please allow to install BS2 upgrade without installing BS1

[neroroxxx]

They should have a serial number merger, buy the upgrade, type in original and upgrad serials, get a new serial for the BS2 full version, then you cant use the BS1 for another upgrade

[Yellonet]

There, now I've made an installer that makes it possible to install the BS2 upgrade without installing BS1.

You will need to activate BS1 if you haven't already, so this doesn't give anyone without a proper key the ability to use BS2 upgrade.

I'll wait to make it public until I get an OK though.

Also, depending on if it's OK to distribute certain files or not, you may have to use a few files from the BS1 install anyway, it will make reinstallation easier though.

[Yellonet]

I hope I don't get banned now, but here goes.

 

First let me just say that this program do NOT contain any files or data from any ED product.

This is NOT an attempt at circumventing any copy protection, only a way to make it a bit easier for people who have bought the upgrade version of BS2 to install it.

The user will need a valid serial key for BS1 and access to the installation files as I don't have permission to distribute the needed files (although it most likely wouldn't hurt anyone as you still need a serial key to use the product).

 

I've not made any extensive testing, so I can't guarantee that it will work, but it should :)

 

What to do:

 

1. Get a hold of the BS1 installer.
   
2. Unpack it with 7-zip or similar software.
   
3. Copy the following files from the folder "<unpacked files>\setup\$_OUTDIR\bin\stable\"
    
   DCS.exe
   protect.dll
   protect.exe
   protect.x86
   
4. Create a new folder somewhere, for example "C:\Temp" Inside this folder, create a new folder called "bin".
   
5. Inside this folder, create another folder with the name "stable".
   
6. You should have this "C:\Temp\bin\stable", now paste the four files above into the "stable" folder.
   
7. Download the following file and put it into the folder where you created the "bin\stable" path, C:\Temp in this example.
   http://www.mediafire.com/?e43d1gaamt9cxo7
   
8. So, now you should have:
    
   <folder of your choice>\setup.exe
   <folder of your choice>\stable\bin\DCS.exe
   <folder of your choice>\stable\bin\protect.dll
   <folder of your choice>\stable\bin\protect.exe
   <folder of your choice>\stable\bin\protect.x86
   
9. Run "setup.exe".
   

The setup-file will create the necessary registry keys and start the activation tool, if you already have activated BS1 you can just close that window, otherwise, go ahead and use your BS1 serial to activate it.

 

Install BS2 upgrade, remember to choose "DCS Black Shark 2 Upgrade..."

 

If you know how to, you can create a setup-file that includes all the files for the next time you have to use it....

Edited May 4, 2013 by Yellonet

[zaelu]

ED should make an official tool like this. Doesn't look hard.

 

Let's return now to our beers. I got a six pack for 3 dollars. :p

[Yellonet]

ED should make an official tool like this. Doesn't look hard.

Indeed.

 

Let's return now to our beers. I got a six pack for 3 dollars. :p

Well, here we have to pay about $2 for a regular 5% beer, way more at the pub.

State owned monopoly does that... :mad:

[YeaImRota]

I feel like upon a successful activation of BS2, BS1 should no longer be required for any further installs. Same with FC3 and LockOn.

[pocococo]

OP here. Yellonet, I haven't tried it yet, but your activator seems to be exactly what I was looking for!

 

The 5 required files are 14MB (as opposed to an entire DVD or the 900MB of the BS1 download) and could be included easily in the BS2 upgrade installer, or quickly downloaded separately from eagle.ru.

 

Including this in the BS2 upgrade would enable it to do precisely what I asked for initially: accept and activate both (BS1 and BS2) serials, in sequence, with no hanky-panky.

 

Thanks for showing how it can be done. Now if Eagle will just release an official version so that we won't have to download and run strange files from mediafire... : )

[Yellonet]

OP here. Yellonet, I haven't tried it yet, but your activator seems to be exactly what I was looking for!

 

The 5 required files are 14MB (as opposed to an entire DVD or the 900MB of the BS1 download) and could be included easily in the BS2 upgrade installer, or quickly downloaded separately from eagle.ru.

 

Including this in the BS2 upgrade would enable it to do precisely what I asked for initially: accept and activate both (BS1 and BS2) serials, in sequence, with no hanky-panky.

 

Thanks for showing how it can be done. Now if Eagle will just release an official version so that we won't have to download and run strange files from mediafire... : )

Honestly, there's nothing strange in the file, it just creates a few registry keys and values, I made it an exe to make it easier and also allow for creating the correct values from different source folders and to work with both 32 and 64 bit Windows.

Don't you trust me?

 

For my personal use I created an installer with all the needed files included, but as I'm not allowed to distribute those files I couldn't upload that installer.

Edited May 4, 2013 by Yellonet

[EtherealN]

EtherealN you are trying to break my post into bits so it will fit your interpretations. I can't agree with this way of debating. Also if you bring your opinions that bf3 for you is just an upgrade for bf2... I wont procede with it... is your opinion.

 

No, I'm responding in a structured manner where it is clear what response regards to what, and does not neglect anything that needs adressing.

 

As for the BF2/Bf3 (actually, BF3/BC2, important difference) being my opinion - well of course it is! That's exactly what I was pointing out regarding your discussion of BS2 being "just an upgrade" or patch on BF1! It's opinion and personal value judgement - if you don't like what the money offers, you don't buy it.

 

The fact is BS installer could provide option to insert as a check the serial of bs1 and then allow activation with a serial of bs2 upgrade.

 

I've already adressed this!

You can't first ask for X, then have me say that X cannot be done because of Y and Z... and then just return to your "please give X". This reduces to:

 

- I want X.

- You can't have X.

- I want X.

- Sorry, would be nice but not possible.

- I want X.

...etc

 

Even for FC3 after an instalation it could generate a serial that the customer then uploads to DCS site for further FC3 instalations. I agree this one could be complicated as it involves also Ubi.

 

Sorry, here I don't even understand what it is you mean. FC3 generate a serial that gets uploaded to the site for further FC3 installations? How would that help anything? Your serial number already is on the site.

 

PS What kind of beer is that!?! :d

 

Beer in the pub: ~$10. Welcome to sweden. ;)

[zaelu]

No, I'm responding in a structured manner where it is clear what response regards to what, and does not neglect anything that needs adressing..

 

...

 

 

Beer in the pub: ~$10. Welcome to sweden. ;)

 

Sometimes this is good sometimes is making the forest disappear and you see only trees. (yes it works both ways :) ). All I was saying were arguments in the favor of a pretty logical simplification of activation process. Attacking them (I do consider that the contra arguments were weak, sorry :P) would only justify that the simplification is illogical/incorrect which... obviously is not, let's say, intuitive. I don't consider I argumented a valid rationalization with weak or incorrect arguments.

 

 

 

At this moment the BS2 upgrade activation looks for a serial/registry keys made by an installation and it could very well ask for a BS1 key first then say OK... now insert the upgrade key.

 

Also after a successful installation of FC3 the install could generate an activation key unique to that user account for FC3 that could confirm later to ED and UBI that you have Lockon and further installs would be made via the second key. Much like the old deactivation process if you remember.

 

Basically the activation process of BS2 could be split like this:

 

The activation window starts and asks which way you want to activate and offer two options:

 

1. Insert an BS2 key

2. Insert a BS1 and BS2 Upgrade keys

 

You choose one and then insert the proper key or keys and you a re done.

 

For FC3 (I am aware that in this case the trouble wouldn't worth it but just as an example)

 

Install FC3 and choose for activation two methods

 

1. "First install" FC3 activation checks for LOMAC/FC2 instalation (and you can say cancel if you don't have yet the LOMAC installed and restart it later)

2. "Second install" of FC3 and a previous instalation generated key of LOMAC/FC2 is inserted in a first field then in a second field the FC3 bought key.

 

The generated keys would be similar with those hardware keys that are required by some activations

 

 

This way all bureaucracy is reduced at only inserting the proper valid legit keys and lose all the unnecessary ritualistic wasteful useless anyway installations. This simple.

 

 

 

 

About beer... that is a rip off. We have such bars in Romania also but they are too fancy and not worth the trouble. The cheapest way is to buy PET bottles of 2 liters that can go as cheap as 1.25 Euros. Depending of mark and thirst it can be very good. Especially if is a barbecue with may people that don't talk and look at the glasses and pray to get emptied by them selves. :D

Edited May 5, 2013 by zaelu

[EtherealN]

At this moment the BS2 upgrade activation looks for a serial/registry keys made by an installation and it could very well ask for a BS1 key first then say OK... now insert the upgrade key.

 

The problem is that simply asking for the key would leave it open for abuse - and that's even beside the point of whether the system is even technically capable of doing this in the first place. I don't know everything about the system, so I can be wrong here, but everything I've seen indicates that it's not possible to do this.

 

For sure, it probably is "easy" for SFT to implement something like that - but would they do it for a specialized function that only a single, relatively low-volume, customer wants? Maybe, but I strongly doubt it. The economy of scale just isn't there.

 

Also after a successful installation of FC3 the install could generate an activation key unique to that user account for FC3 that could confirm later to ED and UBI that you have Lockon and further installs would be made via the second key. Much like the old deactivation process if you remember.

 

See previous response above.

 

There is a further caveat here that you haven't considered: these checks happen on install. Serial numbers happen at runtime. So changes would have to be made there as well before the rest can even be considered. Though I do agree that it could be useful to have serial checks and activation conducted immediately on install, though this has thee drawback of blocking some functions that some people find very useful today: for example, when mission editing, you can run the mission editor on one machine without having to activate there, and speed up prototyping of the mission through doing continual test-runs via the MP interface on the main rig. But fortunately this should now be a non-issue thanks to DCS World.

 

Basically the activation process of BS2 could be split like this:

 

The activation window starts and asks which way you want to activate and offer two options:

 

1. Insert an BS2 key

2. Insert a BS1 and BS2 Upgrade keys

 

You choose one and then insert the proper key or keys and you a re done.

 

Well, the problem is that, afaik, the system just can't do it. "Activation" actually requires things to be installed - things from that product. (You saw this previously in this thread.)

 

Basically, yes, I really would like to have that. But unfortunately I suspect it would require work from SFT that they might not care to do.

 

For FC3 (I am aware that in this case the trouble wouldn't worth it but just as an example)

 

Install FC3 and choose for activation two methods

 

1. "First install" FC3 activation checks for LOMAC/FC2 instalation (and you can say cancel if you don't have yet the LOMAC installed and restart it later)

2. "Second install" of FC3 and a previous instalation generated key of LOMAC/FC2 is inserted in a first field then in a second field the FC3 bought key.

 

The generated keys would be similar with those hardware keys that are required by some activations

 

Well, just like with BS2 Upgrade, there is an issue in these checks being conducted by the installer, not the activation system itself.

 

Now, IF the system supported this - I'd like it, it would be worth looking at, but you need to realize that things are more complex than that - and specifically that in both cases, this isn't something ED can do. It is something SFT would have to do. And considering how specialized it is, I suspect SFT would send the bill to ED...

 

About beer... that is a rip off. We have such bars in Romania also but they are too fancy and not worth the trouble. The cheapest way is to buy PET bottles of 2 liters that can go as cheap as 1.25 Euros. Depending of mark and thirst it can be very good. Especially if is a barbecue with may people that don't talk and look at the glasses and pray to get emptied by them selves. :D

 

Well, everything is relative of course. While I agree it's a ripoff, it's the standard price (and much of it is taxes ofc). But comparing prices to Romania doesn't quite work anyhow - we pay more for almost everything than you do, but we also have higher salaries. (Though a quick look at PPP numbers for Romania and Sweden does seem to make the case that this doesn't average out completely anyway; even though prices are higher here, we are still better off due to our much higher salaries - as long as we stay away from all those things that are heavily taxed because they are bad for us. :) )

[Hellfire257]

Blackshark 2 was a new game in the same sense that Windows 7 SP1 was a new OS.

[zaelu]

@EtherealN

 

I agree it won't be easy and a lot of mini problems might be in the way. Maybe ED could implement something made "in house" like the solution made above by Yellonet without conflicting with their contract with the DRM company.

 

@Hellfire257

 

I think your comparison is a bit too much... maybe between Windows 8 and 7? And then you have to look at how much Microbig is taxing for their new OS... So What ED was asking is quite nothing. And they also did offer what we asked... 1st an integration between Warthog and BS and then finally integration within DCS World. Sure that was the plan from the beginning but surely problems and costs slipped in between the plan and the realization of it... hence the extra 13$ from start. M$ gave us a start... page or wtf is that anyway... that we didn't asked for at a hefty price.