Project: Printable navigation charts of the SH3 world [WIP]

[Karl Heinrich]

Some of you may have used real, historical charts before to aid navigation in SH3. It's always a good way to add something more to sims.

However it's not ideal as the SH3 world is of course not the same as the real world, it's bigger and lacks details that you would see on real world maps.

Have you ever wanted to try plotting your course not on the F5 world map but on paper charts? To cut a long story short, I've started working on several nautical charts of the "SH3 world" - a project I first mentioned on here last year. The one I've attached is very, very much work in progress (and are low res previews), so please go easy on me

The ones that I'm printing for myself will be the same size as real charts, so around A0 - A1 on average (this example is between the two - the preview here is shrunk down). However, I will create A2 and possibly A3 versions for anyone that wants to print them at home and give them a try.





Lots of little details need to be tweaked, altered or resized etc. The eventual plan is to add depth soundings taken from in-game, and other details, and redraw the whole landmass etc (i.e. not use the screenshots). The next chart will be a new area and at a scale for coastal nav / pilotage - that will definitely include soundings from in-game.

This one is fictional (and was designed around a hotseat patrol a few mates are playing). However, the others will aim to replicate real, historic Kriegsmarine (or Admiralty) charts in content, look and feel as much as possible - but always taking their data from SH3, and following the main rule: they must be usable . They will not feature fake paper textures as they are designed to actually be printed.

You should be able to use these to navigate as you would in reality. All on the paper chart. (I will do a few tutorials for any interested).

While the attached WIP examples are very rough, they should be just about usable still.

A huge, huge thanks goes out to Kartengruppe (Pino) of the forums, whose help has been absolutely invaluable and has made this project possible. I'm sure most are familiar with his Kriegsmarine chart collection, if not check it out here at www.kartengruppe.it

Any questions at all, please let me know!

Apologies to the Moderators if this is in the wrong location, I wasn't sure if it should be in mods or not as it's not technically a mod...

[Laufen zum Ziel]

I will be looking forward to your project.

[Jimbuna]

Very cool

I'll move it into the mods section.

[reaper7]

Excellent, this is one I am really interested in seeing fruition.
Best of luck with this.

[Karl Heinrich]

Thanks very much all, and ta for moving the thread Jimbuna.

The test chart to see if it all actually works has just arrived, and I'm about to give it a whirl.

The font is a digitised version of the historic Kriegsmarine chart typeface, so almost identical, and the compass roses are all hand drawn (well, with a mouse) - I only have myself to blame if I plot the wrong course...

First lesson learned is that most elements are about almost double the size they should be - it would have been the perfect resolution for A1 rather than A0. Either way that's easily fixed.

This is by no means the final product, and with the invaluable help of Pino from Kartengruppe.it I plan to get the smallest historical details included. This applies doubly for recreations (or rather SH3 versions) of real charts.

Just about to put on my Obersteuermann's cap on to test it out in a "hotseat game" (3-4 of us with various roles)...

Here's a few shots of it with a bit of set dressing (and under red light):






Ah, just a bit too big


And a slightly blurry shot of the whole chart.


Pleasantly surprised at how crisp the in-game screenshots I used to build the map itself came out. I'm still planning to redraw it all for the final version though.

[Rebel]

I've been printing the map,s from the sound trainer game because it is always daylight. The problem,s that I encountered in pardon the expression ,dead reckoning is the lack of information that would be present on maps that were given to the submarine navigator so he could plot a course with reasonable accuracy. I will check on your progress . Jim Boehner will do as he said, and move it to the mod section. I hope it works. I'm getting tired of replacing my ink cartridges and trying to put together several maps that show where I'm going. I always knew I was not the only one who played not using F5 after the game, began.

[Karl Heinrich]

Ahh that's a good idea. I thought I couldn't be the only one doing this either, glad to hear it.

You're spot on there Rebel, I've been doing manual navigation for a while and the issue with coastal navigation in particular is lack of distinctive features. I did a tutorial a while ago on running fixes, but you barely get the chance to do them. I'm looking at creating a mod that will add a few more coastal features to the game, but it's a long way off yet.

I still need to collate the sounding data I spent ages getting, hopefully this will help a little more. This will be on the charts - and taken directly from the game, not copied from reality. The idea is to map the SH3 world rather than trying to force the detail of reality onto the game.

When navigating on paper I look at the F5 map to get the position of the boat in place of sextant readings - usually only 5 times a day (BMNT, sunrise, noon etc), and weather permitting. I convert my position on F5 to long lat coords and plot the fix on the paper chart.

Update: Have tested the paper chart now and it works perfectly. Phew...

[Myxale]

Very nice. I have yet to start using real Maps for navigation. But since I was using real paper for my KTB's, real maps should not be far off.

Will keep my eyes on this.
Would be awesome to have a whole set of printed Nav-Charts on A0 or A1.
Sweet.

[Karl Heinrich]

Thanks very much Myaxle, excellent to hear there's also others doing paper KTBs. We also type them up on an old typewriter.

That's the plan, they should generally be the same size as the charts I'm recreating. I might try and create some "miniature versions" as space is an issue when using full charts (although we can fold them up as an Obersteuermann would).

I'm also going to do some plotting sheet templates which should be very quick to produce. These are handy for oceanic navigation and also plotting engagements with the enemy

[mikey117us]

Does anyone have a Torpedo Log that is Printable? I know what entries are made i.e. Ship Type, Torpedo Type, Solution, Results, Coup de`Grace etc. I just have not seen the layout.

[Karl Heinrich]

Hmm. Leave that with me Mikey, I'll see what I can do

[Kommandant_Wesser]

so, have you given any out yet?? this is really cool. im very interested.

[Myxale]

Since this thread is generally about the Necessities of Kaleuns.
How about we Share/add links to other Templates like KTB; Torbedo-Sheet and everything else needed for the Sub.

[Karl Heinrich]

Not yet Wesser, just refining a few details, and then I will make the test one ready (I'm a perfectionist so it has to be as accurate as possible, and more). Working on some tutorials and guides to getting cheap nav tools or making your own (you won't get far without dividers or a parallel plotter).

I need to work out the best way to make them available, as printing A0/A1 isn't an easy option for most people but to really use them they need to be these sizes. I can recommend printers in the UK but I don't know about anywhere else.

That's a great idea Myxale, there's a few other documents on going to look at making available (most are much easier to make than these), but it might be worth creating a new thread for these otherwise they might get lost in the mix

[sublynx]

Excellent