Earth size and optics and AI spotting

[Stafroty]

Hi, im bit wondering there the size the of "world" in this sim, i mean, ship that is 6 km away is half way behind the horizon which is completelly unrealistic thing..
Second thing is that optics in game "magnifies" almost as much as how things would look like in real life with eyeball :)
I have GWX mod installed and ships kinda Jump on my face from the horizon.

First i have problem to solve its distance(doin all manually) because waterline is hidden behind the horizon,, secondly it just comes out from there, from horizon. Pause key is a must to use to be able to have all things done properly before target zooms past you cause of view problems.

Also, its funny that AI can spot sub almost at same distance as can sub spot that ship..
This doesnt take in account the height difference at all between two vessels, OR does take account the fact that submarine isnt emitting smoke like steamers etc big ships TOP of their exhaust.. Which is the first sign in the horizon that there is a ship=contact.

Now you gotta come really close to ship before its seen as a contact.

I wonder that why there is so good eyes on crews of ships that they are able to see 20cm thick "stick" that is meter high on a sea against the sea(not horizon) that is a periscope.. they spot it really well and fast, like they are expectin it to appear there and whole crew + some extra is out there looking at subs direction with high power optics whole time :)
Reaction on ship after sub is seen is fast as well, there is no hazzletime, explanation time, ton of coal is showeled to engine boilers in few seconds to give power to engines D:

is funny

[Sailor Steve]

First of all, welcome aboard! :sunny:

We have actually been discussing those problems for more than ten years, so we know exactly what you're talking about.

The world in SH3 is flat, which means first that travel distances are greater than in real life, and ships' courses are not the same as real courses.

Second, there is no "horizon". The ocean as we see it is also flat. The reason you don't see the waterlines at a great distance is that they are hidden by the waves. There is no mod that can fix this - it would need for the entire game code to be rewritten.

Third, spotting. In the stock game there is an artificial horizon limit in the form of a fog bank, 8 kilometers away. The game is geared so you can see the enemy ships at that distance, while they can't see you until your distance is about 5 km. One of GWX's add-on mods allows you to see out to 16 km, while they see you at around 8 km. I personally use a mod that allows a view to 20 km. I've played this particular mod set for many years now, and the distances I gave are accurate, at least for me and a 27" monitor.

Fourth, acceleration. This is another subject that has been discussed forever. Yes, ships (including your u-boat) accelerate far to rapidly. Many attempts have been made to correct this, but for some reason the way acceleration is tied to the rest of the game makes it so that getting the acceleration close to realistic seems to mess up some other part of the ships' handling.

So what you perceive is pretty much what others have been noticing and complaining about ever since the game was released in 2005. Unfortunately none of it was fixed for SH4 or SH5, so we have what we have and we live with it or we give up and play something else.

[Stafroty]

thx for reply

good to notice that these issues are noticed, but bad that they dont give an eye to it. Perhaps it demands that game engine to be made from scratch and they dont see to point on it.


Game still is addictive, though.

So can waves be reduced in height so it eases the range finding problem which is kinda silly..

I was surfaced, obs periscope all up at 10m above water.. Ship in horizon about 6km distance, i can see half of it :D