Just as i had run out of ideas i found the log.log file in cloD.
It led me to the injFX_Settings.h file.
I commented out the #define USE_ANTI_ALIASING line and for some unknown reason stopped the game loading.
Nothing to read here.. carry on!
Code:
redirecting CreateDXGIFactory
redirecting IDXGIFactory->CreateSwapChain
D3DX10CompileFromFile failed
injFX_Shaders\Tonemap.h(21,8): warning X3206: implicit truncation of vector type
C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover\shader.hlsl(75,37): error X3004: undeclared identifier 'lumaSampler'