SH5: Bugs, glitches, and issues thread

[Schultz]

Watch crew still remains on the conning tower even when I press periscope depth, like in sh4.

[tsotha]

Concerning the scope. The observation scope has an eyepiece that goes up and down with the main tube of the scope, when completely lowered this eyepiece is deep in a well. This is why you can lower the observation scope when you are at it.

Okay, assuming you mean "cannot", and the behavior is actually intended, then this is another case of bad interface design. Any of these things seem reasonable to me for the observation scope:

1. The motor sound stops when you get to the lowest point of travel.
2. <ctrl pg-dn> takes you out of the station.
3. The scope goes down automatically when you exit the station.

#3 seems like the most reasonable. The current behavior is just silly.

[Captain Strangelove]

Hello Folks.

Is anyone else having the problem that the campaign doesn't start? Instead SH5 quits and I am back on the Windows Desktop. Single Missions do work, though.
I have the latest ATI drivers for my 1GB 4850 graphics card and I use Windows XP. I tried changing graphics settings (windowed mode, lower resolution,...) and also played around with the campaign name, but to no avail.

Cheers

Kai

EDIT: this was due to an older version of ZoneAlarm. I installed the latest version and now it works!

[Turm]

Originally Posted by Turm

Example of ship beyond the horizon that the Watch Officer can 'see'. By choosing "Turn off TDC", the red triangle appears and should point exactly to the ship. Alas, can you see one?



No, nor can I. Anyway... <snip>

Further to my previous report of ships 'beyond the horizon' that my watch crew can see, it appears the problem might be down to smoke stacks not being drawn at a distance.

First of all, here's a distant ship that my WO has just spotted, giving me the 'Lock' option, but nothing at all is visible for me. For reference, I'm running on the highest settings, except shadows which are turned off:



And more detailed evidence as follows:

Here's a destroyer a few km away - small, but visible:



There's no smoke from the stacks, but he is moving.

Taking the external camera over to him, the smoke is there (much fainter than in SH3, but still present):



On switching back to my periscope, what do I see? Smoke! But the source of the effect stops immediately I'm back at the periscope, and only the existing smoke already in the air (from when the external camera was near to the ship) can be seen:



A couple of seconds later, that smoke has faded away, and I'm left with no smoke again:



The ship is still moving, but smoke is never created/spawned/emitted from the funnels from my distant viewing position.

As I am playing without map contacts, I can't say at what range the smoke 'starts' to draw. This could also be down to graphics cards or drivers or some other such thing. I have a 9800GTX+ with version 195.62 drivers, just for reference.

Could some other users check this out? It's probably the reason for the watch crew spotting ships that the user can't see. And it may well not affect everyone, as I've seen only a few other complaints related to this.

[sergei]

My watch crew frequently spot things that I cannot see, not even a sliver of mast or some smoke.
I've just downloaded a funnel smoke mod to make the smoke thicker.
Won't have a chance to test it out tonight, but I'll check it out tomorrow and let you know if it improves matters.

[Turm]

Thanks sergei I wouldn't even mind the faint smoke that is there, if it showed up at all!


And another bundle of little errors/omissions/glitches to throw into the mix.

1) On the compact TAI, distance indicators are way too tightly packed to be usable, especially when making lines of a horizontal nature:



On a vertical line it's just acceptable.

On the maximised TAI map, or on the main nav map, the spacing is absolutely fine for any angle of line.


2) With some regularity (maybe 1 in 5 times), when I select the UZO, I'm given a 1x zoom display, and a double-overlay - a kind of combination of the UZO sight and the periscope sight. Here's an example looking back at the WO standing next to the UZO itself:



If I roll the mousewheel up, it zooms in and gives me the regular UZO sight (after which I can't zoom back, which is correct).


3) When trying to run decks awash (even described in one of the loading screen tips!), the boat is considered to be 'underwater' (as indicated in the top-right), yet the basic depth meter shows we're still surfaced, and I am able to walk around on deck. The watch crew have all disappeared below and I also can't open the hatch to get into the boat, unless I issue the 'surface' command first.



Perhaps the threshold for what is considered 'submerged' and what is considered 'surfaced' could be altered. I know, this behaviour was the same in SH3, but would be nice if had been given proper consideration, especially considering the game tip on the loading screen.

I set decks awash by using the advanced depth control and ordering 6-7 metres. To enemy ships' sensors, it probably considers me underwater, so could be a minor exploit.


4) In the Conning Tower, the compass is inactive. Moreover, the inner 10° dial is missing, in place of a speed dial texture! In either case, none of the two discs move at all (I know the boat is heading roughly north in this example, and the compass shows north, but that's just coincidence):



It's a shame, as all the other compass dials throughout the boat seem to work correctly (including the inner dials), which is excellent to see

Oh, the clock in the conning tower is another for the list of broken clocks. Always shows 12 o'clock.


5) No engine sound when at All Stop with one engine running to recharge battery. The right dial shows a constant 500rpm when the batteries are recharging, but at all stop no engine is heard running, and they are both seen stopped if you take a walk to the engine room.

Since the left propeller doesn't run when recharging batteries, I'd assume the left engine would be the one that does the recharging - are the dials the wrong way around? (I'd expect the left dial to be for the left engine!)



Oh, and back to the Conning Tower - the two tachometers don't function at all in there, but no big deal really.


6) This doesn't always happen, but the TC dropped down to 1x, telling me something was about to happen. On the bridge I hear the sound of aircraft, they fly right overhead (2x Hurricanes), but at no point do my crew even notice them - see event log in lower-right.



The other issue of aircraft not attacking is already well reported.


7) This is a very minor cosmetic complaint. In fog, there's a kind of grey 'layer' over the whole screen, reducing the contrast to give the feeling of poor light and mist (blacks turn grey etc.). But the boat's interior still appears to be vivid and not washed out by the effect. It's probably a limitation of the game engine, but I find it a little ugly :



I think the nearby crew members look a bit too washed out given that they're only a couple of metres away (the fog isn't that thick), but if it wasn't for the view down the hatch it would look fine.

I can live with this, obviously

The game is still bloody gorgeous in every way Today I just noticed the subtle 3D wake from my sub when running 'Ahead Flank'. I watched those little curved waves trailing behind me for a good few minutes, in awe. Also noticed the constant 3D bow wave generated by a DD as it ploughed through the sea.

[man of iron]

on the way to the english coast in in second stage of career,spotted aircraft and cleared the bridge ,then ordered dive to perescope depth.Motors went to stop but the boat begain to move in reverse and dive.Now that must have been a sight for those costial command boys.This game needs work but i'm sure in six months we will be more worried about what will happen after the ''Good Times'' end then bugs in the game.
'

[T-Bone]

Anybody else having a problem ending a mission in campaign mode? When I click on end mission at home port to dock, the mission continues. Any ideas?

[capthelm]

playing lan mode mutliplayer

cant see dds search lights looking for other clients uboat ?

maybe this is a visual range setting that needs adjusted.

[tonschk]

I think The Dynamic Shadows are not yet perfect , the conning tower dont stop fully 100% the sun rays and you can see the shadow of the UZO through the partially transparent metal wall of the conning tower

[SabreHawk]

Originally Posted by tonschk

I think The Dynamic Shadows are not yet perfect , the conning tower dont stop fully 100% the sun rays and you can see the shadow of the UZO through the partially transparent metal wall of the conning tower

I thought I was seeing this last night, but was maybe my imagination. Thanks for comfirming this.

[Frederf]

Originally Posted by Turm

5) Only the left-hand tachometer works in the Command Room? I assume one is for the left engine and one for the right. The right one is permanently showing 500rpm, no matter what my engine speed is, or even at 'All Stop' as shown here...



6) This doesn't always happen, but the TC dropped down to 1x, telling me something was about to happen. On the bridge I hear the sound of aircraft, they fly right overhead (2x Hurricanes), but at no point do my crew even notice them - see event log in lower-right.



The other issue of aircraft not attacking is already well reported.

5) Are you sure you weren't recharging batteries? The engine will run even at all stop.

6) The Hurricanes have no bombs and thus don't attack. The game doesn't do gun strafing attacks.

Originally Posted by sofie_59

When you exit the Attack periscope, it dont go down when you hit the delete key.You have to go to bridge and hit delete,then it goes down

Are you sure? You have to hold down delete until it is fully down. In fact you should be able to lower the attack periscope while sitting in the seat since it is of the fixed-eyepoint telescoping type.

[SabreHawk]

Something else that is bugging me, is that info on waypoints and any ship icons on map aren't working when mousing over them.
But it seems to come and go.
Makes it hard to plot an intercept course not knowing how long it will take to get to a certain point.
And the other obvious things like no info on a target icon.
But like I said this function sometimes is working and sometimes not.

Seems like it stops working once I've done some TC'ing and then come back to 1x TC.

Edit: Ok, I got it figured. It has to do with the HUD, and whether it's on or off by use of the shift+Z command. Took me a while this evening to figure this out, but what had me fooled is that if I have the HUD shut off by shift+z, and then pull up the map the HUD appears but even so the info system is not on, but hit shift+z and it's back on.
And the same thing happens if with the HUD off and I switch to the external view, again the HUD appears but again the info system is off.
To get it back I have to use shift+z and it's back on just as in the map view.

So I suppose the real bug is the HUD appearing when the map or external view activated, but though it appears to be on, it actually is not. At least the info system associated with it is not, even though the HUD is displayed.

[Decoman]

Torpedo loading time is non existant. There is only a percentage counting upwards.

Edit: Seems that loading a torpedo into a tube only takes 3-4-5 minutes.

[Ghostmooner]

well my bug is that the volume of the game is very low and I have to turn up my speakers to max to hear anything.

I can't even play the game with it like this. I really hope it gets fixed soon or i'm selling my game on ebay.