I am sure he can, nothing that was said in this thread is not feasable.
It is just a matter of time and honestly I would not want to spend any on creating such a tool as it is rather low level programming / designing.

To get this documented: what are the planned features?

I would personally like:
1. Seastate change
2. Wind direction & speed
3. Biologics spawn
4. Random traffic generator...
The rest per wish...:|\\ :smug:

This has already been done about a year ago by some guy I met in gamespy. He is part of some clan or a virtual navy, and it's not ssn or gnsf either. I asked about public release, then he pretty much blew me off.

I can't remember his name to save my own life.

In fact I tried a final version of his creation and it's pretty robust, especially for what we are doing (myself and co-author) in the mission design department.

Heck.. All we would really need from it is random SS, weather, season, bottom type, etc. Everything else can be handled using dyn group, POI, dyn location, playing field, RSB, map infrastructure, scripting and a solid design to ensure in-game playing time.

What we are working on is dynamic mission objective on the MP level, currently set for up to 4-5 hours. 4-5 hour dives are pretty much nothing new and based on experience over the years, was(subcommand) very common in DM.

But, if you are willing to invest the time and energy in doing so, I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated.

I'll do my best :D, just give me time.

Planned features

for version 0.5:
- very basic configuration with a XML config file
- no UI
- Random SeaState
- Random Time/Month and automatic adaption of triggers (but not mission briefing etc.)
- Random Weather
- Random SSP? - I'm unsure about this...does that change giving a fixed location? I've not a degree in physics ;)
- adaption of briefing text (include weather report)

version 0.7:
- basic UI for selecting scenario etc.
- Random Wind/Water region

version 1.0:
- configuration to make weather/sea state more realistic for a specific region. For example in the North Atlantic you have in general a tougher weather than in the Mediterranean. But I won't provide the content (data). That would be the job of the community :D
- ...

And who said that the Germans aren't the best mechanics...:rock: :smug:

Classic.

Cheers,
David

Can somebody give me feedback about this issue? Thx.

SSP changes a lot based on location, daytime, weather, year season, and some other hard to predict effects, like pollution, vegetation and so on.
SSP is based on pressure (which is more or less constant), salinity (witch changes a little) and temperature (which changes a lot).
All SSP types simulated in DW can appear on the same place (at different times in day). There are location based deviations, but mostly in depth and strength of the layer. On some extreme location some SSP type may not show at all, but it seems to be quite rare.

I guess random SSP selection is perfectly OK, but you should be also able to choose it manualy.

PS: info mostly based on the book 'Principles of underwater sound' from Urick.

I am in favor of a random environment generator. Just remember, however, to be careful when changing environments... many of my scenarios are 'tuned' to a specific weather/time of day/season/wind/etc.

Do you think this can be modeled by an algorithm (approximate)? For example: if the weather is bad + it's night+ season is winter =>SSP of type X has the probability of Y%

The environment shall be random but at least a little consistent. For example it does not make sense, to have 'good' weather and a cloudheight of 500m. I think, you get the idea.

Hm .. my simplest aproximation would be:

- On deep water (1000ft and more) there are almost always convergence zones (CZ). CZ needs mass of water with deep speed minimum. On polar regions they occur even in less deep water (let's say 200ft), and CZ are shorter (20nm).

- With warm air there is almost always surface duct (SD). Rough sea increases it (more surface water mixing allowing warm water to go deeper).
Bad weather (low temperature, no sun) decreases it. Surface duct is minimum to nonexistent in morning and winter.

- Bottom limited (BL) SSP occurs in shallow water and in cold, non-mixed water. So it could be used on morning or polar regions (especially under ice).

Also almost ever there are combinations .. some surface duct and deep channel forming convergence zones.

Maybe there should be options for 'BL,SD,CZ,Auto,Random' .. where auto will suggest SSP type based on location, daytime and weather (resulting in CZ most of the time anyway).

PS: I'm just a bookworm, no RL experience at all. These are subject to discussion.

Actually, that write up there Dr. Sid, increases the collective knowledge of the DW community here on when to put what SSP where and when by a good margin, at least my personal knowledge anyway.

Is there any way you could write up a short "SSP's and Your Scenario" or "What SSP is Right for your Mission?" kind of thing for the mission designers?

Cheers,
David

Thanks for the detailed description. Now I've a basic understanding about that stuff. So for V 0.5 I just keep SSP random and plan to make it configurable in one of the next versions.

This might be slightly OT but why did SCS make an air corridor option for DW but not a similar thing for ships?

I began on a similar project, a 'neutrals generator' once.

The idea is that the 'ship name' (which is the reference used in triggers, scripts etc) could be of a special format that told this program just how to process it. The effect will tend to be rather like the 'ship corridor'. Among the options I were planning for was "create X of these, and give POIs so that on average we'll see Y of them" and "start them variably far along the path". As well as randomizing exactly what ship it was, perhaps based on a 'group' like 'fishing' (trawler, fishing boat) and so on, to create a dynamic mission, as opposed to running the tool once for every mission.

On the downside, it would require the mission maker to know the syntax, but that's nothing a reference sheet couldn't fix.

I made it in Standard C++ (as with most things I work on) and I can send the sources as they are to anyone who wants to continue the project. As for gui, I figured the windows explorer method is good enough: Drag the "template" mission onto the program. The template contains the rest of the information.


The thing was far from completed, though. I'll take a look at it and see what pieces are there and what needs work.

It should definitely always be something optional.