[certificate]

Does anyone have this? I'm trying to get a 4.09 dedicated server working, and it might be helpful.

TIA.

[certificate]

Surely someone can round this up? It's for a good cause.

[RAF_Magpie]

Surely someone can round this up? It's for a good cause.

Well, give people time to respond, after all you did only ask two and a half hours ago

[4./JG53_Badger]

What exactly is this used for and is it in another patch ? Please explain thanks

Is this what your looking for?

http://www.esnips.com/doc/77400bb7-c332 ... b3ff75/rts

[certificate]

What exactly is this used for and is it in another patch ? Please explain thanks

Is this what your looking for?

http://www.esnips.com/doc/77400bb7-c332 ... b3ff75/rts

Well, prior to 4.07, the game used rts.dll to mount and read the sfs files and such. From that point on, they got rid of the rts.dll and they changed the game to used encrypted class files.

While I was looking into the dedicated server files, I noticed that the dedicated 4.08 server still uses an rts.dll.

QTim made an rts.dll patcher that allowed modded files to be used on installs 4.05 and prior. It patches the rts.dll.

So my thinking was that if we patched the 4.05 rts.dll and replaced the dedicated server install rts.dll with it, it may allow us to "mod" the dedicated server files, adding maps and the like.

It's probably a longshot, but worth investigation.

And no, that doesn't appear to be the right one

It should be 106496 bytes
and have a file date of 09-28-2004

[Hellzone]

The Dedicated Server as of 4.06 dosent use the RTS.dll any more. How ever if you need a unmodded RTS.dll from 4.05 here it is. Btw the only way your going to get a 4.09 server working is if you somehow add the files from 4.09b into the server .sfs files. Good luck.

http://files.filefront.com/rtsdll/;1214 ... einfo.html

btw i talked to qtim about this and he said it is just there because it was from previous versions. The Server patches never deleted any files, just added them. Try and Delete it from your server folder... it wont make a diffrence.
To be honest with you we need a C++ Programmer for this.

[certificate]

The Dedicated Server as of 4.06 dosent use the RTS.dll any more. How ever if you need a unmodded RTS.dll from 4.05 here it is. Btw the only way your going to get a 4.09 server working is if you somehow add the files from 4.09b into the server .sfs files. Good luck.

http://files.filefront.com/rtsdll/;1214 ... einfo.html

btw i talked to qtim about this and he said it is just there because it was from previous versions. The Server patches never deleted any files, just added them. Try and Delete it from your server folder... it wont make a diffrence.
To be honest with you we need a C++ Programmer for this.

Ah, I was hoping the fact that it was included in the 4.08 distribution meant that it was still using it. I probably should have deleted it to see if it made a difference. Thanks for the clarification.

I knew it was a longshot

I do know some C++. I don't suppose qtim elaborated on what exactly needs to be done?

[GerritJ9]

Briefly examining the files of 4.08m, 4.08m Server and 4.09b1m, plus a server install up to 4.07m Server shows that the following 4.09b1m files can be used for the server:
fb_maps15.SFS
il2_core.dll
il2_corep4.dll, though it has to be renamed il2_coreP4.dll to overwrite the old file
mg_snd.dll
DO NOT use mg_snd_sse.dll as this caused severe problems with 4.09b1m, use the old version in 4.08m Server installation.

The 4.09b1m files fb_3do19.SFS, fb_3do20.SFS and files.SFS need equivalents fb_3do19server.SFS, fb_3do20server.SFS and filesserver.SFS- the latter overwrites the 4.08m filesserver.SFS. Unfortunately, it is not a simple matter of renaming the files as their sizes alone suggest significant differences. 4.08m fb_3do18.SFS is 15.581 kb while fb_3do18server.SFS is only 1.288 kb. Ditto for files.SFS (21.923 kb) and filesserver.SFS (18.807 kb).
These would have to be opened and examined to discover the differences, then the 4.09b1m files modified accordingly. Question is, are these server versions simply stripped versions of the client files, or do they contain something totally different??????????? With thousands of subfiles in these SFS files this will take a lot of time.

[4./JG53_Badger]

Maybe we have some pilots who know c++ very well and would be willing to lend a hand. Its how all good things get started....So if anyone out there knows C++ please chime in on this topic thanks

[certificate]

Well, if I had the source badger, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have a problem getting it to work. It seems to me that you need someone with disassembly experience more than C++ experience.

Disassembly is a much more difficult project :?

[4./JG53_Badger]

If we have the program to break down components, I'm willing to help ya cert. get this started....Do you have any idea of what type of files you need?

[Radoye]

My $0.02 worth:

(Keep in mind that i did not install any of the server patches nor i really intend to do so in the near future so i'm guessing blindly)

1st move should be to unpack those SFS files and look inside them. My best guess is that you'll find them fairly similar to the "regular" ones, except that there would be no real content (like: object meshes etc) but rather just a list of resources. Server doesn't really need the meshes and such because it does no rendering; visuals are rendered on the client machines. Knowing the exact structure of the server SFS files would do a lot for us to actually understand what we're dealing with so we wouldn't have to be blind guessing like i do now.

2nd move would be to figure out how to add resources to those lists - how to make the server "know" about the new 4.09 maps and other stuff. IMHO there are two ways to deal with this problem - one would be to ~somehow~ repack the existing SFS files so that they include the new resources. I'm not exactly sure how practical that approach is. The other way would be to apply a solution similar to the one that allowed us to run the mods on the "regular" IL2 install - the wrapper.dll and MODS folder. A similar structure could be developed to work with the server files too, and thus would also have the benefit of allowing us to easily add new content for the server in the future too.

So my advice would be to contact the persons who were behind developing the current framework for modding IL2 and see if they could do something similar with regards to server files too.

Of course, this is all blind guessing, so i might be completely off the mark here...

[certificate]

My $0.02 worth:

(Keep in mind that i did not install any of the server patches nor i really intend to do so in the near future so i'm guessing blindly)

1st move should be to unpack those SFS files and look inside them. My best guess is that you'll find them fairly similar to the "regular" ones, except that there would be no real content (like: object meshes etc) but rather just a list of resources. Server doesn't really need the meshes and such because it does no rendering; visuals are rendered on the client machines. Knowing the exact structure of the server SFS files would do a lot for us to actually understand what we're dealing with so we wouldn't have to be blind guessing like i do now.

2nd move would be to figure out how to add resources to those lists - how to make the server "know" about the new 4.09 maps and other stuff. IMHO there are two ways to deal with this problem - one would be to ~somehow~ repack the existing SFS files so that they include the new resources. I'm not exactly sure how practical that approach is. The other way would be to apply a solution similar to the one that allowed us to run the mods on the "regular" IL2 install - the wrapper.dll and MODS folder. A similar structure could be developed to work with the server files too, and thus would also have the benefit of allowing us to easily add new content for the server in the future too.

So my advice would be to contact the persons who were behind developing the current framework for modding IL2 and see if they could do something similar with regards to server files too.

Of course, this is all blind guessing, so i might be completely off the mark here...

I agree, that about sums it up. Without QTIM's help, or someone else extremely skilled in the use of disassemblers/patch creation, I don't think it's going to happen.



We might be able to do some kind of 4.05 frankenserver, since the patched rts.dll does make it see modded files. The trick, I suppose, would be to extract *all* of the 4.08 sfs files, and put them in the 4.05 modded dedicated server directory. I'm not sure if the version check comes from the .exe or some java class, but bypassing that would be eons quicker/more possible than creating an entirely new wrapper/patch.

[Radoye]

Well that might be something but the goal is to make 4.08 see 4.09 files (and beyond), not to make 4.05 see 4.08 :?

But in any case if we can figure out how to manually add mew files to ANY server version it might help us do what we need...

[certificate]

Well that might be something but the goal is to make 4.08 see 4.09 files (and beyond), not to make 4.05 see 4.08 :?

But in any case if we can figure out how to manually add mew files to ANY server version it might help us do what we need...

Well sure, but if we could make 4.05 be 4.08, we would basically have a moddable 4.08.

Anyway, its another longshot I'll try it and let you guys know