Author Topic: How to run STEAM-SH3-V1.6b-GWX-WIDESCREEN on Win10  (Read 24790 times)

Offline DEF_FIEDLER

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I thought I'd give you a complete set of easy-to-follow instructions on how to get STEAM's SH3 to run with GWX and further mods, even despite the fact that Steam doesn't support mods for SH3. So here's how I did it. And this works with every Windows-version!

The following instructions presume that you comply with these prerequisites:
- you must have STEAM installed
- you must have bought SH3 off STEAM
- you must have SH3 installed and NOT have modified the game in any shape, sort or form
- you must be able to unpack a file using 7zip
- follow instructions doesn't mean skim-read them and do what you want, but DO WHAT YOU'RE TOLD!
- you must not leave anything out or leave it to do for 'later'
- you must follow the instructions exactly
- you must complete the steps in the exact order they're written in, otherwise your game WILL break if you miss a step or try to take a shortcut.
- before you vent any frustration read the FAQ, they're there for a reason!

If you've already put mods in you must uninstall this modded version.
Open your Steam app, go to LIBRARY, find "Silent Hunter III" in your list of Steam games, right-click on it and delete your local content by choosing "Manage + Uninstall". That'll un-install SH3. Then reinstall SH3 to have a clean installation again.

I've got a folder called SH3 on my E: drive, where I've got everything SH3-related (installations, tools, all that) and in there I've got a folder called DOWNLOADS, so I've downloaded the following items into

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁DOWNLOADS

- JSGME
- Commander
- Front-End version 1.7.9.81b or later - read the S3F-instructions! They help a lot! And you don't need old 4GBpatch or MultiSH3, it's all included already!
- GWX
- GWX-specific 'supplemental files'
- GWM
- Conus-Widescreen for resolution 1360x768 and 1366x768
- Ahnenerbe-Widescreen for resolution 1920x1080


OK, let's begin the show...


STEP 01: UNPACK FRONT-END AND APPLY THE STEAM-FIX
Unpack S3F-Front-End.7z to a newly created folder of your choice that has nothing to do with the game-folder of SH3 or STEAM. In my directory-hiearchy it's

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁TOOLS
⠀⠀└📁SH3 Front-End

DO NOT RUN S3F.EXE YET OR YOU SCREW UP!
Instead tell your antivirus-software to shut-up about running this patch and let the tool do its job: Run S3F_SFSF.EXE as administrator and let it connect to the net by allowing it through your firewall. That tool is being updated frequently, so it connects to the server and tells you about a new version. I'm forced to change my instructions because it's updated so often :)
The default-path of where your Steamapps are is going to be displayed. I've got all my games on E:. Next pick a destination-path. In my directory it's

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁Silent Hunter III-original

If the destination-path of your choice doesn't exist, simply create it. I chose to create "Silent Hunter III-original". If you have your STEAM-games on C you simply stay on C.
Click 'APPLY STEAM-FIX'. Confirm you want to run it.
What now happens is magic: Your game will be disconnected from STEAM, the SH3.EXE in it will be applied the 4GB-Tuning to, it'll be set to run the SH3.EXE in compatibility-mode to XP. All done? Cool! And why you need the STEAM-FIX is explained in the FAQ. Note: If you want your SH3-installation on different drive, now is the time to move it by CUTTING & PASTING the whole folder.


STEP 02: INSTALL THE NEWEST JSGME
You must do this because the JSGME-version included in GWX is outdated and the download up here points to the newest version. This is well-documented. Unpack the file "JSGME - BL!TZKR!EG Edition.7z" into a folder of your choice, on my computer that folder's called

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁TOOLS
⠀⠀└📁JSGME

Only unpack! Don't run it yet!


STEP 03: INSTALL COMMANDER
Unpack S3C.7z and run its installer. Tell it where to install the files. I chose a folder in my directory-tree for its installation, so I chose

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁TOOLS
⠀⠀└📁SH3 Commander

Uncheck "Create a desktop icon", you will not need it (you will understand later why, read on!)
Uncheck "View...", you can read the docs anytime later
Uncheck "Launch Sh3 Commander...", don't run it yet!


STEP 04: MAKE A COPY USING FRONT-END -> FOR SINGLE-PLAYER GWX
Run Front End with administrator privileges by right-clicking S3F.exe and selecting "Run as administrator". Read the online-documentation to see!
Tell your antivirus-software to shut-up about S3F.EXE (because it writes patches to SH3-executables every antivirus software will report it as virus, which is a false warning, but just that's the nature of a patcher, you agree?) and run it as administrator and with a scaling of 100%. Most probably you will run it in a modern resolution, so until the next version gets that fixed (the coder's working on it), please switch off scaling on your Windows by going into settings, display and temporarily change that from 125% to a normal 100% scale factor. If you now run S3F.EXE with 100% scaling, it will all look normal. You can change that later and it's being worked on right now. Click continue when the text-screen comes. Enjoy the intro, click on INSPECT YOUR UBOOT.
If you run Front-End for the first time, it hasn't yet collected data about your files. To do this you can of course scan your whole computer, but here we can be quick, so click on INSPECT ONLY AN AREA.
Select your folder. Here I select where all my SH3-stuff is, remember? So I use

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3

here and let it run. Front-End (really a fantastic tool, you'll see!) now searches the stuff in that folder and the subfolders therein and comes up with a nice menu, also showing the JSGME I just installed. And the Commander, too!
In this menu you now see the installation that you just created using the STEAM-FIX, remember STEP 01? In my case it's

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁Silent Hunter III-original

Because I want to keep this unmodified original copy of SH3 I make a copy for the following installation of GWX. Totally easy: You now select the installation that you just created by LEFT-clicking it once. Then you click on SETTINGS, that opens a service-menu.
The third option from top is called S3M and lets you make copies. Tick its checkbox once so it's marked, then click the five boats left of it.
Select a destination-path of your next copy. I make a new copy, so I created

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁Silent Hunter III-GWX

Then start the copy process. This takes a moment because a 1:1 copy is made, you'll see in a moment why.
As soon as the copy process is complete, you will get a message. Click OK, next window asks you to enter 3digits for the documents path. Enter "GWX" here. Click EXIT to return to main menu.


STEP 05: INSTALL GWX 3.0 GOLD MEGAMOD
Run the 1fileversion-installer of GWX.
Here comes something crucial! Have you seen how often users complain about not being able to install GWX on a STEAM-version? The GWX3-installer assumes that you have a non-STEAM-version and that's why the path offered has to be wrong! You're better off, you simply direct the installer to the copy that you just created, in my case it's

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁Silent Hunter III-GWX

This way you'll never see the usual error-messages
- error message: 'Modified files were found. must have clean install and 1.4b patch installed'.
- error message: 'silent hunter 3\data\menu\de_menu.txt: unknown version
where the issue really is that the error message ISN'T a good (or valid) one. It's not really telling you what it should - that there aren't any SH3 files in that default directory. So that's probably where most others are getting confused - not you! You continue with the installation of GWX till it's done.


STEP 06: CORRECT GWX'S CONFIGURATION
There are more bugs in GWX, but Front-End can repair them.
Have you still got Front-End open? If not, run it again. CONTINUE and "Inspect your U-Boot" et voila, it's got all the data there!
Select your new GWX-installation. Remember? In my case it's

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁Silent Hunter III-GWX

Click SETTINGS. Again we use the third option from top that's called S3M. But now we leave the checkbox unticked! Again click the five blue boats icon. Now enter "GWX" and push ENTER-key. If it already shows "GWX", just press ENTER, your version's okay. This way the wrong filemanager-data of some version can be corrected or even amended as you like. I just love Front-End! But you'll see more... Click EXIT to return to main menu.


STEP 07: MAKE A COPY USING FRONT-END -> FOR MULTI-PLAYER GWM
Because I want to play MP-games, too, I make a copy for the following installation of GWM. Totally easy: You now select the GWX-installation that you just created by LEFT-clicking it once. Then you click on SETTINGS, that opens a service-menu. Same procedure as above again.
The third option from top is called S3M and lets you make copies. Tick its checkbox once so it's marked, then click the five boats left of it.
Select a destination-path of your next copy. I make a new copy, so I created

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁Silent Hunter III-GWM

Then start the copy process. This takes a moment because a 1:1 copy is made, you'll see in a moment why.
As soon as the copy process is complete, you will get a message. Click OK, next window asks you to enter 3digits for the documents path. Enter "GWM" here. Click EXIT to return to main menu.


STEP 08: INSTALL GWM
Use Front-End again, select your GWM-installation now and click on MODS.
Then JSGME will be run, showing you its menu. On the top it reads "Generic Mod Enabler..." and below is the path we need to install mods to, keep this for future reference. Go into this path by opening "My computer" and navigating there.
It should look like (for my computer here): E:\SH3\Silent Hunter III-GWX\MODS - keep that window open (*08).
Now open another window and open the folder where you downloaded all the stuff into, in my case that's once again

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁DOWNLOADS

Pick the file "GWM - Greywolves Multiplayer v37 kpt.7z" and open it in 7-zip. You'll see 4 folders in "MODS" beginning with "GWM - " IN 7-ZIP. Now drag these folders from the 7-zip window and drop them into the window that has your MODS-directory open, the one you've opened above (*08). This copies all the data.
You now only need to return to your JSGME-WINDOW and navigate to "Tasks" and pick "Refresh lists" there. Voila, on the left now appears "Grey Wolves Multiplayer v37". Select it with one left-click and click on the ">" in the middle. This activates the mod and as soon as it appears on the right-hand-side it's done and ready for use. Read up the docs before trying the other 3 mods.
Close JSGME and return to the Front-End-main-menu (simply bring it back to the front of your screen).


STEP 09: INSTALL GWX-SPECIFIC 'SUPPLEMENTAL FILES' FOR COMMANDER
GWX is really an old, but good mod. It doesn't directly come with those files, but the GWX-SPECIFIC 'SUPPLEMENTAL FILES' are really a must. And so easy to install. Just run the EXE called "GWX_SH3CFiles_v1.2.exe" or similar and guide it to the path of the SH3 Commander that you installed in STEP 03. Remember? In my case its path is

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁TOOLS
⠀⠀└📁SH3 Commander

Confirm upcoming windows and click EXIT to return to main menu. Done.
Note: These supplemental files are a must because they didn't exist when GWX 3.0 was published. They update SH3 Commander's files regarding events, availability and ship displacements that came after GWX 3.0.

Now look at Front-End, select the newly created installation by left clicking on it and click on the red SH3-icon. This will start the game once. Exit right away. By running the game once for the very first time, the save game and configuration folder structure is created, this is why this extra step, that apparently makes no sense, must be taken. Otherwise S3C will complain those files do not exist.


STEP 10: INSTALL WIDESCREEN-MOD
Okay, now comes the beauty. We want to have this game run in WIDESCREEN.
Are you still running Front-End? I hope so, if not restart it. CONTINUE, Inspect your U-Boot, choose your GWX-installation. You know it by now.
Now click on MODS. If you're doing the first time for a new installation a MODS-folder will be created. OK to continue in that case.
Then JSGME will be run, showing you its menu. On the top it reads "Generic Mod Enabler..." and below is the path we need to install mods to, keep this for future reference. Go into this path by opening "My computer" and navigating there.
It should look like (for my computer here): E:\SH3\Silent Hunter III-GWX\MODS - keep that window open (*10).
Now open another window and open the folder where you downloaded all the stuff into, in my case that's

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁DOWNLOADS

Pick one of the two (either CONUS or AHNENERBE), for this example I took CONUS. Find the file "Conus' SH3GWXWS 2.3.7z" and open it in 7-zip. You'll see a folder with the same name IN 7-ZIP. Now drag this folder from the 7-zip window and drop it into the window that has your MODS-directory open, the one you've opened above (*10). This copies all the data.
You now only need to return to your JSGME-WINDOW and navigate to "Tasks" and pick "Refresh lists" there. Voila, on the left now appears "Conus' SH3GWXWS 2.3.7z". Select it with one left-click and click on the ">" in the middle. This activates the mod and as soon as it appears on the right-hand-side it's done and ready for use.
Close JSGME and return to the Front-End-main-menu (simply bring it back to the front of your screen).
This CONUS-mod defaults to a standard resolution of 1360x768 and my GFX card (a modern RADEON) doesn't offer that, so I edited the D3D9.ini and put '1366' in, so it all works now in my UHD 4K monitor.
Now you can select your installation and run it. Arrived in the game, check in > OPTIONS > VIDEO SETTINGS that you have FULL SCREEN = ON, if not click it on and exit to reload the game. You're going to be astonished!
Same instructions apply for the AHNENERBE-mod, make sure you don't run both at the same time! I wanted to give you two alternatives. There're more. But this should get you started on how to add mods. It's really no rocket-science! Note that if you are using the AHNENERBE-mod, there is more data inside that you see as soon as you open the AHNENERBE-mod with 7zip: The contents of the folder "SH3 Commander" must be unpacked to where your S3C is located. In my case that is the folder described in STEP 09. Keep the same folder-structure, I said *the contents of*, not the whole AHNENERBE-mod!


STEP 11: APPLY THE H.SIE-PATCH
Now comes the best. There's an unofficial, non-Ubisoft-patch programmed by some cool guy called "H.sie". And you've got the tool that can automatically apply it for you. Did I mention Front-End yet? If you still have it open, good, if not, rerun it.
CONTINUE, Inspect your U-Boot, choose your GWX-installation. You know it by now.
Open the PATCH&FIX-menu, in that menu select 'S3H (H.sie)', click YES to run and apply the patch. This patch improves a lot in the game! IMPORTANT: Some files must be overwritten, so if you get a warning that this is to be done, do it!


CONGRATULATIONS!
This is what you've got as a result:

Local Disk (E:)
└📁SH3
⠀└📁DOWNLOADS
⠀└📁Silent Hunter III-GWM
⠀└📁Silent Hunter III-GWX
⠀└📁Silent Hunter III-original
⠀└📁TOOLS
⠀⠀└📁JSGME
⠀⠀└📁SH3 Commander
⠀⠀└📁SH3 Front-End

You've now got a fully functional Silent Hunter III-installation with Commander, the latest JSGME, applied H.sie-patch (it really improves the gameplay a lot!) and the best, you can now launch SH3 (read that as all the versions you got now and in future) from one menu called Front-End. And in Front-End you have it all, you simply choose which installation/mod you want to run, click on the Commander icon and from Commander you can make again so many changes and run the game. Each installation can be run from the Front-End menu, but still all the installations work completely without interfering with each other, so no game conflicts or mod conflicts if only properly configured.

If you want to add further mods, there's two things you must keep in mind: FIRST deactivate the H.sie-patch, then put in the mod(s) you want, then activate the H.sie-patch again. This is important, the H.sie-patch must always be the LAST activated item. And only install or change mods when your boat is home in port, everything else produces crashes and people whine on Steam :)

And next you can do is play Multiplayer-games with us using your new GWM installation. For this [JOiN DEF], so you are allowed in their DEFLAN-network and your sunk tonnage is counted in the score-table. Clear to play soooo many exciting mission files... but look up that on your own: ► Compare yourself... ◄

Enjoy! Credits to these fine people:
Grey Wolves team for GWX
XVII for GWM
H.sie for programming the cool game-fixes called H.sie-patch
JScones for programming Commander and JSGME
BL!TZKR!EG for programming Front-End, Steam-Fix, the automated H.sie-patch and for writing so much documentation
me, FIEDLER, for collecting all that info and writing this up for you fellow SH3-fans

You can show your appreciation and support our group by donating to the cover the server costs, [read about U-BOOT Funds]. If you have got questions or good ideas how to improve this, [make a post].
« Last Edit: 20221004, 17:26:21 by REV_BL!TZKR!EG »

Offline REV_BL!TZKR!EG

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Re: How to run STEAM-SH3-V1.6b-GWX-WIDESCREEN on Win10
« Reply #1 on: 20230103, 01:13:06 »
@FIEDLER, I have added that one extra step of running the game first time.

I am thinking of putting this part into the Universal Installer so that problem will be no more.

Running SH3.exe *once* is required because if you run S3C, it will not find the configuration and career files and give you an error.
These files are created upon first start of SH3.exe.

So for now that step is required *once* before you use S3C, so in this case for 1.4b and for GWX. GWM does not require that because you can not play a career with GWM anyway.

The most comfortable I can offer as of now is use Front-End:
1. select the 1.4b installation, run SH3.exe without S3C, exit, done
2. select the GWX installation, run SH3.exe without S3C, exit, done
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