SH3 goes gold is it just me

[Charles2222]

I have been wondering if the men in this game get killed graphically or if they're just part of the guns, etc. : [img]http://rebel_stu.bei.t-online.de/3.jpg[/img]

Funny because that's off a battleship and I don't recall any men showing up on larger ships (or the smaller ones without guns).

I got that from the SHIII forum.

[DeepSix]

I was hoping to come back tonight with a glowing account of my first encounter with this, but instead I've hit a stumbling block. Running it on a Pentium 2.4, 1 gig RAM, brand new DVD drive installed this evening (like KG Erwin, I had to upgrade my hardware for this), and a GeForce 4600 -- the game has a tendency to hang -- game has a tendency to ha-- game has a tendency to ha -- tendency to hang up. Like a drunk with the >HIC< hiccups. I'm hoping to find a way around this; it doesn't CTD and it eventually rights itself but after a few more seconds it ha -- it ha -- it hangs again. I don't know if it's the disc, the drive, or my other hardware (though I doubt the latter). I'll try it again without high detail textures and with less particle density, etc., and hopefully nip this in the bud.

[KG Erwin]

Deep Six, I skipped buying the DVD-ROM, and instead opted for the digital download through IGN. The only problem is--it won't be available until tomorrow. [8|] However, this does save me some cash UNLESS I have to end up buying a new video card.

(Also, don't forget to d/l the 1.1 patch, which might help your video hiccups.)

[DeepSix]

Well I tried changing settings. You have to restart the game for them to take effect. So I did that, and now I get this BS. Tried changing the settings back with no success.

[KG Erwin]

Deep Six, see my above addendum--get the 1.1 patch, and visit subsim.com for help on the "white blob" problem.

[DeepSix]

I got the 1.1 patch -- also updated my nVidia drivers (latest version is 7184) and that helped some. Forgot to run the patch though (duh!) and I'm glad to hear the white blob is a known quantity. Thanks very much for the tip!

[DeepSix]

Well from bad to worse it goes. The hangups got worse and finally the whole PC locked up and I couldn't even CTRL+ALT+DEL to get out of it. I ended up having to power off and hard boot. Ran the patch, ran the game from the disc instead of from the startup menu as per the tip at subsim.... the blob is gone, the game hasn't locked up anymore, but verdamt! This stuttering just makes it impossible to enjoy. Every movement of the mouse practically gives my machine a hernia. The longer the game runs, the more pronounced the problem gets. I wonder if I could screw up the Windows paging file size to help me out, though.

At any rate, woe be unto him who would try running this with the minimum system specs. It's ridiculous I can't run it on a 2.4 with 1024 RAM and a very decent graphics card. Mine is not a sub-par machine I think... I feel a bit like the idealistic first officer in Das Boot when he first meets the captain.

#1: "Some of the crew, they.... They... they--"
Captain: "They pissed on you didn't they?"
#1: "Yes."
Captain: "I know. Me, too."

Looks like this may turn out to be the loveliest paperweight on my desk. At least until I can get a newer video card.[:(]

[testarossa]

Desable FSAA and filtration first. Than set lowest settings possible. From this try gradually increase the video settings.

Than write stinking UB customer support a letter (attach dxdiag txt file). in 24 hours they have to answer you something.

or get yourself ATI 9600 XT for 100 presidents. It has twice the power of Ti 4600.

[Gen.Hoepner]

[:(] No laptop supported....problems with video cards, Ram and all those tecno staff.....that's why i hate the new generation games....and that's why i love Witp, Spwaw and the other matrix games: they run even with my coffea machine!
I'd love to have pac fighters too ( used to have IL-2 which is a great game) but cannot effort to buy a 2000$ brand new pc just to play a damned game!

[DeepSix]

ORIGINAL: testarossa
or get yourself ATI 9600 XT for 100 presidents. It has twice the power of Ti 4600.

Heheh. Tried your suggestions (thanks; I had high hopes there for a while[:)]) and everything else I can think of. You're probably right; it probably is the card. The 3D environments have some minor artifacts in them (polys that flicker, but nothing I couldn't live with if I didn't have the stutter problem). As much as I agree with the suggestion to get a newer card (and maybe this will ultimately be a good excuse to get one) I still think that if the fr****n system requirements claim it'll run on an Nvidia 4 series card, well then, call me crazy, but....



I wasn't put on this earth to help hardware and software manufacturers scratch each other's backs.

I know the game's hardly been out a week, but if anybody else is running it successfully on a GF4 it would help me to know that.

Sorry for the gruff posts about this; I really didn't mean to take over the thread, either -- I really need to take this up with UbiSoft instead of just ranting. Thanks for everybody's suggestions. FYI here's my tech support webmail to UbiSoft:

OS: Windows XP
Processor: 2.0GHz
RAM: 1.0GB
Card: Ti4600
Drive: New (yesterday) Lite-on DVD-RW
Hard disk: 80 gig RAID 1 that's not even half full.
Other:
- clean install
- patched to 1.1
- latest Nvidia drivers (7184)
- DirectX 9. I had it before but when I reinstalled I reinstalled it also -- from the SH3 disc.
- I run a virus scan at least once a week and defrag about once a month; most recently the day before I bought SH3 (Saturday, in anticipation of what was to be THE sub sim.).
- have uninstalled and reinstalled
- no background programs except Norton, the Nvidia tray .exe, and the usual MS background tasks. Including that dam-blasted msmsgs that you can turn off as many times as you want.

The problem is: It doesn't matter whether I have low or high detail settings; SH3 skips like a broken record. Works ok in 2D screens (Navigator's station, for example) but forget 3D. Which is hilarious in a game where 90% of the visuals are full 3D (with a free flying cam to boot). Every mouse movement in 3D seems to provoke a freeze in picture and sound. The worst area is definitely the control room; the bridge is a close second. Sometimes it runs perfectly for five minutes and then starts getting the hiccups. As long as the music plays (even if it skips), the program will right itself and keep going, but a few seconds later it hangs up again. Other times it just completely freezes and I can't even CTRL-ALT-DEL my way out. I have to power off and hard boot. This is not pleasing to me. Then there is the moderate distraction of having to always start from the autoplay (instead of the Start menu) in order to avoid the White Blob and black sky.

Anti-aliasing on or off, hardware acceleration low or full, particles on or off, nothing fixes it. I've used the Nvidia manager and the built in XP display dialog and tweaked everything I can tweak.

I would be most grateful for some help, since the manual (and the box)clearly states on p. 4 that Nividia GeForce 3, 4, and FX cards are supported. I can find no reason why my hardware should not be able to run Silent Hunter III.

[Charles2222]

I have a 2.8 XP-HE SP2 with an Nvidia FX 5600 with 1G RAM. If I were you guys I would look over the SHIII website and look for the specs for what lower setups guys have got to working. I haven't seen the white spot on my rig yet. I did have a problem where the some of the colors inverted so that it looked as though the periscope view was skitzing out. And also the front boat ocean spray went to some weird color. I rebooted the machine and haven't seen either reoccur. I hope you guys get a working situation. I've been playing it every spare minute I can and am learning a thing or two.

[wodin]

Runs fine on mine 2.0ghz AMD Georce 4200ti and 512meg ddr.

Have anti aliasing etc on lowest setting.

Use Riva tuner.

[testarossa]

Well I have AMD64-3500 S939 1GB DDR 533 RAM, GForce 6800GT. And have that annoying particle effect bug. Switchign it on and off just drving me nuts.

This bug is ever present on all Nvidia cards.

To Deepssix. Try to desable fastwrites in the BIOS. It sometimes produces freezes for 5-10 secs in latest games (driver issue). Newer games don't use fastwrites anyways.

P.S. UBI will ask you for dxdiags file. Type dxdiag in the run window. wait. application window will appera. Than hit "save all the information" button and you will be prompted to save it to the dxdiag.txt.

It should start with something like this (my office workstation):

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 3/22/2005, 09:27:33
Machine name: HUNTER-ADMIN
Operating System: Windows 2000 Professional (5.0, Build 2195) Service Pack 4
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: VIA Technologies, Inc.
System Model: VT8367-8233A
BIOS: Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+, ~1.7GHz
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 385MB used, 2074MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINNT
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.0001.0904 32bit Unicode

[DeepSix]

[&o]Oooh, good. Thank you very much! I didn't know about fastwrites or where to find the dxdiag.

I did get a response from 'Jason' at ubisoft support. It was pretty obvious that he hadn't read my original very well, if at all. He proceeded to suggest trying all the things which I'd already said I'd tried. Change graphics settings. Defrag. Virus scan. Uninstall/reinstall. Yada yada yada. And Scandisk. That one's my favorite. No better way to get a customer off your back than by keeping him busy for a few hours.

But I digress. Thank you again, and thanks Charles_22 and wodin, for your specs also. Going by what y'all are saying, looks like I probably do need a new card. [sarcasm]While I'm at it, more memory wouldn't hurt, either. And as long as I'm buying more memory, maybe I should just go ahead and get a new motherboard.... [/sarcasm][;)]

A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! -Richard III, Act V, scene iv

[wodin]

Try lowering the sound hardware acceleration.


With regards to the white blob

Apparently it works

"Someone on the ubi forms posted it. It is very obscure. If you run the game via the play button on the DVD's autoplay menu, it works! If you run the game via the start menu shortcut, glich city! How odd"


"It may sound stupid but the guy is right. I just tried it and problem solved. I then started the game from the Start Menu and the blob was back. I then tried a third time - second time from the DVD exe and the blob was gone again. As crazy as it sounds it works. There is likely something loading or not loading properly when you use the menu exe rather than the DVD menu exe. However, my Radeon 9800XT is still getting some bad artifacting. I have tried numerous settings, even with V-sync and no luck. But the game is incredible."

[DeepSix]

Yeah, that solution *does* work. If I run from a shortcut (start menu, desktop) I get it; if I run from autoplay, no blob. Haven't tried running from the actual target (Program Files\Ubi\SH3) yet, but I will.

Just generated the DxDaig.txt so if I get anything else back from Ubi I will send it.

[KG Erwin]

I ordered this game through Direct 2 Drive, and it's still not available. I cancelled the order. I will have to upgrade my video card before I even have a chance of playing the game.

Now, here's the bugaboo--all my other games look fine on my present configuration--SPWaW (my all-time favorite), all of the AoE/AoM series, CC, the Great Battles of Alexander, etc and a few others.

To play SHIII, I will have to buy a new video card, but what then happens to the displays on my older classic games? Will they look the same ? Somebody help me out on this. SPWaW is one I cannot lose, no matter how modern my PC may become. The future is here, but it would be a terrible irony if the classic wargames were to be left behind by advances in PC technology.

[DamoclesX]

Anybody ram a destroyer? I rammed one, t-boned it cause I was beyond screwed, and it SANK!!!!!!!

That make no sence in the way I view the world!!!

[Charles2222]

ORIGINAL: wodin

Try lowering the sound hardware acceleration.


With regards to the white blob

Apparently it works

"Someone on the ubi forms posted it. It is very obscure. If you run the game via the play button on the DVD's autoplay menu, it works! If you run the game via the start menu shortcut, glich city! How odd"


"It may sound stupid but the guy is right. I just tried it and problem solved. I then started the game from the Start Menu and the blob was back. I then tried a third time - second time from the DVD exe and the blob was gone again. As crazy as it sounds it works. There is likely something loading or not loading properly when you use the menu exe rather than the DVD menu exe. However, my Radeon 9800XT is still getting some bad artifacting. I have tried numerous settings, even with V-sync and no luck. But the game is incredible."

I've never seen it and I've always ran it from the shortcut.

[Charles2222]

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

I ordered this game through Direct 2 Drive, and it's still not available. I cancelled the order. I will have to upgrade my video card before I even have a chance of playing the game.

Now, here's the bugaboo--all my other games look fine on my present configuration--SPWaW (my all-time favorite), all of the AoE/AoM series, CC, the Great Battles of Alexander, etc and a few others.

To play SHIII, I will have to buy a new video card, but what then happens to the displays on my older classic games? Will they look the same ? Somebody help me out on this. SPWaW is one I cannot lose, no matter how modern my PC may become. The future is here, but it would be a terrible irony if the classic wargames were to be left behind by advances in PC technology.

I haven't had any video problems with older games with my NVIDIA FX 5600, but I think generally most cards won't be compatible with older games if they're the budget version of the card they made at that time. Something about the card needs VESA compatibility. I did some check when I was running SPWW2 to see if it was VESA compatible and supposedly it wasn't, but the game works anyway. I suppose it must be the VESA testing program that was broken instead. They say they "support" NVIDIA 3/4/FX series with the exception of the MX series cards. I don't know what MX is and my computer don't list it anywhere. I suppose out of "3/4/FX" mine is considered FX , but it looks like it's saying that they only support "3 FX" and "4 FX" which I suppose mine is a 5. That did worry me a bit when I bought it, but then I know that 3 series is pretty old, and I would assume the 5 series is backwards compatible. Or maybe the 3's and 4's aren't called "FX" while the 5's on up, are. What a mess unless you are on the video card edge.

They also say the ATI Radeon 8500/9000 family cards or newer laptops of those cards are not supported.

They also want DirectX 9 compatibility on both video and sound cards.

I've heard about people running two video cards on their computers, so if a new card wouldn't run the old stuff you might be able to put a 2nd card on and switch to the older one for the older games. I have no idea whether that would cause any other problems like overheating though.

Here's hoping someone has something more direct suggestions for you.




Oh, BTW, I was saying earlier that the larger ships didn't have little men -uh- I was wrong. I found one British BB for example that had 22 men showing if you looked hard enough (I think it was the same BB pictured above).