HITMAN 2010 ! (Hitman GUI) a review

[Leoz]

Disclaimer: this is just a note to say there is no wrong way of playing Silent Hunter III. The fact that you are playing it, in any form is a win. This effort is for those that have the time to do this kind of thing, without the kid, dog or whatever, demanding much of your time.




Background.

This is a review of Hitman GUI. Until a few weeks ago, I did not know this mod even existed. I call it HITMAN 2010 because it was easier for me to reference. In all his mod notes he puts the date below it. So Hitman GUI or HITMAN 2010, whatever.

Up until recently I was using the older Hitman available in the downloads section. I liked it because it had the proper magnifications for both the attack scope and night scope 1.5x and 6x.

Much of the Hitman efforts seem to be based on his own research and if you are interested, this excellent website. Where, I recommend reading everything.

http://www.tvre.org/en/home-page

It also addresses how scopes for U-Boats changed after the war started. They went to something more simple with improved optics. Away went the stadimeter.

On previous scopes, if you wanted to determine range, you had this disk at the eyepiece. (photo 8 at this link http://www.tvre.org/en/acquiring-torpedo-firing-data ). You put in the height of your target in meters, rotated a handle when the target looked in focus, looked back at the dial and read off the range. On some (or all?) of them, you could rotate the optics 90 degrees and apply the same method to the length of the ship.
You can see why this would be difficult to simulate in Silent Hunter III. Probably a bridge too far.

So not too far into the war, the German production method needed something more simple. This is where the HITMAN effort takes place, starting around 1941, depending if the boat you have is new or scheduled for an upgrade.

HITMAN GUI is a leap forward from his previous efforts. It has very clean graphics. It also takes a deeper dive into the history of setting up a firing solution as you will see below.

It is mentioned in this thread as well as where to download it. You will need a program to "unRAR" the package.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=167126

I tested it on the following system.

i5 PC with 6GB of RAM
Windows 10
SHIII via Steam, GWX3, SH3 Commander, MEP v5 20k environment. MFM v3.3 (Merchant Fleet)

Realism for this review. Everything checked off except I did allow external views.
Note also, for this review, I did not ask the watch officer during surface attacks for range as it can be a bit much (too accurate).

Magnetic-only pistol setting to induce less reliability (like the NYGM people). And using all shots as if they were contact torps. 3 or 4 meter depth settings.
No 44 knot torpedo settings for G7a.

A mix of G7a and G7e.

Time period. January to May 1941.

AK and BE map areas for most of this.

Fire solutions for this review generated by much plotting at time. Including but not limited to measuring over extended time. Example, it took that ship 5 and a half hours to move 65km, divided by 330 minutes is around 6.5 knots. If I have good plots on the F5 map, I have good results.



I did not test this with any wide-screen environments.

Not tested:
1. Pattern running torpedoes (LUT/FAT)
2. Plotting board triangle


1. Pop-up navigation compass. This can be activated by hitting the button at the bottom left of the stock navigation compass. I really like this. I would prefer it was larger.



2. Pop-up depth meter. This can be activated by hitting the button at the bottom left of the stock depth meter. Very useful.


3. F5 map. A plotting triangle tool. This appears very useful as you can keep track of your own-sub speed tracking also. I didn't test this and probably will someday. I am very fixed in my ways of plotting at this time. Note also a different drag down stopwatch.


4. F6 page (torpedo management). Note toward the bottom left, the purple button. When you hit this, it illuminates. This tells you it is in the mode to input data. When done, you hit it again and now the computer is linked to the input of your periscope or UZO. Button can be hard to hit sometimes and can take a few tries. Instructions say to activate it with CNTRL+T. This worked on the previous HITMAN version but I was unable to get this to work. In any event, I like this light. For me, I can instantly tell if I am in the data-input mode or the linked to optics mode.



5. Binoculars: 7 power.



6. UZO: by 1941, this was a newer one 10 power. And here you start to see how things are done. For the most part you visually associate everything to charts. Also because the UZO is higher magnification, its chart will be different than the one for the periscopes.

For UZO and periscope for example if a 150 meter log ship is broadside to you (90 degrees angle on the bow) and ...if it FILLS the field of view it is (for the UZO)2150 meters away. If it fills half of that view it is twice as far. A quarter of the view well, 4 times away.
More on angle on the bow when we get to the periscope charts.
Notice the 3 icons together, the stopwatch, the box with 6 dots and the last one, speed, spread or pattern of your torpedoes. Click on the first one and you get a stopwatch that appears that when it does one revolution, it has done...30 seconds. Also for this, a different chart appears for timing the distance a ship takes to cover its own length (the wire method). The box with 6 dots brings up the torpedo control for target AOB and target speed. The last icon brings up controls for controlling the speed, depth, spread and pattern (LUT/FAT) running torpedoes if you have those.
The logo with the 10x80 is your "home" key and brings you back to this view.
Toward the bottom left you have your data input button for the torpedo computer.



7. Mouse over to the right side of the screen and a Whiz-Wheel appears. This one is nice as it will already show your true course (you do not have to input that it continuously updates it). It will also show you the bearing that your UZO and periscope is pointed at. All you have to do is dial in the estimated angle on the bow of the target. Now you have an estimated true course of the target. Write that down and plot it. I will say that I am jaded and almost always use estimation and the tool that draws out estimated AOB on the F5 plotting map, but this is nice and powerful.



8. The Attack Scope (F3). The displays are the same for both the attack scope and the night scope (O key). Clicking on the ZEISS/IKON logo gets you back to this screen. Like a "home" key of sorts. Note the distances for ships are different and are shown for both the 1.5x magnification and the 6x magnification. This is a 158 meter long ship with some angle off. With the 6x setting on the scope. Maybe it is 1200 meters away. I forgot the mast height. Which brings us to the mils (the vertical display on the left side of the scope). If in the 1.5 power setting a target that has a height of 25 meters (mast or stack or whatever) is 40 mils high, it is about 625 meters away. 25 divided by 40 is .625. Move the decimal 3 over to the right.
If on the 6 power setting, you take that number and multiply it by 4. For a range of 2500 meters. Give or take.
Now, look below at the angle on the bow chart. This gets into a visual area that is pretty iffy. If something should be filling your field of view but is only filling half of it, its' angle on the bow is 30 degrees. I would be real careful with this one as in the heat of battle,you can probably judge angle on the bow (AOB) better in your head, and once you get down below a certain point in AOB it can be unrelaible doing the aspect-to-height ratio thing. Drawing 4 here (http://www.tvre.org/en/acquiring-torpedo-firing-data describes how this works and the limits of it).


9. Speed chart with the 30 second stop-watch.
This works pretty well. You may at times find yourself halving or doubling the results as the chart is there just to get your head thinking.



10. Angle on the bow of your target and speed of target.



11. Setting the speed, depth, spread and pattern (LUT/FAT) of your torpedoes.


12. A look at the night scope.


13. Deck gun sighting.

Other: hitting the "N" key brings up your recognition manuals if you need those.

Summary:

All this works very well. I really enjoyed the 3 patrols I have spent with this mod. I was able to do good plots, be there at the right time and place and have a lot of fun with the math.

If it is 1941 or later, and I have a new boat, this is what I will use.

I want to thank Hitman for all of the effort put into this. This mod deserves high praise.

[Obltn Strand]

Haven't left port without it for years now...one of my top favorites...

[hauangua]

For me too... Many many time with this...my favorite.... Working with Nygm

[Hitman]

Somehow I missed this review, thanks a lot for your comments! Knowing it has been useful to people is what counts and makes me proudest

Just a note on this:

Now, look below at the angle on the bow chart. This gets into a visual area that is pretty iffy. If something should be filling your field of view but is only filling half of it, its' angle on the bow is 30 degrees. I would be real careful with this one as in the heat of battle,you can probably judge angle on the bow (AOB) better in your head, and once you get down below a certain point in AOB it can be unrelaible doing the aspect-to-height ratio thing.

The image is not intended to be used when the ship fills the FOV, it just allows you to rotate mentally a ship and then look down and estimate what AOB it is showing. When you see an angled ship you can somehow easily rotate mentally, but it is not easy translating that rotation of the object in your head to a specific amount of degrees. This charts helps that purpose

[Leoz]

Thanks Hitman,

Again, thanks for something that gives hours of enjoyment.

Take care,