I haven't figured out the wheel
 

I am try to find a good tutorial with screen shots to help me through the wheel. I am going slow trying to figure it out, but so far only partial progress. I assume I will be worshiping you soon.

Everything you need to know is in the readme.. but i agree, pictures are helpful.

Maybe i'll do a proper manual with pictures etc for this. Or perhaps a video tutorial.

Just tested the new version, nice one :up:

Could you add the templates you used for the graphics? That way we can easily edit it with our own ones, and have a reference for dimensions/proportions. Any size is possible as long as it is circular? :hmmm:

Finally, a wording suggestion :D: In the Navy it is customary to use the terms "Own ship" or "Own ship course", and not "Self"

gutted
 

I am unable to visualize the readme when I work the dials. :damn: At some point, I am not sure where, I get lost. I am not going to spend more time trying to guess and figure it out, but I will try this. I will supply heading and true course for the target and "own ship", paste it the readme, which I have copied below, and you can supply the readings in the readme, by inserting the data in the bracketed areas. Thank you.

Here we go.

Own boat (self): Heading 300 degrees, course 120 degrees.
Target: Heading 70 degrees, course 250 degrees.
Assume own boat's Periscope is pointed at 270 degrees
Target speed: default
Under these assumptions, I believe the target is closing from own boat's port side, and own boat's periscope is pointed ahead of the target's course by 20 degrees.

EXAMPLE 1 (TARGET COURSE KNOWN)
*******************************************

1. Set your True Course
-----------------------------
Rotate the Outer dial to line up the blue arrow with your course on the middle dial. (? degrees) If you don't know your exact course, put your scope at 000 and issue the turn heading command ("+" key). Your crew should then respond with your current course.

Note:
You could also leave the outer dial in its starting location, and drag the middle dial instead, but i find it quicker the other way.

2. Set the targets course
-----------------------------
Rotate the inner dial so it's blue end is pointing at the targets course (? degrees).


Step 3. Orient the display
-----------------------------
Right click and drag any dial to re-orient the entire display so the bearing you are looking at the target (found on the outer blue dial) (what bearing am I looking at? is this where the periscope is pointed, i.e. 270 degrees?) is underneath the vertical red line.


Step 4. Read the Target's AOB
-----------------------------
Follow the red line across to the inside dial to read the AOB at this periscope angle. (What is your reading of the correct AoB?)
As the target tracks across your view... keep rotating the entire tool (right click drag) so the red line is aligned with the "relative" bearing (on the outer dial) you are observing the target from in your periscope to see its AOB in realtime.


Step 5. Turn perpindicular into the target.
--------------------------------------------
If the Blue arrow on the outer dial is not perpindicular to the target on the inside dial, re-orient the dials (right click drag) so that the 9 on the inner dial is aligned with the vertical red line. Follow the red line across to the "relative" bearing on the outer dial. (This confuses me. What is the relative bearing on the outer dial? Is the relative bearing found below the perpendicular red line or at the very top of the dial?) Turn your periscope to that beaering and order your crew to turn to that relative heading using the "+" key. Alternatively, you can turn to the true heading found on the middle dial instead if you want but its much easier to do it relatively.
Congratulations!!! you are now aligned perpindicular to the target. Now rotate the outer dial so it's arrow is pointed at your new heading.
From there.. proceed with rotating the entire tool (right click drag) so the vertical red line is aligned with the "relative" bearing (on the outer dial) you are observing the target from in your scope to see its AOB in realtime.(I need to see this to understand it.)

Step 6: Comput Lead Angle
---------------------------
Enter target & torpedo speeds. Hit Solve. Put attack scope on the indicated bearing. Lower the scope and don't move it afterwards. (I think I can push the solve button without further instrcution.)

Whoa! Smooth, easy to read at any size, more convenient than the desktop tool I have, it's a winner, gutted! Now with a free speed solver tool. Where's Billy Mays when we need him?

Wooahh that's very confusing for me :doh:

Heading and course are actually the same thing AFAIK!

Let us do something easier....

Simply write down two or three examples of a situation and I will upload here a screenshot of the wheel, configured for that. You can then visualize how to set it up, OK? :up:

OK, I have started to create an example and I think I understand where you get lost! It's actually not a big deal, but it NEEDS to be explained to be understood. The wheel is lacking a specific pointer for bearing, and hence you must use directly the values in the other wheels. Stand tuned, I'll upload an explanation soon.:shucks:

Here we go!

In this example, our submarine is heading north (0º). The target is heading due east (90º). Our bearing to the target is 305º (Or 55º left from our bow). The target's angle on the bow is therefore 35º.

http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/2898/solutionh.jpg


The wheel should therefore look like this:


http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/5467/wheelsb.jpg

the dial graphics can be any dimension (the program scales them to fit the window).. they just all need to be to the same scale and cropped down to the outer edges of the actual dials.

note: bigger images are slower to scale and rotate. so make them big enough to see the details, but not too big to impact drawing performance.


As for "Own Ship", i'll change that when i do the next release. I'm currently planning out the next major tool for this, but will take more effort than the others so i'll keep you updated. It's going to blow you away.

Hitman. you're example is wrong.


The targets course is not read from his bow.. it's read from his tail (the blue arrow at it's stern). Look at the digital readout.. the target is goin the wrong way. If you want to use the wheel this way, you can.. but dont expect the solution to be correct. In your screenshots, the solution is showing 11.1, when it should be 348.9.

And there IS an indicator for the periscope bearing. It's the vertical red line from the center of the wheel to the bottom of the screen.


If you know the Target's Course
========================
1. Rotate the bottom dial so it's blue arrow is aligned with your course on the middle dial.

2. Rotate the top dial so it's blue arrow is algiend with the tagets course on the middle dial.

3. Right-Click and drag any wheel to rotate all of them so that the bearing your periscope is currently viewing the target from is "Under" the vertical red line. These periscope bearings are located on the bottom "blue" dial.



If you don't know the targets course.
==============================
1. Rotate the bottom dial so it's blue arrow is aligned with your course on the middle dial.

2. Right-Click and drag any wheel to rotate all of them so that the bearing your periscope is currently viewing the target from is "Under" the vertical red line. These periscope bearings are located on the bottom "blue" dial.

3. Rotate the top dial so the target image on it looks similar to what you are seeing at that bearing. Then read the target's true course from it's blue arrow (at it's stern).


If you want to parallel the target Rotate all the dials so that the rear of the target is under the red line. Read the periscope bearing there. Turn your real scope to that bearing and issue turn-to-course command. Then move the bottom dial so its blue arrow is at aligned with your new course.

To turn in 90 degrees to the target & approach at a right angle. Rotate all the dials so that the 90AOB location on the inner dial is under the periscope line. Read the periscope bearing on the outer dial at that position.. and then turn your real scope to that bearing and issue the turn-to-course command. Then move the outer dial so its blue arrow is at the new location.

Again, the vertical red line from the center of the dial to the bottom of the window is the "Periscope Line".

Just uploaded a pretty basic video tutorial on YouTube.

It doesn't have any in-game footage, nor talks about the solution and speed solvers. It just specifically shows how to use the dials with a few examples.. as that is where the confusion seems to be.

the link will be in the original post as soon as youtube finishes processing it.

It's finally ready.. see the original post.

gutted and hitman
 

gutted has the course right. The course is from the blue arrow at the stern of the boat (bearing of 180 degrees on the periscope) when you are in the boat). The front of the boat is its headiing (bearing of 0 degrees on the periscope). True course and true heading are determined using the compass or protractor tool. If those terms are correct, then let's use them. If not, I plead ignorance, you may accept the plea, and define the terms however you believe is appropriate.

Video: I understood about the first fifty seconds. I started dancing around the room with joy, yelling promote the man to the Chief of Staff, and then you rotated the all the dials 180 degrees, so the target and the view of it, changed from port to starboard. The target is on the same heading, but everything has rotated 180 degrees. If you gave an explanation of the reason for the rotation I did not understand it. Am I supposed to do that? Why did you do it? What is the purpose? Can you explain it in more detail ?

I will continue the video when I understand that point.

(p.s. If you confused Hitman, then I am not as dumb as I thought, as his tutorialon Manual Targeting at 100 percent realism is the masterpiece that hooked me on the game:salute:. Then Rockin Robbins took over training me and totally messed me up:D (He is the infamous captain whose boat sunk one of our own carreirs when it was en route to deliver top a secret weapon nicknamed Little Boy to Saipan:03:) , and now your mod has me on my way to Happy Dale sanitarium.

uhh no.

where the front of the boat is pointing on the middle dial means nothing at all. that black AoB arrow on the front of the ship pointing at the middle dial really shouldn't even be there as it confuses people. It's only there because it was on the graphics i borrowed.. i may remove that arrow in a future update.

I sorta understand why its there.. but it should have been drawn differently. It shouldn't have been pointing at the middle dial and instead have been two circluar arrows bent back to point towards the AoB numbers on the inner dial.

because as i stated in the video.. that red vertical line overlayed over the dials (from the middle of the target dial to the bottom of the display) is the "Periscope Line". It is the direction you are looking.

Once you set your course, you rotate the whole thing (right click + drag) so that you are under that line. Putting 000 on the outer dial under the red line is like looking out the front of your boat.

If it's that confusing i guess i'll change it so that the blue arrow on the outer dial starts at the bottom instead of the top.

So if you prefer... put the blue arrow at the bottom.. then rotate the middle dial instead to set your course. I prefer my way, as it's more natural to have everything start in true polar coordinates.. and it's easier to see the blue arrow moving around than it is to read course numbers as you spin the middle dial. but that's just me. Also, before you re-orient the display.. its a snap to set the target's course.. because you dont have to hunt for the new locations on the middle dial (because it hasn't moved yet).

Gutted tried out your little tool last night, really very cool. :salute:
Took some time to figure it out but once I did it was simple to use.

Lined up on a convoy and set up on a large freighter with a 31K solution
and a large tanker with a 41K solution. Got 4 good hits and both went down.

If it could only be incorporated into the game it would be traffic.

Nice work and thanks. :yeah:

Magic

Hummmm you are right gutted, I just noticed that the wheel works in fact the opposite to my example. Not that it won't work as I did set it up, but the calculation for the solution will be wrong. The target/submarine relative positions won't be wrong however.

The problem is that the author of this wheel made it the opposite of the ral ones, with which I'm used to work. :damn:

I'll correct the example in a moment!

okay
 

gutted, your explanation for rotating the dials was great. It makes sense that 000 degrees is rotated to the he bottom of the dial as 000 is Own Ship's true course if Own Ship is heading due north.

As for the tutorial, so far the thing I would emhasize is that 000 degrees on the red line means you have rotated the display for the purpose of putting Own Boat's true (and relative?) course of 000 degrees in it s correct location assuming you were looking at the front of the boat through the periscope. At the begging of the video, I would announce the various techniques you will discuss and announce each technique again when you get to that subject. You explain things better than you think. Assume the listner is a novice, and you will get your message accross.

When you adjust periscope view of the target tog 330 of degrees on the outer blue ring, the AoB is 60 degrees. To turn perpendicular to the target use the "+" key. At default setting on the Solution Solver, this means the shoot bearing is 348.9 degrees.


If that is correct, I am figuring it out. If so, Hitman may be able to correct his screen shot (pretty please with chocolate!). I now have to conceptualize the view of the target and I am on my way.

I am off to the tutorial, and then target practice.

OK, I uploaded the correct wheel set up. The main problem is that this wiz-wheel is absolutely counter-intuitive in its use :damn:

The red line for periscope bearing is fixed, while in fact it is the bearing wheel (outer blue one) which should be fixed!! The periscope moves, the bow doesn't. Or, alternatively, you could make the compass wheel (yellow) fixed because the true North will never move, and leave all other wheels free rotable (including the periscope bearing red marker). Actually, this last option would probably be the best for the game, as in the chart (Be it the map or attack chart) the true north is always at the top.


As it is now, the most easy way to set the wheel up is as follows (Setting up the dials from outside to inside):

1) Rotate the blue dial until the red line marks the current bearing to target (305º in my example)

2) Rotate the yellow dial until the true course of your submarine (due north in my example, zero degrees) matches the blue arrow in the outer blue dial

3) Rotate the innermost dial -target dial- until the target course (blue arrow in the target dial) matches the target's true course in the yellow dial (90º)

Alternative to 3): If you don't know yet the target's true course but instead have estimated his angle on the bow, rotate the innermost dial until the target AOB matches the red line of the scope bearing.

EDIT:

I just wanted to add, that the main problem is that one of the wheels needs to be inverted to what one would naturally think for the whole system to work. The author of this wheel chose to invert the compasswheel, instead of the submarine bearing wheel as is customary in all wheels I have seen, and hence the confusion. I'd strongly recommend to re-arrange the wheel for inverted submarine bearings, as otherwise everyone who learns to use this wheel will have later difficulties using other (real) wheels.

Here is a preview of a replica I have done from a WW2 U-Boat wiz-wheel:

http://img246.imageshack.us/i/sampleno4.jpg/http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7163/sampleno4.jpg

I'd very much like to adapt this graphics to your fabulous tool, gutted :ping: The outer black one is the yellow compass card, the inner white one is the target wheel. The red pointer is here the large squared one with arrows. This one has a one wheel less than the one in your tool, as it works with true bearings, not with relative ones.