Hi everyone,

Could someone please email the US version of the IL2 1946 exe to me?

Have been unable to get my european version running since I built my new pc and installed vista 64 (a couple of months ago).

Thanks Guys

john

shewbrookj@aol.com