Stars
 

Hi guys,
Ive been into SH3 a lot lately and ive been wondering when i was sailing through the night if the stars on the night sky are being simulated (if it represents the real star positions). It maybe a bit silly but it would be cool if you could follow the polar star to lead you home when you are all alone in the atlantic with your compas somewhat broken due to depth charges :D A mod that would do that(possibly even with regards to actuall date) would be super cool dont you think?? HAHA maybe i am yust a bit to overwhelmed of the games atmosphere.

Thx and good hunting!:salute:

Although it discusses SH4 and not 3, you might find this thread relevant. Rockin Robbins seems sure that the celestial mechanics are completely wrong...but as I stated there: I'm well versed in celestial navigation, but I don't own any version of SH, so I would need some specific info (see my post #34) to help with any given situation.

Anyway, I'd be glad to help you sort out any problems if you like. Just let me know and I'll tell you what I need to know in order to see if it can be done.

Cheers!

the celestial bodies are simulated.

by that i mean, they are there. you can look up and see the dipper or orion's belt for example. and there are the phases of the moon etc.

there is even a mod for somewhat realistic sextant navigation, though i have never given it a go myself.

with that said, the silent hunter series has a few major flaws in regards to realistic navigation of any sort, the biggest in my opinion being that the Silent Hunter World is completely and unashamedly flat. unlike the flight simulators of the era of SH3's release, which simulate a spherical planetary surface. for all the obvious reasons, simulating the spherical surface lends itself to realistic navigation. unfortunately, our SH3 world is flatter than my desk.

this leads to the obvious problems with distance, fuel burn, time to travel etc not to mention the stretching of the northern most and southern most latitudes.

for all the reasons outlined above and a lot more that are not outlined above; the sun, the moon, the stars, etc they are all there, but they are just not exactly in the right positions, unless of course i suppose you play the entire game at the equator where the Mercator projection nature of the SH3 world is least in error. Sadly, the majority of the game's action takes place in the northern latitudes of the North Atlantic, where the "stretching" of the map is not necessarily at its worst, but nearly so.