Why you can NOT use the old 4GB-Patch.exe on a STEAM or UPLAY SH3.EXE

[REV_BL!TZKR!EG]

I regularly read it. And I do not understand why people ignore facts. It really must be like the subjects of "CO2" and "climate change" or even 'Corona'. Now let us set the ego aside, forget personal animosities and look at the facts:

Thesis: You can NOT use the old 4GB-Patch.exe on a STEAM-SH3.EXE

It may well be in their best intentions to help...Several ignorami continuously post their advice like "Download the 4GBPatch from Subsim, you must use it". So far so good. And it is true. But there is an exception where this does not work as with all other versions: the STEAM-version.


Why?

The explanation is actually very simple. If you follow the instructions given by those ignorami and do what they say, you download that file put it into your installation-folder and patch the file 'SH3.exe'. Well, if you have done that then congratulations, you have just patched the wrong file.


What? Really?

Yes. You have just patched the wrong file. STEAM runs their games, i.e. SH3 in this case, through its launcher and its DRM prohibits changes to the game files. STEAM calls this the verification of the file integrity. Everybody can very easily check this on their own and I wonder why the ignorami at SuSi never check what they say. Everybody can look for a file called 'testapp.exe' in the installation-folder of this STEAM-SH3.

Its data is
MD5Sum: 324BB33EE0494927AF58D8ADA2476F3F - verified with TiNYMD5
Filesize: 1339392 Bytes

This file called 'testapp.exe' is the actual SH3.exe in a STEAM-installation. The file called 'SH3.exe' is the STEAM-launcher for it. So if you patch the wrong file you cannot expect things to go right, can you? Moreover, you would still suffer from the limitations of keeping the game connected to STEAM. You must disconnect the game itself from STEAM. And only renaming it does not solve the problem.


Is there a functionning solution?

Yes. SFSF. And it is entirely FREE. You do not need to register anywhere to download it. You do not need to make a post to be able to download it. You do not need to pay for it. It is FREE FOR EVERYONE. I wrote it and I decided to give it to everyone. Donations possible AND APPRECIATED, but still FREE for everybody. And SFSF does much more than only that. It performs a bunch additional steps to make SH3 run smoothly with mods, just read its instructions. And I recently saw that there are even precise instructions available in the STEAM-discussions. 'FIEDLER' has really written some nice&easy instructions there. Thanks, dude. Greets and props to you! Thanks for getting in touch with me on Teamspeak!!


Conclusio

Do not believe everything you read. Verify it. If those who give this advice are either too lazy or incapable to verify what they say then YOU can still verify it. Stop donating money to people who post wrong instructions! Support those who can explain what they do! And spread the word.

Thank you.



ADDENDUM 04/2021:
The STEAM-guys are or have apparently been changing some things here. The named TESTAPP still exists, but looking through the newest 150+ logs of my tool 'module_SFSF()' it turns out they are experimenting with their launcher so they have replaced/changed the SH3.exe file itself

And: The above also applies to the Uplay-buy-and-download-version. There the file is called SH3_G.EXE. Both situations can be handled by my tool 'module_SFSF()' and I am going to update it further.