Silent Hunter

[Hertston]

Heck, just forget the whole SH3 v. SH4 debate and play Dangerous Waters instead. Akula hunting in a Seawolf is much more fun than all that diesel chugging around looking for convoys anyway [;)]

[Greybriar]

Thanks again, mlc82.

[NefariousKoel]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

Heck, just forget the whole SH3 v. SH4 debate and play Dangerous Waters instead. Akula hunting in a Seawolf is much more fun than all that diesel chugging around looking for convoys anyway [;)]

Yep, good game. I wish the gfx weren't so bad on newer Nvidia cards but no biggie. I just wish it supported widescreen, though. [:(]

[Johnus]

I have the boxed SH3 (two copies actually) and never had any problems. How would I know if it has Starforce ??

[Jevhaddah_Slitherine]

Pop into device manager via system in the control panel.
Select view Show hidden devices

then scroll down to Non Plug and Play Drivers

It should be listed there.

Cheers

Jev

[Johnus]

Jev:

It's there. What do I do ?? As I have said, I don't know of any problems to date.

[JudgeDredd]

Hey Jev....where the hell have you been??

Coming up Sottie Land in December and then again in February for the Wales Scotland rugby game.

[Neilster]

ORIGINAL: Johnnie

Jev:

It's there. What do I do ?? As I have said, I don't know of any problems to date.

Are you near a high window? Either throw yourself or the computer out of it.

Cheers, Neilster

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: Johnnie

Jev:

It's there. What do I do ?? As I have said, I don't know of any problems to date.

Seriously...if you are not seeing any problems with your system, then don't worry about it.

I noticed a rapid decline in DVD burner speed, coupled with system slow down and (what I thought at the time) a bad batch of DVD media which I chucked away, along with what I thought was a failing DVD drive....only to find out it was Starforce. So a game with Stafroce cost me $60 + another $60 for wasted DVD drive (which I now know probably wasn't faulty) and media.

And the buggers refused to say there software was culpable...even though when I removed Starforce, my system was "righted".

But I realise it wasn't with all makes or models of drives...so if you are having no problems, I'd not worry about it. Just know that there are issues...it could save you over a months gaming time trying to figure out what the hell was going wrong with our system (as I did).

[NefariousKoel]

ORIGINAL: Johnnie

Jev:

It's there. What do I do ?? As I have said, I don't know of any problems to date.

There's a Starforce removal tool program you can download.

Uninstall SH3. Use the Starforce removal tool (preferably in safe mode). Reinstall SH3 but don't run it yet. You'll have to get the NoCD cracked files off the internet and copy those over the old ones. After that, you'll be fine.

Even if you only use the starforce removal tool, starforce reinstalls itself every time you run a game with it - unless that's been taken out (cracked).

SF screwed up one of my DVD-RW drives in the past so use it at your own risk. I didn't mention where to get the crack because it's frowned upon and would get edited out.

[Greybriar]

ORIGINAL: NefariousKoel

There's a Starforce removal tool program you can download....

The StarForce Removal Tool utility can be downloaded from this site.

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

But I realise it wasn't with all makes or models of drives...so if you are having no problems, I'd not worry about it. Just know that there are issues...it could save you over a months gaming time trying to figure out what the hell was going wrong with our system (as I did).

That's the point, and indeed why the BS from Starforce and their apologists annoys me so much. No, it doesn't 'break' hardware, which is why nobody was ever going to win their ridiculous challenge to get $1,000 by going to Moscow and showing them that it could, which completely ignored the real problem. What Starforce does do (or at least did do, can't comment on recent versions), with a multitude of hardware and software combinations (and not just those with CD emulators and such) is make folks think their drives are broken because they no longer do what they are supposed to do. They might not work at all, or more usually work some of the time, the most common symptom being that your burn failure rate goes through the roof. In other words Starfarce didn't 'break' one of my drives, but did result in me replacing it. If people know what's causing the problem they can just uninstall but that does require a certain amount of gaming savvy. I am also highly suspicious of the fact that while there is a removal tool it is exclusively available from one source which suggests it could be withdrawn at any time. It's therefore probably wise to ensure an updated version is available before installing any new game that is Starfarce protected. SH3 should present no problems, though.

[Jevhaddah_Slitherine]

Hey JD I reached the venerable age of 50 in August and celebrated by catching a rare bacterial pneumonia from which I am still recovering.

She said she was clean too [;)]

As others have said there is a Starfarce removal tool, but to be honest I just use the NOCD erm patch so that I can play my legitimate version of SH3. I know these things are frowned upon but I was having great problems with Starfarce and as I had paid for the game I was damn well sure I was gonna play it [:)]

I also use the GWX mod which is currently at 2.1 it makes ALL the difference when I sit in the dark with the headphones on being a sad git [:D]

Cheers

Jev

[JudgeDredd]

There's quite an explosion over at SimHQ on the DCS:Black Shark forum.
 
DCS have decided in their infinite wisdom to use Starforce, even knowing that some (alot/most/some) of the community refuse to buy it.
 
If a topic goes up on the DCS forums about Starforce or asking why DCS use it or why they would shaft customers, it's immediately deleted. It's their forum, they can do what they like. Seems to me though that they are concerned that if people know what Starforce used to do, they may not buy it.
 
Loads of people over at SimHQ are saying "Yeah. but it's in it's "x" version"...I keep telling them, the way that company (Starforce) conducted their business and the problems I had, I wouldn't give any game company that supported them a single penny...regardless of how much I was looking forward to the game.

[Grell]

ORIGINAL: cantona2

TBH after WitP i dont think any other Pacific game will do , well other than AE ofcourse!

Id rather play as KM so SH3 seems the weapon of choice for those in the know

Thanks

I really liked SHIII but I hated SHIV.

Regards,

Grell

[Cap Mandrake]

Wow...that Star Force thing goes beyond merely annoying into the get-even-at-all-costs category.

I would definitely blacklist any company that snuck something like that into a product I bought.

[GaryChildress]

I ended up buying Codename: Panzers with the Starforce protection on it. I have experienced a little quirky behavior with some pop up warnings a few times but other than that everything seems to be working OK. I've copied music onto discs no problem etc. Maybe it varies between computer the effects of Starforce. [&:]

[BoredStiff]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Wow...that Star Force thing goes beyond merely annoying into the get-even-at-all-costs category.

I would definitely blacklist any company that snuck something like that into a product I bought.

I recently ended up buying a new desktop, partly because my CD burner wouldn't work anymore. Granted, the computer was over five years old, so it was time anyway, but if it hadn't been for the fact that I couldn't make CD archives anymore, I might have used it for another year.

It was only because of this thread that I found out about Starforce. I don't know for sure whether it's on my old computer, but I bet it is, because the symptoms described uptopic are pretty much what I experienced. I still have the machine, and I might fire it up again one of these days and see if Starforce is on there.

Starforce was on my laptop as well (also via Silent Hunter III). I seem to remember having burner problems with it too, which is why toward the end (prior to buying the new desktop) I merely used the laptop to archive my stuff without ever actually burning anything to disk.

So where are all the lawyers in this so-called nation-of-lawyers? Seems like a class action suit is in order, big time. The people who foisted this thing on consumers need to be run out of the software business for good.

[Arctic Blast]

Already happened, BoredStiff. Ubisoft was sued over Starforce being on their titles, they lost, they pulled it off their games, and every single Western software company did the same. The only time you really encounter it anymore is with games from Eastern Europe (though most use Western distributors who replace it with something else) or on older titles released prior to it being blacklisted.

As for SecuROM, well, there's a class action suit being launched against EA right now over it's use in Spore, so we'll see what ends up happening there.

[BoredStiff]

ORIGINAL: Arctic Blast

As for SecuROM, well, there's a class action suit being launched against EA right now over it's use in Spore, so we'll see what ends up happening there.

Any wargame titles that you know of that uses SecuROM? Can it be detected in the device manager as well, like Starforce?