Various Problems - Please Help :(

[icecold]

I myself is a big fan of the SH series... and for a while i enjoyed the glorious pleasures of SH4... untill patch 1.3 came out... and then i have tons of issues... so many that i couldnt play the game untill Ubi released a new patch... and so 6 motnhs later they did and i got it working...

Then behold the release of SH4 UB Addons... I glorious game it must be...

But hey wait... All whole new lot of issues and problems... so many that i once again cant play the game... (BTW Ubi i believe this comes under innadiquate product life/faulty goods under sales acts... feel free to check that one no matter what country your from).

Anyways for the innocent out there, i would appriciate some help...

---

If you know a solution to my problems please please reply. If you can... send a link to the actual solution. All help appriciated.

WINDOWS VISTA 32BIT
INTEL CORE 2 DUO 2.93GH
4GB CORSAIR RAM
NVDIA 8800 GTX GRAPHICS CARD
1TB HARD DISC

BEFORE YOU STATE THE OBVIOUS... EVERYTHING IS UPDATED.


PROBLEMS
----------

1) All my crew above deck have no eyes... yes you heard that right, no eyes. the just have empty sockets and its quite disturbing.

2) All my crew above deck are translucent.

3) When i destroy or attack a vessel/airplane... i get the lovely blue screen of death... if i update my graphics card driver to a beta... i dont get it anymore... instead i get a black screen of nothing and then a complete system freeze.

4) When diving... all my men on deck stay on deck... looks like they are praticing there yoga breathing excersises.

5) Is there someway of getting german sounds/voices?

6) Is there a way of getting better effects?


UBI once again i am disapointed, and before people start posting "it works for me" please goggle all the issues that arrising and realise that the game was not finished before release.

[Rockin Robbins]

It's been a parade of people heaping blame and doom upon Ubi when they couldn't get the game working. No reasonable asking for help. No presumption that the problem can be fixed. No personal responsibility. Just blaming Ubi, because if it's Ubi's fault you have no responsibility to fix the problem!

Unfortunately, in this long train of similar-minded people, every single one of them was brought face to face with the fact that the game was not at fault. They had the problem, either with conflicting hardware, conflicting software settings, mod weirdness, improper installation or deinstallation of mods, or even things never identified. It doesn't matter. We can fix it.

However, you are having so much fun playing the blame game that I am not inclined to begin tackling the issues until the first issue is dealt with: your lack of responsibility for your own machine.

Welcome to SUBSIM! We fix problems here and do not care a rat's patootie whose fault it is. Your move, sir:

[Zantham]

1) All my crew above deck have no eyes... yes you heard that right, no eyes. the just have empty sockets and its quite disturbing.

2) All my crew above deck are translucent.

3) When i destroy or attack a vessel/airplane... i get the lovely blue screen of death... if i update my graphics card driver to a beta... i dont get it anymore... instead i get a black screen of nothing and then a complete system freeze.

4) When diving... all my men on deck stay on deck... looks like they are praticing there yoga breathing excersises.

5) Is there someway of getting german sounds/voices?

6) Is there a way of getting better effects?

1) You're crew doesn't need eyes. You do all their jobs for them in the game. They are just eye candy.

2) This is so it is easier for you to spot ships without having to look around these crewmembers, who have no eyes anyways.

3) Could be a mod conflict, corrupt graphics, bad video card driver install (antivirus interfering?). This is not a known issue and likely specific to your computer.

4) They ARE practicing their yoga exercises. The ability to hold your breath for hours comes in very useful on a submarine. Imagine you are trying to dodge a destroyer and your crew all exhales, filling the sub with more air and your sub pops to the surface.

5) Yes. Check the Mods forum.

6) Yes. Check the mods forum.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

However, you are having so much fun playing the blame game that I am not inclined to begin tackling the issues until the first issue is dealt with: your lack of responsibility for your own machine.

Why then, post?

[icecold]

Ok, lets say its my machine... What shall i do to find the problem? Where shall i look? What suggestions?

[THE_MASK]

Originally Posted by icecold

I myself is a big fan of the SH series... and for a while i enjoyed the glorious pleasures of SH4... untill patch 1.3 came out... and then i have tons of issues... so many that i couldnt play the game untill Ubi released a new patch... and so 6 motnhs later they did and i got it working...

Then behold the release of SH4 UB Addons... I glorious game it must be...

But hey wait... All whole new lot of issues and problems... so many that i once again cant play the game... (BTW Ubi i believe this comes under innadiquate product life/faulty goods under sales acts... feel free to check that one no matter what country your from).

Anyways for the innocent out there, i would appriciate some help...

---

If you know a solution to my problems please please reply. If you can... send a link to the actual solution. All help appriciated.

WINDOWS VISTA 32BIT
INTEL CORE 2 DUO 2.93GH
4GB CORSAIR RAM
NVDIA 8800 GTX GRAPHICS CARD
1TB HARD DISC

BEFORE YOU STATE THE OBVIOUS... EVERYTHING IS UPDATED.


PROBLEMS
----------

1) All my crew above deck have no eyes... yes you heard that right, no eyes. the just have empty sockets and its quite disturbing.

2) All my crew above deck are translucent.

3) When i destroy or attack a vessel/airplane... i get the lovely blue screen of death... if i update my graphics card driver to a beta... i dont get it anymore... instead i get a black screen of nothing and then a complete system freeze.

4) When diving... all my men on deck stay on deck... looks like they are praticing there yoga breathing excersises.

5) Is there someway of getting german sounds/voices?

6) Is there a way of getting better effects?


UBI once again i am disapointed, and before people start posting "it works for me" please goggle all the issues that arrising and realise that the game was not finished before release.

1/. the devs said they cannot fix it
2/. untick environment effects in options
3/. something wrong with your system/install .
4/. something wrong with your system/install .
5/. download the german voices mod in the mods section .
6/. look thru the mods section .

[Rockin Robbins]

@Kapitan: I post because it is blatantly unfair to make false statements regarding the fault for the OP's game not functioning properly. In fact, it is purposely inflammatory and irresponsible. Throwing a temper tantrum is not a substitute which should be accepted for adult interaction.

When I help someone it is on condition that it happens on constructive terms, where the seeker of help is not throwing blame and "BTW Ubi i believe this comes under innadiquate product life/faulty goods under sales acts..." type comments. There are none so helpless as those who will not be helped. I can see that I am not completely crazy, as other posters have echoed my attitude.

That blame Ubi refrain gets very old and tired when every single person crying that has been left finally admitting that the game is not at fault for their inability to run it. I believe that moderators who defend such posts are not performing their proper function. When they imply that I should not post in opposition to attacks on Ubi which state the game does not run properly, they compound their error.

The only way to stop the blame Ubi song is to refuse to help those who sing it, and to state the reason the help is not provided. Hey, I just answered your question!

Now he has changed the song. He seems now willing to accept that something on his end could be changed to allow SH4 to run. So a constructive answer is appropriate.

@icecold please check out the newly renamed (thanks AVG!) How to reinstall SH4 thread. It will walk you through making a 100% clean install which will run correctly, provided your machine is up to snuff. Chances are, this will totally fix your problem. Solution provided after much research by Doolittle81, an SH3 stalwart who has made a valuable contribution to the SH4 community.

Icecold, internal conflicts in SH4 configuration files can happen for a thousand reasons, even to those of us who think we have a handle on the process. Any time the game starts acting "squirrely," a technical term for game weirdness (exactly what you describe) this is a very high probability fix. This is just like rebooting your computer. You may never know what was wrong but you will have fixed it, so who cares?

The no eyes for deck crew problem seems to be an 8800 series deal.

Paajtor
03-06-2008, 07:29 PM

I found out, that many fps-issues can be solved, by simply pausing the game, the hit Alt+Tab, stay at desktop for a few secs, and then maximize SH4 again....issue solved.
I also managed to fix the "missing eyes" thing this way.

I'm still researching a fix on that one. No problem with it on my 7900GS or 7600GT cards with Windows XP. Might be a driver issue. Try a fallback to the previous driver.

[icecold]

Ok tried everything you put and still having same problem...

Although i have narrowed the problem down...

I did clean reainstall as directed and played the game on stock graphics settings (thats no adjusted resolution, special effects ect) and it worked fine. Then i put them to how they should/were and it sarted doing it again...

Now this looks awfully familiar to the problem i had on patch 1.3... it didnt go untill they released patch 1.4...

Does this help in diagnosing my problem?

[longam]

I see you run Vista 32 bit also. I can't guaranty your results because our systems are of two different classes, but with Vista I found this to work best.

Uninstall the program and do a backup or system restore point and then run Registry Mechanic. You can DL it here http://www.pctools.com

After a good reboot and defrag install the program under “Documents/YourFolderName".

From here you can install the updates or patches as needed but you’re no longer in the realm of UAC.

This will eliminate any issues with Vista and you can look at drivers or other things from here.

Note: You can save the SH4 folder that has your configuration but you have to delete files in the “Rich Saved Games” and the folders under “SavedGames”. Just copy SH4 to another location then copy it back after the fresh install. **This will delete all saved games**

I hope this helps.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by icecold

I did clean reainstall as directed and played the game on stock graphics settings (thats no adjusted resolution, special effects ect) and it worked fine. Then i put them to how they should/were and it sarted doing it again...

You're going to have to define "it". Transluscent crew is a universal side effect of environmental effects in the game options screen. Uncheck that option and the crew will assume normal opaque behavior. You will also lose fog effects but most don't miss that.

The no-eyes is a combination between the 8800 series card and the cursed Windows Vista thank God I built my computer with Windows XP Media Edition. Best decision I've made in 10 years. Some have temporarily fixed that by alt-tabbing to the desktop and returning. Others figure if they have a crew with no eyes the enemy won't be able to see them and count it a feature.

Screen of death was a conflict, which is gone now with your clean install.

I've seen people claim the men on deck thing is a result of saving underwater. I've seen it myself only occasionally. Frankly, I ignore it if it happens, which isn't too often. I'd try the alt-tab to desktop trick and if that doesn't work, saving on the surface and reloading the game. The only thing I can personally confirm is that the problem comes and goes.

German voices I told you about.

Better effects are a choice of Kriller2's Pacific Environment (new version is ultimate!) and I just had a memory CTD. The other one is in the mods section and well worth your time.

[Skyhawk]

Won't catch me wasting my "breath" on trying to change this type of attitude ever again. There will be no return visits to this thread for me so no need for any moderators to come in here and bother to tell me to "move along".

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Dressing down an already frustrated person doesn't do a thing towards positively promoting the pc subsimming community here at subsim.com or our hobby in general. PERIOD.

The last two statements assume nothing and are absolutely true.

Is it really that difficult or even wrong (?) to be the bigger person and keep negative thoughts to yourself or just assume the best, rather than the worse, about another person and try to help them anyway?

For the record, I "give up" on this point. Won't ever hear a peep from me on it again, I'll just grimace and "move along" when it happens.

Geez Louise . . .

[Rockin Robbins]

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good do nothing. Whenever someone starts the "Ubi sucks" song, I will call them on it and refuse to dance until the music stops. It worked and we're making good progress here. How can you possibly say anything against the way I handled the situation? I don't see you helping him! Try researching how to deal with difficult people and you'll find I'm right on target.

Oh, you're not there reading this so I guess I wasted my time!:rotfl:

Any progress icecold?

[icecold]

All the issues except the system crash are semi resolved. They come and go and can be "tweeked". The no eyes one i cant get rid of but i can just pretend i have the crew from event horizon.

The system crash one is boggling. If i turn all settings down to minimum... i dont get a problem... turn them up to how "its ment to be played" (the nvidia and ubi advertisment)... and its just cant handle it. System freezes... sounds locka nd repeat and then a few seconds later, the blue screen of death. System then restarts and i get 2 error reporting boxes come up stating that windows has suffered froma critical error and needs to send information. The second error reporting box comes up and states that nvidia software has suffered from a problem and is sending a error report... It then comes back stating that it has a resolution... Nvidia softare drivers need to be updated... even though they have been updated and all hotfixes installed. I have tried beta drivers and instead of blue screen of death i get black screen of complete fubar and then have to manualy restart system. (i have also dleted all remains of previous drivers and started again but to no avail).

[Wilcke]

Originally Posted by icecold

All the issues except the system crash are semi resolved. They come and go and can be "tweeked". The no eyes one i cant get rid of but i can just pretend i have the crew from event horizon.

The system crash one is boggling. If i turn all settings down to minimum... i dont get a problem... turn them up to how "its ment to be played" (the nvidia and ubi advertisment)... and its just cant handle it. System freezes... sounds locka nd repeat and then a few seconds later, the blue screen of death. System then restarts and i get 2 error reporting boxes come up stating that windows has suffered froma critical error and needs to send information. The second error reporting box comes up and states that nvidia software has suffered from a problem and is sending a error report... It then comes back stating that it has a resolution... Nvidia softare drivers need to be updated... even though they have been updated and all hotfixes installed. I have tried beta drivers and instead of blue screen of death i get black screen of complete fubar and then have to manualy restart system. (i have also dleted all remains of previous drivers and started again but to no avail).

You have a tough one on your hands that is for sure. Suspect the following aside from the OS and videocard not cooperating.

1.) Power supply not working well or overheating.

2.) GPU overheating.

3.) CPU overheating.

4.) Memory issues...bad memory...bad bus loads. Needs Memcheck done.

As far as installing Nvidia drivers and uninstalling them....did you clean out the remnants of the drivers using any kind of utility like Driver Cleaner in between reboots?

I am on XP Pro, so I have no idea what Vista is doing. But you may want to rule out hardware issues and go from there.

Very frustrating. Good luck!

[Zantham]

Have you installed Vista Service Pack 1?

I believe there is a fix in there for where the video card could potentially take double the video RAM needed, causing a system to crash under certain situations. This is due to a bug in the WDDM in Vista.

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3060