SH3 GWX 3 DIY Ship Recognition Guide

[nataraj]

Download Section: latest versions
Merchants 1940 (Dec. 17, 2013, 4.5 MB)
Warships 1939 (Dec. 18, 2013, 3.1 MB)
Warships 1940 (Dec. 18, 2013, 4.3 MB)

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Being new to Silent Hunter one of the more difficult parts of "life" seems to be how to identify ships. Once the ships are close enough, there is little time to flip through the book - and without any chance to compare similar ships side by side, I was completely lost. Unfortunately, all the printable recognition manuals that exist seem to be either on dead links or they are written for previous versions. Some ship types (like C2 Cargo) don't exist in my game, sometimes renown values are given that I don't think are correct any more (500+ for Large Merchant is 300 in my version)

I am using SH3, GWX 3.0 "Gold", TMT (GWX3 version)

So I started a small project to collect
- pages from the in-game recognition manual (the ...sil.tga files)
- screenshots from the Museum
- tonnage, speed and renown info from the .cfg files
- "Sea" subdirectory names for the various ship types (EnglishNames.cfg plus guesswork)

So far, I've reached December 1939 in my fledgling career, therefore the manual contains ships from 1939 (and earlier) only. Also, I've only looked at the British section in the Museum, so Polish and Indian or South African ships are missing.

This "Do It Yourself" manual comes in two .pdf files (3 and 4.5 MB, reps.):

Warships (V2 now with height,length and Greek battleship )
Merchants (also with length etc.)

As soon as I go on my next patrol, I'll add the 1940 ships. "Be prepared ..."

I hope this will be useful for the other Leutnants/Oberleutnants here


Regards,
Helmut

If you find errors, please report them here so I can correct them.

[mrbannon]

Stupid question: does SH3 update the identification book as the war progresses? (Or maybe GWX does?)

[Gustav Schiebert]

This is really great to see, I appreciate it when people make the effort to do something and the first thing they do is share it with everyone else.

At the risk of being critical, it doesn't seem to have some of the data like length and mast height which is essential for people doing manual targeting. I did a recognition manual a few months back (only for merchants) which was a straight screengrab of both pages.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=202636

How long did it take you to do? I remember mine took about six hours total labour.

[Karl Heinrich]

I agree with Gustav here, always good to see people not only putting the time into projects like this but taking the time to share them too.

I can also vouch that Gustav's ship recognition manual is very helpful too.

I've recently bought a copy of the 1940 Weyers Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten, one of the real ship rec books. Along with this I have a few of the similar Talbot-Booth books used by the RN - but I've not had the chance to use any of them in anger yet so I don't know if they work.

But I definitely think the best approach is this, making your own books of the game world rather than trying to crowbar real world items into gameplay - as fun as that can be sometimes.

[GoldenRivet]

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=146019

I'll toss mine into the hat, the link is to the thread reviewing the recognition manual i made with a "target speed booklet" to quick reference the speed of each vessel for a specified time observation through the periscope.

I had a lot of fun making it. I only made two, a copy i kept for myself, and a copy i sent to Silverleaf for his review.

You will really enjoy putting the effort into the project

[nataraj]

Thank you all for your encouragement and the constructive feedback!

Yes, I had a lot of fun doing it - so far 2 afternoons and one evening, most of it spent on:
- figuring out what I want to achieve
- getting image sizes and resolution about right
- finding the directories and files in SH3 for ship data and images
- editing the images (both museum screenshots and in-game .tga files)
- learning a bit more about InDesign to create the document

Actually, once the document structure and base images were all prepared, the creation of the documents proper did not take long at all.

@mrbannon: Not a stupid question at all There are no updates. The in-game recognition manual is the opposite of realism in that respect: instead of not having the latest enemy ship types, the manual has ship types that aren't even in service yet.

@Gustav: ah yes, I see your point. Initially, my only goal was to better be able to identify the ship and then find it in the in-game manual. As I still rely on the weapons officer to identify the target for me, it is quite easy to click on the type and get the correct page for height, length and draft.

When that weapons officer assistance will be gone, I guess I'd be back to frantically flipping pages ... Ugh. Thanks for telling me now before I add more ships! I'll make an update that includes height, LoA, beam and draft in the document and - while I'm at it - copy the required data directly (well, almost directly) from the cfg files into the document. That should reduce the probability for human error (that's me: the human error element) considerably.

@Gustav, Karl Heinrich and GoldenRivet: I've seen some of your work and that of quite a few others, too. I guess it's as much the fun in doing it as it is the result that makes me do it. Can't remember them all but I really liked one recognition manual, done by Canovaro - it showed the in-game manual pages but with target areas highlighted. Very nice, unfortunately my ship types are different and the renown is different, too.

BTW, does anybody know how to translate the numbers in the [2D compartments] section of the cfg file into coordinates?

Then there was one that was completely different: drawings instead of photo or the in-game manual pages (can't remember by whom, IIRC it had German ship types), also very nice.

I know that I need something like a photo for a quick shortlist, but then the fine details in the recognition manual are good, too. And the 'angle' views.

On a patrol, before I spend a torpedo I really like to know what it'll earn me in terms of renown. So, that had to go into my "do it yourself" as well.

Armaments would have been nice, too. But too complex, too much text and changing too fast. I don't want to include from-to dates ...

Good Hunting,
Helmut

[Karl Heinrich]

Excellent work again sir. Think you have a nice balance. I think the key is just make what you want to see and there will always be someone out that appreciates it.

As for the CFG file, hmm, I'll have a look now. I don't know if this is any use to you, but I've just developed this method for working it out in game - http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=209834

As I say I will look at the CFG now and see if I can work it out.

Edit: Solved

Looking at the flotilla.cfg for an example I notice 2nd Flotilla "departure point" (Wilhelmshaven) is Long 973144.000000 Lat 6420906.000000

These are essentially linear unit coords. Basically it's the measurement in metres.

In my thread above I measured the longitude in game (of my boat in berth at Wilhelmshaven) at 973.2km - as the ruler only gives one decimal place, it seems the above is indeed 973.144 km.

Similarly, I measurered the latitude as 6420.9 - which matches the above of 6420906 (6420.906)

How to work it out...

Step 1: 973144.000000< Delete the bold digits and decimal
Step 2: 973144 < Put a decimal at the front of the last 3 digits
Step 3: 973.144 km > Go to my thread above as I can't write it all out again here

[nataraj]

so I spent some time today on the DIY recognition manual. Following Gustav's suggestion, I added the boat measurements. All data (measurements, weight, speed, and renown) come from the cfg file, there is still a small chance that I might have made an error in copy/paste ...

Updated the link in the original post.

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@Karl Heinrich: yes I noticed your Lat/lon method yesterday - really cool.

I do hope that somehow this might help in my coordinates problem but do not yet understand how the method applies to the compartments.

This is the part I'm interested in:
(from a tanker definition)

Length=190 <- this I understand
Width=30.3
Mast=26.8
Draft=11.91

...

[2DCompartments]
UnitPos=56,6,400,22 <-- no idea
NbOfComp=4 <- ok four compartments
Name1=Propulsion <- no prob here
Area1=58,5,30,18 <- a rectangle? should be way back
Name2=Keel
Area2=164,2,187,10
Name3=Engines Room
Area3=107,13,52,18
Name4=Fuel Bunkers
Area4=161,13,30,18

seems to be something like starting_x, starting_y, delta_x, delta_y (in m)
But where is the center (0,0) ? And what does the UnitPos (units ? position?) mean? 400 is longer than the ship's length ...

still in the dark.

Helmut

[Karl Heinrich]

Length, width/beam, mast, draft... all makes perfect sense. But the rest of it, not a clue. As you say without knowing the starting points etc it's difficult to say. Based on my old days in MS Paint and HTML image maos, each of the 4 coords should give a corner - as you say it gives a rectangle. Maybe they refer to pixels rather than metres in this instance?

Do you mind if I ask what you're looking to find out in particular? I only ask as it may just reveal another method / approach etc.

[nataraj]

Since obviously the 2DCompartment info was used to display the most vulnerable zones in the recognition manual I thought maybe there was an easy way to recreate the same effect in the offline manual.

I've seen "augie" and "nemesis" credited with such graphics / a mod in earlier versions of GWX but searching in the forum I found that the info in 2Dcompartments is not to be trusted - therefore I gave up on that idea ...

But then - I looked again, and ... your suggestion that it could be pixels is 100% correct. At least for a Dido class.
The image is 512 pixels wide, so first number: starting px from left, third number: width in px, fourth number: height in px. not quite sure about the third number: should be starting y coord. Maybe number px up from 115, which is where the lowest point of the ship is in the image.

best regards,
Helmut

[Karl Heinrich]

I thought that would be why, but just thought I'd double-check.

Ahhh, sounds like you're well on the way to working it all out! Good work sir.

[nataraj]

sounds like you're well on the way to working it all out

Indeed, on the way... Still not quite happy with the result, but much better than the other day. First, the good news: the coordinates in the xxxx.cfg files refer to pixels, indeed, thanks again for the tip, Karl Heinrich! And, together with the "Namex" property they give the information where certain vulnerable parts of the ships are.

The bad news (hm, not really news): some of those areas are evident even without the coordinates ("propulsion" is where the propeller is, "keel" is, well , at the bottom of the ship, and "engines" almost invariably have one or more funnels above them. Duh. And the ammo bunkers usually end up below the guns (makes sense, doesn't it?).

worse, some of the compartment locations were obviously wrong. I changed the scaling on some ships so that the length of the ship as seen in the picture would match the compartments, but I still wonder why the Cyclops-type Collier has engines midships and a funnel way back ...

Still it was a rewarding exercise, I learnt a lot about some developments in HTML/XML handling, like the "Treewalker" (great stuff, I wish I'd known such a tool five years ago, I'd have used XML much more often), SVG graphics, and the way certain products interact: to bring an SVG graphics file (created by interpreting the .cfg files) into InDesign (which does the print formatting) you have to load it into Illustrator first. No, not Photoshop. Takes some getting used to.

"Merchants" recognition guide ready ! (see download section in first post)

Time to finish the 1940 edition of the "Warships" manual, I think I ran into a new destroyer type yesterday, escorting a convoy. It was too late for a prolonged hunt so I went to bed. It is only January 5, 1940 and already they have the new models on the road !

Helmut

[nataraj]

Warships 1940 added (King George V, Dido, Fiji, Hunt I+II, Town, N, L, Flower/Bathurst).

Ready for hunting

[Canovaro]

Originally Posted by nataraj

@ Can't remember them all but I really liked one recognition manual, done by Canovaro - it showed the in-game manual pages but with target areas highlighted.

That wasn't mine, I only put it up for download.
34thflotilla.com is the source.