Other then playing 1.2 mods is there any good reason to keep the 1.2 install?

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Just wondered if 1.3 could do it all as far as playing 1.2 mods so I could consider un-installing my 1.2 installation. Are there any plans to port FE over to 1.3? Tanks BNG.

[GSH]

If you have the HD space, just install BZ2 a few times to different directories, and install patches/mods/whatever to each. With NTFS, you can even share the data.pak between them so that that file exists in several directories, but only takes up space once on disk. (Someone needs to post a FAQ about this!)

Note: before 1.3pb1/2 (can't remember), do NOT have a period (.) in any directory name used for BZ2. I.e. "C:\Program Files\Battlezone II v1.2" is bad. "C:\Program Files\Battlezone II v12" is good. If you violate this rule, then saving certain things will fail mysteriously. 1.3 fixed this bug at some point, don't quite remember when, but I know pb3 should be perfectly fine with periods in directory names.

-- GSH

[Zero Angel]

Red Devil, I believe, has undertaken the task of porting FE to 1.3, but its in a rather unfinished state right now. -- I would not recommend uninstalling 1.2 unless you really need the space since as GSH says, both installs can co-exist peacefully on the same machine.

[TheJamsh]

that faq thread you were talking about... could you explain so someone can post it? im always eager to save HD space...

yeh ive still got 250gb (ish) left but hey!

[Red Devil]

I keep a stock install of 1.2 on a separate drive so I can copy it to make fresh installs when I dork something up (or down).

You can have multiple mods in one install with BZ by using the /config <startupconfigfilename> in the shortcut, so that will save you some space.

Example:

"U:\1-3-Uler" /nointro /config Uler.cfg

This is what I have in my Uler.cfg file:

// Configure game file system
ConfigureFileSystem()
{
   // Setup base data
   ConfigureStream("base")
   {
      // Look in "Uler" first
      AddDirRecurse("@rootdir\uler");

      // Look in the Uler pak next
      AddPack("@rootdir\ulerpak-GH.pak");

      // Look in "addon" first
      AddDirRecurse("@rootdir\addon");

      // Look at pakfiles next
      AddPack("@rootdir\patch13.pak");
      AddPack("@rootdir\data.pak");

      // Look in "data" last, and only last.
      AddDirRecurse("@rootdir\data");
   }

   // Make it active
   SetActiveStream("base");

   // Optional, for mods -- the ability to put pilots & savegames in
   // other directories. Commented out to simply demonstrate how to
   // do it.

      SetPilotsDirectory("UlerPilots");
      SetSavesDirectory("UlserSaved");
}

[lucky_foot]

For directory naming I install BZ directly in C:\

I have them named:

C:\Battlezone II-12     - BZ2 with 1.2 patch

C:\Battlezone II-13     - BZ2 with 1.3pb3 patch

C:\Battlezone II-13T   - BZ2 with 1.3pb3 patch clean for testing installs

C:\Battlezone II - 14   - BZ2 with the Private Beta patch. (I chose 14 so the threes didn't stick together.

[Zero Angel]

On linux, that functionality is called 'symbolic linking', on windows its called 'junctioning' or 'hard linking'. There's a way to do it via the command line on any NTFS partition on Windows 2000/XP/Vista, but I found a util that will allow you to do it via Windows Explorer, which is much easier.

http://elsdoerfer.name/=ntfslink

Simply right click on data.pak, create a hardlink to it. Then delete the data.pak from your other bz2 folders (but not the one that you created the hard link from) and replace it with your hardlink to data.pak on your main BZ2 folder. Should save you hundreds of megs of space.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I have 1.2 installed one C and 1.3 installed on F. My issue is not space related yet. I recently, deleted a ton of unused stuff as my C drive needed some head space (basically I'm like a pack rat hesitating to discard anything). I even moved my primary download folder to F to free up space on C. Now their' both reserved for each of my BZ2 installs.

Question: Are new 1.2 mods pretty much now mainly 1.3 versions or are there still peeps putting them together for 1.2 as I doubt? If that's the case then I really should reserve more space on F for future mods and just keep the 1.2 install for now. F drive is mainly reserved for 1.3 and not much else. Tanks guys...BNG.  

PS: I think that part of my problem is that my BZ2 model collection is becoming quite massive considering I have replications in COB, 3DS, X, and the original XSI data pack. I may need to buy a much larger HD eventually.

[Sonic]

On linux, that functionality is called 'symbolic linking', on windows its called 'junctioning' or 'hard linking'. There's a way to do it via the command line on any NTFS partition on Windows 2000/XP/Vista, but I found a util that will allow you to do it via Windows Explorer, which is much easier.

http://elsdoerfer.name/=ntfslink

Simply right click on data.pak, create a hardlink to it. Then delete the data.pak from your other bz2 folders (but not the one that you created the hard link from) and replace it with your hardlink to data.pak on your main BZ2 folder. Should save you hundreds of megs of space.

Actually, Windows "Symbolic Linking" is the shortcuts we make (all those things on our desktop, start menu, that end in .lnk). Junction is basicly linux's equilivent of symbolic linking folders. When we are linking data.pak's to multiple directories, we are basicly doing hardlinking, the same as "ln data.pak data2.pak".

[Zero Angel]

They actually call that "symbolic linking" in Windows? I just always assumed they called that "shortcuts" -- and yeah, it is nothing at all like how symbolic linking works on *nix based OS's such as the Linuxes, Macs, and BSDs.

[Nielk1]

Bookmarked that software.

This looks useful too:
http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=211415&sel_platform=6515

[Red Devil]

I did not know that Mac was *nix-based.

[Sonic]

They actually call that "symbolic linking" in Windows? I just always assumed they called that "shortcuts" -- and yeah, it is nothing at all like how symbolic linking works on *nix based OS's such as the Linuxes, Macs, and BSDs.

I was reading further into some of these ntfs links (I'm upgrading to a 64bit, need one that can handle it) and I noticed mention that now Windows Vista actually have symbolic linking without using shortcuts...

I did not know that Mac was *nix-based.

Mac is basicly FreeBSD, following the Unix standard.

[OvermindDL1]

Actually Max OSX is BSD based, not *nix based.

EDIT:  Er, yes, what Sonic said.
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[Red Devil]

What's the difference?