Depth Charge Mods

[Krisenvorsorgezentrum]

No way to get Depth Charge water disturbances running?

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Krisenvorsorgezentrum

No way to get Depth Charge water disturbances running?

Not that I know of, maybe someone else does. But the Noise mod works with no problems if desired.

Between the poor AI and other reasons (i.e., lost contact time variable, ai predictability, etc.), it really isn't needed though.

[schlechter pfennig]

From several months worth of intense experimentation, I'd identified the problem but there doesn't seem to be any workaround for it.

The mod works by spawning a Bold (and accessory effects) at the center of each depth charge explosion. Sounds simple, no? Well...



...no...it's not.

For whatever reason, spawning a Bold this way somehow corrupts the Campaign_RND file. Don't ask me why, or how, because I've never figured that out. What I do know is this:

• Anything with more than 40 RndGroup in the _RND file never reload without CTD
• RndGroup size between 20-40 randomly successfully reloads or CTDs, with it usually CTDing, with the CTD frequency increasing as the RndGroup size increases
• RndGroup between 10-20 randomly successfully reloads or CTDs, with it usually successfully loading at the low end, with the CTD frequency increasing as the RndGroup size increases
• RndGroup between 5-10 mostly successfully reloads, with random, occassional CTDs
• RndGroup between 1-5 almost always successfully reloads, with very rare CTDs

Even within subgroups there is no consistency. I've run a mission with a 40 RndGroup, had a successful save-and-load, only to run the same mission immediately a second time and have it CTD upon reload, yet if I reload the first mission save it still successfully reloads.

It would appear that the game is either corrupting, or incompletely saving, the "saved game" information. That's the only conclusion I can reach, as once a mission has been successfully saved, it can be reloaded time and time again.

What I don't understand is the correlation between having Bolds appear outside of being ejected from a Uboat, the Campaign_RND file, and the corruption of saving a game.

~Schlechter Pfennig

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by schlechter pfennig

From several months worth of intense experimentation, I'd identified the problem but there doesn't seem to be any workaround for it.

The mod works by spawning a Bold (and accessory effects) at the center of each depth charge explosion. Sounds simple, no? Well...



...no...it's not.

For whatever reason, spawning a Bold this way somehow corrupts the Campaign_RND file. Don't ask me why, or how, because I've never figured that out. What I do know is this:

• Anything with more than 40 RndGroup in the _RND file never reload without CTD
• RndGroup size between 20-40 randomly successfully reloads or CTDs, with it usually CTDing, with the CTD frequency increasing as the RndGroup size increases
• RndGroup between 10-20 randomly successfully reloads or CTDs, with it usually successfully loading at the low end, with the CTD frequency increasing as the RndGroup size increases
• RndGroup between 5-10 mostly successfully reloads, with random, occassional CTDs
• RndGroup between 1-5 almost always successfully reloads, with very rare CTDs

Even within subgroups there is no consistency. I've run a mission with a 40 RndGroup, had a successful save-and-load, only to run the same mission immediately a second time and have it CTD upon reload, yet if I reload the first mission save it still successfully reloads.

It would appear that the game is either corrupting, or incompletely saving, the "saved game" information. That's the only conclusion I can reach, as once a mission has been successfully saved, it can be reloaded time and time again.

What I don't understand is the correlation between having Bolds appear outside of being ejected from a Uboat, the Campaign_RND file, and the corruption of saving a game.

~Schlechter Pfennig

You're being to hard on yourself <g> As I said above, I've used your mod without a single ctd from it.
That I can remember anyway; been awhile.

I think it's a great mod that does exactly what it says it will do.

[FUBAR295]

Originally Posted by schlechter pfennig

From several months worth of intense experimentation, I'd identified the problem but there doesn't seem to be any workaround for it.

The mod works by spawning a Bold (and accessory effects) at the center of each depth charge explosion. Sounds simple, no? Well...



...no...it's not.

For whatever reason, spawning a Bold this way somehow corrupts the Campaign_RND file. Don't ask me why, or how, because I've never figured that out. What I do know is this:

• Anything with more than 40 RndGroup in the _RND file never reload without CTD
• RndGroup size between 20-40 randomly successfully reloads or CTDs, with it usually CTDing, with the CTD frequency increasing as the RndGroup size increases
• RndGroup between 10-20 randomly successfully reloads or CTDs, with it usually successfully loading at the low end, with the CTD frequency increasing as the RndGroup size increases
• RndGroup between 5-10 mostly successfully reloads, with random, occassional CTDs
• RndGroup between 1-5 almost always successfully reloads, with very rare CTDs

Even within subgroups there is no consistency. I've run a mission with a 40 RndGroup, had a successful save-and-load, only to run the same mission immediately a second time and have it CTD upon reload, yet if I reload the first mission save it still successfully reloads.

It would appear that the game is either corrupting, or incompletely saving, the "saved game" information. That's the only conclusion I can reach, as once a mission has been successfully saved, it can be reloaded time and time again.

What I don't understand is the correlation between having Bolds appear outside of being ejected from a Uboat, the Campaign_RND file, and the corruption of saving a game.

~Schlechter Pfennig

Thank you for the great explanation and hard work why the mod crashes the game. The analyst on the RndGroup is enlightening. I placed that in my ad hoc toolbox. Handy information none the less.

TDW's approach of was novel thinking outside of the box, using what the game gives you. To bad it is not doable in SH3.

Good hunting,
FUBAR295

[Krisenvorsorgezentrum]

Thanks 4 all your input, guys!