ETO Expansion Download Links, Comments, Questions"

[Phil]

Its in the ORIF, IDIOT

Well while I awaiting a hoped for response from the Outhouse, I sought and tinkered with various files toward restoration of the "Splash" screens, the proper era music, correct aircraft and missions. I still trusted my hunch that some hidden .ini or game config file had gone rogue.

I was partially right. My dear friend Cristiano sent me an email in which he confided:"only thing that comes to my mind is to try with the CFS3 ETO Expansion ORIFs Re-Install routine You can find in the ETO root folder (the instructions for the procedure can be found in the "CFS3 ETO Expansion READMEs" folder); this routine will reinstall some critical original expansion's files........... maybe it is the solution", ...

I re-read the readme. He was "correct". By running the ORIF setup again, the "Splash" screen returned, at least for Era 1, Lily Marlene still played, and the missions returned to the menu. However when I ventured to Era 3 or 1943, there was no change to the display.

Well, thanks very much to Cristiano I am half way home. Does anyone out there (grizzlies included) have any ideas to complement my friend from Italia and his experiment? Inquiring minds want to know.........................

 

[hairyspin]

I ... installed a NEW v1.0 and 1.2 based upon my almost clean CFS3 base. Almost clean means CFS3
had FirePower and some mission files added. Nothing more..... A four-week series of misadventures. I surrender.

I've been reading back over your posts old chap, and I'd surrender too. "Almost clean" is not vanilla CFS3. ETO does not like Firepower at installation time. Neither does MAW. Almost certainly neither will the forthcoming PTO 2. Can I make it clearer?

I'd try formatting your HD and starting from scratch. Fresh clean install of XP, antivirus, firewall etc; fresh clean install of CFS3 fully patched to 3.1a; default options selected for all these, nothing Reverse Polish or funky. ETO will install to that, it really will. Your other applications will run better than you remember them doing for a long while. I know this because I had to do this recently - I built a new machine and had to install all my software on it.

Drastic, I know. I've also mangled my own machine in the past and only a reinstall put it straight, no matter how clever I thought I could be.

Sorry!

 

[Phil]

Clean, but no virgin

Thank you "HairySpin" for your comments. You may have read carefully my more recent threads, but you may have forgotten that I started this ETO misadventure in a NO install condition. It took your, Grizzly and Cristiano's advice to ring a bell that led to the simple name change of the old ETO and CFS3 directories, some house cleaning elsewhere, many prayers to the dying to obtain a clean CFS3 reinstall and the foundation of a new ETO install.

The addition of FirePower as a poison to everything I can not accept. It is very good medicine for a troubled CFS3, and "dull" Flight Simulator. The same base that I have with CFS3 and FirePower is the same that supports DPC Korea, MAW and PTO without the worrisome irregularities of ETO. Remember, ETO did "function" for about two weeks. No changes were made to CFS3, but some forum sponsored Missions and Aircraft were added that terminated the Era structure. ETO imploded. Cristiano has been most helpful (post mortem) in his ORTF suggestion. This brought back ERA1, but has failed to levitate the others back to life.

Here you can be most helpful in assisting in the reconstuction of a very good program, ETO , which is based upon a faulty platform where any slip to the SDK can bring its own "swine flu". I did rebuild my system from ground up in February when my XP OS collapsed. I do not want to go through that again. It is expensive and very time consuming.

So unless someone can tell me the secret .INI or System Config that would bring balance to ETO, with all ERAs functioning, consistently,reliably and without enduser anxiety. I remain in good taste, Surrendered.

 

[hairyspin]

Likewise. Again, sorry!

 

[rbp71854]

Phil

Myself, being very familiar and intimate with the ETO expansion, Hairyspin has nailed it on the head with his recommendation to use a clean, unmodded, patched to 3.1a stock CFS3 install as the basis for installing the ETO Expansion.

Any attempt to use a firepower laden CFS3 install and not to make sure that your era swap batch files are set up with the correct install path will only doom the correct operation of the ETO Expansion.

Until you install the ETO correctly you will be wasting your time and others trying to make a corrupted install work.

 

[GT182]

I just stumbled across this addon for CFS3. I've downloaded everything but need to get the links, or page #s in this thread for CFS3 Multi, 3.1 and 3.1a updates. Thre's so many pages and I haven't had time to go thru them all.... but I will soon to get it running again.

I haven't run CFS3 in a long long time so this sounds pretty good. It'll be a clean install if I can find my disc that's in storage.

 

[grizzly50]

I just stumbled across this addon for CFS3. I've downloaded everything but need to get the links, or page #s in this thread for CFS3 Multi, 3.1 and 3.1a updates. Thre's so many pages and I haven't had time to go thru them all.... but I will soon to get it running again.

I haven't run CFS3 in a long long time so this sounds pretty good. It'll be a clean install if I can find my disc that's in storage.

GT182, get the updates here: http://www.microsoft.com/games/combatfs3/

You do need a clean, fully-updated, vanilla CFS3 install in order to install any of these add-on stand-alone games.

ETO, and now, PTO, too, can both be had here: http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?act=idx (Downloads/3rd Party Downloads/ETO / Sim-outhouse.

I am not certain exactly what you mean by "Multi".

If it's Martin Wright's MultiCFS3.exe, then it's already in CFS3 ETO Expansion 1.0.

If you are referring to Multiplayer, and you are running Vista, then please read and follow all instructions In Post #1 in this thread: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=9007. You do NOT have to do this with Windows XP.

I can say nothing about Windows 7.

ETO is NOT your run-of-the-mill CFS3. It's all grown up now. There will be a new update sometime in the fall.

The new effects alone are fantastic.

If you need further help, all you have to do is ask here.

Good luck.:d

 

[O-1Driver]

I just stumbled across this addon for CFS3. I've downloaded everything but need to get the links, or page #s in this thread for CFS3 Multi, 3.1 and 3.1a updates. Thre's so many pages and I haven't had time to go thru them all.... but I will soon to get it running again.

I haven't run CFS3 in a long long time so this sounds pretty good. It'll be a clean install if I can find my disc that's in storage.

Welcome and it is good to have you back. I think you will find that ETO is totally different than your old CFS 3 starting with the scenery and all of the new airfields in England. Lots of new missions in there for you to explore, enjoy yourself,

O-1 Driver

 

[fw190]

What is the utility of Era Music Swapper and Vista Multiplay within the CFS3 ETO Cumulative Update 1.20 zip file.....do I have to install both of these to complete the ETO 1.20 installation?

 

[grizzly50]

What is the utility of Era Music Swapper and Vista Multiplay within the CFS3 ETO Cumulative Update 1.20 zip file.....do I have to install both of them to complete the ETO 1.20 installation?

Fw190, the Era Music Swapper is merely optional, intended to give a different uimusic soung (sound) in each Era.

The Vista Multiplay option is for those who wish to play online with others, as online play with Vista-based CFS3 play is impossible without the mod. It only applies to Vista users, and not XP users.

I hope this helps.:d

 

[fw190]

Thanks grizzly50, one more question......What is the minimum installation of ETO for playing it online on WinXP? Anything more than ETO v1.20......music swapper, 57mm molin gun upgrade pack etc?

 

[grizzly50]

Thanks grizzly50, one more question......What is the minimum installation of ETO for playing it online on WinXP? Anything more than ETO v1.20......music swapper, 57mm molin gun upgrade pack etc?

Fw190, currently it's just 1.0, updated to 1.20 that is standard. The Era Music Swapper is purely optional, and the Molins 57mm upgrade pack is not yet standard in ETO. I understand that it will be in the near future, but right now, you will get a mismatch if you use it to to try :dget into an online game, unless everyone else has it, especially the Host.

 

[GT182]

Thanks for the welcome. CFS3 was good but not good enough they way everyone really wanted it to be long long ago. These mods look "veeeerrrrry interesting".

I'm still running XP Home... no Vista crap for me. Maybe Windows 7 once the bugs get worked out of it. But I've got my doubts all these old games will run on it. You do know they want us to have to buy everything new don't ya? LOL

I get ya now Griz on Multi. It's already in and not like the Multi we needed for SHIII to run multipul copies.

Now, one other question. ETO and PTO are each on a separate vanilla install of CFS3, correct?

I can get all this setup until next week. I'll try my darnedest to do it but I'm gonna be real busy this weekend working on stuff for the Wings of Freedom Tour here at KILG in August.

 

[grizzly50]

Thanks for the welcome. CFS3 was good but not good enough they way everyone really wanted it to be long long ago. These mods look "veeeerrrrry interesting".

I'm still running XP Home... no Vista crap for me. Maybe Windows 7 once the bugs get worked out of it. But I've got my doubts all these old games will run on it. You do know they want us to have to buy everything new don't ya? LOL

I get ya now Griz on Multi. It's already in and not like the Multi we needed for SHIII to run multipul copies.

Now, one other question. ETO and PTO are each on a separate vanilla install of CFS3, correct?

I can get all this setup until next week. I'll try my darnedest to do it but I'm gonna be real busy this weekend working on stuff for the Wings of Freedom Tour here at KILG in August.

GT182, you only need one (1) clean, unmodded, fully-updated (3.1 and 3.1a), vanilla CFS3 install. Period. And that's for ETO, PTO, MAW, Korean Skies, etc. One vanilla for all. Keep the vanilla for installation of all of the add-on stand-alone games. These add-ons only copy what they need from the vanilla, and make a new main game folder for themselves. Your vanilla original will not be harmed in any way.:d

 

[hairyspin]

Fyi

I'm still running XP Home... no Vista crap for me. Maybe Windows 7 once the bugs get worked out of it. But I've got my doubts all these old games will run on it.

CFS3 will run on Windows 7 64-bit RC2 - that's what I've got on another HD on my own rig. I'll let you know how I get on with ETO after this long-awaited holiday I'm now on!

 

[GT182]

Got ya on that Griz.... thanks. :ernae:

One more question..... Is there a P-61B "Black Widow" in the aircraft update? I'd love to see this one for night missions.

 

[grizzly50]

Got ya on that Griz.... thanks. :ernae:

One more question..... Is there a P-61B "Black Widow" in the aircraft update? I'd love to see this one for night missions.

GT182,

OH, HOW I WISH TO GAWD!!!!!

You and me both Bro! You and me both!

I understand that someone had been working on one, but, for the life of me, I can't remember who, or how far they had gotten.:d

 

[GT182]

Only reason I ask Griz is that MAAM will have one flying in the hopefully not too distant furure. And she will be the only flying P-61B in the world. Top quad 50 cal. turret included.

Link to MAAM and P-61 info in my sig.

 

[mapal]

Hey All I haven't been here for a long, long time. I just got my Cfs3 up and running again and getting use to it. I have a question about the ETO pack. I want to download it, infarct I'm downloading it now to my desktop. I have already installed the Korean Pack and it works great. My question is if it downloaded and works fine do you think I will have any problems with the ETO installation, I know I have to go by the Readme Files when loading. I read in hear about some problems with the installation. I'm not real computer savvy. Thanks for listening to my rambling.

 

[hairyspin]

Just go by the instructions, be patient and you'll have a working ETO installation at the end of the process. Any problems just yell.

And welcome back!