CTD due to ship explosion/smoke in NYGM

[rudewarrior]

Is there any way to tone the gfx in this game with NYGM installed. The game keeps CTD'ing when I get a ship that is burning.

System Info:

3.06 GHZ Intel PIV
ATI 9250 video card (PCI 256 MB)
1 Gig RAM

With the stock game it does just fine, but with NYGM installed, game starts to get super sluggish and unstable when ships start burning.

[Marriott]

you should be fine...try closing programs that are running that you dont need while playing and turn down the particle density or whatever it is. I'm running NYGM on a crappy Dell Dimension 2400 with 512 MB RAM. Its a completely stock "value" computer basically. If mine can run it yours certainly can. Just make some tweaks to particle density and close down programs running in the background.

[GT182]

RW, I believe it could be you GFX card causing that, or the drivers{not sure tho as I don't mess around changing drivers}. Others using the 9200s have had the same problems. There's just too much going on with the burning ships for the card to handle it. If you could find a friend that would let you borrow a 97 or 9800 card you'd see the difference. I was told at CompUSA by a tech that 9200s are iffy for gaming... and that it also depends on the game and how intensive the game is with graphics. SHIII is a graphics intensive game.

And another thing could be overheating issues with the 9250. Check that first then go with the above. Hopefully your 9250 has a fan on the heatsink. If not find a way to cool it. One is to open the sidecase door and put a fan to bloow air on your card. Run SHIII and see if you can get the same thing to happen again. If not then you'll have a better idea it's a cooling issue.

These days tho you can upgrade to a 9800 or another card with less cost than when you got your 9250. Prices are coming down faster these days. Check here for some good prices.... pricewatch.com/video%5Fcards/

Or go with what Marriot says.

[bigboywooly]

:hmm: odd I have the 128mb 9250 and I dont get that problem
Have a slower processor too
Try reducing particle rendering in the video options after first load

[rudewarrior]

Ok, I've dropped the particle rendering down. First I tried putting the setting at 25. Still crashed. So I dropped it to 0, it still crashed!

I'm going to open the tower and take a look at the heat sink/fan issue. I'm open to any suggestions at this point.

[GT182]

RW, what CPU heatsink are you using, the one that came with your CPU or another? And do you have intake and exhaust fans in your tower? Only asking because I believe you are having heat related issuses too. I still stand by what I said about the 9250. BBW, not all computer systems with the same hardware are equal. Thart goes the same for video cards. others have had his problems while others haven't. But usually it was found to be a problem with the video card. Maybe something has happened to it RW doesn't know about.

Here's an example as to what I found about my CPU. You could be having the same problem too.
I'm runnng an Intel P4 3.2E CPU and have been having bad heating issues this summer. Couldn't figure out why everything was locking up at times, games included. Went out and bought a Thermaltake heatsink and fan, cost was 19.99, just to try that approach. Worked like a charm and CPU temps are now reduced by a good 35 degrees C. BTW this heatsink has a copper pad that comes on it. Much better than the aluminum ones by far, as copper will transfer heat much better. An All copper heatsink is the best way to go. Now no more lockups on the internet or in games.

Check these out.... http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Brand.asp?Brand=1647. But go to others sites as they may be less expensive. Note too that there are replacement heatsinks for your video cards too that will help them run cooler.

I'm using a GF FX5600Ultra 256mb card. Never had lockups with burning ships but did with using high Time Compression in SHIII. Added a PCI slot exhaust fan under it and video card is now running cooler. Draws off the heat from cards fan and heatsink.

[rudewarrior]

The story so far:

I started leaning toward heat being the root cause. First thing I did was move the tower away from the desk. There were some vent holes covered by the desk on the side of the tower. CTD

Opened the side of the tower. CTD

Noticed my sound card power cable was blocking airflow (sort of) to the GFX card heat sink. Moved it. CTD

Immediately on crashing I touched the heat sink with my finger to determine if it was hot. It was very hot to the touch. So I started thinking heat issues. Took an oscillating fan and turned it on full blast directly into the opened tower. CTD.

I also did my heat sink "finger" test. This time the heatsink was cool. So now I don't know if it is a heat issue or not.

Any help?

[rudewarrior]

I think I have decided to get a new video card. Since I have a PCI slot, I am somewhat limited, but I think I should go with the GeForce FX5200 Video Card, which has 256MB and seems to be a good alternative. Does anyone have any other recommendations and/or comments on this particular card?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[lafeeverted]

I occasionnally have crashes when a ship is about to sink. I believe it is a medium cargo ship that causes my problem. Something is triggered at the sinking that causes the CTD. I haven't pinpointed it just yet but I do not think it is a hardware issue.

[rudewarrior]

Ok, I have replaced the video card with the one mentioned above, (+ 1G RAM just for GP). CTD.

This video card comes with a cooling fan, so now I have now idea what the issue could possibly be. Any suggestions?

[Pants]

Ok....i'll try to help if i can, is it EVERY ship that makes your SH3 CTD? if so it "could" be a pc prob, if not it could be a faulty ship or a faulty download
have you added anything to NYGM ie:- additional mods, if so that could be the cause...sorry can't help you anymore...i'm sure one of the NYGM dev team members could help you out.
If your game runs fine with other games, and SH3 with NO mods then chances are you have a faulty download
hope you get things sorted

[rudewarrior]

Ok set particle density to 1, turned off the high quality textures. CTD

I want to clarify about running "just fine with the stock game."

Sometimes the stock game would crash with burning ships, but only if I zoomed in on them with my periscope and kept it there. Or if I tried moving my periscope really quickly when looking at a burning ship.

Also to clarify, the game pretty much crashes now any time I have a burning ship. I had been saving immediately after getting the ship sunk message so that I could leave on high TC, but that isn't exactly feasible. I have a nice test game now, since I am in the middle of a convoy w/3 burning ships all within 700 meters of me.

I am leaning toward the hardware issue, unless I hear of a possible solution from the NYGM team.

Keep those suggestions coming. I'm hoping there is a viable solution out there.

[Stiebler]

@RudeWarrior:

In the past I too have suffered from intermittent problems with CTDs from burning/sinking ships.

My original computer specs were, coincidentally, very similar to UBISoft's published minimum spec for SH3 and, in three complete campaigns with stock SH3 (1939-1945), I had precisely two CTDs. Neither was a burning ship.

Then I installed the old RUb. Thereafter, I had an average of one CTD per *patrol* (fewer early in the campaign, more later). Those who assembled RUb did so with complete disregard for computer specifications (or perhaps disregard for a proper test protocol), a problem which still plagues us today.

Changing my computer to a better-specified machine (256 MBytes graphics, 1024 MBytes RAM, 2 MHz CPU) solved the problem of repeated CTDs completely, but just occasionally I still see the burning ship CTD. That was when I lost confidence in some of the ship/skin mods.

The NYGM team is very careful not to overburden the existing SH3/RUb base with yet more hardware-intensive additions. No one should have to change computers just to suit our convenience. However, it does sound as though you are going to have to change your graphics card. In the final analysis, NYGM *is* built on RUb.

Stiebler.
NYGM Tonnage War Mod - More than a mod; its an experience!

[rudewarrior]

I remember I started having CTD's also when using the Improved Smoke Mod.

My one question would be: Is there a way I could have the smoke graphics revert to the SH3 stock graphics in the NYGM mod? Would this be too difficult to do?