Saved Campaign mission crashes when loading

[timmyg00]

Mods:
RSRDC_SH15_V550
RSRDC_V5xx_Patch1
3000 Yard Bearing Tool (1600x)
OTC for RSRDC_550

My campaign is at a point just before Operation Forager. I've been sent to a patrol area in the submarine picket line west of Guam/Saipan. I tooled around a few days in my patrol area since i got there early, and saved game once (let's call it SaveA) when i arrived. Then i made radar contact with the first elements of an incoming Japanese task force. I saved the game at this point too (SaveB). Headed northeast to get myself into position, dived to avoid a plane, then surfaced to regain the tactical picture. Big Big BIG task force. Saved at this point too (SaveC).

Forward a couple nights to when i have some time to play again. Tried to open SaveC - Loads to the "Please wait" point, then CTD. Same with SaveB. SaveA opens just fine.

I have two options:
- open SaveA and play thru the task force, make my attacks, if i survive, try to attack again, etc. It's rare that i get a long enough block of time to play for so long.
- try to find a way to open SaveC...

Has anyone encountered this before? Is there a way for me to open these saved games?

Thanks

TG

[DrBeast]

Originally Posted by timmyg00

Mods:
RSRDC_SH15_V550
RSRDC_V5xx_Patch1
3000 Yard Bearing Tool (1600x)
OTC for RSRDC_550

My campaign is at a point just before Operation Forager. I've been sent to a patrol area in the submarine picket line west of Guam/Saipan. I tooled around a few days in my patrol area since i got there early, and saved game once (let's call it SaveA) when i arrived. Then i made radar contact with the first elements of an incoming Japanese task force. I saved the game at this point too (SaveB). Headed northeast to get myself into position, dived to avoid a plane, then surfaced to regain the tactical picture. Big Big BIG task force. Saved at this point too (SaveC).

Forward a couple nights to when i have some time to play again. Tried to open SaveC - Loads to the "Please wait" point, then CTD. Same with SaveB. SaveA opens just fine.

I have two options:
- open SaveA and play thru the task force, make my attacks, if i survive, try to attack again, etc. It's rare that i get a long enough block of time to play for so long.
- try to find a way to open SaveC...

Has anyone encountered this before? Is there a way for me to open these saved games?

Thanks

TG

Long shot, but it might work: remove the Bearing Tool and try again.

I kept getting a CTD on the Tokyo Express mission today, as soon as I was about to make contact with a convoy. I removed the Bearing Tool (I use the 1920x version) and all went well.

[timmyg00]

Thanks, i'll have to try that.

TG

[Fish40]

If you have more than 2gigs of memory, try the 4gig patch. This utility allows SH4 to use more than 2gigs of memory. Cured lots of folks's CTD's., myself included. I was crashing around large convoys, TFs, and nearing harbors useing TC. Give it a try!

[timmyg00]

Originally Posted by Fish40

If you have more than 2gigs of memory, try the 4gig patch. This utility allows SH4 to use more than 2gigs of memory. Cured lots of folks's CTD's., myself included. I was crashing around large convoys, TFs, and nearing harbors useing TC. Give it a try!

Forgot to mention i am on SH4 1.5 (and Windows Vista) ... will the patch help this setup?

TG

[DrBeast]

Originally Posted by timmyg00

Forgot to mention i am on SH4 1.5 (and Windows Vista) ... will the patch help this setup?

TG

Certainly won't harm. You can find it here, it's a generic patcher which also works for a multitude of other games.

[CapnScurvy]

I don't know what the bearing tool would have to do with a saved game (well, maybe I do, I'll get to that in a minute), but I see one thing about your JSGME activation order you could change. You could put the bearing tool after the OTC mod. You would think I'd know, but I've got so many mods running through my head I'm not sure, but OTCv550 might over ride the benefits the bearing tool offers. I just don't remember if I put the bearing overlay that OTC for TMO 2.5 has into OTCv550? Anyway, add the bearing tool last in your activation order.

The second thought is just how large the 1600x bearing tool image is. It's really a larger file.
Can this make a difference in getting a CTD when a large saved point (a large convoy of ships are trying to be saved) along with the large bearing tool? Could be. The tolerances for any saved game seems to be the amount of memory it takes to render the complete screen over again. It also follows that your system makes a difference too, got a new computer with the latest and biggest video card and tons of memory? You probably won't have a care in the world. Have a mediocre setup, you may have trouble. Just food for thought.

What I should do is make a smaller group of bearing tools that covers only 1500 yards, not 3000 yards. I think that would lower the memory size of the bearing image, allowing for a smaller chance of stretching your system to the limit.

[DrBeast]

Originally Posted by CapnScurvy

The second thought is just how large the 1600x bearing tool image is. It's really a larger file.
Can this make a difference in getting a CTD when a large saved point (a large convoy of ships are trying to be saved) along with the large bearing tool? Could be. The tolerances for any saved game seems to be the amount of memory it takes to render the complete screen over again. It also follows that your system makes a difference too, got a new computer with the latest and biggest video card and tons of memory? You probably won't have a care in the world. Have a mediocre setup, you may have trouble. Just food for thought.

What I should do is make a smaller group of bearing tools that covers only 1500 yards, not 3000 yards. I think that would lower the memory size of the bearing image, allowing for a smaller chance of stretching your system to the limit.

You'd think a new rig with an i5 2500K processor, 4GB RAM (with the Large Address patch applied) and an ATi 6950 graphics card would chew SH4 up and spit it out, but unfortunately that is not the case. What truly baffles me is that, when playing v1.4, I'd encounter MUCH larger convoys with barely a hiccup AND with the 3000m Bearing Tool running (42MB per file as opposed to 35MB of the 3000y version).

To add to my confusion, I decided to add the 3000y Bearing Tool to one ship only and see what happens. So I slapped it on a Gato and picked a random Single Mission. A few minutes later I encountered the tell-tale sign of a convoy being picked up - stuttering - and half-expected a CTD. Well, not only did that not happen, but to my amazement I was looking at a convoy 6 times the size of the one that had caused my CTD in the Tokyo Express mission! Gotta love computers Needless to say, I'm gonna load Tokyo Express with this setup and investigate further.

ETA: Tried the Tokyo Express mission with Bearing Tools for Gato only. No CTD. Tried it again with Bearing Tools as is. No CTD. Say wut??

[timmyg00]

Originally Posted by CapnScurvy

What I should do is make a smaller group of bearing tools that covers only 1500 yards, not 3000 yards. I think that would lower the memory size of the bearing image, allowing for a smaller chance of stretching your system to the limit.

OR keep it at 3000 yards and take out all the range circles, instead having little dashes at each range interval along the 10-degree bearing lines? Would that decrease the file size?

TG

[timmyg00]

Well guys, thanks for all your help so far, but after trying all your suggestions, nothing has worked. I guess i could disable ALL my mods and reload them in the suggested order and see what happens (I only swapped around the bearing circle and OTC).

I'm open to other ideas!

TG

[CapnScurvy]

Originally Posted by timmyg00

OR keep it at 3000 yards and take out all the range circles, instead having little dashes at each range interval along the 10-degree bearing lines? Would that decrease the file size?

TG

No, that wouldn't help.

The problem isn't "what's in the image", but what's the overall size of the image. Just having a couple of lines drawn would still produce a huge memory file size at the size the 3000 yard 1600x image is drawn. I forget what the pixel width transferred into inches would be, but it's more related to feet in picture size than inches. It's just a huge "honking" image!!

The bearing tool image is that particular size to provide an accurate measurement when compared to the nav map ruler. At 1600x screen resolution the bearing tool has to be large to be correctly measured. Cutting down the images overall size will help, but changing the content within the image won't.

As far as your "order" of mod activation is concerned, I don't see a problem. Maybe, the 3000 yard bearing tool should be activated last, but other than that your order should be fine.

I'm still leaning towards the lack of system resources being used properly with a system on the edge of being too average to render the images correctly.

[WernherVonTrapp]

I've been involved in the Marianas Campaign/Operation Forager on several occasions. Only once with my new GPU. My last card, a GForce 9600 was able to handle the real-time graphics load, but unfortunately, I too lost a number of saved games. I'm still not absolutely certain as to why, but I know that at least 1 save with my NVIDIA 9600 was able to restart. The other 4 or 5 went to pot, and after some good kills too.

I think part of the problem is that you're dealing with more than just 1 large TF. In fact, I became wedged between 3 of them on a couple of encounters. I had two in succession on one side while another passed on my opposite side. Depending on your location, whether you've detected them yet, or not, you're dealing with a few large TFs that will put a strain on even the higher end cards. Especially if you save while all three TFs are within your sphere of influence. The only thing that has solved it for me was to upgrade to a better GPU, and so far, I've only tried it once with the new card. Who knows, maybe the next time it will again, fail to start for me.

[timmyg00]

Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp

I've been involved in the Marianas Campaign/Operation Forager on several occasions. Only once with my new GPU. My last card, a GForce 9600 was able to handle the real-time graphics load, but unfortunately, I too lost a number of saved games. I'm still not absolutely certain as to why, but I know that at least 1 save with my NVIDIA 9600 was able to restart. The other 4 or 5 went to pot, and after some good kills too.

I think part of the problem is that you're dealing with more than just 1 large TF. In fact, I became wedged between 3 of them on a couple of encounters. I had two in succession on one side while another passed on my opposite side. Depending on your location, whether you've detected them yet, or not, you're dealing with a few large TFs that will put a strain on even the higher end cards. Especially if you save while all three TFs are within your sphere of influence. The only thing that has solved it for me was to upgrade to a better GPU, and so far, I've only tried it once with the new card. Who knows, maybe the next time it will again, fail to start for me.

I think you're right about the multiple task forces. But what if they are not yet visible? They weren't in my BAD saved games, and they aren't yet visible in my Good saved games. Presumably there's nothing yet of the TF(s)for the GPU to render, right? Just the 3d interiors of the boat, and maybe the icons on the map?

EDIT: By "visible" i mean completely out of visual range... only detectable by radar on the surface.

TG