aircraft ini files rewritten?

[jjlehto 15]

hello.

i've met a strange but pesky occurance with my sf2 install.

i installed some plane mods from this site, some of them are improvements over the old sf2 vanilla aircraft and supposed to give them a cockpit and make 'em flyable.

now what happens, is that on starting SF2, the program seems to rewrite the main ini for these aircraft with the vanilla version, so the mods are never enabled. I can cite as example the fine Fishbed pack found on this site.

now, the only solution i've found so far is to change the ini files attributes to "read only".

but it seems a rather clunky method to prevent SF2 to revert the changes I made, especially since I like to tweak and tune myself and having to change the "read only" attribute every time i change a file to test it would become anightmarish waste of time and clicks.

this thing started happening with windows 10, it appears, or more likely, with *some update* of windows 10.

 

has anybody met this problem, and how was it solved?

thanks for your attention

[+yakarov79 10,503]

https://combatace.com/forums/topic/93001-stop-the-game-from-overwriting-files/

[Wrench 9,421]

Pretty sure this is covered in our ever ignored Knowledge Base (tm)

AI planes made user flyable will always be rewritten back to AI-only as a matter of course when the game starts. You just simply have to make the main ini (ie: MiG-21MF.ini) read only. Of course, that is after adding all the cockpit bits and listing the inis..OTH, you won't be able to add any further skins to it, as it can't write to a read only (duh!)

 

[jjlehto 15]

22 hours ago, yakarov79 said:

https://combatace.com/forums/topic/93001-stop-the-game-from-overwriting-files/

Thanks. 

14 hours ago, Wrench said:

Pretty sure this is covered in our ever ignored Knowledge Base (tm)

AI planes made user flyable will always be rewritten back to AI-only as a matter of course when the game starts. You just simply have to make the main ini (ie: MiG-21MF.ini) read only. Of course, that is after adding all the cockpit bits and listing the inis..OTH, you won't be able to add any further skins to it, as it can't write to a read only (duh!)

 

Thanks.

Before posting the question, I searched the KB, but couldn't come up with an answer. A google search was negative too. I prly used keywords too vague.

Anyway, what you are saying makes sense - but I'm 100% positive that back under windows 7 (I've switched to 10 only in early '19) the inis were not being rewritten.

Which makes me believe that there is some method to prevent that (besides read only, which is fine if you only fly, but as you said becomes a  burden if you're modding and testing - basically launching the .exe every five mins).

 

I'm currently trying to understand if there's a way to revoke writing permission for the sf2 executable to a specific directory, which equates making the files read only for the program but not for the user. I'll report back if I manage something, but what I've found so far makes me rather pessimistic.

[+yakarov79 10,503]

Just now, jjlehto said:

but I'm 100% positive that back under windows 7 (I've switched to 10 only in early '19) the inis were not being rewritten.

I am 100% sure that on Windows 7 stock files rewrite issue occurs.

[jjlehto 15]

15 minutes ago, yakarov79 said:

I am 100% sure that on Windows 7 stock files rewrite issue occurs.

no doubt.

I was saying that in my particular combination of w7 and sf2 it didn't occur. I've personally edited dozens of lines of inis of these planes without a single rewrite happening. I'm trying to understand what determines that condition so to replicate it, but i'm afraid w10 makes it impossible.

[jjlehto 15]

I have solved with the method of deleting the options and version inis, then restarting, let the program rebuild the two files and editing "options.ini" to point to the correct mod directory.

After doing this, there has been no rewrites.

 

Apparently though, I've cheered to soon.

 

There seem to be another issue, don't know if it's related.

When using red side, the aircraft start at the same exact position in the sky, literally one inside the other, and explode.

 

I've read that it was an issue with some airports in some terrains, but this happens when starting the mission in the air.

It also appears that the radio menu is messed up, like there is a "third squadron" but not a "second" in the list, and it doesn't reply to orders.

 

This game will never cease to amaze me.