[Fidd]

102. Translucent sea "death cam" and "torpedo cam"

It would be interesting, if it was possible, post game, to see recorded cams with a translucent sea, showing for example incoming artillery fire, or DC's that cause damage or a kill on a u-boat viewable from any 3d aspect and at any range from the u-boat. Enacting this would also serve as an opportunity to add 3rd person DC splashes and detonations/water spouting to the game generally.

It would be necessary to record, and progressively delete, the "film", so that only the period of 8 minutes prior to a torpedo shot to (say) 5 minutes after the last shot, or a few minutes before a u-boat being killed, are recorded and then post-game, be downloadable (?). The idea being that even if you get killed, there's some cool footage to see of how that arose. The torpedo-cams shewing the period shortly before firing to (circa 5 mins after the last shot) could be, at the players discretion, added to the death-cam if that boat is subsequently sunk. Or, not added, enabling a permanent record of cool-shots to be standalone films, in all likelihood covering the 3 normal TOI's. An accurate recording of time would be useful, as would being able to run and save the cams of other boats if desired.

By making the sea translucent, and having the u-boat, other ships, escorts, dc attacks and torpedo tracks visible, and the view azimuth, depth and range movable on the fly during the "playback" a really useful post-game tool would be available, as well as lots of cool footage for would-be players to view. Consideration might be given to have the ability to watch a torpedo-cam viewable from on-board a ship NOT hit in a piece of footage, or that from on an escort conducting a DC attack?

Assuming a sensible set-up of the viewing position of the film, the u-boat would be visible under-water, likewise the track of torpedoes it fires, hits on ships, or escorts dropping DC's, or, the view from within the convoy as ships are being hit. The position of other u-boats, and their torpedo tracks, if within the time period of the parent-u-boat's film, would also be shewn. In games where firing is to a TOI (Time of impact) this would tend to obviate the need for saving more than one film per TOI.

The general idea being that post-game, the captain's pc would look at a file recording a period before the death of the U-boat (if it occurs) and the torpedo cams, using just sufficient positional information recorded throughout the game, which is then automatically "pruned" of the duller bits to produce manageable files which then be uploaded by him and downloaded by players, and thence replayed via the game's front-end. The view azimuth/position/depth and range value used to view that would be saved, and then an option to save the film in a you-tube friendly format would be given, so that particularly interesting of action-packed videos of gameplay could be edited and seen on you-tube et al. By putting these films into a common video format, with the point of view/azimuth/depth etc being settable and adjustable on the in-game view, it would become possible to intercut footage and sound recorded of the inside of the u-boat with the external death/torpedo cam, some very cool, useful and good promotional footage could be generated by players to help show off the game's strengths.

Naturally, the load on the hosts pc when saving the 3d positional information of u-boats, merchants, escorts. DC/torpedo/deck-gun fire/flares/sinkings would need to minimal. Having the ability for a lobby NOT to have recording of this type might be sensible?