Crash after upgrading sub?

[AlexWheeler77y]

Hi all

My first post here and wondered if anyone could help me out?

Currently experiencing a crash upon entering back into a new patrol after upgrading my VIIB, specifically, after upgrading either radar (second gen) or replacing a the flak gun to any type. Essentially, any sub upgrades changing any visual element of the sub. Upgrading crew with medals etc does not cause the crash, neither does changing torpedo types.

Crash occurs during the loading screen after entering into a new patrol, 99% of the loading bar completes then "Silent Hunter 3 has stopped working". I can enter into a new patrol perfectly fine without making these upgrades.

I have tried changing the name of the save file (creating a whole new save etc), which also generates a new patrol area requirement, makes no difference.

Currently using GWX Gold, and SH3 is the Steam edition. Running on Windows 10 Pro, game is running as administrator and in compatibility mode. Activated mods are: 16k atmosphere, Alternate loadscreen, Axis Med. aircraft skins, Enhanced Damage Effects, Late War Sensors Snorkel Antennas, Main Movie "Das Boot", Open Hatch Mod, VIIC41 player Sub, and English Nav map and Grid refs.


Lastly, the in game date is May 4th 1943. Current base is Brest, France.


System Specs:
Windows 10 64bit
Intel Core i5
16GB RAM
AMD RX480 8GB


The game has always run without issue (none more than a slight annoyance anyway) up until this point. Can provide logs, settings, etc. if required.


Many thanks is advance, hoping someone will be able to assist

-Alex

[Aktungbby]

AlexWheeler77y!

[blackswan40]

Hi Alex this is a long shot may be worth a try just load up your SH3 Campaign Game without the Commander Mod

we have had Careers Cashing at the steel sharks sometimes just firing up SH3 loading your career save it works or just keep loading through the commander mod it may crash 5-6-7-8 times then on the 9th it works

[AlexWheeler77y]

Originally Posted by blackswan40

Hi Alex this is a long shot may be worth a try just load up your SH3 Campaign Game without the Commander Mod

Hi there,

Probably a daft question, the "Commander Mod"? Which one would that be? Can't see an obvious name on my list of activated Mods.

Thanks


-A

[THEBERBSTER]

A Warm Welcome To The Subsim Community > AlexWheeler 77y
Subsim <> Make A Donation <> See The Benefits <> Support The Community
Tutorials And Other Information Links In My Signature Below

without the Commander Mod

SH3Commander is not a mod but an application.
By your response you are obviously not using it so is not relevant to your problem.

Windows 10 is not compatible with SH3 so it needs to run in compatibility mode for Windows 7.
Crashes loading saved games is a compatibility issue.
If your game is installed in the Program Files (x86) directory you are likely to have problems as this is a restricted directory and does not like alterations being made to your game especially mods in JSGME.
Applications like GWX and SH3.exe should be run as administrators.
On your first patrol you should not upgrade your boat.
Check your documents folder and make sure you can see the SH3 save game folder.
Check that your gpu is setup correctly.
Post #239 Changing The Nvidia GPU Settings
Peter

[AlexWheeler77y]

Hi Peter,

thanks for the tips.

I can confirm that SH3 is running as admin, and in compatibility mode. The game has function perfectly fine for over 40 patrols so far.

I have performed a clean install of SH3 and GWX onto another (newer) hard drive, with no access protections or restrictions.

Editing the GPU settings with the AMD equivalent has no effect.

I can successfully load into a patrol having made no upgrades to my sub . Only upgrades that cause any cosmetic changes to the sub I.E change of Flak gun, or addition of a radar. Since this only happens when loading into a patrol, I'm guessing that this may be a graphics issue? Compounded by the fact that when changing the Flak gun (only), I can load into a new patrol ~50% of the time. But, when I do get into a patrol, the game becomes incredibly unstable, graphically or otherwise. Major graphics glitches and crashes to desktop occur.

It would not be the first time an older game does not play well with AMD graphics cards.

[THEBERBSTER]

Hi AW
Here is something else to try.
Post #412 Override High DPI Scaling Behavior

Are you running the game without a widescreen mod?
If yes:
The game is running in 4.3 aspect ratio with bars on each side?
Is your monitor widescreen 16.9 aspect ratio?
How have you setup the in game graphics?
Peter

[AlexWheeler77y]

Hi Peter

Thanks for the tip on the High DPI behavior. This made life significantly better (although didn't fix the issue). I've read online that lots of games have exhibited odd behavior due to this setting. Also, I have a widescreen monitor but am not playing in widescreen. Also noticed that Synchronization" (or V-Sync I assume?) wasn't enabled, so enabled that which also improved life considerably, but also did not solve the issue.

I did some digging around in Event Viewer to see what was causing the crash, and found Kernell.dll was the module at fault. Previous knowledge and some further Googling confirmed this to be a memory related issue. Other player have found that SH3 is limited to using 2GB of RAM at any single time. This explains why when I was introducing new additions to my sub, this was hitting the game's limit of RAM it was allowed to use.

More Googling discovered "Large Address Aware". A free piece of software that modifies the .exe file to use more than 2GB of RAM. I've used this method in the past for older games like Sid Meier's Railroads, to great effect. The author of the software has confirmed his tool works with SH4!

I can confirm that using Large Address Aware has solved the issue! I made a backup of the unchanged .exe first. I have successfully made many further additions to my sub and play a further 5 patrols with no issues. The game is also significantly more stable now, no more random crashes etc (clearly caused by the game hitting its RAM allocation).

Large Address Aware is available here: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...-aware.112556/

I can make a handy dandy guide on how I did it if you require


Many Thanks for you help and have a a great New Year


-Alex

[THEBERBSTER]

Hi AW
Glad to hear you are now ok.

That is interesting because SH3 uses the 4gb patch to open up more ram and SH4 uses the LAA application.
I have just had a discussion with propbeanie (SH4 wizard) regarding whether SH3 players would be better off using LAA than the 4gb patch.
If you have a decent amount of ram 16gb like I have then why would you want to be limited to a 4gb patch?
Peter

[XenonSurf]

The mantra of SH installation is: Do not install it in the Ubisoft suggested folders, but chose your own ones: for example C:\games\SH3\
Also avoid to install in Program Files (86x) so you avoid any Administrator settings to run or change the application.

But this is just one step to follow. Alas I doubt this will resolve your specific problem, if this doesn't solve it, then it's mod-related, or you need to set sh3.exe in compatibility mode, one of the above suggested settings will help for sure.