How do you repack Il2 SFS files?

[gijs71 0]

On a russian forum i found out how to unpack the SFS files,

But ho do you put it back together... i get a lot of files which one can read and edit, but no idea what to do next,

I am not a programmer. I just want to fly all aircraft OFFLINE (i hate 1946 with the fantasy AC)

My Russian is to bad to understand exactly what the are doing, i just used the software they mentioned and experimented with it and hey it deflates the SFS file !! I can read it, and it has al lot of info in there as clear text.

 

The russian guys are modifing it (so i think it will be for online playing)

 

(i dont want to spoil online play so i wont tell what software, but perhaps someone can help me repack it)

[mohamed adam 0]

On a russian forum i found out how to unpack the SFS files,

But ho do you put it back together... i get a lot of files which one can read and edit, but no idea what to do next,

I am not a programmer. I just want to fly all aircraft OFFLINE (i hate 1946 with the fantasy AC)

My Russian is to bad to understand exactly what the are doing, i just used the software they mentioned and experimented with it and hey it deflates the SFS file !! I can read it, and it has al lot of info in there as clear text.

 

The russian guys are modifing it (so i think it will be for online playing)

 

(i dont want to spoil online play so i wont tell what software, but perhaps someone can help me repack it)

 

COULD YOU PLS GIVE ME LINK TO THAT RUSSIAN FORUM ????

Edited March 18, 2007 by mohamed adam

[gijs71 0]

COULD YOU PLS GIVE ME LINK TO THAT RUSSIAN FORUM ????

 

http://www.timqwerty.narod.ru

[eraser_tr 29]

So you managed to find it. THANK YOU!

 

Now if I can only find what files determines what maps are available for quick missions, and how to give cockpits to AI planes to make them flyable.

Edited August 7, 2007 by eraser_tr

[keith 0]

No wonder I suck at online IL-2...

[eraser_tr 29]

AFAIK, they implemented checks against changing game files in 4.08.

 

Why can't online IL2 players grasp the concept of modding a game without cheating in multiplayer? I haven't played online since pacific fighters first came out.

 

Really, what is so wrong with wanting to fly the P-36, the morane fighters or TBM, what's wrong with wanting to fly over a desert map in quick combat? For all the whining about torpedo bombers, this kind of thing should be welcome.

[a3828401 0]

Hi all, I've downloaded these tools and have fooled around with them, also found a little tutorial on replacing skins:

 

....................................................................................................

 

1. Download everything from the website I pointed, it can get deleted too.

2. Place the il-2_sturmovik_wrapper_patch.exe in uoyr Il-2 folder and run it. This will patch il2fb.exe so it can use contents not only from .sfs archives, but from "files" folder. (Backup of il2fb.exe will be created)

3. Create "files" folder in Il-2 main directory. This is where all mods will go.

4. Create filelist.txt in Il-2 main directory. mods will be listed here.

5. About the skins: every default paintscheme consists of 4 files:

skin1o.tgb

skin1o.tga

skin1p.tga

skin1q.tga

How to get them?

Make sure, that in conf.ini parameter "ClearCache" is set to "0"; them run QMB (or any mission) once on a plane with desired skin on. Exit the game and find those 4 files in PaintSchemes=>Cache=>AC name

6. All content you put in should be listed in filelist.txt. To insert skin, we have to find out path for it. Take sfs_extractor_v2.0_beta_11.rar, see filelist.txt in there, all files are listed, but it is rather hard to find what exactly you need. Another way -- use sfs-extractor itself to open .sfs archives to look at real file listing. Search for .tgb with corresponding plane name.

 

Example:

For summer skin of B-109F4 our filelist.txt should content this:

3DO/Plane/Bf-109F-4/summer/skin1o.tga

3DO/Plane/Bf-109F-4/summer/skin1o.tgb

3DO/Plane/Bf-109F-4/summer/skin1p.tga

3DO/Plane/Bf-109F-4/summer/skin1q.tga

 

7. So, in "files" folder you create folder tree 3DO/Plane/Bf-109F-4/summer and put 4 skin files in.

 

DONE! Works fine, offline and online.

 

As for sound, download first sond mod from here: http://www.rapidshare.ru/361063

And see for yourself how it is done.

 

....................................................................................................

 

Question is, has anybody with a western europe or NA version of the game got this to work? When I run the wrapper it says the il2fb.exe is the wrong size. I have tried .exe's 4.08, 4.03, 4.01, etc, and no joy.

 

Anybody with a positive experience out there?

[eraser_tr 29]

had no idea what the wrapper was for....will try it when i get home.

 

EDIT: Wrapper patch worked perfectly fine. I have whichever version was released in the UK and shipped to america from gogamer.com.

 

Now, how to go about giving the MS.406, MS.410 and Morko Morane the hurricane's cockpit, P-36 the P-40B's cockpit, and the Avenger the SBD cockpit. Anyone know Ketegey's email? he was the one who did this a while back and showed off the flyable morane and 6 DOF for trackIR.

Edited August 8, 2007 by eraser_tr

[Hellzone 0]

I dident Ither. Now I know. Only Problem is my Exe Will not work. I need the russian one along with the russian file.sfs from what i understand.

[Dagger 21]

Ok it's good to be able to mod a game,BUT from what I understand most of these mods are pirated.I am checking into this,if this is the case just a note to everyone,Combatce will not tolerrate that and this post will disappear and warnings will be issued.

IL-2 is only moddable with permission from Maddox is my understanding,but like i said I am checking so I will be 100% sure before anything is done.If I am wrong then make a post and point me to the part that says it's ok.the fact you have to change exe files and it won't work on line makes me very leary of this.

[eraser_tr 29]

[Hellzone 0]

My option, your not sending the whole game. So can you call that piracy ? I wouldent think so.

[FastCargo 412]

Depends. You don't have to copy a whole music album to be considered illegal.

 

FastCargo

[Hellzone 0]

well atleast someone is on my side..... and i bought my game. Is it illegal to mess with files with another person who has payed for the game ? This has became a debate LOL

[eraser_tr 29]

Piracy is allowing people who don't have the game to own it without paying for it (or use its content in another game), so modding a game really can't be considered piracy/illegal. Nor would a tool for modding, if the SFS extractor was piracy, then so would be the strike fighters CAT extractor. It's not a matter of legality, its who likes and doesn't like it.

 

Stop and think for a second, if the IL2 online players weren't so vocal and psychotically obsessively paranoid about cheating, then some concern about compatability, there'd have been a huge modding community for IL2 long ago. SoW:BoB, they're going to support adding planes, maps etc.

 

What you do with a game you've bought it is entirely up to you. If its on my hard drive I own it and nobody has the right to say I can't change it.

[Hellzone 0]

Yes of course, but rumors mean s**t. Look at halo 2.... It was spose to have 3 new hogs, ATV, and more weapons, But did it ? Storm of war looks like it will kick ass, but if modding is not allowed it would suck. One Reason I want il2 modded is the fun it would allow me to have. AI aircraft could become a open book, and the level of fun on my part would be Increased. Flying the same dam planes over and over get boreing after a while and the game turns to mush. I still play it, but not like i used to sadly.

[eraser_tr 29]

Well thats not rumor thats from the developers. They also are going to have stock only servers so people can play hassle free like IL2.

 

What really got me was reading a year or so back was that the person who implements completed planes into the game only does the ones he likes and interested in, not what players want, even if its ready( like the fokker DXXI or CW-21 demon) and as we've seen from patches, his interests are apparently minor russian varients with tiny differences in engines, weapons and performance.

 

Cheating online, yes some people will do it, but thats the same for anything. What they don't understand is the flight sim crowd appreciates realism. If you want to put six 30mm canons on a P.11 that goes 600mph, you probably fly the arcade types

[Hellzone 0]

me arcade... thats funny. Alot of the stuff in that game has great realisim to it, but never the less theres tons of stuff thats just not like it should be. Many people hate the sounds, have you listened to the p-51 ? Sounds nothing like the real thing. Alot of same sounds are used for multiple aircraft, sad you cant even change thos without extracting from the sounds.sfs Dont get me wrong all of us hate cheating, makes the game get so boreing so quick. but the extact same thing happens when you play a game that dosent seem to change very much over a long time. Thats my opion, many of you flyboys play every day regardless, but what ever. This is getting way off topic so im going to stop while im ahead.

[+Brain32 265]

Why can't online IL2 players grasp the concept of modding a game without cheating in multiplayer? I haven't played online since pacific fighters first came out.

Because it's NOT possible, if you had ever played il2 online you would know that many people jump at every and any possibility to cheat or simply exploit bugs in game to gain advantage in virtual combat. Cracking of the il2 code would mean the end of il2 multiplayer.

 

if the SFS extractor was piracy, then so would be the strike fighters CAT extractor. It's not a matter of legality, its who likes and doesn't like it.

You are in this case very wrong, TK encourages modding of his game, Maddox resents it big time. SFS exctractor is actually in violation because it violates(reverse engeneering) intelectual property of 1C without their consent.

On official forums as is on all major il2 forums including the Russian one where SFS Extractor first showed up, topics such as this are a bannable offense, I think that says everything about Maddox position on modding his game.

Other than that for next(and most probably last) il2 patch, a complete protection re-write is planned to once again prevent messing with SFS files. This did not only delay the last il2 update v409, but also Maddox next generation simulation, SoW:BoB.

 

 

My personal opinion on il2 modding: If it could be done for offline only with no possibility to use the mods online, I would love it.

[JediMaster 451]

There's a 1.09 coming out? I'd not even heard.

[eraser_tr 29]

It's not a matter of legality, its who likes and doesn't like it. If the SFS extractor was illegal, then so would be the CAT extractor, legality can't center around if someone encourages something or not.

 

Maddox only resents it because his player base is psychotically against it. And yes it is possible, and really, why cheat? it's a freaking game! It's not like there's money being bet on these games or something. If you lose, it makes no difference to anyone, and if it does to the point you'd want to cheat, you're too immature to be playing a game online anyway. Or simply start your own server with all the realism settings turned off so you can fly however you want.

 

And anything they don't like is a banable offense, they banned what's his name for studying the flight models and comparing them against real data to show the flight models weren't accurate.

[+Brain32 265]

And anything they don't like is a banable offense, they banned what's his name for studying the flight models and comparing them against real data to show the flight models weren't accurate.

And who would that be? Please name that guy, I'm in il2 for nearly 4 years now and I can say that I definitely belong in the very top of those who complain, the chart monkeys are what they call us. Nobody was ever banned for that, actually many changes grew out of those complaints if they were legit.

 

...legality can't center around if someone encourages something or not.

And how is that? Hey let me ask you something, if LinuX is free then Windows must be free too, say that to 'ol Bill ;)

 

It's not like there's money being bet on these games or something. If you lose, it makes no difference to anyone, and if it does to the point you'd want to cheat, you're too immature to be playing a game online anyway.

I agree, and the "Joe" next to you agree and a 1000people more maybe, but not all will. Yes cheating is bad and immature but it happens, not only that it happens but it's wide spreaded among ALL popular online games, il2 was clean(and still is). You could log on to the server knowing that all the people fly same planes under same laws of physics. Competition is possible in such conditions and online play has a meaning, a reason to be used. Once cheats kick in, online play dies, ofcourse we are not thrilled with that.

 

Maddox only resents it because his player base is psychotically against it.

This is not entirely true, more than once did Maddox share our "psychosis" ;)

 

There's a 1.09 coming out? I'd not even heard.

Yes 4.09 was on the way, if it wasn't for this breach, we would maybe already play around with it. It's suppose to bring 3 new maps, a wagonload of new objects and new default skins for a number of "old" planes, maybe even more but "only" this was mentioned :)

[eraser_tr 29]

I think his name was tagert or something like that.

 

windows and linux are entirely different. windows is a commercial product, whereas linux is an open source OS. Both the SFS and CAT extractor are 3rd party developed tools, kind of like winzip, but specialized for specific archive formats.

 

Do you really think people will go through all the effort required to mod the game, just to cheat online? from the way things look, it's not just extract file, open in notepad, change and save. Poof! uber UFO P.11c! It looks like you have to decompile things in order to make any real changes besides things like sounds and textures. The average person won't be able to.

 

people cheat to win and cheat because they don't want to put the effort in to win legitimately, why would they put more effort in to cheat than it would to just work up your skills?

 

Also, the tiny bit of online playing I did when I ffirst got the game, people were already bitching about cheating....it wouldn't make a difference, people who lost will bitch about cheating because they didn't win even if there was no way to cheat. And shouldn't every server simply run those checks to validate files?

[+Brain32 265]

I think his name was tagert or something like that.

TAGERT? Oh he is alive and kickin' He wasn't banned because of testing but because he was calling everybody a nancy boy Was just temporary...

 

Anyway, don't get me wrong I am perfectly aware of all the benefits modding can bring ;)

Also if you look at how are things now then we can agree il2 is still VERY hard to mod for "mortals", not to mention going around server checks, however this is only the begining. Look at some other games, they get hacked in and for you and me it's like reading ancient Klingon language, but some guy understands it and doesn't use the knowledge to make something constructive but makes an App with which a trained monkey can work to cheat like mad.

 

This all in the end might turn out rather well for end users, those who want to mod will have v408, and those who want it clean for online play will use v409 with new protection, end of story, everybody happy

[eraser_tr 29]

Well, if I had to bet, I think people would do more constructive work. Like when ketegeys first showed it off, he made an AI plane flyable, added 6DOF trackIR and let you get out of planes and run around ( INCREDIBLY useful, and realistic....I can't tell you how many times I've bailed out just over enemy lines, and was captured despite there being nothing between me and friendlies except a blue/red fence across the map)

 

All constructive. Hopefully everyone will wind up happy.