[Dietz]

Dietz,

I have created two distinct configurations, one for AAA UI 1.2 and another for SAS with 2.3 Button. The answer to your question is yes, you have to manually add all your mods into your configuration. I tried to shortcut adding mods and it froze at 60% loading. Nothing I did resolved it so I had to start over. In betweeen each mod addition I started up the game and verified that it worked. It took a long time.

For the AAA UI 1.2:
1. Download all the 1.2 files and use Winrar to verify that no corrupted files exist. Do this before proceeding to overload onto UI 1.1 (1.2 requires 1.1 to work).
2. You need to have a clean, fresh, un-modded 1.1 to load over. I stress it must be a totally non-modded configuration. I started with a fresh install of 4.07 from the DVD, then added the 4.08 patch, then UI1.0, UI 1.1 ect.
3. Add whatever mods you desire. This is the long tedious part. If you approach this cautiously and verify each addition, it will work. Note: Mods for cockpit makeovers, special effects and such can be copied and pasted right into your Mods folder. Aircraft additions require changes to your air.ini, plane.ru and weapons.ru files. Before you drop the new aircraft into the MODS folder, make sure that you have added the new information correctly into these files. Map additions require that you update the all.ini file to add the map load.ini information. If you have add the QMB Plus or Pro mod then you need to update the config.ini to show the new map, plus add the template mission sets required for the new map to be used in quick missions. Some maps require the static.ini file to be updated to display ground objects correctly. This is critical that the information is added correctly or your game will crash. This was a problem I had with Cannon's BoB map. It requires three other mods which have their own additions to the static.ini files to work.

For SAS:

1. Download the latest Button file 2.3. This has been updated to support PeterD's F86 and Mig15.
2. Make a clean 4.07 install from your DVD, then update it to 4.08 and finally 4.09. Make sure that in between updates the game starts up and runs correctly.
3. Download the latest SASMODACT and extract the six items, Dgen folder, FILES folder, MODS folder, Files SFS, il2fb.exe and the wrapper.dll. Copy and paste these into your root 4.09 configuration.
4. Copy and paste the Button 2.3 file into MODS/STD/gui/Game folder and replace the button file there. You are now ready to put mods into your game.
5. Use the SAS default sound patch so you can hear sounds in your game. The patch comes with a excel spreadsheet showing which PRS file links to a particular aircraft in the game. Use this matrix to change your preferred sounds accordingly. The PRS files are loacted in the game root directory FILES/Presets/Sounds folder. You will have to create a new folder called Samples and add it to your FILES folder. The sound .wav files go in this folder. You can open up the PRS file with Notepad in order to read its contents. The PRS file tells the game which .wav file to use. This was a long process for me, so depending on how much you want to change, it will take some time.
6. SAS requirtes that all mods be added manually. Do not use the F86 or Mig15 auto installer at all! It will mess up your game. Open these up with Winrar and extract contents to another folder not in the game. From the folder, copy and paste the aircraft MOD folder into your MODS folder. Usually a readme file is included that tells you what information needs to be added to the air.ini, plane.ru and weapons.ru file.
7. Refer to No. 3 above for adding your other mods to the SAS configuration. It works the same.

From your comments, it looks like you already know a lot about adding mods so if this is old stuff disregard. The bottom line is that there is no quick easy way or shortcut. UI 1.2 makes adding a lot of mods at one time easier but you get a lot of mods you may not neccessarily use and it makes the loading time long. SAS requires more work but you get only the mods that interest you and its leaner and faster loading.

Good luck!

BTW, I really like your art work. You are very skilled and talented.

Well I am practiced at reinstalling ...so I'll give your suggestions a try...maybe I'll separate careeresfor each install? Thanks for the compliment..I shpuld go back to painting for a while!!! :?