Release Notes 12/13/02
THIS UNOFFICIAL PATCH IS AUTHORIZED BY UBISOFT HOWEVER, UBISOFT OFFERS
ABSOLUTELY NO SUPPORT.
Silent Hunter II remains the property of UBISOFT and is protected under
copyright law.
Projekt Messerwetzer © 2002 Subsim Review
All work on this project was performed by Doutel Software Services, LLC, Duane
T. Doutel, Principal/Architect, produced by SUBSIM Review, and funded by The
Sub Club and Subsim.com Radio Room players with private donations. You are
encouraged to CONTRIBUTE to the funding of Projekt Messerwetzer.
INSTALLATION
Begin with an UN-MODDED FULL INSTALLATION of Silent Hunter II, patched to the
1.1 interop level.
You can obtain the Version 1.1 Interop Patch from this site.
- Double click the Projekt Messerwetzer installer.
- The installer will find your installation of Silent Hunter II by looking for
its entry in the registry.
- If you wish to install to this location, then select the OK button.
- If you have more than one installation of Silent Hunter II and would like to
install Projekt Messerwetzer to other than the one found by the installer, use
the browse button to select the folder where the other installation of Silent
Hunter II resides on your hard drive.
-Make sure you select Yes when asked if you want your current files backed up.
** IMPORTANT NOTE **
Testing was performed with the following configuration (SH2 1.0 + SH2 1.1
interop patch + Projekt Messerwetzer). Use of Community 'MODS' are the
responsibility of the player, and are neither recommended nor supported.
REMOVAL
To Uninstall this product, open the Add/Remove Programs Windows Control Panel
applet.
- Select Project Messerwetzer from the list.
- Select Uninstall.
- When asked if you would like to do a 'rollback' select Yes.
- The game files in use before you installed Projekt Messerwetzer will be
restored.
FEATURES
1. Converted from RTime to Microsoft DirectPlay. Overall multiplayer stability
has increased exponentially.
2. MP game hosting will migrate to another host if host player is disconnected
or quits.
3. Manual dive plane control added.(see single player F1 help for keys, and the
NOTES section below for details).
4. .Rig for Silent Running. in game button now reduces detectability of U-Boat
by 50% under certain conditions.
5. Periscope is automatically lowered at 40 meters or deeper and cannot be
raised until U-boat is at a depth of 40 meters or less.
6. Torpedo camera is disabled when external view is disabled in the MP realism
settings.
7. Time Compression enabled beyond 16x in MP games (but NOT recommended; see
NOTES below).
8. Damage to ships may grow worse over time, as in real life this happens to
all units in the game, including the player's ship.
9. Secondary explosions are now enabled.
10. Magazine explosions are now enabled.
11. F1 (help screen) disabled during Multiplay to prevent accidental game
pause.
12. If game is paused by a player who quits or is disconnected, remaining
players can now unpause the game and continue to play.
13. Torpedoes are now armed at the appropriate times and ranges orignally set
in the game code.
14. Deck Gun and AA gun stations are unavailable during heavy seas or when
running with decks awash.
15. Under extremely heavy sea conditions, Bridge and UZO views (F8, F9) may
become unavailable.
HOW TO HOST/JOIN A GAME
Please see the How-To PM.pdf for directions on how to host or join a game.
NOTES
1. The only way to get the AI crew to resume control of the planes after using
the manual diveplane feature is to either select a depth from one of the depth
dials (F4 or Q), or setting a preset depth from the shortcut keys (S/D/P).
2. UbiSoft's game lobby and other online gaming clients (Gamespy) are no longer
supported with this product; DirectPlay is incompatible with RTime. To find
online opponents, we recommend the Sub Club Wolfpack League.
3. Co-Op and Melee Multiplay gaming among SH2 players is available at this
time; however, Interop Multiplay with Destroyer Command will not be available
until Destroyer Command has been converted to DirectPlay (projected completion
February 2003). Wolfpack League STAT games can not be played using v1.0 PM.
4. There is no longer a Dedicated Server option; Connectivity is peer to peer,
IP-only.
MULTIPLAYER PERFORMANCE FACTORS
1. Although internet connection speeds are far less an issue than they were
with the RTime version of Silent Hunter II, it is important that player ping
times to the host be as low as possible throughout the game (below 200
milliseconds produces the best results; see the included How-To-PM document for
details on how to perform a ping).
2. It has been found that faster host computers (700 MHz or faster) with fast
internet connections and memory in excess of 256 megabytes produce the highest
quality multiplayer games. We recommend that the computer of a player who is
NOT the host be NO SLOWER than a PIII-550 with 256 megabytes of ram.
3. Slower host computers and/or higher ping times will result in the following:
- Unit icons may appear to 'wiggle' in the CIC Map screen.
- Units may appear to 'jump', sometimes several hundred or even several
thousand meters.
4. Time Compression for long periods can and will produce strange ship
positioning anomalies and should be avoided if possible.
5. As with all multiplayer games, there are issues that you may encounter which
are beyond programmatic control. The internet is a big place. Slow data
transfer can and does happen, and is beyond anyone's control.
SUPPORT
If you are having any problems, support will be provided by the The Sub Club
and SubSim Review. Messages can be posted in the Sub Club Forum. Here you'll
find many knowledgeable and experienced players to assist you with any known
problem(s) you may be encountering.
CREDITS
Programming: Duane Doutel, Doutel Services, LLC
My Other Half
Casey Doutel, my loving wife
I couldn't have accomplished this without your loving patience and support!
My Right Arm
Nosferato
(60+ builds in 3 weeks, and never a complaint! You're a good man, Nos!)
My Left Arm
Sharkstooth, AKA Sharkey
(moral support whenever I needed it, newbie tester tutor and Urangutan Wrangler
Extraordinaire! What a DOLL!)
My I-Only-Have-So-Many-Arms Arm
GStew
( bleary-eyed, wee-small-hours tester par excellance!)
Chief Patron
Koen Van den Eynde aka "Crow" and his lovely wife Katia
Crow's generous donations are legendary in the subsim community.
Director
Neal Stevens, AKA Onkel Neal, SUBSIM Review
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do this without you, this project
wouldn't have happened at all!
Technical Advisor on All-Things-Submarine
Frank Kulick:
Graphics
Cory Burke, John Channing
German Translations
Doc 'Bleichrodt' Snyder, Peter Müssig
Cartoonist-In-Residence
Torplexed
Support where it counts
Sub Club members
Documentation done by
Sharkstooth and Nosferato
Special thanks to Mark Kundinger, Troy Heere, Dave Bringhurst and all of
Ultimation; Carl Norman, Shawn Storc of Ubi-Soft.
____________________________________________________
EARLY TESTERS
These guys tested the single player PM release:
John Channing
Vonotto Ol'Man
Xebec
CORE ALPHA TESTERS
These guys were the backbone of my testing team:
CaptainCruise
Drebbel
KaptkirkU4467
IronReaper
Panz
Pitmurph
RickC Sniper
StdDev
Swhalen36
RELEASE CANDIDATE TESTERS
These guys beat on the final release candidate:
Admiral8Q
BlueBearD
Crow
Dargo
DAVIDVIPER
Doc 'Bleichrodt' Snyder
Donw
Jagdwolf
Jarek
JerkyBoy
Kercher
KING
Lafeeverted
M-S_BZH
Matt8654
McBeck
Mr. Flank
Munchausen 105
PoseidonDV
See drache
Seeadler
Speaker for the Dead
SpYdR
Steed007
Stormfly
Timberwolf
Tobar
U48
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