[REL]Locked, zoomed, and centered PPI scope

[jmr]

What is this mod? With gracious help from Nisgeis, I set about to create a centered, zoomed, and locked view of the PPI scope to facilitate easy plotting with aaronblood's cool Mobo (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=118990).

Why would you want to have a locked, immovable view of the PPI scope? With a fixed view I can overlay Mobo on top of the PPI scope to plot my contacts. A fixed view ensures I won't have to constantly recenter my Mobo plot if I should accidentally nudge my mouse and offset the camera view of the PPI scope. Likewise a locked view means you can import successive screenshots into Mobo without worrying about importing an offset image.

Why can't I see the range and sweep/focus knobs on the PPI scope? Unfortunately having a locked and zoomed view of the PPI scope means you can't move your mouse and adjust those knobs. However, you can easily jump to the A-scope and make your range adjustments there. It may sound cumbersome but in my opinion it's well worth the trade off for having a locked view of the PPI scope.

What if I don't use Mobo, will this mod be useful to me? If you're content with the default view of the PPI scope then this mod will be of little use to you.

What resolution does your mod work with? I tested it in 4:3 and 16:10 aspect ratios although it should work in any.

What version of SH4 does it work with?


stock 1.5
TMO
RFB

I have included two flavors of the mod. The first being a locked view of the PPI scope that is compatible with all of the above, and a second which includes Nisgeis's highly recommended Radar Range mod (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=142884) that includes digital readouts.

I also recommend Demonizer's High resolution A-scope/PPI scope textures (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=140855) for crisp clear plotting. Although Demonizer's overlays are not historically accurate I much prefer his high resolution displays over SH4's stock textures.

An example of Mobo overlayed on top of the fixed PPI scope.

http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/3636/ppiexample.th.jpg (http://img76.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ppiexample.jpg)



Locked PPI scope (http://files.filefront.com/Locked+PPIrar/;13681664;/fileinfo.html) for vanilla 1.5, TMO, and RFB.

Locked PPI scope with Nisgeis's Radar Range mod (http://files.filefront.com/Locked+PPI+with+Nisgeis+Rdrar/;13681678;/fileinfo.html)

(I'm inexperienced at modding and this is my first mod for SH4. If you see your work in my mod please inform me ASAP so that I can credit your work)

[XLjedi]

This is cool thanks! :D:yeah:

I think in my next update I'm going to try to include a way to save graphic setting changes. ...and fix that line color bug you pointed out.

I think for a radar plotter, mobo would look a lot cooler if you could plot on a black background with bright green and red contacts. :ping:

[Hitman]

EXCELLENT!!! :yeah:

Now why hadn't I thought about it myself? :damn:

I take it for this tow ork you must set MOBO to the same scale as the PPI background, i.e. 8000/20000/40000 metres, right?

A fantastic -and realistic after all- way of plotting radar contacts :up:

[jmr]

Yeah you have to set Mobo's scale accordingly.

Hitman, I just saw your reply in Nisgeis's radar range mod thread ... so it is possible to calibrate the radar to Imperial units? If that means sacrificing the digital readouts then I'm cool with that. With Mobo scaled according to your range setting, getting the range won't be an issue without the digital readouts.

[XLjedi]

Now I might have to create a PPI scope image BG for MoBo. :hmmm:

I dunno if I like that one with so many radial lines on it...

[XLjedi]

EXCELLENT!!! :yeah:

Now why hadn't I thought about it myself? :damn:

I take it for this tow ork you must set MOBO to the same scale as the PPI background, i.e. 8000/20000/40000 metres, right?

A fantastic -and realistic after all- way of plotting radar contacts :up:

That should be real easy with the scale tool in mobo. ...and once you have the pixel count for the radius set in mobo, it should just be a matter of typing in 8000, 20000, or 40000 in the mobo scale box to switch between scales.

[Hitman]

Hitman, I just saw your reply in Nisgeis's radar range mod thread ... so it is possible to calibrate the radar to Imperial units? If that means sacrificing the digital readouts then I'm cool with that. With Mobo scaled according to your range setting, getting the range won't be an issue without the digital readouts.

Yes, you can tweak the radar in a manner that the distance displayed is in yards and not in meters. The current PPI has 3 range modes: 8000/20000/80000 metres, but you can input any value in the file that controls that display. Hence, you could set it to display: 7315/18288/73152 metres, and you would actually be displaying 8000/20000/80000 yards in the screen. The range rings in the hi-res PPI mod would already also fall into place, as they are set in the 25%, 50%,75% of the screen :DL

In the A-Scope, you could do the same, however the encoded numbers displayed would noy show in yards but in metres, yet the divisions would match the thousands of yards chosen.

The problem is, as I already said, the digital range readout by Nisgeis. That one is encoded in metres, and no matter what you do it will stay like that. Hence it would never match what you are actually seeing in the PPI and A-Scope if you mod them to yards. :hmmm:

That should be real easy with the scale tool in mobo. ...and once you have the pixel count for the radius set in mobo, it should just be a matter of typing in 8000, 20000, or 40000 in the mobo scale box to switch between scales.

Cheers, that's what I was looking for now :up:

[jmr]

How do you change those values? What file do I need to open up with S3D? What node?

[Hitman]

Start Silent 3ditor and go to Silent Hunter 4/data/Interior

There are folders for Gato, Porpoise, Salmon and S class

You need to tweak inside those folders the files:

NSS_Gato_CT.sim

NSS_Porpoise_CT.sim

NSS_Salmon_CT.sim

The values you need to tweak are the following:

--->102 Radarview
-------->103 Radarview
------------->Rangedim--->Ranges--->0--->Step=1000 change to 914
------------->Rangedim--->Ranges--->1--->Step=2500 change to 2286
------------->Rangedim--->Ranges--->2--->Step=10000 change to 9144

[jmr]

Wow, the max range of the radar is 80,000 meters?! I thought their range was limited to 40,000 yards (36,576m).

[Hitman]

That's just the range the display will show. Obviously, if the sensor (Defined elsewhere) doesn't have such a long range capability, the screen simply won't display any contact at all.

In any case, according to my tests the game in stock trim will not show radar contacts beyond 35.000 metres or so. Therefore, the radar is probably limited to 40000 metres, or may be the game simply won't spawn other units beyond that range (A matter of engine design).

[jmr]

So the PPI ranges are 8000/20000/80000 meters, correct? Why does the range selector values on the bottom of the unit show 3000, 20,000, and 60,000?

Edit: If I want 8,000, 20,000, and 80,000 yards for the PPI I should enter 7315/18288/73152 respectively?