I've got this gadget...

[XLjedi]

...that is basically my own personal standalone electronic mo-board. It started as a course intercept computer but has since grown to include a few other items. I had an idea for a redesign, so started totally rewriting it to utilize a retained mode graphics system, so I can drop plots on the map and then directly manipulate them by clicking and draggin em around.

The general idea behind the tool is that there are some gadgets, tools, measurements and so forth I wanted to be able to do more easily in the game. But there's no programmer's interface that would allow me to create addin-style tools for the nav map. Sooo....

What I did was, create a tool that pulls a screen print of the in game nav map along with maybe my initial plots of a contact or two, and then I have my own toolsets that I can use on the contacts to determine anything I want. So, I'm playing the game, press the print screen button and Alt-tab switch over to my app to determine a proper intercept course for instance, or AoB, or speed, or whatever.

Anyhow... I also know how to create electronic standalone versions of whiz wheels and so forth. I was considering adding a few to my app, but so far, it's already giving me all the info that those wiz wheels are meant to provide, so it would be novelty more than anything I s'pose.

Is there any interest in this sorta stuff or are you all basically just modding skins, config files, etc.

[Kataki]

Sounds overly complex to me, but dont let that discourage you. Im sure someone would like it.

[jmr]

Sounds groovy.

In case you haven't already seen it there's a program by Kim Ronoff called the Electronic Plot Officer PTC (http://www.subsowespac.org/silent_hunter_mods.shtml#18) which was written for SH1. It does pretty much what your program does although it doesn't do it off of screen grabs - you have to enter your data into it. Pretty nifty program.

[XLjedi]

Nah... mine works pretty well off the screen images. I try to limit the manual data entry as much as possible so it's usable. If you have some base values in there for sub speed and target speed it will remember the last

Here, I've got a screenie from the old version of it with an SH3 map loaded that I can show. But it wasn't the retained mode graphics version, so you could draw the lines with the tools and get the answers easily. But the new version will let you click-n-drag the objects around and add multiple contacts and so forth.

http://www.xl-logic.com/SH/MoBo.png

In this shot above, I was using the "Intercept" tool to figure out a proper heading to catch the radio contact. The intercept course is the bright red line. Notice it also gives you the proper AoB on that intercept too. Three clicks and it gives you the 64° intercept course. Notice the only inputs are target speed and your sub speed, it reads all the other headings and calculates angles dynamically based on the bearing and course lines you draw by clicking points on the map.

It's not too complex, you press prn screen then Alt-Tab over to it... two button mashes gets you the nav-map background as a sandbox to play in.

[jmr]

Hell I'd love to give it a go. Upload it to filefront maybe?

[XLjedi]

I have my own website (http://www.XL-Logic.com)... hosting the file isn't a problem.

I'll have the new build working shortly. Presently I'm done with the logic that allows me to plot mouse draggable contacts and sub. The vector logic to calculate the intercept was something I've had knocked out for a while.

Tell ya what, I can do this... Gimme a few days to hook up the Interceptor tool to the new graphics engine and polish it up a bit and then you can play with it a little.

I'm developing it in the latest visual studio 2005, so you would need to install the latest .net framework to run it. The .net framework comes preinstalled on Vista, but for non-vista machiens you'd need to visit MS and download it.

If you're willing to install the .net framework, I don't mind letting you try it.

[jmr]

Cool. I'll just hang tight until you get it polished up. I do have .net framework installed on my XP machine so I'll be good to go. Looks like a really cool program, I'm looking forward to giving it a go.

[XLjedi]

Cool. I'll just hang tight until you get it polished up. I do have .net framework installed on my XP machine so I'll be good to go. Looks like a really cool program, I'm looking forward to giving it a go.

Hmmm... you've already got the framework.

Well, I guess I could let you look at the old working copy that I posted the screenie on... I had most of the tools working in that version, but none of the menu stuff does anything. I just got to a point where I wanted to click and drag the graphics and that's when I began writing the new graphic engine.

I posted a working copy version of the old MoBo app here:
MoBo Proof of Concept (http://www.xl-logic.com/SH/MoBo_WC.zip)

If you've got the framework loaded, you should just be able to unzip this to its own directory and run the mobo.exe right from there. No setup or installer wizard.

If you don't have anything in your PrnScreen buffer it will just display a beige background. When it loads, it reads the prnscreen image automatically. But if you've got one image loaded and you're playing the game and prn screen a new image you don't have to turn off MoBo and turn it back on, just click the get map button and it will update with the latest prn screen image.

Try the Intercept tool.

Sorry for the half-built working version... but hey, were Silent Hunter fans, we're use to beta testing half-cooked apps for free right? :D

[greekfire]

I've been looking for something like this so the interest is certainly there on my part. Thanks for posting. I'll keep an eye out for when you release.

EDIT:

I just tried it out a bit and seems to have great potential. This is simply perfect for a person like me because I use 2 monitors. I've been doing all my nav/plotting on 2nd monitor while I am playing the game on the first monitor. This would be a welcome addition to my 2nd monitor.

[Aisdad]

looks very impressive!!! Look forward to your release of this.

[XLjedi]

I've been looking for something like this so the interest is certainly there on my part. Thanks for posting. I'll keep an eye out for when you release.

EDIT:

I just tried it out a bit and seems to have great potential. This is simply perfect for a person like me because I use 2 monitors. I've been doing all my nav/plotting on 2nd monitor while I am playing the game on the first monitor. This would be a welcome addition to my 2nd monitor.

What sort of things are you doing on the second monitor now related to nav/plotting? ...and what tool are you using?

[leeclose]

This looks like a pretty good idea certainly one of the more intresting things ive seen so far clever idea i like it:up:

[Jace11]

Cor blimey... me try it too..

[greekfire]

I've been looking for something like this so the interest is certainly there on my part. Thanks for posting. I'll keep an eye out for when you release.

EDIT:

I just tried it out a bit and seems to have great potential. This is simply perfect for a person like me because I use 2 monitors. I've been doing all my nav/plotting on 2nd monitor while I am playing the game on the first monitor. This would be a welcome addition to my 2nd monitor.

What sort of things are you doing on the second monitor now related to nav/plotting? ...and what tool are you using?

I keep excel files open with stats and tables that I use. I keep a recognition manual open, I use a software stopwatch for timing, and I've been using deed plot software to do my realtime plotting. It comes with a million tools. I created a base layer based on the 360 degree bearing mod using circular graph with distance ranges going out from the center in all directions and then I lay down all my lines and marks on a 2nd layer on top. Similar to Photoshop layers. I don't think it necessarily works better than what I can do in-game but I am still trying to master all of this so I like the fact that I can hit pause and analyse everything and take my time to actually learn and perfect my plots instead. Game didn't let me work in Nav Map on pause so I made my own :) My goal is to get to the point that my intuition does most of the work and I get a feel for the game but at this point I want to take my time and work the math.

[GT182]

Looks very nice Aaron. :up:

Is this also useable with SHIII/GWX? If so post it in the SHIII Mods section too. I'm sure the guys running SHIII/GWX might like it give it a go too.... I know I would.

[Jace11]

I think it must be SHIII compatible.. hint: look closer at the screenshot he posted

I suppose Imperial / metric units dont matter if all distances are in nm

[castorp345]

that's really nifty, arron.
thanks!
'looking forward to the "more polished" version. :)

cheers
hc

[GT182]

Thanks Jace, I'll give it a try soon.

[Spadefish]

An electronic Mo Board? OH YEAH!!!!!

[greekfire]

Yes, It's compatible with SH3/GWX. In fact, I'm using it to play Star Wars

......it doesn't interface with this game other than accessing a screen shot so it should work with any sub sim that uses vector plotting and can take a screen shot.


EDIT:

Hey aaronblood I found this on ubisoft SH4 forums. Its a similar plotting program running off net.framwork. check it out.

http://www.ispeedonthe405.com/downloads/SpeedSolver.zip

[XLjedi]

Looks very nice Aaron. :up:

Is this also useable with SHIII/GWX? If so post it in the SHIII Mods section too. I'm sure the guys running SHIII/GWX might like it give it a go too.... I know I would.

It's a standalone app. Doesn't interface with anything and it's not really a mod either so sure GWX or whatever. It just works off screen shots, I was using the older version of it with SH3... but there's no reason why you couldn't fire up Fleet Command and use it for that too if you want.

[XLjedi]

Yes, It's compatible with SH3/GWX. In fact, I'm using it to play Star Wars

......it doesn't interface with this game other than accessing a screen shot so it should work with any sub sim that uses vector plotting and can take a screen shot.


EDIT:

Hey aaronblood I found this on ubisoft SH4 forums. Its a similar plotting program running off net.framwork. check it out.

http://www.ispeedonthe405.com/downloads/SpeedSolver.zip


I'll check it out... for whatever reason, it's not downloading right now.

What's it do solve for speed? Yeah, I'll have full TSD-calc capability, those calcs are easy. Actually I started with the hardest first, calculating constant bearing intercepts. I'll have some updated screen shots later today to at least show how the new graphics engine will function.

[GT182]

Thanks for the info Aaron.

BTW... the http://www.ispeedonthe405.com/downloads/SpeedSolver.zip link is working now. I just downloaded it .

[XLjedi]

Thanks for the info Aaron.

BTW... the http://www.ispeedonthe405.com/downloads/SpeedSolver.zip link is working now. I just downloaded it .

Ah... OK thanks, got it now. I'll check it out later. I looked at the readme and looks like it's pulling some ship data from the SH4 specific mdb file.

Since I'm trying to emulate mo-board operations, there will be a method for marking the distance a contact travels over a specified time. With that it will measure distance and calculate the speed. You'll basically have to mark two points on the mobo and then input a time and it will then know the speed of the contact.

The graphic "contact" objects in the new engine retain information about the contact as you use the tools to solve for different things. So once you solve for speed, the contact object will remember it as you continue to acquire more info.

Here's a shot of the graphic engine.

http://www.xl-logic.com/SH/MoBo2.png

Notice above, 3 contacts (yes you can name them whatever you want) the contact with the big red circle around it is the selected contact and whatever tools you choose to use at this point will apply to that contact. You can click-n-drag the 4 objects above around the map without having to redraw anything. There's no limitation on the number of contacts, you can plot as few or as many as you want.

I was not planning to include any data file references that were specific to any game. I wanted it to remain a standalone app that I can use for any game, and I don't want to get hung up with trying to keep up with modders and/or patches that might change things that I would reference.

[AFRIKAKORPS]

Amazing program, made my life a bit easier. How long have you been working on this program? Sounds like a lot of complicated work to me.

Excellent work though

[XLjedi]

Amazing program, made my life a bit easier. How long have you been working on this program? Sounds like a lot of complicated work to me.

Excellent work though

Thanks.

It's a bit of a hobby... been working on the logic for a long time. It actually started over a year ago when I thought I could easily build a course intercept calculator with Excel.

I ported it to visual studio a few months ago and kept tinkerin with it on and off... and in the last week I had some free time so I decided to revamp the graphics engine.

[Scott Bruno]

What's it do solve for speed?

Yeah, it's just a simple thing. This plotter of yours however is awesome. Good stuff.