Kapitan's Log

[Notewire]

First, I hope this post and it's courteous replies do nothing to slow down the launching of GWX or NYGM2.2.

Does anybody know how (or where) to manually enter text into the Log? I don't need a fancy way to do it in game, but I would be happy to take notes during patrol and type them in between patrols if I could see them in the log later in the patrol - and indeed in future reads of my old patrol logs.

I use SH3 Gen, and I know this writes a good deal of information into the log - I was just wondering if you could add to that manually.

For an illustrative example, I take notes when I do an attack, and would love to log, during or after I save, something like

"0753 - sighted lone C3 Cargo looking vessel, bearing 253, distance 8500m
0830 - turned to 11 deg north to track vessel out of sight, expected to be in position by 1230.
1230 - submerged 500 meters from anticipated C3 path, waiting
1320 - hydrophone reports C3 turning to west, will resume chase at 14 knts, 225 deg."

Just looking for a way to manually enter that, either in or out of game.

Thanks for the help if anybody knows how.

Highest Regards,
Yarre Notewire,
U-9

[panthercules]

Check out this thread for one possibility that the remarkable JScones is contemplating doing for us regarding such a patrol log:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=303084#post303084


Can't wait - I've been wanting something like this since the game came out :yep:

[kylania]

I use Excel for this currently, but can't wait for JScones' log reader. :)

[Dowly]

I have a template I made for my personal logs. I use photshop to make the notes.

Here´s a example:
http://xs206.xs.to/xs206/06371/Kansi.jpg
http://xs206.xs.to/xs206/06371/Page1.jpg

[Notewire]

I also use hand written notes on a produced template.

JS Scones Idea looks great, and will be a welcome addition.

However, what I was really hoping to get after is how to input the information into the Patrol Log, that sits on my Navigators desk when I am on patrol - if information is able to be inputted there - it will be saved with my Campaign - it will be visible when I view my old patrol logs from my desk back in Kiel - and it will be visible when I review my career with SH3 Commander (I think). I know SH3 Gen alters the patrol log - I just was wondering if anybody had cracked the code on how to input into the in-game Patrol Log. I always thought it was a bit hokey that the Cpts Log just notes Departure and sinkings, and no other events - and would LOVE to input them manually.

Plus, it would keep my wife from asking what all those random - Patrol Log piles are on the dresser.

If anybody knows how to do this, please let me know, thanks!!

Regards,
Yarre Notewire

[kylania]

I have a template I made for my personal logs. I use photshop to make the notes.

Here´s a example:

Care to share the PSD and font for that perhaps Dowly? It looks great!!

I know SH3 Gen alters the patrol log

SH3 Gen writes to the SH3 log which is just a text file. So you could add all you want to it, but from out of game. There's no ability to add to that file from within the game that I'm aware of. Also writing to it during a patrol might be dangerous. SH3Gen requires you to make a save, run the edits, then reload the save.

[Notewire]

SH3 Gen writes to the SH3 log which is just a text file. So you could add all you want to it, but from out of game. There's no ability to add to that file from within the game that I'm aware of. Also writing to it during a patrol might be dangerous. SH3Gen requires you to make a save, run the edits, then reload the save.

Ah yes, that was what I thought - but I just . . cant .. find the dang file . .. I would LOVE to be able to add from out of game - if I could just find where . . .

Help!

[kylania]

My install it at home, but it's saved with a Save game. Under my docs/sh3/careers/patrol x/ then something like cpt.cfg or something similar? I'll check when I get home.

[panthercules]

Well, I found something interesting at least - the latest/current log file is in the My Documents\SH3\data\cfg\Careers\<name of kaleun>\<highest patrol number> folder and is called <name of latest saved game>.clg

As you will note from the following screenshot, it is possible to add entries to this log file (via notepad, for example) that will show up in game when you press the "k" key (see the last entry - it is the new one I made up while editing the file in Notepad outside the game - I didn't spend much time perfecting the German translation so I'm sure it's a bit off but it's close enough for my testing purposes):

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1606716/0/nouser_1606/T1_-1_1606716.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1606716)

I'm still experimenting with whether you can do this mid-patrol by alt-tabbing out and have it still show up in game during the same patrol/save cycle (I did this one before starting up the game), and I'm not sure if this screws up your tonnage totals or anything at the end of the patrol. I'm also not sure what the variables "type" and "categ" in the file really mean (other than if you change the "type=0" entry to "1" it doesn't show up in the game screen but if you leave it as "0" it does). Set forth below is the pasted text from the <name of latest saved game>.clg file I was using so you can see the format and how I just added the entry after the end of the text that was already in there (incrementing the "Log Entry" number by one over the last one that was already in the file):


[Log Entry 0]
Type=0
EntryText=Feindfahrt 22|U-55, 7. U-Flottille|Ausgelaufen: August 18, 1943, 02:37|Von: St. Nazaire|Befehle: In Planquadrat DH42 patrouillieren
Date=19430818
Time=237
Categ=0

[Log Entry 1]
Type=0
EntryText=Schiff versenkt!|Planquadrat CG 79|Truppentransporter, 8285 BRT
EntryTitle=August 26, 1943, 02:35
Date=19430826
Time=235
Categ=0

[Log Entry 2]
Type=0
EntryText=Schiff versenkt!|Planquadrat CG 79|Liberty, 7401 BRT
EntryTitle=August 26, 1943, 07:41
Date=19430826
Time=741
Categ=0

[Log Entry 3]
Type=0
EntryText=Schiff versenkt!|Planquadrat DH 37|Küstenschiff, 2421 BRT
EntryTitle=August 30, 1943, 16:05
Date=19430830
Time=1605
Categ=0

[Log Entry 4]
Type=0
EntryText=Großes feindliches Geleit hat gesichtet!|Planquadrat DH 37|Gezwungen Unterwasser durch Amerikanisch Zerstörer - kein Radar warnend signalisiert - Wasserbombenangriff hat für 2 Stunden geladen - kein Schaden an Unterseeboot
EntryTitle=August 31, 1943, 14:35
Date=19430831
Time=1435
Categ=0

Anyway, this sounds promising if it doesn't have any serious adverse side effects - I'll play around with it some more when I get a chance. In the meantime, maybe someone will find this useful :up:

[kylania]

Yup, that's it the clg file. Problems I can see are 1) it's not there unless you save a game and 2) i don't know if you can update it WHILE in a game and 3) I really can't think of any in game method of adding to it.

[panthercules]

Yeah - I haven't had a chance to play around with it any more yet, but I did find out that the changes do carry over from one save to the next, at least if you don't sink anything else in between, so hopefully there's a chance of making these changes stick. Alt-tabbing works pretty well and stable on my PC at least, so if necessary I could at least switch over, make my entries, and then switch back to the game - just got to confirm whether it will pick up the changes in the game as they're made outside the game, or if you have to save/exit the game before the changes will show up.

[panthercules]

Well, interesting but of somewhat limited usefulness so far. I could not get the game to recognize/show any changes that I made to the file during the current game session (even when I saved the changes to the file in notepad while alt-tabbed out from the game). The only way I could get the changes to show up was to save/exit the game to the menu (using the same name and saving over my same saved game), and then saving the changes to the file in notepad. Then, when I reloaded that saved game, hitting the "k" key showed the updated log file changes.

I didn't get a chance to sink anything or do anything in game that would cause the game to create another log entry on its own, so I'm not sure what would happen in that case. However, I suspect that it would cause problems since the game would change the log file with that new entry, but the copy you had open in notepad wouldn't have the game's changes but would have your own different changes, and things would get screwed up when you saved down from notepad after saving/exiting the game - looks like you'd probably have to do some complicated copy/pasting from your notepad copy into the game's newly-saved copy in order to capture both the game's automatic entries and your own manual ones.

It might be better/easier just to keep a scratch file open in notepad into which you could just alt-tab out and enter your manual diary entries in the correct basic format, without trying to edit the real log file during the game, and then just copy/paste (and number accordingly) those manual entries into the game's real log file after you finish your gaming session and save/exit. You wouldn't get to see those entries in the log in game during the session in which you make them, but they'd at least be there for the next and all subsequent sessions. I'll have to test this on one of my trash campaigns so I can end my patrol and see what happens (i.e., if anything blows up) when SH3 Commander tries to deal with the altered log file to create personnel files or whatever it does with these logs after a patrol.

At least this indicates that there are some possibilities here. Hopefully, JScones or someone will be able to come up with an elegant way of making this work

[Notewire]

Panthercules, I am right where you are as of last night. I was able to make manual entries. I did learn that by using the | key it gives a line break, and I was able to finally alter my game log - but it only reads the file whne the game loads. Like you, I need to find out what will happen when the game adds a new entry. I think that will work out though - by using the line break I am able to enter all my information in one entry, so if the game adds another it should just add on. I was able to enter about a dozen lines of text into my Log Entry=0 that showed up as times and events.

The advantage is, every time I exit the game, when I restart - I can read what happened in my last play session with that particular U-Boat - by just looking at the log that sits on my weapons officers desk. Also, my information on each patrol will be saved with my career, so I can read them all from my Kaluen's desk back in Kiel. I think this is a big breakthrough, but I suppose we have yet to see how it interacts with computer log entries. If it doesn't work, I may just keep an alternate text file and rename after the patrol is complete.

Anyway, I had a screenshot all lined up to show my breakthrough, only to see you have beaten me to it - hopefully our combined efforts will yield something fruitful! I will let you know how it works when I sink something (which I didn't execute last night).

Regards and thanks,
Yarre Notewire.

[KeldorKatarn]

Just my two cents...

having to write your hand-written notes into the log file AFTER every patrol outside the game isn't really that unrealistic *g* since the commander's log hand to be typed off to machine writing after every patrol in real life too since the commander's log was of course in hand writing and the archived logs had to be in machine writing.

OLt zS Werner mentions that he was the poor fella who had to type off the log when he was still a cadet after his first patrol.

[panthercules]

@ Notewire - interesting idea about basically putting all your manual notes into one long initial entry but still have each sub-entry marked with date/time - that way this same initial entry could just be updated/lengthened after each session (rather than having to tack individual new entries onto the end of the log or intersperse them into the game's own entries), and it would always be followed by the "official"/game entries of the actual sinkings, which presumably the game wouldn't have any problems with appending as new sinkings occurred. Sort of like a 2-section log - one for the kaleun's private notes and one for the "official" record of sinkings. Will have to play around with that idea further tonight.

@ KeldorKatarn - true - alt-tabbing out to keep notes during play would be sort of like retiring to the captain's desk to make the log entries, and doing a little pasting into the saved file after the end of the play session could be like the transcription of the notes into the official log book. This wouldn't be that different from the IL-2 Stab experience I was trying to mimic, since you always did that after returning from the missions and left the game anyway. Of course, that cool program drew from the game data to give you a head start with some of the mission history and info and stuff that was really neat, so I still wish JScones or someone could come up with something a little more elegant and automated/integrated than where we're headed here, but for now at least I'm still pretty encouraged about the possibilities of this manual approach.

[kylania]

I'm unable to alt-tab due to using the resolution fix, so that's a no go for me. :)

[panthercules]

I'm unable to alt-tab due to using the resolution fix, so that's a no go for me. :)

That is unfortunate - thanks to Notewire's inspiration above I've now got a pretty decent log book going - see screenshot below:

[/URL]
[URL=http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1608477]http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1608477/0/nouser_1608/T0_-1_1608477.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1608477)


Again, for quick and dirty testing I just used some poor web-based translation site for the entries, so I hope our German-speaking folks don't get too put off by the bad wording, but I think it indicates the possibilities of this approach. I'll try to put it to the test tonight as far as whether the game chokes on it when trying to add my next victim to the list :D

[Notewire]

Wow, that looks great, Panthercules - that is exactly what I had hoped to do!!! Did the computer add those kills or did you, and if it was the computer, was there any problem? I can't wait to get home and test it out!!!

I have no problem keeping a hand-jammed log and then putting it into "type" while I am resting between sessions. That way it is always saved with my campaign game, and will show up in SH3 Commander when I click on old patrols. Well Done!!!

JSCones said he is going to get a small program going in a couple weeks that auto transcribes the crew reports, so you will get a time and event of the things the crew reported to you - which could be cut and pasted into the real log.

I love the German touch, what program are you using to translate?

Again, thanks for all the help, this is perfect!!!

Tschuess,
Yarre Notewire.

[VonKlausevitz]

This is great!!!Good job guys!!!
Would be possible to use a Handwrite font for your log entry?

[panthercules]

The entries in section 2 (ship sinkings) were already there from earlier in this patrol - I just inserted my new Section 1 of personal entries in between the first 2 entries in the game's saved file. I'm still down at 113m hoping to evade the latest escort attack so I haven't been able to sink anything else to test the game's ability to add more entries at the end - maybe later tonight if I'm lucky, or maybe I can try this on one of my trash/test careers and get some sinkings and also test a patrol ending as well.

I'm just using the following site for these quick and dirty translations for testing purposes:

http://www.freetranslation.com/

[panthercules]

This is great!!!Good job guys!!!
Would be possible to use a Handwrite font for your log entry?

Not as far as I know - the wording of the entries is just stored in a simple text file, and the game takes them and displays them inside the game somehow - if there is a signal/trigger to tell the game what font to use in its log display, I don't know where it is.

[edit] Just for grins - I tried changing the font used for the saved log file in notepad, but the game didn't pick up the font change - it still displayed in the same basic typewriter-style font on the in-game log screen :( too bad - would have been a hoot if it had been that simple

[panthercules]

Well, interesting though a bit weird. I just finished trying this with one of my trash/testing careers. First, I started a patrol, saved just after leaving port and exited, so the game would create a log file for me. Then, I pasted in some personal entries into the log file as "[Log Entry 1]" and saved the log file from notepad. Then, I went back into the game and loaded up that saved game and headed out. First, I sank a couple of French ships in St. Nazaire, but as I had feared the water was too shallow so I didn't get credit for them. :nope:

Then, I cruised around outside the harbor in deeper water until I caught a couple more French freighters heading toward St. Nazaire, and I sank them both. The game made the appropriate log entries in my "Section 2" of my log book and displayed them just fine in game, both while at sea and after ending the patrol (i.e., opening up the KTB on the in-port screen showed the log entries (including my personal ones and the game-generated ones from the sinkings) just fine).

Then, I exited the game while still in port, and opened up SH3 Commander again - this is where it got a bit weird. SH3 Commander created a personnel file for my Kaleun, but on the main page of that report it showed zero tonnage and zero ships sunk :(

However, when I clicked on the link for the patrol, it displayed the two ships I had sunk, including their assigned names and their tonnages, just fine (it does not show any of the personal entries themselves, but does show everything about the "normal" game-generated entries that it would have showed before, as far as I can tell). Not sure what that was all about, but it was my first patrol for this test career and I my hve spent some renown on the crew before leaving port, so I may have invoked the bug that's related to 1st patrol tonnage I've seen some postings about. Other than that one little glitch with SH3 Commander, this seems to have worked fine. Sounds like something to have some fun with at least while we wait for JScones or someone who really knows what they're doing to make us something cooler.

[panthercules]

One more observation from last night's session - the in-game log display engine may choke when the personal entries crammed into the "[Log Entry 1]" under the above approach get too long. I noticed that when I looked at my log in game only the initial "leaving port" entry was on the first page, and my entire personal entry section had been moved to the second page - I suspect that may be because the game doesn't want or know how to make a single entry span across two pages. If that's the case, then it may choke when the personal entries get bigger than one page in length - I'll try to test that tonight.

If that's the case, you'd just have to break up the personal entries into pieces that were each less than a page in length - that's easy enough to do, though it would require a little extra effort in renumbering the subsequent game-generated log entries accordingly. Also, I suppose that there may be a total length limit in terms of the number of pages that the game will display - I'll try to test that tonight as well. So far though, I'm loving my embedded war diary entries - gives me some good practice for my German and something fun to read while I wait for the escorts to give up and go away.:D

[panthercules]

Yep - sure enough, if you make any single log entry so long that it spans more than one page, the game chokes - at least it did on my PC just now when I tested it - it locked up as soon as I hit the "k" key to bring up the log in game, and I had to hit the reset button to get out of the lock-up. So, you'll need to be sure to break up your personal log entries into smaller chunks, and renumber the subsequent game-generated entries appropriately.

[Notewire]

I have also just tested and found the same thing - more than one page in length equals a choke. Panthercules, what are you using to translate, or do you just know German that well?

I have been enjoying my in-game logs created by editing my clg files as well - not only something to read, but saved with the campaign!!

Works great,
Tschuss
Yarre Notewire.

[KeldorKatarn]

I'm unable to alt-tab due to using the resolution fix, so that's a no go for me. :)

That is unfortunate - thanks to Notewire's inspiration above I've now got a pretty decent log book going - see screenshot below:


http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1608477/0/nouser_1608/T0_-1_1608477.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1608477)




To help you out here, the correct translation (as a hint - Radar is english, in German, at least back then, it was Funkmeß-Ortung, and "Allies" is a term I rarely heard being in use during the war. At least it sounds strange, since Allies just means allied countries, which is what Italy and Germany were as well.. Just use "The enemy"):

Abschnitt I - Persönliche Einträge - Kapitänleutnant v. Panthermann

24. August 1943, 05:25
Ich vermute, daß der Feind eine neue Art von Funkmeß-Ortung einsetzt, die unser Metox nicht erkennt.
(Next sentence - did you mean attacked after leaving St. Nazaire?)
Kurz nach Auslaufen aus St. Nazaire wurden wir dreimal von Fliegern und zweimal von Eskorten angegriffen, ohne dass eine vorherige Ortungswarnung durch das Metox erfolgte.

26. AUgust 1943, 00:45
Heftiger Regen, Wind 7, sehr schlechte Sicht - machen (aufgetaucht (word not necessary)) 5 Meilen Fahrt - Großes Geleit vorraus in 15 Meilen Entfernung gesichtet.

Abschnitt II - Versenkte Schiffe, abgeschossene Flugzeuge

...

[kylania]

24. August 1943, 05:25
Ich vermute, daß der Feind eine neue Art von Funkmeß-Ortung einsetzt, die unser Metox nicht erkennt.
(Next sentence - did you mean attacked after leaving St. Nazaire?)
Kurz nach Auslaufen aus St. Nazaire wurden wir dreimal von Fliegern und zweimal von Eskorten angegriffen, ohne dass eine vorherige Ortungswarnung durch das Metox erfolgte.

26. AUgust 1943, 00:45
Heftiger Regen, Wind 7, sehr schlechte Sicht - machen aufgetaucht 5 Meilen Fahrt - Großes Geleit vorraus in 15 Meilen Entfernung gesichtet.

Abschnitt II - Versenkte Schiffe, abgeschossene Flugzeuge

And back to English!

August 24, 1943 05:25
I assume that the enemy has begun to use a new form of radar which our Metox cannot detect. We were attacked after leaving St. Nazaire three times by aircraft and twice by escorts without any warning from our Metox.

August 26, 1943 00:45
Weather report, wind 7mps, very low visibility - we've only travelled 5 miles. We've spotted a large convoy 15 miles ahead.

Section II - Ships Sunk and Aircraft Destroyed

Am I right? :)

[panthercules]

Am I right? :)

Pretty close. As I indicated, I was just doing some real quick translations via that web site just to have something German to fit in with the rest of the log since I play with German language turned on - I didn't really spend any time cleaning it up, so I know it's pretty hashed up from a real German-speaker's perspective. I intend to spend more time "manually" translating and/or trying to draft straight into German when I do my "real" logs for my own games.

As to "Allies" vs "enemy", I haven't really read enough period materials in their original German (something I plan to do one of these days), so I don't know for sure how the Germans referred to the Allies, but (1) since we referred to them as "Axis" and not just "enemies" I assume they probably had some term like "the Allies" to refer to the collection of enemies arrayed against them, and (2) the game refers to enemy ships sunk as "Allierten" or something like that in the mission-ending screens, so I figured I'd use it once in a while to mix it in with "enemy" (just for variety if nothing else).

As to the accuracy of your translation/guesses, the first entry is pretty spot on - we were attacked by the planes and, toward the end, by the escorts, during our passage out from St. Nazaire to the NW tip of Spain. In the second entry, I was trying to say that we were only making 5 knots on the surface (because of the storm), not that we had only gone 5 miles. And we didn't "spot" the convoy that far away (visibility was down to about 300 meters - there was heavy rain and wind at 15meters/sec) - it was "reported" as being about 15 km away (presumably through radio intercepts, since I doubt if our Luftwaffe friends in their Condors would have been out there in that storm). But, you obviously got the idea, which is all I was shooting for in this quick and dirty testing process. Well done :up:

[KeldorKatarn]

Am I right? :)

Pretty close. As I indicated, I was just doing some real quick translations via that web site just to have something German to fit in with the rest of the log since I play with German language turned on - I didn't really spend any time cleaning it up, so I know it's pretty hashed up from a real German-speaker's perspective. I intend to spend more time "manually" translating and/or trying to draft straight into German when I do my "real" logs for my own games.

As to "Allies" vs "enemy", I haven't really read enough period materials in their original German (something I plan to do one of these days), so I don't know for sure how the Germans referred to the Allies, but (1) since we referred to them as "Axis" and not just "enemies" I assume they probably had some term like "the Allies" to refer to the collection of enemies arrayed against them, and (2) the game refers to enemy ships sunk as "Allierten" or something like that in the mission-ending screens, so I figured I'd use it once in a while to mix it in with "enemy" (just for variety if nothing else).

As to the accuracy of your translation/guesses, the first entry is pretty spot on - we were attacked by the planes and, toward the end, by the escorts, during our passage out from St. Nazaire to the NW tip of Spain. In the second entry, I was trying to say that we were only making 5 knots on the surface (because of the storm), not that we had only gone 5 miles. And we didn't "spot" the convoy that far away (visibility was down to about 300 meters - there was heavy rain and wind at 15meters/sec) - it was "reported" as being about 15 km away (presumably through radio intercepts, since I doubt if our Luftwaffe friends in their Condors would have been out there in that storm). But, you obviously got the idea, which is all I was shooting for in this quick and dirty testing process. Well done :up:

Hehe, that was translated wrong to Englisch.
I didn't say that you only traveled 5 miles. "Machen 5 Meilen Fahrt" just means "We travel with 5 miles" Obviously 'miles' is no speed, but people use it all the time instead of "miles per hour", so it's just an abbreviation which I've seen used in several original radio messages. It was used because it was shorter and it's meaning was obvious.
If you want to create special notice on the fact that you are ONLY making 5 mph speed, then the sentence would be "Wir machen 5 Meilen Fahrt über Grund"
"Fahrt über Grund" means "SPeed above ground" which means the relative speed to the ground, not the speed your machines are making. If you are making 17 mph but the wind is blowing you back with 12mph, so only 5 mph above ground remain.
And about the translation of my "Wind 7" - that didn't mean 7mph, that meant Windstrengh 7, which is the translation of the original 15meters/second to a wind strength which is used in naval terms. I've never seen a weather report using m/s as a unit for wind speed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale
As you can see, my windspeed 7 would not be 7mph but more like 32-38mph ;)

About the convoy, that was my error yes. I missunderstood. In that case it would be:
"Großes Geleit vorraus in 15 Meilen Entfernung gemeldet."
"Convoy reported straight ahead at a distance of 15 miles"
One might also say
"B-Dienst meldet Geleit auf unserem Kurs in 15 sm Entfernung"
"B-Dienst reports convoy on our course at 15 miles distance."

Section II - Ships Sunk and Aircraft Destroyed
isn't entirely correct either
I wrote
Section II - Ships Sunk, Aircraft Shot Down
;)

[GlobalExplorer]

Yes editing the log is pretty simple.

.clg ist the format for the KTB,
.map is for the game map.

Check Sh3Gen output to understand the file structure. I thought it is pretty obvious how it works. Someone should have contacted me about your question, because I have answers to most problems mentioned here, and nothing about my modding work is secret.

One more observation from last night's session - the in-game log display engine may choke when the personal entries crammed into the "[Log Entry 1]" under the above approach get too long. I noticed that when I looked at my log in game only the initial "leaving port" entry was on the first page, and my entire personal entry section had been moved to the second page - I suspect that may be because the game doesn't want or know how to make a single entry span across two pages. If that's the case, then it may choke when the personal entries get bigger than one page in length - I'll try to test that tonight.
..

That's one of the things I have found out with some of my early releases. SHIII will try to to place every entry on a single page and with entries longer than 1 page this means an infinite loop.

Another important thing is that no entry must be longer than 255 characters. Even though SHIII will load and display the text correctly the first time, it will not save it, and therefore the entry will be truncated at the next reload.

It seems there is no limit at all to the number of entries at all, so you can type away as long as you stick to the character limit.

There is no way I know of to get the info into the game without reloading, and in fact it wouldn't make sense at all. The data is always processed in memory and the text files are only needed fo persistence between sessions.

Sh3Gen 0.5 came with a log editor that allows editing of log entries (but no adding). Feedback was nil, so I eventually removed it, and I have no intention of developing it further. However, the task is pretty simple (Sh3Log was just one afternoon's work), so sooner or later someone could come up with a solution. Sh3Gen 0.5 with Sh3Log is still available ( http://www.global-explorer.de/contentpage_download.htm ).

My recommendation as of today is to use notepad to edit the files, as it is available anywhere, simple and reliable, and your new skills in understanding ini/txt files will be helpful in a million other situations (Everyone who uses mods and has never edited a config file will get into trouble soon .. )

GE

[panthercules]

Thanks for your post - I'd seen some stray references to SH3 Gen but somehow had missed getting around to checking it out. It looks very cool, and I'm definitely going to play around with it some more.

Unfortunately, however, there is a truncation effect as you mention below:

"Another important thing is that no entry must be longer than 255 characters. Even though SHIII will load and display the text correctly the first time, it will not save it, and therefore the entry will be truncated at the next reload."

This truncation effect is definitely interfering with the "personal entries" portion of my modified log file approach. Basically, with this truncation effect the personal entries have to be so short that the process loses a lot of its fun/appeal.

This truncation appears to be a result of something SH3 Gen is doing, rather than SH3 itself - I have had no problem with personal diary log entries much longer than 255 characters both being displayed in game and being saved down into the next saved game's log file, but when I run SH3 Gen on the new saved game and then look at the log in game, the entries have indeed been truncated. Do you have any idea why this truncation occurs with SH3 Gen and do you think there is any way it can be fixed/tweaked so that it won't truncate the entries in this fashion? I'd love to play around with SH3 Gen now that I've discovered it, but I'd hate to have to give up my newly-personalized captain's log to do so.

[edit] - BTW - I D/L'ed and am using the .NET 2.0 version 0.7.1 of SH3 Gen, in case that matters.

[GlobalExplorer]

Thanks for your post - I'd seen some stray references to SH3 Gen but somehow had missed getting around to checking it out. It looks very cool, and I'm definitely going to play around with it some more.

Unfortunately, however, there is a truncation effect as you mention below:

"Another important thing is that no entry must be longer than 255 characters. Even though SHIII will load and display the text correctly the first time, it will not save it, and therefore the entry will be truncated at the next reload."

This truncation effect is definitely interfering with the "personal entries" portion of my modified log file approach. Basically, with this truncation effect the personal entries have to be so short that the process loses a lot of its fun/appeal.

This truncation appears to be a result of something SH3 Gen is doing, rather than SH3 itself - I have had no problem with personal diary log entries much longer than 255 characters both being displayed in game and being saved down into the next saved game's log file, but when I run SH3 Gen on the new saved game and then look at the log in game, the entries have indeed been truncated. Do you have any idea why this truncation occurs with SH3 Gen and do you think there is any way it can be fixed/tweaked so that it won't truncate the entries in this fashion? I'd love to play around with SH3 Gen now that I've discovered it, but I'd hate to have to give up my newly-personalized captain's log to do so.

[edit] - BTW - I D/L'ed and am using the .NET 2.0 version 0.7.1 of SH3 Gen, in case that matters.

That's something I cannot confirm right now. I think that this behaviour is not related to Sh3Gen in any way.

In fact, I would expect this kind of problem is caused by a too tiny array declaration in SHIII's .clg write routine. In other words, some programmer had a bad day and declared string entry[256] somewhere - had he simply typed, for example, string[2048] we would be so much better off!

Of course, it might be that I screw up something through the use of a redundant tag (header, entrytype etc) - but I need confirmation. Right now I am not convinced.

HINT: If you want to make a check, it is pretty simple. Use notepad to add a very long entry of at least 300-500 characters to the log. Load the savegame. Save it again under another name and reload this re-saved data. You will see that the text is truncated. You will also see that this is because the re-saved .clg does already contain the truncated entries (the glitch is in the writing, not the reading part).

If not, and you can confirm this with entries of 300, 400, 600 characters, please post here and contact me because this would definitely prove me wrong, and mean I screw up something.

This truncation effect is definitely interfering with the "personal entries" portion of my modified log file approach. Basically, with this truncation effect the personal entries have to be so short that the process loses a lot of its fun/appeal.

I split up the longer entries into 255 character blocks and don't find it a big problem anymore.

[panthercules]

HINT: If you want to make a check, it is pretty simple. Use notepad to add a very long entry of at least 300-500 characters to the log. Load the savegame. Save it again under another name and reload this re-saved data. You will see that the text is truncated. You will also see that this is because the re-saved .clg does already contain the truncated entries (the glitch is in the writing, not the reading part).

If not, and you can confirm this with entries of 300, 400, 600 characters, please post here and contact me because this would definitely prove me wrong, and mean I screw up something.

This is exactly what I did as a test before I posted the above - sorry if I wasn't clear on that. Outside the game, I made my long entries in save-game "Patrol22e" log file, then switched to SH3 and loaded up save-game "Patrol22e" - the long entries displayed just fine. I then saved the game and exited, saving it as "Patrol22f". I then re-entered the game, and loaded up save-game "Patrol22f" - the long entries displayed just fine and were not truncated. I then saved the game and exited (saving it as "Patrol22f" again), switched over and ran SH3Gen on "Patrol22f". When I switched back to the game and loaded up save-game "Patrol22f", the log entries were truncated. I had played and saved several times over the last few nights (before finding out about SH3Gen) and never had any problems with SH3 itself truncating the entries (only had the problem outlined above about choking if a single entry spanned more than one page). Sounds to me like the truncation problem has to be in or connected with SH3Gen somehow.

Here's a couple of screenshots of my log in-game (pages 1 and 2), in "Patrol22f" (after originally having been made in "Patrol22e" saved game):

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1619726/0/nouser_1619/T1_-1_1619726.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1619726)

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1619728/0/nouser_1619/T1_-1_1619728.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1619728)

I hope you can figure out why this is happening and fix it, cause SH3Gen does look like a very cool piece of work. :up:

[bigboywooly]

HINT: If you want to make a check, it is pretty simple. Use notepad to add a very long entry of at least 300-500 characters to the log. Load the savegame. Save it again under another name and reload this re-saved data. You will see that the text is truncated. You will also see that this is because the re-saved .clg does already contain the truncated entries (the glitch is in the writing, not the reading part).

If not, and you can confirm this with entries of 300, 400, 600 characters, please post here and contact me because this would definitely prove me wrong, and mean I screw up something.

This is exactly what I did as a test before I posted the above - sorry if I wasn't clear on that. Outside the game, I made my long entries in save-game "Patrol22e" log file, then switched to SH3 and loaded up save-game "Patrol22e" - the long entries displayed just fine. I then saved the game and exited, saving it as "Patrol22f". I then re-entered the game, and loaded up save-game "Patrol22f" - the long entries displayed just fine and were not truncated. I then saved the game and exited (saving it as "Patrol22f" again), switched over and ran SH3Gen on "Patrol22f". When I switched back to the game and loaded up save-game "Patrol22f", the log entries were truncated. I had played and saved several times over the last few nights (before finding out about SH3Gen) and never had any problems with SH3 itself truncating the entries (only had the problem outlined above about choking if a single entry spanned more than one page). Sounds to me like the truncation problem has to be in or connected with SH3Gen somehow.

Here's a couple of screenshots of my log in-game (pages 1 and 2), in "Patrol22f" (after originally having been made in "Patrol22e" saved game):

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1619726/0/nouser_1619/T1_-1_1619726.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1619726)

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1619728/0/nouser_1619/T1_-1_1619728.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1619728)

I hope you can figure out why this is happening and fix it, cause SH3Gen does look like a very cool piece of work. :up:

PM Global Explorer - he may be able to help you guys

[panthercules]

I did PM him as he suggested - hopefully he'll get a chance to check into this and figure out what's going on.

[bigboywooly]

He is very cooperative
Hope you guys can get this sorted as its looking real good
Very usefull idea :up:

[GlobalExplorer]

I did PM him as he suggested - hopefully he'll get a chance to check into this and figure out what's going on.

I must admit Sh3Gen is processing and possibly truncating the entries. But I never thought this was a problem because SHIII would not re-save the extra characters, anyway. This can and will be fixed, at least as far as Sh3Gen is concerned, but I still believe SHIII will not process the text differently.

@panthercules: I will send you a small patch when it's ready, and I hope you will report back to me if it solved the problem. Thanks a lot for your patience and for reporting your findings.

GE

[panthercules]

I did PM him as he suggested - hopefully he'll get a chance to check into this and figure out what's going on.

I must admit Sh3Gen is processing and possibly truncating the entries. But I never thought this was a problem because SHIII would not re-save the extra characters, anyway. This can and will be fixed, at least as far as Sh3Gen is concerned, but I still believe SHIII will not process the text differently.

@panthercules: I will send you a small patch when it's ready, and I hope you will report back to me if it solved the problem. Thanks a lot for your patience and for reporting your findings.

GE

Thanks for checking into this - the more I find out about SH3Gen the cooler it looks, but now that I've figured out how to get personal war diary entries into my in-game captain's log I've been having a lot of fun with it and I'd hate to give it up. As you can see from the screenshots below, some of these test entries have gotten quite a bit longer than 256 characters and SH3 seems to be handling them quite well in terms of displaying them in-game and saving/writing them down from one saved game to the next, so I hope the tweak to SH3Gen turns out to be easy and effective. I'll be happy to give your patch a whirl whenever it's ready and let you know how it turns out. (If it would help for me to send you the savedgame.clg file that's generating these in-game logs, I'd be happy to do so)


http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1627266/0/nouser_1627/T1_-1_1627266.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1627266)

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1627269/0/nouser_1627/T1_-1_1627269.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1627269)

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1627270/0/nouser_1627/T1_-1_1627270.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1627270)

[GlobalExplorer]

I have a theory that my usage of GetPrivateProfileString might be to blame and I hope I can look into it over the weekend or so. If my theory is right, it should be easily fixed.

[KeldorKatarn]

28. Oktober 1939
00:00 Uhr
AN 95
Haben Helgoland passiert.

30. Oktober 1939
06:50 Uhr
AN 14
Schiff in Orkney-Shetland Passage gesichtet. Gehe auf Abfangkurs.

08:00 Uhr
Zweierfächer. Ein Treffer. Drei Versuche einen Fangschuß zu setzen schlagen aufgrund Ausweichmaneuver des Gegners fehl. Nach fünfundvierzig Schuß Artillerie sinkt der Frachter schließlich über seine gesamte Länge.

13:05 Uhr
Vor Flugzeug getaucht. Wirft Bomben im zweiten Anflug. Keine Schäden. Bleibe bis Sonnenuntergang im Keller.

1. November 1939
07:45 Uhr
AN 24
Haben unser Operationsgebiet erreicht.

14:20 Uhr
Frachter mit Kurs NW gesichtet. Gehe auf Abfangkurs.

15:50 Uhr
Gegner zackt um Generalkurs 325° bei 3 Knoten Fahrt.

16:10 Uhr
Zweierfächer. Beides Volltreffer. Frachter gerät schnell mit Heck unter Wasser und sinkt nach wenigen Minuten über Achtersteven.

2. November 1939
03:10 Uhr
I WO meldet Schiff auf 319 Grad. Erkenne selbst nichts, gehe aber auf Abfangkurs.

04:40 Uhr
Zweierfächer auf kleinen Frachter. Zwei Treffer am Bug. Schiff sinkt schnell über Vordersteven.

3. November 1939
18:00 Uhr
Setze Kurs durch Orkney-Shetland-Passage auf neues Operationsgebiet in AN 79.

5. November 1939
12:41 Uhr
AN 12
Vor Flugzeug getaucht. Gebombt. Keine Schäden. Bleibe bis Dämmerung auf 40 Meter.

6. November 1939
12:10 Uhr
AN 41
Schiff im Süden gesichtet. Gehe auf Abfangkurs.

13:30 Uhr
Küstenfahrzeug. Nach zwei Fehlschüssen breche ich den Angriff aufgrund Wetterlage ab.

9. November 1939
01:30 Uhr
AN 84
Mehreren Zerstörern ausgewichen. Setze Kurs fort.

09:45 Uhr
AN 79
Kurz nach Eintreffen in Operationsgebiet von Elco Torpedoboot angegriffen. Lasse Artillerie Feuer erwidern. Elco nach mehreren Treffern versenkt. Leichte Schäden. Mit Bordmitteln zu reparieren.

10:00 Uhr
Werde von zwei weiteren Elcos und zwei Zerstörern angegriffen. Tauche weg.



- - -U-47 GING NACH EINER STUNDE WABO-VERFOLGUNG IM PQ AN79 AM 9. NOVEMBER 1939 GEGEN 11:15 VERLOREN - - -

[HEMISENT]

Just a note to say thanks to you guys for digging this up. I just successfully edited and saved my clg file and it showed up as advertized as a log entry in game.

[panthercules]

Just a note to say thanks to you guys for digging this up. I just successfully edited and saved my clg file and it showed up as advertized as a log entry in game.

Glad to be able to give back even a little bit, even though it pales in comparison to the contributions you and so many others have made around here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have been - it's pretty addictive once you start doing this :)