A Noobs Observations/questions.

[Shredd27]

First off since this is my first post,.. Hello subsim community. Secondly, I applaud the efforts you guys have put into SH4 in particular in order to make it a more playable/enjoyable/realistic experience. All this is really cool to see! :yeah:

Before I get to my question a little background. I'm not really new to the SH series. A long long time ago I bought the original MS-dos SH and thoroughly LOVED it. I didn't follow the series closely after that as I'm not very interested in the Atlantic side of things. So I didn't get any other titles till I saw SH4 which I jumped on IMMEDIATELY! This was sometime during early 2008. Some of it felt like and reminded me of the original BUT it was so buggy and quirky that I quickly lost interest. Last week I was going thru some of my old titles and ran across SH4 again so I thought I'd give it another try. Well this time has been a bit different since I've figured a few things out on how to get mods into my 1.4 version. This is a credit to all the work/love you guys have put into making SH4 as good as it can be. So once again, Thank You!

Now, my big thing is realistic environments and I've got a couple of mods that address some things in this regard (that look great for what they do btw),. BUT,. I've yet to see a (literally) HUGE environmental issue addressed. (forgive me if I just haven't found it yet) Has anyone else noticed the gargantuan size of the prehistoric palm trees that line the channel in/out of Pearl Harbor? Or is it just that those buildings/towns are scale models to throw off the enemy somehow? Or,. (here's the important one) does anyone care? :06:

My hope is that now that I've pointed it out, it'll bother enough other people so that someone will do something about it. :wah: I know that there are many more important aspects that deserve priority, but this is one of those issues that speaks to polish/realism and I want SH4 to be as realistic as possible. Reply's requested. Anyone else? :ping:

[Armistead]

Have no clue what mods you're using, most of us use one of the env mods and all supermods have an env. mod included. You mentioned a few mods, so not sure what you're doing. As far as trees, the texture isn't as bad as they look, I think more to do with an old game engine, plus your video card and settings can have great effect, but most of us aren't bothered by them. They're few rock and sand mods that help the look of land.

These trees aren't close up, but not too bad, few of us get close to them anyway out in the ocean.

http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu235/Armistead1424/SH4Img2012-07-24_020739_718.jpg

[Shredd27]

That is by far the best looking water I've seen. I'm sure you probably have 1.5 though. For the moment I'm stuck with 1.4 and here I'm going to post a screen pic I just took a little while ago using the last TMO mod available for 1.4. It's cool being able to move about the ship kind of like the free camera but,. I didn't hear any diesel engines running and the textures are nowhere near as good as yours. As far as hardware goes,. I've got a geForce 8400 GS video card w/512mb ram. System has 8gb ram but only sees 4 of it since I'm still running 32bit Win/XP Pro.

So tell me,. since when are palm trees WAY taller than 3-4 story buildings OR tower cranes?
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/5383/sh4img20120803.jpg

[Sailor Steve]

I had thought someone did a smaller trees mod for SH4, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. I'll keep looking.

[Webster]

I had thought someone did a smaller trees mod for SH4, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. I'll keep looking.

i think that was sober

[Shredd27]

Thank you very much Sailor Steve! I've continued looking as well. :ping:

[Sailor Steve]

i think that was sober
Sober has put up a lot of his mods here at Subsim. 'Better Trees For SH5' was there, but nothing for SH4. I'm hoping someone out there has a copy.

[Shredd27]

Thanks again guys but I gotta tell ya,.. now that I've got my install fairly sorted out with TMO, REM, NMMO and Websters sound picks, I'm finding the experience of my first modded patrol to not only be acceptable but also VERY enjoyable. Now it truly feels like the first SH that I enjoyed so much with very updated graphics. AWESOME! Now the only other annoyance I have is the inconsistancy of the sounds. Half of time when I'm running on the surface it still sounds like I'm running on electric motors. But then the other half of the time when I do hear the diesels, they're so loud I almost wish I didn't hear them. My hope for that issue is a sound card upgrade as I'm only using the on board sound atm. :hmmm:

[Hylander_1314]

While in the game hit the ESC key, and go to options where you can adjust the sound to your liking for a few things.

[BigWalleye]

Thanks again guys but I gotta tell ya,.. now that I've got my install fairly sorted out with TMO, REM, NMMO and Websters sound picks, I'm finding the experience of my first modded patrol to not only be acceptable but also VERY enjoyable. Now it truly feels like the first SH that I enjoyed so much with very updated graphics. AWESOME! Now the only other annoyance I have is the inconsistancy of the sounds. Half of time when I'm running on the surface it still sounds like I'm running on electric motors. But then the other half of the time when I do hear the diesels, they're so loud I almost wish I didn't hear them. My hope for that issue is a sound card upgrade as I'm only using the on board sound atm. :hmmm:

Welcome, Shred27. Not sure, but didn't the fleet boats all hook the diesels through the generators to the motors, like a diesel locomotive does? So the motors would always be turning. Then what you heard might be a matter of where in the boat you were standing or even where you were facing, not to mention how many diesels you had on line, whether you were charging, etc, etc. But if you can hear the diesel thrum when submerged, that'd cause me problems!

[Shredd27]

Hylander,.. I suppose that I could adjust the volumes of some things that way. But I tried changing the number of sound channels to try and make the sounds more consistant but it didn't work.

Bigwalleye,. The generators weren't always engaged while running diesels on the surface. If the batterys were fully charged or if more speed was desired even if they weren't they would be disengaged. Also, I'd move the free camera to every angle around the stern of the ship to try and hear the engines but would still hear nothing a lot of times.

Unfortunately I'm back to square one anyways. When I initially got my most recent install patched and modded up I had no issues other than the sound one I listed here and that was experienced during the first career patrol I began. I saved the game on that patrol and exited the game without incident. When I got home last night and tried to start SH4, it did nothing but immediately crash to desktop time after time. Now I fear that I need to completely reinstall everything again. :wah:

[Shredd27]

Today I got a new sound card and once I installed it SH4 fired right up! :rock: Even better is the fact that it would seem that my issue with sounds is cleared up! The diesels fire up when they're supposed to and most of the voices and atmospheric sounds add much to the immersion factor. I'm a happy skipper tonight!

[Sailor Steve]

Good news! I went through something similar a few years ago. I wasn't sure what the problem was, and someone suggested it was the onboard sound chip. Sure enough, even a cheap sound card can make a big difference. Glad you have it working. :sunny:

[Shredd27]

Thanks Sailor Steve, I'm happy to be out there contributing (however modestly) to the continuing war effort! :arrgh!: