a little query from a newby
 

hi,

wonder if someone could tell me what OLC GUI is all about. Caught a glimpse of a periscope view with funny looking calibrations around the viewing field. Is this how it was in the real u-boat? Are these to help make distance measurements?

Thanks for your reply:salute:

If you're new to the game, I'd suggest using the default interface until you get used to it. OLC GUI is mainly aimed at those using manual targeting (a science in itself) and those marks on the periscope are there to aid you in this, like Angle on Bow etc. You could always take a look in the SH3 Mod workshop or downloads section and download OLC GUI simply to have a read of the user guide which will make things (somewhat) clearer. There are other GUI's aswell, it's a question of personal preference. I use MAGUI which is based off of OLC with many tweaks and enhancements but probably better to take things one step at a time as a new GUI will steepen the learning curve considerably.

The forums here are a wealth of knowledge, with pretty much every problem, niggle, addon, mod, and game feature discussed extensively, so use the search function and your queries will be answered.

thanks for this. Realism is an important aspect for me. Is the OLC GUI what a real uboat captain used?
Thanks again for your help.

OLC GUI (among others) is much much closer to the real experience than the stock gui. These GUIs provide many of the tools real u-boat captains had at their disposal.

However, there are quite a few differences too. For example, a real u-boat periscope had a split prism allowing the captain to accurately measure the apparent height of the ship (and thus, the distance, once real mast height was known). In SH3 there is no split prism and height has to be measured by comparing a line at the top of the masts with the sea level (which may be moving), which is more difficult and not as accurate as the real method.

Also, the latest OLC GUI fixes the periscope zoom levels (only one zoom level instead of two zoom levels), I believe because the waves are modelled more accurately this way. I personally use an older version of OLC GUI (v. 1.2.7) to retain realistic zoom settings. However, this older version required (a somewhat annoying) doubling of mast heights of ships for correct range measurements, so I changed the presiscope/uzo background markings of the gui myself to work correctly with real mast heights. I'm sure many others have also made personal tweaked versions of the GUIs out there.

As to which of the several GUIs to choose, OLC GUI and MAGUI are good candidates, as they both are quite realistic (as far as the game allows) and they are well supported (work well with other mods). There are probably other good choices too. I suggest you read the respective threads on the mods forum and choose one that looks more realistic to you, provides the tools you would like to use, and doesn't include limitations you don't want to live with.