Can purchased files be saved to dvd rather than installer

[demile]

Hi, I am new here. I just bought battle of stalingrad and kuban. Is there a way to save to dvd as opposed to using installer. i like hard copies for purchases. Thx.

[ShamrockOneFive]

The installer is just a conduit for the sim to be downloaded to your PC. It's a live product so saving it to a DVD isn't going to do much for you as another patch will come along and immediately make whatever was on the DVD out of date. Patches come out every 4-8 weeks typically (plus hotfixes).

[AEthelraedUnraed]

*Can* you save the IL2 files to a DVD? Sure. Just like you can copy any file on your PC to a DVD.

 

Is there even a single use to it? Nope. First of all, a DVD is too small to hold the entire game, so you'll need more than one DVD. Besides, I don't think you can run it from a DVD (IL2 writes to some files in its directory, and it can't do that with a DVD) and even if you could, it would be much too slow for your game to run well. As a backup then? Sure, but if anything goes wrong you can just re-install the game. Besides, DVDs are really bad value for money these days. Just buy an external hard disk. I did a quick search, and a DVD costs about €0.10 for each GB. With a bit of searching, you can find external HDDs for a quarter of that price. *And* it's almost a hundred times faster, *and* they're much easier to use, *and* the average disk these days can store about 200 times as much data, *and* you can play directly from the external HDD if you desire so.

 

(I told y'all that IL2 was coming to DVD, back in the DVD speculation thread )

Edited May 3, 2021 by AEthelraedUnraed

[Ghost666]

2 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

you can play directly from the external HDD if you desire so.

Question, (a little off subject) if you play from a external SSD using a USB connection will it slow down the game? 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

1 hour ago, Ghost666 said:

Question, (a little off subject) if you play from a external SSD using a USB connection will it slow down the game? 

Well, that's a harder question that it looks like.

 

First, it depends on the USB protocol (note that the disk, the cable and the USB port on your PC all have to support a higher protocol for it to work). If it's a modern USB 3.1 connection, it can transmit up to 1.25 GBps (Gigabytes per second). USB 3.0 is about half that, USB 2.0 a tenth of 3.0 and I won't even bother to mention USB 1.0. This is the theoretical maximum, but sustained data transfer rates will likely be much lower.

 

Secondly, it depends on the SSD. An average SSD will read around 0.5 GBps and a fast one something like 3 GBps. That means that, for large files, the data throughput of an external disk may be higher if you've got a really good external SSD with USB 3.1 and a rather old internal SSD, or even a HDD. For small files the USB connection may be the limiting factor. All of this doesn't include latency though, since because of the extra overhead of the USB connection, it takes a little extra time for information you send from your RAM (or wherever) to be received by the SSD, or vice versa. So for *really* small files, the internal SSD will again be faster.

 

Of course, if you've got a good internal SSD, the external one will be slower in pretty much every circumstance. Then again, if you've still got a HDD, I suspect an external SSD will be faster in almost every circumstance, even if you use USB 3.0 and an average SSD (if you've still got a HDD, please upgrade. There's nothing that upgrades a computer's speed more than upgrading from a HDD to an SSD).

 

Then there's still the question of how much this really matters for IL2. You should be able to notice a faster SSD on things like loading a map. For flying itself, I don't think you'll notice a thing.

 

You see I haven't really been able to give you a concrete answer, yet I still hope this answers your question

Edited May 3, 2021 by AEthelraedUnraed

[Zeev]

Just put your SDD inside the PC case, its not mechanical so you can just drop it somewhere and connect the SATA cable. When you are connecting it be sure to connect to the fastest port in your motherboard.

[unlikely_spider]

I like having a physical copy too, but I haven't yet upgraded to a DVD drive. The other posters are correct though - it does take quite a while for the sim to load.

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

1 hour ago, Zeev said:

Just put your SDD inside the PC case, its not mechanical so you can just drop it somewhere and connect the SATA cable. When you are connecting it be sure to connect to the fastest port in your motherboard.

Well, you need a PC with a free SATA port and an easily removable cover. But yeah, sure, if you have those then it might be a little faster (or it might not; as I explained above you need a good SSD before a USB 3.1 connection becomes the limiting factor for large files). Personally I use a laptop, so I have neither.

 

But still a good advice; for some people this may be a fine solution.

[Ghost666]

Thank you all for your replies. I have a 3 year old lap gaming lap top (so putting it inside might be a problem) and the SSD I have no idea how old it is. Got from my brother's estate over a year ago, don't know how long he had it. I tried it last night and had micro stutters even in SP. So I guess I will stick with my low settings in my lap top for the next 16 months. Then after I retire and get off the road, I will get a good system for home. 

 

ok my bad, that was not last night I tried it, it was earlier today. working nights will mess with you.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Ghost666