Battle of Britain II2.13 Modern Fix, version 1.9.3

The Modern Fix Handbook

Everything the mod does, how to install it, and how to fly a career with it: from a fresh Windows 11 install to your first sortie, and your pilot's record after it. Written for new players and for anyone coming from version 1.8.

A Spitfire of No. 92 Squadron over the English coast in Battle of Britain II
No. 92 Squadron over the coast, running on Windows 11 with the mod.
What's new in 1.9

A career that starts in the game and comes back to you

Version 1.8 got the game running well. Version 1.9 is about what happens around the flying: getting into your campaign in one click, flying for either side, and a Squadron Room that keeps a proper record of the man in the cockpit.

One click into your war

PLAY CAMPAIGN opens the game on the campaign map

Create your pilot in the Squadron Room and press PLAY CAMPAIGN. The game starts, skips its menus and lands you on the campaign map with everything already set: your side, your squadron or Gruppe, the phase of the war, your role and your name.

No more working through the campaign screens and preferences by hand, and no more flying with a squadron you did not choose. A pilot whose campaign is already under way goes straight back into his own save, and when you leave the campaign the game closes and you are back in the Squadron Room.

The RAF dispersal in the Squadron Room for a new pilot of No. 610 Squadron, with his Spitfire DW-E

A new pilot of No. 610 Squadron at Biggin Hill. His Spitfire is on the board from the day he is posted.

Fly for the Luftwaffe

The German side of the Squadron Room

Everything the RAF side has, the Luftwaffe side now has too, in its own form:

  • The Gruppen on a map of the Channel front, changing with the date.
  • The Bf 109 E and the Bf 110. A Zerstörer pilot has his Bordfunker beside him, with his own rank, record and photograph.
  • The Flugbuch (log book), the Staffel roster, and the Morgenmeldung each morning.
The Luftwaffe ready room for a Bf 110 pilot of III./ZG 26 and his Bordfunker

A Bf 110 crew of III./ZG 26: the pilot, his Bordfunker, and their aircraft with its code 3U+DR.

The Gruppen map of the Channel front on 12 August 1940

The Gruppen on the Channel front, by date.

The aeroplane the game gives you

The right letter, number and camouflage

The game decides which aircraft you fly on each sortie, and the Squadron Room now follows it. When you come back from a sortie, your code letter (RAF) or your number and its colour (Luftwaffe) are the ones you actually flew.

Every German side view is painted from the game's own skin textures, so the camouflage matches what you saw in the air. That is 125 Bf 109 E skins and 12 Bf 110 skins.

A Bf 109 E side view of II./JG 26 painted from the game's own skin
A Bf 110 side view painted from the game's own grey green skin

A II./JG 26 Bf 109 E and a Bf 110, both painted from the game's textures.

A personal record

Click your photograph

Every pilot now has a first name and a surname, and a personal record behind his portrait. It gives when and where he was born and how he came to fly: school, the flying training schools, and the entry his commanding officer found in his file when he arrived.

The training routes are the real ones men followed in 1940. The man himself is invented. Type over any of it and press SAVE, or press WRITE ANOTHER for a different past. Your Bordfunker has a record of his own.

The personal record window for a Bf 110 pilot, with first name, birth date, birthplace and his story
Two morning papers

The Morning Bulletin and the Morgenmeldung

Each paper now carries what really happened the day before in 1940:

  • The raids and the weather.
  • The figures Fighter Command claimed that night, beside the losses the records showed after the war.
  • The other news a British or German reader would have seen that morning.

All 114 days from 10 July to 31 October 1940 are covered. The band is clearly marked as the record of 1940, so it is never mixed up with your own campaign's figures.

The Morning Bulletin for 16 August 1940 with the record of 15 August
The Morgenmeldung for 16 August 1940
Joysticks

New sticks set themselves up

Plug in a different joystick or HOTAS and the launcher notices, and offers to set it up for you. No more controls that work in Windows but not in the game.

The picture

No grid lines, sharper distance

The lines across the terrain are gone (they came from forced antialiasing), distant ground is sharper with larger terrain textures, and ReShade's Balanced preset sharpens the image.

Frame rate

Two measured patches

Optional patches to the game's cloud lighting and line drawing. The cloud one raised the average frame rate by 16% in testing. Both stay off by default while they are tested on more machines.

Fewer alarms

No more false warnings

The launcher no longer says the graphics settings file looks damaged. If that file ever really is broken, PLAY quietly puts a good copy back and keeps the old one beside it.

New here

Installing the mod

You need a licensed copy of Battle of Britain II. The mod includes everything else, including the graphics translator (dgVoodoo2), so there is nothing else to download.

  1. Unblock the download

    Right click the zip you downloaded, choose Properties, tick Unblock and press OK. If you skip this, Windows may stop the launcher opening.

  2. Extract it into your game folder

    The zip holds one folder, BOB2-Win11-Fix. Put that whole folder inside your Battle of Britain II folder, next to Bob.exe:

    D:\Battle of Britain II\
    Bob.exe
    bdg.txt
    BOB2-Win11-Fix\      <- the folder from the zip

  3. Start the launcher

    Open the folder and double click _CLICK HERE TO START.bat, the first file in it.

  4. Run the setup wizard

    The wizard puts in the graphics translator, sets the right resolution, applies the Windows 11 fixes and sets up your joystick. It explains each step before it changes anything, and backs up every file first. If your game is not yet at version 2.13, put the 2.13 patch file in the BOB2-Win11-Fix folder first. The wizard applies it for you, so do not run it yourself.

  5. Press PLAY

    That's it. To fly a career, open the Squadron Room instead (see below).

Coming from 1.8

Updating

  1. Delete the old BOB2-Win11-Fix folder

    It holds nothing of yours. Your pilots and their records are kept in the SquadronRoom folder beside Bob.exe, and your backups and joystick settings are kept elsewhere too, so none of them are touched.

  2. Put the new folder in its place

    Unblock and extract the new zip exactly as in the steps above.

  3. Start the launcher and click the upgrade line

    At the foot of the launcher it will say Mod 1.9.2 installed, 1.9.3 available, click here to upgrade. Click it, and the game folder is brought up to date. Your settings and pilots carry over.

Flying a career

The Squadron Room, step by step

The Squadron Room is where your pilot lives between sorties. You fly in the game as usual, and the Room keeps the record: log book, rank, awards, crew, aircraft and the morning paper.

  1. Open the Squadron Room

    From the launcher. Choose the RAF or the Luftwaffe with the switch at the top.

  2. Choose your unit and your date

    Pick a phase of the Battle, then a squadron on the Fighter Command board, or a Gruppe on the map of the Channel front.

  3. Report for duty

    Give your first name and your surname (both are needed), choose whether you arrive as an NCO or with a commission, and pick your photograph. On the German side you also choose your aircraft's number, or its letter on a Bf 110.

  4. Press PLAY CAMPAIGN

    The game opens on the campaign map with your squadron, phase and name already set. Fly the day, then leave the campaign: the game closes and you are back in the Room.

  5. Say which save is his

    The first time you come back, the Room asks which save is this pilot's campaign. It shows on his card as CAMPAIGN SAVE, and from then on PLAY CAMPAIGN loads it by itself. Your sortie is in the log book, your aircraft shows the letter or number you actually flew, and rank and awards follow from what you do.

Your orders, as the Room gives them

Press PLAY CAMPAIGN (top right). In the game, start or continue the Campaign and fly the day. When you come back here your first sortie will be in the logbook.

Quick missions and training are not recorded here. Your aeroplane and your logbook are for the campaign only.

Please do not switch away from the game with Alt+Tab while you fly. The game runs full screen, and any window that appears over it can make it lose the display or your joystick.

Good to know

Questions players have asked

Why is my letter in the game different from the Room's?

Before your first sortie the Room shows the letter the game gives the squadron leader's aircraft. If the game puts you further down the flight you fly a different one. After the sortie the Room shows the letter you actually flew.

Why am I leading the squadron as a Pilot Officer?

That is the game. On your first sortie it puts you in the lead aircraft, whatever your rank.

My quick mission is not in the log book

Only campaign sorties are recorded. Quick missions and flight training are for practice.

Are the newspaper figures from my campaign?

The band headed "from the record of 1940" is real history for the day before, with sources kept for every date. The Morgenmeldung's lead story is your own campaign's figures, and says so underneath.

A console window flashes and the launcher never opens

Windows or your antivirus has blocked it. Unblock the zip before extracting (step 1), or add the BOB2-Win11-Fix folder to your antivirus exclusions. The mod is open source.

Two mouse pointers, or the joystick does nothing

A copy of the game was still running, or a window appeared over the game. The launcher will not start a second copy. Close anything that pops up on a timer while you fly.

Can I change my pilot's past?

Yes. Click his photograph, type over anything, and press SAVE. What you write is kept and never replaced.

Will updating lose my pilots?

No. They live in the SquadronRoom folder beside Bob.exe, not in the mod's folder.