Bugged Patrol Assignment? (Philippine Sea Crash)

[Nikdunaev]

Originally Posted by KaleunMarco

more or less, yes.
Win10 caches files but you cannot affect that.
let's put it this way, if you run JSGME between patrols so that one or more mods have been changed, your new mods will run when you launch SH4.

do you understand or did i go too deeply?

Yeah, I think I understand what you are saying
Cheers!

[Nikdunaev]

Hi everyone once again!

After getting some experience playing with the memory patch, I found that, while it does seem to make it less crashy, subjectively, it does not really solve the crashing entirely, neither does it solve the extreme lag, at the higher time compression levels.

Also, upon checking the memory use while playing, both with and without the patch, it seems to be quite stable, close to the limit, but not hitting it. Generally sitting around 1200-1300 MB.

Eliminating the alternative saves and following all the saving rules does not seem to make a difference either.

I managed to complete the assignment, now it is a long struggle on the way home at no more than x128 time compression. It does crash, but it is hard to give up 25000 tons worth of unlucky random merchant ships.

Any more ideas anyone?
What could this thing be?

[Nikdunaev]

Merry Christmas Everyone!

[Nikdunaev]

I am curious, would a reinstallation of the game help? As in backing up the campaign progress, reinstalling and putting the saves from the backup back in?

Should this cause any more trouble, given the game configurations before and after will be identical? As I mentioned, this installation is totally clean mod wise.

Also, would checking the files integrity via Steam count as a reinstallation? Or do I need to actually remove it, then download from scratch and install again properly?

P.S
Sorry for keeping adding stuff to this thread, but this problem turned out surprisingly difficult to get around, and in all honesty, now I am quite clueless about what to try next.

[propbeanie]

The game can be very strange about re-using Saves, even when your set-up is seemingly identical. It works sometimes, other times not. Some points about the game though... One of the odd things about it is matching the video stream throughout. This involves what the "native" resolution of your monitor is. The old CRT monitors even had a native resolution, such as 1280x1024. Modern LCD monitors can display much wider, such as my current desktop of 1920x1080 for a 16:9 ratio. Other monitors of course, can do wider and more fine, such as 4k and above. The "native" resolution is generally referred to as "recommended" by windows now. So set your Windows desktop to that, and set the game to that from the main menu "Options" "Graphic Settings" and the drop-down box. You might have to reduce some of the other display settings, but most of the newer computers can handle those set higher. Next, if you have Windows 10, make certain the OS is updated before you begin playing, so that the updater doesn't start a download process in the middle of your game. You might also make certain you don't have too much background activity from other processes, such as you get if you have an HP laptop, and they start Support Assistant and other processes every time you boot the computer.

The Steam process is basically a re-install, in that any file found missing, or not dated properly is replaced. If you happen to have a mod enabled, Steam will basically wipe it out. Once you have done that, try to play the game prior to bringing the old Saves back in, and see what it does. If it seems better, then you could attempt to use old Saves, but bring the entire folder back in. You might have to adjust your gameplay settings after doing that... If it fails, do the Steam verification again, wipe the Save folder, and just start over, not re-using the old Saves.

[Nikdunaev]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

The game can be very strange about re-using Saves, even when your set-up is seemingly identical. It works sometimes, other times not. Some points about the game though... One of the odd things about it is matching the video stream throughout. This involves what the "native" resolution of your monitor is. The old CRT monitors even had a native resolution, such as 1280x1024. Modern LCD monitors can display much wider, such as my current desktop of 1920x1080 for a 16:9 ratio. Other monitors of course, can do wider and more fine, such as 4k and above. The "native" resolution is generally referred to as "recommended" by windows now. So set your Windows desktop to that, and set the game to that from the main menu "Options" "Graphic Settings" and the drop-down box. You might have to reduce some of the other display settings, but most of the newer computers can handle those set higher. Next, if you have Windows 10, make certain the OS is updated before you begin playing, so that the updater doesn't start a download process in the middle of your game. You might also make certain you don't have too much background activity from other processes, such as you get if you have an HP laptop, and they start Support Assistant and other processes every time you boot the computer.

The Steam process is basically a re-install, in that any file found missing, or not dated properly is replaced. If you happen to have a mod enabled, Steam will basically wipe it out. Once you have done that, try to play the game prior to bringing the old Saves back in, and see what it does. If it seems better, then you could attempt to use old Saves, but bring the entire folder back in. You might have to adjust your gameplay settings after doing that... If it fails, do the Steam verification again, wipe the Save folder, and just start over, not re-using the old Saves.

Right

Let me try running the Steam verification process and see if that does anything.
Trying *without* the save folder is difficult, for I only saw it on the third patrol of the campaign, after successfully completing two uneventful ones.
So, I am not sure how to check it.

I try my best eliminating the background processes, and, in fact, I often play with my internet connection unplugged, so that nothing can start checking or downloading something.

Regarding the video matching, my native resolution is indeed 1920x1080. Windows is set to that, and so is the game. Everything is set to 1920x1080@60Hz.

The game performance is fine on my hardware, only except when the actual issue occurs. Even then it starts stuttering only with time compression.

Effectively, lag and stutter with time compression, means that it is about to crash soon. Seemingly, the higher the time compression level, the sooner it is likely to crash. Sometimes diving or surfacing, or entering the pause menu triggers it immediately. Even with no compression at all.

Does that symptom tell you something?

Is there some kind of log or crash dump being generated? Would that be worth seeing?

Cheers!

[Nikdunaev]

Ok, so, the Steam verification did not seem to do much, if actually anything at all. It does not find any files in need of fixing.

Running as admin or in various other compatibility modes does not do anything noticeable either.

The problem seems to be an integral part of the save file and recorded with it somewhere.
That is, if the problem existed at the time of saving, it will be replicated, and is guaranteed to exist upon loading that save.

When loading a, seemingly, "clean" save, the problem still appears, several hours of real time, or days of game time later.

[propbeanie]

A couple of other points: If you have a Save with a "Save Replay", that will make a ~HUGE~ save file, and for the rest of a career, that will stay in there, and requires more and more data to keep up with, almost like that no matter what your choice is after the one Save Replay, they will ~all~ Save with Replay. The Replay can be used with a Single Mission, but should not be used in career mode. Select your most recent numbered Save folder (C:\Users \UserName \Documents \SH4 \data \cfg \xxxxxxxx" with "x" representing numbers and letters for hexidecimal digits.

There are a couple of mods that have un-terminated Random Generated Groups (RGG) that will cause issues with the game from early to mid 1943 onwards. If you had one of those mods activated earlier, and had cleared the Save folder afterwards, those groups can still exist in your Save folder...

I'll look in my Stock game again, but I do not remember seeing those RGG there...

[Nikdunaev]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

A couple of other points: If you have a Save with a "Save Replay", that will make a ~HUGE~ save file, and for the rest of a career, that will stay in there, and requires more and more data to keep up with, almost like that no matter what your choice is after the one Save Replay, they will ~all~ Save with Replay. The Replay can be used with a Single Mission, but should not be used in career mode. Select your most recent numbered Save folder (C:\Users \UserName \Documents \SH4 \data \cfg \xxxxxxxx" with "x" representing numbers and letters for hexidecimal digits.

There are a couple of mods that have un-terminated Random Generated Groups (RGG) that will cause issues with the game from early to mid 1943 onwards. If you had one of those mods activated earlier, and had cleared the Save folder afterwards, those groups can still exist in your Save folder...

I'll look in my Stock game again, but I do not remember seeing those RGG there...

My saves are all within 2-3 MB. Is that a reasonable size for them?
I do not remember ever ticking the replay box.
It kinda seems that the ones later in the patrol, hence, containing the problem, are the bigger ones.

Sorry, could you, please, explain a bit more on what those unterminated random generated groups are?

I am in stock game and only in April 1942, but... It does feel like there are *lots* of contacts spawning. Definitely more than in the first months of the campaign.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by Nikdunaev

Sorry, could you, please, explain a bit more on what those unterminated random generated groups are?

jumping in here.....

the other ships in the game are labeled (by Ubi) as Random Generated Groups or RGG's. Even the single ships are RGG's.

when an RGG is created, there are all sorts of options: start date, end date, is the ship docked or not, what speed and direction should it follow, etc, etc, etc.

one of the options in the etc-group is Delete on Last Waypoint. if that box is not checked, then the RGG remains in existence until you exit the game. clearly, you can see that if you get a bunch of these, needlessly taking up memory, that things can get bogged down. this is what PB was referring.

there are over a hundred files that would need to be checked for this options and there is a long line of volunteers for that task.

so, that is what PB thought may be your issue.

[Nikdunaev]

Oh, I see

I do suspect an unrealistically extreme number of ships around have something to do with this...
It behaves just way too similarly to when you run into Pearl or Midway at high compression rate, and suddenly, all these ships spawn in.
Exactly the same symptoms as prior to the crashes.
Except that with ports it stops after leaving the vicinity. Here it persists until it crashes.

Is there any plausible fix?
One that does not involve long lists of enthusiastic volunteers?

At least, can I do anything to investigate and figure out if that is, indeed, the reason?

[Nikdunaev]

Is there any "forensic" evidence left by the crashes?
Like, most programs produce log files, that may indicate where and how it crashed, right? I am a bit surprised, but I did not find any reference to such things being mentioned with Silent Hunter...

Do you think it would be worth getting official Ubi support?
After all, the game is unmodded, and this stuff is game breaking...

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by Nikdunaev

Oh, I see

I do suspect an unrealistically extreme number of ships around have something to do with this...
It behaves just way too similarly to when you run into Pearl or Midway at high compression rate, and suddenly, all these ships spawn in.
Exactly the same symptoms as prior to the crashes.
Except that with ports it stops after leaving the vicinity. Here it persists until it crashes.

Is there any plausible fix?
One that does not involve long lists of enthusiastic volunteers?

At least, can I do anything to investigate and figure out if that is, indeed, the reason?

let's take this offline for the moment.
i sent you a Private Message. Check your Inbox.

[Nikdunaev]

Replied to private

Or, at least, I think I did
How does one view sent private messages?

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by Nikdunaev

Replied to private

Or, at least, I think I did
How does one view sent private messages?

go to your Private Message screen and change the "jump to folder" to Sent Items.

you don't even need a mod for that.