Vanjast, before you try using the periscope bearing to figure ship length you'd better take a look at this. Drift down to the part I have regarding "Game Optics" (the Omnimeter isn't important). The stock game is off by several degrees in its optical size of the periscope. Using the compass bearing to measure a ships length won't give you accurate results until you get the optics right. To check for yourself here's a "mission pack" that will set up a "backdrop" of ships for the purpose of measuring the Field of View of the stock game. As the thread states I've fixed the optical field of view and already corrected the ships length and height measurements.

The only reason I've not released the mod is I'm having the radar capable of giving a fairly accurate range finding added to the mix. I've completed an imperial version and will complete a metric version soon, then the release.

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For those that still want to think the dev's had the "fog of war point of view" going for their errors with the game, What's the reason the optics are off by several degrees? To give the old dog a fighting chance when we got 'em in our sights? Or how about the miss naming of the A scope radar to the PPI radar and vise a Versa? Whats up with that, just testing our WWII electronic equipment knowledge?!! What about the medals and award problems?!

Ok, OK......... I've said my piece. :D

Yeah, I'd work out the fish-eye view that game had, but one can work with this.
:)

No No, I'm not talking about having the Periscope view needing a larger size. The size of the "port hole" isn't important, what you see within the port hole needs to be corrected.

I'm talking about the number of degrees the periscope view covers from the left side to the right (or up and down). In order for the periscope compass bearing to give you an accurate measurement of anything, the Camera.dat file has to be corrected to give the "world view" a correct size to fit the periscope. The American (and German) periscopes had a Field of View of 32 degrees at low power. In other words the compass bearing traveled 32 degrees from left to right. You can't judge how much the Field of View is when your using water as a measuring stick, I can't get my marking paint to stay put on the waters surface! So, having a group of stationary ships sitting in front of you WILL give you a reference point to measure.

The stock game is off by about 6 to 8 degrees too wide. This creates the effect of having the objects appear too small, smaller than what they should. Notice the stock periscope lens and count the divisions marks from top to bottom or left to right. They count 32 equally, but does the game world view give you a 32 degree width? Nope, not when the width is between 38 and 40 degrees. The dev's had a notion of what they need to do, the Telemeter divisions are set for a 32 degree FoV. The world view the dev's gave us is pooched, and until the game world is brought into perspective, measuring a ships length with the compass bearing is a lost cause.

Again the fix is on it's way.

I agree. There are too many examples of errors in the game for it to be some purposeful element. It's clear to me, that they were either too rushed, didn't consider it important, or thought it was "good enough".

Also, you are right about the RL/game numbers. There is no point in trying to use real life values, when the game is using different values of it's own. If the mast height figures cannot be used to obtain good range estimates, what purpose do they serve?

P.S: Has any consideration been given to including weapons?

In an earlier post I misspoke regarding the German periscope having a 32 degree Field of View. Their attack periscope had 38 degree FoV at low power magnification, 9 degree at high power. The magnification was the same as the American periscope; 1.5x at low power, 6.0x at high. Sorry for misleading you.

It's clear "Silent Hunter 4 Wolves of the Pacific" has too much of the German side of play left over from SH3. Although SH4 was meant to be an American Fleet Boat simulation the fact the game settled on giving us the German periscope FoV size of 38 degrees is only one of many oversights we have with the game. Although, this probably isn't as much an "oversight" as much as it was a calculated effort to provide a game for the metric minded German side of play. After all, we ended up paying for the games fifth and final patch that put the "Nazis into the Pacific"!! Doing so at the expense of losing the use of the Telemeter division lens marks which would give the American player a correct reading for range and AoB if used correctly.

CapnScurvy:
Ja, I've known this since doing my SH3 RealNav mod.
But you can still use this distorted measurement as a ship length/height. Although it is wrong in RL, in game it is 'correct' (if you get my drift).

I've noticed that whatever settings one uses in the cameras.dat file, you still get this 'fish-eye' lensing effect, and i thought the best was to live around this, accommodating measurements around this.

:)