Despite warnings - high TC - no problem

[MarkShot]

I have seen numerous warnings that you cannot play SH3/GWX2 beyond TC64 - TC256. However, when I am not engaged, I usually patrol at TC2048 with no problems at all. I have yet to be blindsided by enemy patrols, convoys, or AC.

I run SH3 on its own dedicated processor (so nothing else interferes with its CPU). When running at 2048, I simply keep my eye on the clock numbers spinning by. If clock ever stutters or pauses, then I drop to 1:1 time. I then dive to take a sound sweep. If nothing turns up, I usually surface and run at TC64 for an hour or two and make a final sound sweep.

The above all but eliminates suprises. The pause/stutter in the clock rate is the game instantiating some objects in the player's world bubble. Thus, this always provides enough notification that you don't get caught with your pants down. So, I do my best not to spend hours of boredom, but instead zip through transits and have fun with convoys when they turn up.

I hope this will prove useful to others.

[Sailor Steve]

I don't have enough memory for really high-end stuff, and yet I regularly run at 4096 and have never been caught out. One of the problems with something like GWX seems to be just the opposite: if you're running at very high compression rates it sometimes seems to 'skip'; that is, you will miss a lot of air attacks in high-traffic areas because they will pass right by with nothing happening.

When I get all sorted my next patrols are going to have a 256x upper limit, for just that reason.

Also, the nearby ship 'stutter' has been mentioned many times over the years. I've searched every time that happens, and never found a thing. Maybe it's stuttering on mine due to lack of RAM.:dead:

[Canovaro]

I usually travel at 1024x and hardly ever have problems. The only time it nailed me when I dropped out of warp with a destroyer very close. It meant the end of my career. Any way I'm sticking to my 1024, because I don't have the time for lower tc.

When I played sh3 on my other computer, with 1280 mb memory and lower cpu speed, I found many ships by dropping out of tc when the game went slow on fps. Now, with my 2gb computer, I rarely get stutters and when they appear, the game completely stops for a moment and then goes to full fps again. With nothing on the hydro.

[Kptlt. Siegmann]

Like Markshot, I travel at 1024x, 2048x when at least 200km from any land. When my clock stutters I take it down and check my surroundings visually and acoustically, then procede carefully for a short while if nothing turns up before cranking it back up. No problems yet.

[MarkShot]

Well, usually, I do find something. Sometimes, it is so distant that it can only be heard by me taking a listen to the hydrophones.

About 20% of the time, it turns out to be biologics.

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I've used this technique to good effect in other games. However, in AOD, the max clock automatically drops. Thus, you know something is out there.

In SH2/PA, when TC dropped to 4X; it was time to crash dive as that was the indicator for inbound enemy planes.