Realism- and gameplay-related hardcode fixes for SH3.EXE

[rik007]

My monitor's native resolution is 1920x1080, but it has autoscaling feature to the desired resolution making black bars appear at the sides if a program with another resolution is started. In this case, I defined 1080 (Maximal vertical res) and the 4:3 horizontal value, 1440. With other games it works flawlessly, and in the original SH3 resolution 1024x768 the monitor autoscales correctly, however enabling the hi-res fix makes instantly the message "Unable to start this application, click here to report the error"

EDIT: And yes 1440x1080 is added to the available resolutions and actually works perfectly with rFactor, for example.

Unfortunately my monitor doesnot support 1440x1080 so I get the same error instantaneously. Two suggestions: try the res-fix with 1024x768. Experiment with the wide screen mod to check if that works.

[h.sie]

I was absent for some days.

@Hitman: I remember some months ago Rubini had similar problems, but he figured out that it is not related to my patch - much more a mod salad if I remember correctly. I also tried WideScreen GUI without CTD.

@Adour: The messages are for high TC, when weather changes slightly from windspeed=10 (no storm condition) to 11 (storm condition) what interrupts reloading while the PLayer still thinks expernals are reloaded.

It is also important to inform the player when reloading is done, because during reloading the speed is restricted. After reloading, one may increase speed. I agree with NGT, see his post here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...postcount=1101

h.sie

[Hitman]

I went into the MaGui library folder and change the camera.dat file there but when I then load it into game it reverts back to original setting

Check that you do not have a backup of the file still in the SH3 folder - it's like black magic, the game always finds it even if renamed and loads it instead of your modified one

Unfortunately my monitor doesnot support 1440x1080 so I get the same error instantaneously. Two suggestions: try the res-fix with 1024x768. Experiment with the wide screen mod to check if that works.

Good advice, will try and report back

@Hitman: I remember some months ago Rubini had similar problems, but he figured out that it is not related to my patch - much more a mod salad if I remember correctly. I also tried WideScreen GUI without CTD.

Might be, but I tried it on an absolute vanilla install with nothing else except your patch and the hi-res fix

[Hitman]

Well no luck, tried it in 1024x768 and the game won't load. Disable the hi-res patch, load the game in its default 1024x768 and no problem at all ...

Really puzzling

[h.sie]

ok, I installed Widescreen GUI (with the d3d9.dll contained in that mod) and screen resolution 1280x1024 (=native res of my monitor). No CTD, program works, but screen looks ugly.

Then I replaced d3d9.dll by an older one I found 2 years ago somewhere (older hi-res-fix) and all looked good.

But never got a CTD.

[rik007]

The d3d9.dll I use is build on: 24 ‎march ‎2005, ‏‎18:11:00. You can find this version for example here: http://www.gamefront.com/files/servi...you?id=3852362 Maybe that helps.

[Hitman]

The d3d9.dll I use is build on: 24 ‎march ‎2005, ‏‎18:11:00

Same here

Anyway, I don't want to bother you guys anymore with this; I reported it in case it was a general issue but since it seems to be exclusively related to my particular system it's OK

EDIT:

BTW the widescreen mod also causes the same effect!

[rik007]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Same here

Anyway, I don't want to bother you guys anymore with this; I reported it in case it was a general issue but since it seems to be exclusively related to my particular system it's OK

EDIT:

BTW the widescreen mod also causes the same effect!

Yeah we running out of options. But you never know. Maybe a repatch of the exe. My original Sh3.exe is from Friday ‎16 ‎september ‎2005, ‏‎0:45:00 and I enabled all options within the Option Selector except of course for the **Not Used** ones. I do not use the 4GB option.

Of course as you told that you use it with rfactor I wonder if you install the correct s3d9.dll in the main SH3 map (where the exe is).

[Hitman]

Sure, installed it correctly and I had been using it for long in my previous monitor. When I said I run rFactor in 1440x1080 I mean with its own res configurator, i.e. to highlight that the monitor is not rejecting to display that res in a 3D game.

I also tried repatching the exe, but again no joy ...

[h.sie]

@KaleunCook: Earlier you said that you sometimes had hydrophone contacts although diesels were running. Could you please describe exactly under which circumstances that situation occured. I hardly tried to reproduce such a situation, but without success.

[Wolfstriked]

Hitman,you are not kidding about it being black magic.I changed the name of the original cameras.dat and it read it anyway.Then I removed the file completely and thankfully it didn't read it.Then I cut the cameras.dat file from Magui mod and put it into the original data folder and it read everything except for my little tweak.

I guess I do not have time to learn black magic so I will leave the modding to the pros.

[Kaleun Cook]

@KaleunCook: Earlier you said that you sometimes had hydrophone contacts although diesels were running. Could you please describe exactly under which circumstances that situation occured. I hardly tried to reproduce such a situation, but without success.

It happened when the weather was bad and the boat was bouncing in the waves. The watch crew couldn't spot anything due to the fog I assume, but every now and then the hydrophone guy reported a contact. Your earlier reply that this might be linked to the boat going just so deep that the diesels don't run anymore made perfect sense to me. I remember that this once happened when I was near a supply ship somewhere near South America. The weather was too bad to spot the ship, but when the boat went deep enough in the high waves the hydrophone man reported it (although he shouldn't have because that ship wasn't driving obviously).

About that external torpedo reload bug I had the other day: Sadly, I wasn't able to recreate it so far. If it happens again, I'll tell you about the circumstances.

[h.sie]

New version V15F2 available for beta testing.

Before I start to add Stieblers fixes, I decided to optimise some of my older fixes, because I finally found out how to create new events and console messages, which can be very useful!

New / optimised in V15F2:

• New Oxygen-Supply mod by LGN1 (Idea, research, testing, insistent motivation of tired programmer) and h.sie (tired programmer). Thanks also go to Fader_Berg for a very important information.
  So far, SH3 models a 100% renewable oxygen (O2) supply. That means: After a long period of diving, say 40 hours, it was enough to surface and after that the Uboat was able to dive for 40 hours again and again. Now, with this patch, O2 is divided into two parts: A renewable part and a non-renewable part. The renewable part is the O2 in the air of the Uboat. This part is sufficient for a diving period of about 5-7 hours. During this time the LI informs you about the O2 content of the air, starting at the normal value 21% and slowly decreasing to the critical value of 17%. At 17%, the LI automatically starts to add O2 from the oxygen-supply (contained in pressure bottles). This O2 supply is sufficient for a long diving period of about 30 - 100 hours (depending on Uboat type), but that O2-supply is non-renewable! That means: It is not filled up when surfacing. Only the O2 in the air is restored to the normal value of 21% when surfacing. From now on the Player has to act economically regarding O2 supply, what adds a new strategical component to the game. The consumption of oxygen depends on the current crew number. The more crew, the more O2 is consumed. The consumption of O2 will be lowered if the crew is on silent-running routine. The net effect is that the U-boat can stay submerged longer. Repairing, flooding recovery and reloading of torpedoes will boost the O2 consumption. The former Co2-Gauge now acts as a gauge for the non-renewable O2-supply!

• Hydrophone Fix (optimised): Hydrophone now is switched on 10 seconds delayed after diesels are switched off and/or Uboat has reached minimum depth for Hydrophone use. This is in order to prevent contact reports in high waves when Uboat dives deep into the waves for a short time.

• Fog warning (optimised): Fog warning now is only active if the Uboat isn't deeper than periscope depth. If the Watch Officer is on the bridge, he gives a message "Fog sighted, Sir".

• Internal / external torpedo reload (optimised): The weapons officer now gives status messages (e.g. "Cannot reload in bad weather" or "We can dive in 5 minutes") in order to give the player some essential status information. Internal & external reload fixes can now be independently selected/deselected from each other in Stieblers OptionsSelector.

Be careful! New action necessary for patch versions V15F and later!

The Supplement to V15 (JSGME) mod for patch versions V15F and later now contains two files named en_menu.txt and de_menu.txt with some new console messages. I used the two files that came with GWX 3.0 and added the new messages at the end of the files. If JSGME reports file conflicts regarding these two files, maybe because you use a different GUI or supermod, there is some action necessary before activating the Supplement mod:

1. Copy the last lines of the files, beginning with "h.sie sh3.exe patch" (entries 4815 to 4827) from these files into the files of your GUI and
2. Delete these two files from the Supplement mod and
3. Activate the Supplement mod (without any file conflicts).

Optional Addition from LGN1:
For the new Oxygen-Supply Fix, there's an optional Mod "Optional O2-Gauges" available, that changes the graphics design of the former CO2 gauge into an O2-gauge.

Hope you like it!

Gähn!
h.sie

[LGN1]

Great work, h.sie! Thanks a lot

Just a small question I forgot to ask earlier: Can you still activate the mod at sea or will there be a problem because of the O2 storage in a save game?

Cheers, LGN1

[h.sie]

@LGN1: I suggest not to load an old savegame made with a version before V15F.

(In detail: Doing so will not cause a CTD, but there is a little unwanted side-effect: The O2 content of the air in the Uboat will be below 17% after loading the old savegame, so that the LI immediately starts to add O2 from the O2-supply. After surfacing once, O2 is back to 21%. No big problem!)