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Hello submarinaters! Subsim greenhorn Fenrir reporting for duty.

While I'm not a history buff or technical study, I've had a long standing fascination with submarines, and submarine stories (with an unsurprising fondness for Type VIIish U-boats in specific). I probably haven't put in as much time/effort as most of you- but I mean really, anyone who suffers through Seaquest DSV more than once probably should be here, don't you think?

As you can probably guess from the timing, I just picked up Silent Hunter 3, 4, 4.5, and 5 on the recent Steam Sale. I've barely scratched 3 so far (I ran through the movement tutorial/exam). In doing some worktime research (sssh) I stumbled here and found out about all the work folks have done modding SH3.

Last night I grabbed S3F and ran it, followed by it's 4g patch. I then (mistakenly?) tried to use it to put in H.sie and JSGME. After much banging my head against my keyboard and topic bouncing, I used S3F to create a copy of the steam install (with 4g patch) to a custom directory on C. After which I tried again with H.sie and JSGME via S3F, then performing H.sie manually on both (unsuccessfully). I then manually put in JSGME, and tried using that to implement H.sie also with no success.

I'm debating wiping both copies and just starting fresh at this point.

Alternatively, I saw some folks note that GWX works with stock steam SH3. So I'd welcome any suggestions on what makes the most sense, or clarification on processes. OR another thought I had after watching some youtab videos is maybe it would make more sense to start with SH5? I know it's not quite as well received but for a noob would you suggest starting there since I gather it's a bit more accessible- and then introducing the more intense realism/trigonometry: the game stuff after getting my feet wet so to speak?

Edit: I see more clearly now that the current S3F should perform the H.sie update. I'm going to press the H.sie button and let it sit until I get a notice or it's tomorrow. (the program appears to close, but a process is left running?) After that works/fails I'll try GWX, and then after that works/fails I'll come back to whine/relate my success.

welcome aboard!
 

Welcome Aboard!

Welcome to SubSim FenrirOE. :salute:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...orSignGirl.jpg

I had an older copy of S3F, before the h.sie patch was included, and I had no problem running the patch separately. I still use that older copy and I'm still doing it the same way. It works fine.

Done that more times than I care to remember. :sunny:

That really depends more on what you want from the experience than what is easier. If you just want a sub game that looks good and lets you shoot stuff, SH5 is probably better. That said, even with most of its bugs fixed by the latest supermods it still lacks a lot of extras you can get with SH3, and likely always will.

I recently restarted SH3 after a long hiatus, and recorded my experiences in detail here. I don't know if it will help at all, but it is complete log of experimenting with mods and reinstalling the game multiple times.

Whatever course you end up taking, enjoy the experience and don't forget to keep us posted.

A very warm welcome :salute::salute::salute:

Welcome to SubSim :sunny:

Likewise, FenrirOE:)!

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

Deleted both my installs, and pulled it down from steam again. Grabbed a new copy of S3F as well, and ran that before anything else to create a 'moddable' copy on c:.

S3F still seemed to shut down when trying to H.sie the new moddable folder, then I remembered to go verify that the read-only tag was off on the folder. Hit that toggle and tried H.sie again via S3F which seemed to run (even though every time I check the folder appears to have the read-only tag applied still, no matter how many times I toggle it).

The only observed change in the S3F entry was the size incremented by 0.01gb- it still read STEAM/STOCK 1.4b. Tried running it and got Application load error 2:0000065558. Tried running it directly from the exe, same error. Applied the 4gb patch from S3F, no change.

Then I tried the H.sie patch on the original steam directory- still no observed change other than the size- but it didn't quietly close itself out. Tried launching and it worked. Backed out and applied the 4gb patch, and it continued to work.

At this point I'm assuming H.sie was applied because I don't know what changes I would look for to know that it is there- but the size incremented after pushing the button, and S3F didn't just disappear on me.

Next up I'm gonna try to wipe out my moddable copy again and use S3F to create another copy of the theoretically updated functional steam install, and try that out. (I'd prefer to do further modding first in a secondary control install.)

After that I'm gonna try grabbing the GWX packages and see if I can get those in place.

That aside, I see there are various resolution updates, but they're fairly traditional resolutions- is there anything out there to update for trimonitor setups? (5932x1080 for example)

So! Deleted the second copy and used S3F to create a copy of the confirmed functional steam version again, and it still wouldn't run (same error). I am assuming there's something else in play there but getting sick of trying to troubleshoot when I have one version that does work anyway.

Download the GWX packages and try to run it on my steam install, it errors saying I've modded it and as such it can't run. I go back into S3F and undo the 4g patch, and in theory the H.sie patch (size did not go back down, so I'm not sure it did anything). GWX still refuses to run.

Wipe out my steam version again, and re-install, and run GWX first. Same error preventing install. Now that's odd, I never touched it after the install... Start the GWX patch again and go a little slower this time- the default path is pointing to a SH3 folder in my documents, not the steam/steamapps directory. :/\\!! OKAY redirect the installer to the correct directory, and it runs this time! Check to make sure it's functional- OMG A DIFFERENT LOADING SCREEN! Close out and pop open S3F again, hit it with H.sie and 4g- pop it open again- STILL RUNNING! :woot:

I did the artillery exam, and aside from being confused that now there's only HE shells, and struggling with some oddities that I'm not sure if is learning curve, or actual issues- but hey, it's solid progress.

Confusion after all this: compared to my experience in stock, my orders seem to take unusually long to be recognized. Does one of these mods add crew reaction time in the mix? Also twice after changing my speed while surfaced the boat refused to go and I couldn't figure out why. I had to submerge and resurface to jog it into allowing movement.

Edit: Also holy cow it takes a lot of HE shells to sink ships. I know your deck gun isn't supposed to be a massive killer or anything but jeez that training mission was a lot of sitting there just hitting the space bar.

I like to surface and go after that lame duck once all torpedoes expended, just to round up the score some, but it does seem to take a heck of a long time firing the deck gun before the crap starts to spiral skywards and the ship FINALLY succumbs...

Yeah I imagine it won't bother me so much when it's not the training mission making you to kill like five ships with only your deckgun.