Old hand needs help with SH4

[Furia]

I have just bought and installed SH4. I have been playing Naval sims since the sail age :88) but this new one is giving me troubles to make it work properly so some help would be very appreciated.

I have been surfing the forums to find some answers but so far I tried some suggestions but could not make it work ok.

I have installed the game plus the 1.4 patch.
I have a Geforce 7800 GS OC of 256mg and I use a Samsun monitor running at 1600x1200.

Since I got no antialising working with the latest NVDIA drivers 169.21 I used the new Beta 169.28 but still have no good quality, specially when using the outside views.
Actually the view quality is quite poor.
However the interiors of the sub and the crew are ok, it is just the "outside" views except the underwater world that ooks quite good.
I also discovered the Museum looks very nice. I would just be happy having the quality of the Museum views.
I am not an expert on graphic cards but if somebody could recommend how to configure this game and video card settings to run properly I would be forever grateful.

Another issue I would like some guidance is about the Mods. There are so many and so many versions that I am lost :oops:
As far I could gather the ones "must have" would be the Trigger Maru whatever version and Reflections on Water whatever version plus the Run Silent Run deep Campaing.
can somebody tell me in wich order to install them and which versions?
Do I miss any important Mod?

Thanks a lot in advance!!:)

[AVGWarhawk]

I have the same card and it works well inside and out. Open your Nvida control panel for the card. Go to 3D options. Look for advanced and click on that. Once there, you will see a bunch of games that have preloaded card settings. Click add. A list iappears and here you can set up AA and AF, etc. I set mine to X4 on each. Texture quality on high. Now click apply. It will ask for what file. Browse you computer and find the sh4.exe icon (use your desktop one) and click that and then save. Now everytime you click the SH4 icon to play, the card will load this profile. Go ahead and see how she looks. Tweak the card with in this profile you created to your liking. Your card should render SH4 very well. At least this is my experience. Basically, you are forcing the card to render AA/AF.

Get this done and we will worry about mods later:D Let me know how the above works out for you.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome to the SH4 experience, as AVG mentioned, get your rig set-up, then worry about the mods later.

This is a nice post from an earlier threads for newer players:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=737548&postcount=3


RDP

[Sailor Steve]

Furia...hmm...I recognize that name. I think I played a destroyer against your u-boat a couple of times in the SH2/DC heyday.

Good to see you posting here.:sunny:

[Zero Niner]

The 2 supermods I'm aware of are Trigger Maru (TM) and Real Fleet Boat (RFB). They each have their differences and design philosophy (eg I think RFB emphasises historical accuracy). Imo either of these are "must-haves" as they fix a number of annoying quirks and bugs in the game.

Reflections on Water (ROW) is purely a graphics enhancement mod. Great work, but it will effect frame rates.

Natural Sinking Mechanics (NSM) changes the way ships damage/sink. In the stock game each ship has a number of hit points. Exceed this, and the ship will sink. Similar to what stock SH3 used. In NSM you can only sink ships by making sure enough compartments get flooded so that you get negative bouyancy. More realistic, but also more frustrating. If you've played GWX on SH3 it will be similar to this, I think.

There is also a NSM Lite version, where ships sink about 30% faster than in the full NSM mod.

[Furia]

Thank you all. I will try to follow your instructions precisely.
I have just discovered something strange. The Silent Hunter IV Icon on desktop is not directed to the SH4.exe file but to another file also located on the SH$ folder and that it actually launches the game as well: gu.exe :o
Does somebody know what is the use of this gu.exe file while there is also a SH4.exe file avalaible?

I will try to lower the AA settings to 4 although usually I run all my games at 16 including SHIII or Flight Simulator 2004.

@Sailor Steve.
Hello Steve. So long!! Yeah it is me although it was me on the Tin Can and you on the Sub. What a goo memories with those interesting DD vs Sub Combats.
I am looking forward to test the Destroyer possibilities on Multiplayer on this game although I am afraid it would not be the same as the old DD sim.
If I could only make this game look decent on my screen :roll:

[AVGWarhawk]

Thank you all. I will try to follow your instructions precisely.
I have just discovered something strange. The Silent Hunter IV Icon on desktop is not directed to the SH4.exe file but to another file also located on the SH$ folder and that it actually launches the game as well: gu.exe :o
Does somebody know what is the use of this gu.exe file while there is also a SH4.exe file avalaible?

I will try to lower the AA settings to 4 although usually I run all my games at 16 including SHIII or Flight Simulator 2004.

@Sailor Steve.
Hello Steve. So long!! Yeah it is me although it was me on the Tin Can and you on the Sub. What a goo memories with those interesting DD vs Sub Combats.
I am looking forward to test the Destroyer possibilities on Multiplayer on this game although I am afraid it would not be the same as the old DD sim.
If I could only make this game look decent on my screen :roll:
Yes, the gu.exe came as part of patch 1.4. No worry as mine does this also. Therefore, direct your videocard setting to the desktop icon as explained in my first post. I would just set at 4x for now and get it working. Fine tune and tweak after you get AA/AF working.


This is mine set at X4 for both:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=732949&postcount=2261

[FIREWALL]

I have the same card and it works well inside and out. Open your Nvida control panel for the card. Go to 3D options. Look for advanced and click on that. Once there, you will see a bunch of games that have preloaded card settings. Click add. A list iappears and here you can set up AA and AF, etc. I set mine to X4 on each. Texture quality on high. Now click apply. It will ask for what file. Browse you computer and find the sh4.exe icon (use your desktop one) and click that and then save. Now everytime you click the SH4 icon to play, the card will load this profile. Go ahead and see how she looks. Tweak the card with in this profile you created to your liking. Your card should render SH4 very well. At least this is my experience. Basically, you are forcing the card to render AA/AF.



THX AVG :up: This is something I didn't know about and haven't done.

I've asked before about a TECH Sticky. I'd hate to see this good info get lost.

[AVGWarhawk]

It is a nice feature these days with videocards. Not all games like the same settings. So you can set up a profile for each.

Also, when you set up the card, at the bottom of the list is vertical sync. Click it and select force vertical sync. When you start your game go to graphics options and click vertical sync. Works great. On the bridge when I would swing around the bars on the shears would tear. This is now gone. I'm very happy with Nvidia and how it renders SH4.

[RickC Sniper]

@Furia


There is also a setting ingame called post processing. Some love this effect, others do not like the look.

Try your game with this enabled and then switched off to see which you like best. There is a considerable difference.

[Furia]

Finally I have been able to make SHIV to run nice and smooth. Thanks for the tips and for Nhnacer.
Now I am ready for the Mods.
So far I just have installed the stock game and patch 1.4.

I am thinking about the latest of ROW and Tirgger Maru. I am missing something really important?
Wich one do I install first?
Any tips?

Thanks a lot. :cool: