[TEC] SH5.exe patches to fix bugs and add functionality

[Sjizzle]

no offence m8 but TDW genericpatcher it's not a mod and it's only made for SH5 ....TDW's Genericpatcher it's a aplication ....

[Gryffon300]

Originally Posted by Sjizzle

no offence m8 but TDW genericpatcher it's not a mod and it's only made for SH5 ....TDW's Genericpatcher it's a aplication ....

Whatever. Tell me where I CAN post the question for the author of the mod and I'll happily leave you alone.

G

[Mikemike47]

Originally Posted by Gryffon300

Whatever. Tell me where I CAN post the question for the author of the mod and I'll happily leave you alone.

Originally Posted by Gryffon300

TMO 2.5
RSRDC TMO V502
RSRDC V5xx Patch1
1.5 OTC 031312 for RSRDC v502
OTC Gato Sonar Bearing Fix
Less Plankton 1.2
LST TMO v2
TDW Ship Plane Fire Damage v1 4 SH3
Websters Real Lifeboats Fix for v1.5

Try the SH4 fleet boat mods section. Is "TDW Ship Plane Fire Damage v1 4 SH3" for SH3 not SH4?

[gap]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

I actually need a couple of ships...

You got plenty of them

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

...and a test mission to test the code out

If you are busy with other stuff, I can create the test mission. For ease of testing, should I remove armaments from the guinea pig ships?

[Mikemike47]

@TDW:
I think it would be great idea to add another help link to the bottom of post #1, under the "How to use the patcher app:" section. Many newbies are asking questions. The additional link may reduce the number of posts asking for help in various threads, too.

How to USE TDW GenericPatcher for Beginer

Another post on different thread asking for help example

[Gryffon300]

Originally Posted by Mikemike47

Try the SH4 fleet boat mods section. Is "TDW Ship Plane Fire Damage v1 4 SH3" for SH3 not SH4?

I'm really sorry we are having such a communication problem - I thought I was being very clear. As I have said multiple times now, the author of the Mod (The DarkWraith), has "ported the mod"across all three of SH3, 4 and 5, but HAS NOT put a thread of any kind in SH4 Fleet Boats Mods or anywhere else in SH4.

I get that he is not interested in working on or developing SH4 mods, but I didn't expect there would be such dismissive antagonism toward us pathetic non-SH5 losers. The fact that I, like others, have been active in all versions of the franchise since SH1, means that SH5 is an inevitable progression for me, largely due to the excellent work of TDW to 'fix' it. That fact that he has done equally terrific work for previous versions, and made some work cross-version is apparently not at all understood here. You guys in '5' seem a little insular, to say the least. Apparently, no-one here gives a damn about an issue from a fellow traveller. It's OK. I get it. Message recieved and understood. Nice to know where we stand. I'll leave you to your naval fluff.

I'm not having a go at you mikemike - at least you attempted to be helpful. It's just 'the vibe' over here that is cold and very unwelcoming. Have a look at all my posts. Either completely ignored or, like yours, makes assumptions that I had already made clear did not apply.

[gap]

Hi Gryffon

seeing that the discussion is reaching a deadlock, and that TDW is delaying his answers, I thought I would have a go at it myself. Please read below.

Originally Posted by Gryffon300

I'm really sorry we are having such a communication problem - I thought I was being very clear. As I have said multiple times now, the author of the Mod (The DarkWraith), has "ported the mod"across all three of SH3, 4 and 5, but HAS NOT put a thread of any kind in SH4 Fleet Boats Mods or anywhere else in SH4.

As far as I can understand, the mod that you are talking about is a porting of FX Update to SH4, so the FX Update thread would be the best place to discuss your report.

Anyway, having read it carefully, I would say the best solution would be increasing drastically batlleship hit points. For sure SH5 needs a general AP/HP rebalance. I feel that dev's settings are too generic, and don't reflect the actual "strenghts" of each hull/fuselage; HP's in particular are too low, giving the game a too arcadey damage handling. I don't know much about SH4 settings, but it is likely that it got the same problems.

Originally Posted by Gryffon300

I get that he is not interested in working on or developing SH4 mods, but I didn't expect there would be such dismissive antagonism toward us pathetic non-SH5 losers. The fact that I, like others, have been active in all versions of the franchise since SH1, means that SH5 is an inevitable progression for me, largely due to the excellent work of TDW to 'fix' it. That fact that he has done equally terrific work for previous versions, and made some work cross-version is apparently not at all understood here. You guys in '5' seem a little insular, to say the least. Apparently, no-one here gives a damn about an issue from a fellow traveller. It's OK. I get it. Message recieved and understood. Nice to know where we stand. I'll leave you to your naval fluff.

Not at all, we SH5 players are aware tha "our" game owes obviously a lot to SHIII/IV, both in terms of vanilla code and of third party mods/units which were ported to the newest version of the game. Though not playing them, I myself am highly interested into any new development made on SH5's predecessors, and I read about them as often as possible. I usually don't post in the SHIII/IV sections as I don't have a direct experience of these games, and too many of my assertions about them should be taken with a picnh of salt. Yet, in the past I have timely informed cocerned SHIII/IV modders when I thought that something new had been discovered on SH5 that could apply to its older brothers, and the few mods I have released are available for being ported to them, if possible.

I am talking mostly for my part indeed, but I am sure that many SH5 modders/players could subscribe the above assertions without thinking it twice.

Originally Posted by Gryffon300

I'm not having a go at you mikemike - at least you attempted to be helpful. It's just 'the vibe' over here that is cold and very unwelcoming. Have a look at all my posts. Either completely ignored or, like yours, makes assumptions that I had already made clear did not apply.

I am really sorry that you had such a bad feeling, but please read again the first row of your report: it was addressed straight to TDW, so it is obvious that you expected a tecnical answer by him and only by him. Other members just pointed politely that your post was off topic here, as they were unaware that the discussed mod has not a specific thread in the SH4 section.

[Mikemike47]

@gap. Thanks for your input. Now I do not have to write as much. Same thoughts here.

Originally Posted by Gryffon300

Here is my current Mod line-up (in this order):
TMO 2.5
RSRDC TMO V502
RSRDC V5xx Patch1
1.5 OTC 031312 for RSRDC v502
OTC Gato Sonar Bearing Fix
Less Plankton 1.2
LST TMO v2
TDW Ship Plane Fire Damage v1 4 SH3
Websters Real Lifeboats Fix for v1.5

The only suggestion I have had is the possibility that the fire damage mod may be the issue.

Proof of fire damage and caused by TDW Ship Plane Fire Damage v1 4 SH3? TDW may not play all of the other mods. Did you inform him somehow that the fire damage mod does not overwrite any files above it? (From my memory) Screenshots or written data for TDW to evaluate? Use SH4 validator or JSGME validator and provide that information?

Did you put all the information on your post to the TDW Ship Plane Fire Damage v1 4 SH3 (SH4) thread? PM TDW?

Originally Posted by Mikemike47

Try the SH4 fleet boat mods section. Is "TDW Ship Plane Fire Damage v1 4 SH3" for SH3 not SH4?

I have played SH2, SH3 and SH4. I have gotten much help when I asked, due to the wonderful world of the internet and fellow subsimmers, when I was consumed with playing SH3 and SH4. I think I just started playing SH5 12-18 months ago. I have gotten as much help here on SH5, too.

Originally Posted by Gryffon300

As I have said multiple times now, the author of the Mod (The DarkWraith), has "ported the mod"across all three of SH3, 4 and 5, but HAS NOT put a thread of any kind in SH4 Fleet Boats Mods or anywhere else in SH4.

Of course TDW posted some threads somehow on SH3 or SH4. Maybe someone else added the download links. How would we know otherwise about TDW Ship Plane Fire Damage v1 4 SH3 or something like DC Water Disturbances mod? At least, he was helping SH3 or SH4 to make the games better.

TDW has stated somewhere that he can not dedicate alot his time to SH3 or SH4; or does not want to. He wants to work on SH5 for his own reasons and we are grateful for that. He explained his reasons somewhere.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by Mikemike47

@TDW:
I think it would be great idea to add another help link to the bottom of post #1, under the "How to use the patcher app:" section. Many newbies are asking questions. The additional link may reduce the number of posts asking for help in various threads, too.

How to USE TDW GenericPatcher for Beginer

Another post on different thread asking for help example

Added to bottom of post #1

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by Gryffon300

Sorry if this is not the way to do it, but I have a request/suggestion. Your excellent "Unit damage from smoke and/or fires" mod that is usable now for SH 3, 4 and 5, is largely unknown over in SH 4 (especially among newer players), because there is neither a thread about it in the Mods workshop, nor is it uploaded to the Gameplay mods for SH 4 (or 3? - I haven't looked).

If its not a total pain, do you think you could maybe put a thread or arrange to have it uploaded to the appropriate download spots?

Doing a forum search you will find it:
My depth charge water disturbances for SH4: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=181540
My Ship damage from fires for SH4: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=180920

I also made those for SH3 and doing a forum search will find them.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by Gryffon300

The only suggestion I have had is the possibility that the fire damage mod may be the issue. Comments?

More than likely damage and flooding is spreading throughout the ship due to the ship damage from fires mod. You can tweak the damage from the fires of the mod by editing the .dat file of the mod:

Small_Fire_DC
Large_fire_DC

You'll want to edit their AmmoDamageInfo controllers and change the MinEF, MaxEF, AP, MinRadius, and MaxRadius. The MinEF and MaxEF determine ultimately how many HPs the zones in the path of the fire incur damage.

You can also change the time of how often the damage from the fires is called by playing with the values in the Small_fire_damage and Large_fire_damage ParticleGenerators.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by Mikemike47

At least, he was helping SH3 or SH4 to make the games better.

TDW has stated somewhere that he can not dedicate alot his time to SH3 or SH4; or does not want to. He wants to work on SH5 for his own reasons and we are grateful for that. He explained his reasons somewhere.

I modded SH3 but under a different forum name. I produced many mods for SH3, probably the most notable being the SH4 effects for SH3 mod and my live AI ships mod. There were many good ones I made for SH3.

SH3/4 are outdated engines. They don't even come close to the possibilities we have with SH5. When SH5 came out everybody dismissed it as junk. Yes, it was junk as delivered and even with the first patch from Ubi. If you were to 'take a look under the hood' though you'd see the possibilities that SH5 has. It's pretty amazing actually. I'm just beginning to tap into it's possibilities with my Generic Patcher

[TheDarkWraith]

Time for an update. I had some severe limitations with my 'infrastructure' that I had coded into SH5 with my Generic Patcher. I could not easily add additional timers or commands to the game. Thus something had to be done about it.

I basically rewrote my entire infrastructure and framework to make it behave like a plug-in architecture. With a plug-in architecture it's very easy to add additions, add new code, etc. to the supporting framework. And I have accomplished this (totally coded in assembly!)

With my new framework and architecture adding new timers, code for the new timers, adding new commands to the game, new code for those new commands, etc. is just a simple matter of telling the framework where to find the new code and 'plugging-in' the offsets needed so the framework can find the needed strings and code. The other great thing about my new architecture and framework is expandability and scalability. I'm no longer 'hard-coded' to certain things, I am free to do whatever my mind comes up with. If other people decide to add new items/commands/etc. to the game via assembly they can use my plug-in architecture to easily add their new additions. If one could view the code I wrote for all of this as a painting it would be the Mona Lisa.

Currently I have added six new commands to the game:

Independent engine controls:
Both_engines_for_speed
Port_engine_only
Stbd_engine_only

Electric engines on surface:
Enable_electrics_surfaced
Disable_electrics_surfaced
Toggle_electrics_surfaced

Currently these commands can only be accessed by using the script engine the devs included with the game. By using this command:

Game.SubmarineCommands.ExecuteCommand()

You can invoke the new commands above. Here is an example:

Game.SubmarineCommands.ExecuteCommand( "Toggle_electrics_surfaced" )


I'll be releasing a test version here very soon so you all can test all the changes. I've been testing it for the last 2 days and haven't noticed any problems. I'm hoping for none but to think I wrote 100% perfect code would be foolish thinking (it hardly ever happens!). Thus by releasing a test version there will be many people testing the new framework and architecture for bugs/CTDs.

One thing you will notice is the addition of a new section to the SH5.exe: TDWMisc. This new section basically contains all the new command strings but I've made it readable, writable, and executable so that it's very flexible and can be used as I see fit.

The next version of the Generic Patcher has two new groups added to the sh5.exe: Hydrophone and Advanced Users. Currently the two patches dealing with the hydrophone are grouped under the Hydrophone group. Those functions I see fit for advanced users have been placed under the Advanced Users group (Orbit listener patches, Render patches, and some others). This should make it really easy for newbies to quit enabling every single patch since they don't care to read/investigate the patches (Files= and Notes=). If one enables the patches under Advanced Users they do it under their own risk.

I've added the Advanced Users group to other patch files as necessary/needed.

[Sartoris]

Thank you for your hard work, TDW! Can't wait to give it a try.

[TheDarkWraith]

In addition to the new electric engines on surface patch there will be two additional new patches:
- CO2 rate increase on battlestations (causes CO2 level to increase faster when battlestations enabled)
- Disable automatic battery recharge (disables the game's automatic switching to battery recharge when surfacing)

The broken hydrophone patch was rewritten to kill the bug of unknown being shown when the hydrophone needle was placed anywhere near aft end of sub. Now you will be able to hear hydrophone contacts in the aft area of the sub (if your hydrophone installed on the sub supports it).
I'm adding some new code to the hydrophone that will allow it to show Environmental and Submarine in addition to Merchant, Warship, and Unknown. I'm pretty sure a hydrophone operator can distinguish submarines and environmentals from all the others

There might be some other new patches included in next version. Depends on time...


I revised many of the patches that could have interference with AI subs to avoid this interference. Previously the AI subs could be influencing whether the player's sub was surfaced, submerged, or was able to change speeds of each shaft (from a code aspect)

The carriers/airbases spawning aircraft patch was revised to add new min/max limits for the logic steps value when the bit was set denoting logic steps needed to be adjusted (currently min=1 and max=4). It was also revised to prevent the player's overzealous radio operator from radioing for assistance without permission. I also added two new arguments passed to all the functions dealing with carriers/airbases spawning aircraft: is human playable and do not check for radio. These let the functions test for whether the unit asking for assistance is human playable (and if so returns to caller) and whether the unit can send/receive radio (currently not fully coded - returns 1 back to callee denoting radio is operational).