disable merchant search lights?
 

this is going to sound sacriledgious, but my framerate bites it hard when all the search lights come on at night in a convoy. I'm wondering if there is a way to disable search lights altogether, or ideally just disable them for merchants and leave them for planes/warships.

Any chance this is possible (I use gwx 3.0).

Yep tis possible
Go to data\Sea and open any merchants Sea folder

Open the Eqp file in Notepad

Look for entries with REF_small01\ REF_small or REF_big

Example below NKSQ_

[Equipment 11]
NodeName=L01
LinkName=REF_small01
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19451231

Change to

[Equipment 11]
NodeName=L01
LinkName=NULL
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19451231

Will remove the light but you will need to do this for each merchant
Time consuming but if it improves play for you well worth it

Hey wooly - wicked - thanks man. I'm going to try this as soon as I get back to port. Btw- how did you know 'NKSQ_' was a merchant? I'm in patrol right now adn I'll check that directory asap, but I'm wondering - is it obvious who's a merchant and who isn't?

Cheers!

P.S. and i gather the significant change is to change 'LinkName' to 'NULL' if it has REF_small01\ REF_small or REF_big?

BBW knows the designation for EVERY unit!
:o

That's his turf, his Domain, his Mojo!
:rotfl:

Only cos I have spent so much time looking at the Sea folder for GWX
:rotfl:

Anything NBB is a battleship
NBC is a battlecruiser
NCA is a heavy cruiser
NCO is a corvette
NCV is a carrier
NCVE is an escort carrier
NCL is a light cruiser
NDD is a destroyer
NDE is an escort destroyer
NFF is a frigate
NPC is the Black Swan
NPT is an MTB
Other warships are NAMC\NAXC\NTBs\NMAS\NMSR\NMSS\NPTV\NPTV_KFK\RAF_HS L\NMSTR\NTRW_\PBTrawler\NHD_SubCT13

May have missed one from memory but rest should be merchants
Depends on the mod you use but thats a pretty comprehensive
list
Will have to go check now tho
lol

yes REF_small01\ REF_small or REF_big are all linked to searchlights so changing to NULL will remove the light from the unit

i had frame rate stuttering, too with search lights on at night. normal frame rate sank from 70-90fps down to 3-5 fps for short times and then became normal 70-90fps.

i also thought about disabling searchlights, but then i tested sh3 on vista 64 and did not discover the stuttering. so i made a dual-boot system with xp and vista with vista only for playing sh3. perhaps, this solves your problem?

Caramba :rock:

Well the truth is I am using ancient hardware - I built this system 2002ish. The fan on the graphics card died, and it now overheats like crazy and I get artifacts if the room isn't like 0c. Hence the open window. Still, though she's an antique, she can run SH3 decently. I just have to taper back the bells and whistles.

Wooly - I did what you said and it worked like a charm! Just attacked my first convoy at night - all the merchies stay dark, and the escort flower class comes in with a search light. Frame rate is steady. Thanks dude!

You're more than welcome
If it improves your computers handling all the better
:up:

And whilst we're on the subject....what %age of merchants actually had and used their search lights during WWII ?

The first correct answer wins an all expenses paid trip to Madame FiFi's Massage Emporium.

Not going there again
Service is terrible

I cant imagine every merchant having such powerfull or large searchlights
So there may be some mileage in removing some anyway - or most

I'd rather up grade my rig than change all those ships. :p :rotfl:

I'd go bonkers trying to do that. :D

Oh, it wasn't so bad - 15 or 20 ships. No big deal. I did it while i was one the phone;). Anyway, I think it looks a bit better now. Before it was searchlight city, with beams everywhere etc. I think it makes more sense for the merchies to stay quiet and dark, and for the escorts to do all the searching. Looks great!

thanks for the info :up:

The same problem here. Searchlights cause a severe slowdown in my Sh3 while i´m looking in external views to the lights.

I was thinking that i was a problem in my installation or hardware, but i see that there are more people with the same problem :hmm:

Curiosly with my old 6600 nvidia card i don´t had any problem, but i replaced the card with a Ati 2600 XT and i started to have some performance drop.

For the people with the same problem ...it happens with nvidia cards too ??:hmm: