Personally all I care about is the angular size of the target. Beyond that I can extrapolate and interpolate in my head to get "close enough" answers. We can get all hung up on that 4th significant figure and forget that our measurements are only accurate to 2 significant figures and our "accuracy" is absolutely meaningless.

So all I care about is to know that the target is between 3º and 4º wide. I can't shoot accurate to a half degree anyway!

Fair enough. Hitman's screendump made me even more curious on how to use this thing. Let me have a look at it please.

As for the math, the formula in your 1st message works if 2 torpedo's should hit at 1/3rds of the targets angular length on bow and stern side. I really need a description on how to use that table/graph to compare this with it. It makes little sense to me right now. Also, just to make sure we have the same terminology: trackangle= complement of AOB (=180-AOB) at hit-time?

That is the poinr
 

That is the point I was trying to make, Rockin Robbins said it much better than I. The tool as it is set up is fine. It is the game that makes it that 1 degree is the smallest gradient that can be used.

Yes, and another good reason for it is that SH4 does not auto-scale everything when changing resolutions. Thus, this graphic that looks relatively small at my 1400x1050 screen will cover nearly all the screen when running at 1024x768 :damn:

I've always used the formula from the submarine torpedo fire control manual 1953

It's basically the same as this, but it's very easy to do mentally once you've understood the components of the equation

Torpedo run (yards)/2000 x target length (feet)/100 x sine tta x %coverage/100

It's simple if you think about it

let's say you fire at 2000 yards, then the first part of the equation is 1

let's say you fire at 1000 yards, then the first part is 2

and that takes care of 90% of your firing situations

target length - if you don't know, say it's 500feet, which is a medium. 500/100=5, but wahtever it is you only have to round to the nearest 100 - you don't need hyperaccuracy.

if you don't know what sine 90 is, you should be back on automatic targetting, and let's face it, most shots are at about 90 degrees

coverage is simply how much of the target length do you want to consider - for example if the target is far away and zigging maybe you want a 200% or even 300% coverage, in which case guess what? multiply the end result by 2 or 3. Otherwise if you want a normal spread to simply cover the full length of thetarget, then 100%/100=1!

So for the most typical of all situations, aiming to 100% cover the target on a roughly 90 degree shot at a normal range of 2000 yards, at an average sized merchant, the solution is:

2000/2000 x 500/100 x 1 x 1
= 1x 5 x 1 x 1
=5 degrees

The graphical table above gives the value of 4.5 for this situation, which is, as you see, close enough. if you needed accuracy, you wouldn't be using spreads, would ya?

Now even if maths turns you off it's important to note the following - the result for both the calculation above AND the spread angle obtained by using this graphical device is the TOTAL spread angle - if your result is 5 degrees, and you want a stern, mot, bow spread, then the first torp will need a deflection of 2.5 degrees one way, the second 0 deflection, the third a 2.5 degree defelction the other way. - That is if you are using fleet boats.

The U-boat TDC will sort out spreads for you if you just input the total spread.

Hitman, can you make the white transparent so the black lines are actually on the attack map? That way the underlying part of the attack map would still be useful. Looks great and very readable!

Nisgeis, I like tha chart as is. I see no reason for more precision/confusion to be built into a chart that is designed to be read quickly without marking on it. In other words, it has to be usable strictly by inspection.

Nisgeis,

Been following this, looks good and nice addition. I think you have it where you want it for 99.9% of the customers.

Making it transparent is just a matter of adding an alpha channel to the TGA, but for it to look the best possible I need the original image in two layers format.

If it is a draggable item I don't think a transparent background is of big relevance, if it stays fixed then of course I will try to add it :yep:

Never mind the above, transparency done:

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/3...7539lh8.th.jpghttp://img151.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif

That looks really great!

I don't think that making it draggable is possible with SH4, unless you attach it to the radio, gramaphone or stopwatch

Hitman! Nisgeis! You have created a thing of beauty! Time to release it! Time to bring it to the RFB crew for inclusion too! And putting it on the attack map is a work of genius! Time to publish the mod and infiltrate Real Fleet Boat. This is as big as the nomograph, maybe bigger. Great, great work!:up::up::up::up::up::up::up:

This is an exciting time to play SH4!

Many thanks for your comments and encouragement RR :up:

I will wait until Nisgeis does what he considers his final version and then I will try to put it in the game in the way he sees best. It's his work after all, and I just add it in-game, so I will follow his preferences.

Yes, i was starting to suspect that after seeing a bit how draggable items have been added in the past :damn:

Maybe a slide-out, like the bigger compass could work? :hmm:

which slideout bigger compass?

Back to the ol menu_ini file to have a pull down version.

Capt Cox Pull Down Map
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=112750

Zamboni's menu_ini tut.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=111832

that's what i said, longam, when i said you can attach it to the radio or gramaphone

personally i think the fixed graph on the attack map is the better solution