SH2 - Problems

[JohnR]

I am looking for help from anyone who has had similar problems to those I am experiencing with Silent Hunter 2. I have spent the weekend trying to install this on 2 computers. In each case I have installed a fresh copy of SH2 from CD then installed the 1.1 patch. The results have been as follows:

XP with 718mb memory & ATI Radeon 6800 graphics card with 32mb memory, Directx 9.0. Installs & then loads missions OK but every mission I have tried crashes at some early stage, e.g. this happen in Training Mission 1 as I move mouse in plot. Computer crashed with buzz - has to be turned off. This happens regardless of graphics level chosen - tried all choices including hi-res mod.

Win98SE with 128mb & Matrox Millenium 16mb graphics card. Directx8.0a. Again installs OK and opening movie, etc work fine. But whatever mission I try to load it halts on loading mission screen withfull red bar at bottom of screen. Computer crashed have to turn off.

Any help or ideas appreciated.

Thanks

JohnR

[Sailor Steve]

Have you downloaded the SHII 1.1 patch? The game won't run properly without it.

[JohnR]

Yes - in both cases fresh install of both SH2 and then 1.1 patch

[Wim Libaers]

You mention you tried different graphics settings. Does that include setting the detail level slider in the game to a low value, and turning certain options off?

Also, are your video card drivers updated to a recent version?

[JohnR]

Yes, I have tried various combinations of options, especially "fog" and moved the details slider down - no difference. The Win98 machine has "latest" video and audio drivers - it's quite old anyway. The XP machine does not have the latest Catylyst driver as this caused problems with some other programs when I tried it, but it is a much more recent machine than the game - I should be going back through drivers rather than forward?

John

[Palindromeria]

<< XP with 718mb memory & ATI Radeon 6800 graphics card with 32mb memory, Directx 9.0. >>

<< Win98SE with 128mb & Matrox Millenium 16mb graphics card. Directx8.0a. >>

Sorry to hear you having so much trouble.

I have heard that the newer ati / nvidia drivers dont work for sh2.

just guessing that your best bet is with the win98SE machine
because of the graphic card and

your gut instinct to try older drivers rather than newer is appropriate.
(make sure to save some system restore points b4 messing about )

i dont recall what version of Direct X is required for sh2.
double check that 8.0a is enough.

on my old machine i seem to recall HAVING to select my audio device and set channels to 16 instead of "primary sound driver" when sh2 config ran. never did understand why ...

also note when doing uninstall reinstall ,
you may need to use regedit to get rid of sh2 registry files.

hope that somehow helps ..
good luck

[JohnR]

Thanks, Palindromeria. Yes, I think I am safer messing with the Win98 machine as well and will concentrate on that one. I have read elsewhere that you sometimes need to choose your devices rather than let the config do it for you and have been playing around with this a bit, but will continue - lots of variations to try.

Thanks again.

Anyone ever heard of SH2 getting stuck with full bottom red bar on Win98 when trying to load any mission? I can add a bit more to this now. The Win98 machine has a Matrox Millenium G400 graphics card with 32mb of memory and supports 3Direcx 8.0a.

I have had a poke around and the Janus.txt file in the shell/scenarios folder shows a violation. This is never printed out as the machine crashes before a scenario loads, but I wonder if this is the cause of my problem.

The log file says:

Janus main EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION: 43bf4b
Access violation: Read from location ffffffff
Registers:
EAX=0082f17c CS=0177 EIP=0043bf4b EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00000000 SS=017f ESP=0082f16c EBP=00a63360
ECX=ffffffff DS=017f ESI=ffffffff FS=0d0f
EDX=00000000 ES=017f EDI=00000000 GS=0000

Anyone ever come across that before? A search of the archives shows that someone once had the same error in Destroyer Commnad, but no one ever gave him an answer!

Thanks again for any help anyone can give me.

John

[Wim Libaers]

"Read from location ffffffff" That number happens to be equal to -1 (in 32-bit signed). A common flaw in several games.

If it helps, I'm using SH2 1.1 on XP with a GF 5700, Forceware 84.21. Some old Nvidia drivers can be found here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html

[Palindromeria]

maybe your patch 1.1 is corrupt ?
did you get it from ultimation ftp ?

ftp://ftp.ubisoft.com/games/silenthu...H2Patch1.1.exe

uninstall entirely - see if CD version 1.0 works.

making sure the ultimation registry has also been removed.
double check that the sh2 folder is gone.

install full version from CD.
do not install patch
run game
on sh2 config
when selecting video go to advanced and
untick everything / reduce to lowest setting
select your sound card .. reduce channels.
start game double check the options are lowest options

beyond that and older drivers i dunno

g l

[JohnR]

Thanks, I will have another go. Just done another complete re-install having taken everything off and removed all references in registry. Still the same, but I will try again. The patch I am using is from the CD - the Focus version has game plus patch, but I will try a downloaded version and see if that works better!

Thanks again.

John

[Palindromeria]

suggest contacting tech support.

last guess - change the shortcut target to

"C:\Program Files\SSI\Silent Hunter II\Shell\Shell.exe"

this defeats the "screen blanker" and ive heard interferes somehow for some people, it will allow you to "alt/tab" to desktop during game assuming the program ever gets running properly.

[Wim Libaers]

And if the game crashes and you get a black screen, that's the same blanker. If everything goes right, alt+f4 ought to get rid of it immediately.

[JohnR]

Thanks to everyone for their help. I finally contacted Focus Multimedia who are now selling SH2 and was put onto the correct version of the drivers for my graphics card on the Win 98 machine which would allow the game to work. Now works fine - no crashes so far. Well done to them.

Thanks again.

John

[Palindromeria]