Some Real Frustrations Makes Game Hard To Play

[Capt. D]

If these have been mentioned in any of the other threads I appoligize however these are really begining to frustrate me to shelving the game for awhile.

Outside of the other bugs/glitches/issues has anyone noticed that the curser has a "jerky" motion in all screens except the navagational map? When you want to set up for an attack using the TDC the curser is all over the place and it is hard to click on the option you want to use.

Next the Identification/recognition manual. Has anyone had issues here? When you open it, it's always on the American logo. You have to tab through all the nations until you get to Japan. Then if you happen to go out ot the manual and then back in - got to find Japan all over again:down:. Next when you tab on the arrow to move through the ships it's slow as heck sometimes you have to click more than once. Other times it won't even let you move from page to page:down:
Further the manual is not as easy to use as the one in SHI which had tabs on it so you could "jump" to the class of ship you want to view. With SH4 you have to go through pages and pages to get to the ship you are looking for. If I am trying to match up a destroyer and have to go throw 10 pages at a slow pace to find them might as well send up a flag so they know where I am as I'll never have time to set u for a shot. In addition - merchants are in another part of the book:x.

With the erratic movement of the mouse and the slow process of getting to the key/tab you want to use it's not worth the effort to set up for a kill. Then if I am lucky to get to where I need to work the slow process of clicking on the tabs again makes it almost impossiable to shoot.

I truly enjoyed SHI and liked the others and was really looking forward to getting back to the Pacific. However this frustation now has me looking at waiting for updates / improvements before I get too carried away.

One other issue - which may have been mentioned and may be a bug - has anyone had issue with the "hot keys"? What I mean is you have to hit them more than once to activate that action? Sometimes more than twice.

Happy Hunting - so far its' a wishfull thought:cry: :ping:

[FIREWALL]

Hangin there Capt. D I as well as others know how you feel. It't frustrating for shure. I personaly hate the torpedo depth setting wheel.
You haveto use the mouse and it's not accurate. The one in SH-3 was much better imho. Good Luck and Good Hunting. :up:

[Iron Budokan]

I've noticed the stickiness and the lagging hot keys, too, but frankly I just put it down to my ancient computer.

[edjcox]

The game lags my mouse very badly...

I also cannot get a response from a key input unless i repeat it numerous times.

I went an checked my Mouse software and my keyboard software Microsoft Intellimouse Optical and Logitech Internet both drivers are latest out...

Wonder if this could be a DX issue? The game comes shipped with an older version...

:roll:

[clayton]

Mouse lag, I believe, is a direct reflection of your graphic settings. I had the same problem until I turned off enviromental effects. I guess my 1.6 gig of memory is not enough to handle it. I heard in another post that 2 gig's is butter smooth!

[Skweetis]

A culmination of processor, graphics card and memory will determine end performance. Not just RAM which is a common misconception. I only have 1GB ram, and it runs silky smooth, but combined with a more recent processor (though not current), a fairly decent video card , high speed hard drive and decent motherboard work together to produce a decent experience.

As painful as it sounds, try this, reduce all the graphics settings to minimum and uncheck all the effects features. THen by process of elimination, move the sliders forward to higher settings and try the game again and check the performance. keep doing this until you hit a point where you are happy with how it looks. Don't even consider the checkboxes yet. If you can get them all to full, and you are happy with things, then one by one, check off the boxes, and test your performance in game.

Unfortunately, video card manufacturers prey on the fact that most users equate memory size of the video card (i.e. 32mb, 64mb, 128mb, 256mb etc) with performance of the video card. It was only by trial and error, and many uninformed purchases, that I learned that GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) speed, pixel pipelines (Important!) Shader version (very important for advanced graphical effects like post processing, reflections, enviromental effects, etc.) have a much greater impact on performance than how much texture memory ( the MB size your vid card has) can handle.

To summarize, its more important what your vid card can do with all that memory, than how much memory you have. This is why you will find some high end cards with only 128 MB of memory that cost up to 5 times as much as a "starter video" card with 512MB of memory. There are whole diatribes on the internet about these inconsistancies, I'll let you research them on your own. Hardware manufacturers are MUCH more sneaky than software developers!

Hopefully this will help you, and give you more insight into the evils related to graphics hardware! :D But please remember, I only speak from personal experience and my own opinion. There are people here that are much more qualified to answer in more detail and more accuracy!

Cheers!

[akdavis]

The TDC controls, especially the torpedo settings, are twitchy even if you have no mouse lag. Usually I have to click and drag in small arcs, otherwise it will spin to the opposite side instantly if you move the mouse a fraction too far. On top of that, the detonators constantly reset themselves, so you find yourself clicking that over and over again.

There should be keyboard inputs for all TDC torpedo controls.

[vois2]

I saw the following post by Ed Howard of subowespac.org

fix for erratic mouse behavior in SH4

http://www.subsowespac.org/forum/index.php/topic,58.0.html

I found a fix for the erratic (sluggish) mouse issue. I tried it and it resulted in substantial improvement.

You have to edit the Silent Hunter 4 "main.cfg" file with Notepad. On my setup, the main.cfg file is located at the following path:

c:\My Documents\SH4\data\cfg\main.cfg

Open the file with Notepad. Look for the [Video] section. Change the Synchronized option as follows:

Synchronized=Yes

Save the file. Run Silent Hunter 4 and see if the mouse behavior is any better. Wink

Ed Howard
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[Capt. D]

A culmination of processor, graphics card and memory will determine end performance. Not just RAM which is a common misconception. I only have 1GB ram, and it runs silky smooth, but combined with a more recent processor (though not current), a fairly decent video card , high speed hard drive and decent motherboard work together to produce a decent experience.

As painful as it sounds, try this, reduce all the graphics settings to minimum and uncheck all the effects features. THen by process of elimination, move the sliders forward to higher settings and try the game again and check the performance. keep doing this until you hit a point where you are happy with how it looks. Don't even consider the checkboxes yet. If you can get them all to full, and you are happy with things, then one by one, check off the boxes, and test your performance in game.

Unfortunately, video card manufacturers prey on the fact that most users equate memory size of the video card (i.e. 32mb, 64mb, 128mb, 256mb etc) with performance of the video card. It was only by trial and error, and many uninformed purchases, that I learned that GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) speed, pixel pipelines (Important!) Shader version (very important for advanced graphical effects like post processing, reflections, enviromental effects, etc.) have a much greater impact on performance than how much texture memory ( the MB size your vid card has) can handle.

To summarize, its more important what your vid card can do with all that memory, than how much memory you have. This is why you will find some high end cards with only 128 MB of memory that cost up to 5 times as much as a "starter video" card with 512MB of memory. There are whole diatribes on the internet about these inconsistancies, I'll let you research them on your own. Hardware manufacturers are MUCH more sneaky than software developers!

Hopefully this will help you, and give you more insight into the evils related to graphics hardware! :D But please remember, I only speak from personal experience and my own opinion. There are people here that are much more qualified to answer in more detail and more
and from Vois2:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/images/icons/icon1.gif a fix for jerky mouse
I saw the following post by Ed Howard of subowespac.org

fix for erratic mouse behavior in SH4

http://www.subsowespac.org/forum/ind...opic,58.0.html (http://www.subsowespac.org/forum/index.php/topic,58.0.html)

I found a fix for the erratic (sluggish) mouse issue. I tried it and it resulted in substantial improvement.

You have to edit the Silent Hunter 4 "main.cfg" file with Notepad. On my setup, the main.cfg file is located at the following path:

c:\My Documents\SH4\data\cfg\main.cfg

Open the file with Notepad. Look for the [Video] section. Change the Synchronized option as follows:

Synchronized=Yes

Save the file. Run Silent Hunter 4 and see if the mouse behavior is any better. Wink
accuracy!

Cheers!

Thanks shipmates!!

Will look to try these suggestions. Has anyone also found that - and I know there has been many comments on audio issues - the crew seems to be talking in whispers all the time - even though you have the vol. control for that feature all the way up. It seems when on the surface and on the bridge the voices are louder and clearer, yet in the sub they are at a whisper????? I too have found the strange confirmation of only "rudder" when hitting the "hot key" for rudder amidship (as mentioned in another thread), but can learn to live with that if I could only hear it.

Also the degree marks in the periscope - very dark even against a blue sky can not read them well????

One other comment - the scopes. In SHI and I believe in 2 and 3 one could raise and lower the scope even if you were not in the scope "screen". This is not the case in SH4 as far as I have found. Is this part of the game or a glitch also? I have a habit of checking out my nav map and the ship indicators while at the scope and do not care to leave it up all the time. I can not lower or raise it when at the nav map. This feature was great in SHI. Would use the nav map as more a plotting board. Would go to the map then hit the raise scope hot key see the indicatores and then quickly lower the socpe. Kind of cheating maybe but then some like to use the "free camera" to see what is going on and that is about the same.

Another thing I liked in previous versions - you could raise the scope at one time rather than have to keep pushing the key down until the scope was fully raised or lowered as is the case for me anyway in SH4. Is this another glitch or just part of the game? I know one had to use the "pickle" to raise or lower the scope in actual use but you either had someone doing it for you as you "rode' the scope up or down or you were not in a hurry.

Anyway - thanks for the input. It does look like the devs still have a long way to go to stop the "sinking" feeling we all seem to have at the momment.

Happy hunting :ping:

[jdski]

You can raise and lower the scopes just the same as in SH3. Doesn't matter where you are and by using ctrl pageup or ctrl pagedown raises them all the way. Altenatively you can use the button. You don't have to move from your nav station or any other to use the periscope button.
THe recognition manual is the same as it was in SH3. Merchants are clustered together under one general catagory for all counties, and warships are clustered together under thier nationalities. The problem is that it doenst stick to the page you have open if you close the manual.
Jumpy mouse is mostly due to your graphic settings. My rule of thumb for games that go beyond my systems capacities is to start with the lowest setting and start turning things up from there noting their impact on performance. Enviromental effects are the biggest framerate killer. I can keep it on sometimes, but fog and monoliths bring me to a crawl.

[vois2]

. . . Has anyone also found that - and I know there has been many comments on audio issues - the crew seems to be talking in whispers all the time - even though you have the vol. control for that feature all the way up. It seems when on the surface and on the bridge the voices are louder and clearer, yet in the sub they are at a whisper?????

I have this problem all of the time. I think today I will try to turn down the level of Direct X sound acceleration (using Start --> Run --> type there: dxdiag) and see if this helps. It often does in many games.

[codmander]

wonder when the devs are gonna hang this game up and start over :o I feel sorry for all involved :oops: what a fricken sin :oops: also I hope sh4 isn't as bad as what I have been reading since the release because I did want to purchase it in the fall :damn:

[depaos]

I find this game too buggy for the moment to play it in career mode.
Because with time compression you can die without apparent reason!?
I start two career then i die when i was trying to reach the objective :doh: . I don't understand why

Sorry for my bad english

[akdavis]

1. Crew will talk in whispers whenever an enemy is sight, regardless of silent running status. Doesn't matter if you are movign at flank speed on the surface with guns blazing.

2. CTRL + PAGE UP/PAGE DOWN for attack periscope
CTRL + INSERT/DELETE for observation periscope

You can have both raised at the same time if you wish.

[DirtyHarry3033]

Capt D, I agree 100% about the recognition manual. The endless "click-ckick-click..." that it takes to get to the page you want drives me crazy. What I would love to see is a drop-down menu on the cover to select the nationality, then once the book is open, another drop-down to select the class of ship, i.e. "Destroyer", "Cruiser", "Battleship", etc. A couple clicks would put you where you need to be, then a few more to find the actual ship you're looking at. If I'd designed it, that's how I would have done it.

Another thing that drives me crazy is that little "event camera" window or whatever it is, that opens up every time you fire a torp. It invaribly pops up over the TDC controls meaning I have to close it or drag it out of the way, if I want to fire a spread. And 9 times out of 10, when I try to do that, due to the "slow mouse" I activate it to full-screen, so MORE time lost getting the next shot off :(

Another irritation is the screen res selection - not that it matters, it's 1024x768 no matter what you choose. But what bothers me is, when you pick a res from the drop-down menu, whatever graphics slider is closest to the res you click on is ALSO changed, as if you clicked that slider instead.

All kinds of irritating things in this game. If they ever get it fixed, I'll worship it, but I'm afraid I'll get sick of it before then.

[Capt. D]

You can raise and lower the scopes just the same as in SH3. Doesn't matter where you are and by using ctrl pageup or ctrl pagedown raises them all the way. Altenatively you can use the button. You don't have to move from your nav station or any other to use the periscope button.
THe recognition manual is the same as it was in SH3. Merchants are clustered together under one general catagory for all counties, and warships are clustered together under thier nationalities. The problem is that it doenst stick to the page you have open if you close the manual.
Jumpy mouse is mostly due to your graphic settings. My rule of thumb for games that go beyond my systems capacities is to start with the lowest setting and start turning things up from there noting their impact on performance. Enviromental effects are the biggest framerate killer. I can keep it on sometimes, but fog and monoliths bring me to a crawl.
Thanks for the info. Checked out the manual and no mention of that. Might have to get out the SH3 one for some additional info.

As far as the rec. manual goes - I know SH1 was primitive to say the least as only Japanese ships were in it, however the ease of which it was used far out weighs the primitive part. As DirtyHarry 3033 mentions in his note - maybe a drop down menu to chose the nation and then tabs to get you where you want to go - would make the time spent in the manual a min. as more important things to do come up..

Anyway thanks for the info. I'll have to say that the more you try and play the better it becomes, however there are still far too many issues that need to be corrected.

happy Hunting :ping:

[akdavis]

Another thing that drives me crazy is that little "event camera" window or whatever it is, that opens up every time you fire a torp. It invaribly pops up over the TDC controls meaning I have to close it or drag it out of the way, if I want to fire a spread. And 9 times out of 10, when I try to do that, due to the "slow mouse" I activate it to full-screen, so MORE time lost getting the next shot off :(

You can turn the event camera off under the difficulty options. I tried to edit the setting int he main.cfg file, but that did not take effect. I've only been able to turn it on and off through the options window, so I'm not sure what to do if you are in the midst of a patrol.

On the recognition manual, ideal would be a text box you can enter the class into and jump straight to the page when the class of a ship is already known by the player (perhaps include a bit of logic so that a minor mispelling does not get you stuck). You should have to search some for an unknown type, but there should be a way to jump closer to what you are looking for as well (like Japanese destroyers, or tankers, etc.). Also, as has been said, when you close the RM and open it back up, it should return to the last page you were viewing. And it damn well needs a NIGHT FILTER!

[joea]

Hmmmm the rec manual is one of the things that annoyed me about SH3, I mean having to flip through, too bad it wasn't fixed. As mentioned you could turn event camera off in SH3 and it seems in SH4 as well. Never liked it myself.

[DirtyHarry3033]

Yeah I know the event camera can be turned off. Stupid me, I started the patrol with it on though and as mentioned, it can't be turned off until you're back in port :( Next patrol, it is history!!! I wouldn't mind so much, it if would "remember" the position you drag it to, so next time it wouldn't be in the way...

Ackdavis, I've tried hacking the .cfg files also with no joy. Soon as I load the save game, the .cfg is reset to what I started my patrol with. I figure there is another file somewhere with the "patrol settings" and it automatically overwrites the main.cfg when you load the saved game.

[Iron Budokan]

I find this game too buggy for the moment to play it in career mode.
Because with time compression you can die without apparent reason!?
I start two career then i die when i was trying to reach the objective :doh: . I don't understand why

Sorry for my bad english

The 1.1 patch states clearly in the Read Me that you can experience damage because of collisions at very high TC.

[akdavis]

Yeah I know the event camera can be turned off. Stupid me, I started the patrol with it on though and as mentioned, it can't be turned off until you're back in port :( Next patrol, it is history!!! I wouldn't mind so much, it if would "remember" the position you drag it to, so next time it wouldn't be in the way...

Ackdavis, I've tried hacking the .cfg files also with no joy. Soon as I load the save game, the .cfg is reset to what I started my patrol with. I figure there is another file somewhere with the "patrol settings" and it automatically overwrites the main.cfg when you load the saved game.

Are you using the main.cfg found in the My Documents/SH4 folder? The one in the install directory is only read once and does not control your settings. I've made other changes in the .cfg and had them take effect. Just the event camera variable doesn't seem to work. I suspect the sim doesn't actually read the event camera setting from the main.cfg, but from another file.

For mid-patrol, you might try changing it in one of the various gameplaysettings.cfg files in My Documents/SH4. One of those should be for you current campaign.

[DirtyHarry3033]

AKD, actually it was the \My Documents\SH4\data\cfg\GameplaySettings.cfg that I was editing, now that I check ;) It contains these entries:

[Current]
LimitedBatteries=true
LimitedCompressedAir=true
LimitedO2=true
LimitedFuel=true
RealisticRepairTime=true
ManualTargetingSystem=true
NoMapUpdate=false
RealisticSensors=true
DudTorpedoes=true
RealisticReload=false
NoEventCamera=false
NoExternalView=false
NoStabilizeView=false
MPShowPlayerNames=true
MPShowTorpedoes=true

[MiscSettings]
MeasurementUnits=imperial

These look to be the same ones you can set up in your office at HQ. No matter what I did to this file though, the changes were always undone as soon as I loaded a saved game.

DH

[Drokkon]

I like the ideas you have about the reconization manual. I would also like to see a hot key for battle stations. Its just odd only being able to call for it in 1 screen.

[akdavis]

AKD, actually it was the \My Documents\SH4\data\cfg\GameplaySettings.cfg that I was editing, now that I check ;) It contains these entries:

[Current]
LimitedBatteries=true
LimitedCompressedAir=true
LimitedO2=true
LimitedFuel=true
RealisticRepairTime=true
ManualTargetingSystem=true
NoMapUpdate=false
RealisticSensors=true
DudTorpedoes=true
RealisticReload=false
NoEventCamera=false
NoExternalView=false
NoStabilizeView=false
MPShowPlayerNames=true
MPShowTorpedoes=true

[MiscSettings]
MeasurementUnits=imperial

These look to be the same ones you can set up in your office at HQ. No matter what I did to this file though, the changes were always undone as soon as I loaded a saved game.

DH

there are also gameplaysettings.cfg files in the save games. might be worth toying with those, as well.