Realism- and gameplay-related hardcode fixes for SH3.EXE

[h.sie]

Originally Posted by makman94

H.Sie....you are reminding me a whisky....it says....''KEEP WALKING'' !!

Seriously, the most awesome and interesting thread of the last months (say year or it is too much ? )

this modding is just at the start....but i am sure that amazing things will come out...really amazing

Hi makman,

thank you for your words. for you and a few other people (me included) this might be true, but looking on the download counters for V15C (20 downloads) we are a minority. but I don't care about that. the intention of my work is not downloads or tribute (I am too old for that kind of intention), it's only to have a good game. and I would even continue if there were 1 download (initiated by myself).

By the way: I promised you a DIY for tweaking WP/WO range estimation.
I didn't forget that. Until the DIY is ready, contact me via PM regarding that.



h.sie

[Magic1111]

Originally Posted by h.sie

Hi makman,

thank you for your words. for you and a few other people (me included) this might be true, but looking on the download counters for V15C (20 downloads) we are a minority. but I don't care about that. the intention of my work is not downloads or tribute (I am too old for that kind of intention), it's only to have a good game. and I would even continue if there were 1 download (initiated by myself).

By the way: I promised you a DIY for tweaking WP/WO range estimation.
I didn't forget that. Until the DIY is ready, contact me via PM regarding that.



h.sie

Hi h.sie!

I agree totally with makman´s words, you´re doing a wonderful job and I like your MODs very much !!!!!!

Best regards,
Magic

[Volk2]

Originally Posted by makman94

Seriously, the most awesome and interesting thread of the last months (say year or it is too much ? )

No, it isn't too much. H.sie work here is groundbreaking for realism enthusiasts. Certainly not one person was dreaming about disassemling the game to make it better (but you must be an Einstein or H.sie to know how to use assembler).

Because of H.sie and Hans mods, yesterday I've ordered a second-hand motherboard and processor (Athlon 64 3600), to have a better sh3 experience (well, there is a probability that it will not work, but I can always hope that it will, hehe)

[h.sie]

fishing for compliments was not my intention. sorry for misunderstanding.

[Volk2]

Originally Posted by h.sie

fishing for compliments was not my intention. sorry for misunderstanding.

Hehe, you don't need to fish for them, really

[Magic1111]

Originally Posted by h.sie

fishing for compliments was not my intention. sorry for misunderstanding.

...nevertheless, the compliments must to be said...

[h.sie]

Yesterday I made some tests in order to become familiar with compressed air (CA) and related problems and bugs. Somewhere I read that you cannot run out of CA, which in fact would be a big bug.

So I stopped the boat at 150m depth (with 0 knots) and ordered "blow ballast". I heared the according blowing sound and the boat began to move up. it needed about 320 seconds to surface.

Then I completely emptied the CA and stopped the boat again at the same depth with 0 knots and ordered again "blow ballast". I again heard the sound and now the boat needed 4 times longer to surface. at the first moment I thought this was a bug, because I expected: no CA - no moving up.

but then I remembered the little positive buoyancy the GWX-team gave the U-boats by setting mass a little bit lower than displacement. so I installed the Anti-hummingbird mod for GWX which I found somewhere, and which gives uboats a little negative buoyancy instead.

I ordered again "blow ballast" at the same situation with no CA available. I again heard the sound, but......the boat did not move up. It slowly sank instead. So you in fact CAN get out of compressed air!!!

People using the Anti-hummingbird mod can diretly see that. People using the GWX positive buoyancy will surely see that, too, if a compartment is floodded a little bit because of a leakage.

the only "bug" is, that you still hear the blowing sound. this sound in conjunction with the positive buoyancy gives the impression that blowing ballast still works a little bit even without any compressed air.

to be honest, I don't know what to fix.

Hitman stated that CA is not used when changing depth. but when you press "S" to surface, a little amount of CA is used short before surfacing.

the remaining question is: is it gameplay relevant and worth the effort to make a fix that makes the Uboat consume some CA everytime you change depth? I never read about a situation where they ran out of CA and thus couldn't change depth. if the answer is YES: I need to know, how much CA is consumed per depth-change operation? is it only consumed for lowering depth or for rising depth, too?

Maybe I could make a fix that mutes the sound when no CA is available or I could disable the blow-ballast button and "E" key. but I think there are more important things to fix.

?????

[SquareSteelBar]

Originally Posted by h.sie

...Maybe I could make a fix that mutes the sound when no CA is available or I could disable the blow-ballast button...

IMHO that could be the best solution...

[Hitman]

Hitman stated that CA is not used when changing depth. but when you press "S" to surface, a little amount of CA is used short before surfacing.

It seems weird that when you click on the depth gauge you are taken to that depth without any use of compressed air (as far as I can tell) but when you use the S key it does!

There is a reasoning behind that, though: To change depth you use the diving planes, so you can theoretically do it without using compressed air as long as your speed is >2 Knots. However, for surfacing you always must use compressed air to empty ballast tanks and have the uboat be permanently buoyant (Otherwise it would dive again).

But as I said before, the thing is that most upwards depth changing maneuvers should actually need a bit of compressed air.

[CherryHarbey]

Originally Posted by h.sie

Hi makman,

thank you for your words. for you and a few other people (me included) this might be true, but looking on the download counters for V15C (20 downloads) we are a minority. but I don't care about that. the intention of my work is not downloads or tribute (I am too old for that kind of intention), it's only to have a good game. and I would even continue if there were 1 download (initiated by myself).

By the way: I promised you a DIY for tweaking WP/WO range estimation.
I didn't forget that. Until the DIY is ready, contact me via PM regarding that.



h.sie

h.sie,
I haven't downloaded a later version since I downloaded your first version, simply because being a technophobe, I would rather do the patch once.
I am very happy with the version I am running, (took me 6 hours game time to repair a damaged propeller once! awesome.) but I am waiting until you say, that's it I can do no more, then I will download that final version straight away.

[h.sie]

Since I am still not totally sure how a compressed air (CA) fix could work, I want to discuss the algorithm BEFORE starting to program. This prevents me from wasting a lot of time: My idea for the fix (correct me if I am wrong):

Definition: dCA is the little amount of CA that is consumed for every depth change into surface direction.

1) The only affected dial is the depth gauge.

2) When a depth change via the depth gauge is ordered, do the following:

Check if ordered depth < current depth.

If no: Change depth
If yes:

Ckeck if speed <= 2kt

If no: Change depth
If yes:

Check if CA > dCA (is CA supply enough?)

If no: Ignore the change depth command.
If yes:

Calculate CA := CA - dCA (Subtract little amount dCA amount from CA supply)
AND
Change depth.

Is this okay?

[h.sie]

Hi CherryHarbey: Nice to know that your life is harder now with the longer repairs. With the new patch-kit patching is easy and takes about 1 minute. but if you don't like that, just wait and update only if important fixes have been added. I could stop working now, but the more I work on this, the more ideas I get (from LGN1 ).

Thank you for the reply.
h.sie

[Rubini]

Originally Posted by h.sie

Since I am still not totally sure how a compressed air (CA) fix could work, I want to discuss the algorithm BEFORE starting to program. This prevents me from wasting a lot of time: My idea for the fix (correct me if I am wrong):

Definition: dCA is the little amount of CA that is consumed for every depth change into surface direction.

1) The only affected dial is the depth gauge.

2) When a depth change via the depth gauge is ordered, do the following:

Check if ordered depth < current depth.

If no: Change depth
If yes:

Ckeck if speed <= 2kt

If no: Change depth
If yes:

Check if CA > dCA (is CA supply enough?)

If no: Ignore the change depth command.
If yes:

Calculate CA := CA - dCA (Subtract little amount dCA amount from CA supply)
AND
Change depth.

Is this okay?

Hi h.sie,

How are you mate?
I´m a bit out of Sh3 game lately..this is why i´m a bit absent from this discussion.

First, for me is a surprise that sh3 consumes CA when we hit "S"...I never noted this behaviour, in true I always thinked that it was a feature totally absent on sh3..(well, perhaps I never payed a real full attention on it)...so, are you sure about this?

If so, then the problem is already half way fixed (for me). Perhaps we could also raise the consume a little bit when hit "S", to make it more clear and the game more challenge on this matter?

And I fully agree with Hitman: "But as I said before, the thing is that most upwards depth changing maneuvers should actually need a bit of compressed air. "... for this particular issue seems that your algorithm is very good!

Cheers!

[ryanwigginton]

Originally Posted by CherryHarbey

I am waiting until you say, that's it I can do no more, then I will download that final version

Likewise. I visit this thread almost daily but have not downloaded yet.

[h.sie]

@Rubini: Hi there. I am fine. But "unfortunately" () I have a job and so there is only a little free time in the evening for programming. I will try to realise and implement the CA algorithm/fix. But I don't want to spend too much time for it, because other ideas seem to be more important for me.

@ryanwigginton & CherryHarbey: I don't know if this can ever be finished. There will always be something to optimize. At the moment many new ideas arise and I like very much this type of modding, because (theoretically) there are no (hardcoded) restrictions anymore. . So I don't know if there will be an end in the next months?? (In reality, of course, there are restrictions: my time, my brain, the complexity of assembler code and, interconnected with that, the risks of making errors -> CTD).

Using the Patch-Kit, patching is easy. You are not forced to update to every new version I publish. V15A and V15B are stable. V15C is stable, too, but will be optimised in V15D in the next days.

For me it's much easier to publish patches step-by-step with "little" enhancements / additions instead of working 2 years for my own in silence and then publish the final version V17Z, simply because I need some resonance and dialog to locate errors and so on.

h.sie