Suggest Tablet PC convertable that plays SH3 Plureaze???

[Captain Rebecca E Smith]

Hi I'm looking to sell my 3 Acer C302xmi's on ebay and buy a single tablet pc but I need it to be able to play Silent Hunter 3. Can anyone tell me of their experiences in tablet pc's playing higher end games like this? Thanks

[rottielover]

Hi,

I don't have many tablet's to choose from, but I'm currently running SH3 on my HP (Compaq) tc4200.

I've decked this thing out with 2 gig of RAM and an 80 gig hard drive (you cannot get an 80 gig drive when ordering as far as I know, I had to get one sepereatly and then install it myself. The RAM wasn't cheap at all, but you can find OK prices off the internet.

The only problem I'm having is severe slow-downs when one of two things is going on:

1) Mini Cam opens to show you some action going on, like your torp hitting...
2) Anytime I'm in the free cam above the water surface. If I go below the surface with the cam it works fine.

The slow downs are bearable, meaning I've learned to play thru it.

The other issue though, is that I don't see any explosions, smoke, etc. All I get to know if I've hit something, is the sound of the explosion, and the little subtitle at the bottom.

I'm thinking that I need some tweeking on my graphic's settings, perhpase an updated driver, haven't checked for one yet, I plan to do that today.

Hope that Helps

[Captain Rebecca E Smith]

Wow, thanks for the quick response.

I take it then the the graphics adapter in your hp, is the intel integrated graphics 900 chip, with shared vram of upto 128mb.

Is that right?

Thanks.

BTW Anyone else out there help out with this? I have the Q1 UMPC Origami, with integrated graphics the same as ROTTIELOVER, but it fails when it trys to load the 3d engine and bombs out.

The default res of the screen and system is 800x480 and I wondered if that was the reason. I can software upscale the display to 800x600 or 1024x600 but it still won't work with any of these either - I can't find a configuration .ini file to try and play with either.

Any help please - I'm SO desperate to play this game on a portable device.

[rottielover]

Correct, my device manager lists it as Mobile Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Chipset Family... It also reports 128 meg Video RAM.

I'm running 1024x768 with Intel Drivers Version: 6.14.10.4410 dated:10/14/2005

I have not yet been able to check for an updated version...

I'll go check, and if I have time will try to update, and then run the game tonight.

[stabiz]

To really enjoy this game - particularly the eye candy bits the modders have made - you need a graphics card with a bit of muscles. My GeForce 6600GT 256MB is going along ok, but nothing more.

You have 2 gigs of ram, so you can check that off your list.

nVidia 7000-series would be nice, I guess. (The 7800GT 256MB is getting cheaper as we speak, because of the 512MB cards coming out)

But does these cards fit in a portable pc?

[rottielover]

Originally Posted by stabiz

But does these cards fit in a portable pc?

In nearly all portable PC's, be they tablet PC, or laptops, you will find that most of the cards are "integrated" into the motherboard. Basically the video card and some other devices (depends on the manufacturer) are part of the motherboard, and to my knowlage there are no "after market" motherboards for laptops/tablets with your choice of device.

If I ever get to where I want to see all the eye candy, I'll rebuild my home desktop machine. If memory serves I have a 3D Prophet video card in there with 256 meg of RAM on it. It's an older card by today's standards, but at the time I purchased it, it was THE only card on the market with 256 meg of video RAM. I even had people tell me "no way you need that much RAM on a video card". It's the same kind of people that say stuff like "40 gig hard drive!, you'll NEVER fill all that up!"

I'm in the Nav Map and Periscope screens the most anyway durring play, I don't use the outside views (including bridge) much due to the graphics slow down, but I've found that I really don't like the bridge view that much anyway, you can get the same SA (situational awareness) using the Binoculars or Periscope.

About the only time I have real problems is using FLAK or Deck gun, but I found that if you zoom in on the main view to the little targeting view, it runs fine.

I did find an updated Video Card driver on the Intel site, as well as a new BIOS update for the tc4200. I've installed them, but won't be able to test the game till later.

Regards,

rottie

[GT182]

Captain Rebecca, I can't help with a tablet or laptop pc but I can tell you that a GF FX5600Ultra 256mb card will work fine and show all the eye-candy the newest graphics cards will for SHIII. I've run this one for a year and a half and find it works just fine.

And on another note for a bit of advice...... I'd wait until Windows Vista comes out and then look into a new tablet/laptop or desktop pc. Vista will be the deciding factor for gaming seeing it will use DirectX 10. And if you want a new desktop, build one or get someone to help you build one. It's the only way to go if you want to upgrade down the road.

[rottielover]

Quick update:

1 BIOS flash update and 1 Video Driver update later, and the game still run's the same on my tablet.

IE: It's playable, but you don't get the eye candy of explosions, and external view's bog down...

I think I'm going to rebuild my old desktop and try it there...

[Captain Rebecca E Smith]

Thanks again everyone.

I think that the suggestion to wait for a vista tablet is the best idea - that should give me the power to run sh3 - but who the heck knows about sh4!!! lol

Rebecca