[REL] Solution Solver 1.3
 

Download version 1.3.3 here

Ohhh that adition makes it now a very interesting tool for us S-Boat lovers :yeah:

I'd love to see a replica of this tool here using your beautiful program! Would be a blast with those S-Boats :shucks:

Looks interesting
 

Just downloaded it. Do I need two computers?

Oh one more thing, would it be possible to edit the graphics and replace them by custom ones? :D I have a lot of nice templates for both US and german attack disks and would like trying some of them :yeah:

i geuss i could have it look for graphics in the same folder as the .exe. If it finds none.. it could fall back on the ones embedded in it instead.

Would this work with SH3? i have been trying to learn how to manually aim my torpedoes but its very hit and miss atm :(

Also since I joined the site all the threads are upside down (last post 1st which is the opposite to every other forum i use) is there anyway to change it back without logging out?

Excellent :yeah: that would allow the users to create "skins" with their preferred templates :ping:

Wellcome Russ

yes this will work with ANY submarine simulation, as it will simply run as separated application on your desktop. If you are missing much that's probably more because you don't estimate correctly the AOB/speed of the target. Shoot with as less Gyro Angle as possible (This tool by gutted is fabulous for that, as it gives you the 0 GA bearing), and get close. I mean REALLY close, under 1000 metres/yards :arrgh!:

I forgot: What's the poin in being able to move the external (Bearing) wheel? The tool would work the same if it was fixed, wouldn't it? :hmmm:

Thanks.

Yeh i think the problem is with my AoB and sometimes speed as well. I was using a method i got from a documentry i found onthese forums that said something like "the angle between the periscope and the targets heading is the AoB" so using the ingame map tools i was able to work it out.

The speed however is very hit and miss. i use the ingame feature to work this out (the one on the datapad in Sh3) however the speeds I get tend to be very random anywhere between 0 even when the target is clearly moving to 87 even though its a rusty old cargo ship:oops:

Couple of ways to use this.

1. A laptop it should run on just about any laptop
2. A second monitor/dual display (this is my choice)
3. Shell out of SH and run this in the background the footprint is tiney.

Haven tried this version yet but the previous version had no impact on my systems performance.

Good job !

I use ALT-TAB. I used to have a second computer, but sold it to a friend for dirt cheep.


@Hitman, Because when you make a course change, all you have to do is rotate the outer dial to the new location.

If it were fixed, you'd have to rotate both the middle and inner dials to keep the target on its correct course.



I'm sure you dont need an explenation on how to use it.. but for others this is what i do:

I set my course by rotating the outer dial to match the correct heading on the middle dial.. then rotate all the dials (right click drag) so the bearing im looking at the target from is underneath vertical red line. I then set the inner "target" dial to match what im seeing out of the scope.

If im well ahead of the target and can simply turn into my final attack course... i rotate the entire display (right click drag) so that the targets 90AOB location is under the red line. I follow the red line across to the bearing on the outer dial. This is the direction i need to go to be at a right angle to the target. I then set my scope to that location and tell the crew to turn there. I go back to the Tool and move the outer dial to that location (my new heading). Now im set up perpindicular.

Note: you could also read the true heading to turn to on the middle dial instead. But since there's no easy way to tell the crew exactly which heading you want, it's easer to point the scope at the desired direction and tell them to turn to that heading.

anyway...

Continuing rotating the entire tool so the bearing you're looking at the target from is under the red line. Then continue making changes to the inner dial depending on what you see from that bearing. Basically fine tuning the targets course. If you need to make another course change to get perpindicular.. just rotate the outer dial to the new location afterwards.

When the target is close enough to do stadimeter readings.. get two readings and use the in-game stopwatch tool to get speed. If the Heading it gives you is relatively close to the heading you have the target on in the tool.. you know the speed it gave you is about right. If the heading is way off.. either you have the dials set wrongly.. or the speed it gave you is off. Continue getting readings until you've got a match, then use the speed to get a shoot bearing solution for your current heading.


Of course, if you already know the targets true heading & speed (from map plotting).. you can simply enter that from that get go. And then use the tool only as a firing & manuevering device. .IE being able to manuever around taking shots and not having to look at the in-game map anymore to see if you're lined up for whatever angle you want to be at. Just be sure to rotate the outer dial to the new heading after each turn. When you turn to the final course.. and are lined up for a shot.. hit solve to get the shoot bearing.

Rgr that, good idea :up:

Another good option I like a lot in my 4:3 monitor is to run teh game in windowed mode and 16:9 aspect ratio, thus having all upper part of the screen covered by the game as normal, but then 1/4 of it under the game window free with direct access to desktop. I can then place there many other tools like this one or the SH1 programs like intercept calculator, etc. and operate them easily :ping:

I'd also like to point out that this tool is actually more beneficial to the U-Boat skipper.. as the American TDC already has alot of the info you can gather from this tool built into it arleady. Such as determining which relative bearing/true heading to turn onto to be perpindicular.. and estimating a targets true course from a given AOB.

But....

In-game its small and hard to read at times, and has annoying torpedo track arrows covering up what you're trying to read. So it's still useful to use regardless.

You may be a victim of documentation in this regard.

In SH3, to use the stopwatch you had to provide an initial bearing/range reading along with the AoB at that bearing... then click the stopwatch. After some time, you'd stop it and it would give you a Speed. It calculated it by how many degrees the target moved since it was started.. which is why the AOB needs to be set.

This is how it was "Supposed" to work in SHIV as well when it first came out.. and is what is described in the manual.

But in a certain patch they changed it, because it wasn't working right.

The way it works now is the stopwatch will give you an estimated course/speed of the target between two stadimeter readings. The same info you'd get if you had plotted it on the map yourself.

So you simply take a range/bearing reading.. Wait some time.. then take another range/bearing reading and hit the stopwatch to get a heading/speed returned from these two points. You can take a thrid reading and have it estimated from the current and the previous one.. and so on. Always works with the last two readings.

How accurate it is depends on how accurate you are with the stadimeter, and how long you wait between readings.

ARGH, just read your post again.. and it seems you are indeed using SH3, not SH4.

In this case the stopwatch could be wrong due to a bad AOB given at the start of the stopwatch process. The margin for error in the AOB setting is extremely small to get a correct speed reading. And because of this.. im glad its not that way in SHIV.

Only requirment is that the dials need to be circular in nature. .ie no odd shapes hanging out the sides, or overlapping of the dials themselves. The program does not know anything about the dial istelf other than its radius (dervied from the width of the graphic itself)

What this means is that if it has odd shapes hanging out the sides, the area you'll be able to grab it from will be the entire width of the graphic .ie clicking in blank space will be valid.

Initially, the program DID use pixel perfect tests.. but using .NET/GDI+ it was considerably slower. I actally made a version with the Is-Was wheels.. with the ship nose and tail hanging out the sides of the bottom wheell... and it had the transparent Persicope dial ontop.. but it was considerably slower in response. So i scrapped it and went with a radius based appraoch.

Scaling and rotating high-res images in realtime is not what GDI+ is good at. Using C++/DirectX would cancel this performance problem out however.

Hey gutted, great job! Now somewhere around here (I find I ended up never using it) I have a software whiz wheel of some type that I intalled as an active desktop so that I could just mash windows-d and there was my whiz wheel operating as my desktop. I figured the solution, clicked the SH4 icon and was back in the game.

Is that a possibility with your models?

i dunno bout that.

but version 1.2 will be coming shortly with some nice additions/improvements.

1. Solve button removed. Solution now updates in real-time.
2. Ability to use custom dial artwork.
3. Integrated Speed Solver/Chrono (awesome feature).

you'll really like #3.


Last night i intertecepted a ship and never once used any TDC or map tools to get course or speed. Purely visual attack.

screenshot of the Chrono/Speed solver coming in version 1.2:
http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/a...ChronoTool.png

Just attacked a 6kt convoy from 90 degrees. I watched them on radar, and figured out their course by matching their orientation on the AoB wheel.

I ranged them on radar a few times, and estimated them at 9kts, but they turned to head for a chokepoint prior to my run in for the attack. and must have changed speed.. because i used the speed solver on the nearest ship when i got close and confirmed the speed at 6kts just prior to firing.

Before doing so though, I played with the AoB wheel alittle.. and saw that i could turn up to 10 degrees and my solution would shrink by only about 1 degree.

slipped into fast torpedo range.. then fired 2 at the front ship. Turned left 5 degrees and moved my scope a half degree in.. fired at another ship. Then turned left 5 degrees and moved my scope in half a degree, and fired at another. All in rapid succession.

5 explosions, 1 dud. 2 dead ships, 1 cripple. which i finished off later.


I'm loving it so far. Been wanting to do this for a long time now.

If anyone has any suggestions for features im all ears.. and have some time on my hands right now. stupid recession.

was thinking about adding a tab to the main interface to house another page of utilities. maybe a speed/distance/time calculator (for both metric & imperial) or whatever.

There is one special feature im thinking of adding, but i'll have to do some thinking on it before i dive into it.