Hi!
If you want your list of planes to look like this, here is how...
So, you have every available flyable aircraft under the sun. Now find one quickly in your list of planes in QMB. Hard isnt it?
When you use automatic installers from AAA, your air ini will also get alphabetized, which helps a bit, if you are a librarian. Over here we do manual installations.
So, how to organize your aircraft so it MAKES SENSE and is easier to find.
Well, look no further, here is you introduction to working with the air.ini file:
Where is this air.ini file?
air.ini is found in your mods folder. It's adres is exactly:
..\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946\MODS\STD\com\maddox\il2\objects\air.ini
There may be other air.ini files in your game folder, but this is the one you want.
What does air.ini do?
the air.ini file in your mods folder in used by your computer to know which planes and new mod planes to load at startup. So, if you remove an entry from your air ini file, that plane will simply not load and be available.Similarily, if you have a plane listed in your air- ini that is not in your game or your mods folder, your game will not load, and you will have the famous 60% crash.
I used an auto installer, and now my air ini is alphpabetical, no longer devided into Allied/Axis, how do I get it back the way it was?
You dont. If you let auto installers install planes for you , you will have to live with it, and dont bother reading this thread any further.
Can I put planes in any order in my air.ini?
Yes, just copy the entire line to somewhere else in the air.ini. A complete line looks like this:
Bf-109G-6 air.BF_109G6 2 g01 SUMMER
Can I disable a plane in air ini WITHOUT deleting the entry ?( so I can easily enable it again later)
Yes, you simple put "//" in front of the line, for example:
//Bf-109G-6 air.BF_109G6 2 g01 SUMMER
Can I have more than one entry in air in for the SAME PLANE?
Yes, it will simply then show that plane twice in you list of planes in QMB.
So I can organize my air ini in any way I want, right?
Yup, you can have a list of all pink planes followed by all japanese 7 wheelers folowed by all Russian Transformers if you like. Whatever order you put it is, you can do, but then YOU CANNOT USE AUTOINSTALLERS.
But then I will have to learn do do manual installs?
Welcome to the real world.
Can I leave spaces between plane entries in the air ini then, to make it easy for me to find places and types and stuff when I add planes and so on?
Yes, you can leave spaces. The game wont see them.
OK, so I have put my planes in an order that I like, but still, when I look in QMB, its just one long list, I get lost in it.
You can fool the IL2 aircraft lister into giving you headings and divided groups in QMB lists
by telling it to load a known plane, but calling it something else. In the example air-ini in the download link, I have structured my air ini into roughly country segments, with DUPLICATE entries of planes I use a lot in QMB at the top of the list.
Then I used an entry for the A6M2 to create divisions. Dont worry, my A6M2 is still availbale at its entry in the Japan list. The result looks like the picture. Forther down this post you will read about why this zero I am using will have it's name missing in certain sections, and how to fix this.
Use this EXAMPLE as a guide to customising your air-ini in a way that makes sense to you:
DONT use this example as a replacement for your air ini. It is tailored to my game, and contains some of my experimental WIP planes, so it wont work for you. It is just an example.
DOWNLOAD:
https://storebror.it.cx/sas/archive/sasdl/WIP/tipstrix/example_of_neat_air.ini EDIT/NOTE: The Names of your Divisions (your nations ot whatever you call the headings) cannot contain spaces.
Also, In the choose paint/arming section of QMB, the list will not contain your headings anymore, but just single * s, this is normal, However, if you used the A6M2, like I did , IT TOO will appear in that section only as a * .You can either live with this small glitch, or you can , instead of the A6M2, use some other new slot plane that you dont really use or dont want, but is installed in your game ,and that is not entered anywhere else in your air ini. I have in the meantime swapped out the A6M2 for one of Muas'es New slot experimental G2 s
eg:
* air.BF_109G2Late 2 NOINFO g01 SUMMER
********************GERMANY air.BF_109G2Late 2 NOINFO g01 SUMMER
**************************************** air.BF_109G2Late 2 NOINFO g01 SUMMER
* air.BF_109G2Late 2 NOINFO g01 SUMMER
.
Happy playing with your air.ini file...but remember
MAKE BACKUPS BEFORE YOU CHANGE STUFF!
This is cool! But will this list be the same in FMB and AI planes too?
Yes
Cheers
Cirx
Author
Topic: How to customize your Air.ini (Read 22432 times)
