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nopoe · 09-26-14, 01:35 PM

Hi everybody,

I recently started working on a project with a friend of mine we're calling Sub^3. We're going to try to make it into a modern version of 688(I) Hunter/Killer.

This project mostly began out of frustration with current sub sims. Specifically, we’re bothered by the fact that the acoustic models kind of suck. There’s a good reason for that in the case of the earlier ones (computing power), but I think that a modern sub sim should really have accurate acoustics.

We’re going to be using a library called USML (Under Sea Modeling library) for our acoustic modeling. It should be suitable for what we want to do. Here’s an image generated by a similar algorithm to show you how awesome they are. They're really hard on the CPU, unfortunately. I have yet to figure out what the minimum requirements are or if I can take advantage of multiple cores, but I expect you will need a modern desktop to run the game. http://oalib.hlsresearch.com/Rays/TLray.jpg

Another issue with using these libraries is that you need a lot of oceanographic data to take advantage of them, so you should also expect a big download (it's already >2.7gb uncompressed). I really dislike high system requirements so I'll do my best to keep everything under control, but my #1 priority is making the best submarine simulator I can, so if it makes sense these requirements could go up.

The main reason for using Unreal Engine 4 is so that we'll actually be able to finish the project. Ogre3d, SDL/OpenGL and various other options were considered. but we ultimately decided UE4 was the only option that let us link with USML (which is written in C++) and would also give us a chance to finish the project. We wouldn't have a chance without extra help otherwise. A lot of work is done for us thanks to UE4, especially in the graphics and networking areas.

Sub^3 is open-source. Unfortunately it's against the Unreal EULA to GPL your projects so we're using the 2-clause BSD license. Here's a link to what we have so far. We'll upload builds when we get something playable.

Right now you can't actually pilot a submarine, but the physics simulations and control loops are working or close to working. In the near future we'll be working on a navigation interface, integrating USML and getting passive sonar working. After that we'll probably start on getting torpedoes working. This project aims to have multiplayer support in the first playable release. The main rationale for that is that writing good submarine AI seems like a really difficult thing to do compared to finding somebody to play with and setting up Hamachi.

One thing we’ll probably need from the community though is the ability to ask questions about submarines so we can understand them well enough to model them in a believable way. Would it be ok to put questions in this thread or is there a better place to do that?

Cheers!
nopoe

09-26-14, 01:35 PM	#1
nopoe Swabbie Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 12 Downloads: 2 Uploads: 0	Unreal Engine 4 sub sim project: Sub^3 Hi everybody, I recently started working on a project with a friend of mine we're calling Sub^3. We're going to try to make it into a modern version of 688(I) Hunter/Killer. This project mostly began out of frustration with current sub sims. Specifically, we’re bothered by the fact that the acoustic models kind of suck. There’s a good reason for that in the case of the earlier ones (computing power), but I think that a modern sub sim should really have accurate acoustics. We’re going to be using a library called USML (Under Sea Modeling library) for our acoustic modeling. It should be suitable for what we want to do. Here’s an image generated by a similar algorithm to show you how awesome they are. They're really hard on the CPU, unfortunately. I have yet to figure out what the minimum requirements are or if I can take advantage of multiple cores, but I expect you will need a modern desktop to run the game. http://oalib.hlsresearch.com/Rays/TLray.jpg Another issue with using these libraries is that you need a lot of oceanographic data to take advantage of them, so you should also expect a big download (it's already >2.7gb uncompressed). I really dislike high system requirements so I'll do my best to keep everything under control, but my #1 priority is making the best submarine simulator I can, so if it makes sense these requirements could go up. The main reason for using Unreal Engine 4 is so that we'll actually be able to finish the project. Ogre3d, SDL/OpenGL and various other options were considered. but we ultimately decided UE4 was the only option that let us link with USML (which is written in C++) and would also give us a chance to finish the project. We wouldn't have a chance without extra help otherwise. A lot of work is done for us thanks to UE4, especially in the graphics and networking areas. Sub^3 is open-source. Unfortunately it's against the Unreal EULA to GPL your projects so we're using the 2-clause BSD license. Here's a link to what we have so far. We'll upload builds when we get something playable. Right now you can't actually pilot a submarine, but the physics simulations and control loops are working or close to working. In the near future we'll be working on a navigation interface, integrating USML and getting passive sonar working. After that we'll probably start on getting torpedoes working. This project aims to have multiplayer support in the first playable release. The main rationale for that is that writing good submarine AI seems like a really difficult thing to do compared to finding somebody to play with and setting up Hamachi. One thing we’ll probably need from the community though is the ability to ask questions about submarines so we can understand them well enough to model them in a believable way. Would it be ok to put questions in this thread or is there a better place to do that? Cheers! nopoe