My Future Cold War 1945-1991 Sub Sim Project

[nsomnia]

So we've been playing around (in spare time) with an idea that I beleive is unheard of in subsims: the ability to take control of the planes

Check this video out, shows the new buoyancy system and what im talking about

About 2 minutes, youll see I can fake it "jumping" out of the water. Keep in mind he was just playing around with adjusting the pitch of hte whole model, this isnt the real way the game will be played although an improved system of manual plane control will be implemented in time for advanced players.

[nsomnia]

A screenshot.

[nsomnia]

Got the ass end sinking bug fixed and a few other updates.

We are so close to having the sub working 100% that we can work on adding torpedos and enemies and build a port so we can release a tech demo at that point we decide. Tech demo, or spend a couple weeks making a character and tutorial mission that will be similar to the very first mission in the full game?

Anyways, its a sunday, not much more work will get done, maybe a bit of tweaking but it took us an hour and 15 minutes to get that bug fixed and I'm slowly weaning my partner off gigantic scripts that do everything in one long string of statments and showing him how to use functions that take input, do math or something, and then output something (or nothing). Modularity. WIP.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Great work

[nsomnia]

Originally Posted by ReallyDedPoet

Great work

Ah just havin' a time there boy.


The basic infinit terrain system is in pre-alpha state. Based off the marching cubes project. Will allow us to generate random sea floors when out at the oceean depths if needed (at first once you get to a depth thats wayyy past crush depth I dont plan on even having an ocean floor, other than to cover up the moon/interior/other stuff you shouldnt see in free camera mode.

Got my laser range finder worked on not perfect yet, It can detect distance to other ships/planes etc. but not totally accurate.


Got a basic sonar system down. Havnt got audio working yet but unreal has a noise making system that works with their AI system so that you can have certain objects "emit noise" at a certain level that you can set based on as complicated math as you wish or just a value 0-1 which the enemies will then be able to/or not to detect depending on their sensiitivity and if they do detect you they will investigate and it works in reverse, when we have time we will set it up so that you output a certain noiose value based on engine rpm, sound coating, weather conditions, sea temp, biologicals/land blockers, rigged for silence etc. This as also had me start writing down some basic logic for acoustic homing torpedos but I dont want to get ahead of myself.

Looking into using the fish flocking behavior the community started (it uses the predator/prey approach, as in the fish will come check something new out like a player, but if it moves or is listed as a predator once they get in close enough to "identify" it they will hightail it out of there, and if you attack they will go it on their own forgetting there friends, otherwise they just investigate, move around you etc.) for the enemy and friendly AI for truely dynamic battles against extremely smart enemys WITH friendly ships helping. UE's AI system is mind blowing, and only getting better.

Speaking of sound, going through some old threads on here got me some great sounds to use as a started and taught me into how to create a hydrophone with a mic, when I have time I'll head to homehardware and buy some abs to build one and see what kind've interesting sounds I can come up with for when you man the sonar system. For towed array etc. I'm still waiting on a reply from a community projcet that does what we need for it to be visible, otherwise the towed array will be a moving object with a scaled cylinder for a rope, if I get him to allow us to use his code, or he releases his project (its a WIP) then the towed array will actually be visable as a sonar buoy looking deal with a cable with a little slack in it.

[Avolanty]

I had to rebuild the logic for the submarine a few times, not to mention update the buoyancy system. Been a real hard 2 weeks but now I think its safe to say we got something that is working now. What I need though is how the sub climbs and dives, in seconds versus meters depending on which tank is blown or flooded. That kind of information will help me make this subsim much more accurate to the real thing. Any calculations you guys can offer will be greatly appreciative for Nsomnia and me.

[nsomnia]

Added a Trello board so people can view progress at a glance/click and vote on features. https://trello.com/b/W4yrCFe2/coldwarsubsim-wip

Also adding in particle systems and working on torpedoes today. I'm asking my partner if he can have a alpha working sub controller for April 3rd. Tech demo is still set for April deadline and first week of April goal (but of course goals are never met)

[nsomnia]

My partner started work on some convoy AI while I took over finishing up, tweaking, and cleaning up the sub controller. Its a mess, not his fault, its visual scriptings fault. April 5th is looking more like april 15th now.

[nsomnia]

Well in just a few hours I was able to get regular and crash diving with the boolean option of negative tank vented or blown rewritten to a simple one page function. Going to add in the ability for advanced players to adjust the fwd/aft trim if wanted at a later date.

[Woxor]

Originally Posted by nsomnia

Well in just a few hours I was able to get regular and crash diving with the boolean option of negative tank vented or blown rewritten to a simple one page function. Going to add in the ability for advanced players to adjust the fwd/aft trim if wanted at a later date.

This sounds great! Will we be able to control the ballast as well?

Cheers.

[nsomnia]

Originally Posted by Woxor

This sounds great! Will we be able to control the ballast as well?

Cheers.

We had that implemented in the original sub controller, we simulated every single tank in the nautilus except for sanitary, fresh water, torpedo tube drains, and oil tanks beacuse I dont think those affect buoyancy. So yes, its definitly a feature there will be a tab for advanced players to adjust ballast in each tank on the fly if they want, how fun that will be? Unknown. Maybe advanced hotkeys like ****+M pump 500L to port ballast tanks to compensate for damage, or shift+ctrl+1 pump 500L out of main ballst tank 1b && shift+ctrl+alt+1 pump 500L into MBT 1b.

So far I thought the easiest way would be a tabbed menu you bring up with a keypress where you drag sliders, 100% slider = full of water fully vented, 0% = fully blown

We have a very very cool effect of an AI ship sinking after getting hit on the bow. After a torpedo hits it starts slowly filling up with water and then goes bow first down, its pretty cool watching and its a start to the damage system. Will get a video from my partner later or wait till we do a file update so I can record it in HD.

Unfortunatly, we are behind schedule for the free tech demo, but hey, thats game deadlines, they are rarely met.

[nsomnia]

After a 5 minute crash dive to 2000 feet (past crush depth obviously or at least what the government will tell us) at all stopped I can verify the new buoyancy system works flawlessly looks pretty horizontal to me

[nsomnia]

HEy guys I created a new Trello board the proper way so you can Vote on features and comment.

https://trello.com/b/LxPedp4X/projec...ater-wip-board

Ive also added imported links to my siggy which you'll see in my next post for important links.

And BTW I've moved back the goal date to Apr 15 but still making my deadline End of April for the free tech demo.

Will release some shots of the FX and sinking my partner has been working on in his spare him when I get the files from him to record a nice video.

[nsomnia]

Will be posting picture and video updates of our ship sinking dynamics and our first version of a torpedo bubble trail.

Edit: LAter today, kindve enjoying Assasains Creed

[Woxor]

Originally Posted by nsomnia

We had that implemented in the original sub controller, we simulated every single tank in the nautilus except for sanitary, fresh water, torpedo tube drains, and oil tanks beacuse I dont think those affect buoyancy. So yes, its definitly a feature there will be a tab for advanced players to adjust ballast in each tank on the fly if they want, how fun that will be? Unknown. Maybe advanced hotkeys like ****+M pump 500L to port ballast tanks to compensate for damage, or shift+ctrl+1 pump 500L out of main ballst tank 1b && shift+ctrl+alt+1 pump 500L into MBT 1b.

So far I thought the easiest way would be a tabbed menu you bring up with a keypress where you drag sliders, 100% slider = full of water fully vented, 0% = fully blown

We have a very very cool effect of an AI ship sinking after getting hit on the bow. After a torpedo hits it starts slowly filling up with water and then goes bow first down, its pretty cool watching and its a start to the damage system. Will get a video from my partner later or wait till we do a file update so I can record it in HD.

Unfortunatly, we are behind schedule for the free tech demo, but hey, thats game deadlines, they are rarely met.

That's amazing, hype meter just went through the roof!