Does anyone know a way to retain audio when sh4 window loses focus?

[themrwho]

Hi,

My question is for Silent Hunter v.1.5 running on Windows 10. For this game, does anyone know a way to retain audio when sh4 window loses focus?

Extra info: As you might know, this is a design decision by developers - whether an application continues to emit audio when application window does not have focus. Usually this is a trivial thing to enable/disable for the dev team (or anyone with source code access). In fact some games even expose this, as a game-options-UI-setting (or sometimes as a not-so-apparent configuration tweak such as an .ini file or a startup parameter to the application launcher etc.). If there is a way for sh4 so far I have not found it hence the query.

Search results: I searched this forum and the web for before I post this thread. The only Subsim forums thread I managed to find on this matter was the one for sh5. Of course it does not help me with sh4 (and didn't help that guy with sh5).
SUBSIM Radio Room Forums > Silent Hunter 3 - 4 - 5 > Silent Hunter 5 How to still hear game sound when game window is not focused on (alt-tabbed)? https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=174765

Background story: I have a dual-screen setup, I run sh4 in fullscreen borderless state (using the 1-pixel-less hack) on screen1 and I'm browsing the forums/web etc. on screen2. During long patrols with reduced time compression, most of the time nothing exciting is happening in the game so I listen to the radio/gramophone and browse forums etc.
With this setup I can visually see what's happening in the game but I'm missing out on radio/gramophone at all times and also because there is no crew audio announcements ("ship spotted!" etc.) that I can hear, I can miss a critical situation if I don't visually check out the screen for a while so if I can fix this missing audio issue I think my setup would be perfect!

Thanks in advance for any replies!

[Mad Mardigan]

Originally Posted by themrwho

Hi,

My question is for Silent Hunter v.1.5 running on Windows 10. For this game, does anyone know a way to retain audio when sh4 window loses focus?

Extra info: As you might know, this is a design decision by developers - whether an application continues to emit audio when application window does not have focus. Usually this is a trivial thing to enable/disable for the dev team (or anyone with source code access). In fact some games even expose this, as a game-options-UI-setting (or sometimes as a not-so-apparent configuration tweak such as an .ini file or a startup parameter to the application launcher etc.). If there is a way for sh4 so far I have not found it hence the query.

Search results: I searched this forum and the web for before I post this thread. The only Subsim forums thread I managed to find on this matter was the one for sh5. Of course it does not help me with sh4 (and didn't help that guy with sh5).
SUBSIM Radio Room Forums > Silent Hunter 3 - 4 - 5 > Silent Hunter 5 How to still hear game sound when game window is not focused on (alt-tabbed)? https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=174765

Background story: I have a dual-screen setup, I run sh4 in fullscreen borderless state (using the 1-pixel-less hack) on screen1 and I'm browsing the forums/web etc. on screen2. During long patrols with reduced time compression, most of the time nothing exciting is happening in the game so I listen to the radio/gramophone and browse forums etc.
With this setup I can visually see what's happening in the game but I'm missing out on radio/gramophone at all times and also because there is no crew audio announcements ("ship spotted!" etc.) that I can hear, I can miss a critical situation if I don't visually check out the screen for a while so if I can fix this missing audio issue I think my setup would be perfect!

Thanks in advance for any replies!

Ahoy, themrwho...

Dunno, but.. if it can be done, set the focus sound wise to SH4... browsing posts & such.. doesn't really call for audio.. but.. that's just My suggestion...

M. M.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by themrwho

Hi,

My question is for Silent Hunter v.1.5 running on Windows 10. For this game, does anyone know a way to retain audio when sh4 window loses focus?

Extra info: As you might know, this is a design decision by developers - whether an application continues to emit audio when application window does not have focus. Usually this is a trivial thing to enable/disable for the dev team (or anyone with source code access). In fact some games even expose this, as a game-options-UI-setting (or sometimes as a not-so-apparent configuration tweak such as an .ini file or a startup parameter to the application launcher etc.). If there is a way for sh4 so far I have not found it hence the query.

Search results: I searched this forum and the web for before I post this thread. The only Subsim forums thread I managed to find on this matter was the one for sh5. Of course it does not help me with sh4 (and didn't help that guy with sh5).
SUBSIM Radio Room Forums > Silent Hunter 3 - 4 - 5 > Silent Hunter 5 How to still hear game sound when game window is not focused on (alt-tabbed)? https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=174765

Background story: I have a dual-screen setup, I run sh4 in fullscreen borderless state (using the 1-pixel-less hack) on screen1 and I'm browsing the forums/web etc. on screen2. During long patrols with reduced time compression, most of the time nothing exciting is happening in the game so I listen to the radio/gramophone and browse forums etc.
With this setup I can visually see what's happening in the game but I'm missing out on radio/gramophone at all times and also because there is no crew audio announcements ("ship spotted!" etc.) that I can hear, I can miss a critical situation if I don't visually check out the screen for a while so if I can fix this missing audio issue I think my setup would be perfect!

Thanks in advance for any replies!

uh, no offense intended, but you do not want to alt-tab out of SH4. Period. End of Story.
All sorts of bad things happen when a Kaleun shells out to Windows to go and do something non-SH4.
Do a search in Subsim or even Google for CTD and other assorted bad things and you will learn that the number one cause is shelling out/alt-tabbing.

good luck.

[Mad Mardigan]

Originally Posted by KaleunMarco

uh, no offense intended, but you do not want to alt-tab out of SH4. Period. End of Story.
All sorts of bad things happen when a Kaleun shells out to Windows to go and do something non-SH4.
Do a search in Subsim or even Google for CTD and other assorted bad things and you will learn that the number one cause is shelling out/alt-tabbing.

good luck.

In this instance, KaleunMarco... themrwho, isn't alt tabbing out. They actually have a dual monitor set up & with that, it allows for each monitor, to do separate tasks.. in this case, SH4 & web browsing.

What they re trying to figure out, is with using their set up, in that manner.. is how to have audio on the monitor, running SH4.. as I understand it. On that, am not sure of what would need being done to accomplish that...

M. M.

[themrwho]

Thank you for the replies.

Originally Posted by Mad Mardigan

Dunno, but.. if it can be done, set the focus sound wise to SH4... browsing posts & such.. doesn't really call for audio.. but.. that's just My suggestion...

Browsing does not require audio <-- depends on what you're browsing, doesn't it Yes, it could be text-only forums (as I mentioned earlier) but it also could be a YouTube video etc. that works better with audio.
In any case "does the other screen really require audio" is perhaps a nice discussion point but not my current focus or current problem.

The problem is: the moment focus is on another "window" (the other window could be a web browser with a forums page or a video in it, it could even be a simple notepad), that very moment audio from sh4 window is completely muted out. In other words, sh4 window emits audio only when it has "focus". It's audio capability is linked to whether it is "the active window".

Originally Posted by KaleunMarco

uh, no offense intended, but you do not want to alt-tab out of SH4. Period. End of Story.
All sorts of bad things happen when a Kaleun shells out to Windows to go and do something non-SH4.
Do a search in Subsim or even Google for CTD and other assorted bad things and you will learn that the number one cause is shelling out/alt-tabbing.

Thank you for the warning I appreciate you are trying to warn against bad stuff and I remember those issues from sh3 era.
Having said that, it's all in the past for me - I currently have a very stable setup with zero CTD or other issues (that I am aware of) so far. While I acknowledge bad stuff can happen (such as CO2 issue etc.) since it has not happened to me yet, no need to curtail freedoms that help me enjoy long patrol periods. This is not twice as good as sh3, in my scale my current sh4 experience is 10x better than sh3 experience so I will continue on this road (of running sh4 in my one screen, doing other stuff on my other screen). It works great. Strongly recommended - just try it out. If you have "bad stuff" happening to you obviously stop doing that but so far my "bad stuff experienced" counter is at zero after playing hundreds of hours on this PC

[Mad Mardigan]

Originally Posted by themrwho

Thank you for the replies.

Browsing does not require audio <-- depends on what you're browsing, doesn't it Yes, it could be text-only forums (as I mentioned earlier) but it also could be a YouTube video etc. that works better with audio.
In any case "does the other screen really require audio" is perhaps a nice discussion point but not my current focus or current problem.

The problem is: the moment focus is on another "window" (the other window could be a web browser with a forums page or a video in it, it could even be a simple notepad), that very moment audio from sh4 window is completely muted out. In other words, sh4 window emits audio only when it has "focus". It's audio capability is linked to whether it is "the active window".

Ahoy themrwho...

Ok

Just spit balling this here...

Could also do what I am considering doing... Have another tower I am working on & having that 1 to be My more... hard core gaming go to rig. Had thought of then selling this 1 I am on now, off as someone else's starter.. but, on reflection... could still keep it around to use as 1 to use for like web browsing, email checking social media type stuff... so that definitely frees up the other rig, for as I outlined.. My go to game rig only.

Not saying you have to go that route as well.. but.. is something to consider.. just a suggestion.

On that note... best to you on this.. & Good huntin'...

M. M.

[themrwho]

Originally Posted by Mad Mardigan

Could also do what I am considering doing... Have another tower I am working on & having that 1 to be My more... hard core gaming go to rig. Had thought of then selling this 1 I am on now, off as someone else's starter.. but, on reflection... could still keep it around to use as 1 to use for like web browsing, email checking social media type stuff... so that definitely frees up the other rig, for as I outlined..

Hey thanks for getting back to me on this. That's a nice suggestion indeed. In fact I used to do that with a smallish laptop sitting on the desk. Later I moved on to tablet. It works great for consuming stuff (to watch a YouTube video, to read others AARs etc.). I think it can be better if it could all be done on one single PC though as there is limited desk space to have 2 fullsized keyboards on my desk (hence the switch from laptop to mini tablet earlier).

I am still hoping -at this point, more like dreaming about- a fix to this problem though so that these long sh4 cruises can be a background task WITH audio.... Web search shows many people had similar requirements/wishes, even for other games, here is one for Mass Effect from 8 years ago: https://gaming.stackexchange.com/q/129032

Too bad Ubisoft devs didn't make this a simple checkbox (or even a .ini setting etc.).


EDIT: found an example of what I was trying to explain earlier, as can be seen in this "answer", in another game engine for example, it is literally a "setting". In this case, it is, how many percent of audio volume do you wish to LOSE when game window loses focus --> https://answers.unrealengine.com/que...ing-focus.html
If it was a setting like that, in Silent Hunter 4, we could set it to zero and be done with it