TKOH, Rearmed & Arma 2 Free Edition...

First, I will say that this post is for advanced users ONLY! If you do not understand the terms/nomenclature used here, then I suggest that you seek out someone that does.

DISCLAIMER:

• THIS IS JUST A SUGGESTION/GUIDE! ANY STEPS YOU TAKE ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER, YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR! I, NOR THE MODERATORS/BI TEAM MEMBERS/DEVELOPERS CAN, NOR WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE, FOR YOUR IGNORANCE AND ACTIONS!
  
• EDITING/PLAYING WITH THE WINDOWS REGISTRY IS FOR EXPERT TECHNICIANS ONLY, AND IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR NOVICE USERS!
  
• NONE OF THESE STEPS HAVE BEEN PROVEN, AND THEREFORE ARE CONSIDERED BETA! AGAIN, IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE TERM BETA, STOP HERE!
  
• BY PERFORMING ANY STEPS CONTAINED HERE, YOU AGREE THAT YOU, AND ONLY YOU, ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE FROM THE RESULTS OF THESE ACTIONS!
  
• YOU FURTHER AGREE TO POST ALL QUESTIONS/COMMENTS HERE, AND WILL NOT PRIVATE MESSAGE( PM ) MYSELF OR ANY MODERATORS/DEVELOPERS FOR HELP!
  
• PM's REGARDING THIS POST, WILL BE IGNORED!
  

I can not stress how important it is that you know what you are about to do, as incorrect Registry entries, CAN AND WILL render your computer useless! ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES TO IT!

Moving on...

My System Specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit Edition

8GB PC6400 DDR2 RAM

nVidia GTX 560 1GB DDR5( 4GB Total Available Graphics Memory )

1TB RAID 0+1

Intel QX6700

ALL drivers and OS are up to date as of this post.

I have the Steam version of Take On Helicopters( TKOH ) and Take On Hinds. Through Steam, I am updated to the latest Steam Patch 1.06, "Downtown", in which my TKOH now includes Noisecontrollers and Rearmed; again all through Steam.

I have recently downloaded Arma 2 Free Edition( A2F ), ran A2F once as Administrator, then patched it to the ARMA2 Free Patch 1.11. Ran A2F once again, as Administrator.

I have been looking through several posts about how to launch A2F with TKOH, and found the '-mod=' posts. As a computer tech, I thought( and still think ) that is a sloppy way to start the program and launch the mods; especially since TKOH has a really nice 'Expansions' option in the main menu to 'automagically' accomplish this for you. I also read that Rearmed is suppose to, again, 'automagically' see and launch ANY of the Arma 2 products.

Wiki: Take On Helicopters - Rearmed

Loading from Registry

If you do not use the -mod parameter, Take On Helicopters will load Rearmed automagically when it finds Arma 2 and / or Operation Arrowhead in the registry and everything is taken care off automatically.

You can disable / enable Rearmed in the Expansion menu from the main menu. It will deactivate / activate automatically the required dependencies to the other products.

So this got me thinking. Why does it not see the Arma 2 Free edition?

Then it hit me: Arma 2 Free. Not because the product is inferior, but because of that word! I figured that since Rearmed was looking for a registry entry for 'Arma 2', it most likely returned false when it found 'Arma 2 Free'.

So I opened Regedit, and located the registry entry, I believed was being read by Rearmed, and I got lucky, as it was the first one I suspected! :cool: It looks for A2 in the following Hive Key:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bohemia Interactive Studio\  <-- 64 Bit OS ***

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Bohemia Interactive Studio\  <-- 32 Bit OS ***

However, I don't have Arma 2, I have Arma 2 Free, so my registry key is:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA 2 Free

Looking into the Hive Key, I saw 3 entries:

• (Default) - empty REG_SZ
  
• KEY - REG_BINARY
  
• MAIN - REG_SZ
  

The last string value, is what I suspected Rearmed was looking for; which contains the full install path of Arma 2( in my case A2F ). I exported the whole Key to my desktop, opened the .REG file with Notepad++, and removed 'Free' from the entry. Double clicked the newly modified .REG file, and it wrote a new entry into the Registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA 2

This entry contains EXACTLY the same keys as the A2F entry.

I ran TKOH... There it was... Arma 2 Free on load up! However, when viewed in the expansions menu, it shows as Arma II. I suspect that the image and mod information, is contained in the Rearmed patch folder, inside TKOH's Root folder, and not the A2 Game itself. No big deal, as I tested it with the Mission Editor, in both create and play mode. All seems to be there, and working!

For those interested in trying this, you can perform the following steps:

UPDATE! PLEASE SEE POST #4 BELOW

Below is an example of what the .REG file will look like when complete. Please note that I have a 64 Bit OS and A2F is installed vanilla:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA 2]
"MAIN"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Bohemia Interactive\\ArmA 2 Free"
"KEY"=<<<THIS HAS BEEN REMOVED FOR SECURITY REASONS BY ME, THE OP!>>>>

I must also say, that I suspect if you decide to purchase the wonderful FULL version of Arma 2, you will need to REMOVE this new entry before install. Re-locate the false entry in Regedit, right-click it and choose 'Delete', then proceed with the FULL version install.

Hope that helps! ;-)

Perfect! It hadn't even occurred to me yet to consider the registry entries!

Thank you!

Perfect! It hadn't even occurred to me yet to consider the registry entries!

Thank you!

:n: You got it!

I think that I have found a better way to use this 'registry hack'. The new method would not require you to do anything further, if you decide to purchase the full version of Arma II.

If you have already done the above, DELETE that new entry; if you have not already tried that, use this method instead.

Upon further investigation, I found that TKOH creates a sub-key called 'Expansions'. All the available expansions are there, except A2F. Looking further at the key and sub-keys of the full Arma 2 version, I noticed that it is a simple process of 'telling' Rearmed where to find these expansions. Because the paths are all related to finding the expansions through the registry, it won't matter where you have them installed. The final Registry Key will tell TKOH where to find the files it is looking.

This also( in theory :confused: ) should not affect ANY full version, nor the free version, of the game in the future! This just ADDS the A2F registry entry, which should have been done in the original Rearmed Patch.

So...

Let me know if you have questions BEFORE you attempt this!

• Create a new TEXT Document on your desktop, call it what ever you want and change the extension from .TXT to .REG.
  
• Open the new file with Notepad++( again preferred, but Windows Notepad will work, too! ) and copy/paste ONE of the codes below into it. BE SURE TO COPY/PASTE THE CORRECT 32/64 BIT VERSION!
  
• Save, then double click to add the entry to your registry.
  

Windows 64 Bit:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bohemia Interactive Studio\Take On Helicopters\Expansions\Arma 2 Free]
"Path"="SOFTWARE\\Bohemia Interactive Studio\\ARMA 2 Free"
"LOADBEFORE"=""
"LOADAFTER"="Take On Helicopters"
"MODDIR"="CA"
"REQUIRE"="Take On Helicopters Rearmed"

Windows 32 Bit:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Bohemia Interactive Studio\Take On Helicopters\Expansions\Arma 2 Free]
"Path"="SOFTWARE\\Bohemia Interactive Studio\\ARMA 2 Free"
"LOADBEFORE"=""
"LOADAFTER"="Take On Helicopters"
"MODDIR"="CA"
"REQUIRE"="Take On Helicopters Rearmed"

I have tested the 64 Bit version, and it works exactly the same as the original post. However, I have not altered ANY Arma 2 entries, I have ONLY created a new Arma 2 Free entry that Rearmed seems to like.

Hope that helps! ;-) Again, let me know if you have questions BEFORE you attempt this!

Well done mate - the later method is indeed the way to go :bounce3: