GWX 3.0 Gold killed my sounds...
 

I have been reading about this problem for two days and come up with nothing. I installed SH3, patched to 1.4b, cracked it so I am not infected with Starforce (I got it on release day so I have that crud on my DVD), and installed GWX 3.0 Gold. Now I only hear the diesels if I go to external view and plunge underwater near the rear of my boat. I also do not hear waves splashing and some pings do not play. Oh and I do not hear the torpedo doors opening and closing.

Now, the files are in the sounds directory and play fine with Windows Media Player. I am guessing something else is at play. All of my sound knobs are at 0db. I turned them down and back up for good measure. No change.

Now, the system I do not believe is the fault because it ran fine prior to installing GWX. I ran it once and did a single mission without issues. My system is quite hefty as well, one of the advantages of being top dog in an IT company. Specs are at the end of the post.

So, what is up here? I imagine that a configuration file must not have been updated when GWX was installed. Is this something that I can verify? Maybe open a file in Notepad or Wordpad (LibreOffice Writer?) and verify that it references the correct sound file? Thanks for the help!

Intel Core i7 4960X
64GB DDR3-3100 (Quad-Channel)
4TB RAID10 Array on a hardware RAID controller with 512MB Cache RAM
Dual GTX 780 Ti Video Cards
Sound Blaster Z (PCI-E)

*EDIT*

I forgot, I am running Windows 7 Professional 64bit!

*UPDATE*

This is the solution for those who do not wish to read the entire thread!

The files on the GWX site are apparently broken. Jimbuna, a moderator here at SubSim, linked me to the original GWX 3.0 files in this post. These files work and I have diesel sounds, wave splashing sounds, everything. The ones at the GWX site are not working for me, and Jimbuna stated that others have had issue with them as well. My advice is to use the files linked in the post above and avoid all of the hassle.

Now, a lot was discussed here, including compatibility modes, installing DX9, and more. I am going to list the things that are not necessary to get SH3 running with GWX.

• You do NOT need to run in compatibility mode. SH3 runs perfectly fine in Windows 7, even the 64bit versions
• You do NOT need to install DirectX 9. I have spoken with Microsoft and DirectX 10 and 11 are fully backwards-compatible with 9. I currently only have 11 installed and SH3 with GWX sounds great!
• You do NOT need to disable sound hardware acceleration if you own an accelerated soundcard as I do. This did nothing for me while troubleshooting
• You do NOT need to use Creative ALchemy with SH3. While it did give me slightly better quality sound, SH3 is not an EAX or OpenAL game, so using it is pointless
• Owning a surround system does not affect SH3 in my case. When I first got SH3 I owned a 5.1 system. I own an 8.1 system now and I leave it on 8.1 all the time. SH3 works fine with it, probably due to DirectX/DirectSound handling the game audio
• Adjusting my in-game volume options did not do anything to alleviate my issue
• If you have a Creative soundcard and use the Audio Console to enable things like CMSS, you should disable them before playing ANY game. This is per Creative and I can tell you from personal experience that playing a game with CMSS on causes oddities

That about sums it up. I hope this saves somebody else the trouble that I had. Again, the solution was provided by Jimbuna!

SSS
Look
http://www.mediafire.com/?o6yq97r962tn5j8
Aces' Combined SH3.SDL Files v4

I am not running SH3 commander. Just SH3 1.4b and GWX 3.0 Gold.

Try disabling Sound acceleration.

If you have a card like a Creative Labs one, you can disable the hardware enhancements in the Playback devices>Enhancements tab of the sound control panel. It's labeled "Audio Enhancements" if it's available.
DirectSound doesn't have a hardware abstraction layer anymore.

Or try disabling other 'Audio Enhancements'

I had a similar problem way back when I started SH3, but I was running XP then.


Hope it helps-

That should not be the issue. I say that because, again, it works fine without GWX. Once GWX is installed it stops working.

As a side note, can I enable something like the 16km atmosphere mod after starting a career?

*UPDATE*

I used Creative ALchemy and added SH3, which improved my sound quality, but I still do not have the diesels or waves splashing. I do believe This is a mod issue due to only certain sounds missing, not all sounds. Like the game is choosing which to play and which not to play.

No go disabling hardware. This is a GWX issue. Ideas?

Alright, I uninstalled SH3 completely (registry, folders and files left behind, the SH3 folder in Documents, everything) and rebooted. I then installed SH3. I did not start the game. I installed 1.4b. I did not start the game. I installed GWX 3.0 Gold. Again, I did not start the game. I cracked my install to avoid Starforce. I rebooted.

Now I start the game, set my video options, set all audio to -40db and apply. I then change them to 0db and apply. I go into the naval academy. No diesel sounds or waves on the surface. This is as clean as it gets. How can I get this working? NYGM just causes SH3 to crash so GWX was the other big option. Is there anything else I need? Do I need to enable any of the additional GWX mods with the mod tool?

Stand on the bridge and turn 360” if the sound of the motor and the waves cut in and out then it is most likely that your systems sounds are set to surround sound and not stereo. :hmmm:

Edit.... And also with that sound card you may need to use the Headphone jack for the sounds to work right

Welcome Sephiroth.

I use Windows 7 Professional 64bit, an AMD processor and the soundblaster card that has RAM on the soundcard, and GWX works fine. See below about other creative issues. Have you changed the SH3.exe compatability (in properties of shortcut), to XP SP2 or SP3? works better that way. I started playing SH3 with XP.
I can not recall if I use the 16km atmosphere at the moment. It is best to start mods after starting a career. I take the chance sometimes and I see what happens, by enabling a mod after I return to the bunker. If no CTD, then I continue the patrol without having to start a new career.

I have not used Alchemy for any SH series game since the series does not need it to work. Am I understanding that you are only doing sound checks just in the naval academy? Post #7 states the naval academy but your other posts do not specify campaign or naval academy. What about a regular campaign?

I have my creative console launcher set to surround and virtual something on some other setting using the sound card output jacks. Sounds are fine in game, I do not play the naval academy. Is the naval academy the same as museum?
Perhaps I am not fine tuning my ears that much and want to have fun! Haven't played SH3 for about 4 months plus. Played SH2-SH5 through the years.

Most experienced subsimmers have found out that the SH3 to SH5 series sometimes will play fine in the campaign, but will crash in naval academy or museum. I remember that a lot with Operation Monsun in SH4.

Sometimes when I do have a CTD, it is best to shutdown computer, give it a few seconds for hardware platters to stop (if it is not solid state). Restart computer.

From some, not all, CTD or sleep recovery issues forcing to do a forced shutdown, I have found out that the creative console launcher changes the quantity of 4 stereo speakers connected to soundblaster card (which I have) to 2 stereo speakers. Some other crash, I have no memory if it was caused by some issue with Silent Hunter 3 changed the speaker outputs of creative to some other source. Maybe those ideas will help.

Welcome Aboard Kaleun :salute:

You say NYGM causes SH3 to crash and you are experiencing difficulties with GWX installed.

It looks to me like it is something in your system that is at fault....I'd suggest you check your sound card settings.

It is not my system. The only time I have had a crash was with NYGM installed. Removed it and no more crashes. Installed again, crashes came back. Simple enough for me, so I removed it. That is when I tried GWX. Again, this is NOT my system. The install is barely two months old using an official Win7 Pro 64bit DVD, drivers installed manually without the bloatware. Again, nothing crashes except SH3 if NYGM is installed. If it is not installed, SH3 runs flawlessly. Also, SH3 without GWX runs correctly. The problems start when GWX or NYGM are installed (not at the same time, of course!) so my problems are almost guaranteed to be related to the mods.

As for the sound question, this is in single mission, academy, and campaign. The sound files are there and play correctly in Windows, just not in the game. I am 99.99% sure this is a GWX configuration issue somewhere. The sounds work fine without GWX. They work fine with or without the use of ALchemy. They work fine with or without hardware acceleration. Oh and my card does have RAM on it as well. It is the ZxR to be specific.

I have not tried XP compatibility mode because it runs flawlessly with a bone stock 1.4b install. Not as realistic, but it works fine. This again leads me to believe that the issue is NOT the executable code (SH3.exe) but a configuration file for the u-boats or something. I will try compatibility mode to rule it out, but I do not expect it to work personally.

Also, I turn off all of the effects unless I am using them for something specific. In fact, if you ask Creative, they will tell you to leave things like CMSS off while playing games. I found out the hard way when running with an X-Fi in XP SP3. I had a game that did not sound right and after conversing with Creative support, found out that CMSS was screwing me over. I let the game use EAX/OpenAL/DirectSound if it needs it. I guess it would help if playing a DOS game in DOSBox though...

My surround system options are off. The soundcard handles all of this. Using ALchemy allows the older games designed for XP and such to interface directly with the soundcard due to the new audio stack used in Vista/7/8. Using this allows games such as UT to have hardware access again. SH3 does not have EAX support so I have ALchemy disabled for it until this problem is sovled, but it DID improve the sound quality when enabled.

*UPDATE*

Alright, I enabled XP compatibility mode. No good. I disabled hardware acceleration while in XP mode. No good. I then turned off XP mode because, again, the game works flawlessly prior to GWX being installed. This must be a configuration file issue. I mean if it works until I install GWX, the problem cannot possibly be anything else. The thing is, I do not know what to look at to find sound specifications. Where are the sound files specified for the u-boats? If I could see that it points to the correct sound file I would have a starting point.

*UPDATE*

I have been reading the forums and I see multiple people complaining about diesel sounds after the installation of GWX. The one I just read is located here. I also saw people talking about not installing to the default location. Being an IT administrator and having an AD domain in my home with about eighteen systems on my network, I do not do such a foolish thing. I create a directory called "Games" on the system drive. I then remove all permissions from it and grant "SYSTEM" and "Administrators" full access. I create an AD group called "Games". I give that group full access also, and put my AD user accounts into the games group. This way users that do not want or need to play games cannot even access the games directory due to not being in the group. Accounts that are in the group, such as mine, have full access.

Just realized it could be a combination of XP (no matter what compatibility type) and Windows 7 WITH GWX. I do not recall if Win 7 has Directx version 10 or 11. Did you install Directx 9C which was available eventually after XP was out? Available on microsoft.com.

I have always installed the version of directx that came with my DVD even if the operating system is newer.

Maybe some directx sound or d3d sound files are needed for GWX and proper sound to run while the video part is fine?

Good point. I have 10 and 11, let me see if I have 9 installed. If not I will download the final version and install it.

*UPDATE*

No go. I had 9.0c from June 2010, but reinstalled it anyway. No change. I believe the sounds were just toned down WAY too much in GWX. Where can I check the sound files in the configurations for the u-boats? I am fairly sure that is the issue.

Alright, round three. Here is what I have done to prove that this is a GWX issue, at least to myself. Correct me if this is somehow wrong.

• Uninstalled SH3
• Removed the SH3 folder from my documents folder
• Deleted the C:\Games\Ubisoft folder
• Check for virtualized files in my AppData folder, but none exist since I have full control over C:\Games
• Went through my registry and deleted everything related to SH3
• Rebooted
• Installed SH3 from my DVD, but did NOT play
• Installed the SH3 1.4b patch
• Cracked SH3 with the reloaded crack to avoid Starforce
• Rebooted
• Started the game and did a single mission, in which all sounds were there
• Exited the game
• Installed GWX 3.0 Gold
• Deleted my SH3 folder from my documents
• Rebooted
• Started the game and did the exact same single mission, and had no diesel sounds and no waves crashing over the bow

So, this is the third time I have done this and every time I install GWX I lose sounds. As such, I am drawn to the conclusion that something in GWX is not right. If GWX does not modify the executable (SH3.exe) then compatibility modes, DirectX, and anything else related cannot possibly be the problem because it works flawlessly prior to GWX being installed.

Now, how can I troubleshoot GWX? I have gone through all of the suggestions here so we can toss those out the window. I will summarize what I have tried below.

• SH3 without GWX, no compatibility, no ALchemy - Works
• SH3 without GWX no compatibility, with ALchemy - Works (Better sound quality)
• SH3 without GWX, XP SP3 compatibility, no ALchemy - Works
• SH3 without GWX, XP SP3 compatibility, with ALchemy - Works (Better sound quality)
• SH3 with GWX, no compatibility, no ALchemy - Missing sounds
• SH3 with GWX no compatibility, with ALchemy - Missing sounds
• SH3 with GWX, XP SP3 compatibility, no ALchemy - Missing sounds
• SH3 with GWX, XP SP3 compatibility, with ALchemy - Missing sounds

Again, my OS is Windows 7 Professional 64bit. Specs are in my first post.

As a kicker, I installed this on one of my two XPS400 systems The specs are below. I have the EXACT same issue there. Exact same results as listed above.

Pentium D 820 2.8GHz
3GB DDR2-800Mhz
nVidia GTX550 Ti 2GB GDDR5
SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty (The one with 64MB X-RAM)
320GB WD SATA2 HDD, 16MB Cache
Windows 7 Professional 64bit

I'm not going to try to argue, partly because I have no idea what's causing it and partly because it may well be GWX interacting with somthing else.

I just want to point out that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people playing with GWX who are not having these same issues. I've used GWX for years now and heve never experienced what you are describing.