Silent Hunter III

What works

Menus, sound, 3D, tutorials, missions. Gameplay: 10 minutes tested.

What does not

The  installer crashes during the installation process.

The output is:

00c6:err:module:attach_dlls "SH3.DLL" failed to initialize, aborting
00c6:err:module:attach_dlls Initializing dlls for L"C:\\Program Files\\Ubisoft\\SilentHunterIII\\sh3.exe" failed, status c0000142

Workarounds

The installer error is not critical and can be ignored.

What was not tested

Multiplayer game (LAN and online). Game save/load.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: Intel
• Driver: open source

Additional Comments

Version used: EMEA DVD edition (English & German) - version 1.0 (2005) patched to 1.4b.

install the game using the command line:

Create a profile folder:

export WINEPREFIX="${HOME}/.wine-silent_hunter_III"
WINEARCH=win32 wineboot -u

Insert the DVD-ROM, then open a terminal window:

cd "/media/${USER}/SH3"
# Note : do not install the DirectX, nor 'Game Shadow' nor 'Adobe Acrobat Reader'.
wine SH3Autorun.exe

From a web browser, download the latest patch file (v1.4b) for DVD: http://patches.ubi.com/silent_hunter_3/
In my case the file name is: 'silent_hunter_3_dvd_1.4b_emea.exe'

cd ~/Downloads # the folder where your downloaded files are write
wine silent_hunter_3_dvd_1.4b_emea.exe

At the end, select 'Never register'.
Check that the software has stop (look at the task manager of your OS).
The installer will display a dialog: "you will have to restart your computer", click "Yes": the installer will crash.

To run the game:

export WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-silent_hunter_III
wine start 'C\Program Files\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\sh3.exe'

The game itself works, but some care must be taken during instalaltion in order to get it working correctly.
Note and disclaimer:
This has been tested only with Silent Hunter 3 - EMEA DVD edition - version 1.4b. Please contact me for your success regarding the US or the downlaod editions of this game.
First step: Install the game.
This is easy: push the DVD in and run "wine setup.exe". Install all the options including Directx9 video codecs and Acrobat Reader 7 (this one might be left out if you have space concerns). Installation will run swiftly and complete in a few minutes with no assle. I suggest not to install the GameShadow crap since you will not need it.
Run wineboot to reboot windows, but DO NOT RUN THE GAME YET!
Second step: Patch the game to 1.4b
Go to the Ubisoft Silent Hunter 3 homepage (see link in game description) and download the right patch for you. I have tested only the EMEA DVD 1.4b patch. The download is about 20MB and could take a while, but once you have it simply unzip and run it with wine. The patch will locate your installation and patch it to the latest (1.4b) version.
Run wineboot to reboot windows, but DO NOT RUN THE GAME YET!!
Third step: apply a NO-CD crack to the game
No, i am not suggesting to illegally play this game, nor i am suggesting to pursue any illegal or unethic behaviour. If this step is illegal in your country or if you believe it to be unethical, please stop here and forget about running Silent Hunter 3 under wine.
Unfortunately, Ubisoft has choosen a copy protection mechanism for their game that is NOT supported by wine at the moment. So, even if you own an original version of the game you must find, download and apply a NO-CD (or better NO-DVD in this case) patch. I am not giving you any direct link to any potential illegal stuff, unzip it and put all the enclosed files (some dlls and one exe) on the game directory replacing the original provided ones. I strongly suggest backing up the existing one first.
Run wineboot to reboot windows, but DO NOT RUN THE GAME YET!!
Last step: Now run the game!
Either run wine sh3.exe from the game directory or use the Start Menu shortcut, the loading screen might take some time, then the menu page will show up and... Good Luck!

Note: if "xrandr | grep 1024x" does not report 50.0 Hz as an option

(for example: "   1024x768       75.0     70.0     60.0 " )

you must fiddle with your X config until it does report 50 Hz, or apply this patch to get the game running.

Please report any success story for other editions than the EMEA DVD!

Make sure that this key exists in the wine registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\DirectSound
In that key, create a string MaxShadowSize with value 0 . Or the game may run out of virtual memory and crash.
See bug 9612 for details.