Moving DCS to new computer

[bflo]

I've seen information here that it's just a copy/paste, but what about the part under "saved games", does that rebuild, or copy/paste also ?

[Tippis]

11 minutes ago, bflo said:

I've seen information here that it's just a copy/paste, but what about the part under "saved games", does that rebuild, or copy/paste also ?

A bit of both.

You probably want to save the entire Saved Games\DCS directory somewhere safe and run DCS once on the new computer to let it rebuild its required basics (shader cache, config, some module-specific user directories).

But after that first run, you'll want to copy back in things like your liveries and missions, and possibly also the MissionEditor directory (to get your logbook back). Some user mods will also work just fine if you copy over the stuff in the Mods and Scripts directory, but that's not as guaranteed. You could copy the input directory as well, but chances are that all the USB device IDs will have changed so the old binds won't be picked up automatically. Your keyboard and mouse binds will probably work, but anything related to sticks and throttlres and the like will not. You can either use that backup you made as a source that you import your binds from or, if you have good bulk renaming tools, you can copy the entire directory back with names that match your new device IDs (this requires a bit of understanding of how the naming scheme works, though).

So in theory, it's mostly copy-paste, but in practice, some thing will have changed on your new install that you have to accommodate anyway — including some hidden config choices that can cause significant issues, performance loss, and and even crashes in extreme cases. The input situation is particularly annoying, and if you have special export mods like Tacview or LotATC or SRS, you'll want to reinstall them fresh anyway to make sure the hooks between DCS and the external software is set up right.

As such, my recommendation is to re-do just about everything in the Settings screen from scratch, and using the import function to get your binds back in place without having to do everything manually. That really only leaves the aforementioned liveries, missions, maybe some mods (but this will vary depending on how self-contained they are), and maybe the mission editor directory.

[sthompson]

I recommend also copying over the associated registry entries for Eagle Dynamics if you aren't going to install from scratch. These may need editing if the new install locations do not match the old. Curiously, DCS itself doesn't seem to care about these, but there are add on programs that look in the registry to find your DCS installation(s). (VAICOM PRO is an example.)

 

 

[bflo]

Thanks guys, I don't think I'll mess with the registry though.  If I have problems I'll just have to do a reinstall, (hope not).