okeley dokely...taking the plunge..

[Gammel]

Good to hear all went well.
You like the graphics? Me too. It was like a dream come true to me
i saw it first time. I bought a new pc just for that game. Nothing to eat now, but who care´s?!

If you have a powerfull enough card and haven´t done already, try switching on antialiasing.
It`s not a game option. You will have to turn it on in your driver settings.


I had no broken savegame until now, but think it`s
a wise decision to make frequently backups of your
/my Documents/SH3 folder, if you´re on a career.
All userdata is stored there not in the game folder.
Also don´t save/reload with heavy traffic around your sub. Seems that the ai doesn´t like that.
Possible a bug, but not confirmed so far.

[rulle34]

Originally Posted by Gammel

If you have a powerfull enough card and haven´t done already, try switching on antialiasing.
It`s not a game option. You will have to turn it on in your driver settings.

Hello Gammel!
Can you explain this for me a little bit more. How do you turn antialiasing on in the driver settings?? I will for sure try this.
(P4, 3,4GHz, 1 GB RAM, Radeon X800 PE. I think the computer will make it.)

Best wishes
Rulle

[Gammel]

I use a tool to easy switch it on and off.

Once installed, right klick on the tray symbol, go to "Direct3d =>Antialiasing" and select 4x.

You can get "Ati tray tool" here: (homepage)
http://www.radeon2.ru/atitray/

In general i´m not a fan of tray applications, but this tool is a must for
ati-users. I would call it stable and there should be no problem on de-installing if you don´t like it (you will like it, i promise)
After installation there will be an fps display in the top right corner of the screen if you start a game or play video. Good for testing, but if you want to switch it off (Neverwinternights f.e. doesn´t like it) go to "tools and options => OSD and remove the first marker"

The tool has also options for overclocking your card. Please don´t do it!! Great chance of wrecking your hardware. During installation you will be asked to exclude overclocking options. Just say yes here.


If you are strict against such tools (like i was before)
you can switch AA in your ati driver settings. Hard to explain for me , cause i use a german win2k, and you prob. an english winXP. My bad english doesn´t make it easier. I´ll try:
1. Right klick on your desktop
2. A menue appears, left klick on properties
3. A window appears, you know it, you can change screensaver and desktop stuff here.
4. In the top right corner click on settings
5. In the low right corner click on additional settings
6. A new window appears, click on "3D" at the top right corner
7. I´m stuck now, don´t know how to explain further, my english is too bad. Perhaps you use the net-framework version of the ati-driver (there a 2 versions of the newer ati drivers, one with net and one without) and i don´t .

I suggest to use the tool, it´s safe and easy to use.

[Gammel]

A screenshot without AA
http://img92.echo.cx/img92/6060/30jt.jpg


And here´s one with AA on
http://img79.exs.cx/img79/5731/deckgun29nj.jpg

oops, there´s an error on the 2. picture. Found it?

Bad examples, i know. But i havn´t found better pics.
AA removes that "staircase" effect. Some games have an option for it, some like sh3 don´t.

[Floater]

CB!!!

It's great to see you here, mate. I hope you enjoy SH3 - it's amazing stuff.

For anyone that doesn't know, CB was probably the most imaginative modder in the SH2 world, and is a lot more clued-up than he admits. I've never known anyone with such a powerful lateral-thinking technique, and he's a hard and determined worker too. It really is great to see him in the SH3 world.

Oh, and BigFix? I don't think it comes with XP - maybe someone installed it on your system. It's an app that runs in the background and monitors the net for various software fixes applicable to your system, prompts you when new versions come out, and installs them if you want. It's freeware.

[CB..]

ok beat you to it on the anti alaising makes a world of difference (for a long winded way to the graphics cards settings right click on the desktop select properties then settings then advanced that should take you to your graphics cards options..

meantime sigh after a good few hours patroling my zone i came across a ship (i didn't really have time to see it ) but alas the game crashed and the pc auto restarted....some thing to do with realtek audio drivers according to the report....i reckon the ship spotted message may have caused the crash tho i didn't get chance to hear it...dang it....will need to mess about here it seems..or is this soemthing adressed by the patches?

[Gammel]

For anyone that doesn't know, CB was probably the most imaginative modder in the SH2 world, and is a lot more clued-up than he admits. I've never known anyone with such a powerful lateral-thinking technique, and he's a hard and determined worker too. It really is great to see him in the SH3 world.

It´s a big pleasure (honour) to talk to you here CB, i enjoyed every single of your posts in the sh2 forum, but just as a reader. I also used your mods (their´re still on my hd). Blaim it on my broken english if havn´t found the right words to talk to you. It´s great you are here.

Ugh..your game crashes? Yes, there was a solution offered with turning down the hardware acceleration with the tool "dxdiag" but i don´t believe it will work. Perhaps it´s worth a try. I also use realtek onboard sound (alc850, nforce4 board), hardware acceleration is set to max and i havn´t had not a single crash with the game.
Do you have some kind of memory testing software? Best i know is memtest86, wich is delivered with linux distributions.
Here is a link:
ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirror...mal-2005.0.iso
Burn to cd, reboot with cd in drive, when there is "boot" displayed type "memtest86" and let it run 2 or 3 hours...Watch for errors.
So you wrote your machine is new, hardware failure may be a possibility. There is an option in winXP to control the behavior in case of a fatal crash (like your´s was. Application crash should be just a CTD). Your's look like a driver or hardware failure..
Right click on "my computer, klick properties =>extended options or something =>start and reboot. There is a marker wich controls the behavior in case of a crash. Remove it and the famous Bluescreen will appear when the pc is crashing. With the marker set it will just reboot like yours. The bluescreen can give you important information about the cause of the crash.
Good luck CB. You will fix the error.

[joea]

You should patch up to 1.4 in any case CB...welcome to the addict's club.

[rulle34]

Big thanks Gammel and CB for tips and help!
I have the "ATI Catlyst Control Center installed" so I opened it and there I could find settings for antialaising. I tried on 4x and it was like buying a new grafics-card :P
I couldn't believ it would make such a difference.

I have now put settings for 6x. Looks great so far. Is there any problems with 6x instead for 4x as you recommended Gammel?

I was playing SH 2 a lot before but was not so good at modding, but I can see that you CB are some authority in this so I take the opprtunity to welcome you too

On thing about CTD. I run SH 3 patch 1.4, and have it quite heavy modded. I have also "tweaked" some mods to just suit me. Its very stable and almost never CTD. The only time I have had CTD's is when you are fiddeling with soundfiles, it have to be in mono. Another is when changing the Campaign_RND (or SCR).files. And start in harbour after a savegame! Otherwise it should be stabile!

This is my experience. I hope I didn't "brake any known doors" cos I guess you already knows about this, but anyway!

Ps. Gammel; your english is not bad at all!

/Rulle

[SteamWake]

Yea I agree you should go ahead and patch up to 1.4b.

Just read the fix list for the reasons why :P

Just make sure your in port and un modded when you do.

[CB..]

Cheers Floater and guys many thanks for the praise !!

i've set the hardware exceleration for the sound to basic and ran a few missions and so far it has been ok...only other issue i stumbled across was after clicking on the stern tube in the crew management screen for the IIB the task bar vanished lol...so i had the game full screen with no icon bar etc along the bottom..looked much better but not very practicle...i reloaded the save and it solved it ...other than that things are going ok (im sure they'll be more trouble ahead but with every-ones help i hope it will all get sorted out bit by bit) only mod i've added so far is to reduce the volume of the diesel engines (after an hour the row gets on my nerves and i prefer to listen to the waves ! )

on my fourth mission and still haven't sunk anything (lol-- )
had a huge chase and cat and mouse game with a lone merchant which after an hour or two and a belly full of torps- only one hit- which turned out to be a good thing as it turned out to be neutral lol many apologies all round...

going to sit with the unpatched game for a while longer and do some more reading round the forum for info ..
Floater!! have you gotten up-graded for SH3 are you able to run the game now? have you had a look at the in game editor and got any plans at all?
you skills are worth a tanker of renown !!!

the crew management sytem is very intrigue-ing it is kind of annoying yet at the same time it is great...bity like UBi have taken a hand full of "baldurs gate" and sprinkled it into a subsim lol...really broadens the gameplay ..even if it is a bit frustrating to use..(well at the start of a career anyway before the crew get "hardened up")


cheers again for all the advice guys all read and noted manythanks!...

[Floater]

CB, you can toggle the bottom menu on and off by pressing the "." (dot) key on the numeric keypad. Maybe you hit that by accident?

And no, I've no plans to develop any software for SH3. Kriegstanz was fun, but I'd rather concentrate on something else for now. I've had a quick look at the SH3 mission editor, and I've heard of problems with it, but I just don't want to go down the Kriegstanz route all over again.

And yes, I've got a new PC that runs SH3 very well indeed (Starforce problems aside). Guess what the was the first thing I did when it arrived? Installed SH3. Not looked back.

Gammel: many thanks for the tips about anti-aliasing. I've just installed the app you linked to, set AA to 4x, and the difference is amazing, particularly in water reflections. I'd like to see what reply anyone gives to rull34's post about increasing it further. ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (512MB) here.

[Gammel]

Good morning!

try the 6x setting if you like but for me it didn´t make much improvement compared to 4x. Also my videocard is on the edge of good performance with 4x. My game is heavily modded (I use almost all improved skin mods, better smoke etc).
When i leave port i have around 20 fps.
Switch to 6x and check performance maybe your card can handle it.

Another quality improvment setting is "anisotropic texture filtering", also accessable with the tool. Change it to "8x + quality" and do some testing. But it´s not such a booster like AA.
Don´t forget to set both back to default (application controlled) if you want to play another game, some games have their own options for AA and that anisotropic stuff.

Have to go to the dentist now, ugh

[CB..]

Originally Posted by Floater

CB, you can toggle the bottom menu on and off by pressing the "." (dot) key on the numeric keypad. Maybe you hit that by accident?

[FAdmiral]

CB is back !!! Good News !! Now we can finally get a good
working resupply system in SH3.....

JIM