GWX Career Crashing

[CaptainPecato]

Hi everybody,

Been lurking these forums for a while now and I have to say this is probably the most helpful community I've ever seen on the Internet or real life.:)

That said, I have an issue I'm hoping you can help me with. I've installed GWX 3 Gold and everything runs fine until I try to load a new career or saved career. The problem is very inconsistent, sometimes it will load the new mission (or saved file) but most of the time it will crash at the end of the mission loading screen. However, I can load single missions just fine, both new and saved files load perfectly.

I've tried to disable all mods through JSGME but it doesn't seem to help. I have made sure that no campaign mods were conflicting as well. For the record I have the steam version of SH3 updated to version 1.4b. I am baffled.

System Specs:
ASUS G75
i7
8GB RAM
GeForce GTX 660M - 2GB

Thanks in advance!

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD! :sunny:

I've never encountered anything like that, so I don't know what the problem could be. There have been other people reporting the same or similar problems, so it's not just you.

Hang tight. Someone with experience in that area will be along soon.

[Wreford-Brown]

Hi CaptainPecato,

My system specs are similar to yours and I'm running a number of mods without any problems. Have you tried applying the 4GB patch to allow your system to fully exploit what it's capable of doing with SH3?

[CaptainPecato]

No, I've not tried the 4GB patch because I'm actually happy with the way the game looks (when the career missions actually work).

There's no harm in trying it though. Do you think it could be part of the problem? But if it is part of the problem, then why the heck does it not consistently crash? The inconsistency is what's driving me crazy. I'm thinking it's some sort of conflict between the mods that's not showing up on JSGME.

The only thing I have not tried is downloading GWX again. Perhaps I got a bad download?

And I forgot to mention that I'm running Win8.

[Wreford-Brown]

I'm also on Win8 and am having no problems. It shouldn't be the sole cause of your issues, but the 4GB patch can't cause any harm and with any luck it'll solve the problem.

Almost forgot to say 'welcome to Subsim'. Always great to greet a new Kaleun.

[Sailor Steve]

No, I've not tried the 4GB patch because I'm actually happy with the way the game looks (when the career missions actually work).
The 4GB patch doesn't change anything about the game. It just allows the game to access 4GB of memory at the same time (normally it only uses 2GB).

But if it is part of the problem, then why the heck does it not consistently crash? The inconsistency is what's driving me crazy. I'm thinking it's some sort of conflict between the mods that's not showing up on JSGME.
It's possible that it's trying to access different amounts of memory at different times. I'm not sure, since I'm still stuck with 32-bit XP, but based on what I've heard that could be the problem. Of course it might be something else entirely, but installing it certainly won't hurt anything.

[CaptainPecato]

Update:

Running the 4GB patch and I got a new career mission to load; everything else is looking okay too.

I'm going to try it again later and see if the problem comes back. I'm hoping this wasn't just one of the times the game decided to load the mission properly.

I will keep you posted...

[Wreford-Brown]

Before getting my new system I thought that I was screwing up some of my mods. I've since discovered that it's probably due to my old system not being up to the task and simply crashing because it wasn't capable of doing what I was asking of it.

New system + 4GB patch = a completely new way of looking at SH3.

Hopefully your problems are solved. If not, we'll keep looking until we find a solution. :up:

[BigWalleye]

I have a midrange system (Alienware M11XR3, i7, 8GB, NVidia 540M). A while ago, I started having similar CTD problems. This thread chronicles my journey to a solution. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=205755 I hope you have solved your problem and can enjoy GWX uninterrupted, but, if not, maybe some of the things I learned about might help you. (Or someone else!)

Good luck and good hunting!

[Jimbuna]

If the symptoms return post a list of what mods you have currently activated.

[CaptainPecato]

Update #2:

With the 4GB patch it seems I can load a new career just fine. I was also able to load a save file from the career one out of two tries (first try was a CTD). Also, as I was steaming through the English Channel the game CTD. Crashing while in the game has never happened before, although I was able to put more time in this session than in previous attempts.

I'm running GWX 3 Gold with the following mods enabled:
GWX - 16km Atmosphere
GWX - Enhanced Damage Effects
GWX - Merged Campaign
GWX - VIIC41 Player Sub

[Wreford-Brown]

Try disabling the merged campaign. This mod adds traffic to the rest of the world but unless you're in the Far East there are little benefits and it puts extra stress on your computer. What year are you playing in-game?

There are two possible reasons for a CTD in the Channel I can think of:
Normandy landings
Hitting a mine


Normandy landings overfaces most computers and hitting a mine can lead to CTD rather than the 'you're dead' screen.

[Jimbuna]

Update #2:

With the 4GB patch it seems I can load a new career just fine. I was also able to load a save file from the career one out of two tries (first try was a CTD). Also, as I was steaming through the English Channel the game CTD. Crashing while in the game has never happened before, although I was able to put more time in this session than in previous attempts.

I'm running GWX 3 Gold with the following mods enabled:
GWX - 16km Atmosphere
GWX - Enhanced Damage Effects
GWX - Merged Campaign
GWX - VIIC41 Player Sub

Start a new career with everything disabled and if it works, add one mod at a time until the fault reappears....you can then focus on the actual causation factor then.

As WB has stated, you don't need the merged campaign enabled if your in the Atlantic, only if your in the Black Sea or Indian Ocean.

[CaptainPecato]

Well....

I disabled all the mods and I can't load a new career. New single missions still load up fine with all the mods disabled.

The date of the last career patrol was August 1, 1939. I had contact with a destroyer in very stormy weather just north of Calais. Curiously though, he was an English destroyer but didn't pursue me even though we were only about 3-4 kilometers from each other (I was on the surface trying to take advantage of the weather). I dove immediately (not a crash dive) went silent and he continued north apparently without giving me much thought. The destroyer was the only non-friendly contact I had in the game.

As I continued, I was basically in the center of the channel and southeast of Hastings when the game crashed.

[Jimbuna]

Then all I can suggest is uninstall, delete the SH3 folder in MyDocs, perform a registry clean and reinstall but run the game first without any mods enabled.

[CaptainPecato]

Thank you all for your help in this. I'm starting to have withdrawals now, so I'll uninstall and run vanilla until I have some more time to really take a look at this and thoroughly log what is happening.

You all are great though, and I really appreciate your help!

[CaptainPecato]

Been a while since I checked in as I was messing around with my system trying to get GWX to work.

I've been able to get a more consistent loads in career by applying the 4GB patch and using swervn69's method of disabling "read-only" attributes for SH3 folders (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166283).

For those of you wanting a quicker look, this is what I used from the post:

a) In Windows Explorer, I opened the C:\GAMES folder
b) I right-clicked on the SH3 game folder and selected "Properties"
c) On the General tab, in the Attributes section, I unchecked the "Read-only" box
d) I clicked on the Advanced button, and I unchecked the Archiving option, and I unchecked the "Index this folder" option
e) I clicked OK / Apply and selected "Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files"
f) I opened the "My Documents" folder and right-clicked/Properties on the SH3 folder there and repeated Steps c, d, and e again
g) I launched JSGME (v2.2.0.120) and I removed the following Mods: "LifeBoats&Debris_v4", "Torpedo damage Final", and "GWX - Enhanced Damage Effects"
h) I launched SH3 again, and my "bad" Save Games loaded successfully!
i) I ran JSGME again and added those Mods back again
j) My "bad" SH3 Save Games still loaded successfully
k) I saved and loaded new Save Games, underwater, in the middle of that heated battle successfully!

I've disabled mods through JSGME but will test those later because it was crashing regularly with anything enabled. So here's the weird thing. It will load only after my computer has been on for a while and I've cruised around online or checked email for a few minutes. I'm not a genius and don't think this has anything really to do with it, but it really seems to help. If I try to fire up SH3 first thing after waking my computer up, it will crash every time; but a few minutes later and my saved career files load fine.

This feels more like superstitious motions to run through than science (like a batter going through ritualistic motions at the plate), but with a little bit of patience I am able to play this great mod.

Oh, and I realized I have to disable read-only every time I start my computer up. I didn't know that initially. Is that true for everybody?

This is for posterity's sake as I'm hoping it will help somebody in the future who may have a similar problem.

Thanks again for your help!

[sublynx]

Oh, and I realized I have to disable read-only every time I start my computer up. I didn't know that initially. Is that true for everybody?

I've been lucky and after the changing attributes thing I haven't had any problems that haven't been caused by me trying to install mods midpatrol or something else as silly.

[CTU_Clay]

Been a while since I checked in as I was messing around with my system trying to get GWX to work.

I've been able to get a more consistent loads in career by applying the 4GB patch and using swervn69's method of disabling "read-only" attributes for SH3 folders (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166283).

For those of you wanting a quicker look, this is what I used from the post:

a) In Windows Explorer, I opened the C:\GAMES folder
b) I right-clicked on the SH3 game folder and selected "Properties"
c) On the General tab, in the Attributes section, I unchecked the "Read-only" box
d) I clicked on the Advanced button, and I unchecked the Archiving option, and I unchecked the "Index this folder" option
e) I clicked OK / Apply and selected "Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files"
f) I opened the "My Documents" folder and right-clicked/Properties on the SH3 folder there and repeated Steps c, d, and e again
g) I launched JSGME (v2.2.0.120) and I removed the following Mods: "LifeBoats&Debris_v4", "Torpedo damage Final", and "GWX - Enhanced Damage Effects"
h) I launched SH3 again, and my "bad" Save Games loaded successfully!
i) I ran JSGME again and added those Mods back again
j) My "bad" SH3 Save Games still loaded successfully
k) I saved and loaded new Save Games, underwater, in the middle of that heated battle successfully!

I've disabled mods through JSGME but will test those later because it was crashing regularly with anything enabled. So here's the weird thing. It will load only after my computer has been on for a while and I've cruised around online or checked email for a few minutes. I'm not a genius and don't think this has anything really to do with it, but it really seems to help. If I try to fire up SH3 first thing after waking my computer up, it will crash every time; but a few minutes later and my saved career files load fine.

This feels more like superstitious motions to run through than science (like a batter going through ritualistic motions at the plate), but with a little bit of patience I am able to play this great mod.

Oh, and I realized I have to disable read-only every time I start my computer up. I didn't know that initially. Is that true for everybody?

This is for posterity's sake as I'm hoping it will help somebody in the future who may have a similar problem.

Thanks again for your help!

I was experiencing CTD while using the GWX-Enhanced Damage Effects and the "LifeBoats&Debris_v4", & Torpedo Damage Final mods. I took out the Torpedo Damage Final mod, and all has been fine on my little 32 bit Vista system run of the GWX 3.0 Gold Version.
Clay