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[jack72]

I have all the BAT downloads and have updated it to the current levels

I understand that to have missions and campaigns you need to download them from this site.  Otherwise you just have the stock campaigns and missions.

So I tried to download the Battle of Gazala - https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,54992.0.html which would be part of the WAW section.

In the instruction it talks about DCG and DGEN...
Installation:

Decompress the Battle Of Gazala.rar into your DCG home directory.
Make a backup of the DGEN directory in you IL-2 game directory and copy DGEN folder from Battle Of Gazala folder to main game folder, overwrite if prompted.
Start DCG, select Optional Third Party Data Folder.
Navigate to the Battle Of Gazala folder and select allcampaigns.dcg
Select Off Line Career (Full Auto-Generation Mode) in the DCG main screen.
Launch Il-2 and select one of the above-mentioned careers.


I don't even see a DCG folder.
What does Decompress Battle Of Gazala.rar into your DCG home directory.
I don't even see a DCG folder.  Do I just make one and put each individual file of the Gazala.rar into it?

Do I copy the Gazala.rar in to the DGEN folder in IL2 1946 game.
There are also skins, do i copy those the skins folder in IL2 1946.
After that do I copy the remaining files that are not part of any folder in the Gazala.rar to DGEN.

I thought you just copy the Gazala.rar to the missions->campaign folder and you will find the scenario once you launch the game?

Really confused.  This isn't as easy as it seems for a computer novice.

[Vampire_pilot]

DCG is a third party tool, not from this site. You need to get it yourself if you want it.
It is not part of BAT.

[jack72]

OK...If I get that can that screw up the BAT and future BAT releases
also
If I have this and install as directed for this campaign, will that screw up future BAT only campaigns or missions I may get later.

[Vampire_pilot]

uhm no...

You don't even understand what DGen (an IL2 base game feature since the beginning) and DCG (a 3rd party tool similar to Dgen but replacing it) even are, let alone how they work.

You can't ask the question the way you do, because that is all unrelated to BAT. You are asking something along the lines of "Tell me what I should want but I don't have a clue what all that is", and that makes no sense and can't be answered.

Inform yourself and then decide what you want, DGen or DCG or both or whatever.

[jack72]

WOW....
A simple Yes, it can hurt your setup and use at your own risk as we don't support it.
Or
No, it shouldn't and it is still used.
Or
Some campaigns on this site may not be compatible to BAT level as they are older...use at your own risk.
Or
Some combination of the above.

Yes you are right I don't know the difference between DGEN and DCG.
I am also not a computer programmer so I never heard these terms before....Hence the question.

I have not been part of the IL2 community since the first one or two years and am now returning to it based on what I have heard and how it evolved to where it is.

I have tried to read the manuals, but if it did mention DGEN, I don't recall it explaining what it is or how it is used. 

Not everyone is the at the same level of computer literacy as you.

Jeesh.

[Vampire_pilot]

yeah WOW.

if you're easily offended by someone pointing out that what you ask is nonsense and can't be answered in the way you'd like it to then sorry.

I pointed you in the right direction, sorry, there's a couple if steps you have to make yourself.
DGen is a dynamic campaign generator (comes with stock game), DCG is a third party replacement, and there are static campaigns. None of this is about basic BAT.

[Cloyd]

Hey jack72,

Head to the "New Users Safety Area" to ask your questions. Your basic, newb questions are more likely to be answered there in a fashion that you may find less provocative.

Cloyd

[Shakaali]

Hey Jack72...

In the first post of https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,54992.0.html  there is:


Requirements:

B.A.T Expansion pack 11 or later
DCG 3.49 Beta 11 or later DCG 3.49 Official, download from  http://il2dcg.blogspot.com/ 

and

How to install DCG: https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,20872.msg225690.html#msg225690 


Did you read these lines and did you click those links?  I believe you didn't, because the pages those links open would have answered all your questions.

[K5083]

Hi Jack,

As a newb just barely ahead of you in this DCG thing, I can look at this from your perspective and see that while the above resources are very helpful, they don't answer ALL of your questions.  Especially the "Will it screw up my ...?" ones.

I haven't found any clear answers in the documentation, but I'm going to put my semi-informed speculation here and let the experts take a shot at it.

Will it screw up your BAT install?  Not majorly.  DCG seems to affect only a limited set of folders concerned with mission and campaign generation, which can be backed up.

Will it screw up the other dynamic campaigns you're playing?  Yes.  DGEN (the stock dynamic campaign generator) and DCG (the add-on) are like interpreters that generate missions based on their own programming languages.  One or the other is running in the background of IL2 when you play.  When you install DCG, it replaces the stock DGEN exe file with itself and thus becomes the interpreter for all the dynamic campaigns you are running.  If you are running a stock (DGEN) campaign after you've swapped in DCG, it won't interpret the campaign right and will mess it up.  So you can only use one dynamic campaign system at a time.  Forget about having an IL2 session where you fly a mission from a DGEN dynamic campaign and then one from a DCG dynamic campaign.

If you're in the middle of both a DGEN and a DCG campaign, how do you safely switch between them?  I don't know.  For sure you have to use the switch in the DCG app that restores DGEN as the dynamic campaign executable, but I don't know what else you have to do in the DCG app or whether you have to also restore the entire DGEN folder that you backed up before you switched on DCG. 

Will it screw up your static campaigns?  I'm beginning to think so.  When you think about it, all campaigns are at least a little bit dynamic inasmuch as they keep track of what your pilot has done, and I'm starting to think it is DGEN that handles that.  When I've installed DCG and started a DCG campaign, then played a mission from a static one, it seems to not record and credit my missions properly, and I get wrong mission dates and debriefing screens.  Maybe you also have to do -- whatever it is you have to do to switch between DCG and DGEN dynamic campaigns -- to switch between DCG and stock static campaigns.

Hope this helps and also alerts the experts to areas we newbs still find puzzling even after RTFM.

August

[Shakaali]

If you're in the middle of both a DGEN and a DCG campaign, how do you safely switch between them?  I don't know.  For sure you have to use the switch in the DCG app that restores DGEN as the dynamic campaign executable, but I don't know what else you have to do in the DCG app or whether you have to also restore the entire DGEN folder that you backed up before you switched on DCG.

DCG and DGEN are both dynamic campaign generators. Only one of them can be active at any given time, but you can change the used generator at any time.
To switch between DCG and DGEN campaigns just:

1. Close IL2
2. Open DCG main screen
3. Select "Replace Career Generator (DGen)" to play DCG campaigns or unselect "Replace Career Generator (DGen)" to play DGEN campaigns.
4. Launch IL2

Selecting "Replace Career Generator (DGen)" backs up dgen.exe file to dgen_bak.exe and copies dcg.exe to dgen.exe. Unselecting restores the original dgen.exe from dgen_bak.exe.

Backing up DGEN folder is not obligatory, but recommended when installing third party campaigns, because there may be files with identical names and when that happens the earlier files will be overwritten.

You can start a DCG campaing in a middle of a DGEN campaign (and vice versa) and return to earlier campaign later on, but you'll have to use the correct campaing generator (DCG for DCG campaigns and DGEN for DGEN campaigns) or the game will crash.

Will it screw up your static campaigns?

No, it won't.

[K5083]

Thank you.  Very helpful, and I hope Jack also found it so.

You guys have done an astonishing job of taking what were once a bunch of scattered community mods that didn't necessarily play well together, and that you probably almost had to live full-time with the game to keep sorted out -- we've all been there! -- and making a cohesive, almost turn-key package out of it.  Just once in a while something is still a little obscure!

August