My dilemma

[washishu]

I’ve not been here for quite a while. The reason is that I was playing SH3 (GWX3) and SH4 on my MacBook laptop through Bootcamp, with XP installed and it all worked just champion. Then my Mac died and I had to get a new one. Bootcamp on this one doesn’t support XP, so I’ve not played for nearly two years.

Ok, so, last night I saw on the TV an ad. for my local computer store and they’re having a sale; one of the machines they’re advertising as “perfect for laptop gaming”—I recognise that it’s ad-speak but I got to pondering; I could afford that price; I could play SH again. But it’s Windows 8 of course. So I start to look on SubSim and other places for guidance and I’m more confused than ever. Although I’ve been a Mac-user (graphics) for 15 years or more, when it comes to Windows machines I am, I admit, a complete and absolute dummy; really; no kidding about. D-U-M-M-Y, dummy.

So I find people saying both SH3 and 4 work fine in Win.8 and others saying they can’t even get it to install. I find talk of something called starforce (beam me up Scotty) and that early “old box” versions won’t work at all in Win.8 and then that you have to remove starforce but. . . (insert a variety of buts and yes-buts here). And that something or other (I’m not sure what) depends on whether it’s US- or Euro-version (I'm in the UK). Then there’s all that sound card/graphics card compatibility malarkey.

I looked at my CD boxes to see if they are old-box or new-box and guess what? it doesn’t say. There’s a ©2005 on the SH3 box and a UK address and a ©2007-2008 on the SH4 with a US address. I also had Sub Command working fine with Bootcamp, (©2001, UK only), and although that’s not essential, It’s entertaining to venture into the nuclear world occasionally.

So, given that if I buy a new Windows laptop, I would want to use it for very, very little else other than SH, it occurs to me that I could just install the old XP from the CDs I still have. Is that possible on a new machine? I have no idea.

Would the sound/graphics stuff in a new laptop be compatible with the (nearly) ten-year-old CD. I have no idea.

Would it be better to do that or leave 8 as it is and struggle through this compatibility thing? I have no idea.

Or, should I forget the Windows machine, buy a copy of Windows 8 and use Bootcamp again? I have no idea.

And would that work, given that it would be in Win.8 on a Mac, through Bootcamp? I have no idea.

After quite a few hours of rooting around, the only thing I’m not confused about is that I would really, really like to play SH again.

[Mittelwaechter]

Be a good capitalist consumer and buy this Win8 rig. :)
!! - Make sure it has a dedicated graphics card!

You may want to post a link or the specs of your desired laptop.


We'll/I'll guide you through your installations.

[Laufen zum Ziel]

I am using a HP 2000 laptop with Windows 8.1. I have a 2005 SHIII disk without starforce. SHIII/GWX loaded into my HP 2000 without problems and runs great.

The price for the HP 2000 was around $400.00 US with 4 gig of ram.

[Aktungbby]

washishu!:salute:

[Jimbuna]

Be a good capitalist consumer and buy this Win8 rig. :)
!! - Make sure it has a dedicated graphics card!

You may want to post a link or the specs of your desired laptop.


We'll/I'll guide you through your installations.

Great offer :sunny:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Have SH3 with Win 8.1, no issues after some trial and error and reading some of the threads here :yep:

For example not installing in the Programs Folder, running the compatability option with 8.1 so SH3 would run under the Win XP, Service Pack 3 option.

It is on a new laptop I recently purchased. I7 Processor, 8Gigs of RAM and a 2Gig Video Card. My old computer was close to eight years old so it was time for an upgrade, and I went for a mid-range system.

[washishu]

Ok, I haven’t been ignoring you, I’ve been a bit preoccupied recently, but thanks for the comments.

There are two machines on offer, both made by Acer. Here’s the spec from the website.

1. Acer Aspire E5-511 15.6”. Intel Pentium quad-care processor N3530 (2.16 GHz, 2.58 GHz with Burst, 2 MB cache). Windows 8.1. 8GB DDR3 RAM. 1TB HD. Can’t find anything about graphics or sound cards in the spec. Which, Mittlwaechter, is what I guess you are getting at re dedicated graphics card (and many thanks for the offer of help).

And for a bit more money—

2. Acer E5-551 15.6”. Processor; AMD A10-7300 (2.0 GHz, 3.2 GHz with Boost, 4MB cache). 8 GB DDR 3 RAM. AMD Radeon R6 graphics card. 1TB HD.

Given that I’ll be using this machine for little else than SH, I don’t want to throw more money at this than I have to, if the first will do the job.

Blitzkrieg; when you say you went through the same dilemma, do you mean the Mac-Bootcamp thing or are you referring to Win 8 on pc?

Once again, thanks for the guidance folks.

[Mittelwaechter]

Both have onboard graphics, but both should run SH3 - more or less laggy with harbour or convoy cpu/graphics load.
However - your No.2 will have a better performance.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Pentium-N3530-Notebook-Processor.112091.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Kaveri-A10-7300-Notebook-Processor.117333.0.html

Do you have access to them? Tell your story and ask for a SH3 demo ( :) ) - or something actual 3D.

Displays are 1366x768 (-)(but ok for SH3), and anti-glare (+).
Keyboards are full size - including NumPad (+)
8GB DDR3 RAM (+) (not sure if your spec is true for 511!?)
1TB HDs (well - not necessary in your case) (+)
Peripheral equipment ~ average but ok

No.1 ~ £350.00
No.2 ~ £380.00

Not sure if they will run XP if necessary - as MS has no interest in supporting drivers for new hardware. But SH3 should work with Win 8.x anyway.

[Mittelwaechter]

Btw - does it have to be a laptop? If only for SH3?

For the money you should get better eqipment - cpu and graphics - combined with a smaller HD in a dektop computer.
Or you may save money and lag around like Acer 511...

Oh - reading your first post again - you may use Bootcamp with Win 7 or 8.x and save even more money.

Or even cheaper - have you ever tried Wine (https://www.winehq.org/)?

[washishu]

Don't think I'm being rude and ignoring the very useful responses and info here; I've been preoccupied again; other things just intervened.

However, I hesitated until I missed the sale offer, but on reflection I'm not too disappointed about that. Thanks to you especially Mittelwaechter for your profuse advice. The spec you question was taken from the website, I wouldn't know if it's right or wrong; either is a possibility. I did think about but discarded the idea of a tower system simply because it would be only for SH and I don't want a lot of kit I'm not going to use very frequently.

Yes, I can get a Win8 cd for less than a third of the cost of the laptops, and the XP set-up on my old MacBook worked without any noticeable problems so I am now wavering towards the Bootcamp solution. The reason I didn't just do that in the beginning is in my first post, but the comments here have gone a long way towards dispelling that uncertainty.

I looked at the Wine thing and given that Bootcamp is free (it's included in the Mac OS), I don't see the advantage, although the first pargraph of the About Wine info may as well be in sanskrit as far as my understanding goes, so I recognise that I may well be missing something.

As it's now that time of year again it will probably be January before I devote any more serious attention to this. Thanks again everyone.

[U-15]

Hello Washishu,

Whatever rig you end with, I do urge you from personal experience to focus on RAM and graphics, if it is just for SH3.

I upgraded a tower system to 8gb RAM and AMD Radeon HD 6570 for just under £80 2 years ago and there was a very noticeable improvement in gameplay.
50 pfs at least in harbour.
No more stuttering as you pan round a crowded harbour.

Well worth the spend, I thought and all that for just the cost of 20 4 packs

[Foggy]

For what it's worth, I have a Win 7 pc and an old copy of Silent Hunter III that I think doesn't have Starforce, and I could install it but not get it to run.

I ended up buying the game again off of Steam ($9.99 I think?) which doesn't have Starforce and it doesn't run right off the bat in Win 7 because of the graphics error notification, but the simple screen resolution fix makes it work just fine. :)

[washishu]

OK. So, I bought the Windows 8.1 cd; I went through the whole partitioning process; I installed Windows; I installed SHIII; and . . . . . it launches and seems to be ok except that (I've not actually played, just fumbled around in the tutorials, because. . . ) I have no sound. Remember that I’m a bit of a dummy with Windows system but I’ve tried the obvious and the sound is not muted on the Mac, I've checked the volume level in Windows and I've twiddled the dials in SHIII. Nothing; not the faintest glimmer of sound. In fact there is no sound from Windows at all. I’ve fumbled around in the control panel and device manager and the “sound theme” is default but there are no clicks or other sounds except from the mouse button itself; device manager (audio in/out) says the speakers are working properly and the drivers are up to date; and the HD audio device is also working properly and drivers are up to date, but there is no sound at all when using the speaker configuration test.

Restart in MacOS and everything is fine which suggests that it is something in Windows, though I know not what. As I’ll use Windows only for SHIII I switched almost everything off on the install and I wonder if I’ve switched off something important. I’ve scoured the control panels and the device manager and can see nothing obvious.

What do I do next?

[Mittelwaechter]

Rightclick the speaker symbol in your taskbar tray and select "replay devices".
Define the speakers as standard.

http://abload.de/img/wash8wuhu.jpg

If still no joy - run a dx diagnosis.

Hit the START button - type: dxdiag - run the DxDiag.exe, work through the tabs and check for any errors.
Safe the protocol and post the upper part - including your devices here aboard.

[Pisces]

It's a completely different situation on your end. Might even be because I have a mere Acer laptop. But I have noticed on my Win7 Acer Aspire 8930 some programs output the sound via the earplug/speaker output, but not through the built in speakers. I've noticed some games doing this (can't remember the names, but it wasn't SH3), and Skype for instance. So if you are missing the sound, make sure to check the other kind of outputs. It might still be there. I still don't know how to solve this on my pc, so I just go with the flow.

[washishu]

Remember in my first post I said I was a bit of a dummy with Windows? Well, yesterday I spent close to 9 hours installing and uninstalling, partitioning and un-partitioning, searching Apple Support, trawling through the Apple Bootcamp forum and somehow, though I'm not at all sure how, I've now got sound.

I downloaded the 1.4 patch and on trying to install it, got a message that it can't be installed because the engine is of an unknown type.

I shall try playing the game as is and see what happens.

Thanks for the advice and help folks.

[Mittelwaechter]

Your game may be patched.

Check the game's main screen right downward corner. If it reads 1.4 you are up to date.

Or locate the SH3.exe in your installation directory. Rightclick it and select 'properties'. On the details tab you'll find the data version - if it reads 1.4.0.1 you have a patched version.

Enjoy the game.

[washishu]

You're right; it is 1.4. I've had a bit of a single mission play and it seems to be ok, except that it's two years since I played and I now have to re-learn everything; I've forgotten what keys do what (and because it's a laptop, and a Mac, many are not as in the help so it's trial and error). But I managed to sink something on manual targeting already although not what I was aiming at.

Thanks for your help in getting up and going again.

[shalshaska]

Pleased to hear that you have sorted it out, washisu.

As a fellow (former) Boot Camp user with Windows 7 may I recommend several apps which will help you to have a better Windows experience closer to OS X:
1. DriverMax
It automatically scans, downloads, and installs necessary and outdated drivers for Windows. The free version limit us to two drivers per day.
2. WizMouse
The same function as in OS X to freely scroll up/down any background/currently unselected windows. Especially useful when having several windows or apps at the same time.
3. Trackpad++
Allow us to use and customize one, two, three, or four fingers gesture. Mind you it is a hit and miss for the three and four fingers gesture. Imperpect in my experience, but you might want to try it first.

Hope you find them useful particularly when modding the SH3 files.

Cheers! :up: