View Full Version : Battleship Command
Hey guys!
I've decided to start experimenting on a ship simulator. At the moment it's based around a Scharnhorst class battleship.
I'm posting here to get some feedback and ideas!
Battleship Command: Scharnhorst is a naval warfare simulator that puts you in the captains chair onboard a battleship of the Scharhorst class.
You will battle warships, chase merchants and fight off torpedo bombers.
Using radar, optical rangefinders and the fire control computer.
You will use rudders and the engine order telegraph or climb down to the boiler rooms yourself and mixture with the oil and feedwater flow.
That was about the battle module. With the campaign module you will play out the strategic war and navigate the atlantic in a dynamic campaign.
You can use the onboard reconnaissance planes or communicate with the uboat fleet to hunt your prey and disrupt the enemies supply lines.
You can join and support me on patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/battleshipcommand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79P-3QzysWE&feature=youtu.be
https://youtu.be/nUBK1uP4xAs
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/base-profile-screenshot-2019.11.26-21.50.52.45-1.png
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/newfirestation.jpg
Cheers!
Hey guys!
There's been alot of coding, but not much visual change.
But here's a video showing of the basics of a rangefinder I'm working on.
There is no interface to speak of yet, only some basic functionality.
Cheers
P.S, the sound FX are borrowed from the game which is my inspiration.
agathosdaimon
11-05-16, 06:36 AM
looks great so far, it makes me realise that so far as i know no one has made a battleship simulation that would be equivalent to something like silent hunter - the closest would be destroyer command i guess but it is not battleships focussed.
i would love a battleship sim, and one that is combined with the depth of gameplay as in Action Stations
Julhelm
11-05-16, 05:30 PM
Looks really cool. Keep in mind that the gun directors at this time would be triaxially stabilized. The actual firecontrol computer resides deep within the citadel in what is the CiC. It is fed by constant bearings and ranges from rangefinders mounted around the ship, and the guns are aimed remotely from the gun director.
looks great so far, it makes me realise that so far as i know no one has made a battleship simulation that would be equivalent to something like silent hunter - the closest would be destroyer command i guess but it is not battleships focussed.
i would love a battleship sim, and one that is combined with the depth of gameplay as in Action Stations
True, that's why I'm taking on this, I really enjoy Destroyer Command.
I want something like DC, but with the possibility to walk around the ship and interact more with the ship, push buttons and turn handles.
I never played Action Stations, I'll read up on that one.
Which gameplay functions were cool about it?
Looks really cool. Keep in mind that the gun directors at this time would be triaxially stabilized. The actual firecontrol computer resides deep within the citadel in what is the CiC. It is fed by constant bearings and ranges from rangefinders mounted around the ship, and the guns are aimed remotely from the gun director.
Thanks!
I'm still studying whatever info I can get about the German rangefinders, how they looked and how the stereoscopic view looked. But not much to be found. Triaxially stabilized means that the view from the optics was not bobbing with the ship, it stayed horizontially fixed?
Yes, the FCC is temporarly put easy to reach, for testing purposes. Now it's moved again because the secondary guns are in place...
Cheers!
Julhelm
11-06-16, 04:33 PM
I would recommend Battleships of the Scharnhorst class (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Battleships-Scharnhorst-Class-Gerhard-Koop/dp/1848321929/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478467767&sr=1-1&keywords=battleships+of+the+scharnhorst+class) by Gerhard Koop.
I have not read that book. But I've read an article by the same authors which looks similar to the preview of this book.
Good read indeed! Thanks for the tip!
The heavy AA had a fully stabilized rangefinder. It was apperantly a new type of RF that they tested on the Scharnhorst classes for AA.
Still don't know how or if the main 10,5m rangefinder was stabilized.
agathosdaimon
11-06-16, 09:17 PM
Action Stations is an old game from 1990 which i have been playing recently, it is a strategy game, but why i mention it is because it has alot of detail to its mechanics, in its modelling of damage it factors in how even the damage to a crew person may in turn indirectly affect the ship, say if someone steering the ship is hit by debris and slumps over the controls and causes the ship to veer off course. You have control over all the gun directors and stations pretty much. but overall i was just meaning a combination of a simulator with a tactical simulation overall.
come to think of it, though just basing it on DC but from the BB position would be more than adequate
That sounds like fun!
I haven't planned in detail yet how the crew management will work.
But I have decided for the engine and system management.
It will give you some strategic choices on wether to prioritice engine power, electrical systems or crew "happiness".
Especially when the ship gets damaged or you are low on fuels.
Brittish spies caught this photo of what appears to be the new Scharnhorst class on a test run. The photo confirms that it got both the "C" gun and secondary artillery installed.
Second photo seems to be from the inside of the ship.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8291078/rend1.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8291078/rend2.jpg
agathosdaimon
12-06-16, 06:14 AM
great stuff - keep it coming!
Thanks!
Currently I'm fine tuning another program where I can test AI behaviour and teach it to deal with different situations. Attack, evasive behaviour, search patterns and convoy defense etc...
Happy new year everyone!
I've been doing some progress with Battleship Command!
New stuff includes but is not limited to:
-Terrain rendering and skybox
-Basic enemy AI, ships that move according to waypoints and fire at you
-Engine controls, control boilers and turbines independently
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8291078/env1.jpg
Hey guys!
Here's another, conceptual video. Nothing is really "done", it's tests under evalutation!
But what you'll see is how to make the ship move. I think you'll get it, otherwise feel free to ask what it is about!
Next time I hope to show off the damage handling and an actual battle.
Cheers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2DXXXCfxoQ&feature=youtu.be
PS; I cannot edit my previous posts anymore, I would like to delete the old videos and update the first post. Any chance to do that, mods?
I really love this, keep it coming. Scharnhorst is a very good choice for a limited initial release. :up:
You can limite the map to the Arctic ocean (Easy environment to code, with very few coastal cities) and create a campaign based on exits to hunt detected convoys and stragglers. Help from Luftwaffe and UBoats as well as your destroyers or other battleships, and the permanent risk of meeting a british task force can make for a hugely intense gameplay. :Kaleun_Cheers:
Absolutly, there will be more stuff coming!
The Scharnhorst is for sure an interesting ship. If you meet a British task force then you better run. Which of course was the Scharnhorst strength. She was fast, but had weak main arnament.
Exactly my thought, to have missions based around Norway against the Arctic convoys. Atleast until I manage a dynamic campaign mode, which is far down the line.
I like the idea of close coop with Luftwaffe and Uboats! I'll look into how to incorporate that.
:salute:
Hey!
Most of the stuff being worked on is still happening under the hood, like a simple mission builder, damage handling and crew management. So nothing to show off interface vice yet...
But I can show you this (totally work in progress), some experiments with foam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSVv2QPwxYo&feature=youtu.be
Cheers
Punished badly for coming up too close to a battlecruiser and her escorts.https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8291078/show1.jpg
Punished badly for coming up too close to a battlecruiser and her escorts.https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8291078/show1.jpg
? :hmmm:
? :hmmm:
Oh, there was a photo. Seems like my dropbox links dove too deep.
And I cannot edit my old posts anymore.
I will post something new soon!
My photo links keep dying...
Lets try Google photos instead.
Scharnhorst found a small convoy of T2's and Tribal escorts. They won't last long.
http://i68.tinypic.com/qogajr.jpghttp://goo.gl/photos/dYX4Q3wE5XwsbsS57
As you might notice, there is a few graphical improvements.
The water is slowly starting to look more realistic.
I'm working on getting textures into the engine and UV-mapping the models. Still need to figure out how to incorporate somekind of occlusion and bumpmapping.
em2nought
04-13-17, 11:10 PM
I think your water looks just fine, I always feel that modern computer water looks too real compared to the rest of any game. Gives it an odd feel to have such lifelike water when the rest of the world isn't so lifelike.
Been working alot on what happens when you pull the trigger on the 28cm main guns and send those 300kilo projectiles flying.
Blast effect, water pillars and flight ballistics.
The probability of hitting a target at 10km distance still needs some fine tuning though.
I think I now will start working on some proper interfaces and buttons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucNlqvz4cYY
Cheers!
What features/functionality would you like to see in a Battleship simulator?
Alot of the ground work is done, so I'm making plans for how to proceed and which features needs their own algorithms in the program.
Slightly cooler looking water and a working engine telegraph!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0TGfMnQeIw
What features/functionality would you like to see in a Battleship simulator?
Alot of the ground work is done, so I'm making plans for how to proceed and which features needs their own algorithms in the program.
This is one of those things where you can aim for the sky really ... :D
But being reasonable my wish for such a sim would concentrate on two aspects: Addictiveness and replay value.
For the first I understand a sim that provides the player with interesting tasks that absorbe his attention and require both thinking and ability, properly trained. A learning curve must be there, but also be possible.
In this area I place:
1) Gunnery simulation, i.e. you must be able to locate targets, track them, train guns, select ammo and pull the trigger or let the game do it.
2) Tactical simulation, as being able to rely the gunning to the crew and move the ship just by general orders, as in the usual classic bird eye perspective. Ability to interact with other units in your side is important, call aero attacks, have DDs scout for you, etc.
3) Navigation simulation, as the ship must react properly to orders and have a believable sailing model. I think you are already on your way with that in the engine areas f.e.
Some people like crew and damage management, personally I don't rate any of those as specially interesting, but to each his own.
For the second I tend to focus on a dynamic or at least random campaign. Sailing into the unknown and having to react to whatever you find is essential. Nothing is saddest and more killjoy than a canned mission where you basically replay it several times until you find the trick to pass it.
Thanks for the feedback Hitman!
Feel free to aim high, those are the ideas I might have overlooked.
Good points!
Gunnery is surely top priority. You need skill to handle the different rangefinding tools at your disposal; optics, radar and even hydrophones. So I'm carefully researching and programming those parts. You will be able to use simply the optics and get help from the crew, but learning and manning the stations yourself will allow you to be most dangerous.
The technical part will be important as well. You can simply order a speed with the telegraph. But if you handle the boilers and turbines yourself and learn how they work, you might be able to get an extra boost out of the machines, save some fuel or break the ship.
Statistically, you will gather some damage after an enemy encounter. So damagehandling and compromises will be important. If your dieselgenerator breaks, will you use your turbocharger to power the turrets and radars? Or will you sacrifice them for speed and return to base fast?
Regarding the tactical simulation, all I can say is that the Scharnhorst had three airplanes onboard, which would be a shame not to use.
And she usually travelled with destroyers and sometimes her sister ship the Gneisenau.
I believe she also did a patrol with Tirpitz! But she will not be in game for a while...
What really makes such a sim great is having a series of "games inside the game", i.e. gunnery, navigation, all those aspects required a trained officer and crew and are a mini-sim in themselves. Allowing the player to have control of any or all those aspects means anyone will find something for himself on the sim.
One thing I want to point out looking at your videos, I know this is an early testing stage, but the ship reacts too quickly to rudder, telegraph, etc. Those ships had a huge inertia, and you had to anticipate a lot any order. They even had to stop thrust miles away from the destination, so as not to run aground. :)
What really makes such a sim great is having a series of "games inside the game", i.e. gunnery, navigation, all those aspects required a trained officer and crew and are a mini-sim in themselves. Allowing the player to have control of any or all those aspects means anyone will find something for himself on the sim.
One thing I want to point out looking at your videos, I know this is an early testing stage, but the ship reacts too quickly to rudder, telegraph, etc. Those ships had a huge inertia, and you had to anticipate a lot any order. They even had to stop thrust miles away from the destination, so as not to run aground. :)
I agree on both points!
Yes, there shall be alot of activities to do onboard, even when just travelling from A to B.
Yes, at the moment 'shaft rpms' = 'ship speed', and neither the latency of the orders, delay in increasing steam or actual accelration in the water is counted in.
But they will be there and match the facts about how it really performed I can find.
How are things going? :):ping:
How are things going? :):ping:
Hi Hitman!
It's going well I would say! Currently on vacation, so I cannot take any screencap for you.
The biggest milestones since last time is a major improvement in how enemies fire at you. I've built a few new interfaces to get rid of my debug-panel. And modelled and implemented the compass and rudder controls in the helmstation according to video photage of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
Cheers
FightingSteel1
07-12-17, 02:29 AM
Just dropping in to say I've been following your project as well. Keep up the good work!
Just dropping in to say I've been following your project as well. Keep up the good work!
I'm glad to hear that! Thanks, will do!
Here's some wip stuff!
Not a nice situation, luckily they still need a better torpedo run routine.
http://i.imgur.com/17HUVAh.png
I have a wall of flak for them.
http://i.imgur.com/bT8UKaC.png
Here's the swordfish planes in action!
Their torpedo runs are working dangerously well.
Please ignore the crappy plane and ship models, it's one of the last things I will work on.
https://youtu.be/_ZG6eHLECh8
Cheers!
I had missed your last video as I was out of town on holidays, great job again :Kaleun_Cheers: also love the damage screen concept :up:
This is shaping up quite nicely, looking forward to what you implement next :ping:
Thanks Hitman!
Currently working on getting some AI assistance! Made a fairly good model, which I can give some orders.
Now she needs some textures and combat routines. Can you ID the ship?
https://i.imgur.com/lstTCTS.jpg
https://imgur.com/lstTCTS
Very cool. I like it!
:up:
Looks to me like a Deutschland class pocket battleship :shucks:
AI is indeed a key to the sim's success, especially on surface units :ping:
Very cool. I like it!
:up:
Thanks Sung!!
Looks to me like a Deutschland class pocket battleship :shucks:
AI is indeed a key to the sim's success, especially on surface units :ping:
It's indeed a Deutschland class, with her six 28cm guns!
Soon I'll have her fighting the HMS Belfast, not sure who should win... :arrgh!:
Here is a little progress report!
I did a very important migration to a newer set of programing tools, which took some time but improved alot of aspects.
Mainly it opened up for some newer OpenGL tools and solved some license issues, so now I can even charge money for my program!
Here are some pictures from it's current state, with a new water shader and the work in progress firedirector/rangefinder(I had to combine these two stations for some user friendlieness :)).
https://i.imgur.com/NT3Ykbf.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/xQVeB3m.jpg?1
Glad you got into a new stage :up:
The idea of combining firedirector/rangefinder is good and practical, Iguess you will be adding a panel to control individual or salvo shots from al turrets?
It would also be great to be able to switch to any turrent for local firing in case the director gets knocked down. :ping:
Glad you got into a new stage :up:
The idea of combining firedirector/rangefinder is good and practical, Iguess you will be adding a panel to control individual or salvo shots from al turrets?
It would also be great to be able to switch to any turrent for local firing in case the director gets knocked down. :ping:
Hi Hitman!
Yes, the switches are allready there, in the right hand panel! :up:
The switches just hasn't got labels yet. I'll demonstrate them in a video at some point.
But basically there is a switch to choose which of the three firedirectors the gun should be connected to.
You can also teleport between the three firedirectors; fore, foretop and aft.
So each gun can be connected to it's own firedirector, or all of them to one firedirector.
The three bigger rounded compass-ish things indicates to where the guns are pointing.
The red button fires that individual gun.
The big handle in bottom right corner fires all guns!
edit:
Easier to see with colors:
https://i.imgur.com/RJP5UvPh.jpg
The fire control should comprise also the target plotting and computing the necessary lead angle, because if you shoot f.e. at 15 to 20 kms the target will have moved consideably when the shell arrives there. I think that a specific station for the full fire control would be great, then having smaller simplied pannels that present the results in the fire director (This one with binoculars for observation, range finder and fire command) and the individual turrets.
Battelships worked very much like a submarine in that regard (Or rather the opposite lol) and there was a specific part of the crew in charge of being the brain of the ship's fire direction, plotting and calculating (Slide rulers or mechanical devices like the TDC in a submarine).
This is WW1 but the base is common, and the site is probably the most serious resource around:
http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org/tfs/index.php/Category:Fire_Control
Yes, the FCC (Fire Control Computer) is mandatory to have.
It is incorporated, atleast in code at the moment with a few inputs, range and bearing to target. I'm currently searching info on have advanced the german FCC's were.
Over the war years they could get veeeery complicated, taking inputs such as temperature, wind and humidity to account for the airpressure in the ballistic curve!
You'll definitly get to input target course, bearing, speed and distance. Info about own ships speed and course will be automatic from the gyroscopes.
Not sure if there will be a different station or if all fits in the firedirector screen! We will see! :salute:
Time to take a look at what's new:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiKOaSGMnBI
That's fantastic progress! Love the concept and the battle looks so involving :up::up::up:
Looking forward to blowing ships from the arctic convoys, that has always been my favourite theater :Kaleun_Cheers:
And I guess the concept can be easily ported to control destroyers and other surface units. :ping:
One thing I see is not yet implemented is ship inertia, seems to almost instantñy come to sp4eed as well as turn, in real life such a big ship would certainly need much more time and room to change to a precise course.
Thanks Hitman!! I'm fairly excited myself, that I reached this far.
No, I have not worked alot on turn rates or inertia. I will for sure do it at some point!
I think you will help me out, because I'm looking at compiling a simple prototype demo and let people give it a spin...
I have a few problems to solve first just!
Cheers
FightingSteel1
01-31-18, 04:26 PM
This is looking pretty interesting, and I assume you're doing this all by yourself? You've made some great progress.:salute:
This is looking pretty interesting, and I assume you're doing this all by yourself? You've made some great progress.:salute:
Thanks FightingSteel!
Yes, it's my own little side project for now.
Who knows, if this prototype game/sim turns out well I might consider hiring someone to get some proper modern graphics and a better programer to optimize the code.
Currently I'm sketching out the campaign/mission module.
What you've seen so far is from the "battle mode" of the program.
Cheers!
jenrick
02-07-18, 01:03 PM
I saw you link over on SimHQ, figured I'd follow the main thread over here.
I'm really enjoying what you're doing and where it's going. I get the concept of combining the director and the range finder for usability, however as someone else noted I do like the authenticity of having them split. Range finding, particularly stereoscopic is hard to do in real life well and it's almost impossible to simulate on a monitor to the degree of fidelity needed for warfare. I would think having a rangefinder station that user can utilize as they prefer, but the main action being in the fire director. The FD is where a lot of the tactical versus technical decisions are made, which to me as the player is the interesting part.
I'll DL the tech demo you put together and give it a go. Keep up the great work!:Kaleun_Salute:
-Jenrick
I saw you link over on SimHQ, figured I'd follow the main thread over here.
I'm really enjoying what you're doing and where it's going. I get the concept of combining the director and the range finder for usability, however as someone else noted I do like the authenticity of having them split. Range finding, particularly stereoscopic is hard to do in real life well and it's almost impossible to simulate on a monitor to the degree of fidelity needed for warfare. I would think having a rangefinder station that user can utilize as they prefer, but the main action being in the fire director. The FD is where a lot of the tactical versus technical decisions are made, which to me as the player is the interesting part.
I'll DL the tech demo you put together and give it a go. Keep up the great work!:Kaleun_Salute:
-Jenrick
Good to see you here Jenrick!
Yes, there is a few dilemman to deal with regarding the rangefinder(RF).
As it is now, it's just a switch to turn on/off in the firedirector.
This is good while there is no AI crew to help you out. You would loose valueable time switching to a whole different station to input new distance data to the computer.
Try for example to use the radar for RF targets.
It will be a whole different story when I finishing programming AI crew that can help keeping the target in sight or do the RF for you.
As you say, it was a hard job on a real ship. And there were several RF-stations sending data to the computer. Firedirector didn't really have anything to do with it.
Second problem, is there any point to have a real stereoscopic RF?
Now the resolution is quite low, for performance reasons. This leads to the RF being useless above some 10k-12k distance, because the pixels are too big to see any change of focus...
In the AA-station I used an approach closer to what you see in the game, Destroyer Command. One ball is the target distance, move your ball there and you got your distance setting.
Maybe I will make something similar to the main battery aswell!
Luckily it is quite easy to change and modify! So expect different versions of RF to try over time!
Let me know how the trial went! Sank any ships? And how did you find their distance?
Cheers
jenrick
02-09-18, 01:05 AM
Alright, got that sorted out. I used the map and the radar to close at flank, until I located at least two ships steaming. As they shot back, escorts of some kind. I opened fire around 20,0000 (yards or meters? Not sure what the Kreigsmarine used). I tired to use the RF, but at that range the stereoscopic effect was too minor to be useful, instead I took my initial range cut from the radar. I laddered my ranges until I started getting brackets, not having a range clock, and range cuts, certainly makes that difficult. I some how got what I think was a hit at about 18,500 (extra bit of smoke, and missing a shell splash). I kept closing using just the fore turrets until around 14,250 I got another hit, again more smoke and a missing splash. I think I sunk the target actually as shortly after that I observed no more stack smoke, and the after a few minutes the ship was gone.
I hit escape to pause things, and when I hit return to game (I think, I may have hit the wrong option) it dumped me to the initial screen.
So far it's a neat project. I'm looking forward to where you can take it. There is a suprising bit of tension even in it's current state to get a visual sighting, and then to try and get hits. Personally I'd got after the range keeping, and bearing generation systems next, as they are the heart of the gunnery system.
-Jenrick
MekStark
05-10-18, 08:17 AM
looks great!:Kaleun_Applaud:
Hey Bracer, is there a map?
Hi Pitti!
Yes, there indeed is, but it's work in progress.
I'm currently working on a waypoint system for the AI to cross the map.
It's not a global map, but a part of the north atlantic.
When you get bored of coding AI, then you work on the water representation.
https://i.imgur.com/MWE3XET.jpg
Nice improvement :Kaleun_Applaud::Kaleun_Cheers:
Thanks Hitman! I'm glad you like it.
The end result can of course look different, since I need to work on the resolution and performance.
Cheers!
I'm busy coding the campaign module at the moment. Not really screenshot material.
In the mean while I'll share this clip of the new water:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PZMDrrE-4M&feature=youtu.be
I updated the first page with some more relevant information.
Battleship Command: Scharnhorst is a naval warfare simulator that puts you in the captains chair onboard a battleship of the Scharhorst class.
You will battle warships, chase merchants and fight off torpedo bombers.
Using radar, optical rangefinders and the fire control computer.
You will use rudders and the engine order telegraph or climb down to the boiler rooms yourself and mixture with the oil and feedwater flow.
That was about the battle module. With the campaign module you will play out the strategic war and navigate the atlantic in a dynamic campaign.
You can use the onboard reconnaissance planes or communicate with the uboat fleet to hunt your prey and disrupt the enemies supply lines.
You can join and support me on patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/battleshipcommand
agathosdaimon
08-18-18, 08:25 PM
looking good! if i have some funds free i will have to visit your patreon and support you - i would really like to see this one come to fruition - scharnhorst is my favorite and playing the Battle of North Cape with your sim would be cool if that will be possible
Thanks agathosdaimon!
Yes, the battle of the north cape will be possible to simulate!
Thanks, any support will be welcomed. If you would like to sponsor with some of your art work, I would be forever thankful!
agathosdaimon
08-19-18, 08:01 PM
you know, i actually am making a picture of the Scharnhorst. so you can use that for sure - i have alot on atm but i will try to get it done soon when i can
agathosdaimon
08-19-18, 08:05 PM
i am donating to you on patreon now, though being somewhat poor myself i cant do alot
Thanks agathosdaimon!!
That's very generous and it will help me in many ways to complete this project!
As stated on the Patreon page you get to name destroyer, let me know when you have a suggestion.
Hopefully I will soon have a newer demo available for supporters aswell.
Keep an eye on the Patreon page for exclusive news for patrons.
agathosdaimon
08-20-18, 05:47 AM
awesome! i think i would have to name it after one of my favorite German poets - Friedrich Hölderlin - of course in reality i would hate if the Nazis named such a vessel after such a transcendent soul, but this is a game and obviously all a bit of fun, focussed more on naval actions of course!
Nice choice!
I can easily put the name on a brittish destroyer if you would prefer that?
agathosdaimon
08-20-18, 07:40 PM
Thats not a bad idea, but i think just leave it as German - if you want to have a british destroyer named by me also - call one the George Orwell :)
Here is some work in progress:
https://i.imgur.com/caYpyqL.jpg
And here she finally sits ingame, in all her untextured and undetailed glory!
Can you tell which class it is regardles of the lack of detail?
https://i.imgur.com/JRtNRUm.jpg
agathosdaimon
08-31-18, 01:38 AM
well i am not an expert on all the classes but my first thought is was Bayern class is - just with that design on the side that i have seen before i think in World of Warships
It's actually a Brittish class of ships, launched around the same time period as the Bayern.
agathosdaimon
08-31-18, 04:06 AM
is it Warspite?
Correct!!
Queen Elizabeth class battleship. I'm using Hms Warspite as a reference for this model.
agathosdaimon
08-31-18, 06:32 AM
were there other elizabeth class ships in the atlantic theatre? warspite was in the mediterranean wasnt it ? (i was playing the old simulations canada game Fleet Med today, playing as warspite in the calabria scenario)
Warspite had an important role in the battles for Norway in may 1940. Then she spent most of her time in the med until D-day when she was part of the bombardment force.
Hms Malaya had an encounter with the Scharnhorst sisters in the south atlantic, but there was no battle.
agathosdaimon
08-31-18, 09:19 PM
ah right, - great i look forward to trying a demo of it where there is a ship to fight against!
will you make the Admiral Hipper too, - have some other Kriegsmarine ships one can form a task force with, even if its not the case that it can be commanded, i would still love to see it in the game.
Yes, the intention is to be able to give orders to other units, aircraft, uboats and surface ships in battle situations.
As it is now, there is a Deutschland-class which can follow you and fire at the enemy AI.
In the campaign module, you can order uboats and your reconplane around, but you won't see them in the 3d battle module. Yet...
I still have alot of job to do with the campaign module, then I'll focus on enemy AI.
And based on how I manage with the enemy AI, we will see what can be done with friendly AI.
I haven't shown the campaign module yet, but it is basically a 2d gridmap where you do the travelling, search for targets and do some strategy.
During an encounter or if you want to scan manually for targets with the radar, you switch to the 3d battle module.
agathosdaimon
09-01-18, 06:53 AM
oh cool, well i hope you go do well with making the AI - have it behave realistically enough - things i would like to see would be an AI that will determine whether to close or open the range depending on its capabilities and whether it can correctly identify enemy ships or not - losing track of ships in combat and accidentally firing on friendlies - this is something i dont see AI do enough of in games (the old simulations canada games did have it where it was caused by depending on how you set the engagement rules for your ships/fleet at the start - the simulations canada games are interesting to look at - the player is always experiencing information as it is received back to their flagship and so friendly units engaged in combat may get lost in smoke or if out of sight and will be too busy to give back status reports, which then means a risk for your fleet of accidentally firing on them if trying to give support and firing before targets have been fully ID'ed)
agathosdaimon
09-07-18, 06:56 PM
saw your new post on the campaign module looks great, and it will be exceptional if you go on to have a game world with allied convoys and task forces to contend with
you should also have the Battle of North Cape as a scenario - well have it in stages,
essentially though if you can just provide a campaign that has at a minimum the content of Great Naval Battles 1, that will be superb
I'm glad you like it!
Thanks for the support!! Now you can name a cruiser!
Royal navy or kriegsmarine. You'll have bigger chance of facing a Brittish one of course.
GNB is a good goal to aim at!
The main difference is that you'll only have hands on control of your own ship in BC.
I like your ideas regarding the AI!
agathosdaimon
09-10-18, 06:05 PM
cool, yes i was think about Cruiser names - well in that case make the British cruiser the HMS Uxbridge - named after the Earl of Uxbridge, who i remember from my readings and artworks about Waterloo.
That is fine if it is just command of BB only - though i think some kind of commands should be able to given to other ships in say your taskforce for instance yes?
In the Simulations Canada game Kriegsmarine, the player commands from a flagship suc as the Scharnhorst and in it you can send movement and engagement orders to the ships with your group, you dont control them directly though, - so you need to get status reports from them too as well as contact reports - both of which may or may not occur if those ships are engaged in combat at the time, likewise how well they will follow your orders will depend on whether they receive them and are not too busy engaged in combat
The delay in status/contact reports sounds very cool. I will consider implementing that!
You will start out as captain which limits you to giving orders to your onboard float plane and maybe some escorting destroyer. But as you rank up you may get more units under your command.
As an admiral and flottenchef you may bring other battleships into action.
Allthough the communication between the uboat fleet and the surface fleet was equal to zero, i'm still adding uboats to command. The same with airplanes.
agathosdaimon
09-12-18, 03:02 AM
sounds good, - what level of control do you get over uboots and planes? perhaps you can have differing levels of realism there, in that the more realistic setting will mean you dont get to know where your uboats are unless they surface and you cant control them directly, maybe just have sectors you can send them to, but in sending off that order the U-Boot will only get it if they are surfaced and in some kind of contact with your fleet/ ships - again this is perhaps not realistic but at least adds more tension to the game i think - perhaps that is all getting too complex, but it would be cool.
a close to realistic set up would be to have it so U-boots are not overly effective unless you can get a convoy to scatter and so the subs them can pick them off more easily - though you would have to explain to me a little more how you are implementing uboats and planes
Another ship to battle is soon ready to slide down to slipway.
Base model and base textures are soon done.
https://i.imgur.com/GmK5K0b.jpg
Uboats spotted!
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/uboats1.jpghttps://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/uboat2.jpghttps://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/nelson6.jpg
Finally managed to add some smooth shading in my engine!
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/uboat4.jpg
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/nelson91.jpg
Much thanks to my Patreon and PayPal backers, I’ve managed to get a hold on some nice plans for both the interior and exterior of the Scharnhorst class.
So I feel about ready and very excited to start modelling the main attraction of this simulator!!
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/plans.jpg?w=1400&h=9999
Getting there!
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/bhs2.jpg
That's way more improved than the orginal ones, great job!
I have been so busy with real life that I lost track of your project, will try to catch up a bit in the next days :Kaleun_Cheers:
Thanks Hitman!
I needed to wait with the main model until I got a good work flow with creating and importing models into the engine.
Here is a test with the model in it's current state ingame, she is a beast even though she is untextured and unfinished:
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/bhs7.jpg
I will have a great time when I get the controls/guns/interiors working on this new model!
Another render!
Time to work on textures and add small details.
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/bhs9.jpg
Awesome! If the other ships look half as good this is going to be epic!! :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up::Kaleun_Cheers:
Jeff-Groves
12-04-18, 03:57 PM
Absolutely beautiful work!
:salute:
Hi guys!
I've compiled a simple navigation trial/demo for my patreons and backers to test.
I thought you might be interested in seeing the tutorial video for it, it shows a little of the new model ingame, flak guns and a new water shader.
https://youtu.be/7BDNWNAvSfE
agathosdaimon
01-17-19, 07:58 PM
Hi i just went to start the demo but got this error so i aborted and had to close it fully with task manager - i have no idea what data corruption would have occurred so i cant risk that i have an ASUS I7 ROG laptop wiht nvidia 860m, i cant still play most new games with no troubles so i am not sure what the problem here is
Hi Agathosdaimon!!
There's something in the new shaders that is not compatible.
I will find a solution!
Did you try the old demo I released last year? Did that one work back then?
Cheers!
agathosdaimon
01-18-19, 03:28 AM
i will give that one a try and let you know in a little while
cheers
I'll upload it again, since I think the old link is down. Unless you have it already?
agathosdaimon
01-18-19, 08:11 AM
i did get it before i just had not gotten round to trying it sorry, i have been extremely busy of late and hardly get to play anything but try to when i can in the wee moments
Great! Let me know if it works.
Only installation instruction is to unzip it, and not run it in the zipped archive.
Also in the new patrons demo, double check that you have the files frag.glsl and vertex.glsl in the Shaders folder.
If you know GLSL shader code, you can also try to mod it (open the .glsl files with notepad).
agathosdaimon
02-05-19, 02:01 AM
hi Bracer - i just ran the previous demo - it works though a bit janky and buggy -i seemed to be falling through floors at some point after sitting in the gun director position then i was upside down below deck near the room where there is a chart in it.
also the ocean looked like it was from 1997, it has a very iMagic graphics texture to it - is that what you see also ?
Hi Agathosdaimon!
Good to hear that it's working atleast!
Then I can take a look what might differ in the new shader.
Which button do you use to leave the fire director? It might spawn you to last used station, and if it was inside the ship it would bring you there.
The fps-camera is very primitive, so you should be able the turn the camera the right way up again with your mouse.
The demo looks like this for me: http://subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2536683&postcount=46
Is it the same water? It's indeed not beautiful 😊
agathosdaimon
02-05-19, 04:37 AM
you are correct, that water is the same i see, sorry - the water is fine, just a bit old school, - i dont mind old graphics if the gameplay is - you could do the whole thing in dos spirtes and i would be happy
i think i hit the 1 button and went back to first-person and was in the bridge on the hatch and had inadvertently gone down it,
Yes, luckily I've improved the water abit since that demo. I'm sad the new demo doesn't work for you.
I'll look at the shader now and see if we can make it work.
You would also enjoy the new ship model!
First thing to try is to these cleaned up shader files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pivgruzqiibrth6/frag.glsl?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1mcbho4suo4tjig/vertex.glsl?dl=0
Simply replace the shader files in the Shaders folder.
I have little hope, but you never know.
agathosdaimon
02-05-19, 05:16 AM
okay i will try it with these in a little bit, i am not able tojust right now as i have some art programs open and working on things
Not a problem! I'm working on some other optional shaders you can try later if they do not work still.
agathosdaimon
02-05-19, 11:26 PM
i just tried it and its the same problem - an error message saying that the ocean hardware shader not supported - abort or proceed and risk data corruption - i abort at that stage again as data corruption sounds too ominous
agathosdaimon
02-05-19, 11:49 PM
ok it works now, the game was default using my intel card and not the Nvidia - as for the game the textures are better but the performance is not good, frames way too low and my ROG laptop should have no trouble - I can play the dcs sims and games like gtaV and Call of Cthulhu just fine
how much longer do you think it will take to bring this into a more playable state and one that has a game where there is an AI one can go up against?
Good to hear it's working! :up:
Try to put this this exe in your folder and launch the game from that one https://www.dropbox.com/s/ji8buw1xhew371l/BattleshipCommandXmas_v2.exe?dl=0
And replace the frag shader with this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/v9y36qute508q4l/frag.glsl?dl=0
It should improve the performance! You can keep the old exe to compare.
There is already AI coded into the the game and performance is better on my build versions because of a few improvements not in the demo. It's just not polished enough to release a test demo with AI yet.
I have a goal to create a new demo with an engagement, but I cannot say how soon at the moment.
Let me know how that exe is working.
Cheers!
agathosdaimon
02-06-19, 06:33 AM
will test it out - what is the EOT?
EOT is the "engine order telegraph". It sends the speed orders to the machine room.
On the Scharnhorst, and probably the Bismarck class aswell, there is a panel with three knobs, one per engine.
You can see it in action 3 minutes into this video: https://youtu.be/VUJDNNfUrbY
You also see the "Kommando brücke", which I'm hard at work with:
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/helm3.jpg
agathosdaimon
02-06-19, 06:54 AM
Okay i got it now - this is not a good setup though, having to moving to look down at the dials to make movements for each and every movement, - would be impossible to both do this and undertake gunnery in an engagement - you will definitely need AI crew who can take over and take commands, or at least have the ship speed and rudder directions accessible via keyboard arrow keys as they are not in use at the moment
when i hold mouse over EOT all the engine settings seem to move - am i suppose to know how to work the 3 engines each individually?
having a map screen on which to instead plot ship movements would be a must too
also the flak gun witht eh new animations - is there still the flak explosions in the sky, as they were not showing up when i was firing just now using the latest file syou sent me
is there a way to view the ship externally? or is that coming? sorry for the questions
Keep the questions coming! I'll answer what I can.
Is the perfomance better with the new exe?
Yes, the arrow keys are a good use for setting rudder and engine speed. I will implement that directly.
There is a few "hidden" functions, allthough they do not work at the fire director station. Press and hold T to get a hud version of the EOT. Press and hold C, brings out a experimental 3d compass, look a little downwards to see it. Around the compass there is an arrow/cone which you press and pull to the desired heading, then press the red button in the middle to enable the AI helms man.
The missing flakgun explosions on port side is a bug...
At the moment you cannot set orders for the engines individually, but in the future. It will be very useful to steer when your rudder breakes or jams, features that already are implemented. Also each shaft, turbine and boilerroom can get damaged, and then you might need different power on different engines. Press 6 to see another hidden function, here you see all parts of the ship which currently can be damaged.
Map screen should come later on.
External view is abit further ahead, it has to look good and prevent player from alot of places 😊
agathosdaimon
02-06-19, 07:41 AM
thanks for your replies - all sounds good and yes the performance was better with the new exe
Setting up the various particle emitters for the Nelson!
Soon she'll be ready for a fight.
There is not alot of variables to set, so I am planning to make it fairly easy to import new ships to the game. Atleast while the game itself is simple.
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/nelsonsetup-e1550655062720.jpg (https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/nelsonsetup-e1550655062720.jpg)
agathosdaimon
02-20-19, 05:04 AM
great, i look forward to some naval action!
Here's a little update!
Pardon my english and the mumbling. If you have any questions about what I explain, please ask and I will clearify!
https://youtu.be/69I6xiaUvwQ
Cheers!
agathosdaimon
03-06-19, 04:35 PM
thanks for the vid, i will give it a watch as soon as i can
agathosdaimon
03-06-19, 07:00 PM
its all looking nice i can say watching the vid now
i cant wait for there to be an enemy to duel with ! - i would like to go up against some of the british ships from the battle of North Cape ultimately
- remind me again will you also make other German ships too some destroyers and cruisers like Hipper and Prinz Eugen maybe?
Thanks!
Yes, the cruiser that I sank was actually a Town-class (like Hms Belfast from North Cape).
Maybe it's time to build a KGV-class ship :)
Yes, the intention is definitly to have German AI ships to work together with.
Ranging from Bismarck-class down to escorting destroyers as well as u-boats and airplanes.
I have a simple code for a Deutschland-class ship following orders, but it needs alot of refining to be reliable.
agathosdaimon
03-07-19, 04:50 AM
cool - so when will the next demo be ready? :)
I would really like you to try out this version! So as soon as possible.
Sadly I cannot set a date, but I'm working on it! :03:
Man this has come a long way, great job bracer! :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up::Kaleun_Cheers:
agathosdaimon
03-07-19, 08:35 AM
yes it is looking better and better and i really hope some more patrons can jump on to support you
Hey!
I have been working on a fire control computer and finally solved the maths!!
It has been interesting to program a computer inside the gameworld to calculate my own ingame distances and speeds.
The hardest part was to not use too precise vector functions but use a more "mechanical" kind of code too simulate the computer.
Now I got tired of math for this week, so I worked on some estethics instead!
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/pr1.jpghttps://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/pr3.jpghttps://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/pr2.jpg
agathosdaimon
03-18-19, 06:46 PM
thankyou for this post - that is very intersting- i wish i knew how to program games myself so i could better understand the complexity of what you are describing - how do you even do that?
agathosdaimon
03-18-19, 06:48 PM
ship is looking nice - would you be able to put up some more pictures of it from various frontal angles? this might help me with the picture i have been working on slowly in my spare time
Hey!
I uploaded a "free roam" demo on patreon instead, so you can check all the angles you need!
Bear in mind, it is still missing plenty of details, textures and objects like boats, light guns, spotlights and cables.
Loading time is still long...
But performance should be excellent!
https://www.patreon.com/battleshipcommand
Use Q and E buttons to fly :-) Hold shift to speed up a little, hold shift + ctrl to speed up more.
I have programmed the computer as a "layer" on top of the game-engine, for many reasons.
First of all, it's easy to make it malfunction incase of damage from enemy shells.
And I can remove some precision, to make it feel mechanical instead of adding random errors.
For example I could use the exact 3d-world XYZ-positions to aim the guns precisly at the plotted spot, but I have instead written all the calculations into a few steps, so I could add in errors in the different steps (for example battle fatigue or damage to some part of the system).
I will demonstrate the system soon enough!
:salute:
agathosdaimon
03-19-19, 07:40 AM
cool demo idea - unfortunately it doesnt work for me - i get the following error at the start - the sound continues, but the game seems to have crashed, i have to go into task manager to close the exe to stop the sound
file not found: 'gnei_rf1.3ds - this is the error message i get at the start
Arrgh, I was a bit too fast to compile it. Sorry!
Now it should be fixed. You can download the pack again or just the exe and replace it. The exe is renamed to "BattleshipCommandFreeRoam.exe".
Yes, I thought it would be more helpful to you than screenshots!
Hope it works now!
agathosdaimon
03-19-19, 05:52 PM
thanks i will try again when i get some time free
agathosdaimon
03-20-19, 05:04 PM
works all nicely now thanks - i was able to test the angle of the ship as i have it in my picture -and it lines up close enough with a zoomed in long shot
Great!
If you try out the new fire director, let me know how it works for you!
I would like to know which resolution your monitor has and if the text and buttons looks correct and not in weird positions?
How is the performance with and without the stereoscopic rangefinder?
It should look something like this:
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/firedir2.jpg
Cheers!
agathosdaimon
03-21-19, 05:20 AM
i will try all those out - i didnt realie the free roam demo includes all thsi too, i just thought it was a roam about demo as there was no intro text window detailing any of the controls
my resolution is 1920x1080 i think i have seen the text all fine so far but will have to try more
what are the ingame controls again - how do i bring up the screen that lists the controls
i will try all those out - i didnt realie the free roam demo includes all thsi too, i just thought it was a roam about demo as there was no intro text window detailing any of the controls
my resolution is 1920x1080 i think i have seen the text all fine so far but will have to try more
what are the ingame controls again - how do i bring up the screen that lists the controls
No, the demo was actually just for you to check the model! So I didn't bother about the info/loading screen :)
But you can go into the conningtower and fire the guns, steer the ship or walk around the corridors inside the ship. Boilerrooms are still closed off though...
w, a, s, d - walk
shift - walk faster
shift + control - walk super fast
q, e - fly
left mouse - open doors, interact with controls
right mouse - enable/disable mouse look, turn fire director
spacebar - fire flak (bugged in this version)
Mousewheel to use binoculars.
a, d - sets aim distance at the firedirector/flak director, use shift to speed up
1 - return to first person view, last position
2 - spawn to helm
6 - damage screen
r - radarstation
f - flak director
c - compass
t - engine order telegraph
Enjoy! :salute:
Hey everyone!
I have started to work on a menu-system for the game, it looks fairly 90's at the moment. :-)
A very big thing for me is that I have managed to implement a collision model for the FPS camera, which works nicely even though you are walking onboard a moving object!
Sometimes I wish I had chosen to use Unreal engine or Unity, so that you could get all those basic things from the start....
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/sm1.jpghttps://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/sm2.jpghttps://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/sm3.jpg
P.S It was most definitly not a 50 caliber gun that penetrated and hit my driveshaft.... More like 16inches with the weight of a small car coming at you at 700m/s.
agathosdaimon
05-14-19, 04:37 AM
this looks great! when is the next demo up to test!?
Thanks!
I dare not say a date yet, but I'm close to having an engagement with the Belfast ready for Patreons to test!
A few screens from a session where I let a Town-class cruiser sink my ship.
Most of the shells seems to just bounce off the armor, but eventually she sinks me.
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/igb1.jpghttps://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/igb2.jpghttps://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/igb3.jpg
agathosdaimon
05-20-19, 03:09 AM
sweet! i am on tenterhooks waiting for the next version to try out
also here is a picture of the Scharnhorst that i am working on in Artrage
Wow! That's beautiful! I love the atmosphere, water and the grey sky.
Are you depicting a specific battle?
You will not have to wait too long, I pretty much have a new demo ready, just need to fix a few bugs that are not acceptable.
It will contain an encounter with a Town-class cruiser, so a fairly easy battle to learn the ropes in.
I want to set it up so that I easily can upload new missions for users to import, but it may have to wait until next demo.
This would also enable you to make your own missions in a basic way.
agathosdaimon
05-20-19, 03:41 AM
great,
no the piece was not of a specific battle, though i was loosely thinking of around the time it was getting occasionally divebombed in the war. unfortunately in terms of battles, the Scharnhorst didnt see much fleet action prior to its North Cape deathride - it sank some merchant shipping, i think a coastal bombardment or 2 i think. I have another concept regarding the sinking of the Tirpitz that is more specifically historical
It's up! A preview demo where you can duel against a Town-class cruiser.
You will find it on Patreon, if you are minimun a 2$ patreon. https://www.patreon.com/battleshipcommand
These keyboard inputs are still valid: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2598381&postcount=140
As well as:
Esc - open menu which lets you end/finish mission or quit game.
Good to know:
-The Fire Control Computer is still not working, so you can hide it by pressing the red button on the left side.
-Avoid colliding with your foe. Ship to ship collision is not implemented.
-Use shift-key at the radar station to speed up the turnrate.
A recomendation on how to start the mission and find the target:
-Do a sweep with the binoculars (mousewheel) from the flybridges.
-Enter the command bridge, and do a sweep with the firedirector at medium magnification level.
-If no visual target, use the radar (r-button) and sweep until target is found. (Search with A/D-buttons, speed up turnrate with shift button).
-Leave radar station by pressing 1.
If you need more tips, check this old video or feel free to ask:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2595435&postcount=122
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/base-profile-screenshot-2019.05.27-01.09.30.04.png
agathosdaimon
05-26-19, 09:32 PM
awesome! i will give it s go today!
agathosdaimon
05-27-19, 06:36 AM
okay unfortunately the demo crashes as soon as it finishes loading the mission - crashes to desktop though the exe is still running in task manager - i waited a while and still nothing came back
Oh no!
Hmm, what happens if you try alt-tab until BattleshipCommand is active?
No errormessage?
Is it using the correct graphics card (thinking about last time with the shader error)?
Never mind the above questions, I get the same error on my other pc.
I will try to solve it asap! Prooobably I deleted some needed file while I cleaned up the release package.
agathosdaimon
05-27-19, 10:30 AM
great thansk for looking into this - i am using the right graphics card now too for it
You had no issues with the free roam demo?
agathosdaimon
05-27-19, 07:15 PM
the free roam demo worked for me
I believe I found the issue!!
Either replace the file called SinkUxbridge.txt in the missionsfolder with this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qru2cortye7w311/SinkUxbridge.txt?dl=0
Or simply open the file with a texteditor and replace all , with .
Yes, replace all commas with dots! There is only four of them.
Crossing my fingers!
agathosdaimon
05-28-19, 07:23 PM
will do and will let you know cheers!
agathosdaimon
05-29-19, 04:58 AM
okay all works - tested it and sank the cruiser after 267 shots and 2% accuracy - i really need some way to know the approximate range fo the cruiser as i still couldnt really guess by cannon splash allow - if behind or in front i could not tell by how much
also the cruiser model had some graphical glitching on its hull as it was sinking - i possibly where fire was occurring on the ship
also i hope you would implement some way for one to steer the ship while still in the gun director seat, as having to leave and slightly move the ship and then come back and try and reset everything again is not good
also keys for firing the guns - as its impossible to hold the target at a spot and move the cursor over to the fire button at the same time
also with the other location options in teh ship, my POV got stuck in the roof of a room - thats where i started and remained, and the other was in the map room - i say that the keys for these positions are not for fixed positions but simply 3 different POVs and so it just goes back to where i last was with each POV.
okay all works - tested it and sank the cruiser after 267 shots and 2% accuracy - i really need some way to know the approximate range fo the cruiser as i still couldnt really guess by cannon splash allow - if behind or in front i could not tell by how much
Well done! 2% is fairly realistic accuracy! Depending on which distance you were shooting at of course. 😊
Getting the correct distance to target is actually the main challenge, the rest of the info for the fire computer is based on that info.
At great distances it can be hard to see where the splash is in relation to the ship, so you need to work the stereoscopic rangefinder. Your other tool is the radar, although the one implemented at the moment has very low detail scales. So also not good for precise ranges. Not sure if the german ships ever spotted splashes on radar like the americans, but I plan to implement it for the later year models of the radar. Then it gets easy 😊
I usually initiate the battle with rangeing salvoes after taking radar/rangefinder distance, with the separate turrets since individual guns is not available yet. So I shoot 500m past the guessed distance with A turret, on estimated distance with B turret and 500 short of distance with C turret. You then need some luck that the salvo spread is not too wide and you see the splashes infront/behind target.
also the cruiser model had some graphical glitching on its hull as it was sinking - i possibly where fire was occurring on the ship
Yes, I have also noted this.
also i hope you would implement some way for one to steer the ship while still in the gun director seat, as having to leave and slightly move the ship and then come back and try and reset everything again is not good
I did implement the arrow keys according to your suggestion, but you do not get any visual feedback atm. Try it out! Up/down to change speed order, hold left/right to turn rudder. Missing a center rudder button.
also keys for firing the guns - as its impossible to hold the target at a spot and move the cursor over to the fire button at the same time
Agreed, will fix!
also with the other location options in teh ship, my POV got stuck in the roof of a room - thats where i started and remained, and the other was in the map room - i say that the keys for these positions are not for fixed positions but simply 3 different POVs and so it just goes back to where i last was with each POV.
Yes, I had some issues here, but did not prioritize it yet since there is nothing of importance in the hallways yet.
I hope you enjoyed the battle!
I have alot of plans for the fire director station.
-Option for rangeing fire for each turret, so each gun in the turret fire with 400 or 800 meter differences to try and straddle the target.
-Individual guns firing.
-Fire when ready mode, or automatic fireing.
-A radar display in the station, with the possibility to connect it to the fire computer.
-A logbook for distances fired and target hits.
-The functionality of the fire computer.
-Auto update range and bearing based on firecomputer data, kind of like target lock, but requires you to have correct target data.
-AI will calculate target speed and heading for you, based on your target distance and bearing reports.
agathosdaimon
05-29-19, 10:27 PM
hey Bracer that all sounds great - i must confess when i played the game, i didnt use the radar, as i was in the game and didnt jump out to try and find the keys regarding how to operate it.
all your implementations are good - a central rudder option is vital as at the very least without any visual feedback one wont know if they are still turning or not and so just putting the ship on the straight and narrow again will at least alleviate some of the disadvantage of moving from the gun view.
- perhaps just the '0' key on hte number pad of something will do for a central rudder key - or the "/" key
maybe space or mouse left button to fire the guns in the gun view and by default its will fire all available guns and for single fire - c foe Cesar, B for Bruno and i forget he name of the 3rd turret
will there be also later an AI that will do the firing if say you are not wanting to do it yourself - ie, like Auto option in Great Naval Battles
regarding damage also - do you have that fully modelled yet? does something like "plunging fire" exist - such a hit could devastate the cruiser entirely from the range the battle starts from
it will be good to have a few more similar engagements created ahead of the campaign you plan on - battles against BBs and Cruisers and groups of destroyers closing in ready to release torpedoes - trying to steer the ship to avoid torps coming in at different angles and sides could be a challenge
then also random battle generator and the historical ones such a Northcape 1943 and a variant of it where Gneisenau is also coming to the rescue
Hey agathosdaimon!
You can definitly score critical hits, but it's pure luck. It's not defined as plunging fire or side armor hits at the moment.
Either the round:
-bounces off the armor with little damage,
-hits and damages superstructure/guns
-penetrates and causes leaking and minor damage,
-penetrates, explodes at a vital spot and causes major damage.
What the AI will be able to do depends on what else there will be for you to do. If for example the engine management or crew management will become complex, then it might be needed with AI gunners.
Do you have some ideas for the gameplay?
I will work on the AI for the destroyers, airplanes and battleships and have some missions prepared with engagements. Some friendly AI is also on the way.
I have made a small update to the exe with some new keyboard commands and fixes!
Put the exe in your Battleship Command folder and use it to run the game.
Fixes:
-First person camera improvements.
-Now the aim of the fire director stays in position when pressing right mouse button to aim.
-Improved the info message lines by adding more lines, making the text smaller and changing the color.
News:
-Keyboard commands to fire guns in the fire director station, press Q to fire Anton, W to fire Bruno, E to fire Ceasar.
-Press arrow keys left/right to order the rudder to port/starboard. Available orders are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 degrees to either side.
-Your order will be confirmed in the info messages and these are visible also at the fire director station.
-Press numpad 0 to order rudder amidships.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m55idim7d8aw8fw/BattleshipCommand_demo1_1.exe?dl=0
Cheers!
agathosdaimon
06-05-19, 07:41 PM
hi! great, those are all great additions and improvements, incremental but all in the right direction.
as for gameplay, i guess getting the that fire director panel functioning would be a priority as well as a map view if possible and an external chase view and option to view the enemy target from an external view
is there a button for general all guns fire salvo too? in the gun view, space bar would be good for that
secondary gun fire - getting that working and then torpedoes and then AA - getting all the stations working and then being able to switch between them via the Function keys would be good - i am taking cues from the standard Microprose sim approach here like M1 Tank Platoon, Destroyer Command and Task Force 1942 - actually Task Force 1942 would be a good old game to model much of the expected gameplay on. - A Task Force 1942 but set in the North Atlantic theatre would be the kind of game description to aim for
agathosdaimon
06-11-19, 02:50 AM
hi Bracer - i havent been able yet to run the 1.1 update yet - i am a bit confused by the file in fact as my antivirus keeps taking it and sending it off for analysis
is the 1.1 exe an installer for the full game or just the application to run the game that i put in the folder?
Hi!
It is a new executable, so you just put it in your old folder and launch the game using the new exe.
Cheers!
agathosdaimon
06-11-19, 03:46 AM
okay cool, i figured it out just before - i forgot that teh exe in the folder is like 60meg and so mistook it for a game installer and was trying to launch it from my downloads folder and which then avast antivirus was blocking me
anyhow, i have played the game again and the updates are great, i used radar - my improvement was this time 3% instead of 2 and a few less shells fired.
i must note however that the fore gun director does not seem to be functioning right, - the turrets do not move with the target right - and they were not elevating to fire at teh designated range, so i was spendig a while firing away from the fore director and seeing no splashes despite having the approximate range entered - only when i turned zoom off, i saw that the guns were firing only a few hundred meters ahead of the ship
from the top director there are no issues, guns move and elevate correctly
also def need just a singular all fire button - like space bar perhaps
agathosdaimon
06-11-19, 03:50 AM
also if you can have a key for just automatically going to the gun director sight like you have for radar would be good - maybe T key (t for turrets!) because whilst it is good i can hit r to go and get a new range approximation, then i have to manually walk back to the gun director and reset it to the top director etc and so lose time doing that
Great to hear!
Yes, I will enable spacebar to fire all guns. Maybe all guns connected to current fire director.
Teleport to station is also a good idea.
Regarding the forward/aft firedirector.
At default, all guns are connected to the top firedirector station, which has the widest rangefinder base and the best viewpoint. To make the guns follow the data from fore or aft firedirector you have to change the switches in the foreward fire station. There are three panels in the room, one for each turret. Forward is turret A, middle is turret B, rear one is turret C. Here you choose which director the gun should receive target data from. This way you can have one target computer/director per gun and shoot at three different targets at the same time.
So if you want to use the fore firedirector, set all switches to fore, and the guns should obey your orders.
agathosdaimon
06-11-19, 09:30 AM
okay i understand - though perhaps when one goes to the gunnery screen the default director should be the top one, as that really is the first and best one that one will go to in any case
okay i understand - though perhaps when one goes to the gunnery screen the default director should be the top one, as that really is the first and best one that one will go to in any case
Yes, I had that thought aswell, or the last used firedirector. Then you can leave the director, flip switches on the panels and easily return to your lastly used director.
The reason it is the way it is now, is because it actually is the fore firedirector you are clicking and I am planning to model the top/aft stations aswell. Then it would be confusing to click the fore but end up with the top.
Not totally sure how to make it user friendly yet.
agathosdaimon
06-11-19, 09:51 AM
well i guess you can just keep it as is and just have the quick jump to location key and that can default as the top director
There is few upcoming features that will affect the system that needs to be taken into consideration. Firedirectors and rangefinders will be able to break from direct enemy fire or splinters. There will also be electrical malfunctions or simply lack of watt produced from the generators, and I am currently researching which systems used electricity. Stabilizer, magnification, rangefinder? Radar of course used power.
On the panels in the room will be more settings for the guns/directors, not sure which will end up on the director HUD or which will be fysically on the panels.
Settings like rangeing salvoes, AP, HP or standard projectiles, single or full turret salvoes, there maybe switches to close the vents/flood the storages aswell.
agathosdaimon
06-11-19, 10:03 AM
all sounds good - i hope that you can get those in then have the ship go up against a larger foe
agathosdaimon
08-31-19, 05:57 PM
any news on this project?
I have been struggling alot with the lightning/shadows and shaders. Sadly without any satisfying results to show...
I will update you soon on what is new!
agathosdaimon
09-01-19, 04:31 PM
thats disappointing, though i was quite happy with how it was looking before, shadows and shaders can come at the end cant they?
Yes, it's absolutly no priority.
But now and then I get into the mood of learning and improving the graphics.
Some shadows on the ship and some lightning inside the helm would be sweet!
A few new graphical improvements to be seen in these photos!
Finally proper UV-mapping of the model = improved textures!
Bump/normal-mapping.
Improved lightning.
Wavey water is back!
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/ny-bitmappsbild.jpghttps://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/ny-bitmappsbild2.jpg
agathosdaimon
10-20-19, 05:22 PM
:)very nice!
Thanks!
I will add a few more details to the exterior, then start working on the interior.
Then I am aiming on getting the secondary guns online!
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/asdsbild-1.jpg
agathosdaimon
11-07-19, 06:26 PM
looking good, - getting the secondaries going would be stellar - after that then what? i am just keen to see more gameplay content, - need another dkm cruiser, a destroyer class, and then a bb and bc for british and ability to sandbox a battle with a number of ships either side but - go at your pace i know being a one man project makes it hard, and sorry i cant donate more, i am a but constrained at my end also
make some convoy ships too eventually and then one can set up a random raid to play which is more like what the scharnhorst undertook i believe
Thanks!
Yes, so much I want o add, but so little time :-)
Now and then I have long weekends where I can program almost 24h a day, and one of those are coming up in two weeks. Then I expect plenty of progress to be made!
Not really a roadmap, but a plan for the next demorelease:
I am currently working on the exteriors of the ship as you can see, and I need to improve the interiors a bit more.
The firecontrol computer still needs to be fixed, both the functionalty and the interface.
A radar interface needs to be added to the firecontrol station.
Currently, the AI shipcollision is not good, so that's why there's only one enemy in the demo. Should be easy fix.
I am aiming at having one battleship, one cruiser, one destroyer and minimum one merchant/tanker ready with a nice model and proper behaviour.
On the side, I am writing a new tactical map and I am quite optimistic about it.
Later on when the enemy AI is working as intended, then I expect friendly AI should be easy to add.
I have some basic code done already, just need to dive in and bug proof it.
I have big dreams for the tactical map and how the gameplay will work!
Merchant raiding patrols with support from uboats, air units and other surface raiders....
agathosdaimon
11-08-19, 07:04 AM
that is a great vision and i hope others can get on board to support you
This all is looking really great bracer :Kaleun_Cheers:
The temptation to improve the 3D models is always there, but the core of the game is what should soak the most available time, you could later get help from other 3D artists to improve or add 3D stuff but coding is better done by a single hand.
Speaking of, have you thought about asking some of the usual SH3 modders for permissions to use their work? Many have created ships (merchant and war) and airplanes from scratch, not copyrighted stuff, and they would maybe allow you to use it. Would save you a ton of work.
Looking forward to the implementation of the map, it would be awesome in CIC style as a map/plot table where you could superimpose tools, general for map drawing and for plotting and even calculating firing solutions. :Kaleun_Applaud:
Limiting the starting available world to Norway and the arctic sea would be more than enough for a great campaign raiding the Murmansk convoys.
Thanks Hitman!
Yes, improving the 3d models are very fun, and a good way to rest from typing code...
That's a good idea, I might ask if people would like to donate models!
And I have a strong wish that it will be easy for users to add ships to the game as mods.
Otherwise I want to let you know that I got the fire control computer working!
The computer now correctly plots new train and elevation for the guns based on the target information you enter.
Target speed, target heading, distance and bearing to target.
Hi!
Here's a video showing some new features of the sim.
Sadly the voice recording is quite low, so if you cannot hear what I said feel free to ask.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79P-3QzysWE&feature=youtu.be
I fixed those textures inside the forward fire control room.
They are still only half baked, but with the UV-maps set, it is easy to update them.
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/newfirestation.jpg
A new freighter has made it into the world.https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/desktop-screenshot-2019.11.25-00.30.08.20-1.png
agathosdaimon
11-25-19, 03:46 AM
very nice1!! next playable update will be awesome
Is that a victory ship?
Whatever the case, a new target is always welcomed :Kaleun_Applaud:
Also, love the new targetting computer :up:
Thanks guys!
This one is losely modelled after a C2 ship.
Yeah, I could not resist working abit on the water shader...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1PnoLzlRbY&feature=youtu.be
agathosdaimon
11-26-19, 04:18 AM
i think with the water it might look better if it is a darker blue, as it looks a bit too toothpastey atm, - i would be keen to see how the shader looks with a deeper dark blue (or bluish-green) which is more to be expected of an ocean with some depth
Yes, I will definitly need to work on the color balance.
But luckily it's quite easy to change the colors.
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/base-profile-screenshot-2019.11.26-21.50.52.45-1.png
Yes a darker shade of blue works better :yep: and good to know the colors can be changed easily, will allow for differentiating between world oceans and seas when you expand the sim.
I must say though that still pictures do not justice to the sea, the animation is really good and makes it so much more alive :up:
One question, do you plan to keep the targeting stations in 2D as of now with the 3D window (Rangefinder) or will they be full 3D? I think 2D is good enough and makes for an easier layout of pop up windows for the computer, rangefinder, etc, allowing you to combine all those functionalities in a single place (More logical for a single player) but of course 3D is always somehow more immersive.
Yes, I am quite satisfied with this shader, and the performance is nice!
It's funny how the better understanding of code you get and the more complicated code you write, the better the performance!? :doh:
My first attempts at water, as you can see on the early pages of this thread, looked terrible and was super laggy...
https://youtu.be/nUBK1uP4xAs
I did have a 3d interface for the fire director for a while.
You can see it here, 2 minutes in:
https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2536683&postcount=46
(https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2536683&postcount=46)
Sadly it had very bad performance, and there was alot of issues.
The fire director uses a picture-in-picture concept which is performance hungry. And when you enable the stereoscopic rangefinder it is 2 pictures-in-pictures.
So for now until I find a better solution, it will be 2d.
I may improve the textures and make it feel 3d!
Ah yes I had forgotten that early version :ping:
Some aspects of it where quite good, but then again it is probably the fact that the current 2D one isn't yet completely developed.
This is an area where I would like to help, though time is a scarce commodity for me. You might know I did my own GUI for SH3 years ago, and I am a devoted fan of manual targetting, so I could maybe do some suggestions and artwork concept for you to check. Most important thing would be first of all to know what base controls and extra (enabled on command) panels you want to have.
I believe the most intuitive layout is what they actually had in real life i.e. center of screen is the view to the external world, center top of it the bearing indicators, center bottom the operating knobs and readout for the rangefinder. Then you can add to the left and right the extra panels -activated on command- for radar, computer and gunnery control (Turrets and fire buttons).
Yes, it looked quite cool the 3d fire director, but with the amount of info/buttons required some 2d interfaces will be needed anyway.
I have yet to decide and know which buttons and functions should be accesible at the fire director screen.
The other functions will probably be placed on interactable panels in the director room.
Many of the controls you need to access would actually be in totally different rooms.
For example in the fire director I have added a artillery switchboard, which would be far bellow deck in reality.
Based on this photo from Prinz Eugen:
http://www.shiparchive.com/ships/prinz_eugen/images/full/main_battery/usntme-mb_8a.jpg
There is extremely little reference photos from the german warships, so my fire director is based on this one from Bismarck:
https://www.bismarck-class.dk/bismarck/gallery/themes/pictures/gallbisminternalview/gallbisminternalview04.jpg
Here is Prinz Eugen again, main plotting room:
http://www.shiparchive.com/ships/prinz_eugen/images/full/main_battery/usntme-mb_6a.jpg
The radar:
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KpczTphsZzI/XC_POlDAGcI/AAAAAAAALWM/wrTVMoif2CQZ4W1kVweYADauPctdoa_6QCLcBGAs/s1600/SumatraAntennaReceiver_NH%2B96456_Med.jpg
So that's atleast the estetic style I am going to aim towards in the HUD design.
And all this I want in one HUD :k_confused:
I would love to see/hear your ideas!
As stated I still don't know exactly which buttons are needed on the HUD, I will try to summarize it soon.
But apart from technical functions, I also need a panel for interaction with AI crew.
For example to designate targets, report distance to a target for the AI to calculate speed and heading of the target, and various fire orders.
I had seen those pics, and I have Mullenheim-Rechberg's book. The design layout has to combine all the firing operations and data aquisition, so panels that switch on/off are the obvious way to go. The permanent part of the layout must be the viewport in the centre with bearing on top, everything else on the sides and bottom can change on command from range/course/speed finding to firing commands.
I think you will need a permanent bar on the bottom with quick access to stations and append to it other switchable panels like navigation info (Compass and speed repeater) and crew orders. Also, bear in mind you will need to double the use of firing control as torpedo director because these ships were equipped with torpedoes!
The crew orders panel could enable as translucent over the screen when called, so that you do not lose sight of the rest. The orders there should be able to be programmed to a key or key combo by the user, or use the panel knob.
Anyway yes first thing you need is to list the actions/commands you want, ideally make a sequence of the fire ranging procedure and what functions need be used at each moment, then it becomes clearer how to start organizing the layout.
I did read the Barons book, Bismarck Survivor Story. Very interesting read!
And it really gives a sense on how big these ships were and how complicated it was to have situational awareness.
Yes, panels that can be switched between is definitly a must, organized in some nice way.
The torpedo station will probably be done in a different screen since it would have totally different controls/settings.
The secondary artillery on the other hand should be controlled from the main director.
I still haven't decided how much control to have over the secondaries.
Should it be each and every gun individually as with the main artillery, or more like port guns/starboard guns.
It can easily get overwhelming, allthough I personally love total control over each single barrel.
If I could I would manage the reloading procedure aswell!
agathosdaimon
11-28-19, 04:48 AM
you probably already have the books by M J. Whitley on German Capital Ships and Cruisers - but i was just perusing my copy to see if it had any interior pics,
unfortunately not, however in reading the fire control section on the scharnhorst it brings some questions to mind
is what you are implementing in the game reflective of the Zielanweisergeraete (ZAG) target indicator sight
And what was the C30 Fire control equipment - is this in the design
and will you be bring time of day/night changes into the game and if so, searchlights will be a must for the night setting - i would love to see a ww2 naval game with decent searchlight depiction - the only game i can think of that has searchlights in it iare Action Stations! from RAW and Warship Combat Navies at War from NWS but those were tactical strategy games
I haven't read those books! But I ordered them from the library now :-)
The ZAG's I believe was target designators for the flak guns.
I do not know much about them, so I cannot really implement them in detail.
But I plan on adding target designation to the fire director for surface targets, in a simple form.
I haven't heard about the C30. So I don't know what it is.
Yes, night battles are mandatory! But I haven't started on simulating night time yet.
I would love to have the searchlights controllable, but it will be a graphical challenge for me.
Now when the water and light shaders start to take shape, I can soon start working on the night ambience.
agathosdaimon
11-28-19, 06:54 AM
ok thats good to hear re night, and i hope the whitley books are of value
just regarding the watershader, i think the darker blue is much better overall, but all the little crinkled looking effects kind of make teh water look like jelly a little, so i am wondering whether you can change the intensity of them - decreasing it or maybe increasing its scale as a texture - sorry i dont know how it all works programming wise.
but you know what i am meaning yes? that static broken glass/jelly look on the surface doesnt need to be so strongly present, - but leave it if it is easier and it looks okay in teh still shot, i would be curious to know what it looks like from a distance as the video is more of a close up view
Yes, I know which part of the water you are refering to. And I don't really like it either.
It should be fairly easy to fix.
I think the water looks a little too messy at the moment.
I got so happy when I managed to create so much detail with no performance loss, so I over did it abit! :)
The animation also has a few glitches that needs fixing.
It looks much better from the distance since you don't see the messy details.
What is missing to give a true sense of water in the distance is the reflection of the sunlight.
If I could I would manage the reloading procedure aswell! That can be added when controlling fire from individual turrets. You can give the option of global or local fire control, also to keep shooting if the global is knocked out of service. You can mayeb have no radar there, but reloading. It makes sense as the local turrets likely could not get direct input from radar, but that was done via the main fire control.
One thing that seems to be clearly becoming a needed basic feature is a top view silhouette of the ship with dots indicating what fire control you are in, and that can also serve to highlight damage, etc. A base "ship status" indicator if you see what I mean.
That's something I will consider!
Yes, and the silhouette would also need to indicate which turret is connected to which director/computer/plotting room.
All of the three main director stations could control any of the three guns aswell as the secondaries.
So this schematic would need to be clear for the player.
There was also seperate night battle fire directors.
I cannot swear on this, but I believe there was a computer for each main gun, that's how I have modelled it now.
My question would be, could the turrets in local control use the computers still and communicate with the plotting rooms to get target calculations? If lets say the three main directors are knocked out.
The radar was also in a seperate compartment, so it might still be useful for range data, even for the local gunners.
Allthough many of the radar matresses/antennas was sitting on the directors, so if the director is hit, the radar is certainly history...
I am trying to remember which hit caused Scharnhorst to loose it's radar during the North Cape battle.
The Bismarcks radar broke by the shock from it's own guns IIRC.
Julhelm
11-28-19, 07:56 AM
I would just copy the HUD layout for the TDC from Silent Hunter 3.
I would just copy the HUD layout for the TDC from Silent Hunter 3.
Hi Julhelm!!
I hope all is well!
Yes, this idea has crossed my mind.
HUDs that can give many good ideas are the tank ones, as gunnery is paramount on them also.
The ship silhouette from above could also show how the turrets are trained in real time.
My question would be, could the turrets in local control use the computers still and communicate with the plotting rooms to get target calculations? If lets say the three main directors are knocked out.
Warships have many redundant systems just in case, but I tend to think that communication was mostly one way i.e. the main directors gathered and created the target solution and relied it to the turrets for their operators to train and aim them. Via phone/comms or maybe even making it appear in the turrets own computer.
Only when the main directors where knocked out, or when instructed to fire on their own (F.e. the secondaries against smaller fast torpedo boats or too close vessels) would they create their own target solution.
It is logic to think that the topmost rangefinder and highest position director (Main bridge, next to plotting room and radar) had the best solution, so they would usually rely it to the rest. I also know the secondary directors were many times used when forced to split gunnery between several targets independently, and in that case acted nearly independently.
Until you encode multiplayer and allow several players to share a ship as directors or other roles, you can have the usual CIC map seen from above and use right click on the enemy ships identified to assign them to be followed/attacked by specific directors/guns.
That's something I will consider!
Yes, and the silhouette would also need to indicate which turret is connected to which director/computer/plotting room.
All of the three main director stations could control any of the three guns aswell as the secondaries.
So this schematic would need to be clear for the player.
There was also seperate night battle fire directors.
I cannot swear on this, but I believe there was a computer for each main gun, that's how I have modelled it now.
My question would be, could the turrets in local control use the computers still and communicate with the plotting rooms to get target calculations? If lets say the three main directors are knocked out.
The radar was also in a seperate compartment, so it might still be useful for range data, even for the local gunners.
Allthough many of the radar matresses/antennas was sitting on the directors, so if the director is hit, the radar is certainly history...
I am trying to remember which hit caused Scharnhorst to loose it's radar during the North Cape battle.
The Bismarcks radar broke by the shock from it's own guns IIRC.
I have started the mock-up of an interface and I think you will love it :Kaleun_Cheers:
You can easily see how complex a battleship is when thinking about this all, if I tried to implement all options the real ship had, functions and buttons would skyrocket quickly, so simplifying this while keeping it realistic is a challenge.
I will start with the interface of the 3 directors, each of them will have rangefinder, radar and computer, and will be able to control main or secondary guns. My base concept is to work with targets instead of with directors, which I believe is way more flexible and accurate to the real life procedures.
So for example when you detect a set of enemy ships, what you will do is identify and assign each of them to a director, then you assign to each director what guns are to be used against that target, and finally jump into the rangefinding/shooting procedure to asume yourself the role of any of the directors and work on the target assigned. The others meanwhile will do the same job with the AI, according to the orders you gave them (Hold fire, salvo, fire at will, etc).
With the interface I am creating this will be really quick to do, and from any of the directors you will be able to switch targets for your or any of the other directors, easily and intuitively.
The best part is that it all works with simple buttons and dials that, as far as I can see, are for the most part already implemented in your current version. :Kaleun_Applaud:
Stay tuned :ping:
Sounds great!
I am looking forward to see your ideas!
:Kaleun_Cheers:
I'm sorry for the delay, unexpected things happened in real life and I am busy as hell right now, but I will show you my ideas as soon as possible. :salute:
No need to hurry Hitman! I have plenty of things to implement in code before the work on the HUD and interface can be finalized anyway.
Currently I am working on the water wakes/foam behind the ship.
In the current version I am using particles for the water foam, but now I am trying to move it into the shader using textures instead.
Hey!
Thanks for the spotlight on the frontpage!!! :Kaleun_Salute:
Here's some of the result from doing the wake in the shader.
Still needs some fine tuning.
https://youtu.be/tf5jkS_nfnQ
https://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/base-profile-screenshot-2020.01.09-00.29.17.39.pnghttps://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/desktop-screenshot-2020.01.09-00.30.25.69-1.png
Hey everyone!
I hope you had a great start on the new year!
I finally started to work on the most exciting stuff, as you can see on the photos above!
The first photo is just some different water colors, better or worse you think?
The second photo shows the ingame mapscreen in an early state.
I have been working on the functions for scrolling, zooming, drawing waypoints and tracking positions of objects in a different program, and finally merged it with Battleship Command!
So now I am busy setting up waypoints for AI ships.
My AI already follows waypoints, so I can now easily create a living ocean with random ships spawning in "port" (first waypoint, no physical ports ingame yet (not even the terrain)) and follow a randomly selected path.
It still needs some work of course!
But the idea is that in this screen you will see mission areas, control recon planes, tankers/supply ships, uboats and other ships that you are cooperating with.
You will also see intelligence information such as positions of target reports.
A great start for BC in 2020!
Happy new year bracer!
That map preview look awesome :Kaleun_Applaud: Does it recreate earth curvature? That would be really great :Kaleun_Cheers:
As for the shader it looks nice but I'd like to see it in movement. Tempted to see water is a bit clear blue for the North Atlantic, but then again that depends so much on zone and weather ....
Hey!
Yes, I feel I need to darken the water abit again.
No, at the moment the distances are not totally correct.
At some latitude it might be correct, but yeah, it needs alot of work to be realistic.
Cheers!
Hey!
I have been working on adding nigths to the game, here are the results so far.
You can also see the procedural clouds in action.
It's obviously speeded up, alot.
https://youtu.be/Fqi23lTtCE8
Cheers!
I had missed this one, great to see it progressing! Sunhalo is maybe too orange and small, otherwise looking good :Kaleun_Cheers:
Hey!
Hope you are all staying healthy!
I have begun to work on a new fire director interface.
Here is how it looks so far.
http://battleshipcommand.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/fd.jpg
LoneWolf_gabo
03-19-20, 07:22 AM
Looking good!
In that aprouch, How do you adjust the elevation of the guns? or is it automatic based on the range? any way to correct the distance?
Keep it up!
Looking good!
In that aprouch, How do you adjust the elevation of the guns? or is it automatic based on the range? any way to correct the distance?
Keep it up!
Thanks!
I have a WASD-buttons + mouse kind of approach here.
So you use A + D to set range, and it affects the radars focus, the fire control computers target range setting and the rangefinders lens angle at the same time.
The guns elevation is automatic based on the range you set. There is also automatic compensation based on the list of the ship, this is all controlled by the gyroscope. If you are in bad weather then the elevation varies depending on where on the wave the ship is.
Hey!
To anyone who is subscribing to this thread: all updates will now happen in the Battleship Command subforum (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=319) here on Subsim!
Stay tuned!
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