Sonar/Auto Crew help

[nutworld]

I've just started playing DW after a lengthy lay-off. I'm working on my skills using 688i and Seawolf. Once I've got them "down" I'll move on to the russian subs.

I've read as much material as I can find here to help me stop relying on Auto-crew.

I'm wondering, if Auto-crew is as bad as it has been stated.

I've read various posts on here saying that you will do a better job of playing the missions if you don't use the Sonar and TMA auto-crew. Yet I've found that if I have sonar auto-crew on, they "find" contacts alot sooner than I do if auto-crew is off.

If the auto-crew guys are so "bad" how come they pick up contacts sooner in scenarios than I do. Granted I'm not an expert, but I can use my ears and eyes to "see" lines of a contact on the waterfall display.

Why is it when I play a scenario using auto-crew Sonar almost always picks up contacts immediately. Yet when I re-start that same scenario and I turn auto-crew off, I don't "find" contacts" Are my eyes and ears that bad?

I'm not talking about any particular scenario, it just seems like those things happen in general.

[Pisces]

Sounds like you can't find the contacts because of your screen's gamma settings. The lines on the waterfall are there, but having pixel intensities that are too close to the noise pixels for your eyes to see the difference. Autocrew doesn't have that visual impairment. Gamma can enhance the low intensity pixels significantly while leaving the stronger pixels relatively the same. But this works for all other screens aswell. Even the game's main menu. Waterfall may look better, but all others will look bleak. But who cares, sonar is most important. You can adjust the number on the following line (there probably is no number yet) in the dangerouswaters.ini file with a text editor:

.Gamma "0.5"

0.5 works for me. Your mileage may vary.

Or maybe you can adjust this setting on your videocard or monitor.

[nutworld]

Thanks I'll give that a shot, and see if that helps my detection ability.

Changing gamma to "0.5" helped but Auto-crew guy still gets contacts that I don't hear or see..............

[Fish]

Thanks I'll give that a shot, and see if that helps my detection ability.

Changing gamma to "0.5" helped but Auto-crew guy still gets contacts that I don't hear or see..............

The first member to get rid of is the sonar guy.
Do it yourself, much better.:yep:

[nutworld]

The first member to get rid of is the sonar guy.
Do it yourself, much better.:yep:

I have read that, and am attempting to play the sim without using Auto-crew sonar, and that is where I'm having trouble.

I'm not understanding HOW I can do it much better, when the Auto-crew guy picks up contacts that I don't see or hear. Changing the gamma setting helped with the view-able pixles in the waterfall display, but there are still contacts that I don't "see/hear".

What's the next step Fish?

[sonar732]

Might I suggest that you scan in NB first to find contacts, then move to BB to mark your contact. There is another post somewhere here lately regarding sonar I'm sure.

EDIT:...Reference this topic...

Assigning trackers:NB vrs. BB (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=102157)