SH 4 game crash

[Captain Smart]

Hi all. Not sure where I should post this (sorry admin if it is in the wrong place) but have been playing SH from the very beginning and often see the thread about the game crashing.

Have worked through most of the suggestion in the forums and the thing that finally worked for me to apparently solve the issue was a mixture of the following.

1, Delete as many saved games as you can (including quick missions).

2, Avoid saving on the run up to an encounter and never save when in mid conflict/battle.

3, When you "periodically" save, give the new save a new name and then delete the last named save (making sure you really want to save your current status).

I have actually been able to replicate a game crash by creating lots of saves and overwriting a previous save therefore 1, 2 and 3 above does seem to help or (at least for me) solve the problem.

Of course, the game may crash due to hardware issues with your PC which as we all know can be helped by setting lower graphics etc but hope this helps someone to stop pulling their hair out.

[Rockin Robbins]

All of that is old wives' tales, having to do with SH3 but not SH4. There are crashes but almost universally these are due to not having run the Large Address Aware program on SH4 or fudgy files in mods.

That leaves a very small percentage of random crashes which have no identifiable cause. Corrupted saves can happen when the save file gets large, just like file corruption happens with any program saving a large data file. You should rename every new save or at least alternate between two names.

But where you save, what is happening when you save, whether or not you are on the surface, within x miles of shore, in contact or not in contact with friend or foe, whether you are facing Mecca or not, that's SH3 malarkey having nothing to do with SH4.

It keeps rearing its ugly head. I keep smashing it down. Superstition has no place when giving "advice."

[jldjs]

Totally agree. RR your reply should be a "must read".
Nuff said!

[Aktungbby]

Captain Smart!:Kaleun_Salute:

[THEBERBSTER]

A Warm Welcome To The Subsim Community > Captain Smart
Subsim <> How To Donate <> See The Benefits <> Support The Community (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=2033119%23post2033119)
Highly Recommended SH4 > Webster’s GFO (Mini Mega Mod) (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1196)

[Rockin Robbins]

Captain Smart: as we work on the 3.8 gigabyte monster soon to be Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate Edition, we are finding out that JSGME becomes unreliable when working with large numbers of files. But JSGME has tools and you should have mechanisms to deal with that.

Your first line of defense is to uninstall SH4 altogether. Reinstall the stock game and then STOP. Don't play it. Now install JSGME, MultiSH4 (if you like multiple versions of SH4 available at the same time), and Large Address Aware. Immediately copy all files in the \Wolves of the Pacific directory to a new directory you'll call \SH4 Pristeen. Then write protect that whole directory right down to the toes, every single file. It's your safe spot. Never play that game!

Now go back to your \Wolves of the Pacific, apply Large Address Aware to the SH4.exe file. Make your desktop shortcut point to sh4.exe NOT gu.exe. As a matter of fact delete gu.exe so it never screws up your game. It was the worst idea Ubi ever had. Now run JSGME.

Don't install any mods. Just make a snapshot of the stock game. From now on, you can unload your mods and then compare what is left to the snapshot. When (not if) you find they are different, you'll delete everything from \Wolves of the Pacific except the \MODS directory.

Then you'll copy everything from your \SH4 Pristeen directory back to \Wolves of the Pacific. Reinstall your mods. Write enable everything in \Wolves of the Pacific and continue as if nothing had happened. No reinstalling necessary!

Possible wrinkles would be to do all the copying and write enabling in a command window, as Windows is terrible at handling these tasks quickly. I can to this procedure in a Linux GUI about five times quicker than I can in Windows and the command window gets close to that.

In any event, it's quicker and less hassle than reinstalling the game. Tracking game corruption caused by giant supermods and JSGME will prevent more crashes than anything else you can do other than Large Address Aware and exterminating the accursed gu.exe.

Did I get all the backslashes correct? If you see slashes instead it's because I primarily use Linux and it's much more sensible than Windows. Bill Gates had to invent a new character, the backslash, never before seen by man, because he had already used the slash. And there is no such thing as a "forward slash." There is a slash (legitimate character) and the backslash (illegitimate child of Bill Gates).:D:D:D

[Jimbuna]

^ Sound advice :yep:

Welcome to SubSim Smart :salute:

[Rockin Robbins]

Interesting sidelight. I believe the copying problem could be Windows instead of JSGME. If you use command window commands your copying will be much quicker and more reliable than if you copy with the Windows GUI. I'd use xcopy and you won't believe how quick it is.

It's a shame that Windows is not an all inclusive GUI and some basic things still are best done by the shriveled and gnarly remains of what used to be DOS.

[BigWalleye]

Bill Gates had to invent a new character, the backslash, never before seen by man, because he had already used the slash. And there is no such thing as a "forward slash." There is a slash (legitimate character) and the backslash (illegitimate child of Bill Gates).:D:D:D

RR, when I first began programming computers, back in 1962, the IBM 7030 had a backslash (called "backslash") as part of its character set. The backslash was needed to support some of the operations of the ALGOL programming language. The symbol was included in the original BCD character set, and has, AFAIK, always been a legal EBCDIC character.

Bob Bemer, a well-known software pioneer and one of the developers of the earliest ASCII symbol set, claimed credit for including the backslash character, as well as the ESC (Escape character) and curly brackets, in the ASCII standard released in November 1961. Check his own words here: http://www.bobbemer.com/BACSLASH.HTM I have no reason to doubt him.

Beyond ALGOL, the backslash has been used in TeX and in Unix v6 and the C language since at least 1973.

In 1961, Bill Gates was 6 years old, and neither MSDOS nor Windows were even a gleam in anyone's eye.

[Rockin Robbins]

RR, when I first began programming computers, back in 1962, the IBM 7030 had a backslash (called "backslash") as part of its character set. The backslash was needed to support some of the operations of the ALGOL programming language. The symbol was included in the original BCD character set, and has, AFAIK, always been a legal EBCDIC character.

Bob Bemer, a well-known software pioneer and one of the developers of the earliest ASCII symbol set, claimed credit for including the backslash character, as well as the ESC (Escape character) and curly brackets, in the ASCII standard released in November 1961. Check his own words here: http://www.bobbemer.com/BACSLASH.HTM I have no reason to doubt him.
Beyond ALGOL, the backslash has been used in TeX and in Unix v6 and the C language since at least 1973.

In 1961, Bill Gates was 6 years old, and neither MSDOS nor Windows were even a gleam in anyone's eye.

Interesting. Then Bill Gates only gets credit for introducing the backslash to PCs and their keyboards. I should have figured he wasn't smart enough to invent such an abomination!:D:D:D

What we those machines' use of the backslash? In Gates' case, he was busy ripping off tghe CPM operating system, which sensibly used slashes for directory separator nomenclature (c:/windows/system32). But Bill had already burned the slash as an operator for commands (attrib *.exe /r), where sensible OSes use the "-" character for that, and so couldn't use it for path notation. The solution was to switch over to that ugly, hideous backslash (booooo! booooo!). It all came from being a very bad copier. Of course, Bill Gates is rich now, and compared to the present management of Microsoft looks like a pristeen white knight so it all came out in the wash.........

You have to admit that Microsoft's redefinition of the "x" in the upper right corner of a window, which normally closes it without input, to an "install malware" button has a touch of dark genius to it. But I choose not to snicker. I switched to Linux and SH4 runs great!

[BigWalleye]

Interesting. Then Bill Gates only gets credit for introducing the backslash to PCs and their keyboards. I should have figured he wasn't smart enough to invent such an abomination!:D:D:D

What we those machines' use of the backslash? In Gates' case, he was busy ripping off tghe CPM operating system, which sensibly used slashes for directory separator nomenclature (c:/windows/system32). But Bill had already burned the slash as an operator for commands (attrib *.exe /r), where sensible OSes use the "-" character for that, and so couldn't use it for path notation. The solution was to switch over to that ugly, hideous backslash (booooo! booooo!). It all came from being a very bad copier. Of course, Bill Gates is rich now, and compared to the present management of Microsoft looks like a pristeen white knight so it all came out in the wash.........

You have to admit that Microsoft's redefinition of the "x" in the upper right corner of a window, which normally closes it without input, to an "install malware" button has a touch of dark genius to it. But I choose not to snicker. I switched to Linux and SH4 runs great!

Tim Paterson, the programmer who created (kludged?) MS-DOS from CP/M, was the one who decided to use the backslash. CP/M used the / as a designator for command-line switches. Paterson, who did the conversion in just 2 months (Design, code, test, release!) didn't want to change that. ("What part of 'kludge' did you miss?") So he used the backslash in filepath specs. There are several good sources that describe the whole development. Unfortunately, the story isn't as interesting as the legend.

[Rockin Robbins]

CP/M used the slash in path names, just like Linux and Internet URLs. Microsoft decided to use the backslash because having used the slash in command line switches, he couldn't use it in path names. It was change for the sake of change and so he had some deniability that he copied CP/M when DOS had to manage hard drives, not just floppies.

He was intimately familiar with CP/M from his marketing of a CP/M expansion card for the Apple ][. That is why development time for MS-DOS was so short. It is a warped adaptation of someone else's work. That is not to say that MS-DOS didn't work well, it did and still does, what's left of it, in the command window of Windows. Wonder how rich Tim Paterson is now? No matter how he did it, he changed the world. And I think we would have to agree that he changed it for the better.

[Captain Smart]

Captain Smart: as we work on the 3.8 gigabyte monster soon to be Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate Edition, we are finding out that JSGME becomes unreliable when working with large numbers of files. But JSGME has tools and you should have mechanisms to deal with that.

Your first line of defense is to uninstall SH4 altogether. Reinstall the stock game and then STOP. Don't play it. Now install JSGME, MultiSH4 (if you like multiple versions of SH4 available at the same time), and Large Address Aware. Immediately copy all files in the \Wolves of the Pacific directory to a new directory you'll call \SH4 Pristeen. Then write protect that whole directory right down to the toes, every single file. It's your safe spot. Never play that game!

Now go back to your \Wolves of the Pacific, apply Large Address Aware to the SH4.exe file. Make your desktop shortcut point to sh4.exe NOT gu.exe. As a matter of fact delete gu.exe so it never screws up your game. It was the worst idea Ubi ever had. Now run JSGME.

Don't install any mods. Just make a snapshot of the stock game. From now on, you can unload your mods and then compare what is left to the snapshot. When (not if) you find they are different, you'll delete everything from \Wolves of the Pacific except the \MODS directory.

Then you'll copy everything from your \SH4 Pristeen directory back to \Wolves of the Pacific. Reinstall your mods. Write enable everything in \Wolves of the Pacific and continue as if nothing had happened. No reinstalling necessary!

Possible wrinkles would be to do all the copying and write enabling in a command window, as Windows is terrible at handling these tasks quickly. I can to this procedure in a Linux GUI about five times quicker than I can in Windows and the command window gets close to that.

In any event, it's quicker and less hassle than reinstalling the game. Tracking game corruption caused by giant supermods and JSGME will prevent more crashes than anything else you can do other than Large Address Aware and exterminating the accursed gu.exe.

Did I get all the backslashes correct? If you see slashes instead it's because I primarily use Linux and it's much more sensible than Windows. Bill Gates had to invent a new character, the backslash, never before seen by man, because he had already used the slash. And there is no such thing as a "forward slash." There is a slash (legitimate character) and the backslash (illegitimate child of Bill Gates).:D:D:D

Hi RR, thanks for all the info which is great advise. Over time I have tried different mods, ideas including your suggestions all of which appeared to improve things however, the suggestion I made in my post appears to have done the trick at least for me anyway. Once again, thank you.

[Rockin Robbins]

Superstition is a difficult thing to reason with. But one triumph of Silent Hunter 4 is that you can save submerged, in battle, in sight of land, with a dozen other save game files, with several contacts on many different sensors, not facing Mecca and with a torpedo halfway to its target and have confidence that your save game is good.

Silent Hunter 3 is the one with the problems requiring a laundry list of conditions before your save might be good. Silent Hunter 4 is rock solid, or at least as solid as Microsoft Excel.

I'm finding superstition a very tough thing to fight in myself when developing a mod. Sometimes you get infrequent effects without obvious cause and the human brain just latches onto a false idea and won't let go. So long as you retain the false idea you have no responsibility to look further. You have a feeling of accomplishment that you know the problem. But the problem remains unsolved until you dump the misconception and demand repeatable evidence that what you believe is true or false.

Many believe that if you dig a hole, whether you have enough dirt to fill the hole or have extra dirt after filling the hole is a function of the phase of the moon. Although that superstition is easily disproven, the believers of that are not dissuaded, and in fact, refuse to examine the evidence. Superstitions are very comforting somehow. Understanding, for reasons that completely escape me, seems to hold no comfort at all for superstitious people.

Cause and effect are connected by mechanism. Superstitions totally ignore mechanism and in fact never demonstrate any connection between supposed cause and supposed effect. Moon phase causes volume of dirt to change. How? Total silence. Sound the bullschnitzel buzzer.

Number of save game files (including quick missions) on a disk causes game crashes. How? The computer is filled with hundreds of thousands of files. None of them are loaded. None of the other save game files are loaded. If your superstition were correct it would require Silent Hunter to be the only software installation on the machine. Oh, Silent Hunter is comprised of thousands of files. It would have to be deleted too. Then your game won't crash.

I must be from Missouri. I demand evidence and repeatable results before I will believe, especially, the obvious. I have plenty of stories to illustrate the foolishness of believing the obvious.

Chasing glitches in Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate has led us to over 200 errors in data files of stock Silent Hunter 4! These errors, in certain circumstances, could contribute to game instability. We are working on a game fix mod which will delete buckets of junk and inject necessary new files to the game. Unfortunately, those errors are so embedded that loading up mods can reintroduce the errors, leaving us with some testing to do. It may also be that fixing the game leaves it incompatible with major supermods without modification to the mods also. But separating superstition from knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. The bottom line here is that assuming the correctness of the stock game has been a mistake for ten years.

[BigWalleye]

CP/M used the slash in path names, just like Linux and Internet URLs. Microsoft decided to use the backslash because having used the slash in command line switches, he couldn't use it in path names. It was change for the sake of change and so he had some deniability that he copied CP/M when DOS had to manage hard drives, not just floppies.

He was intimately familiar with CP/M from his marketing of a CP/M expansion card for the Apple ][. That is why development time for MS-DOS was so short. It is a warped adaptation of someone else's work. That is not to say that MS-DOS didn't work well, it did and still does, what's left of it, in the command window of Windows. Wonder how rich Tim Paterson is now? No matter how he did it, he changed the world. And I think we would have to agree that he changed it for the better.

Erm, no, CP/M did not use the slash in path names, for the simple reason that there was no need for path names in the CP/M filespec. There were no directories in CP/M. "Note, CP/M 2.2 has no concept of directories, all files are in the "root" area of the disk. Other target disks can be selected, e.g., DIR C:*.* will list all files on drive C:" ( CP/M Console Command Processor Instructions, The Memotech MTX Series http://www.primrosebank.net/computers/cpm/cpm_commands.htm (http://www.primrosebank.net/computers/cpm/cpm_commands.htm)) "Filespec is an abbreviation of file specification, which is the full name of a file, its type, the disk drive on which it resides, and the password, if any, of the file." (Concurrent CP/M Users' Guide, copyright 1984 by Digital Research http://www.cpm.z80.de/manuals/ccpmug.pdf (http://www.cpm.z80.de/manuals/ccpmug.pdf) page 1-5). "The following example shows a file specification that contains all the possible elements: A:VENDORS.NAM;AMBER" (same, page 2-6)

When Tim Paterson developed QDOS from CP/M, one of the major changes he made was to replace the CP/M file structure with the FAT file structure. FAT Incorporates a hierarchical directory structure, with user-created subdirectory names, so it required a punctuation character to delimit the directory names. Paterson chose for this purpose the backslash, which had been added to the ASCII character set back in 1961. He did not replace the slash character with the backslash. The slash in CP/M served a completely different, unrelated purpose. "The slash and dollar sign specify options in the command line." (Concurrent CP/M Users' Guide, copyright 1984 by Digital Research http://www.cpm.z80.de/manuals/ccpmug.pdf page 2-8) It was a delimiter for command line options.

At the time he developed QDOS from CP/M, Paterson was employed by Seattle Computer Products. QDOS was released in August 1980. Microsoft hired Paterson in May 1981. Microsoft bought QDOS from Seattle Computer Products for $75000 in July 1981 and changed the name to MS-DOS. By the time Microsoft had any control over QDOS, the backslash was already a part of the QDOS filespec syntax which Paterson created. (MS-DOS: A Brief History, copyright 2006 by the Linux Project http://www.linfo.org/ms-dos.html)

[BarracudaUAK]

....

At the time he developed QDOS from CP/M, Paterson was employed by Seattle Computer Products. QDOS was released in August 1980. Microsoft hired Paterson in May 1981. Microsoft bought QDOS from Seattle Computer Products for $75000 in July 1981 and changed the name to MS-DOS. By the time Microsoft had any control over QDOS, the backslash was already a part of the QDOS filespec syntax which Paterson created. (MS-DOS: A Brief History, copyright 2006 by the Linux Project http://www.linfo.org/ms-dos.html)


Now I know the names of the predecessors to MS-DOS.
I knew the "history", I just never could find the names to the "players".

I wonder what would have happened to Microsoft, if Seattle Computer Products hadn't sold QDos to MS...
hmm... I wonder if Linux would still have been developed, and if we would have all been running that for the last 25 years?:hmmm:


......
But one triumph of Silent Hunter 4 is that you can save submerged, in battle, in sight of land, with a dozen other save game files, with several contacts on many different sensors, not facing Mecca and with a torpedo halfway to its target and have confidence that your save game is good.

Silent Hunter 3 is the one with the problems requiring a laundry list of conditions before your save might be good. Silent Hunter 4 is rock solid, or at least as solid as Microsoft Excel.
...


I realize that this is the SH4 part of the forum, but I am going to point out a few SH3 related things here.

1: In WinXP, I saved when, where, and under what ever conditions I wanted to, and rarely had a save that wouldn't load. I don't recall any specific times, but I'll give it the "benefit of the doubt" and say that a few wouldn't load. I simply loaded an older save. (I saved often, rarely more than ~20 minutes to get back where I was.)

2: I only had one of the many "glitches" once. The "uncontroled dive". But I did manage to get control of the boat. I was in deep water in a 9D2, and I managed to get it back to the surface, at which point it stopped "being difficult". (although docked ships moved about 50 feet with each load... :hmmm: )

3: When I switched to running Linux, and running SH3 with WINE, I could NOT load surfaced. However, I can "Do" all of the "Don'ts" that are on that laundry list you mentioned and never have had trouble. Other than loading a save where I was on the surface. All others work, submerged, in a harbor, loading a torpedo... and I think my CE was getting wasted on some vodka too....:D


...
Sound the bullschnitzel buzzer.
...

I prefer the term "bravo sierra". Most people have no clue what I'm talking about!:har:
"I'm calling bravo sierra on that statement..."



...
The bottom line here is that assuming the correctness of the stock game has been a mistake for ten years.


Maybe the mistake is assuming the correctness in the OS? (I'm not saying that the game files are right, either.) I've seen games that were coded "wrong" because the OS was coded "wrong", i.e. violated all the established "standards" and "rules" that had been set to avoid the very software problems the game was experiencing.

Hence one of the reasons I'm looking for my Win95 disk so I can play C:AOD, since 95 is "wrong" on so many levels, C:AOD only runs in WINE with the sound off...:down:
A "deaf" submarine... that's just wrong...

4: SH3 in WINE, and SH4 in WINE, I save when I want, where I want, and how I want, regardless of what the glitches have to say about it!

RR, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just "thinking out loud" here.:up:

Barracuda

[Rockin Robbins]

Awesome, Barracuda! When I get free of the Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate project I'll have to draft you into my "Silent Hunter Series in Linux" thread. There's been enough interest to make that worthwhile. WINE has come a long way. It hasn't emulated Windows 7 yet to my knowledge, but does a really good job at running Windows XP programs without an emulator or virtual machine.

For the curious, here's a partial list of defects in SH4 stock game, courtesy of FOTRS Ultimate team member, s7rikeback:

Silent Hunter 4 - Trash Service pack

Trash Removal for SH4 Stock 1.5

- Data - Air - AFB_USFighter - AFB_USFighter_T01.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - JPFish01 - JPFish01_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - JPFish02 - JPFish02_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - JPGunBoat01 - JPFish01_sil.dds-remove - Wrong Folder Location
- Data - Sea - JPGunBoat01 - JPGunBoat01_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - JPGunBoat02 - JPGunBoat02_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NATF - NATF_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_Colorado - NBB_Colorado_N01.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_Colorado - NBB_Colorado_O01.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_Colorado - NBB_Colorado_T01.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_Fuso - NBB_FUSO_N01.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_Fuso - NBB_FUSO_N01_lr.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_Fuso - NBB_FUSO_sil.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_Fuso - NBB_FUSO_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_Fuso - NBB_FUSO_T01.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_Fuso - NBB_FUSO_T01_lr.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_Iowa - NBB_Iowa_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_Ise - NBB_Ise_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_Ise2 - NBB_Ise2_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_KGeorgeV - NBB_KGeorgeV_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_Kongo - NBB_Kongo_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_New_Mexico - NBB_NEW_MEXICO_N01.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_New_Mexico - NBB_NEW_MEXICO_N01_lr.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_New_Mexico - NBB_NEW_MEXICO_O01.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_New_Mexico - NBB_NEW_MEXICO_O01_lr.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_New_Mexico - NBB_NEW_MEXICO_sil.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_New_Mexico - NBB_NEW_MEXICO_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_New_Mexico - NBB_NEW_MEXICO_T01.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_New_Mexico - NBB_NEW_MEXICO_T01_lr.dds-remove - Upper Case Letters
- Data - Sea - NBB_North_Carolina - NBB_North_Carolina_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NBB_Yamato - NBB_Yamato_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NCA_Baltimore - NCA_Baltimore_sil.tga-remove - .tga removal
- Data - Sea - NCA_Deutschland - NBC_GrafSpee.dat-remove - Name Change to NCA_Deutchland
- Data - Sea - NCA_Deutschland - NBC_GrafSpee.dsd-remove - Name Change to NCA_Deutchland
- Data - Sea - NCA_Deutschland - NBC_GrafSpee.sim-remove - Name Change to NCA_Deutchland
- Data - Sea - NCA_Deutschland - NBC_GrafSpee.val-remove - Name Change to NCA_Deutchland
- Data - Sea - NCA_Deutschland - NBC_GrafSpee.zon-remove - Name Change to NCA_Deutchland
- Data - Sea - NCA_Deutschland - NBC_GrafSpee_N01.dds-remove - Name Change to NCA_Deutchland
- Data - Sea - NCA_Deutschland - NBC_GrafSpee_N01_lr.dds-remove - Name Change to NCA_Deutchland
- Data - Sea - NCA_Deutschland - NBC_GrafSpee_O01.dds-remove - Name Change to NCA_DeutchlandAll told, there are 114 erroneous files in this list and there's another list that has yet to be merged with this one. Then there is another list of files which must be injected into SH4 to correct these errors.

And, like you say, all the supermods are made to work with the defective SH4. What happens when you correct the errors? Do the mods quit working correctly? Enquiring minds want to know. And we will be testing exactly that.

Can we make a patch that will fix any mod configuration by being loaded on top? That will be looked into. But we're assuming nothing. Rules of thumb are useful for strategizing lines of attack that might be fruitful but only testing will prove whether this is all worthwhile.

You can see that the Deutchland and Graf Spee are fighting over the same files, so it is difficult to come to the conclusion that fixing the problems would not be helpful. The other thing we see is .tga files littering the landscape all over the place. A huge advance in SH4 over SH3 was the use of .dds grapics instead of .tga. The .dds files, natively used by Direct Draw, use much less memory and render much more quickly. The game devs converted some ships very sloppily. We also have spelling errors not edited but replaced by a properly spelled file and the old one not removed.

There are similar errors in the base mods which make up FOTRS. Spelling errors, ships improperly converted from SH3, texture boo-boos and the like. It was bad enough that the Museum was really cranky. Further investigation revealed that an unhappy Museum is an unhappy game. You'll be playing along blissfully whena problematic ship is rendered and CRASH. You can blame part of this on inadequate error handling routines in the game, but there's no way we can change them.

[BarracudaUAK]

Awesome, Barracuda! When I get free of the Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate project I'll have to draft you into my "Silent Hunter Series in Linux" thread. There's been enough interest to make that worthwhile. WINE has come a long way. It hasn't emulated Windows 7 yet to my knowledge, but does a really good job at running Windows XP programs without an emulator or virtual machine.
...


WINE 1.9.21 is out....


I'm running 1.9.17, and I can run some things requiring Win7. In fact WINE Config has all the way up to Win10 listed under the "Windows Version" drop down menu under the "Application" tab.

My 64bit is set to "Windows 7" my 32bit is set to XP, except for certain programs like Silent 3ditor, which since 1.9.0 have to be set to 7, or 8. (1.7.55 it ran best set to XP.)
EDIT: OOPS, I typo'ed the ver. number, fixed now!

1.8 is the stable/bug fix version of 1.7, I don't remember if 1.7 had Vista or up as an option... Might be the reason. Although, DX10 and DX11 are being added with 1.9, I've played the DX11 update to Red Faction Guerrilla (on Steam), and a few others with 1.9.

Although, as regards the OP, He may have needed to delete save games due to a lack of space... All my Windows installs since Win95, always got really "iffy" below about 10-20% free space. He may have been experiencing files getting over-written...
Again, OS related errors...

But it's been a few years since I dealt with that... I've reclaimed that "disk space" in my brain for other things!:D

Barracuda

[Rockin Robbins]

WINE 1.9.21 is out....


I'm running 1.9.17, and I can run some things requiring Win7. In fact WINE Config has all the way up to Win10 listed under the "Windows Version" drop down menu under the "Application" tab.

My 64bit is set to "Windows 7" my 32bit is set to XP, except for certain programs like Silent 3ditor, which since 1.9.0 have to be set to 7, or 8. (1.5.55 it ran best set to XP.)

1.8 is the stable/bug fix version of 1.7, I don't remember if 1.7 had Vista or up as an option... Might be the reason. Although, DX10 and DX11 are being added with 1.9, I've played the DX11 update to Red Faction Guerrilla (on Steam), and a few others with 1.9.


Barracuda
Ubuntu's repositories contain WINE 1.6.2. But as with everything Linux, just visiting the WINE website can fix that. I think I'll check it out to see what it can do for some Windows 7 programs. You know, having different configurations for 32 and 64-bit actually makes WINE better than Windows! Not that we should be surprised at that.