SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Realism- and gameplay-related hardcode fixes for SH3.EXE

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- - Realism- and gameplay-related hardcode fixes for SH3.EXE (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=174225)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SquareSteelBar (Post 1482390)

Was it possible to adopt me?

Count me in too please...:DL

dont worry, its a beginning and sounds promising, good to know that someone is after this issue, having enough courage and patience to deal with that in assembler, this knowledge is rare today and actual worth to be improved i think.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nemo7 (Post 1482393)

Count me in too please...:DL

Me too!

The drawbacks that you exposed are not important and most of them are just fixable as you said. We can help you latter in fix those little issues if needed. This work have great potential to open doors to fix some others old annoying issues for Sh3. This type of mod is the last frontier in the mod work that this community yet didn't touched. Great work mate!:salute:

I am currently playing SH3 with fast flooding times as in GWX and the repair of the equipments takes, depending on the damage, some hours. I like that. An over 40 years old guy is jumping through his room like a child. Smiling.

At 12:00 I ran on a test naval mine. First, the flooding had to be stopped. Repairs of heavily damaged equipment (batteries) have not yet completely finshed 12 hours later. Tension.

Some long-time stability tests now and then it's time for a BETA.

Funny: it was one jump- and one floating-point-division command necessary to do the fix.
why did UBI not fix that?

Sounds like you are making good progress,
I hope when complete that it is something that you are able to share with the rest of us.

Quote:

Originally Posted by h.sie (Post 1482649)

...
Funny: it was one jump- and one floating-point-division command necessary to do the fix.
why did UBI not fix that?

Who could knows? When we make mods this question comes over and over again at our heads. Frequently some mods are so simple - but very hard to implement from modders perpective: without the correct tools, without the necessary knowledge of the structure of the game, without know exactly how the files work , etc. Kuddos to all we here; if we could add up all ours efforts and manpower in understand&modify this game we could had built 2 or 3 games much better than these ones for sure. But this is another history.:DL

Hi Rubini,

I think, in 2005-2006, UBI had more interest to focus on SH4 development instead to fix bugs in SH3. Decisions are made mainly because of financial and market interests. Often wrong decisions. See SH5. To produce good and bugfree products seems to be of secondarily interest.

So I also thought to program my own Subsim with some talented programmers I know, but not with financial interest, only to have a perfect game. But then I look at the Danger From The Deep project. They are, surely, very talented - but no progress in the last years. So I gave up that plan.

Greetings,
h.sie

In order to use that mod you must have an permanent high-speed internet connection and an account at the h.sie server. you also have to agree that some data about you and your gaming behaviour is collected and evaluated. we guarrantee a server uptime of about 50% (except mondays) and also guarrantee that your savegames are cleared periodically.

Quote:

Originally Posted by h.sie (Post 1483191)

:up::haha::har:

Statical repair-time bugfix to sh3.exe is easy. But sharing that exe file is illegal.

Question: Is it illegal to provide a tool that makes fixing a software bug very easy? It does no more than that. no disabling of copyright protection and so on.

Since I won't have starforce on my PC, I am not able and willing to patch the starforced version. So a person who wants longer repair times very much (as I do) and does only have the starforced version, will be forced to buy the non-protected software for some cents. So UBI could perhaps also take profit from that.

h.sie

I have to laugh about myself, having problems with legality/illegality and morale because I just fix a bug. On the other hand a well-known big software publisher seems not to have any morale problems to make promises (even promotion videos) and then take much money for a bug collection for which the attribute "alpha version" already is a compliment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by h.sie (Post 1484334)

How to achieve Realistic Repair- and Flooding Times in SH3
---------------------------------------------------------

This is a technical demonstation for educational and research purposes only. It shows a new technique how SH3 could be modified in order to achieve longer repair times AND realistic floodingtimes.

Since it is strongly forbidden to modify copyrighted materials, you MUST IMMEDIATELY delete all files that are modified/created during this demonstration. It is not allowed to use these files for your gameplay and it is even more forbidden to share the files with others.

Unfortunately, I could not test the result, simply because it's forbidden.
But maybe it works, I don't know.

Step 0:
-------
Create a temporary working directory somewhere on your harddisk,
where you have write-permission.
Copy your sh3.exe into that directory.

Step 1:
-------
Download the File Checksum Integrity Verifier from Microsoft
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841290
and copy the tool fciv.exe to your working directory.

Step 2:
-------
Check the Checksum of your sh3.exe. In DOS Box type:

>fciv sh3.exe

The result must be: 510b271d14621361386197be6bd8cc0c sh3.exe

That ist the sh3.exe Version 1.4.0.1 (Timestamp Jun, 14, 2005)
NOT patched with 4GB patch or similar.
If your Checksum differs, you cannot take part at that demonstration.

Step 3:
-------
Download bsdiff/bspatch packet from
http://sites.inka.de/tesla/others.html#bsdiff
and copy bspatch.exe to your working directory.

Step 4:
-------
Download the file V01 from my mediafire page and
put it into your working directory.
This file contains the longer repair times.

Step 5:
-------
Make a backup copy of your original sh3.exe by typing

> move sh3.exe sh3.old

Step 6:
------
Add the longer repair times stored in V01 to your old sh3 file by typing

>bspatch sh3.old sh3.exe V01

Step 7:
-------
Immediately delete the new sh3.exe with longer repair times without playing it!!!!
Rename back your sh3.old to sh3.exe.

Thank you.

ROTFL....ahahahah....sorry, my bad.
I have serious humor problems.

Now, seriously h.sie,
Many thanks and kudos to you by your hard work and the interest and passion to make sh3 a better game. It's a pity that things must be this way. I agree 1000% with yours words in the posts above about how absurd is this situation in particular...we are only trying to fix a game that we buy with promisses (by the devs/Ubi) that it would work as a sim...but after 5 years it is now just better by modders work...no necessary to say that devs/UBi don't support/make patchs for the game anymore. Well, all we know this old history.

OK, files downloaded, I will now follow yours directions and will delete the modified files immediately as you asked...

You'd waste your time patching a StarForce version as it's a direct
cause of many 'so called' bugs in SH3.

I feel that since UbiSoft released a StarForce free version?
They no longer support SH3.
(As if they have since 1.4b patch!)
So releaseing Patch files that fix issues is only helping put money in thier pockets years down the road.

I doubt they will ever say anything against anything that brings in a profit.
Heck, SH3 & SH4 sales are probably saveing thier arses in the SH5 fiasco!
:haha:

h.sie,
thanks for educating me, I was sursprised that someone with as little computing skills as me could follow this demonstration. Struggled at first with step 7 as that was especially tricky.
Its a shame that I had to delete the amended file rather than use it but I wouldn't want to break any copyright laws.
Thanks to your great work, should the copyright laws change or Ubi chaneg the copyright status of SH3, I will be already equiped to change for the better the game I have paid for.:D:03:

:rock:

You rock mate!

To bad I cannot sail atm. But those who can, post your experiences with this patch here!!:arrgh!:

it's no patch. it's a course.

Good stuff h.sie this is something Id be interested to do
unfortunatly the bspatch.exe dos box dosnt remain open to write the command...

on vista but im running another small dos programme I use for work
so unable to figure why it dosnt fire up :hmmm:

Anyone with any ideas on that? ive tweaked vista so I may have killed a function?

as an aside I doubt ubi would be to interested in makin waves about this *coarse*

if any one wants to delete a coarse file my way it would be appreciated... :woot:

For any one else following along....
I run a that will not be mentioned .exe and even wiith star force enabled that which shall not be mentioned works...
still stuck with the disc to fire up the game but the you know what works...
should get around to fixing that vista prob one day...had no probs with xp sp2...

.

I'll come right out and say I have not, do not and will not use a Starforce enabled version. I've lost too many harddrives over the years to that and similar schemes. I bought and still have a fully legal copy - so Ubisoft HAS gotten their fee for this software - but the sh3.exe running on my system is from an "unauthorized" source. That being the case - is there going to be an advanced course to allow us to directly use your techniques to enable this function?

EAW went down this road years ago with excellent results ...

I had about 4-5 different .exe all tweaked by others who knew what they doing...