Hello All.
The point of this post is just to cover all the problems I faced installing HSFX with il-2 1946 and how they were overcome either from reading posts from others or just trial and error to get it working to HSFX 7.0.3. I will list each problem I faced and how it was solved most of the information here will be from posts all over the internet that I have been trying to accumulate for the past few days. Hopefully this will help someone else avoid all the problems and make the experience a bit smoother and less frustrating. Atleast that is what i hope.
Firstly I would suggest you install il2 1946. It doesn't matter if it was from Steam or GOG I have both and i confirm that this method works on both.
You can choose to have multiple installations. Steam install does have a few options within the settings of il-2 1946 that aren't in the GOG version of it but they are minor and some adjustments can be done in the conf.ini to adjust for that which i will come to later once all the installation is complete. Once again these are all parts of information that i have acquired from many sites on the internet. I just used trial and error till i could get a combination to work.
Once you have il-2 1946 Vanilla installed go ahead and start the game and confirm the version number it is at at the bottom left. If you install the GOG version it should come to 4.10.1 and if you install the steam version it will be 4.12.2m. Both versions are fine for HSFX. If you have the GOG version please make sure you go here
http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=4407 and update the game to vanilla 4.12.2m. Whichever platform you use make sure after the game is updated to 4.12.2m that you run the game once atleast.
Go here
http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=1787 and download the HSFX 7.0 files ( The reason for this is because that is the last official update without the auto updater since the AUTOUPDATER SERVER IS OFFLINE) We need to manually patch to HSFX 7.0.3 which i will detail out as to how it is done towards the end so that the order of events is correct. Make sure you download these files all to one folder on your HDD before you run them.
Once all the files are in a common folder you then have to click on the HSFX 7.0.exe file that will begin the installation process. You will have to show the installer where your il-2 1946 folder is since it needs to replace a few files for HSFX to work. Pay attention to the installation since it will require you to say ok twice to the other two exe files that exist in the common folder that you downloaded all the HSFX files to.
Once HSFX 7 is installed you will notice a few changes in the il-2 1946 folder. Firstly it has replaced many files, Secondly it has added a file called JSGME.exe which is a mod switcher that you require in order to either add or remove different mods something like subscribing to and downloading from within the steam workshop for those of you who do use steam and are familiar with it. The other thing it has added to the il2 1946 folder is is a folder called jsgmemods this simply is the folder where the JSGME mod switcher stores the mods that can be activated from within the JSGME program
Once that is installed you will require to run the JSGME switcher and make sure atleast two of the mods are loaded. First being HSFX history MOD and the second being Expert MOD. Any other mods are up to you but do not add the 4.12.1 mod for now atleast. Once that is done click on il2fb.exe or run from steam and make sure the loading screen starts up with 4.12.2m HSFX 7.0 Expert written right where the percentage of game loaded is at the starting splashscreen. You can now quit the game and now we can go ahead download the updates to HSFX 7 to upgrade to 7.0.3
Download the manual update to HSFX 7.0.3 here
http://vfa-41.net/1946_Updates.phpmake sure you go in to JSGME switcher and DEACTIVATE all mods before you install this update. Once again you download the zip file and unzip all the files to the il2 1946 folder where your il2fb.exe exists. It will ask you to overwrite some files. Go ahead and do so since the auto updater would do the same if the updater was working.
Once that is done open up the JSGME switcher and select the same two mods atleast which are the HSFX history MOD and Expert MOD the others are up to you but do not load the 4.12.1 mod. When the game starts loading at the splashscreen you should now see HSFX 7.0.3 EXPERT it is very important to confirm this.
Once you have done that you should be good to go. Just remember you can install as many copies of il-2 1946 as you like with all different mods on them they will all work accordingly. For me personally i only use HSFX i've not yet confused myself with the CUP mods or the Full Monty Mods but at some point i might do that for now i just want to enjoy this game. Below this i'm going to detail out a few problems i got into when installing HSFX and how they were solved.
Problem 1
HSFX autoupdater installs to a point where it says C++ version that you have on your computer is NEWER than the one that is provided with the HSFX autoupdater program. The continue button is greyed out and only the Finish or Close button is available.
Solution 1
Don't use the updater (It is offline for sometime now). I have seen people confuse this step mostly because it wasn't explained well. When you install the autoupdater it creates a file in the il-2 directory with the name of HSFX_Client_Updater.exe That is the file you would have needed to run to communicate witht he auto updater server and download the files for the update I've found many people confuse this with the INSTALLATION FILE of the auto updater thinking that the installation file will perform the update. That isn't true it just installs a file in the il21946 directory that you have to run to update the actual program.
Problem 2
Client Updater stops after you show it the il-2 directory and says "Check Your Internet Connection" Even though you have all sorts of webpages open
Solution 2
There isn't a solution it is simply because the update server is currently down and you need to manually upgrade from HSFX 7 to HSFX 7.0.3 using the method that i have explained above.
Problem 3
I installed HSFX 7.0 and tried running the game and it was fine till I got a flight going and it keeps crashing to desktop either after 30-40 seconds or when you see another plane.
Solution 3
You have not updated to HSFX 7.0.3. For some reason HSFX 7.0 crashes to desktop when you try to get into the game without manually updating to HSFX 7.0.3. I think it is to do with a 64bit system in some way but i have no evidence to back it up i only say this because i had everything the same as i do now except i had windows 7 and HSFX 7.0 running at 32bit till i installed 100 GB of ram only to realise that a 32bit system would not support it and so wouldn't the Home version of windows 7. That was the only change i've had since i've had a host of issues with il2 and HSFX. You need to read above where it shows you how to manually update to HSFX 7.0.3 and that update makes everything stable once again.
Lastly I will post about how to make Il-2 look its best possible. Again all the links and files and information i have provided is not my own i'm just putting everything in my own words because i had to go through many sources to actually compile all the information together which i don't know why someone wouldn't think is confusing if you are installing all this new.
The following post is found at
http://www.gog.com/forum/il_2_sturmovik_1946/make_il2_pretty_guide by a person named Gunrun. All credit goes to him or her I am literally copy and pasting this because this is the guide i followed. The only difference is that the person states that ATI Cards cannot be made to go Water level above 2. I have found this untrue. I have a Radeon 290X at 6gb and i see a clear difference from using Water 2 and Water 4. Again maybe this could be the older ATI cards he or she is referring to but if you have a similar card to mine you can push it to 4.
(By Gunrun)
For this I'm going to assume you have a vaugly modern graphics card here. A 7 series Nvidia or an x1XXX series ATI or above. Things in bold should be set by anyone though.
1. Make sure the game is set to OpenGL, and set the graphics card to the 6 series one if you have an Nvidia, or the x800 one if you have ATI. Check if your resolution is selectable within the config. If it is thats cool, if not we'll sort that later. Launch the game, make sure everything is set to highest (if perfect is blank on landscape you have not set the game to OpenGL)
Now quit the game.
2. Go to your base IL2 folder and open conf.ini with notepad.
If you couldn't find your naitive resolution set width= and height= to your desired settings, and make sure SaveAspect is set to 0.
3. Now scroll all the way down to [Render_OpenGL] and keep on scrolling a bit till you see HardwareShaders=. If it isn't set to 1 set it to 1. Now go to Forrest and set it to 3 (This gives you much better individual trees but it won't improve the "forrests" that are really just 3 layered transparent flat surfaces above each other sadly. Set Water to either 2 if you have an ATI card (The game is hard coded not to accept anything higher even if you set your card to Nvidia in the configuration thing, dispite newer ATI cards being capable of higher). If you have Nvidia set it to either 3 or 4. As far as I remember 3 is less hardware intensive but looks slightly worse. Also set Effects to 2.
In your video cards control panel force AA to X4 as this makes everything look way way nicer.
Now the game will be looking at its best!
(A note - if you have crazy looking ground effects in the game and are on an ATI card go to the control panel, then 3D and set Catalyst AI to Standard.)
Thank you for reading this. I hope i have been able to combine all the common problems into one place along with procedure to properly install this wonderful MOD. I thank the whole SAS team for them helping me figure this out and being patient with me and my questions and hosting this forum that we all can use and educate ourselves with. If there are any questions please ask me I am not one of those people who won't answer repetitive questions I will answer them and explain things as many times as is needed as long as the person is trying to understand. If i've missed something out or a problem that you are facing let me know and i will add it in so that this guide can become more comprehensive.