Hello, and Graphics Glitch

[Luno]

As this is my first post here, allow me to first say, "Hello!"

I recently purchased SH3, and so far it is proving to be very fun. I've
completed the first three training missions, but aiming and launching
torpedoes has proven to be quite a challenge! (even with the WO giving me
all the info) You guys make it seem easy. I've had to make myself content with the deck gun so far :D

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could help me out with a slight graphics
bug that I'm having.

http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae325/rboiko1/SH3/7.jpg

http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae325/rboiko1/SH3/6.jpg

http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae325/rboiko1/SH3/3.jpg

As you can see, my computer is trying to render the ship/land reflections, but is not doing it particularly well. Now, I know that my card isn't exactly "supported" but maybe there is a tweak or two I can make to get this to work, or if not, to turn off reflections altogether? To be honest, this seems like such a small glitch that there should be some way to fix it...but I'm no expert.

[frau kaleun]

Welcome aboard!

My first suggestion would be to post your complete system specs, it will help the resident gurus a LOT to know what OS/hardware/etc. you are trying to run the game with. Sometimes an issue can be caused by limited system resources, sometimes it's specific to a particular brand of gfx card (and the available tweaks can be different for ATI, nVidia, etc.) so the answers you get will only be as thorough as the info you provide. :up:

[redsocialist]

Hey man, I'm having the same problem as you and yet to fix it! Hopefully we can get it resolved and welcome aboard!

[Madox58]

Are you useing Stock SH3?
It was a whole World of 'WTF' problems that many Mods fixed.

[Gargamel]

Hey man, I'm having the same problem as you and yet to fix it! Hopefully we can get it resolved and welcome aboard!

Both of you post up a complete list of your specs (especially GFX cards and their processors), perhaps there's a common element that we can narrow down.

[Luno]

Sorry, that was something I should have done:

2 GB RAM
1.73 Ghz Dual core (pentium 4 I think)
Intel 965 Express Chipset. It has at least 128 Mb of memory with a max of 358 Mb depending on whether or not it feels that it needs it. Apparently though, the card doesn't always utilize this resource.

Looking at the graphics control interface, it is Open GL, but I'm sure the card has DX9 as well because I run a some other games in DX mode. I have played games which have transparent, wavy, and reflective water, so I'm not totally sure why it's not working in SH3. Looking through the interface, there appear to be some feature that I can "force" but I'm not quite sure what they can do in regards to this problem:

Triple buffering, buffer bit depth, texture compression, memory footprint (maybe this is the feature that decides when to use more mem?), anisotropic filter.

[Bakkels]

Well first of all welcome :salute:
And to address your issue, to me it seems your graphics card is holding you back.
Your CPU or RAM shouldn't cause you the graphics problems; I've got a five year old AMD 2 Ghz CPU (but not dual core as yours) + 2 Gig Ram like you and my sh3 runs fine.
But a graphics card with less than 512mb might have a pretty hard time running sh3.

HOWEVER I almost immediately started playing with GWX, and I really can't remember what stock sh3 really looked like graphics-wise. (By that I mean, for all I know, your screenshots look just like STOCK sh3 would look, but -as far as I can tell- nobody here plays sh3 without a mod that makes it look better :) )
GWX makes the game look a lot better without putting too much strain on your computer, so the first thing I would recommend is: install GWX!! Seriously, you miss out on a lot when you just run sh3 stock. These guys made the game so much better UBI should have offered them full time jobs. (And it's not just graphics, it's a complete overhaul of game mechanics, units, realism; you name it, it's there) + there are other super-mods too, like NYGM or the upcoming HAHD-mod. Check out http://www.u-boot-hahd.com/ubootwebsite/ I'm not even spamming, I got nothing to do with it, but those guys are really in the process of creating a jewel.
To sum it up, the weird thing is; you'll probably never are going to run into a game that you can adapt to your own taste like SH3. Now I only mentioned the huge mods, but there are dozens, if not hundreds of more little mods that really enhance the game. Just search the forum or the downloads section.

btw, if you can tweak your graphics card settings as you said, anti-aliasing might be worth a try to make it look more smooth; but it can also mean your FPS will plummet below freezing point :D Just a trial end error kinda thing.

[Luno]

Hi Bakkels,

I only got the game yesterday, and I'm still learning the ropes. Even stock, SH3 looks great, and I have no problems with the way it looks. I'll think about mods once I learn how to sink ships with a torp! :)

My card can't run AA but I don't feel like I need it that badly (my other laptop back home has much better specs, but I am 400 miles away from it 90% of the time).

My graphics card isn't top of the line, but it's just fine for games like IL-2, or even Track-Mania. It seems like it can handle what SH3 has to offer, but the paths of some electrons seems to be messing up the rendering of reflections. ;)

BTW - that HAHD mod looks great! I wonder if the engine is even capable of handling those kinds of features...surely they know what they're doing.

Hi RedSocialist,

I watched a couple episodes of your Let's Play - very helpful!

[Bakkels]

Well to be honest, I don't see the glitch you're referring to then.. I think that's just what sh3 stock looks like. Remember, it's a game that mainly takes place out in the open oceans, so the land isn't really that detailed, or the water rolling in on shore for that matter.

And don't worry about the torpedo aiming / launching; just look at the date I rolled into this forum :03: You'll get the hang of it soon enough.
Happy hunting :salute:

[Luno]

Well to be honest, I don't see the glitch you're referring to then.. I think that's just what sh3 stock looks like.The problem is that the "reflection" of the land or ship appears to be in the wrong place or is stretched badly. In the first shot, the reflection of my sub runs perpendicular to the actual sub object. In the second, the earth reflection juts out perpendicular from the beach. In the last, the conning tower is visible but detached and squished.

It's not a deal-breaker by far, but I would like to sort this out if possible.

EDIT: compare to this example with the reflection present.

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/633/sh3img1292005204609686ss.jpg

[Bakkels]

Ah now I see your problem, I just thought you weren't happy with the overall graphics quality.
But yeah these reflections are just plain weird. I have never seen bugs like this before, and I doubt it has anything to do with your computer's performance. I'm no expert but it might help to update your graphics drivers. And downloading the latest directx never hurts.
By the way, I wouldn't call it a small glitch, these reflections would really annoy me after a while. I hope you'll sort them out!

[Luno]

Short update: I've installed the latest drivers that I could find on Intel's site. Unfortunately, the problem persists.

[Luno]

I've gathered that this is a very common problem among those that have Intel cards.

I got myself a program called Silent 3ditor which allows me to view and edit DAT and other file types (it's apparently what the modders use). According to a poster at the Ubi forum, by using this tool I can at least turn off reflections, and maybe even fix them.


The problem is, I don't quite know what I'm looking at, and I have little programming experience. I don't know what the fields and values represent or what they do. :hmmm:

So, in other words: help! :D

(It also looks like it can't open every file in the game folder, so maybe I won't have as much control as I thought...)

As a side note: My computer screen (1280x800) is not in the native resolution of the game. I tried the res fix available in the downloads section, but to no avail - my dials are still oval, and my sailors are fat. Are there any other tweaks I should know about to get it working?