To fix brightness, just run Mafia 1 ??

analogoldguy · 02-04-11, 06:47 PM

Hello to all. This is my first message here in Subsim. Seems like a great place!

I recently purchased the two disk Silent Hunter II/III put out by Encore. A really a great game! (SH3 that is). I didn't install SH2. The general brightness seemed kind of dim and dreary, and did not match the colors seen in the Tutorials run on Media Player.

No gamma, brightness, or contrast setting on my Catalyst 7.7 can bring up the brighter colors. Yet one night, after playing Mafia 1 for a while, I ran SH3 and there, like magic, were the beautiful, proper colors of the game. Great happiness!

So, life is wonderful if I boot up Mafia 1 first, and just get it to the profile screen and quit the program! Does anyone have an idea of what's happening here? I am on XP Pro, ATI 800 XT (AGP card). It is a very solid computer on all my games including fairly "newer ones" like Far Cry and World in Conflict.

Thanks. Bob P.

Sailor Steve · 02-04-11, 08:33 PM

I'm not very good at helping with computer problems, but I am quite adept at saying WELCOME ABOARD!

Jan Kyster · 02-04-11, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by analogoldguy

...my Catalyst 7.7...

...life is wonderful if I boot up Mafia 1 first...

Did you install DirectX from Silent Hunter disc? Otherwise navigate to its folder and run the setup. I suspect your windows version (??) is lacking a dll...

And do go get a newer Catalyst!

Newest is 11.1a, January 2011. Your's from July 2007...

11.1a is good - but for some reason I'm getting flickering hydrophone screen unless running AAx16 or disabling one GPU

This issue started for me in 10.10, so running 10.9 is your safe go, if you should experience same flickering.

But start out with 11.1a and do yourself a favour and create a restore point before updating...

Oh! and what Steve says!

analogoldguy · 02-05-11, 01:00 PM

Hello Jan and Sailor Steve!

(Thanks Sailor Steve for your kind welcome) !

To Jan, I did not install the DirectX from the Silent Hunter disk. But my version is 9.0c (4.09.000.0904).

I went to Google to see how to revert backwards if a newer version of DirectX causes troubles, and it seems that it is a major chore! I also read about a tool called Nhancer here. And in the Ubisoft forums, a guy (in an old thread) mentioned setting the "stock" Catalyst settings.

I clicked the 3D settings in the Catalyst to "default", started up SH3, and got the perfect result as in the Mafia 1 trick. So I am very happy!

(I am not going to upgrade the Catalyst at this time because my computer really runs many games well, including old Windows 98 games, SH3 is otherwise showing no graphics glitches, so I don't want to spoil a good thing)!

I salute you fellows!

And thanks very much Jan Kyster for your suggestions!
Robert P.

Jan Kyster · 02-05-11, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by analogoldguy

...I don't want to spoil a good thing

...a healthy and sound attitude. Wish I could have the same!

Hope you keep a complete backup of your system.

You didn't mention what Windows you're running, but there are no problems in upgrading DirectX and never a reason to go "back".
Same with Catalyst. Lots of people are working every day to improve both speed and quality, so one day you might wanna have a go at it.

But having a backup comes first.

Glad you got it working!

And Happy Hunting!

analogoldguy · 02-06-11, 01:08 PM

Hello back to you Jan! I finally got some time to come back here and respond!

I am a real old-time (low budget) analog kind of guy. I am running the old original Windows XP Pro, I have never updated it.

As far as backups, I am starting to have trouble doing it with certain very large folders. I back things up to a second internal hard drive, but these are too big to fit onto a DVD anymore.

I still do images of my Windows XP partition with Drive Image 5 (a pretty old program, but reliable to me)! This could definitely save me if I screwed something up with an update. But it's not something I would love to do. (there used to be a program called Second Chance (which I have on my 98SE computer), with which you could make a restore point before doing something and it would take you back 100% (unlike the XP restore point). I know that there are one or two GoBack type programs now for XP, but they are not simple, always running in the background etc.

As far as updates, I have read (and was reading last Friday) about many people seeing bad changes when they upgrade DirectX , And not easy to reverse.

And online, many people talk about they couldn't install certain programs in XP, (one program is Red Alert 2), and I am amazed, because it went into my XP perfectly. . And I have other old classic programs running perfectly also.

I actually do have mild problems with SH3. The 3D action seems perfect, but the intro "Ubisoft" screen and the "German" intro "movie" do not play properly at all (they are in four or five blocky, bright colors like pink, orange, green, blue, red) not right at all. I have the same Ubisoft intro in the game "Far Cry", and it plays perfectly. I just hope that there are no "movie" cutscenes in SH3 because I won't see them properly!! Hang in there!

Bob P.

Jan Kyster · 02-07-11, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by analogoldguy

I actually do have mild problems with SH3. The 3D action seems perfect, but the intro "Ubisoft" screen and the "German" intro "movie" do not play properly at all (they are in four or five blocky, bright colors like pink, orange, green, blue, red) not right at all.

That could be caused by you not choosing same colour depth in game as desktop

Haven't played SHIII for years, but as far as I remember it was born with a single resolution? 1024x768? but I think there was a DirectX dll-kit released that allowed SHIII to run other (desktop) resolutions?

XP vs Win7: if I hadn't have to build all those new rigs with Windows 7, I would still be running XP. Quick, totally stable and great gaming platform. Mine ran for years with not a single hick-up. But coming home after installing and setting up a shiny Win7, my XP install did start to look a little old...

Recently I upgraded my external HD-box, so I have an extern USB HD-box for IDE-drives floating around. Can't remember if I put a 40 or 80 GB drive in it, but if you want it, PM me your address

02-04-11, 06:47 PM	#1
analogoldguy Watch Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Massachusetts USA Posts: 22 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	To fix brightness, just run Mafia 1 ?? Hello to all. This is my first message here in Subsim. Seems like a great place! I recently purchased the two disk Silent Hunter II/III put out by Encore. A really a great game! (SH3 that is). I didn't install SH2. The general brightness seemed kind of dim and dreary, and did not match the colors seen in the Tutorials run on Media Player. No gamma, brightness, or contrast setting on my Catalyst 7.7 can bring up the brighter colors. Yet one night, after playing Mafia 1 for a while, I ran SH3 and there, like magic, were the beautiful, proper colors of the game. Great happiness! So, life is wonderful if I boot up Mafia 1 first, and just get it to the profile screen and quit the program! Does anyone have an idea of what's happening here? I am on XP Pro, ATI 800 XT (AGP card). It is a very solid computer on all my games including fairly "newer ones" like Far Cry and World in Conflict. Thanks. Bob P.

02-04-11, 08:33 PM	#2
Sailor Steve Eternal Patrol Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: High in the mountains of Utah Posts: 50,369 Downloads: 745 Uploads: 249	I'm not very good at helping with computer problems, but I am quite adept at saying WELCOME ABOARD! __________________ “Never do anything you can't take back.” —Rocky Russo

02-05-11, 01:00 PM	#4
analogoldguy Watch Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Massachusetts USA Posts: 22 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	Hello Jan and Sailor Steve! (Thanks Sailor Steve for your kind welcome) ! To Jan, I did not install the DirectX from the Silent Hunter disk. But my version is 9.0c (4.09.000.0904). I went to Google to see how to revert backwards if a newer version of DirectX causes troubles, and it seems that it is a major chore! I also read about a tool called Nhancer here. And in the Ubisoft forums, a guy (in an old thread) mentioned setting the "stock" Catalyst settings. I clicked the 3D settings in the Catalyst to "default", started up SH3, and got the perfect result as in the Mafia 1 trick. So I am very happy! (I am not going to upgrade the Catalyst at this time because my computer really runs many games well, including old Windows 98 games, SH3 is otherwise showing no graphics glitches, so I don't want to spoil a good thing)! I salute you fellows! And thanks very much Jan Kyster for your suggestions! Robert P. Last edited by analogoldguy; 02-05-11 at 01:24 PM.

02-06-11, 01:08 PM	#6
analogoldguy Watch Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Massachusetts USA Posts: 22 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	Hello back to you Jan! I finally got some time to come back here and respond! I am a real old-time (low budget) analog kind of guy. I am running the old original Windows XP Pro, I have never updated it. As far as backups, I am starting to have trouble doing it with certain very large folders. I back things up to a second internal hard drive, but these are too big to fit onto a DVD anymore. I still do images of my Windows XP partition with Drive Image 5 (a pretty old program, but reliable to me)! This could definitely save me if I screwed something up with an update. But it's not something I would love to do. (there used to be a program called Second Chance (which I have on my 98SE computer), with which you could make a restore point before doing something and it would take you back 100% (unlike the XP restore point). I know that there are one or two GoBack type programs now for XP, but they are not simple, always running in the background etc. As far as updates, I have read (and was reading last Friday) about many people seeing bad changes when they upgrade DirectX , And not easy to reverse. And online, many people talk about they couldn't install certain programs in XP, (one program is Red Alert 2), and I am amazed, because it went into my XP perfectly. . And I have other old classic programs running perfectly also. I actually do have mild problems with SH3. The 3D action seems perfect, but the intro "Ubisoft" screen and the "German" intro "movie" do not play properly at all (they are in four or five blocky, bright colors like pink, orange, green, blue, red) not right at all. I have the same Ubisoft intro in the game "Far Cry", and it plays perfectly. I just hope that there are no "movie" cutscenes in SH3 because I won't see them properly!! Hang in there! Bob P.