[8FS_Bulau]

2. Run the game in a 32-bit color depth

2. Run the game in a 32-bit color depth means that Texture Compresion: None
8FS_Bulau, please pardon my adding a clarification of your post.

I don't mind the clarification, however, "run the game in a 32-bit colour depth" means just that, nothing to do with texture compression. If you run IL2Setup.exe, on the first tab, there is a window called "Video Mode:" You must select a resolution there which is 32 Bit, e.g. "1024x768 32 Bit", not one that is 16 Bit. This is the same thing if you do it in game, by going to "Hardware Setup...Video Modes..." select something like "1024x768x32" (not x16)

Or if you prefer to edit your conf.ini directly, it is like this:
[window]
width=1024
height=768
ColourBits=32