Auto update the GCF skin folder

[Darkowl]

It was a bit of time consuming to copy new files to my game directory so I thought about a solution to make it automatically.

 

Theory of Operation

1.

download and install the google drive app

https://www.google.com/drive/download/

2.

open Pauls Master Skin folder link

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xWuEKDhc7nKwmrjxNEixI6x1pPKULGTy?usp=sharing

3.

navigate to the skin folder and add it to your drive

4.

Go to the settings of backup and sync from google app on your computer and choose a folder to sync against. Mine is called "syncrodrive"

Every time Paul is changing something in the Master folder it will be changed in this syncrodrive.

If you change something in this syncrodrive it will not sync to Pauls Google-Drive  because you don't have a write permission to it.

If for some reason the google drive is corrupt or Paul is deleting it by accident the data is gone in the syncrodrive.

Therefor i would not recommend to sync directly into your game folder.

5.

Copy everything to your game folder

I do that with xcopy. It is part of Windows and it only copies new files or newer versions of files into the game folder.

It is not syncing. It does not delete anything in your game folder.

 

it is used like:

xcopy Source Destination option

full options can be read here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/xcopy

in my case it is:

xcopy  F:\SyncroDrive\skins "E:\Programme (x86)\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Moscow\data\skins" /s /e /d /y 

 

Be aware: The quotations are needed in path names with spaces in between. 

 

You can save that to a text file and rename it to like      xcopyil2.bat     so you only have to double-click that batch file to trigger an update from your syncrodrive to the game folder.

It can be done by right click on the desktop choose new - textfile than insert the command line save the text file and rename it.

The "syncrodrive" will sync on the fly if your pc is running and paul is changing something.

 

I don't claim that this is a perfect solution but it works for me.

If you have a better one feel free to post it here

 

see you in the sky

Stephan

 

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2019 by Darkowl

[NO.610jailor]

Wow Darkowl

Sounds great and will give it a go thank you.

 

Have to say at my age being a Coffin Dodger my head hurts reading your post LOL.

Ron.

[Darkowl]

If you need any further help or been stuck somewhere in the instruction drop me a note and I'll improve it.

[JGr2/J5_Baeumer]

4 hours ago, NO.610jailor said:

Wow Darkowl

Sounds great and will give it a go thank you.

 

Have to say at my age being a Coffin Dodger my head hurts reading your post LOL.

Ron.

 

...agreed, but still nothing compared to what we had to do to patch Red Baron 3D back in the day!  Thanks for your creative and relatively simple solution to a major obstacle, Darkowl!  This is a major contribution to further the development of supports to the community.

 

PS thanks also to GCFs hosting the main repository.

Edited January 30, 2019 by J5_Baeumer

[Darkowl]

It seems that the folder structure has changed and therefor my command isn't working correctly anymore or the program doesn't  look them up there anymore.

If someone is using this update method you have to correct the xcopy command.

In my case

 

from:

xcopy  F:\SyncroDrive\skins "E:\Programme (x86)\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Moscow\data\skins" /s /e /d /y 

to:

xcopy  F:\SyncroDrive\skins "E:\Programme (x86)\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Moscow\data\graphics\skins" /s /e /d /y

 

If you have any hint to that issue feel free to post it here.

 

 

[Guest deleted@83466]

Why not just use OVGME with a linked repository and just treat the .zip as if it were any old mod package?

 

Edited May 14, 2019 by SeaSerpent

[Darkowl]

Well, maybe because OVGME is abendon-ware and I don't have a clue on  how to add a Google drive to the repository.

If you know how to do it or if you have it working feel free to post it here.

On the other hand why not using the python Google drive API to write a script for that task?