Merged Install

[pixelpilot]

Since the release of Blackshark2 to bring it into line with Warthog along with the eventual release of DCSMustang, Flaming cliffs3, the Nevada Maps and future releases, what scope is there for merging the installation? It seems excessive to have the entire game engine installed for each seperate aircraft. Would also be good to be able to swap aircraft without quiting one game to load another. On the other hand i do like the fact that when you load up your chosen sim (always warthog for me at the mo) you are loading a detailed study of a single aircraft. Maybe that feeling would be lost with a merged install. How do others feel about it?

[Demongornot]

That depending of the date, i'm not sure but about what i know the merged install will coming with Combined Arms and CA will directly coming with Flaming Cliff 3, if DCS P-51D Mustang coming at the same time than FC3 we will have a merged install for the 3 aircraft and new feature !!!

And the Nevada map will coming with the next DCS aircraft with the new graphic engine EDGE and we must have to wait close to half/end 2012 for see the Beta release i think.

I'm not sure but i think that will be like that...

 

I hope FC3 will add new flyable aircraft and maybe more advanced aircraft actually flyable (more advanced avionic, new flight model except for the SU-25T who have a great model and maybe clickable cockpit) for balance the difficulty between real hardcore helicopter/aircraft (KA-50 A10C and P51D) with other from Flaming Cliff 3, i hope FC3 will add AH-1 or AH-64 flyable at the same level than other aircraft in Flaming Cliff, that will be a good compromise (and the first step) before next DCS helicopter !

 

The next DCS aircraft will be a Falcon an Eagle on an Hornet, i hope at the FC3 release the next DCS aircraft will be officially announced and that FC3 will integrate the 3 other aircraft at the same level than other aircraft on Flaming Cliff !

For example : Next aircraft = F/A-18E/F Hornet and in Flaming Cliff 3 : flyable F-16 and F-15E or other possibility...

With the combined Arms a good feature can be the possibility to pilot ground vehicle like Hummer or M1A1 Abram or T-80/90 tank and other nice ground vehicle !

 

Thing i hope too : new explosion/flame/smoke effect, vapor on wings, corrected contrail position at the reactor, better AI, better tower control with possibility to take off with several aircraft in formation, emergency fire truck for runways crash and other fail take off/landing ground crew with more interaction and more possibility and better (more realistic and fastest) pilot control at the ground and possibility to walk from any flyable aircraft to another at the parking for take control !

[Mohamengina]

A single application would make things so much easier. No having to download 6 gig patches for every single different application/game mode every time.

[Grimes]

Yeah it would be nice to have unified game installs. The folders that take up the most file space are mostly shared assets, models, textures, and sounds. Something I've kinda been curious about doing is trying to modify the config files of one sim and point everything that is shared into the other sims folder.

[Slayer]

I don't think its possible in it's current state due to the number of control differences and buttons between aircraft. They would have to completely retool the UI and have dropdowns for each aircraft. Seems it could be done. What I don't want is a control mess with everything combined into one it would be a nightmare to setup.

[Revelation]

I don't think its possible in it's current state due to the number of control differences and buttons between aircraft. They would have to completely retool the UI and have dropdowns for each aircraft. Seems it could be done. What I don't want is a control mess with everything combined into one it would be a nightmare to setup.

 

 

I think it is possible. At the moment you can have different controls for game mode and sim mode... So the capability is there, ED just has to decide if it's worth the effort for multiple airframes - I hope they believe it is.

[PlainSight]

I don't think its possible in it's current state due to the number of control differences and buttons between aircraft. They would have to completely retool the UI and have dropdowns for each aircraft. Seems it could be done. What I don't want is a control mess with everything combined into one it would be a nightmare to setup.

 

It works in FC2, where there's separate section for each airplane. FC3 should provide the option to import A10C and/or ka50, so we'd have all planes in one install.

[spn]

"Combined Arms" Question

 

Will there ever be a possibility of installing A-10C Warthog, Blackshark 2 and Flaming Cliffs 3 as a combined one unit install and the user can select which aircraft or side that sim user wants to select? If so, will "Combined Arms" have this feature for the individual who uses the sims offline and not on a server situation??

 

Thank You!

[kylania]

That's the intention behind FC3 as ED has said, but you'll need to start whichever game you wanted to play - no switching from A-10C to F-15 without quitting and restarting FC3 for example.

[spn]

Kylania,

 

So the DCS A-10C and Blackshark 2 would still be seperate installs and not combined into one combined sim. Right??

 

Thanks

[kiss4luna]

just make each aircraft a single module and the other parts of the game engine as an base frame.

i don't think it's hard to achieve, cause the entire sim world is the same, and all need to be done is to seperate every flyable aircraft and relative files to their independent directry. in gaming history the quake engine games did this 16 years ago, the microsoft flight simulator did this a long time ago too. i think it just depends on whether ED wants to do it.

[thaisocom]

Yeah, I'd love to have a merged installation as well, since I have both Black Shark 2 and Warthog. It does not make any sense when both share like 80-90% of the file but have to be install into separate folder. ED could try doing it like FSX, have a game engine as a base and aircrafts as modules.

[STP Dragon]

Seperate installations but online compatible.

You can fly with Ka-50 and A-10 together in one mission.

If you want to fly the Ka-50, start BlackShark2 and join the mission.

If you want to fly the A-10 in this mission you have to exit BlackShark2, start Warthog and join the mission again.

[112th_Rossi]

It might be cool to make the games aware of each others installations, so they can shell another game should wish to switch, from the main menu perhaps.

[Dimebag]

I don't understand what is stopping ED from creatingx a central program which houses all of the user interface for all ED products, and then when you select a specific game, have it call the particular exe. Is it because so much is tied up in the UI, such as mission editor etc? Cause it would help make the sim hella user friendly and more accessible. Just a thought.

[Slayer]

One big caveat: Copy protection. Each game has a separate license key. They would have to change how it works to something like Arma II that allows multiple instances of product keys for different content. If it wasn't for this I'm sure someone would have already compared the files and made some LUA mods to make it happen.

 

I'd like to see a combined forces mod someday though.

[Nate--IRL--]

Yeah, the impression I get is that it is one of those, easy in theory, hard to put into practice problems. However ED did say they would examine the possibilities.

 

Nate

[213]

I don't think its possible in it's current state due to the number of control differences and buttons between aircraft. They would have to completely retool the UI and have dropdowns for each aircraft. Seems it could be done. What I don't want is a control mess with everything combined into one it would be a nightmare to setup.

 

that's too easy. different folders for the aircraft

 

go to saved games in your c:/user directory. it contains every config file for the blackshark2, warthog, etc in separate folders.

 

a unified install is at this point not an option, but a necessity. hopefully it comes sooner than later.

 

One big caveat: Copy protection. Each game has a separate license key. They would have to change how it works to something like Arma II that allows multiple instances of product keys for different content. If it wasn't for this I'm sure someone would have already compared the files and made some LUA mods to make it happen.

 

I'd like to see a combined forces mod someday though.

 

licenses are stored on the computer, not the game itself. all you need is again, separate directories for each license.

Edited February 8, 2012 by 213

[thaisocom]

Seperate installations but online compatible.

You can fly with Ka-50 and A-10 together in one mission.

If you want to fly the Ka-50, start BlackShark2 and join the mission.

If you want to fly the A-10 in this mission you have to exit BlackShark2, start Warthog and join the mission again.

Yeah, that's what going on currently. But it's annoying, because in fact both are the same game but I need to exit it and open it again just to fly another aircraft.

 

Certainly it is possible for ED to have aircraft as an module, I mean look at Lock On.

[Grimes]

I'm not sure about creating a single file to access either games aircraft, but it is possible to reference a common folder for all of the stuff that takes up most of the space. For example:

 

Bazar folder for BS2 = 6.13 GB

Bazar/World = 2.35 GB

Bazar/Terrain = 3.00 GB

 

All of the references for textures and objects within "world" appear to be handled in "config/graphics.cfg" so all it takes is for us to modify the referenced path of 'VFSTexturePaths' and 'ModelPaths' to point em into a different folder. For example I'm creating an A-10C 3Sqn texture. I had to add a "liveries" file to BS2 for it to appear in the editor. The texture file itself is located in the A-10C sub-directory.

 

In graphics.cfg for A-10C the path looks like

path = ".\\Bazar\\World\\textures\\3Sqn_RAAF";

 

In graphics.cfg for BS2 the path looks like

path = "..\\DCS A-10C\\Bazar\\World\\textures\\3Sqn_RAAF";

 

I could just as easily make a folder within Eagle Dynamics subfolder called "Shared Content" and the graphics.cfg path in both sims could be

path = "..\\Shared Content\\Bazar\\World\\textures\\3Sqn_RAAF";

 

Terrain is a little more complex as it appears it uses a terrain.cfg.lua file to determine referenced directories and there are alot more subfolders within containing different data.

[Slayer]

that's too easy. different folders for the aircraft

 

go to saved games in your c:/user directory. it contains every config file for the blackshark2, warthog, etc in separate folders.

 

a unified install is at this point not an option, but a necessity. hopefully it comes sooner than later.

 

 

 

licenses are stored on the computer, not the game itself. all you need is again, separate directories for each license.

 

A) I use multimonitor setups for both BS 1.0/2.0 and WH they are different because the shark doesn't have 2 perfectly symetrical displays. So I have 2 different Monitor configs for each game in BS one of my mini usb screens gets rotated 90 degrees so I can see the whole ABRIS. This is not in the users/../saved games directory its in the Monitor setup folder of the main program. There would be a huge conflict for some people. I don't want the same monitor setup for both games. Most people wouldnt notice unless you are a pitbuilder or have multiple screens.

 

I also use very different graphics setting optomised for each aircraft's role. I like more ground detail in the shark compared to the WH where you are flying at 15k feet doing bombing runs. Sure it's not 100% of the time but I can tell you I never fly the chopper as high as the hog.

 

B) It's not as simple as seperate directories for starforce:

 

Protection levels

There are two confirmed "tiers" of StarForce protection:[citation needed]

Basic

"[Allows] to protect the executable Windows file of the application and provide control of creation and distribution of licenses during the product’s lifetime."

Pro

"[Ensures] reliable protection of original data and code as well as control over creation and distribution of licenses during full life cycle of software products."

 

IIRC - ED is using the basic version which is tied to the .exe file, therefore you must exit the program and use a different .exe for a different license. No way to switch on the fly....get it? They would have to retool their whole product line to make it work. A ton of labor for very little.

Edited February 9, 2012 by Slayer

[mattag08]

I'm not holding my breath. ED can't even make a user friendly GUI.

[thaisocom]

I'm not holding my breath. ED can't even make a user friendly GUI.

I wouldn't go that far. I think their GUI is alright but of course, it could be better.

[cichlidfan]

I wouldn't go that far. I think their GUI is alright but of course, it could be better.

 

It could be a lot worse too. Think X-Plane(insert number here)!

[Kuky]

Something that Grimes describes is very doable... even if you install new DCS module, all the installer has to do is point for these common files for textures, objects etc that take most of the space on HDD so another location which doesn't have to be in same path as other files for individual aircraft.

 

I think also this, same as multithreading, has become a neccessity and ED should have started already to incorporate this by the time next module is released.. or Nevada is released. If we end up with 5 flyables that'll take 1/2 the HDD space (I'm not talking oldfashion spindle HDD but SSD) and that's a pure waste of space as Gigs of same files are duplicated accross multiple directories