Kuban Autumn Nth Africa Desert Beta upload - Updated version to 8. 10-01-2023

[Falcon41]

Rob,

     I’m having a similar issue as Jollyjack in that I keep getting the WitW splash screen at startup although I’ve removed WitW with JSGME.  Any thoughts?

Bill
 

 

[Off_Winters]

1 hour ago, Falcon41 said:

Rob,

     I’m having a similar issue as Jollyjack in that I keep getting the WitW splash screen at startup although I’ve removed WitW with JSGME.  Any thoughts?

Bill
 

 

G'day Bill,

Uninstall both the WiTW addon and the Desert Air War addon.

then navigate to:
IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\swf\il2\preloader\logo

and delete any images that show either the WiTW or DAW images.

Then reinstall one MOD at a time. I would suggest you do not install both at the same time as it appears there may be conflict.

regards Rob.

[Falcon41]

Rob,

     Did as you suggested, but I still get the WITW splash screen upon startup.  I’m only running your MOD.  By the way there were no images in the logo folder.

Bill

[Off_Winters]

9 hours ago, Falcon41 said:

Rob,

     Did as you suggested, but I still get the WITW splash screen upon startup.  I’m only running your MOD.  By the way there were no images in the logo folder.

Bill

G'day Bill,

Sorry I may have miss understood your problem, I was thinking load screen whilst mission was loading. but you may have been speaking to the actual game load screen. which I didn't think of initially as I haven't messed with that in the DAW mod.

if it is the main game load screen for WiTW your seeing then navigate to:

main game folder\data\swf\il2\assets\logo\big\wob
and 
main game folder\\data\swf\il2\assets\logo\big\bow

and delete any files you see.
 

regards Rob.

 

 

[Falcon41]

Rob,

     Thanks for the help, that got rid of the WitW screen at startup.  You've been a great help to me and I'm certain to others who have and are using your MOD.  Can't wait for the next version with all new skins and the map with Tunisian and N African names.  

Regards,

Bill

[Off_Winters]

Hi All,

A 24 squadron SAAF Boston MkIII, and revised squadron codes size and position on the P40's to match a better source.

 

[Off_Winters]

Revamping a couple of the included (and yet to be included) BF109E7 skins from 2K to 4k and revising weathering etc using the official supplied template by ICDP.

2./JG.27, black '3', flown by Obfl. Hermann Förster, Ain El Gazala Libya, Spring-Summer 1941. Almost all German fighters in North Africa were painted RLM79 'Sandgelb' a yellow/brown color, often with dark green patches to imitate the desert colors found across North Africa. This was not the case with Black 3, for whatever reason the ground crew kept it's unique camouflage from it's days with JG.3 mostly intact, changing what was 'necessary' for the North African theater of operations. The planes yellow nose was painted over leaving only the bottom of the nose it's previous yellow color. New unit codes were applied as was JG.27's unit crest to the nose. The yellow painted rudder was untouched creating a very unique appearance for a plane operating in North Africa.

 

 

 

3./JG.27 White '6', Gazala, Libya, September 1941. (single colour upper tropical paint, yellow nose).

 

 

Hans-Joachim Marseille, 3./JG.27 Yellow '13', Africa, September 24th, 1941. Nicknamed 'The star of Africa', he scored 4 victories on this day against Hurricanes of No. 1 Sqdn SAAF he would eventually score 158 kills total, before being killed on September 30th, 1942, Marseille’s G-2 caught fire and he was forced to bail out. He struck the tail knocking him unconscious or killing him instantly.

 

 

Lt. Werner Schröer, 1./JG.27, black '8', Ain El Gazala Libya, Spring-Summer 1941. Werner Schröer achieved a total of 114 victories during 197 operational flights, which included 12 in the East and 26 four-engined bombers. In August 1941 he engaged Australian ace Sqn/Ldr Clive Caldwell, No.112 Sqn RAF. in the engagement Caldwell sustained three separate wounds from ammunition fragments and shrapnel, and his P40 was hit by multiple bullets and cannon shells, but he shot down Schröer's wingman, and heavily damaged Schröer's 'Black 8', causing Schröer to disengage.

 

 

 

[Beebop]

Nice work.  ?️

[Blitzen]

Isn't there a tree fix somewhere for this?

Thanks for your work!

[Off_Winters]

8 hours ago, Blitzen said:

Isn't there a tree fix somewhere for this?

Thanks for your work!

G'day Blitzen,

Inside the zip file there are two folders, the second one "Kuban_Autum-1943_Desert_Beta_trees_add_last" contains the files to place trees back in game. Install the main mod folder with jsgme and then install the second folder with jsgme.

regards Rob.


 

 

[Blitzen]

8 hours ago, Off_Winters said:

G'day Blitzen,

Inside the zip file there are two folders, the second one "Kuban_Autum-1943_Desert_Beta_trees_add_last" contains the files to place trees back in game. Install the main mod folder with jsgme and then install the second folder with jsgme.

regards Rob.


 

 

Thanks...Stupid me I realized this as soon as i opened the zip....?

[Robert_Molders]

Brilliant work mate! Sorry for my prongued absence but in the  past months my family got to sustain a heavy dogfight with the Corona virus.

Fortunately we won, I'll be fully operational in a couple of days.

 

Salute Off_Winters!

[Beebop]

SKG210_Molders, congratulations on your victory!

[Off_Winters]

8 hours ago, SKG210_Molders said:

Brilliant work mate! Sorry for my prongued absence but in the  past months my family got to sustain a heavy dogfight with the Corona virus.

Fortunately we won, I'll be fully operational in a couple of days.

 

Salute Off_Winters!

Sorry to hear your family have been hit hard by COVID mate, but very happy your getting on top if it.

best wishes to all, regards Rob.

[Beebop]

?  OOPS!

I was loading a map retexture via JSGME and by mistake started loading your N.Africa mod.

I stopped the process midway (it takes a long time for your mod to install) but now I have a lot of the objects showing your desert textures.  Even if I have no retexture mods enabled.

Is there a way to remove these and where do I start looking?

Also if I remove them will the objects automatically revert to the default textures?

Right now the only way to get stock textures is to turns mods off.

(there needs to be an "Idiot Undo" feature for this game I swear!)

 

Also I have the skins for the mod as the defaults. ?

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Beebop

[Stonehouse]

Perhaps try loading the nth africa mod fully via JSGME and then unload it properly? You really do not want to stop JSGME or cancel it in mid flight. 

[Beebop]

34 minutes ago, No457_Stonehouse said:

Perhaps try loading the nth africa mod fully via JSGME and then unload it properly?

I tried that but it didn't work.

If I turn mods off, no problem.

With mods enabled and no mods installed via JSGME I get the object textures and desert plane skins as defaults.

Where would the game store these files?

 

Perhaps my only recourse will be to back up my Mission Files/input folders and uninstall the game then reinstall?

 

ADDENDUM:

While modifying my Custom Photos in the Plane > Textures folders, I noticed several .dds files with "!" (exclamation points) in front of them.  Opening them I saw they are what appear to be the "Desert Default" skins for the N.Africa mod. 

Would that be correct?

If I delete them would I get my stock skins back when Mods on was enabled?

That would only leave me with the object textures.

Would they too have the "!" in front of them?

If so would it be safe to delete them (once I find them) to get the stock textures back?

Edited May 3, 2021 by Beebop

[Stonehouse]

Hmm I think this was what the JSGME game file snapshot functionality was supposed to help with. It's been a long time.

 

Pretty much the game files are in .gtp files as you probably know and with mods on the game will look for files outside the gtp files (which are conceptually like a zip file I think) and use them in preference to the ones in the gtp files if found. So if you are still getting a residue of the desert mod with mods off then stock game files which normally live outside the gtp files must have been overwritten is my thought. JSGME as I understand it works by finding the equivalent of a inbound mod file, making a back up of the game file and then copying the mod file over the top of the game file. Uninstalling the mod reverses the process I believe and copies the back up into the game folder. 

 

You may be forced to reinstall although I would wait until someone smarter than me gives you some feedback, there might be a trick you can use. Attaching the manual in case it helps you.

 

JSGME.zip

Edited May 3, 2021 by No457_Stonehouse

[Off_Winters]

Hi Beebop,

super quick answer, with the Desert Mod uninstalled.

Open the desert mod folder in one windows explorer window, and then open your games data folder in another explorer window. now go through folder by folder and compare content. if you see a file listed in the desert mod folder also in your game data folder location, then delete that file out of the data folder location.

you wont have to reinstall.

I'll edit this post when I get back to camp after work and put in some screen shots to help.

regards Rob.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Off_Winters

[Beebop]

2 hours ago, Off_Winters said:

Open the desert mod folder in one windows explorer window, and then open your games data folder in another explorer window. now go through folder by folder and compare content. if you see a file listed in the desert mod folder also in your game data folder location, then delete that file out of the data folder location.

Well I removed every file with an exclamation point starting the file name but I still get desert textures.

I am leery of deleting everything that matches because I'm afraid that I'll lose some stock textures and the game won't load.

 

Sorry for taking you away from your important work.  Do not feel under any obligation to help out someone like me who acted before thinking. 

I have filled out form ID-10T.

[Stonehouse]

If you don't have it already I can recommend tools like winmerge (free as far as I know for personal use) to compare folders and files and highlight differences to maybe make your job easier. There are others out there as well.

[Robert_Molders]

Another small error that is easy to be found and that can be checked quickly.

Check that your mod folder is located in the correct path. 

It must be not in the " data " folder but instead in Your Drive\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad

 

[Beebop]

23 minutes ago, SKG210_Molders said:

Check that your mod folder is located in the correct path. 

It is.  The 'MODS' folder is in the main game folder outside of "data".

(i am not a Steam user btw but thanks)

 

@457_Stonehous, I will check out Winmerge.  Sounds like a timesaver and in my case, an error preventer.

 

[Off_Winters]

1 hour ago, Beebop said:

 

I am leery of deleting everything that matches because I'm afraid that I'll lose some stock textures and the game won't load.

 

Hi Beebop,

Uninstall all your mods, not just Desert Air war and then work through the folders comparing the content of the Desert mod to your data folder structure. will take you about 15 minutes.

any files you see in the folders are extracted from the GTP files. you cant lose any stock files by deleting files here. the game will simply use the files contained in the GTP files if it doesn't see a file in a folder first. that's how mods work, an extracted file in the folder is seen by the game before it finds it in the GTP file. it then uses that file in the folder instead of the one in the GTP file.

if unsure just make a copy of your entire data folder and if it goes pair shaped you have a back up to fall back on. 

files with ! marks are the smaller version of full textures used for long distance or low level of detail (LOD) rendering. you need to delete the files as they are named fully in conjunction with the files named with ! at the start.

regards Rob.

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by Off_Winters

[Beebop]

Ummm, OK.  I'll backup 'data' first though.

[Off_Winters]

9 minutes ago, Beebop said:

Ummm, OK.  I'll backup 'data' first though.

you'll be right mate, just take your time.

[Beebop]

WHEW!  ?

 Looks like all is back to "normal".  ?

1 hour ago, Off_Winters said:

will take you about 15 minutes.

?  HAHAHAHAHA!!!  More like an hour.  ?  But I took my time and it appears to have been worth it.  No more default desert planes or desert textures on objects.  And if I find something I overlooked I know how to fix it.

I have learned a valuable lesson.  And although I still couldn't mod a phone booth into an outhouse I do know a lot more about how mods work thanks to you.

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH for you help and patience with an old duffer like me.

 

@457_Stonehous, thanks for the link to Winmerge.  Honestly I couldn't figure it out but I'm keeping it for possible future use.  I appreciate the suggestion.

[Stonehouse]

You basically select two folders or objects and then right click on the selected objects and run winmerge and it will identify the differences. Makes comparison of all sorts of files very easy and also folders. Probably worth reading up on the game file snap shot feature of JSGME and perhaps running it as it may have made resolving the issue easier. Anyway glad to hear you are back up and running ok again.

 

LOL I am going to have to contact the 1C tech support guys and get my username changed to get rid of the underscore so it becomes No457Stonehouse and fits on one line ?. Either that or pretend I belong to a Axis squadron and become Stonehaus

Edited May 4, 2021 by No457_Stonehouse

[Beebop]

I have one niggling issue left.

In the planes setup menu and in the viewer I have the DAW names for the planes instead of the stock names.  i.e. instead of "White" for the winter skin I have "XXX Algeria" for example.  The skins are correct, just the names are wrong.  I have looked through all the folders in the mod and can't seem to find where this info is located.  I was thinking maybe the "swf" folder but found nothing that looked right.

Other than that everything else seems in order.

TIA

[Stonehouse]

*Might* be the skins.tab.eng file under \Kuban_Autum-1943_Desert_Beta_4\data\graphics\skins in the mod folder and IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles\data\graphics\skins in the game folder

[Beebop]

By Jove I believe you struck the nail on the head! ?

I took out that file and now both the setup menu and the viewer display the correct names!

Edited May 4, 2021 by Beebop

[Beebop]

?

Still some lingering issues.

Some planes still show DAW skins as defaults and replacements.  Notably the Hurricane/P-39/SpitVb/SpitIXe.

In the QMB mission setup menu the previews are correct but when I start the mission and go to the planes Setup menu the DAW skins appear.  Like in the QMB mission setup menu the previews are correct but the wrong skin loads.

In my game folder data > graphics > Planes > Textures, all I have is the 'B' normal map and the Custom photo.

The DAW skins show up in game and in the viewer.

Removing the "skins.tab.eng file" got rid of the DAW naming.

Where oh where can I find whatever it is that gives me these DAW skins?

[Beebop]

So my current solution is to delete all desert skins in my skins folder.  So far that's worked.  However if I can find out what script/file causes the game to load DAW skins I would like to remove that too in the event that when I install and uninstall the mod I don't find myself back with default DAW skins.

 

I figure I'm not going to fly desert skins on the stock maps (although Western Stalingrad and Western Moscow Autumn are pretty "deserty" although deserted is a better description) so I'll just use the desert skins the mod installs.

 

On a side note I always wondered why they gave us "official" desert skins if they didn't have plans for a desert map?  I've never seen an Eastern Front plane in desert camo colors around Stalingrad/Moscow/Kuban nor heard of it.

 

In the meantime this solution works although I won't be surprised to find another 'anomaly'.

[Stonehouse]

I think there are quick mission templates somewhere but I wouldn't have thought they would be impacted by the desert mod. Have you tried using Vanders EMG instead for quick missions? Just to see if the problem persists (but also you will get more interesting quick missions).

[Robert_Molders]

You can also check the files integrity via Steam. This will revert your game to vanilla ( Updated to the last patch ) so don't forget to save/make a backup first of your eventual custom settings like for example the keybindings, video settings, etc

Edited May 5, 2021 by SKG210_Molders

[Beebop]

5 hours ago, SKG210_Molders said:

You can also check the files integrity via Steam. This will revert your game to vanilla ( Updated to the last patch ) so don't forget to save/make a backup first of your eventual custom settings like for example the keybindings, video settings, etc

Non-Steamer.  I don't like the idea of a "middle man" for the game.  I also use mods so their "automatic update" feature I don't like.  When an update comes along I disable all mods and backup my 'input' folder first, as you suggested, so if the game modifies my settings I can get them back easily.  And I can reload my mods one at a time and see if the update breaks any of them so I'm not left wondering why the game won't start/looks wonky/acts like it took drugs. ?

But I know a lot of people like Steam and more power to them, I'm just not one of them.

[Robert_Molders]

@Off_Winters I'm working on the tank skins description but I have a question....

 

In the skins.tab file it seems that to each skin is assigned a unique ID ( The one highlighted in red in the sample quote below ).

 

Any idea to what they are related/needed or which ones must be assigned? ( So far I've given the skins random ones and it seems to work. I'm just curious to know what are they for/their function. )

 

Quote ( Only the part of interest )

 

"graphics\Skins\_PzVI-H1\pzvih1_01.dds" "0B5B800C" "1"

Edited May 24, 2021 by Robert_Molders

[DD_Friar]

Salute

I have just tried this mod for the first time having been following the thread with much interest.

 

I applied the mod via JSGME. I did not include the tress option.

I created a deathmatch map and created a single tank spawn. The spawn point only had M4A2's, it was a linked entity with a nationality of Great Britain.

 

When I start the mission up I see the spawn point as I would expect but when I click on the spawn point nothing happens other the screen going dark (see below). I left it for quite a while. As soon as I click on the mouse the screen goes bright again.

 

Any thoughts?

[Off_Winters]

On 5/25/2021 at 1:55 AM, Robert_Molders said:

@Off_Winters I'm working on the tank skins description but I have a question....

 

Quote ( Only the part of interest )

 

"graphics\Skins\_PzVI-H1\pzvih1_01.dds" "0B5B800C" "1"

G'day Rob,

I believe they tie in somehow to how the game validates content, but like you I have not had any issues with them when assigning new skins.

regards Rob.

On 5/27/2021 at 2:52 AM, DD_Friar said:

Salute

I have just tried this mod for the first time having been following the thread with much interest.

 

I applied the mod via JSGME. I did not include the tress option.

I created a deathmatch map and created a single tank spawn. The spawn point only had M4A2's, it was a linked entity with a nationality of Great Britain.

 

When I start the mission up I see the spawn point as I would expect but when I click on the spawn point nothing happens other the screen going dark (see below). I left it for quite a while. As soon as I click on the mouse the screen goes bright again.

 

Any thoughts?

Sorry DD_Friar,

the mission builder and hosting online are not something I'm that familiar with. I play online with a group and we use the desert mod a lot, but its hosted by one of the guys I've never had to set one up.

I'm sure others may be able to point you in the right direction though.

regards Rob. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by Off_Winters

[Blitzen]

As stated in earlier posts I really like this mod & appreciate all the work involved but because of a recent re-install & in the process of “loading” Mods from JSGME ,I found a weird glitch showing up : Sun lens visual anomalies that appear as glowing geometric shapes where default lens effects used to show up.After much testing I finally pinned it down to this mod,by loading this mod first & viewing the effect in game, then by removing it & finding “clear skies” were back. Normally I would have said this could be caused by an interaction with another mod ( like say “Remove lens effect” one of the first available mod from years ago..) but in testing it all by itself I thave honk I can definitely say its this mod interacting with something in my default install and/or the way my PC deals with it. Others appear not to be having this problem, so clearly it must be a glitch on my end, but the result is that I’ve sadly had to disable it…perhaps you have an idea what I should do next…perhaps install most but not all its folder ( like say at least add its missions to my mission folder?