Red lights

[mcf1]

Hi to all hunters, i am quite new to this game and before that ididn't knew much about uboots, but there is thing would like to know so i thought i could ask you.
I wonder why did they used the red lights? were they used only at night?
and is possible to control them in SH3?
Thank you

[danlisa]

Red lights were used primarily to preserve the crews night vision. This method is still used today, in conjuction with blue.

You can't control them in SH3, however you can mod them (if you are comfortable to do so) to different colours and intensity (quite advanced modding).

[kenijaru]

the human eye is less sensible to red light than o any other color, if they used white lights when the kaleun rised the scope he would see blackness (close your room so no light can get in, turn on the light, wait a few minutes and turn the light off, you wont see squat). So, by using red lights the crews minimised the efect of the lights.

if you go to the bridge of a ship, you will see that there is no light on, exept from the navigator, who has a red bulb pointing towards the maps, and there is a curtain (or a wall) so that the rest of the crew in the bridge does not see the light.

the red lights were used both at night and during attacs (or at least that's what Das Boot* shows)

it cant be controled, but it could be moded, (imagine... a button on the atack periscope to turn the lights red, just like in Das Boot :rock:)


*Das Boot: a movie you should see!

[Nerazzurri]

I believe so the crews vision is optimized for darkness. Possibly so light spillage through the con hatches wouldn't be as visible as normal light too?

[mcf1]

Thank's, i recently watched the film das boot. a great film :D

[PavelKirilovich]

Any light on the ocean at night is very, very visible. There is nothing darker than the ocean on a half-moon or a concealed moon night.

The human eye adjusts to darkness, as we all know. Being exposed to light "bleaches" the visual rods and causes the eye to contract. When entering a dark environment afterwards, your eye takes longer to widen and regenerate the "Visual Purple" that enables night vision.

Red light and blue light do not affect the eye as much as other colours. This is because they interfere less with the visual rods that carry the 'visual purple.' Chirascuro (I think I gimped the spelling of that) is the play of light in an environment or on an object - or both - and the control thereof. It's a principle factor in concealment.

You'll notice that you get a clearer image through binoculars or an optic with the less light that seeps in between your eye and the eyepiece lens. The same would apply to a periscope; redlight is a more neutral light and allows you to see more effectively in the darkness through an optic, hence its use in the control room at times when the periscope is in use.

[Boris]

Yep, I don't think any military uses white light at night. I know that it was a big no no for us, and always had to have red filters on any torches.

[PavelKirilovich]

Yeah, SOP is often to get under a poncho or a shelter-half or your fieldjacket to read your map, using a red lens on the flashlight (torch, for our non-Commonwealth comrades) so as not to give away your position. Shipboard, mention has already been made of the curtains, etc.

I remember a Night Navigation exercise where I ambushed a group of new cadets afraid of the dark and their junior NCO instructor. I blinded the NCO with the torch, having taken off the red lens, then ran around them shouting in Afrikaans and Russian until they panicked and ran off.

Took me a half hour to track them all down. Everyone thought it was funny. Except for our officers, all of whom felt it nessecary to stay at CHQ around a fire. We had glorious "Lee-dars."