Windows XP, Windows 7, Virtual PC, SHIII

[don1reed]

Just curious if anyone has tried the virtual PC 'trick' yet and how is it
working?

[Boats]

if anyone was running SH3 on windows 7 yet? I suppose this virtual pc trick is needed to do so?

[don1reed]

Bought a new CPU with W7...had to immediately upgrade to W7 professional or greater, in order to have Virtual PC capabilities...
Had to determine if CPU was 64/32 bit...
Went to MS site to d/L Wxp mode for Virtual PC...
Had to change BIOS to enable virtualization aspects...

Now frantically googling for "How to"info.

so far, so good...(very tedious)

[Pisces]

I don't think it will work with Virtual PC 2007, since it uses a pretty simple simulated graphicscard. I doubt it will have pixelshader support. (pretty sure it won't) Haven't tried to install SH3 in the virtual PC for windows 7, or the new XPmode since my CPU doesn't support Intel-VT. Simply stated it was never designed to be for games. Just basic desktop or server applications.

Maybe the other commercial sollutions, like VMware or virtualbox, do provide graphics acceleration support. Never tried those.

p.s. Silent Hunter 1 did in a virtualized MSDOS 6.22! ;) Just not the intro movie.

[Panser]

As Pisces said, it's unlikely to work. The emulated graphics card on Virtual PC has pitiful specs something like a 4MB onboard card with little or no support for accelerated 3D. Unfortunately there is no way to increase the emulated graphics, either. I did create a win98 virtual machine that allowed me to play Discworld Noir bug free for the first time in 8 years, so it works in that regard - but I think you'd be out of luck for newer or more intensive 3D games.

VMware should do the trick because, as far as i know, you can specify the level of emulated graphics.

The thing is, is it really necessary if you have a machine running windows 7? I have two computers, both running windows 7 and both can play SH3 with no problems whatsoever. I think the people having issues with SH3 and win7 are just the vocal minority - Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt their issues for a moment, but just because something doesn't work for some people, it doesn't mean that it doesn't work for everyone. If you haven't already tried running SH3 in Win7, I would cross that hurdle before dealing with convoluted workarounds.

[don1reed]

...at least Silent Hunter IV works on W7. (small consolation) :)

[Pisces]

Yeah, the biggest thing is to not install it in program files (goes for pretty much anything that you'll be modding someday), and remember that SH3 was developed with resolutions like 1024x768 in mind. Still need to install sh3 in windows 7 though. I'm procrastinating too much with cleaning up my disks and transfering my user profile.

[Peron]

I installed the Direct2Drive version on Windows 7 and it works fine, vanilla.

[don1reed]

Welcome aboard amigo.

Are you saying that you got SH3 working on W7 with D2D?

[[SJ]nailz]

I have a DVD version, it installed and patched fine. Usual StarForce problems, but I used an easily found no-dvd to fix that. Still the best sub-game I've played, I have sh4, but I'd rather be a German than a Yank!

I've also managed to get it running at 1280x1024, keeping the 4:3 ratio, anything else stretches it to fit my tft panel, or crashes the game.

specs;

core 2 quad 6700
win7 64 bit
4gb ram
nVidia 9800

[CaptainHaplo]

No reason you can't run SH3 on Win 7 natively.

I have the DVD, patched to 1.4, installed GWX3.0 and SH3Commander.

Set your resolution to 1024x768 the first time you run SH3 and it start. Then, exit and edit D3D9.cfg (in your SH3 directory) with notepad. Change the resolution to whatever you normally use. Save and restart SH3. You will now be running at your chosen resolution.

I run at 1920x1080 and have not had any problems.

If you have problems with getting SH3 to run on windows 7 - pm me and I will help out if I can.

[don1reed]

Tnx Captain. Will try agn tomorrow...and let you know.

Cheers,

[ryanglavin]

Tnx Captain. Will try agn tomorrow...and let you know.

Cheers,

Just wondering, whats your signature supposed to be? It looks strangely similar, or I'm just failing as always.

[don1reed]

It's the "Navigational Triangle". :salute:

[Pisces]

Spherical trigonometry/geometry by the looks of it.

[don1reed]

Right you are, Pisces.
P = pole (N)
X = Celestial body, at declination
Z = Zenith, at Latitude

[java`s revenge]

I really dont understand the problems with win7 / sh3 and mods

I have installed win7 ultimate 2 weeks ago and am playing sh3
without errors.

I run sh3 as winxp service pack 2 and don`t have any trouble.

[don1reed]

Howdy, Java.

Is your SH3 one of the originals or is it a newer version that has patch 1.4 built in?

[Buddahaid]

I had to buy the starforce free version to install SH3 on my Windows 7 Home 64bit system, and it works just fine. The OS was not compatible with the DRM software being the only problem.

[java`s revenge]

It is the original dvd from 4 years ago..

[SteveW1]

SH3 will run on Win 7 as long as you have the starforce free version and install the game to a non program files folder eg. C:/Games/SH3

I have been running SH3 on Win 7 since the first Beta release of WIn 7 with no problems by using those 2 steps.

Steve

[CaptainHaplo]

Good Points - but my DVD is the original with starforce - however you can get around that entirely by using the SH3 no-dvd exe that is SANCTIONED by UBI and posted/stickied here on Subsim by Neal.

*No other discussion of cracking games allowed - that was a one time thing with the permission of Ubisoft.

If you follow those directions - you never start SH4 till its patched and the no-dvd files added - meaning it never tries to install Starforce on your pc.

Also - and I did not mention it - but thanks to SteveW1 - do NOT install to program files. Install to a different directory! Windows 7 has some quirks if you do the default location.

[[SJ]nailz]

I wasn't paying much attention whilst installing and I let it install to the default directory and it runs fine from there, it's probably more to do with UAC than the game.

[don1reed]

Shazam! It works! (at least for me) Using the advice and directions above wherein I placed the install into "C:\Games\" followed by the "no cd" procedures.


THANK YOU, Gentlemen.:salute:

[Pisces]

...

Also - and I did not mention it - but thanks to SteveW1 - do NOT install to program files. Install to a different directory! Windows 7 has some quirks if you do the default location.Yes, like [SJ]nailz says below. Those 'quirks' are really a feature from Microsoft. They try to protect your system from undesireable modifications to system files(which "Program Files" is considered also) by virus/worm attacks (and perhaps the thinks-he-knows-what-he-does-user). This is a good security measure in principle (hence I do not advice to turn off UAC, or make your useraccount have administrator abilities forever like it does in XP), but a real annoyance if you deliberately want to change game files due to modding.