My SH3 crashes

[tyler4402]

Hi all, I need advice as my SH3 has started to crash on start up, the game loads up and just before it should start it crashes, the info box says app crash.
I had GWX grey wolves running which I did not care for so I uninstalled the game and reloaded the standard SH3 with all the mods I like, I have the Mods folder outside the game on the C:/ drive, and the JSGME in the SH3 folder.
(Now I do think the prob has something to do with the mods, but I am not sure how)
I have run a repair of the program from the DVD several times but that has not solved the prob, after the last repair I loaded some mods into JSGME and after the game had crashed again, I opened JSGME and the mods had all disappeared, has anybody an idea of what causes this crash? regards Robert.

[Pisces]

When you reinstall the game and switch over betweens stock and a supermod (and vice versa) then you need to remove any leftovers of the game folder. And also your SH3 folder in documents. As they simply don't go together between supermods and stock.

If you decided that you wanted to re-use your MODS folder then you have to consider that there are hidden folders containing configuration and backupfiles about your installation. Maybe those are still leftovers of your previous installation. I hope that MODS folders was also cleaned/removed entirely when you reinstalled. You may however copy each individual mod-folder to a safe place. As those will only be read from.

Repairing the game, or any application for that matter doesn't work well (at all I presume) with the way JSGME works. JSGME keeps tabs on what files it overwrites, and keeps backups of them. So if another program (the game installer in this case) overwrites on it's own, and JSGME doesn't get to know this, then you are screwed. So never do this if JSGME comes into play!

So I think you are in for another cleanup, reinstall and mod-enabling dance.

[tyler4402]

Hi Pisces, sorry for the delay in answering, I was waiting for an email alert, anyway thanks for your pointers and help.
I have had similar trouble in the past and its usually my fault as I don't understand how game folders work, when things go to pot I usually zap the lot and start again, thats why I have 70 downloads to my credit, they are all the same few favourite mod downloads.
I note you advise to get rid of every SH3 mods folder after an uninstall, but if you could clarify when I reinstall sh3 should I leave the mods folder in the sh3 folder with JSGME, or put it in another place on my C drive?
When I enable mods with JSGME I am usually only able to enable about 5 mods as when I try to enable others I always get a message saying that the mod has been over written by another mod, usually ther first one. Regards Robert

[Pisces]

...
I note you advise to get rid of every SH3 mods folder after an uninstall, but if you could clarify when I reinstall sh3 should I leave the mods folder in the sh3 folder with JSGME, or put it in another place on my C drive?Yes, it's a bit confusing if one writes the word mods two or three times in the same sentence. Please note the difference of MODS (the folder that JSGME creates), and the mod-folders that contain the files and folder making up the mod.

There's the big MODS folder that JSGME makes in the SH3 game-folder. In it are the individual folders for each mod. These later ones can be temporarily relocated elsewhere on your harddrive (just cut and paste). But since the MODS folder has hidden files and folder that should not end up in your new install, I would remove the now seemingly 'empty' MODS folder entirely. Once the game has been reinstalled, and JSGME made the new MODS folder, then you move the individual mod-folders back in the newly created MODS folder.

I hope that is still clear english. Probably sounds more like mud than mod. ;)

When I enable mods with JSGME I am usually only able to enable about 5 mods as when I try to enable others I always get a message saying that the mod has been over written by another mod, usually ther first one. Regards RobertThat is normal. JSGME cannot tell if you enable right mods after eachother in the right order. That is your job to figure out by investigating dependencies. It just tells you that the latter mod might undo the changes in the files that the first mod has done. I mean, the entire file gets replaced, so the last mod enabled would need to be compatible to the changes done in the first mod. It would need to include the first mod's changes, or have deliberate different values for all of them (AND what it wants to change for it's own sake). The best you can do is investigate the threads of the mods, or contact it's creators to ask, if those mods can live together. But even the mod-creators cannot know about how every other mod is built.

Usually conflicts in graphic files (like .tga) isn't a big problem. You'll usually just get ugly or missing graphics. But if mods overwrite file-types like .cam .dat .sim .val or the dreaded menu_1024_768.ini file, than you can expect game-crashes when launching it. Either way, you want the mods because of changed gameplay, so you need to make sure they work together nicely.

[tyler4402]

Many thanks for that Pisces the mud is a little clearer now :up: I have uninstalled the game and deleted all the mods folders I could find, even those in the Windows old files, so I will try another clean install and download my favourite mods again.
Can I ask if the GWX mods will work in the standard SH3, anyway I am looking forwards to being at sea again, regards Robert.