Hiding the UBoat on the Chart...
 

@Mod afficiaonados.

Question: Is there a way to hide the Uboat on the F5 screen?

Reason: If I wanted to simulate celestial navigation, I could press an icon of a SEXTANT at the Navigators station on day/night with clear sky and it would then show my position, briefly, on the F5 screen. If its overcast, that option could not be used.

coviat: I have absolutely no idea if its possible to do in SH3, but I ask the question--Is it possible? and Can it be done?

Tnx,

Interesting idea. I tried not using the chart at all, but at high time compression I'm worried about running aground, as the lookouts don't call out land.

Currently I roll a die from time to time, and use the results to move my waypoints. Sometimes I end up well outside my patrol grid, or way off course while travelling. This way I end up not where I wanted, but I can still see on the chart if I get close to land.

I think it is possible

Data/menu somewhere in that folder are most of the icons needed for f5 map.

Get infranview or gimp2 via google. They are free downloads.

I cannot rememebr the whole process so trial and error on your part will be needed.

Maybe someone else will tell you the icons to look at.

data/menu/... contains icon material for other ships and platforms

For "self" representation on the map if driving a IXC for example,
data/submarine/nss_uboat9c/nss_uboat9c.tga

This file is typically used as a bearing tool overlay, but could also be null or transparent I imagine. I do not see how this could be toggled while in game. (perhaps with zoom level tweaking?)

hmm, the zoom level thought reminds me that the circle with tail representaion used while zoomed out probably IS in the data/menu area.... apologies.

Tnx, gentlemen.

Toggling: I'm thinking like how the sea state toggles the use of deckguns--only CLEAR/OVERCAST skies would be the toggle for determining whether player is allowed to view his position on the chart.

Presently, as part of my seafaring prep, I use the "ruler tool" to draw a course rather than the waypoint tool. I then pull down the protractor and get azimuth courses and convert kilometers into nautical miles. I jot them down in a note book then I erase all data from the chart. I then zoom into chart where the scale is 25km long (13.5 nm) about the most one could hope to see from the bridge of a Typ 7C. I then begin patrol, making course changes based on time and speed of my notes. If the weather permits, I get a position fix, if not, I stay zoomed in.

Once every noon, called an "ETMAL", if weather allows, I place an "X" at my position...and so forth throughout the patrol. In this way I know how many nm I've made good from Etmal to Etmal.

I use SH3 Commander to knock down the TC to x128 when near land so I don't accidently run aground. When you're in Kiel and have to use the Kiel Canal to get to the North Sea, the game default is x4 TC...way too slow...anyway, tnx for the tips.

rgds,

This would be a great mod Don. I really would like to see such thing in my game! But not everyone is a Obersteuerman like you! ;)
This is really gettin' interesing! I wonder how much of this is actually possible!

Your ideas are sound, and sparked my imagination when it comes to KTB. But this one would rule more!

Why tnx Myxale.

Yeah, optional for sure.

Being retired, I have time on my hands, and so...I'm not under the gun to get thru a patrol as fast as possible. To me, it adds a bit more of a challenge, particularly when returning to port at night.:o Some times I exhale an audible sigh of relief (waking the Mrs) when landfall is made by sighting the Helgoland light...(at least I think it's the Helgoland light lol)

Cheers,

I have figured out that modifying the UnitSub file in the data\menu\gui\units folder is the way to erase the circle (or dot depending on your mod) that represents your ship when not soomed in too much, but I can't get rid of the tail (defeating the whole pourpose of it all) :damn:

I'm currently using Grey Wolves, and now I could switch back to other previous mods that do away with the tails, but I don't want to change whole mods just to nick a freakin tail, anybody know what file you need to tweak?

Forget about the method I just mentioned, this appears to be better (although I haven't played it that much yet)

Open the program files\silenthunteriii\data\menu\cfg directory and edit the maps.cfg file. Change the settings on the navigation map to:

[Map0]
MapID=Navigation_map
Position=0,0
Resolution=1024,656
MajorSqrs=4,2.4
MinorSqrs=5,5
PixPerUnit=50
ZoomLevels=1,2,5,10,20,50,100,200,500,1000,2000,40 00,7000,10000,20000,40000; meters per pixel
InitialZoom=20000;originalmente 500
SymbolZoom=20000;units are drawn as symbols from this zoom up originalmente 10
GroupsZoom=40000;units are drawn in groups from this zoom up originalmente 100
CityZoom=10000;city names are displayed from this zoom down
KriegZoom=2000;krieg labels are separated displayed from this zoom up
HarborZoom=50;harbors will be displayed from this zoom up

Having done so, open the program files\ubisoft\silenthunteriii\data\submarine folder, then choose the folder of your favorite sub, and edit the NSS_UboatXX_shp.TGA file, making it into something invisible (that's to say, just make the whole picture a transparent blank).

There you go, the only way to see your sub is to zoom way way out, wich won't help you much for the finer details of navigation, forcing you to rely on alternate methods.

Now, about faking the sextant, any time you deem that a decent navigator could calculate your exact position, press and hold the ctrl button while clicking with the mouse on a certain point on the nav-map, you'll notice that the nav-map will shift... your boat (even though you can't see it) is right there, under your mouse cursor, so mark that spot for later reference! :yep:

As I said before, I need to play with this for a while to see what type of unfortunate side effects this has... I'll report any findings later.

mate this is an aswome idea.:hmm:

Great find, Dan...

...if weather permits, to simulate a good sextant fix, placing the cursor in center of map and simul-pressing cntl/left mouse gives you your position, right? If so...neat. :up: (have not tried it yet...about to.)

Or never press F5 :)

Wow, talk about challenging, I am totally adding this to my self imposed realism rules. Awesome.

Maybe someone on GW could add a "Real Life Navigation" mod option, that would be perfect.

Highest Regards,
Yarre

This really sounds cool - I'm looking forward to trying this out. Only two minor problems:

1. I never have really gotten the hang of doing transparent things - it took me the longest time to get my personal sub emblem to work right. So, any chance someone can mke a transparent sub file available for download to use with this idea?

2. This points out yet another time where it would be practically essential to be able to make some notes on the nav map (so you could note when you were at the position you're marking on the map when you take your "sextant" reading) - I guess you'll just have to keep track of it on a separate scratch pad, but it sure would be nice to be able to note it right on the map - anybody succeed in modding this capability into the game yet?

wouldn't that be a kick in the head:rotfl:
Hardcore :rock: hahaha

No... that realy isn't feasible... better people have tried, and they have found that the SHIII world and celestial dome are way to flawed to be actualy used for real navigation methods. Besides, we don't want to kill the navigator, we just want to limit his incredible God-like precision :up: