Something Steam user should be aware of.

Bothersome · 04-06-10, 01:09 PM

I come with a report for Silent Hunter users that may think Silent Hunter is buggy or won't run under windows whatever.

Here's the story... I've been talking with my Step-Dad (he's like 80) about WW2 subs and this game SH4 for a few months. Well, he and I can go on for hours talking about such things. He is a retired Chief of the Boat from a modern missile boat. So he's into this stuff.

Well a couple of days ago he decided he'd like to get this game and play it himself. I said, well, I get get you the game tonight, and so we went off to Steam to get it downloading. Well his connection was going to take another 4 hours or so to fetch it, so I came back over the next day and to install the TMO 1.9 to get him all fixed up.

First mistake I made was not actually trying to run the game as installed by Steam the first time. I put TMO on before even trying to run it for first time. Figured it wouldn't matter. By the way, I knew to turn off the updates for SH4 and for U-boats addon before attempting to put on TMO. All was fine, or so it should have been.

Anyway, SH4 wouldn't even act like it's starting up. No opening video or anything. Hmmm.

Well I figured I'd remove the TMO addon and recheck the download with verify files. Sure enough it needed to download another 2202 files even though Steam said it had finished the download and the game was ready.

OK, so I wait for the 2202 files to finish. Then, just for grins, I figured I'd re-verify the files intact once again, before seeing if the game would run. Sure enough, 8 more files needed to be downloaded. After that the game ran fine under Windows 7. It was getting late so I didn't re-install TMO. Next time I'm over there, I'll put on TMO 1.9 with patch.

Point is: Steam doesn't have a very reliable download process. Apparently, it builds a list of what files it needs to download for the game and then requests them to be downloaded. But if your connection is not supreme, some of those files may not make it and get aborted. Steam just downloads the next file in the list and moves on. Never going back to request the botched file again. As soon as it gets through the end of the list, it says game is complete. But it is not.

I wonder how may people, bought a game from Steam, and downloaded it, then tried to run it, have it crash on them for odd reasons and blame the game for the crashing, when it was Steam's fault for not ensuring the game made it to the machine intact.

What a sad state of computing we live in today.

Just a little heads up on getting games from Steam. You MUST verify.

Steiger · 04-06-10, 03:34 PM

I have never had a single problem with Steam in the 6 or so years I've been using it. Sounds like the problem rests in your relation's internet connection.

magic452 · 04-07-10, 02:08 AM

Some people have had problems and what Bothersome found may explain some of the problems. It may be not Steam but an internet connection or a bad download. Either way Steam gets blamed.

Magic

Zosxavius · 04-07-10, 08:40 PM

Why is it that with steam when I run TMO 1.9 with RSRD TMO v502 and their associated patches the game locks constantly and a bunch of ships are suddenly missing textures. When I uninstall RSRD and leave TMO naked, everything works fine? I thought this was a golden combination? I've installed at least twice via steam (and yes turned off auto-updates and also installed just the U-boat addon first and also tried SH4 and then next the u-boat addon) and I keep getting the same result. Tried downloading different .zips of the mods even though I know they are all identical, just was thinking maybe I had a corrupt mod archive....

Anyways this is really making me mad. At ubisoft they swear that the steam version is the same, but they also say that they applied the patches differently than the gold DVD, whatever that means. Is the gold DVD version missing low res textures for the ships too? (try turning off high res textures, reload and go to the museum and the second battleship should be black with no texture)

Giving GWX a spin in the meantime. Holy smokes did they add a lot of stuff!

SH4 fan · 04-08-10, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zosxavius

Why is it that with steam when I run TMO 1.9 with RSRD TMO v502 and their associated patches the game locks constantly and a bunch of ships are suddenly missing textures. When I uninstall RSRD and leave TMO naked, everything works fine? I thought this was a golden combination? I've installed at least twice via steam (and yes turned off auto-updates and also installed just the U-boat addon first and also tried SH4 and then next the u-boat addon) and I keep getting the same result. Tried downloading different .zips of the mods even though I know they are all identical, just was thinking maybe I had a corrupt mod archive....

Anyways this is really making me mad. At ubisoft they swear that the steam version is the same, but they also say that they applied the patches differently than the gold DVD, whatever that means. Is the gold DVD version missing low res textures for the ships too? (try turning off high res textures, reload and go to the museum and the second battleship should be black with no texture)

Giving GWX a spin in the meantime. Holy smokes did they add a lot of stuff!

The verification procedure may not work. Here is the procedure I had to use to get a mostly stable TMO/RSDC installation

Code:

 0) Uninstall the game and delete the game registry keys after uninstall if 
they are still there
 1) run a reg clean program, and defrag
 2) install SH4 vanilla
 3) verify
  3a) if it needs to download more files, wait until you get a popup  then 
re-verify
 4) restart
 5) defrag
 6) reg clean
 7) test game without changing game settings
 8) install UBM
 9) repeat 3-7
 10) Install mods one at a time
 11) test after each mod is enabled without changing game settings
 12) repeat 10-11 until all mods are in and tested.

For TMO/RSRD
TMO 1.9
TMO patch
RSRD
RSRD patch

Then once everything is in and running go ahead and change the graphics settings. I did have a crash last night due to sound.act but that was after some playing.

tomoose · 04-08-10, 12:12 PM

I've had no probs with Steam at all. One thing I think might be a problem with the DL version is that Steam automatically updates games as soon as you link to Steam. This may be the issue with Bothersome in that there's more "update" files being sent etc.

For example I've played Day of Defeat and Red Orchestra and Steam will update certain files or whatever. The next day, I play again and there was another update which was automaticallyl dl'd (i.e. the game wouldn't start until the update was done). If this concept is the same for SH4 then any new update after TMO is installed may, and probably will, be a conflict as Steam won't know/recognize any 3rd party mod such as TMO ergo the game will crash/not start etc ad naus.

I'd highly recommend getting a DVD copy and avoiding this whole scenario. Combined with TMO 1.9 and any other mods on a seperate DVD you'll have the whole pack and easy re-installs if necessary.

04-06-10, 01:09 PM	#1
Bothersome Planesman Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 194 Downloads: 64 Uploads: 0	Something Steam user should be aware of. I come with a report for Silent Hunter users that may think Silent Hunter is buggy or won't run under windows whatever. Here's the story... I've been talking with my Step-Dad (he's like 80) about WW2 subs and this game SH4 for a few months. Well, he and I can go on for hours talking about such things. He is a retired Chief of the Boat from a modern missile boat. So he's into this stuff. Well a couple of days ago he decided he'd like to get this game and play it himself. I said, well, I get get you the game tonight, and so we went off to Steam to get it downloading. Well his connection was going to take another 4 hours or so to fetch it, so I came back over the next day and to install the TMO 1.9 to get him all fixed up. First mistake I made was not actually trying to run the game as installed by Steam the first time. I put TMO on before even trying to run it for first time. Figured it wouldn't matter. By the way, I knew to turn off the updates for SH4 and for U-boats addon before attempting to put on TMO. All was fine, or so it should have been. Anyway, SH4 wouldn't even act like it's starting up. No opening video or anything. Hmmm. Well I figured I'd remove the TMO addon and recheck the download with verify files. Sure enough it needed to download another 2202 files even though Steam said it had finished the download and the game was ready. OK, so I wait for the 2202 files to finish. Then, just for grins, I figured I'd re-verify the files intact once again, before seeing if the game would run. Sure enough, 8 more files needed to be downloaded. After that the game ran fine under Windows 7. It was getting late so I didn't re-install TMO. Next time I'm over there, I'll put on TMO 1.9 with patch. Point is: Steam doesn't have a very reliable download process. Apparently, it builds a list of what files it needs to download for the game and then requests them to be downloaded. But if your connection is not supreme, some of those files may not make it and get aborted. Steam just downloads the next file in the list and moves on. Never going back to request the botched file again. As soon as it gets through the end of the list, it says game is complete. But it is not. I wonder how may people, bought a game from Steam, and downloaded it, then tried to run it, have it crash on them for odd reasons and blame the game for the crashing, when it was Steam's fault for not ensuring the game made it to the machine intact. What a sad state of computing we live in today. Just a little heads up on getting games from Steam. You MUST verify.

04-06-10, 03:34 PM	#2
Steiger Planesman Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 187 Downloads: 20 Uploads: 0	I have never had a single problem with Steam in the 6 or so years I've been using it. Sounds like the problem rests in your relation's internet connection. __________________

04-07-10, 02:08 AM	#3
magic452 Sea Lord Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Reno Nevada USA Posts: 1,860 Downloads: 85 Uploads: 0	Some people have had problems and what Bothersome found may explain some of the problems. It may be not Steam but an internet connection or a bad download. Either way Steam gets blamed. Magic __________________ Reported lost 11 Feb. 1942 Signature by depthtok33l

04-08-10, 12:12 PM	#6
tomoose Grey Wolf Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 930 Downloads: 23 Uploads: 0	No probs with Steam I've had no probs with Steam at all. One thing I think might be a problem with the DL version is that Steam automatically updates games as soon as you link to Steam. This may be the issue with Bothersome in that there's more "update" files being sent etc. For example I've played Day of Defeat and Red Orchestra and Steam will update certain files or whatever. The next day, I play again and there was another update which was automaticallyl dl'd (i.e. the game wouldn't start until the update was done). If this concept is the same for SH4 then any new update after TMO is installed may, and probably will, be a conflict as Steam won't know/recognize any 3rd party mod such as TMO ergo the game will crash/not start etc ad naus. I'd highly recommend getting a DVD copy and avoiding this whole scenario. Combined with TMO 1.9 and any other mods on a seperate DVD you'll have the whole pack and easy re-installs if necessary.

04-07-10, 08:40 PM	#4
Zosxavius Watch Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 17 Downloads: 2 Uploads: 0	Why is it that with steam when I run TMO 1.9 with RSRD TMO v502 and their associated patches the game locks constantly and a bunch of ships are suddenly missing textures. When I uninstall RSRD and leave TMO naked, everything works fine? I thought this was a golden combination? I've installed at least twice via steam (and yes turned off auto-updates and also installed just the U-boat addon first and also tried SH4 and then next the u-boat addon) and I keep getting the same result. Tried downloading different .zips of the mods even though I know they are all identical, just was thinking maybe I had a corrupt mod archive.... Anyways this is really making me mad. At ubisoft they swear that the steam version is the same, but they also say that they applied the patches differently than the gold DVD, whatever that means. Is the gold DVD version missing low res textures for the ships too? (try turning off high res textures, reload and go to the museum and the second battleship should be black with no texture) Giving GWX a spin in the meantime. Holy smokes did they add a lot of stuff!