[REL] Submarine Draft and Periscope Depth Mod

[ancient46]

This mod will set the depth of each of the American subs in the game to match the US Navy Official Photographs of the boats at sea. The pictures were evaluated and a representative was chosen to match. Screen shots were compared to the reference and small adjustments were made until they matched.

This led to a look at the periscope depth and it did not natch photographs either. All the subs in the game will now go to a periscope depth that matches the picture as shown. Care has been taken to match each class for a consistent height above water in the game. Only the black upper portion of the tube and head is above water.

The Draft fix modifies the SIM file for each sub. The periscope fix modifies the CFG file. This release covers the stock game for versions 1.4 and 1.5, and the latest release of TMO . I have been advised to hold off on a RFB release as there are major changes coming soon. However for those intrepid captains familiar with modding I have included my Open Office spreadsheet with the numbers for RFB 1.52, TMO, Stock and my fix. The game used the confusing and hard to work with metric system, instead of the easy to use imperial system so both systems are displayed. I had to evaluate the position in the screen shot, decide how much to change and convert to metric to put in the game.
I hate the confusing mess the world has made of measurement, I much prefer cubits, spans and stones.

The files for the stock game are offered free and anyone can use and modify them in any way if credit is given for the original work. The TMO files are subject to the terms of use in its readme file.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Eancient25/Pictures/PeriscopeFix.jpg

Download Location: http://home.comcast.net/%7Eancient25/Files/Draft_Fix.7z

[virtualpender]

Great job. I've been following your threads about this with much interest and am happy to see the final release. Can't wait to load this one up. And thanks for making it compatible with TMO.

[Sailor Steve]

I know it's only one picture and you've probably got a lot more, and you've probably done your research, but I have to ask the bad question: is Skipjack's periscope fully extended in that picture?

I do agree that the hulls while surfaced are definitely odd-looking. On the other hand of course external views are hardly realistic either.

Not arguing, and I'm looking forward to your progress with interest. I just had to ask.:sunny:

[ancient46]

I know it's only one picture and you've probably got a lot more, and you've probably done your research, but I have to ask the bad question: is Skipjack's periscope fully extended in that picture?

I do agree that the hulls while surfaced are definitely odd-looking. On the other hand of course external views are hardly realistic either.

Not arguing, and I'm looking forward to your progress with interest. I just had to ask.:sunny:

That picture represents what I saw in movies and in pictures, not all were the same but all were similar. I don't really know what is exactly right, but absolute correctness was not the true aim. The real aim was consistency. Every sub in the stock game and other mods has a different height above water, ranging from 1.25 Feet higher than my mod to over 2 feet lower. I wanted each sub's periscope to be the same height above the water. When we hit the PD button we will always know how much periscope can be seen in every class. However I am still searching for a engineering reference that explains the parameter of periscope depth.

Well the S class is not modeled very well buth the fleet boats seems to be pretty good. When I resized my screen shots and layered them on to the official photographs the matched up decently. They got the basic shape right and some skilled 3D modders are making them loook even better.

[Capt. Shark Bait]

how realistically accurate is this?

[Sailor Steve]

The real aim was consistency.
Good answer. Consistency is one of my favorite things.:yep:

how realistically accurate is this?
Yes and No. Not at all, and very much so.

Not at all, because the game is always accurate to the inch, and real life never is, especially when dealing with things like water pressure and salinity. Very much so, because they did know how high the periscope was above the top of the boat, and they could judge depth quite accurately. I don't know if American submarines had a device like the German Pappenberg, which told the operator exactly how high the periscope head was above the water, but adjusting the trim by just a few feet must have taken some skill. But that they had that skill is certain, because nobody talks about having problems with it.

In a perfect game there would be a constant adjusting of the planes to maintain an accurate depth, but then that would be handled by the Diving Officer and the planesmen, and the captain would only need to give the occasional complaint when it wasn't handled to his liking. And that would get old rather quickly.

For what we have I think ancient46 is onto a worthy cause.:sunny:

[dimwit]

Great job Mad Max with FOTRS. How do I get the attack map?

[clayp]

Does this work for 1.4?

[ancient46]

For clayp: I reinstalled the game and kept a copy before updating it to 1.5. I looked at the files and they have remained the same in both versions. So I enabled the mod in the 1.4 version and it worked fine.

[clayp]

:up: For clayp: I reinstalled the game and kept a copy before updating it to 1.5. I looked at the files and they have remained the same in both versions. So I enabled the mod in the 1.4 version and it worked fine.

Thank you...:up:

[Sledgehammer427]

beautiful mod! taking it home to try it out!:yeah:

[Vorkapitan]

Nice mod....we need more like this! Thank you! :rock::rock:

[Webster]

speaking purely about the periscope only, while the "look" is spot on the "seeing" is another story. im having trouble seeing over the waves even in calm conditions.

this can be remedied by staying above periscope height but then that undoes the whole purpose of the mod.

im bringing this up because i think (im just guessing here) you might be able to adjust the camera position (periscope view) for a slightly higher and better view that matches up with the viewing head position. the way it is now the viewing head is well above the waves but your view is right at wave top level.

i know with just about everything else you can adjust camera peramiters on things so im sure its fixable.

i love the mod, i just think it could use a tweak. :up:

[pythos]

The periscope tube was divided into two sections as far as color was concerned. The unpainted upper part was all that was seen above water, at PD. However, only a fraction of it was seen if the boat was at correct trim, and waters were calm.

Another funny point, some scope heads were painted PINK. That's right, pink. It supposedly blended better with the sea...somehow. Apparently it did work, and well.

Go fig.

[ancient46]

I can see pretty well in seas with wind up to 6M per sec, and move the boat up to see in heavier seas. The camera idea is a good one and I will see if I can get results.

Presently I have a my own camera file with a lot of tweaks that suit me. I wanted the object view camera of the boat and other ships to be centered and run parallel to it. I also wanted the sub to fill the screen on first view. I made the camera run free and removed the collisional object node to allow me to see inside a ship. I have been considering making the free camera follow the sub.

Something interesting showed up after using this camera. the ships have no visible compartments until the hull is breached. Put a torpedo in one and the compartments appear otherwise they exist in an alternate dimension.

[Webster]

I can see pretty well in seas with wind up to 6M per sec, and move the boat up to see in heavier seas. The camera idea is a good one and I will see if I can get results.

Presently I have a my own camera file with a lot of tweaks that suit me. I wanted the object view camera of the boat and other ships to be centered and run parallel to it. I also wanted the sub to fill the screen on first view. I made the camera run free and removed the collisional object node to allow me to see inside a ship. I have been considering making the free camera follow the sub.

Something interesting showed up after using this camera. the ships have no visible compartments until the hull is breached. Put a torpedo in one and the compartments appear otherwise they exist in an alternate dimension.

to help you understand what im seeing i held the camera at one level without moving it and took pictures of the periscope in mild conditions but with waves.

here they are: http://gallery.filefront.com/keakar/162026/

now im running stock v1.5 with just your mod installed to test this.

[ancient46]

Time to drag out the stock 1.5 game and see if I see what you have shown. Good thing I have my old 40GB hard drive loaded with 1.4Stock, and 1.5 Stock.

[Webster]

Time to drag out the stock 1.5 game and see if I see what you have shown. Good thing I have my old 40GB hard drive loaded with 1.4Stock, and 1.5 Stock.

investigating further i found the rest of the single missions the scope is fine but the midway shows a glitch somewhere, i think its related to sea state. midway and coral sea missions water "looks" identical but only in midway does the scope sit at lower depth as though its reading sea level wrong due to wave height.

its definately not a big deal to adjust depth but i thought you should know.

[TopcatWA]

I am running the latest RFD mods & patches & RSRD additions to RFB. Is this mod compatible with this setup? I did try it but found I could not control my perisope depth in certain weather conditions even when I initiated depth alterations. So at present I have removed it from my mod list.

[ancient46]

It is not yet ready for RFB. The RFB Team Leader has asked that the RFB version be delayed until the next release. It might even be incorporated into RFB.