What has and hasn't been fixed?

[NarooN]

I know about the gamepad support and I used motioninjoy to play SH3. With SH2, it'll successfully detect my DS3 no prob, but the problem with SH2 is that it doesn't let you unbind the default keys from the in-game menu to map new ones. Because of that, there was no way of playing thru the game without having to put up with oddly-mapped controls. I couldn't even use xpadder to emulate the keyboard using my DS3 to play it. Unless there's some way to un-bind the keys that I don't know about, it's a bust for me. Not that big of a deal to me since I've beaten it twice using the keyboard anyway in the past.

SH2 does support gamepads natively, but the support is pretty terrible.

[kyleb]

SH2 supports unbinding and rebinding the buttons however you like, you just have to mouse click on whatever control you want to change and then press the controller button you want to use or pres esc to delete whatever is currently bound. Here's a screenshot to prove the point:

[NarooN]

Forgot about that, and I remember trying it actually and it didn't work. I assumed it'd work like any other old-school game like that, but it never did. I'd press the button on the DS3 and it would never map the button anyway.

Like I said though, not a big enough deal for me to go search for some gamepad which would work normally with it, so not much of a loss for me.

[RobbieGal]

I apologize if this is a little off topic, but I'm gonna be purchasing a PS3 in the coming weeks and I'm contemplating which system to buy the HD Collection on. I've read good thing about the PS3 patch in terms of improved framerate, voice synch, fog, ect.., but still I'm undecided. I know graphics don't make a game, but any insight to which console the game looks better on? Anyways, I again apologize if this is a redundant question. I guess realistically I'm looking for tangible reasons to buy it for the Playstation 3 console as opposed to the 360.

I'd go with the 360 version, honestly. It's had less problems, and even with the recent patch for PS3, it's probably the safer bet.

[schlaufuchsMIKE]

Even though the patch has made it playable?

[RobbieGal]

Even though the patch has made it playable?

I imagine either version is still buggy, but the PS3 version was worse to begin with, right? Has the patch made it genuinely better than the 360 version?

[NarooN]

As far as I know, 360 ver. was only a tad bit more stable, not a big enough difference to warrant choosing one ver. over the other since both were pretty horrible. PS3 version is the better bet currently since the patch actually fixed many of the problems, including making SH3 not abysmally annoying to play through.

[RobbieGal]

Gotcha! I guess that's fair enough. I had heard the PS3 version was abysmal compared to the 360 version, but if they both have a good share of problems, then maybe PS3 is the way to go now. Is Konami patching the 360 ed.?

[NarooN]

Yeah, 360 version will be patched not long from now.

[kyleb]

Forgot about that, and I remember trying it actually and it didn't work. I assumed it'd work like any other old-school game like that, but it never did. I'd press the button on the DS3 and it would never map the button anyway.

Like I said though, not a big enough deal for me to go search for some gamepad which would work normally with it, so not much of a loss for me.

Sounds like the issue is simply that you were running Windows on a restricted user account which won't allow programs you run to modify data in the program files folder, as that is where game stores its save files.

[NarooN]

I'm the admin and I always turn that UAC crap and anything resembling it off. SH2 on PC is buggy by nature anyway, so it doesn't really shock me. It works well with some gamepads, others it doesn't.

When I'd unmap whatever key, the game wouldn't even accept button presses to do a new map period. It's not like it'd flash for a second with the new mapping or anything, just flat out nothing would happen. I'm far passed the point of trying to fix it though. SH2 is too boring to me after several playthroughs when it comes to gameplay. I appreciate you and the others for trying to help, though. Methinks it's simply due to the DS3 not really having any official support on Windows in the first place. I got it to work with SH3 just fine, but SH4 had similar issues as well.

[kyleb]

The DS3 works fine in both SH2 and SH4 using MotioninJoy drivers or any other DirectInput device when configured correctly, Whatever problem you had, it's not the fault of the ports. Furthermore, the only notable bug in the PC port of SH2 is an incompatibility with multicore processors that came out long after the game did, and that is easy enough to work around.

And by the way, I'm not really trying to help you here, but rather help others from being mislead by the misinformation you've been spewing.

[NarooN]

U mad bro? I really appreciate your random, unwarranted hostility towards me, but gg.

SH2 & 4 had lots of bugs on the PC ports. SH2 had numerous issues reading data; some people would randomly have their data get corrupted for no reason, while others couldn't get the game to detect their save data at all. It also had random flashlight bugs, sounds randomly looping endlessly without reason (or not playing at all), random freezes and crashes, the list goes on. Those are all well documented, so I dunno how you can sit there and claim it only had one prolific bug when there's vids on youtube showing them as well as tons of threads from various forums talking about them as well. And it's not even a problem with old drivers and OS's since I recommended numerous people to try to PC version back before the SH HDC came out, and they pretty much all said the PC port was garbage. One of my friends is afraid to even try it out because of all the stuff he's heard and seen.

I used the DS3 with motioninjoy on numerous other PC games and emulators, and not a single title or application gave me an issue except for those two. There's no way it's a problem on *my* end.

SH4 was just a terrible PC port in general. No options whatsoever to change visual quality, the same control issues with the DS3 as with SH2 (at least on 4, I could map the keys, yet the game wouldn't let me map the camera control to the right analog stick for whatever reason no matter which motioninjoy profile I used), locking the cutscene framerate to 15fps for whatever dumbass reason, etc.

So no, I haven't "spewed" any misinformation here, unlike you just did in your post. How ironic, LOL.

[kyleb]

some people would randomly have their data get corrupted for no reason,

If the data gets corrupted there is a reason for it, but unless you can isolate the steps to reproduce such corruption then you can't rightly blame it on a bug in the game rather than an issue elsewhere on the computer.

while others couldn't get the game to detect their save data at all.

That's because the game saves to its own folder, and restricted user account settings in newer versions of Windows will prevent programs you run from modifying data in the program files folder, as I mentioned in this thread previously.

It also had random flashlight bugs

Perhaps there are issues with the flashlight with specific video drivers, but none inherent to the game itself.

sounds randomly looping endlessly without reason (or not playing at all), random freezes and crashes, the list goes on.

Those are the result of the mulitcore issue I mentioned previously, and is easily fixed by setting the process affinity down to a single logical core.

I used the DS3 with motioninjoy on numerous other PC games and emulators, and not a single title or application gave me an issue except for those two. There's no way it's a problem on *my* end.

It clearly is a problem on your end, as I can rebind buttons just fine using a DS3 through MotioninJoy in SH4. That said, I've currently got a problem on my end with SH2 crashing when I try to go to the options menu while my DS3 is enabled through Motioninjoy, but I don't care to take the time to resolve it as my preferred 360 controller with XBCD drivers works just fine, as did the other various controllers I've used in the past. However, I can upload a video showing that changing binds works with a DS3 through MotioninJoy in SH4 if need be.

SH4 was just a terrible PC port in general. No options whatsoever to change visual quality

More misinformation from you which is easily debunked with a screenshot:



And no, your incessant spewing of misinformation doesn't rightly anger me. I find it more comical than anything, and annoying at worst.

[Ratiocinator]

Those are the result of the mulitcore issue I mentioned previously, and is easily fixed by setting the process affinity down to a single logical core.

Would you mind linking or giving a step-by-step in fixing this? The sound loop problem was always a reason why I never played SH2 PC for long.

Also, you may know what I'm talking about and it could be doing it for that same reason (the multi-core issue), but there are certain spots in the game that're supposed to be completely black but are instead completely white.

I'm at work so I can't do a screen cap but one place I know off the top of my head is the closet in the room where you come out of the hole in the wall after pushing the clock. Behind the closet it's blistering white. It also does this in Born from a Wish, there's these noticeable white seams around the door you first meet Ernest.

Any idea?

[Jack Ketch]

All you need to do to set affinity is go to the running process in task manager and right click, then untick as applicable till you're only running on one processor. Won't save though, you'll need to do it every time you play.

[kyleb]

For more details on setting affinity, see here.

As for your white issue, I've never seen the specific examples you mention, but forcing anti-aliasing though video drivers can cause issues of that sort due incompatibility with to the game's use of deferred rendering. Little seams at the beginning of the main game have always been enough to make me not bother trying to force AA any further into the game.

[NarooN]

I've never heard of Windows corrupting a game's save data, but I'm sure it's happened before. Regardless, there's various fixes for the save data stuff, so it's indeed an issue with a lackluster port job.

The issue with detecting the save data existed long before Vista & 7 even came out. There's fixes for that too. I never had the issue, though like I said, I never use any of those UAC things in the first place, and I'm the admin.

Ha, SH2 had flashlight bugs even on the 360 via emulation. Pretty sure it has to do mainly with how the game is coded. I never experienced the flashlight bugs, so I'm not sure how the fixes work since I never looked them up. I never had this problem either.

SH2 crashing when I try to rebind is exactly *why* I can't play it with my DS3. I also don't recall saying I couldn't get the DS3 to work with SH4, since I said I got it to work on there.

And OMFG, realtime shadows! Too bad that's like the only option available, lmao. I didn't see any default options or anything that games from the mid 90's would offer besides that one. I honestly forgot that option was even there since it's lumped in with all the other options, though I guess that's because I hardly played it on PC due to how garbage of a port it was.

I like how you use the word "incessant" as if that's all I do here, lol (and I still haven't intentionally given out any misinformation here, besides me forgetting that SH4 had the godly option to enable/disable realtime shadowing.) And don't even bother pulling the "lol im not mad, u make meh laff" card. You spend that much time and energy replying to me trying to prove me wrong or whatever, I find it kinda hard to picture you laughing -- seems pretty obsessive to me.

Anyway, to stay on topic, like I mentioned elsewhere I got through SH2 quite a few times across three different PC's with no huge problems. I did get random crashes often, mostly on my friend's laptop and on my old PC, but not on my newer one with Win 7 64bit. The cpu core affinity trick fixes most problems, as it does for most older Windows titles in general, but doesn't fix them all. The rest seem to be fixed either with the patches that Konami released or other user-found fixes in general. SH3 never gave me any issues at all (played it across the same range of PC's) and SH4 was just unpleasant on them all. Still playable and beatable, but just annoying to play in general.

To be more specific on SH4's issues, besides the game's textures being horrifically low-res and you being able to do nothing about it, thus making the game look all the worse at higher resolutions, the game would always give issues when played with a gamepad. I always assumed it was just the DS3 acting up again, but my friend who played it with a DualShock 2 via a DS2 to USB converter had the same problems -- he had no issue at all playing through SH2 & 3 with the same setup, yet SH4 screwed us all over.

I'd map the keys just fine, yet when doing certain actions like going into "ready mode" would cause Henry to randomly dodge despite us not hitting the dodge button, effectively breaking the combat completely. You spend a good deal of time in combat, and some battles are obviously unskippable, so that was a no-no. I already didn't care for SH4's gameplay, and since I already knew how everything goes anyway, I gave up on playing through it. That, along with me being unable to map the FPV look controls to the right analog, was enough to dissuade me from going any further. Not a loss at all.

[kyleb]

SH2 crashing when I try to rebind is exactly *why* I can't play it with my DS3

Yet previously you said:

the problem with SH2 is that it doesn't let you unbind the default keys from the in-game menu to map new ones.

Then I posted a screenshot in the middle if unbinding and remapping a button from the in game menu, to which you retorted with:

Forgot about that, and I remember trying it actually and it didn't work. I assumed it'd work like any other old-school game like that, but it never did. I'd press the button on the DS3 and it would never map the button anyway.

And now you're claiming you can't even get to the options menu when running a DS3 through MotioninJoy, and all while any such issue can easy be worked around by using MotioninJoy's built in remapping functionality? That is funny, as is the rest of your blathering, much in the way one can't help but chuckle at an infant trying to press a square peg through a round hole.

The annoying part is the fact that you continue to spew misinformation about the ports which could mislead others into never bothering with them at all, while with just a little bit of bother they prove to be the best versions of the games by far, which prompts me to spend time refuting your misinformation. Granted, since you've now declared that you believe "SH2 is too boring" and have "gave up on playing through" SH4 in general, I think you've done a good enough job in discrediting yourself in the arena of discussing the games, so I won't bother addressing the rest of your nonsense.

[Mothersdecent]

This HD collection SCREAMS sabotage. Like dragging the quality of the series down to the newer titles.