Steam Download and GWX 3.0

[danlisa]

As I avoid Steam like the plague this is my only suggestion and if you think it can be accomplished safely, it maybe worth the effort.Firstly, I suspect that your current install is slaved to the Steam shell and this may cause GWX's intelligent installer some problems.I assume this is your install path?

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Silent Hunter III\

I suggest that you Copy the entire Silent Hunter III directory (complete install) to another location. Then uninstall or delete the Steam version and then (this is the important step) run a registry cleaner to remove the referencing link between Steam and SH3. You should now be able to use the copied version (from it's current location) of SH3 without it being linked to Steam (that is unless Steam have a modified EXE file, which is also fixable ).

Secondly, GWX's installer should have created a txt dump on your desktop detailing the specifics of the errors. Did you get one? Something like this:

DEBUG: Test 1 PASSED
DEBUG: Test 2 PASSED Version is 1.4.0.1
DEBUG: Test 3 PASSED
DEBUG: Test 4 FAILED Size is 6760734
DEBUG: Test 5 FAILED Size is 70298
DEBUG: Test 6 Seems to have PASSED IF Size is not Zero - Size is 1138405

Edit - Also, are you using XP or Vista?

[Snorkle]

Originally Posted by danlisa

I suspect that your current install is slaved to the Steam shell and this may cause GWX's intelligent installer some problems.I assume this is your install path?

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Silent Hunter III\

I suggest that you Copy the entire Silent Hunter III directory (complete install) to another location.

I have much the same problem.

I copied the game directory to my D: drive and successfully applied GWX3 to the copied location, but when trying to launch the game I get a "load error A:0000065558" from Steam shell - supposedly Steam is still pointed to the C: installation.

Then uninstall or delete the Steam version and then (this is the important step) run a registry cleaner to remove the referencing link between Steam and SH3.

I haven't dared do this yet because I'm afraid I' won't be able to backup the installation if needed, and I fear losing ongoing careers. Guess there's just one way to know eh?

You should now be able to use the copied version (from it's current location) of SH3 without it being linked to Steam (that is unless Steam have a modified EXE file, which is also fixable ).

How do you fix the exe? I tried looking through the registry (run: regedit) but couldn't find the pertinent values.

I've queried Valve's support but the jury's still out on how to disassociate Steam from running 3rd party exe's.

[danlisa]

Don't do anything you're not comfortable about, like I said I'm talking about solutions I have no experience with but are sound in theory.

I copied the game directory to my D: drive and successfully applied GWX3 to the copied location, but when trying to launch the game I get a "load error A:0000065558" from Steam shell - supposedly Steam is still pointed to the C: installation.

As I feared, Steam utilises a modified exe or process intercept to ensure that the owner can only run the game within the shell. What would happen if you copied back in the GWX modded version to the Steam default location (Create another backup to be safe).

FWIW, this is why I hate Steam, it allows you no freedom on the content you own.

Lets leave the exe out of this for a moment (it's a last resort). Conduct another Registry search and specifically search for SH3.exe or the Steam path for the installation directory. Within the results, you should be able to find a pointer reference which directs all initiated SH3 processes to the Steam default shell. You should then be able to point it to your GWX modded copy on D: (there maybe more than 1 reference).

Alternatively, sit tight for a bit to see if anyone else has suggestions.

[Snorkle]

I think I'll simply save the ongoing careers separately and apply GWX to the C: install. If it doesn't work I guess I can always delete and reinstall to the stock 1.4 version, either via Steam or from the backup CD image files.

Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.