Tutorial: Make an SH4 lockbox and independent game installations

[Rockin Robbins]

In this tutorial you will learn

• How to make a Silent Hunter 4 lockbox with original installation files. How to lock this directory so it cannot be played from or modified.
• How to leverage your SH4 Pristeen directory into multiple game installations for different mod configurations. You might have one for stock game, one for GFO, one for RFB, one for TMO and one for FOTRS ultimate. You only do one installation. Making the others is simply a matter of copying files.
• How to use MultiSH4 to have completely independent data saved in its own directory for each game configuration.
• How to use Large Address Aware to allow sh4.exe in each installation to use more than 2 GB of memory.
• How to set up and use separate installations of JSGME for each installation.
• When disaster strikes, how you can be up and running in 10 minutes with your last game save and settings completely intact as if nothing had ever happened!

This is the first video in the nine year history of the game to show all that in a single video so clearly presented that my cat understood it. The only thing I would add to the content is that you eliminate a lot of heartache if you make your desktop shortcuts point to sh4.exe rather than gu.exe.


The tutorial was produced using Ubuntu Linux, but procedures for Windows are identical.




Now this is the perfect defense against any game corruption, including mod soup, which we all get. Reinstalling SH4 is a tremendous bother, especially with the Direct2Drive one use activation numbers and the multi-day process to get a new one. But with your SH4 Pristeen lockbox you can restore your game in minutes without ever having to reinstall SH4 again!

Remember that when you initially set up your installation, let's say it's for TMO, you made a JSGME snapshot before you installed any mods. Let's say we have weird things going on in our game. Here's the procedure:

1. Using JSGME, unload all your mods. Then do a compare snapshot function. If they don't match, then you have mod soup.
2. Delete everything from your problem installation folder except for the /MODS folder. JSGME, MultiSH4 and Large Address Aware are all in your /SH4 Pristeen folder and will come back with the procedure. Repeat: after the delete all that should be in your game directory is the /MODS folder.
3. Now copy all the contents of SH4 Pristeen into your empty problem folder.
4. Then you will have to write enable all the files and directories you copied, using Windows Explorer.
5. Run MultiSH4 to enter the three letters of your data folder, run Large Address Aware on the SH4.exe in that directory, and run JSGME to make a new snapshot file and reinstall all your mods.
6. Play the freakin' game! You're done! You can load up your last save and resume as if nothing had ever happened (unless your particular flavor of mod soup involved changing ship or airplane types in really improbable ways).

Especially if you play with mod changes all the time as I do, this will save your miserable life over and over again, totally taking the fear out of mod soup.


I'll do a video of the rebuild procedure and post it at a later date!

[propbeanie]

Excellent, sir! I was going to ask you in your Ubuntu thread if you were going to do this for us over in this area... Now for it to become a "staple" of SubSim, and "Staple" it into the stickies... or a "linkie" in one of the Stickies.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Excellent, sir! I was going to ask you in your Ubuntu thread if you were going to do this for us over in this area... Now for it to become a "staple" of SubSim, and "Staple" it into the stickies... or a "linkie" in one of the Stickies.

Stapie it into the Stinkles?

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Stapie it into the Stinkles?

Did I say that??!?!?!!! STICKIES!!! Not Stinkies... I'm a stinkie...

[THEBERBSTER]

Nice work RR
This type of work greatly helps the silent majority.
I have added to my SH4 Tutorials.
Peter

[propbeanie]

There you go Rockin Robbins, you're in the "Stickies" once again...

[cdrsubron7]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

There you go Rockin Robbins, you're in the "Stickies" once again...

Sounds like a sticky situation to me.

[Rockin Robbins]

Battlestations! Battlestations! This is not a drill! Everything you've done so far in the thread is about to save your sorry hind quarters!

Disaster strikes! You're playing your favorite supermod and suddenly the game crashes. Maybe a fluke? You restart the game and the same thing happens. Supply your own curse words here! But what are you going to do about it?

What if I told you you didn't have to reinstall jack diddley? What if I told you your savegames are safe? What if I told you in 10 minutes you'd load up your last saved game and just continue playing as if nothing bad were mocking you right now?

Words and a couple bucks will buy you coffee at Dennys. Let's get to work!

[fithah4]

Rockin Robbin this video quality is way better than last posted videos!,
Music choice and sound volume better and you voice over is coherent and precise and easily understandable.
Your have me converted to using Lineux from now on!!!

Fith

[Rockin Robbins]

Yes, I'm amazed how much better the combination of RecordMyDesktop, Audacity and OpenShot Video Editor is than even commercial software like Jing Premium, Hypercam Pro or CamStudio and Windows Movie Maker. They're easy and darned great quality.

I'll eventually have to redo all my videos because the old ones look so crappy to me now!

The suicide of my Windows installation was a huge blessing in disguise. Every time I say "sure would be nice to have Windows working so I could do X" up pops a Linux free alternative that beats the socks off what I thought I needed. Heck, all my work on Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate, 3.6 GB and the largest mod ever made for Silent Hunter 4, is done exclusively in Linux. Really I don't miss Windows and I'm amazed by that.

I have a separate thread in the PC Hardware/Software forum under General Topics, covering the installation of Ubuntu Linux on a PC, installing Silent Hunter 4 and making it work better than you've ever had it work on a PC. There are several videos in that thread made by the same process as the one in this thread.

If you've ever been curious about Linux and have a spare machine that isn't gainfully employed, Linux is prepared to make you not even think about Windows. It really is ready for prime-time. It runs about twice as fast as the same software on Windows. That means that marginal laptop in the closet can have a new life of productivity.

Oh, and after my running gun battle with the record company of Pink Floyd thinking my use of their never heard and totally unknown song, Echoes off their ghost album Meddle was somehow taking advantage of them I now use all public domain music. You don't have to give up quality with public domain software or music. As for all the short-sighted commercial music companies who think they should charge their advertisers who create the market for their products, they've been replaced. I won't miss 'em. They need me. I don't need them. I was performing them a service they didn't appreciate and I have no desire to help when they don't want the help. As you can see, the videos are actually better. I'm happy about that.

[Rockin Robbins]

bump.

[aanker]

This really should be a Sticky.

RR's High Quality tutorials can save many a heartache after someone has made mod soup of their install. Using his technique a re-install is no longer necessary.

I've used this method for years and haven't re-installed since I first installed on this computer many years ago.

[Rockin Robbins]

My next post will be an unbiased, easily replicated proof that there are times when Webster's anti-mod soup method won't work, and that my instructions will fix in in that case. I'll go into the history of how the FOTRSU Team found this cheery information. No tricky stuff, just good information.

So we'll advance the state of the art in fixing game corruption and try to get you to understand the underlying processes so you can fix these problems yourself.

Still, I'll do what I can to to establish the truth and promote the newest understanding of fixing mod soup.

All I need is the time to make it happen!

[Rockin Robbins]

Edit: entire post not necessary. We really don't care about affixing blame, we want everybody to have more fun playing Silent Hunter 4. We'll go from there!

[Rockin Robbins]

Coming soon, a new video clearly explaining where all this craziness comes from (thanks to Webster and Ducimus), how we discovered that JSGME couldn't always fix a corrupted game, a clean and thorough explanation of Websters mod soup mix, the best we had for six years, and how and why we can still fix game corruption if that doesn't work. There is no such thing as an irretrievably lost installation.

My goal? For you to understand how it works as well as we on the FOTRSU Team and Webster do. Goals? To make batch files to automate production of a protected game file repository and automatic restoration of pristeen stock game files to your playing directory.

So hang on, this ride is going to get VERY COOL!