DCG for Dummies?

Tried to install and use it once before.

I read up on everything I could find at Lowengrin's site. Read the articles and all.

I get a "Message File Not Found" message when I start up DCG. I click OK, and it launches fine. I pointed the prog to the right places for dcg.exe and il2fb.exe.

I am trying to generate a campaign, and I am instructed to select a campaign that has either a * or DCG next to it. That is only present when I am in the Co-op Campaign screen. Why not in the Single player screens?

I have read so much of this prog, and everyone seems to love it (after admitting what a PITA it is to get set up), I would like to love it too.

Any "DCG for Dummies" out there anywhere?

Thanks

Your best bet is right here:

http://www.lowengrin.com/content.php?article.cat.8

and if all else fails, you can post a question here and get a first-rate, quick answer:

http://forums.jg1.org/index.php?c=4

Depends on which DCG mode you are using. If you use the DCG DGen Replacement mode for single player, DCG adds them and you will then see those items in the single player screens. When you uncheck DGen replacement mode, DGC removes them.

Check out the 'DCG mode' article at the link HerrBaron posted.

Tailspin,

OK, I see them in single mode, but when I try and click on them, I get a "beeeeep" and nothing happens.

Agaim, I have read all the articles, but it is still not clear to me.

*sigh* I miss the days when I had lots and lots of time to pore over this stuf...

I appreciate the help; thanks.

If you're getting a "beep", it means you are trying to generate a DCG "Full-Automatic" campaign using the DGen program that comes with the standard game. Before you can start such a campaign, you must replace DGen with DCG. To do that, you follow the instructions here under Full Auto-Generation Mode (Replacing In-Game Generator [DGen] with DCG):

http://www.lowengrin.com/content.php?article.11

Actually, I followed your instructions to the letter. Just tried again.

1. Opened DCG (still got the "No Message File Found" message, whatever that is...)

2. Went to Mode Menu, selected "Auto Generation - Single Player Career"

3. Also selected "Replace In Game Generator (DGen)" in Mode Menu

4. Ran IL2/FB

5. Selected "Pilot Career"

6. Selected USAAF, pilot rank (1st Lt) and set my difficulty preferences.

7. Selected "*USAAF Pilot On The Western Front (DCG)"

8. Hit Start

9. Went to "Normandy 1944" and selected a P-51D-5 and hit "Generate" got the beeeep. Tried all of the other types listed in that drop-down. Got the beeep for all of them.

Any ideas?

In fact, it will launch the "Berlin 44" Campaign with whatever aircraft I choose, but no other USAAF Western Front campaign will launch.

OK, for S&G, did a complete uninstall and re-install...

So far looks good.

OK, I started a campaign, flew one mission.

I went back to DCG to edit some of the campaign parameters, but how do I open the campaign? I tried the "Open Campaign" menu choice, but there is no campaign to open.

I click File -> select DCG campaign folder and it opens a window. I navigate to my il2/FB folder to Missions to Campaign to US to the DCG folder... but there is no file in there.

What am I missing?

Which ever campaign you last used in FB/PF, DCG will automatically load when you run it. So you shouldn't have to select any campaign when you run it (unless it's a different one than the one you just flew).

Hmm.

That's not happening. The DCG screen says

"Warning: No active campaign. Please create or select a campaign."

I also notice that every time I run the DCG prog, the "Replace In Game Generator (DGen)" option is toggled off - even though I left it on and did not change it prior to that.

Did you install DCG to it's own folder...? (Good.) Or did you install it in your game folder? (Bad.)

If you did the latter, reinstall it to it's own folder. That's all I can think of off the top of my head for it resetting all the time.

It's got it's own folder.

Frustrating because the missions I have seen are pretty good. I like it better than DGen already.

Check that the dcg.ini file is not "read only". If it is, make it not read only. Or just delete it.

It's possible you set the whole dcg folder to read only, in which case you should make it and all files in it writable.

Checked all of the files, and none of them are read-only.

Is it s problem that I have it on my D drive? IL2/FB is in D:/!IL2-FB-AEP-PF and DCG is in !IL2FB DCG. I have run FB that way for six or seven months with no problem at all. I put the ! in there to keep those folders at the top... don't know if it is a problem or not.

Does FB need to be running for DCG to "find" the campaign? Does DCG need to be running the entire time FB is running?

My specs are (if it might help...)

Intel P4 w/HT Tech 3GHz, 1.5Gig PC2700 DDR SDRAM
Win XP Home
FX5600

I'm sorta at my wits end on this...

edit: Oh, a coupla more things...

There are now 2 new icons on my desktop that have the green box with "DCG IL*2" on them. I didn't put them there. one is labelled "dgen_bak" and the other is labelled "DGen". If I click on either of them, I get DCG to run... with that pesky "No Message File Found" message first. What the heck does that message mean?

To run DCG, I use a shortcut from the DCG folder I set up.

Uninstalled it.

Now I can't even run stock campaigns...
Time to re-install IL2/FB.

What was I thinking...?

Somehow, and I don't know how, your DCG got pointed to your desktop rather than your game folder.

Reinstalling is over-kill. All you need to do is reset the path in DCG to point at your game folder. Run DCG and under "Files" select "Game Program Location" and browse till you get to your il2.exe or pf.exe or whatever exe you can find in your main game folder.

Then you should be able to uncheck the "Full Auto Replace" mode and restore the stock DGen and your game should be back to normal.

Alternatively, you can run Windows Explorer and browse to your game folder, delete the DGen.exe that has a DCG icon and then rename the DGen_bak.exe to DGen.exe.

If you haven't uninstalled IL2/FB yet, find the DGen.bak file in the main IL2/FB folder and rename it to DGen.exe. DCG always makes a backup of the default DGen engine.

You should be able to run stock campaigns then and hopefully you can still run your default campaigns without having to reinstall.

Sounds like something got really hose. Not sure what happened.

Put FB on your D drive but leave the default name. No unusual characters. If you need to get to it clickly, right click on the main folder and create a shortcut that you can drag to your desktop or put in the Quick Launch toolbar.

In the same drive, add a DCG folder and then unzip the DCG files into the folder. I normally keep my DCG folder in the main IL-2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles folder. I just call it DCG. Then I just create a shortcut to that folder.

When DCG creates a campaign, it puts a notation in its campaign.dcg file as to where the data files for the campaign are located. So once you run and finish a campaign mission, DCG should be pointed to that campaign when you open up DCG to make changes or generate a mission if you aren't using automatic modes.

I haven't started the re-install of the whole IL2/FB shebang. Don't have the energy tonight, lol.

Posted by Lowengrin:
"Run DCG and under "Files" select "Game Program Location" and browse till you get to your il2.exe or pf.exe or whatever exe you can find in your main game folder."

I did this a couple of times as well. I figured something might have been up with that, so I tried it. No change.

Currently, DCG is fully un-installed (according to the directions on the website). I had an icon in my il2/missions folder that was the DCG icon, but labelled DGen. I deleted that one and renamed the dgen_bak to dgen. I now have my stock campaign back. Thanks for the tip. I did read that one earlier, but was nervous deleting a .exe that was labelled DGen. As it is, it worked OK.

Thing is, I'd really like to get DCG running correctly. I will remove the odd character from the IL2/FB folder. I will also set up a new DCG folder within the IL2/FB folder I have.

And what is that "No Message File Found" message anyway? Is that a normal message? It shows right when I start DCG, before the DCG screen even opens.

I really don't want to give up on this. I liked what I saw. While I am smart enough to have accomplished a lot in my life, I don't doubt that I am missing something small but important.

Thanks for the help guys.

The "No message file found" means there is something wrong with your initial program paths. If you dare reinstall DCG, the first thing it asks when you run it is to set the path to DCG itself and to the game's main folder. If the path to DCG is wrong, it won't find the "messages.dcg" file.

If you open the DCG.ini file after running it once (which you'll find in the main DCG folder), the entries should look something like this:

C:\Games\IL2DCG\
C:\Games\IL2DCG\Crimea41\
C:\Games\IL2 Sturmovik\
One
Four
Three
Four
Sparse
Full
Full
Campaign Defaults
50 Kilometers

The very first is the path to the DCG.EXE file. The second is to the campaign you're currently flying (so you might have this blank to begin with). The third should be the path to your IL2.EXE (or FB.EXE or PF.EXE, etc.). If these aren't set up right, you'll get no end of misery.

Yes, I had read that in the documentation: that DCG wouls ask for the paths to these two executables, but it did not ask. I noted this, but just went to File and selected those two options.

I am going to try again today. I followed the uninstall directions to the letter. Is there anything else that I should do beforehand?

Hoo-Rah!

Went through all folders in D drive and deleted anything DCG that was created on the 19th.

Seems to be working just fine now .

I hope to spend a good part of the afternoon getting to know it. Thanks guys.

PS: Any USAAF pilot skins packs out there?

You might want to look here (http://www.flying-legends.net) for skins.