Fast convoy of death!

joefremont · 04-20-13, 11:52 AM

Hi All,

I have noticed a problem that when my ship detects a fast convoy that will inevitably result in SH4 crashing. Let me describe it.

I am sailing along on patrol and I notice in the radar a fast convoy, looks like just four destroyers in a diamond shape formation. I have looked at it using the Next Unit key and some times I see 4 ships, some time 8, sometimes it looks like the whole destroyer fleet if the IJN, even though the radar only shows 4. From that point on the game won't go beyond x64 of time acceleration and when I try to reload or leave the game SH4 will CTD.

Has anyone else see this problem and if so is there a solution?

I am using the steam downloaded SH4 + U-Boat missions. No MODS.
My system is a i7-3610QM with 8gb memory, win7 64bit HP.
AMD Radion 7970m.

Sailor Steve · 04-20-13, 12:13 PM

WELOME ABOARD!

I haven't seen this myself, but I use a disc version and RFB. I'm not saying it's a Steam-related problem, just that I don't know and can't duplicate the crash.

raymond6751 · 04-20-13, 12:53 PM

Have a look in your .cfg file where the TC settings are. I believe that when in contact you are limited in speeding up the game. It does this when close to land or aircraft as well.

The crash might be related to trying to reload while speeded up. I don't know but suggest you 1> save game while still at X1 TC then 2> exit game and reload. or 2> let the game run on in X1 speed to see if it still crashes. If it does then it has something to do with what you have encountered -- maybe a bug in the program.

You haven't said if you are in a campaign or a scenario.

joefremont · 04-20-13, 01:03 PM

Thanks for your prompt replys.

Hi raymond6751, I don't think its related to the .cfg file. I have run into plenty of different size convoys, but its only this small fast convoy that gives me the problem. You can tell when it appens that its running verrry slooow.
When I have saved the game as you described, when I reload it goes back to the same slow state. Only recourse is to restart and reload the game from a save before that small fast convoy was encountered.

fireftr18 · 04-20-13, 02:53 PM

Welcome aboard!!

Always fun to take young padawans and show the ways of the force. Either that or harass them until they harass back.

Your video card, I'm not familier with specific brands and models. Does it have its own RAM, or does it use shared RAM? Not enough video RAM is the cause of problems like this a lot times.

Now off to important things. As the self appointed assigner of jobs at Subsim, I have one just for you.

We're having trouble getting to lucicrous speed, I need to you check the hyperactive converter.

ReallyDedPoet · 04-20-13, 03:02 PM

Welcome : )

merc4ulfate · 04-20-13, 03:45 PM

The HD 7970M features 1280 pixel shaders, a 256-bit memory bus, and 2GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory

I think it might be that using the time compression you are getting a lot of updated information basically in a stuttering manner and the read - writes to memory simply crash it on your lap top.

If you already have the convoy that close why would you run a time compression anyway. It is a great way to get killed in a hurry with escorts around.

magic452 · 04-21-13, 01:51 AM

Welcome to the boat mate.

A few tips about running the game with Win7.

Put the game in a different folder than Program files, any other folder.
Make one for games or something like that. Win7 doesn't like modifying things that are in the Program files folder.

Run as administrator.

Do not use the default SH4.gu to launch the game, find SH4.exe and use that.

When you install make sure you install the Direct X that came with the game,
there are files in that which the game needs and aren't found in later versions of Direct X.

I think Armistead or someone else had a similar problem but I don't remember the fix.

You may simply have a bad save?

Magic

Hinrich Schwab · 04-21-13, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joefremont

Hi All,

I have noticed a problem that when my ship detects a fast convoy that will inevitably result in SH4 crashing. Let me describe it.

I am sailing along on patrol and I notice in the radar a fast convoy, looks like just four destroyers in a diamond shape formation. I have looked at it using the Next Unit key and some times I see 4 ships, some time 8, sometimes it looks like the whole destroyer fleet if the IJN, even though the radar only shows 4. From that point on the game won't go beyond x64 of time acceleration and when I try to reload or leave the game SH4 will CTD.

Has anyone else see this problem and if so is there a solution?

I am using the steam downloaded SH4 + U-Boat missions. No MODS.
My system is a i7-3610QM with 8gb memory, win7 64bit HP.
AMD Radion 7970m.

I am not familiar with the steam versions of the game as I bought mine from Direct2Drive years ago, but I suspect that you need the 4GB patch to sh4.exe to make the program use all that memory you have. As I recall, weird crashes like this are due to memory allocation issues as SH4 is a bit of a memory hog, both conventionally and graphically. However, because Steam modifies exe files to hunt for Steam upon launch, I do not know how to modify the exe without breaking the game for Steam...one of the many reasons why I would not recommend anyone by the SH games from Steam.

joefremont · 04-22-13, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by merc4ulfate

.....
If you already have the convoy that close why would you run a time compression anyway. It is a great way to get killed in a hurry with escorts around.

Thanks for all your replies, nice to feel welcome.

I have updated by laptops bios and video drivers to see if that will take care of the problem. Won't know for sure until I run into that convoy again. If I had known the problems I would have had I would have bought the disks, but it seamed so easy to buy from steam.

In response to merc4ulfate's comment above. My normal method, when seeing a destroyer task force or this convoy is to slip away a different direction to avoid contact and then bump up the time compression once clear, but once I see this fast convoy that no longer works, no matter how far away I get, the game is to bogged down by something to work above x64, even if the number on the screen is higher than that you can tell its not working. First time this happened I must have spent 3 hours trying to get back to base just to finish the mission but it was hopeless. Only thing I can do that helps is save the game after every battle and if I sailed to the west and encountered the fast convoy, reload and go east.

joefremont · 04-22-13, 12:25 PM

On a side note, I did notice that the campaign game does not keep track of how many ships actually existed and were sunk in the game. In my current campaign I have sunk 3 ISE class battleships and just saw another while on my way back to base that I had to let go because I was out of torpedoes. Which I found to be funny since only two were ever built.

joefremont · 05-14-13, 11:03 PM

I started a new campaign and in November of 43 I was patrolling south of Tokyo and saw a convoy that looked in radar to contain 3 destroyers, things were starting to act funny so I looked to see what they were on the external camera and this is what it saw.

After taking these my SH4 session went into never never land and I was unable to switch back to map mode to take a screen shot of that, or do anything else for that matter except switch out to windows and kill SH4 using task manager.

Think my updates did not completely solve the problem.

Redmane · 05-15-13, 01:10 AM

I bought the Silent Hunter series from Steam a little over a year ago, SHIII, 4, and 5. The problem isn't your computer, its the Steam version of the game. I also had many issues of the sort you are dealing with, and saw a similar large gathering of destroyers while trying to do a photo recon op in Tokyo Bay. It seems the Steam version is actually unpatched and unpatchable. I'm not sure what version they offer for download, but I had whatever that is, with the U-boat missions as well, and had repeated problems with the game crashing and not wanting to run. I downloaded the 1.4 patch for the retail version of that game, but that wouldn't work because the installer couln't find the program on my machine, even though I pointed it to the proper folder. When I contacted Steam "support" about this they told me the game automatically updates itself... yeah right.

I uninstalled the Steam version and bought another copy of the game from Amazon.com. I never had such problems again. For the most part the game is very stable, even with mods activated, but whatever you decide to do, I would advise that anytime you save a game and quit back to the main menu, close the game down and then reload it before trying to play a single mission or war patrol scenario. Its been my experience that quitting out of one part of the game (career for example) and then loading another mode of gameplay (single mission, etc.) ends up corrupting the saved game files. Other people have had their own issues with loading saved games, and their solution is to never over-write a saved-game file. I don't need to do this myself, others do. At any rate, sorry about wasting your money on the Steam version. My experiences with Steam over the last few years forced me to conclude that they are no longer worthy of my dollars.

merc4ulfate · 05-15-13, 08:39 AM

one that is a task force not a convoy and two ...

OH MY GEESUS DIVE DIVE DIVE, HURRY UP YOU FOOLS WERE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!

I have never seen a task force that large in the game ... but boy I'd love to try it.

joefremont · 05-15-13, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by merc4ulfate

one that is a task force not a convoy and two ...

OH MY GEESUS DIVE DIVE DIVE, HURRY UP YOU FOOLS WERE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!

I have never seen a task force that large in the game ... but boy I'd love to try it.

Its too bad I did not get a screenshot of the map view, when zoomed out it showed the square medium convoy symbol not the diamond shaped task force symbol. When I zoomed in the radar showed four small warships in a diamond formation which would normally have some merchants in the middle, but I could detect none. I suspect that when the program was trying to initialize the convoy some error happened and instead of spawning the merchants it kept spawning more and more destroyers. If you try to load a saved game at that point the game is just going to crash and I have to restart it again from windows. Only thing you can do is quit, and reload from the last saved game, and I have gotten in the habit of saving the game after each battle where a ship is sunk.

Think I will order the regular program from amazon although it gets under my skin that I already paid valve for it and now I have to pay for it again. But given the number of hours of enjoyment I have gotten from it already I should not complain.

04-20-13, 11:52 AM	#1
joefremont Loader Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Near San Francisco Posts: 82 Downloads: 47 Uploads: 0	Fast convoy of death! Hi All, I have noticed a problem that when my ship detects a fast convoy that will inevitably result in SH4 crashing. Let me describe it. I am sailing along on patrol and I notice in the radar a fast convoy, looks like just four destroyers in a diamond shape formation. I have looked at it using the Next Unit key and some times I see 4 ships, some time 8, sometimes it looks like the whole destroyer fleet if the IJN, even though the radar only shows 4. From that point on the game won't go beyond x64 of time acceleration and when I try to reload or leave the game SH4 will CTD. Has anyone else see this problem and if so is there a solution? I am using the steam downloaded SH4 + U-Boat missions. No MODS. My system is a i7-3610QM with 8gb memory, win7 64bit HP. AMD Radion 7970m.

04-20-13, 12:13 PM	#2
Sailor Steve Eternal Patrol Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: High in the mountains of Utah Posts: 50,369 Downloads: 745 Uploads: 249	WELOME ABOARD! I haven't seen this myself, but I use a disc version and RFB. I'm not saying it's a Steam-related problem, just that I don't know and can't duplicate the crash. __________________ “Never do anything you can't take back.” —Rocky Russo

04-20-13, 12:53 PM	#3
raymond6751 Admirable Mike Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 1,313 Downloads: 421 Uploads: 0	X64 Have a look in your .cfg file where the TC settings are. I believe that when in contact you are limited in speeding up the game. It does this when close to land or aircraft as well. The crash might be related to trying to reload while speeded up. I don't know but suggest you 1> save game while still at X1 TC then 2> exit game and reload. or 2> let the game run on in X1 speed to see if it still crashes. If it does then it has something to do with what you have encountered -- maybe a bug in the program. You haven't said if you are in a campaign or a scenario. __________________ My stuff: https://www.authorsden.com/mikeraymond

04-20-13, 02:53 PM	#5
fireftr18 Ocean Warrior Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Kentucky Posts: 2,526 Downloads: 77 Uploads: 0	Welcome aboard!! Always fun to take young padawans and show the ways of the force. Either that or harass them until they harass back. Your video card, I'm not familier with specific brands and models. Does it have its own RAM, or does it use shared RAM? Not enough video RAM is the cause of problems like this a lot times. Now off to important things. As the self appointed assigner of jobs at Subsim, I have one just for you. We're having trouble getting to lucicrous speed, I need to you check the hyperactive converter. __________________ Of all the forms of Martial Arts, Karaoke causes the most pain!

04-20-13, 03:02 PM	#6
ReallyDedPoet Canadian Wolf Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: The one and only East Coast Posts: 10,775 Downloads: 946 Uploads: 5	Welcome : ) __________________ Back in the Day

04-20-13, 01:03 PM	#4
joefremont Loader Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Near San Francisco Posts: 82 Downloads: 47 Uploads: 0	Thanks for your prompt replys. Hi raymond6751, I don't think its related to the .cfg file. I have run into plenty of different size convoys, but its only this small fast convoy that gives me the problem. You can tell when it appens that its running verrry slooow. When I have saved the game as you described, when I reload it goes back to the same slow state. Only recourse is to restart and reload the game from a save before that small fast convoy was encountered.

04-20-13, 03:45 PM	#7
merc4ulfate DILLIGAF Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: florida Posts: 2,058 Downloads: 210 Uploads: 0	The HD 7970M features 1280 pixel shaders, a 256-bit memory bus, and 2GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory I think it might be that using the time compression you are getting a lot of updated information basically in a stuttering manner and the read - writes to memory simply crash it on your lap top. If you already have the convoy that close why would you run a time compression anyway. It is a great way to get killed in a hurry with escorts around.

04-21-13, 01:51 AM	#8
magic452 Sea Lord Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Reno Nevada USA Posts: 1,860 Downloads: 85 Uploads: 0	Welcome to the boat mate. A few tips about running the game with Win7. Put the game in a different folder than Program files, any other folder. Make one for games or something like that. Win7 doesn't like modifying things that are in the Program files folder. Run as administrator. Do not use the default SH4.gu to launch the game, find SH4.exe and use that. When you install make sure you install the Direct X that came with the game, there are files in that which the game needs and aren't found in later versions of Direct X. I think Armistead or someone else had a similar problem but I don't remember the fix. You may simply have a bad save? Magic __________________ Reported lost 11 Feb. 1942 Signature by depthtok33l

04-22-13, 12:25 PM	#11
joefremont Loader Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Near San Francisco Posts: 82 Downloads: 47 Uploads: 0	On a side note, I did notice that the campaign game does not keep track of how many ships actually existed and were sunk in the game. In my current campaign I have sunk 3 ISE class battleships and just saw another while on my way back to base that I had to let go because I was out of torpedoes. Which I found to be funny since only two were ever built.

05-14-13, 11:03 PM	#12
joefremont Loader Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Near San Francisco Posts: 82 Downloads: 47 Uploads: 0	I started a new campaign and in November of 43 I was patrolling south of Tokyo and saw a convoy that looked in radar to contain 3 destroyers, things were starting to act funny so I looked to see what they were on the external camera and this is what it saw. After taking these my SH4 session went into never never land and I was unable to switch back to map mode to take a screen shot of that, or do anything else for that matter except switch out to windows and kill SH4 using task manager. Think my updates did not completely solve the problem.

05-15-13, 01:10 AM	#13
Redmane Torpedoman Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Somewhere in the Pacific Posts: 113 Downloads: 20 Uploads: 0	The Steam version I bought the Silent Hunter series from Steam a little over a year ago, SHIII, 4, and 5. The problem isn't your computer, its the Steam version of the game. I also had many issues of the sort you are dealing with, and saw a similar large gathering of destroyers while trying to do a photo recon op in Tokyo Bay. It seems the Steam version is actually unpatched and unpatchable. I'm not sure what version they offer for download, but I had whatever that is, with the U-boat missions as well, and had repeated problems with the game crashing and not wanting to run. I downloaded the 1.4 patch for the retail version of that game, but that wouldn't work because the installer couln't find the program on my machine, even though I pointed it to the proper folder. When I contacted Steam "support" about this they told me the game automatically updates itself... yeah right. I uninstalled the Steam version and bought another copy of the game from Amazon.com. I never had such problems again. For the most part the game is very stable, even with mods activated, but whatever you decide to do, I would advise that anytime you save a game and quit back to the main menu, close the game down and then reload it before trying to play a single mission or war patrol scenario. Its been my experience that quitting out of one part of the game (career for example) and then loading another mode of gameplay (single mission, etc.) ends up corrupting the saved game files. Other people have had their own issues with loading saved games, and their solution is to never over-write a saved-game file. I don't need to do this myself, others do. At any rate, sorry about wasting your money on the Steam version. My experiences with Steam over the last few years forced me to conclude that they are no longer worthy of my dollars. __________________ REDMANE Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bullet-proof. -V

05-15-13, 08:39 AM	#14
merc4ulfate DILLIGAF Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: florida Posts: 2,058 Downloads: 210 Uploads: 0	one that is a task force not a convoy and two ... OH MY GEESUS DIVE DIVE DIVE, HURRY UP YOU FOOLS WERE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!! I have never seen a task force that large in the game ... but boy I'd love to try it.