Great stuff. Thanks, Hitman!

Back home from the East coast with a few photos from the Submarine museum at the New London sub base in Groton, Connecticut. I focused on the TBT that is easily available.

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w132/crawlee/TBT.jpg


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...e/P1010367.jpg


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...e/P1010366.jpg


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...e/P1010368.jpg


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...e/P1010369.jpg


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...e/P1010371.jpg


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...e/P1010374.jpg


These last couple of shots were taken through the right side lens (the left side doesn't provide the cross hair markings, only the right). I pointed the view to a white wall in the museum to help see the size of the markings. The last photo is looking out towards the west side of the Connecticut River.

On the third photo showing the right side of the TBT, notice the 4 screws holding a cover on the right/top of the lens (just to the right of the manufacture label). The center circle is some sort of a lens giving light to this side of the binoculars. I'm assuming this was how the cross hairs were lit for night viewing with an external light source.

Just thought I'd update you on my progress. I'm about 1/3 done with checking ship heights and lengths. I've checked and corrected about 30 ships so far.

I've had to work with the metric version of the Omnimeter to get it correct for use (some changes needed to be made to the "Ship: Name" area of the German solution notepad due to how I'm putting the ship lengths into the Recognition Manual; change one thing and two others become problems to solve).

I've also made an additional "optional" mod to have the periscopes and TBT/UZO appear as realistic as possible; removing any highlights from the Telemeter divisions marks which would help in night observations. Although the TBT did have the capability to be illuminated, I kept this feature. Also (I don't see anyway around this), I've had to keep the Telemeter divisions in the TBT/UZO for making estimates of range. The real life TBT didn't have this feature, it was just for reading relative bearing of a target. But, I think our need to read range to target is important when looking through this device, so there are division marks in the TBT view which will be highlighted.

Nice pictures! I see the crosshair was the same I had found previously on a similar model. Must have been the standard, then :yep:

In the picture with the plaque details I can't find the optical values (FOV, zoom, etc), were you able to get them?

Apparently the official TBT installation started appearing at a time when all subs had already radar, hence they found unnecessary to add the markings. However, it's interesting to note that german UZOs didn't have those markings either. The IWO estimated range by naked eye, both looking directly at the target over the binoculars, and using the FOV and estimated size of the target as a guide. My guess is that, even if slightly stabilized, the TBT/UZO moved too much for a good measurement with a reticle, whereas the periscope, with the submarine submerged, was much more steady.

Then there's another aspect of the game that is difficult to recreate: The huge difference between seeing things plainly with your eyes and looking through a periscope/binocular. In real life, skippers hated submerging because they lost the privileged view of the target with naked eyes and lots of situational awareness, being limited to look through a small eyepiece. In the game, ironically, it's the opposite, as the mods usually give excellent views through periscope that are much better than what you see in the bridge. The player doesn't have therefore so much of a reward for staying surfaced in that aspect.:hmmm:

That would be the Thames River. Great shots!

TG

Just wondering if this mod will be compatable with RFB?:hmmm:

No, there where no other markings for lens values or magnifications on the piece. The manufactures label has it as a "MARK 91 Telescope" (the 1 is barely visible). I've done a bit of "Googling" and have come up with little information. One post on a forum website called opticsplanet.com asked:

No one had much info on the handful of replies except for this gentleman's comments:

"Opticschief" stated he had been stationed on the Darter and had perhaps cleaned the very pair the first fellow had in question. Interesting, but no real info on the makeup of the binoculars.

I did a bit more checking and found more information from this linked manual for a Submarines 5" deck gun. It seems the Mark 91 Telescope was used there at times as well.

So, if you put the two together, the "Mark 91" could have either a 6x or 7x magnification, and at least one U.S. training manual lists the 6x version as having a 7 degree FoV. Which version the museum had, I haven't got a clue. Bausch & Lombs website didn't provide much help either.



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:oops: I stand corrected Timmyg00, it is the Thames river. My bad.

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As far as a compatible version for RFB, I'm needing to finish the stock version first for both 1.5 and 1.4 (I don't plan on keeping those folks out in the cold). Since I know there's a problem with the stock games 1280x1024 resolution which has the periscopes camera FoV increased by 2+ degrees over the other game resolutions, I'll have to make a separate version just for that resolution. Then there's TMO, and RSRDC to keep up with!! Guess I'm saying I'll try, but the fact that those guys working on RFB now saw fit to change the "ride height" of ships just to make them "look better" makes reading manual range all the more screwed up. I'm just not in a hurry to fix their problem.

Good find, I have been myself at opticsplanet forums and didn't see it :up:

I'd swear I have seen the 7x mentioned elsewhere, I'm almost sure it was on the website of one of the museum submarines, may be the USS Cod :hmmm:

It's been a while since I've been on the forum to update my progress. That's a good thing, I can get some work done on this project!!


I spent some time tweaking the Omnimeter to have it read correctly. I found the original USS Cod version (its picture is at the beginning of this thread) was a bit off when used. Take a good look at the image below.


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...mnicloseup.jpg


Notice the tick just to the right of the arrow of the Telemeter Scale. That wasn't put on there for nothing. For some readings (depending on the height and distance to the target this "tick" gave more accurate range than the "arrow" did. The problem was how the Cods Omnimeter was made (for the most part these devices were hand made by the crew), this one has the Telemeter Scale just a bit off what it should be. Take a look at where the Telemeter Scale reading of "2" at High Power magnification is reading. Its sitting right on 4000 yards range with the "arrow" set to the 100 ft height mark. That's wrong, doing the math the range needs to read 3820 yards. That's just about the difference the added "tick" would give you. So someone figured it out and added the "tick" to correct the error. Probably better than going down to the cigar chewing Chief Machinist and having him make another!!


I'm finished with the stock game 105 ship entries. The corrected mast heights and ship lengths are listed in the Recognition Manual. Most warships will have a mast head as the reference point for taking a reading with the Stadimeter or using the scope Telemeter divisions for finding range. On a few, I've chosen to use the prominent flag as the reference point. The top of the flag is simply a better visual point (it has to be attached to something, like a mast anyway!). Most of the merchants I'm using the top of the funnel as their reference point. The Recognition Manual pictures will aid in using the correct reference point for all ships with either a red marked area or an added flag to point to the spot.


I've been working on the documentation to go along with the mod. I've finished a PDF on how to make a calculation of range and AoB using the Omnimeter for both Imperial and Metric versions.

One thing I'm doing now is to see if I can make a way to input range to the Position Keeper without using the Stadimeter function. Early on I had made a circular Omnimeter dial and found some interesting things about the different dial functions. I'm looking at making a better, more clearer readable dial than what's on the Attack Data Tool and hope to have it function to set range for the TDC. It seems a waste to calculate range to target using the scopes Telemeter divisions without having a way of inputting range to the TDC. So, I'm going to spend a little time to see what I can do. If I don't make some progress towards this I'll still release the "Optical Targeting Correction" without the range input function.

Yes you can :DL

The only problem is that you need a circular wheel and not a slide out tool like the one you currently have. If you do it circular and with manual input, you can link it directly to the slide out tool on the right top of the screen, so that both rotate together. In fact it would just be a clone copy (But bigger and with marks scale) of that tool, but it would serve the purpose you want.

Nisgeis also managed to translate horizontal slide into turning the distance wheel for his radar mod, but he tweaked something much deeper than simply the menu.ini for that. You could ask him however and see what he thinks :hmmm:

Yes, I'm on my way to making a circular range dial. I've got the graphics done, and it will be linked to the Attack Data Tool. I'm just about ready to recheck the position and resizing math for the menu_1024_768.ini file. I've done this many times but I always seem to need to reeducate myself on what the heck I'm doing!!

Progress Report:


I've finished creating a Range Dial that will allow for updating the TDC without using the Stadimeter. This will allow for a range gathered through reading the Telemeter division marks to be entered into the TDC for a firing solution. If you gather range from the Radar this may also be inputted through the dial to the TDC. The below images have the German and U.S. Range Dials showing their results on the German's Solution Notepad, and the Americans Position Keeper. The game is running at the 1024x768 resolution.

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...nRangeDial.jpg


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...SRangeDial.jpg


The Position Keeper can be turned "on" to track a target using the input of the Range Dial much like the Stadimeter does (of course the needed target Speed and AoB must also be sent to the TDC). There is no interference with the Stadimeter's use when the Range Dial process is used nor does the Stadimeter interfere with the Dial. You will note that there are limitations to the Dial. The minimum Range is 500 yards/meters, the maximum is 6200 yards/meters. This was done to allow for as large a dial that could fit the screen size without covering too much area, and giving the dial enough area to be as precise as possible given its limitations. The dial will give fairly accurate readings if you are careful where you set it. Still, the amount of movement for 100 yards/meters is only about 6 degrees. That's not a lot to play with if you're trying to nail down an exact range figure. But, I believe its enough to get you close to a good firing solution.

With this portion now done, I'm going to update the Change Log, and Instruction .PDF. Once I'm through with the documentation I should be ready for a release of a SH4 patched to 1.5 version.

I love it !

two requests :

can you make it black background/ white letters like the other dials ?

could you help Hitman with the british fruit machine ?

thanks

keltos

Hi keltos01, been a long time since I've talked to you!

Good point about the color for the American Range Dial. I'll see what one looks like; light lettering on a dark background.


As far as Hitman needing help, he's way too good to need my measly efforts!! :88)

Thought I'd post a darker Range Dial for the American side of play. I like it.

Thanks keltos01 for the idea.


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...rRangeDial.jpg



Now, back to the documentation. :wah: