OK. So far I did a clean re-install stock game. Maybe I should try make a quick Mission using the editor. I should be able to do it easy enough. Talk to you later.:D

Heard thunder? I heard that plenty of times in game...never saw a flash but.

OK. I modified the Sub School mission torpedo attack and tried different settings.

As long as you have cloud = 2 you will hear thunder (but saw no lightning). Even if you have medium or heavy rain, or wind from 0 to 15.

So I guess it works...at least in missions. Maybe in game I did not notice the storm cloud state since my computer will not render beyond 1 FPS if I turn on Enivromental Effects -so what I see as true storm state is not always so. I can have partial cloud state (1) with heavy rain (2) and high wind = 15 but not hear any Thunder even though you would thinks so by the looks of things.

The Cloud State must hit (2) before you will hear Thunder. I can hear thunder below with no rain and calm seas. As long as clouds sky is overcast at (2).

[Mission]
MissionType=0
MissionDataType=0
MultiMissionType=0
Year=1943
Month=1
Day=1
Hour=11
Minute=0
Fog=0
FogRand=0
Clouds=2 ---> I hear Thunder only at 2. any state less you hear nothing.
CloudsRand=0
Precip=0 ----> no effect
PrecipRand=0
WindHeading=0
WindSpeed=2.000000 ---> none
WindRand=0
WeatherRndInterval=5
SeaType=0

Below is a posting of the mission file in text view that I made to test just this thing. You will see that even with my cloud status or whatever it is called set to 0 i do not get any thunder or lightning. This is still the stock game i tried it in. I will have to try modding a mission file thats already in the game like you did or patching back to the current version. I decided to try it from a fresh install to see if maybe one of the mods of even the patches had caused the issue but it looks like it was this way from the beginning.

------------mission file--------------------

[Mission]
MissionType=0
MissionDataType=0
MultiMissionType=0
Year=1945
Month=1
Day=1
Hour=10
Minute=0
Fog=0
FogRand=2
Clouds=2
CloudsRand=2
Precip=2
PrecipRand=2
WindHeading=0
WindSpeed=12.000000
WindRand=2
WeatherRndInterval=2
SeaType=0
[Unit 1]
Name=_US Gato#1
Class=SSGato
Type=200
Origin=American
Side=1
Commander=1
CargoExt=-1
CargoInt=-1
CfgDate=19411201
DeleteOnLastWaypoint=true
DockedShip=false
GameEntryDate=19450101
GameEntryTime=1000
GameExitDate=19451231
GameExitTime=0
EvolveFromEntryDate=false
Long=-19000100.000000
Lat=2434800.000000
Height=0.000000
Heading=0.000000
Speed=0.000000
CrewRating=3
DelayMin=0
ReportPosMin=-1
ReportPosProbability=100
RandStartRadius=0.000000
NextWP=0
[Unit 2]
Name=_US DE Buckley#1
Class=DEBuckley
Type=3
Origin=American
Side=1
Commander=0
CargoExt=-1
CargoInt=-1
CfgDate=19430101
DeleteOnLastWaypoint=true
DockedShip=false
GameEntryDate=19450101
GameEntryTime=1000
GameExitDate=19451231
GameExitTime=0
EvolveFromEntryDate=false
Long=-19000360.000000
Lat=2434967.000000
Height=0.000000
Heading=0.000000
Speed=20.000000
CrewRating=3
DelayMin=0
ReportPosMin=-1
ReportPosProbability=100
RandStartRadius=0.000000
NextWP=0

----------------------------------------------------------

Thanks again for atleast trying. I'm still trying to figure out that hex mess to see if those settings would help me to force the thunder sound effect so i know it actually works. Is it also possible that weather will not CHANGE under time compression? The randomness of the weather was set to the min. 2hour setting but yet i never see it change even when playing real time.

I will keep digging through this mess.

By the way are there only
3 cloud settings

0,1,2
0 being now
and
2 being overcast

??

Been a long time and wondering if this was ever corrected or solved
 

For some strange reason the developers released a new patch / game made us pay for it but never fixed the things they promised to fix. So yet again it is up to the modders. I have now bought version 1.5 and installed it over a clean copy of SH4. I have no mods enabled or even installed at this time.

Back to square one, with new patch no lightning, no thunder sounds at all.

Created a mission and
placed clouds at value 0f 2 (as figured before)

Dark clouds with rain and high winds, not a single sound of thunder and no signs of lightning. Ran game for 2 hours real time with no advancments in time. Weather does not change at all even with wind, clouds and rain values for change set to 2.

Also still no oil from damaged or sinking ships.

Has anyone figured a work around for any of this, or is it something that is hard coded and we are at the mercy of UBI.

Thanks

Bill

No problems at my end. Plenty of thunder when I'm in a storm. I'm yet to see lightning though. I'm patched to v1.4 and have RFB 1.4 and PE v3.3 mods installed.

I hear thunder, but never seen lightning, but I which the devs would of fixed the splash effects when the torpedos, bomb, etc, explode! It looks STUPID when you see ur torpedos explode an no splash. SH3 has it

I will have to reinstall the game and try it again. I know in the original game before any of the patches i was able to set clouds to "2" and have a storm. I was able to hear thunder never saw lightning or oil or a vast number of other effects that were in sh3 and left out or forgotten in sh4.

After installing the different patches things that were working did not work anymore.

Now at a full install with only the 1.5 patch i have nothing again. I notice the first few comments are people using version 1.4 and not 1.5.

Has anyone seen these effects using 1.5.

Also since this game is so closed to sh3 (they used the same file structure and everything) would it be possible to imports the sounds missing in sh4. maybe examing the sound files in sh3 and locate the missing parameters.

Be nice if game developers looked into the threads and read what they missed or atleast gave us information as to how to fix these.

Thanks i will try another full reinstall and see if it fixes anything

Bill

Ok well i have now confirmed that after a clean install after a full uninstall the original game with no patches does in fact have thunder if your cloud settings are set to "2"

For even when set to "0" will still be heavy at least the three times i tried it.

There is no lightning at all, I'm going to create a backup of all the files that affect sound and the scene.dat file as well. Try and compare them to each of the patches as we go through.

Notice that as the developers fixed some of the noted bugs (SOME) they broke others. Still even at a FORCED patch 1.5 that we had to pay for there is still much that is lacking.

I'm no modder but maybe by comparing some file structers it might lead me to some answers. Does anyone know how to open a .act file extension.

Also noticed that in the scene file there are many refrences to lightning and even what is played for sound after it.

Has anyone figured out all the values and what they stand for when opening these files using the 3d program.
is there anyway to change or add the sounds to the game and have them called up randomly, for example adding more sounds for thunder, currently i think it is only 5-6 sound files that play and they are randomized. Be nice to add some more violent type of thunder and reduce the chance of it playing by decreasing the priority, say randomly once every 30 minutes or so. Seems like everybody is still very confused about how the sound file structures work.

If a developer happens to read this and you have no intentions on ever releasing another "FREE" patch, then please explain how the great team of modders can unlock and fix these issues.

Still trying to get my dolphins back into sh4, no luck but hey im not that good, keeps causing a ctd.

Bill

Same here. I think I've heard lightning several times but never seen one and I've been with SH since it was released. Oil slicks are visible but you need to have 1.4 + TMO+NSM. I also had PE3 but you should see oil without it. I haven't seen oil in 1.5 but I bought it a few weeks ago so it may as well be there.

Speaking about missing effects, I don't know if somebody noticed that this nice perturbed water after a depth charge or torpedo explosion is gone as well.

Ok well here is what i found.

After a full uninstall of SH4 and then putting it back along with the patch to 1.5. I do infact get my thunder back. So something must have gone haywire in my install. I even think i saw some lightning. I'm still toying with the notion.

Things that still are broken sound wise even with 1.5
(feel free to add to this list)

1. officers that repeat and never shut up, or repeat the same order for 5x or more times, examples crashdive, surface the boat, rudder etc
2. No sounds of any damage other then collision, No glass breaking though in the file there are 4 glass break sounds, no pipes bursting, no electrical sparks,
3. Crew doesn't report much of anthing. In SH3 they reported depth, damage, ships, sound contacts etc. In sh4 the writing appears but there is no sound of the crew talking.

This is all with stock 1.5 and no mods at this time. I'm trying to find out what is going on with sounds and how they are called by the sim.

While using silent editor I came across an enviromental file that has a list of sounds that are played, The list is called soundplaylist2. In this sound list are the annoying seagull sounds.

The sound list is set to play the seagull wave in a full shuffel mode. This appears to be the only sound list i have come accross and i still dont understand how it works.

There is also a 3d check box on the sounds in the sh.sdl file. Sometimes the 3d box is checked for some sounds while other sounds it is not.

There is also a play checkbox that i have no clue what it does.

The last thing to reports on that i found funny was the cfg file for the game was set for the following.

***\Program Files\Ubisoft\Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific\Data\Cfg

[Ubi.Com]
GameName=SILENTHUNTER4
Version=SH4PC1.0 (This is strange it should be 1.5 maybe???)
RememberCDKey=true

[DEVELOPING]
DevDebugEnable=False (these were set to true, i changed them to false)
DevEditEnable=False
MiniDump=Yes (no clue what it does, didn't change it)

I looking for any help that i can get understanding how these files work. There are still several files that end with the extension .act that i can not open with any program on my computer.

Anyone know how to get this to operate?

Bill

well as for #1 the repeated comments are often the result of a bad saved game.

i use stock 1.5 with no mods so i checked my cfg/main file and mine has:

[Ubi.Com]
GameName=SILENTHUNTER4
Version=SH4PC1.0
RememberCDKey=true

[DEVELOPING]
DevDebugEnable=Yes
DevEditEnable=Yes
MiniDump=Yes

and everything with the game works correctly so i would set it the way it was and look elseware for your problems.

are you using vista? vista has issues (not sure why) and you need to install the game somewhere other than the programs folder.