Starting Over...Again

[Sailor Steve]

This morning I installed the Wilhelmshaven Schleuse and Extra Ships mod. Everything works fine when testing with the Navigation Course, but when I tried a career it crashed. I tried taking out different mods with no luck. Then I tried launching it from SH3 Commander and it worked just fine. It looks like I'm good to go with a little adjusting.

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I WOULD NOW LIKE TO TAKE THIS TIME TO GIVE SOME ADVICE OF MY OWN.

If any newer members are reading this, I want you to listen carefully. One of the most common things we see here at Subsim is the cry for help:

"My game is crashing and I don't know why!"

"How does my mod soup look?"

I'm sorry if this seems a little harsh, but there is a very easy answer to all this: Never, ever, EVER install 30 mods and try to play the game. This is asking for trouble. ALWAYS install one mod at a time, and test each one as you go. This will result in two things, both positive.

1. If a mod doesn't work with the others you will know right away, and you will know which mod caused the problem. Also, because JSGME gives you warnings when a new mod overwrites an older one, you will know right away not only which mod caused the problem, but which one it had the conflict with. Then you can come here with specifics and anyone who might have the answer will be able to help immediately without feeling like he's pulling teeth.

2. Doing this will give you a better understanding of your computer and of the programs (games and mods) involved. Then you will know what to look for the next time you have a problem and you will be able to help others. We learn by doing, not by having others do it all for us.

Are you afraid of having to completely tear out the game, clean the registry and reload everything? TOO BAD! I've been playing subsims for thirty years now, and I've been playing SH3 (obviously not regularly or I wouldn't have this thread) for the almost ten years since it was released. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the whole game more times than I can count. No, it's not fun, but it is one of the perils of fiddling with stuff you don't know anything about. Don't want that to happen? Only run stock games or stick with just the tried-and-tested supermods.

Yes, that's a bit of a rant but it's also the truth. Everybody runs into problems and we are all here to help each other, but sometimes the new player doesn't understand how many times we've seen these exact same complaints. If you follow that single piece of advice - load your mods one at a time and test them - you'll save yourself and everybody else a lot of trouble later.

[BigWalleye]

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!

[U-15]

Excellent advice Sailor Steve, and not to be considered as harsh or as a rant at all.
I too have uninstalled, cleaned out the registry and re-installed a number of games over time.

All the issues I have had with SH3 have already been answered by a previous thread asking the same question, so no need for me to post the same problem again.
I think new SH3 players need to search these excellent forums, particularly the "stickies", before asking what has nearly always been answered before.

Can I just add to your advice that;
When installing a game that is to be modded that you create a simple installation process list, for future reference.
Mine sits in a special SH3 folder along with a copy of my JSGME exported "Activated Mods List"
That way I don't forget to install anything, or install in the wrong order.

Well I am nearly 62, so I am allowed a few senior moments

[Sailor Steve]

Well, I installed a couple of mods, then just to test I installed the GWX Enhanced Damage. I always had problems with that one on the old system, and I wanted to try it on the new one early on. I started the Torpedo Attack course, put one into the stationary freighter, surfaced, ran over and put two into the big freighter, then went after the little tanker. Two torpedoes later he was a burning wreck. I got a sinking message and...it crashed.

Maybe it will only work with the 4-Gig patch, which I uninstalled pending re-installing the h.sie fix. Maybe it just doesn't like me. I'll find out soon enough.

Also I'm getting a weird graphic glitch with lines in the water. I want to wait until I've tried a couple of my own ideas before posting a screenshot.

[CaptBones]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Well, I installed a couple of mods, then just to test I installed the GWX Enhanced Damage. I always had problems with that one on the old system, and I wanted to try it on the new one early on. I started the Torpedo Attack course, put one into the stationary freighter, surfaced, ran over and put two into the big freighter, then went after the little tanker. Two torpedoes later he was a burning wreck. I got a sinking message and...it crashed.

Maybe it will only work with the 4-Gig patch, which I uninstalled pending re-installing the h.sie fix. Maybe it just doesn't like me. I'll find out soon enough.

Also I'm getting a weird graphic glitch with lines in the water. I want to wait until I've tried a couple of my own ideas before posting a screenshot.

Just a couple of thoughts before you get into the details of what's ailing your new baby (SH3 with mods giving it the colic maybe?).

Regardless of the machine's capabilities, if you've got MFM installed it's almost guaranteed to crash SH3, at odd times and in strange, inconsistent circumstances, without the 4gb patcher (stand-alone or h.sie's supplied version will most likely solve that though).

Newer graphics cards and drivers do seem to create unusual glitches. Not knowing what brand of card you have...over on the SH4 forum is an NVIDIA tips, tricks and tweaks thread with lots of good info on how to get the best (or at least better) results from the oldies-but-goodies like SH3. Following those tips made a huge difference in the imaging on my machine...gave me good enough results to stick with SH3 and SH4 until "they" produce a worthy successor to one or the other, or both.

Anyway...good luck sorting it all out...you know there'll be plenty of help available here to assist. So, quit standing around the scuttle-butt waiting for mid-rats and get back out to sea!

[Sailor Steve]

I now have the Wilhelmshaven, St Nas, Schluese and Extra Ships v.7, Community Units (and early collection of ships by modders), Ail's Das Boot Officers (which puts the movie officers into the officer slots), Ail Small Moon (because I hate that huge moon that dominates half the sky), my own Sound Mix (which includes my version of the DBSM plus a couple of later tweeks and some files by others) and Dertien's No Rank Or Badges On Crew mod. So far it tests out just fine.

Here is the graphics glitch I mentioned earlier. It's the funny lines running up the left side of the screen. They are there no matter which way I look and no matter what view I use, even the periscope.

[jreid666]

I've had that problem aswell, never been able to find the root of it. I think it could be something to do with the graphics card. I tried all the widescreen mods ect but no luck. Hopefully someone else has an idea cos i wouldn't mind it fixed on my install!!!

[Tycho]

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=216959

[Sailor Steve]

I don't know about anyone else, but my problem's solved. I did a huge amount of online research. This new PC has a 2-Gb super-duper Nvidia graphics card, so it should be wonderful. There was a new driver available, so I downloaded and installed it. Nothing. Then I got to reading about choosing between onboard graphics and the dedicated card. Somebody suggested disabling the onboard graphics. I tried that, and my monitor quit working! I opened the laptop to reboot the computer to see if that would bring it back, and fortunately for me the laptop's own screen was still functioning, so I was able to turn the onboard graphics back on.

Some more research led me to several sites, and one of them talked about how to make the Nvidia card the default graphics processor. It wasn't already? That's silly. You have to do it from the Nvidia Control Panel. Where's that? It took an hour of research and yet another website to even find it. Why don't they tell you these things in the User Guide that comes built into the programs? Then it got more complicated because the list on my PC doesn't look like the one the helpful guy showed. After some more looking around I finally noticed that they put a little clicky button right near the top that said "Set Default Graphics Processor". I clicked it and sure enough it gave me a choice. Yay!

So I booted up SH3 again and...PROBLEM SOLVED!

Now I can move on to the next problem. I'm sure there will be one soon enough.

[CaptBones]

User Guide?!?!?!...HAR HAR HAR! You da' funny man Steve!

Manufacturers learned quite some time ago that nobody RTFM...so why bother putting anything together more than dumbed-down picture-book assembly and start-up instructions for today's consumer?

Oh well...all's well that ends well, eh? Or at least, so far, so good. Keep at it and keep smiling; we're watching your progress with baited breath. Can't wait to see what you think of all the "goodies" that you haven't been able to use before.

[Sailor Steve]

I spent a good part of last night and the past hour today installing FLB_Sales's Simfeeling 6-Dials Mod. The bad news is twofold:

1. You have to edit the menu_1024_768.ini, which is not easy and can be risky. FLB_Sale has made it a little easier by typing out all the changed files, so you can just copy and paste them, but even with that you have to change some of the file numbers. Last night I had everything work properly except the little grey box at the bottom, which holds the time-and-date figures. I knew roughly what was wrong because I've done it many times before, but it still took a lot of rereading to get it right. Today I finally discovered one misplaced item (some modders add the new listings on at the bottom rather than within the sections they belong to. The game doesn't care, because it reads the numbers at the top of the listing, but if you're adding new items and don't know that some of them are continued at the bottom you run the risk of getting into trouble. That's what happened in this case.

2. The mod completely changes the way the screen looks. The dials are quite large, making them easy to read and to click on, but all the dials and the officer bar and the time and time compression slots are now all slideouts, so there is nothing on the screen unless you want it there. I think this is wonderful, but it is totally incompatible with any GUI mod, so if you like one of those you can't use this one, and vice versa.

This is what it looks like:

The Compass. This is the one that comes with the mod. I'll be installing Hitman's accurate compass some time later.



The Rudder Control.



The Engine Control (Americans call this the Lee Helm).



The Knot Meter.



The Depth Gauge.



The Shallow Depth Gauge.



And the Time Compression and Date / Time Panel.

[Sailor Steve]

Have now installed:

No Ranks or Medals on Crew

Clean Nav Map (No lines or tracking aids)

Assisted Plotting Mod (Removes all ships from maps but allows you to mark them one at a time. There are many ships in Kiel but the only one showing is the one I tagged, or locked the UZO onto)


English to German Names (Makes all the signs and labels in the various compartments German)

Conus' Historically Accurate U-Boat Emblems

Halo Not Visible Through Body (You can no longer see light shining through the crewmen

Hitman's U-505 Compass Graphics


Pascal's Port People.


Das Boot Clothes

Capt Teaches SH3 Color Icons for GWX

Waterstream / Exhaust Combi-Mod for GWX3



Tested with no problems so far. Coming along nicely.

[sublynx]

Do consider the effort of installing this compass by Leitender. It's the next step up from Hitman's excellent compass. It does demand menu work, but it is worth the trouble and more.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...=1#post2115209

[Sailor Steve]

Oh, man, I forgot all about that one!

I actually have it downloaded and stored in a folder I reserve for new mods. Once I get everything set up the way I wanted I plan to start going through that folder and seeing what I want, and organizing them all into my regular mod storage folders. I would have come across it sooner or later, but it's nice to be reminded.

Thanks for the heads-up.

[Lanzfeld]

Is that "Hitler wanna be" on the dock flipping you off?!?!?