Want to be able to switch between 4.04 and 4.05 with one click? Read This! | Forums

[PF_Coastie]

Hi all,

If you fly on HL and you have 4.05 but you want to fly 4.04 I have a VERY simple solution.

Most people that have been around this game a while already have a full back up of thier previous version and can switch through HL path. But that also takes up valuable Hard drive space. My FB folder is around 3gb! But....there is a solution.

FIRST THING TO DO IS TO BACK UP ANY FILES I MENTION HERE....JUST IN CASE! But don't get excited, we will only be messing with 2 files.

This will enable you to play Version 4.04m and 4.05m from the SAME install with a simple double click of the mouse. You will not have to change paths in HL or have 2 installs of the game.

1. Read THIS THREAD by Luthier on how to back up to your original IL2.exe and IL2FB.exe files. You must have the 4.04 files installed and NOT the new ones from Ubi.

2. Download the following 2 batch files to your main fb 4.05 folder. Then create shortcuts to them on your desktop.

Big props to Sparx at the War Clouds server for doing these batch files for me, thanks man.

4.04 batch file

4.05 batch file

3. Now, make a copy of your 4.05 "files.sfs" file which is found in your main FB directory. Name that copy to files.405 and leave it in your main IL2fb directory.

4. Now find your 4.04 files.sfs file. You can find it in your patch you downloaded. Hopefully you still have it. Copy the file and rename it files.404 and paste it into your main IL2fb folder.

Your done! You should now have files.404, files.405, files.sfs, 404.bat and 405.bat in your main IL2fb directory and 2 shortcuts to the .bat files on your desktop.

Now, if you double click on the 404.bat shortcut and start the game, it should say version 4.04.

Close the game and double click on 405.bat and start the game, it should say version 4.05!

Now you can switch back and forth at will.

Hope this helps some folks!

Good Luck!

[crazyivan1970]

Short and sweet Coastie, will come in handly untill all this is straighten out.

[PF_Coastie]

Thanks Ivan!

[georgeo76]

lovely, simple .bat files....awesome

[Prop_Strike]

What if you start the game by clicking on a server in Hyperlobby?
Will it know which version to start depending on which server you start the game with?

[georgeo76]

The *.bat file doesn't start the game, it only switches the files. So, what you would do is log-on to HL and choose a server. If the server is 4.04, you will use the 4.04 bat file to switch versions of the game, then join as normal. If you wanted to switch back to 4.05, you would just click that .bat file.

If you wanted to cause the .bat file to switch versions, and launch the game, it would read like this:

DEL files.sfs
COPY file.405 files.sfs
il2fb.exe

Originally posted by Prop_Strike:
What if you start the game by clicking on a server in Hyperlobby?
Will it know which version to start depending on which server you start the game with?

[Prop_Strike]

Thanks for that....haven't had much to do with .bat files....don't know exactly what they do...lol

Thanks again...

[bjparker]

Now, I have separate directories for 4.04m and 4.05m, with different .SFS files, HOWEVER my 4.04m will run offline fine, online it seems the servers think it is 4.05m!

Somewhere else, the installation process changes the multiplayer ID to 4.05m - I think...

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
BJP

[bjparker]

Maybe it's something to do with this new "Flexnet Activation Service Installer.dll"?

New in the 4.05m directory.

BJP

[bjparker]

Stranger and stranger...

I can switch between 4.04m and 4.05m using Coastie's .SFS trick, but I can't make my entire 4.04m version work online.

BJP