Problem with Silent Hunter 4

[WolfgangU421]

I have recently installed the above game on my machine. When I try to play it my optical mouse becomes jerky and difficult to make it go where i want it to. In addition the game takes an extraordinary long time to load and stalls at times. What is causing this? Is it my graphics card, my mother board or the game itself. I have no problems running my other games.
Specs are as follows:
Motherboard K8X800
Processor: AMD Athlon 64, 3000+
Version x86
Speed: 2014MHz
Memory (RAM) 2GB
Graphics Card: Radeon 9600PRO
256MB DDR Memory
Any help would be appreciated

[EAGLE_01]

Hello:up:

Hang in there, I'm sure those who are far smarter than I will be along to help you..they'll probably want more specific information.

Have you made sure you machine is clean, no unecessary Window$ stuff loading in the background, defragged your HD, and done all the system tweaking simulations require?

There's also a few things in the game that slow it down, one I know of is turn off Post Process Filters..they are nice, but seriously slow down the game..

Your CPU is at the lower end.. but you should be able to get it running..however, don't expect 60 fps..I've been runnung it on an AMD 3000+,512 megs RAM, and a 1050 series ATI card, which is below spec.
I can BARELY run SH4, but it is playable.:smug:

Good Luck. Keep trying. With the mods, this sim is amazing. There are alot of friendly, smart people here.

[WolfgangU421]

Hi Eagle 01:D

Thanks for your reply.
Yes I've tried everything i can think of. Interesting to note you mention my CPU is at the lower end. This is the sort of info I need. another interesting point. Just before I read your post, I went to play the game again. this time I didn't even get to the video at the beginning before it crashed and rebooted the computer. :down:

[EAGLE_01]

Have you patched to 1.3? Hope I'm not stating the obvious...

IMO you should also add the Trigger Maru mod.. it gets rid of the intro movie. The less that loads..the better:yep:

But, if you're new to the game, there are some things in TM that you might have trouble with..Manual Targeting, and it also loses the direction 'tail' on contacts on the map. There is a way to get them back, but I haven't figured that out yet..

You can change Manual Targeting in the Gamesettings.cfg file. it has settings for the different skill levels.

You seem to have the same processor as I do. I had trouble to begin with, when SH4 came out, but now I've got it playable, and I've had to re-install several times due to people deleting my files to be mean:damn: , but I always get it runnung ok, and you've got 1.5X the RAM I do..

As for Windows, I have all the bells and whistles turned off. No sounds loading at boot, nothing loading in the Start Up group, and I always turn off any Virus protection before loading the game. Hope this helps..

EDIT: Forgot to mention Volumetric Fog...Turn it off!

[Linavitch]

Wolfgang. It's sounds like you bought that PC off me as it's exactly the same as my old one.

The 9600 Graphics card is about the slowest Radeon card that will run the game, coupled with a fairly low Cpu I think you may need to think about upgrading a few bits.

As to what? It depends what you can afford. I use to run a X850 graphics card in that rig and it ran Oblivion ok at medium settings. New Cpu will mean new Mobo 9which may mean new case).

Have a search around the forum. There are plenty of posts from people with lower end PC's with advice about upgrades and other options to optimize the performance.

[THE_MASK]

Its the graphics card that runs the game . Get a better graphics card .

[maerean_m]

And deactivate the debug options (MyDocuments\SH4\data\cfg\main.cfg). It seems the options where left on Yes when they created the patch's installation kit. :damn:

[Seaman_Hornsby]

Its the graphics card that runs the game . Get a better graphics card .

Yup, that 9600 is the bottleneck. Get something faster and you can get a bit more life out of the rest of that system! (I have an Athlon 3200+ with an ATI X1600 pro and get decent framerates)

[SteamWake]

As to the long load times... well thats normal.

Espically when you get a few patrols under your belt.

I timed one once at 12 minutes :o

[WolfgangU421]

Hi,
Thanks every one for your advice. All contributions gratefully received. I had a gut feeling it might be the graphics card, so I will start by upgrading that first and then tackle the CPU. If you have any other comments on graphics cards please let me know, I am now a pensioner so i don't want to waste money getting the wrong card. One other point with regard to the processor that I have in the Albatron K8X800 at present. Is it possible to upgrade the CPU.
Thanks:D

[EAGLE_01]

Hi,
Thanks every one for your advice. All contributions gratefully received. I had a gut feeling it might be the graphics card, so I will start by upgrading that first and then tackle the CPU. If you have any other comments on graphics cards please let me know, I am now a pensioner so i don't want to waste money getting the wrong card. One other point with regard to the processor that I have in the Albatron K8X800 at present. Is it possible to upgrade the CPU.
Thanks:D

You have to find out what Motherboard you have, and what it will accept for the CPU upgrade..

www.Newegg.com (http://www.Newegg.com) has good deals on vid cards..and they carry everything else you could want. So does www.tigerdirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com)

Good Luck!

[WolfgangU421]

Hi again,

Thanks again for all your advice. The program is running a lot better now. However I still have one problem. Why is it that when on the surface I cannot get the radar to work except in the training mission. I thought at first it might have been due the early type of submarine but when the crew told me I had a plot on the radar I knew it couldn't be that.
I patched to 1.3 does this patch include 1.1 and 1.2 or should I have patched both of these before 1.3 could this be why the radar won't work.

Thanks

Peter

[Seaman_Hornsby]

Strange. If you are getting radar contacts from the crew you should be able to man the radar yourself. Keep in mind that air-search radar (SD) is not a mannable station, but surface-search (SJ) is what you see in the conning tower. So if you're getting air contacts you can't verify these yourself on a radar screen.
As for the patching from 1.0 directly to 1.3 that's what I did on my last re-install and it works fine.

[WolfgangU421]

OK, I have gone through the different missions to check on the availability of radar. I found that some submarines have it and some don't. When did the US submarines first get radar installed and to what classes of subs. As I said on a previous post there is a small glich in that you can get a radar report when in fact you have no radar.
:)

[Powerthighs]

Your sub may have air radar but no surface radar installed, so the reports you are getting may be air contacts. There is no station for it so it will look like you have no radar of any kind installed.

I believe surface radar started showing up in late '42 to early '43.

[AVGWarhawk]

OK, I have gone through the different missions to check on the availability of radar. I found that some submarines have it and some don't. When did the US submarines first get radar installed and to what classes of subs. As I said on a previous post there is a small glich in that you can get a radar report when in fact you have no radar.
:)

When you first start out the submarines do not have radar. In the office screen before you leave port there is a page that allows you to add radar if it is available the year you are playing in. The odd part is the radar station is there during the early war but it does not work. Just the way the developers decided to handle it.