War Ace Campaign 4.1

[HanSolo78]

Hi!

Did you already install the WinVista/Win7 patch?

[moscowexile]

Yes, I have downloaded and installed the Windows 7 patch but it has had no effect. I can only think that I have downloaded a corrupted file somewhere. The same happened with LSH: I only got it running after downloading files several times. As said above, I shall do a totally new installation later today.

[Cheapskate]

A quick way to discover whether any of your downloads have been corrupted would be to use a hash check utility such as this one:-

http://sanity-free.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=20

After download (the button is at the end of the write-up), just run the exe file which will open up a window. Make sure Md5 is selected then simply drag each of the files (exactly as originally downloaded) in turn into the window. You should see a series of digits within a matter of seconds.

Carotio's download should show the following identifiers:-

Vol 001 - 9416FFB2908EB025B69C195E70354909
Vol 002 - 4608E40A99CC5D3A029DC3B3F91C33AF
Vol 003 - D13859C1EF693393A536773BCB29F164

No need to check all the digits. Just look at the first two or three and if they match then that volume will have been downloaded correctly.

If they all match then your install problems lie elsewhere.

Hope this helps and you soon get WAC 4.1 up and running.

[moscowexile]

Yes, I'll do that Cheapskate.

I've just done a complete re-instalment. No luck.

Same symptom: the loading bar stops dead on 90%, then after about 4 or 5 minutes, a message from the OS tells me that the installation has stopped responding and that a solution, if found, will be sent to me.

I loaded SH3 GWX 3 into this new machine without any problem at all. With SH4, however, I had big problems: only the intro video played and then there was only a black screen, but with sound, instead of the menu screen.

Microsoft claims that you have to install a virtual Windows XP program to get SH4 and some other games running. However, after searching the Internet for an answer to my problem, I found out that if you load SH4 with the NVidia settings on minimum, then the game would install itself, after which installation, the NVidia settings can be adjusted to taste.

I don't think the downloaded files are corrupted. I'm pretty sure it's Windows 7 "incompatibility" program that's at fault. You see, in order to download Windows Virtual XP pprogram, you have to have an OS no lower than Windows 7 Home Premium (if I'm not mistaken), and that means that I should have to buy a Windows 7 update as my OS is the Home Basic that came already installed in my PC.

Well, I didn't buy an update to get SH4 running: here's hoping that I shall be just as successful in installing SH3 WAC 4.1 as I was in eventually installing SH4 with Real Fleet Boat and Run Silent Run Deep supermods.

[HanSolo78]

What kind of exe file do you use?
Do you use the original .exe file from DVD or the no-dvd .exe file.
I aks because the WinVista / Win7 patch won´t work with the original dvd .exe file.

greetings
Han

EDIT: It is no problem of Win7.. at least it can be solved with the patch because it works for me and several others.
Maybe you did not apply the patch regularly or it is because of the russian Win7 version... but I doubt that!

[moscowexile]

That might just be the root cause of the problem, HanSolo. I' m using the .exe file from the DVD, which DVD, by the way, is an SHIII v 4.1 that I bought in England in 2007.

I agree with you, in that I hardly think that the Russian Windows 7 OS is the cause of the problem: it's surely the patching that's at fault.

I may have downloaded corrupt files, but I also hardly think so: this is the third full instalment from a vanilla SHIII that I have made, although I'll check my latest downloaded WAC files as Cheapskate has advised.

I must have patched wrongly.

I shall report back on my progress.

All the best!

[moscowexile]

No luck so far.

I followed cheapskate's advice and used the hash check tool, which he kindly provided me the link to, and all the downloaded WAC files are in order.

I then downloaded an SHIII 4.1b no-dvd crack and replaced the original .exe file that came with my vanilla SHIII that I bought in England. I then applied the WinVista/Win7 patch.

Then on loading for my first 1939 patrol outward bound from Wilhelmshaven, the loading bar reaches 90% exactly, only considerably slower than before, then hangs for 5 minutes, after which I get a message telling me that the program has ceased to function.

I am now about to do yet another complete re-installation.

[danasan]

I apologize if you knew that already, but you said you did different installments, LSH f.x. So... Did you delete the SH3 - folder in your own documents ( that is where your carrier is in ). That could be a reason to stop WAC from starting because of an LSH - SH3 still existing

[moscowexile]

I did that, for sure - or at least I thought I had.

I have just been uninstalling SH3 WAC in order to do yet another clean reinstallation and used CCleaner: I even checked regedit to see if there were any SH3 files left lurking in the system; for for some reason or other, I know not why, I decided to check my games folder, which I always keep on my D-drive. There, to my great surprise, I found a full installation of SH3 in in the Ubisoft folder that also holds my SH4 files, even though I thought I had rid the system of all SH3 files.

Why it was there I cannot fathom out: I think it might have been something to do with the LSH installation I did a couple of days ago: it could be that the LSH modded SH3 wasn't correctly deleted, or even not deleted at all before I decided to take a look at WAC, which I only came across for the first time the other day.

I installed SH3 WAC and ran the training school: I was highly impressed with the the WAC modifications that I saw and experienced whilst loosing a couple of eels into the target ships. It was 4 o'clock in the morning when I was doing all this and I had not slept for 19hours...

I think that this LHS installation and the undeleted SH3 files that I have just found must surely be the cause of my problems.

I will keep you all informed of further developments.

[danasan]

If you had running LSH, WAC should do as well. So it would not be a OS problem. It could use some more CPU than LSH. That is my impression. But for some (in)compatibility reasons between the SuperMODS, you have to have a clean fresh sh3 1.4 installation first. With nothing left from sooner installations.

If you want a dual- tripple- or even more installations of SH3 on the same machine, that is possible, too. It' s just a tool called "multiSH3" and some careful readings.

[moscowexile]

Again - nothing! A full re-installation and the loading of the first patrol again stops at 90%.

I have tried the 1.4b patch. After downloading and opening it, I read that it updates version 1.0 to 1.3.

Why? It's a 1.4b patch, isn't it?

I have tried to apply the 1.4b patch but always get the message that my DVD is not recognised.

My DVD is version 1.4.

As regards the instructions for the WinVista/Win7 patch, I am not quite sure whether the patch is operating correctly. I have downloaded this patch three times and have followed these instructions:

1. Run the exe "4gb_patch.exe".
2. Browse to your Silent Hunter folder and select sh3.exe. This app will create a backup of it and will patch the executable.
3. Click OK to close.

I presumed that the first instruction means left click twice 4gb_patch.exe. When I did this a window appeared bearing the same content as the opened patch file, namely 4gb_patch.exe, a backup of the .exe file and a text doc. Vista_Win Patch. If I left click this .exe file that appears in the new window, I receive the message: "Couldn't open executable."

I guess I presumed wrongly.

So I placed the patch in my SHIII folder and then left clicked it. Then I got a message that the patch had worked.

But the instructions say that I should browse to the SHIII folder and select sh3.exe etc.

I'm doing something very wrong here.

Any advice?

I bought a pirate copy of SHIII in Moscow in 2005: vitrtually all DVDs in Russia are pirate copies even if it is claimed that they are not. I used to use that pirated DVD until I quite by chance had the opportunity to buy a genuine SHII version 1.4 in England.

I shall now load the pirated SHIII (if I can find it) and see if I have any luck in modifying it to WAC 4.1 and installing it on my PC.

[moscowexile]

I could not instal the pirated DVD SHIII that I bought in Moscow as I now recall throwing it away after the disc had cracked.

I have re-installed yet again my genuine SHIII 4.1 DVD that I bought in England and downloaded the so-called 1.4b update from the web. This update is entitled "Silent Hunter III US DVD v1.0 t0 v1.3 Update Program". (Why? I thought it was a v1.4b update.)

Affter launching this program, I receive this message:

"This program cannot update the installed version of Silent Hunter III US DVD v1.0 to v1.3 because of the following reason:

D:\Games\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\data\Menu\de_menu .txt: unknown version."

Apart from the fact that my installed SHIII is v1.4, it was also bought in Europe. Clearly that's one reason why the US DVD cannot update my DVD. Is this also something to do with the absence of the Hakenkreuz in the European version, I wonder?

Anyway, I shall now try to find a Silent Hunter European DVD 1.4b update program and see what happens.

[moscowexile]

I have just downloaded the Silent Hunter III EMEA DVD v1.0 to v1.3 Update Program and launched it.

I have received the following notification:

"This program cannot update the installed version of Silent Hunter III EMEA DVD v1.0 to v1.3 because of the following reason:

D:\Games\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\MissionEngine.dll : unknown version."

That figures, because the SHIII DVD that I have was bought in England only 3 years ago and is already v1.4.

I have been told above by HanSolo, however, that WAC only works with a patched .exe file and not with the .exe file that was purchased with the disc.

There must some way around this problem!

[moscowexile]

I was mistaken: HanSolo advised me above that I should use a no-DVD .exe file.

I did this immediately on receiving the above advice, but I shall try again. I may have done it wrongly. In fact, I must have done it wrongly: that's why I can't get the damned thing up and running!

[moscowexile]

Well, I just cannot load it.

I have tried everything; I cannot think what else I can do.

There have been two other contributors to this thread who have also had to give up trying to load WAC into their PCs; those contributors are both Russian.

Hard though I still find it to believe, there remains now only one possible reason for my inability to load SHIII WAC 4.1: my Win7 OS is a Russian version.