Does anyone know for sure if the "MaxDepth=" number in the submarine cfg files affect anything besides how deep the boat will dive when the keyboard command "D" for dive is entered (other than cosmetic things)? I am mostly interested in if any information is passed by the SH4 AI to the ASW. I am not interested in changing the actual crush depth (crash depth) number in the zon file.
If there is no major effect in changing the "MaxDepth=" deep depth number in the submarine cfg file I would like to remove the red deep depth indicator needle from the interface and while I'm at it I may as well do away with the 60' periscope depth indicator as well. IMO these two red indicator needles are unnecessary. As Captain of my boat I would certainly know what the test depth is. Are there any suggestions for how I can remove them?
After looking at the sections in menu_1024_768.ini that (I think) point to these indicator needles it appears that I would need to find out the SH4 color code for transparent or maybe it would be easier to just make a transparent tga/dds graphic called indicators2.dds and point to that... however right now I think the code is red for anything I would try. What is the SH4 color code for transparent?
My goal is to hit "D" for dive and be able to dive deeper than the 450' depth setting on the HUD deep depth gauge if I want but obviously changing the MaxDepth= would make the red indicator needle useless.
I like using the keyboard commands:
"P" for periscope depth (PeriscopeDepth=)
"R" for radar depth (SnorkelDepth=)
"C" for crash dive (CrashDepth=)
and "D" for planes on dive (MaxDepth=), until I hit "A" to stop the dive.
One consequence of doing this that I am thinking however is maybe the "MaxDepth=" number may somehow affect ASW capabilities? Please tell me if this is just my imagination, but I got sunk recently and the DD's seemed to know exactly where I was despite my best efforts to evade ... lol ... and I am pretty decent at evading ASW unless I do something stupid.
Here are the sections in menu_1024_768.ini that I think are the sections I want to change - or make transparent:
[G3F I24]
Name=Test depth val
Type=1031;Stat bmp array
ItemID=0x3F1F0005
ParentID=0x3F1F0000
Pos=39,-6,12,78
Zone= 907 114 12 78 0 1 0x3F1F0000 0.5 -0.5 0x3F1F0005 -0.5 0.5 0 0
Color=0xC80A0AFE
Materials=1
Display=5;Linear&rotation
Mat 0=data/menu/gui/layout/indicators.tga
Crop 0=0,0,0.5,0.46875
MatFlags=0x29
TexFmt=0x0
Drag=false
BmpState=1
NeedFocus=true
SelOne=false
IdGroup=0
StatesColors=0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF
and:
[G3F I31]
Name=Periscope depth val
Type=1031;Stat bmp array
ItemID=0x3F1E0005
ParentID=0x3F1E0000
Pos=40,-6,10,78
Zone= 908 114 10 78 0 1 0x3F1E0000 0.5 -0.5 0x3F1E0005 -0.5 0.5 0 0
Color=0xC80A0AFE
Materials=1
Display=5;Linear&rotation
Mat 0=data/menu/gui/layout/indicators.tga
Crop 0=0.5,0,0.5,0.5
MatFlags=0x29
TexFmt=0x0
Drag=false
BmpState=1
NeedFocus=true
SelOne=false
IdGroup=0
StatesColors=0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF
If these are the correct sections, the line Color=0xC80A0AFE is the color code line to change if I do it that way, correct?
Any suggestions on how to remove these red indicator needles would be appreciated as well as any insight into the consequences of changing the "MaxDepth=" number to 200;meters for example - regarding the SH4 AI knowing that number and -
possibly - passing it to the ASW. I don't mind getting sunk if the game plays fair but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by doing this if it is coded to be a factor.
Thanks,
Art