Oh my word, I got the bloody thing to work! with Greywolves and widescreen mods!!! here is what I did:
followed the instructions on this forum page in the first post -
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...7691096797/p/6
EXCEPT, here is the slight changes I made:
1. Uninstall SH3 if installed already
2. Run SFRemove
3. Reboot
4. Begin installation of SH3 as normal
***change setup.exe properties to Run as Administrator and change for all users. Afer that, Click Troubleshoot Compatibility and click Run with Recommended Settings (WinXP SP2). Now run setup.
***I also changed the installation directory to C:\games\ubisoft\silent hunter III\
5. When you get to Game Shadow cancel install
6. When you get to finish screen DO NOT press Finish. This IS crucial!
7. Install the 1.4 EU DVD patch with Run As Admin
****The EU Patch would not recognize my version, so I used the U.S. Patch. Again, I set it to run as administrator for all users and ran it under recommended compatibility mode.
8. ONLY after Patch has completed hit finish and the launcher screen runs to check system spec and reboot message appears. DO NOT reboot.
***No reboot message showed up for me.
9. Exit spec check. DO NOT choose Launch.
10. Overwrite the files with the NO DVD rld-sh14.rar
11. Run the game. Should now work.
I have no clue how or why this works, but after a few hours of troubleshooting and whining, I'm just happy it does. I did not buy a new copy, but installed from an old DVD with Starforce on it, but of course I didn't launch the game with the DVD so it never installed it. I don't have to change any video settings to make SH3 run, this was all I did, and I can install any mods via JSGME so far including GWX3 and Widescreen fix. I'm running it on a widescreen 18" with 1366x768 native resolution. ha, I was almost going to break down and buy Silent Hunter 5 to make me feel better, but now that SH3 is up and running Ubisoft isn't getting any more of my money.