Silent Hunter 4 And U-boat Missions On Steam!!

[XanderF]

Woohoo! A great (definitely the best) digital distribution method for the Silent Hunter series!

Silent Hunter 4 on Steam! (http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=app&AppId=15200&cc=US)

Note that for only $28, you can buy a pack that includes Sh3, Sh4, and the 'U-boat Missions' for Sh4.

I'm re-buying these on Steam, myself (if for no other reason than this is ultra-portable. Even if the disks are scratched and no longer readable some day, any game bought on Steam can always be downloaded and played on any PC you'll ever have.) I'll be sure to report on how the mods work - so far, I've never had a problem with mods in Steam games (they are almost always VERY mod friendly), so we'll see how it goes!

This is FANTASTIC news! Advertised on the front page of Steam, no less! :D :up:

(Okay, okay, a cross-post to the Sh3 board, too - but this is SO VERY EXCITING!!)

[V.C. Sniper]

W00T!! Too bad though that the 1337 awesome Steam doesn't accept the CD key that came with my boxed copy. Ah well, hope all the Sim lovers on Steam here enjoy the hell out of it!!! >_< http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/v4_images/smilies/smile.gif

100% REALISM = PWNZ THE S0X 2 TH4 B0X!!!

STEAM FTW!!!!

[XanderF]

It's only $28 to buy all three items, I have no problem buying it again at that price. For the convenience of Steam (and yes, the mods work), I can take the copies I have and send them to my brother. Or a coworker or something.

Simply a smashing excuse to give away a copy or three! :rotfl:

[Sailor Steve]

Great. Just great. I can't buy the add-on from D2D because they say something's wrong and they can't fix it. I just got all excited trying to get it from Steam, and they say I can't. I have to have Steam's version of SH4 to get and use the add-on.

I can barely spare ten bucks for the thing; no way can I afford to by another copy of the game, or the package.

I'm tired of these games. Why can't somebody just sell me a copy of the thing?

[Feltan]

Sorry, but STEAM is not going on my computer. Had it once, and it was the most annoying memory hog ever devised.

Regards,
Feltan

[Fincuan]

What is not running takes no memory, and this applies to Steam too. I have it because of HL2, CS:S and a couple of other games, but I never run it unless it's needed.

[wetwarev7]

I hate Steam. Aside from all the other negatives, here's my main problem with it.
I bought Half-Life 2, played it for a bit, uninstalled, and then moved. Since I was moving, I had my email address changed and I also lost my list of passwords so I couldn't log on to Steam anymore, hence, I can't install/play Half-Life 2. After many moons of trying to get hold of someone at Steam, I was told that since I no longer have the orginal email address, I'll just have to buy a new copy of the game.

Yeah, right. I told them to go f...........

I'll never purchase another Steam game. Ever.

That being said, $28 dollars is a good price for SH3, SH4 and UBM. (For those that would buy a game from Steam.)

[Arclight]

Couldn't agree more! If you buy at a store, at least you have a receipt to prove it's yours and you paid for it. It'd like to see them try and deny that. But yeah, excellent price. Guess the extra you pay in stores is for customer service and proof of ownership. :roll:

[XanderF]

I hate Steam. Aside from all the other negatives, here's my main problem with it.
I bought Half-Life 2, played it for a bit, uninstalled, and then moved. Since I was moving, I had my email address changed and I also lost my list of passwords so I couldn't log on to Steam anymore, hence, I can't install/play Half-Life 2. After many moons of trying to get hold of someone at Steam, I was told that since I no longer have the orginal email address, I'll just have to buy a new copy of the game.

Well:

A) For this (and many more - FAR more important) reasons, I don't do anything critical with an ISP email address. ISPs dry up and blow away from time to time, people move, policies change, etc. My Yahoo account is where I manage 99% of my important stuff, and I have an MSN account just in case as fallback.

B) Updating your email addresses is, like, thing #1 to do when moving if you have an ISP-based system. It's like moving and not notifying the government of your new address, and then complaining when you don't get your tax refund or something. I mean, you HAVE to do that.

Couldn't agree more! If you buy at a store, at least you have a receipt to prove it's yours and you paid for it. It'd like to see them try and deny that. But yeah, excellent price. Guess the extra you pay in stores is for customer service and proof of ownership. :roll:

O RLY?

You realize most store receipts (actually, virtually all within the past decade or so - certainly any electronic retailer) are printed with a paper+ink combination that fades away to completely clear strips after a few months to a few years, right?

And in any case, disk gets scratched/broken/lost, and what do you do? That's right, have to buy another copy of the game.

[wetwarev7]

I hate Steam. Aside from all the other negatives, here's my main problem with it.
I bought Half-Life 2, played it for a bit, uninstalled, and then moved. Since I was moving, I had my email address changed and I also lost my list of passwords so I couldn't log on to Steam anymore, hence, I can't install/play Half-Life 2. After many moons of trying to get hold of someone at Steam, I was told that since I no longer have the orginal email address, I'll just have to buy a new copy of the game.

Well:

A) For this (and many more - FAR more important) reasons, I don't do anything critical with an ISP email address. ISPs dry up and blow away from time to time, people move, policies change, etc. My Yahoo account is where I manage 99% of my important stuff, and I have an MSN account just in case as fallback.

B) Updating your email addresses is, like, thing #1 to do when moving if you have an ISP-based system. It's like moving and not notifying the government of your new address, and then complaining when you don't get your tax refund or something. I mean, you HAVE to do that.

Couldn't agree more! If you buy at a store, at least you have a receipt to prove it's yours and you paid for it. It'd like to see them try and deny that. But yeah, excellent price. Guess the extra you pay in stores is for customer service and proof of ownership. :roll:

O RLY?

You realize most store receipts (actually, virtually all within the past decade or so - certainly any electronic retailer) are printed with a paper+ink combination that fades away to completely clear strips after a few months to a few years, right?

And in any case, disk gets scratched/broken/lost, and what do you do? That's right, have to buy another copy of the game.

You've got some good points, but I still see things a little differently.

I keep all my receipts for at least 5 years. Very few of them have faded. A lot of them are printed on thermal paper, not ink. I just recently had a video card go bad and since I had the receipt was was just under the warranty(two years), I was able to get the video card replaced. I will happily buy from that manufacturer again.

I can call the Gov and tell them my new address. They won't give me a bunch of flak about getting a new social security number. And frankly, I've never called to tell the Gov my new address. I just use my new address on my tax form, and they send me my refund. Amazing.

If I scratched the CD, yes, I would go buy a new one. The CD isn't scratched at all, it is in mint condition. I just don't have access to an email account, and Steam refuses to make allowances for that.

From my perspective, this is all about being inflexible. I lose my CD, yeah, sure I'll buy another one. But losing my password/Email account? That's a bit of a stretch. They wouldn't even allow me to send them an image of the CD, instruction manual, and the receipt to prove that it was a legitimate copy, nor to allow me any other way to prove to them that I was the orginal and proper owner of said software.

If a company wants to be this inflexible to it's paying customers, then I can certainly take my money elsewhere and give it to someone who appreciates my business, and appreciates that life happens.

[Arclight]

You realize most store receipts (actually, virtually all within the past decade or so - certainly any electronic retailer) are printed with a paper+ink combination that fades away to completely clear strips after a few months to a few years, right?
Don't know what stores you go to, but mine are all fine. Except that one that was in my pocket when I washed my pants. :roll:

And in any case, disk gets scratched/broken/lost, and what do you do? That's right, have to buy another copy of the game.
Uhm... Image file? Burn backup from ISO? Got 10 year old games with barely a scratch on them.

Just have to take care of your stuff. :p

[Fire_Spy]

It might be on steam for the rest of the world but I cant see it on there in Australia..

In fact when I go to the website in the OP and click on buy it flat out tells me I cant purchase it from Australia..

[Hieronimus]

At least, from the Netherlands it isn't possible to buy any of the SH games through Steam...:damn:

bummer....

[KrazyKarl]

I love Steam! I buy all my games from them if they sell them. Not switching CDs is the way I like it. I've never had a problem running Steam and I get to find out about cool games like SHIV!!!

[Orffen]

It might be on steam for the rest of the world but I cant see it on there in Australia..

In fact when I go to the website in the OP and click on buy it flat out tells me I cant purchase it from Australia..

Same problem for me. I don't get why Ubisoft (and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. guys) don't want my Aussie cash :cry:

[CollateralDamage]

I would like to point out that you DO get a receipt when you purchase stuff from Steam which you can print/screenshot&save. And it can also be seen in your bank statement. :)

Steam has really been improved since the early days and it is quite good today.
I play DoD:S and Defcon (This is made of pure golden pwnage!) on Steam.
And when I get my next paycheck I'm going to buy the Eidos gamepack, Shadowgrounds and the SH package.

Already have SH4 and SH3 on DVD discs but I can't help myself because Steam provides a reliable, working and no hassle service for buying games (IMO! Please don't smack me too badly for this pretty please).

[SteamWake]

1.) The 'disk' hasent been required to play since 1.3

2.) I have never had a cd or dvd get so damaged it wont work... never.

3.) Steam is insidious and a whopping piece of spyware.

But hey to each there own.

[gimpy117]

sorry to necro but I wanna know how to get my game that I purchased a while ago to show up on my list...not just the stupid "add a non steam game"

[MonTana_Prussian]

Don't know what stores you go to, but mine are all fine. Except that one that was in my pocket when I washed my pants. :roll:


Uhm... Image file? Burn backup from ISO? Got 10 year old games with barely a scratch on them.

Just have to take care of your stuff. :p

Same here,no scratches,no problems. I ALWAYS want a disc and a physical reciept.:cool:

[mrccrl]

Hi all,
I have a steam sh4 version on my pc.....but I can't install any mod or patches it seems....no installation of silent hunter were founded!..... I'm dude of course....can you help me to solve?
thx in advance! Marco.

[Matthias]

I don't know if this issue has been resolved but I'll chime in with my two cents;

when installing through Steam will the silent hunter folder be (by default)
c:\program files\steam\Steamapps\Silent hunter 4....

I gotthe mods installed by using the jsgme and installing it to that directory and unpacking the mods into the ... \mods directory.

Cheers,
Matthias

[BGrey]

I'm assuming this is with the U-boat add on and version 1.5?

[Apos]

I'm assuming this is with the U-boat add on and version 1.5?


Actually no. I got SH4 + uboat addon, SH3, IL-2 and few other games in WWII pack @ steam. After installing I have 1.3 version :o. Kinda strange since AFAIK u-boat addon update game to 1.5. I need to figure out this.

**edit**

I got it. If you downloading SH4 and addon simultaneously from steam there might be situation where addon get downloaded first, main game later. SH4 files overwrite the addon files and mess up this. 1st download SH4, then start downloading addon and everything will be fine :).

[zosX]

I just bought silent hunter IV and then the u-boat missions and the first thing I noticed was that certain ships were black, without texture. Specifically the colorado battleships that populate pearl harbor when you take off on your first mission. Odd. It seems something is wrong with the low res textures on the steam edition. Certain units are missing textures. Switching to the better texture set seems to fix this. Then I notice upon installing the u-boat missions that crew members on the bridge do not have eyes. Well it seems that a few mods fix this, and it seems that a lot of people have had this issue. (Shame on you ubisoft!) Speaking of which, what's with the texture with a picture of subsim.com printed across the side of a painted sub? Is this site owned by ubisoft or something or was that just merely a nod? I forget the file name, but it is there in the texture cache. Anyways, to make a long story short the maru mod fixes the eyes, but then upon launching the game again, steam went through its "updating game" and seemed to break and revert back to 1.3, without the u-boat missions. At this point I'm ready to break down and just download the isos. I mean, I bought the damned game. I redownloaded the whole 6-7 gig deal while I slept last night to awake and fire it up this morning to find that only 1.3 was installed again with no u-boat missions. I tried to fire the u-boat missions from steam and it updated itself again (argh) and it loads (with the correct title screen) to about the 80% and dies. Grrr. Trying to launch SH4 from steam again then results in "this game is not available." Wow. Now I have to redownload the whole thing. For the third time. Next time I am going to just back up the default stock installation. Is anyone successfully running mods with steam? And why the hell is the version of SH4 on steam only 1.3? Nice of ubisoft to make 1.5. Also I noticed you cannot seam to jailbreak the app by copying it to another directory, so it seems irrevocably tied to steam. Really not liking certain aspects of this. ISO seems the way to go, and considering the glaring bugs even on a final 1.5 patched version, I'm kind of disappointed. I did get to run one patrol and had a lot of fun (on version 1.3). I was ordered to go right up to the coastline of japan. After gunning a down a few ships I was systematically hunted by airplanes. I then pulled up into the Strait of Tokyo and gunned down a ship at night only to be hunted down by a japanese destroyer and somehow I sped up time too much and either a) had a collision or b) was destroyed by the destroyer. So much more fun than SH3 and I just can't place my finger on why, though I have always preferred american subs for a whole lot of reasons, like much better gear for instance.

[jerm138]

I just bought silent hunter IV and then the u-boat missions and the first thing I noticed was that certain ships were black, without texture. Specifically the colorado battleships that populate pearl harbor when you take off on your first mission. Odd. It seems something is wrong with the low res textures on the steam edition. Certain units are missing textures. Switching to the better texture set seems to fix this. Then I notice upon installing the u-boat missions that crew members on the bridge do not have eyes. Well it seems that a few mods fix this, and it seems that a lot of people have had this issue. (Shame on you ubisoft!) Speaking of which, what's with the texture with a picture of subsim.com printed across the side of a painted sub? Is this site owned by ubisoft or something or was that just merely a nod? I forget the file name, but it is there in the texture cache. Anyways, to make a long story short the maru mod fixes the eyes, but then upon launching the game again, steam went through its "updating game" and seemed to break and revert back to 1.3, without the u-boat missions. At this point I'm ready to break down and just download the isos. I mean, I bought the damned game. I redownloaded the whole 6-7 gig deal while I slept last night to awake and fire it up this morning to find that only 1.3 was installed again with no u-boat missions. I tried to fire the u-boat missions from steam and it updated itself again (argh) and it loads (with the correct title screen) to about the 80% and dies. Grrr. Trying to launch SH4 from steam again then results in "this game is not available." Wow. Now I have to redownload the whole thing. For the third time. Next time I am going to just back up the default stock installation. Is anyone successfully running mods with steam? And why the hell is the version of SH4 on steam only 1.3? Nice of ubisoft to make 1.5. Also I noticed you cannot seam to jailbreak the app by copying it to another directory, so it seems irrevocably tied to steam. Really not liking certain aspects of this. ISO seems the way to go, and considering the glaring bugs even on a final 1.5 patched version, I'm kind of disappointed. I did get to run one patrol and had a lot of fun (on version 1.3). I was ordered to go right up to the coastline of japan. After gunning a down a few ships I was systematically hunted by airplanes. I then pulled up into the Strait of Tokyo and gunned down a ship at night only to be hunted down by a japanese destroyer and somehow I sped up time too much and either a) had a collision or b) was destroyed by the destroyer. So much more fun than SH3 and I just can't place my finger on why, though I have always preferred american subs for a whole lot of reasons, like much better gear for instance.

I purchased mine on Steam and fortunately haven't had any problems like you're talking about. Minor issues here and there, but no gamebreakers.

You may want to uninstall it and start from scratch:

Start with a clean install, DON'T run the game yet, reboot, then defrag, then install U-Boat missions (v1.5), then reboot, then defrag, then add Mods. That is the order I followed. Not sure if it's overkill, but it worked.

Are you using the correct version of TMO (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1457) along with the most recent patch (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1466)?

Which video card are you using? Have you updated to the latest drivers?

Also, upon installing I recommend going into the game options in Steam and setting it to NOT update automatically, since that seems to be what caused one of your problems.

Hope this helps. I know how frustrating it can be to deal with stuff like this.

[zosX]

I reinstalled 3 times. On the third time I made sure that SH4 was installed by itself and then I added the U-boat missions. Next I applied Trigger Maru and the hotfixes for 1.9. No issues so far and thanks to the TMO crew for making a much better game. (On par with GWX? maybe....) On my first mission I was to go out to Hiroshima and take pictures of the harbor. Most of the water is really shallow near mainland japan. It was not easy. I sneaked in at night, sunk a carrier and crawled away from the destroyers to harbor and took some pictures. After some tense moments I escaped and made it all the way back to midway and ran out of fuel. I also forgot to save my game in all the excitement. :(

Oh well, I think I know what I'm going to be doing next. Also does the water do funny things on nvidia cards? Like skip a frame every once in a while with it being really noticeable on time compression? Also why is it that the all stop issued at the end of a course or when you resume a save game causes damage to your ship? I randomly seem to end up with damage whenever I resume a save.... Finally it seems that the steam version looks to me like a stock 1.3 dvd or something. That being said, there is no way to patch it outside of upgrading to the u-boat expansion. Also you cannot run the executable outside of steam (from what I can tell...launching sh4.exe also invokes steam...need to test this.....) I don't know if stock sh4 came this way, but if you click off the high res textures option, you'll find that a lot of 512x512 textures are missing for various objects like the colorado battleship. Sorry about all of that. Just thought I'd reply that yes, it all does work pretty well.

Oh and thanks! Didn't know that option existed in steam and that was precisely what I was looking for!

[jerm138]

Glad it worked for you. Couple things:

does the water do funny things on nvidia cards? Like skip a frame every once in a while with it being really noticeable on time compression?I use an ATI card and I have noticed a few funny things with the water. I occasionally get the skipped frame like you mentioned. It kills the immersion a little, but it's something I can live with. I don't expect anything to look good while using time compression since I'm almost always looking at the map when I do that.

Another funny thing I've noticed with the water is that when I pan left or right, regardless of if I'm looking through the scope, uzo, binoculars... whatever... the wave animation "speeds up" making it look like jiggly jell-o. Again, I can live with it, but haven't found a fix.

why is it that the all stop issued at the end of a courseIf you plot a course, you're giving your crew an order to follow it. When you get to the end, they assume you wanted to stop there.

when you resume a save game causes damage to your ship? I randomly seem to end up with damage whenever I resume a saveI've occasionally had a weird anomaly where my crew yells out "taking damage!" when I load a game. I've noticed it happens if I save a game while I'm damaged, but don't seem to incur any extra damage when this happens.

Finally it seems that the steam version looks to me like a stock 1.3 dvd or something. That being said, there is no way to patch it outside of upgrading to the u-boat expansionThat's right. Not sure if it's a clever marketing scheme, or just lazy people working at Steam. Either way, it was worth the extra $5 to upgrade.

you cannot run the executable outside of steam (from what I can tell...launching sh4.exe also invokes steam...need to test this.....)I didn't know you could run ANY game outside of Steam if you purchased it on Steam. People complain about it taking up too much resources, but I don't have a problem with it.

I don't know if stock sh4 came this way, but if you click off the high res textures option, you'll find that a lot of 512x512 textures are missing for various objects like the colorado battleship.I've never used the low res textures. Can't help you there.

[Zosxavius]

Anyone have luck with the following mod stack and a steam install?

TMO 1.9
TMO Patch 25012010
RSRD TMO v502
RSRD Vxxx Patch 1

Installed in that order?

Going to the museum results in a CTD with most of the ships being black. I've played through 5 patrols before I realized I had problems, and then I went and loaded up the museum and noticed most of the american ships were missing textures and then bam CTD. First of all the steam version is missing low res textures for a lot of the ships, though the high res ones are all there. Don't know if the DVD install is the same, but I suspect that the steam version might be missing some files. The strange part is that if I uninstall all mods the museum works with nary a CTD. Then if I install TMO it still works fine, so I know its not TMO causing the problem. I then uninstalled TMO and checked with steam and had it validate the install. It said that 400+ files were invalid and redownloaded those. I figured that the install might be ok, so I tried again with the same results. I'm asking here, because I'm sure some people are running steam with this modstack. If that is the case, go to the museum and tell me if all the ships have textures. In the meantime I'll reinstall SH4 (AGAIN!) and see if I can duplicate the results from a stock steam install. And yes, I am using the TMO RSRD.

[Zosxavius]

Same issue with a clean reinstall. Grrr. Since I've read in about a dozen posts that the stack works with stock I have to assume something is wrong with the steam install out of the box. The case of missing textures is somewhat conspicuous. Its too bad. With stock TMO I ran into a bunch of planes but never saw ships on a few missions. That's why I started with RSRD, all in the name of increased realism as well. Seeing task forces and convoys come and go was pretty exciting all of a sudden, especially since they were historically there (for the most part). I think the last update on RSRD was for TMO 1.7. Running the two together without patches results in the same issues, so it seems to be the two cores. Can anyone else confirm this? I don't know why I seem to be the only one that has issues, or perhaps I am the first to try running Steam+TMO+RSRD.....

Thanks for any input..

[Zosxavius]

Also I would post this on the RSRD thread....but it appears to be blank. Looks like subsim has some database issues....

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=123467

[charles2345d]

I don't know if this issue has been resolved but I'll chime in with my two cents;

when installing through Steam will the silent hunter folder be (by default)
c:\program files\steam\Steamapps\Silent hunter 4....

I gotthe mods installed by using the jsgme and installing it to that directory and unpacking the mods into the ... \mods directory.

Cheers,
Matthias

Thanks I forgot about that just bought SH4 today off steam

and I was like where are the Bleeping installation files