SH5 Atmosphere?
 

16km? 20km? More?
It isn't 8 km ,right?:06:

Realistically, a Type VII u boat only had a visual range of about 6.6 nm, or 12.2 km.
Obviously, the advent of marine radars greatly increased detection range to over the horizon.

That's the distance to the horizon, isn't it?
Lookouts could often spot a ship beyond the horizon by masts or smoke plumes. I've heard that spotting ships at ranges up to 15-20km were not outside the realm of possiblity by looking for these things.

Yes, in good weather conditions I believe those distances were achievable and even greater via hydrophone (sound not visual that is) :DL

It all has to do with height of eye. The numbers I posted were representative of the distance to spot an object at sea level. You can spot masts / smoke well beyond that.
If you were, for example, looking from a Type VII to a ship with a 120' mast, a good lookout could spot the mast at 12.8 nm. You probably wouldn't see the hull until about 7 nm or so.
That is why in historical accounts, the smoke was always the first indicator of a contact: it had the highest "height of eye"

Ok, thats science,but what can we expect from the game?
In SH3 vanila it was 8km.

i really hope for the 1st time we will be able to see smoke stacks over the horizon:rock:

I guess we won't know until its loaded up.

Until then, I'll just spew what I do know :DL

With a clear atmosphere, I have spotted masts of ships 12 nm away at an eye height slightly lower than standing on the deck of a U-boat. The eye height on the bridge would be aproximately 2 meters higher.

most uboat attacks where at night so the visuals distances would be much reduced , compared to daylight.

captains took advantage of moonlit nights, conducting from surface attacks and calm seas states was the ideal conditions, and in hope of finding a big convoy on nights like these.

would love to see screens with nice night conditions ..moonlit waters .

Seeing only the masts in the distance, ala SH1, would be a welcome addition.