GWX News

[Kpt. Lehmann]

It is the natural course of evolution for things to get even better. The GW Dev team has listened intently to the user and has addressed all major issues. (such as difficulty of installation and key mod replacements)

A word about performance related issues: When I put together GW 1.0... I did so with a system that BARELY met recommended specifications to run stock SH3... and GW 1.0 and 1.1a ran smoothly on that system... even using TankerIV's seafloor texture mod.

You must have the recommended specs to run SH3 1.4b stock to expect good performance. Many players fail to keep their own system free of spyware and viruses which have an entirely negative effect on performance... as does running ANY other program in the background such as your web browser.... and GW is often blamed for these performance problems.

Also, GWX will be a direct auto install that will self-verify that you are applying it to a stock SH3 1.4b patched installation of the same. If this is not done properly... it will not istall. This is to protect us and you from misunderstanding... and the old "GW screwed up my installation when..." statements.... or "I got a CTD when I ran GWX... there must be a GWX bug!!!" stuff.

I'm sure you can understand that it is extremely frustrating over here when you find that it is a user issue most of the time. That being said... we understand that not everyone has an equal familiarity with the SH3 file structure.

This is not the GWX team looking down our noses at anyone. It is just how things are.

A word about the texture folders in SH3.

The low resolution texture folder in SH3 is useless... I suggest all users DELETE it as it is a drain on system resources.

The high res texture folder should be kept as EMPTY AS POSSIBLE!!!! ALL textures should be re-packed into dat files wherever possible.

Both the low res and high res folders are "checked" by the engine when loading and spawning units etc etc... The more there is in there... the more performance is affected.

ALL textures in GWX that can be packed into dat files will be so.

With the exception of U-boat interiors... ALL textures in GWX have been checked for size and wherever found re-sized to stock SH3 regular texture sizes.

There is almost NO difference in game in detail by doing so!

Direct installation + dat file repackaging + texture size corrections = BIG IMPROVEMENT over the original GW 1.0 performance... which was already good by SH3 recommended spec standards...

AND

doing so has allowed us to DOUBLE the content without doubling the size... infact a compression test of the beta so far that I did earlier this week...

showed that for the moment... the GWX beta... with all of its inclusions and improvements...

Is SMALLER at the moment than GW 1.1a even though it is a major rewrite.

GW 1.0 modded 2800 files.

GWX mods 5200 files and counting... with little projected memory size increase over GW 1.1a.

Concerning the size of the mod in relation to other contemporary games... We are well within the middle of the road. Complaints about the size of GW/GWX are baseless IMHO.

How's that for "more bang for your buck?"

Please note... this is the first time I can ever recall using the "smug" smiley.

Yours truly has done most of the dat file re-packaging... TEDIOUS STUFF!!! Regarding attention to detail... ALL of the team has done a yoeman's job ... and the job of an army.

...to awesome effect.

I'm really happy that the original devs left SH3 in a moddable state... and no offense is meant to them...

...but EVERYTHING we have done... has been without their help... and with challenges from every possible angle that threatened to wreck our work... and even the existence of our little band of U-boatmen.

From everything I can tell, are still on target for beta testing to begin following the conclusion of next weekend... give or take a few days to account for expected uploading issues.

The beta session will last approximately 30 days and will be a closed session due to recent events. We have formulated a list of approximately 25 users (we know nothing of their system specs) that we will be contacting in private regarding the beta test.

The beta is quite solid as it stands... and an open session would be quite chaotic... but we know we aren't perfect and aren't afraid to say so. Besides, 50 more mk1 eyeballs over 30 days should be enough to shake loose anything of consequence that we missed.