SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Realism- and gameplay-related hardcode fixes for SH3.EXE

Stiebler · 11-19-10, 05:05 AM

I would like to expand on H.sie's reply by pointing up that many of the fixes requested by other users are actually unnecessary. Unnecessary, because if the player thinks that they are important then the player can act on them himself.

The reloading of external torpedoes is the obvious example. If anyone thinks that torpedoes should not be loaded at wind speeds above 6 m/s, then check the weather before reloading, and don't reload if the wind speed is above 6m/s! If anyone thinks you should not be able to dive at once if surprised on the surface while reloading the torpedoes, then don't dive until a sufficient time interval has elapsed! (I always allow 10 minutes to 'jettison' the torpedo). [Incidentally, I once asked an old U-boat sailor what the emergency procedure was if the U-boat was suddenly surprised on the surface by a fast-closing destroyer. He said there wasn't one, and he had no idea what anyone would have done if it had occurred. He never heard of a single instance of it occurring, since you only reloaded in remote areas.]

It would be much more useful for everyone if the talented H.sie devoted all his efforts to things which can NOT be fixed by the player himself. Obvious examples are the CO2 problem (which he has done), the too-accurate range reports (which he has done) and similar.

The most useful improvement of all would be to fix the weather bug, which causes persistent protracted storms with zero visibility. The devs made a very complex algorithm for SH3 - too complex, as it turned out - which they no longer understand themselves. What is needed is a much simpler replacement for the broken code. Being simpler, it would be shorter, and thus could patch the existing code as an overlay.

All that is really needed is an algorithm that moves the wind randomly up and down in small increments, and moves the rain up and down when the wind is sufficiently strong, and which reduces the visibility when the rain is sufficiently high. This might not be as clever as that of the original SH3 code (which took into account seasons and latitude), but would be much more useful.

That part is easy. What is not so easy is to locate the damaged code (I've tried). If H.sie can find the code, and discover its extent (that is, what subroutines it uses and the start and exit points of the weather routine) and can understand the parameters it uses (we would need to know what triggers a call to the routine, and how often it calls, as well as which variables control the input and output clouds, rain and visibility), then the replacement coding would be trivial.

Stiebler.

11-19-10, 05:05 AM	#507
Stiebler Fuel Supplier Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: London, UK Posts: 1,237 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 4	I would like to expand on H.sie's reply by pointing up that many of the fixes requested by other users are actually unnecessary. Unnecessary, because if the player thinks that they are important then the player can act on them himself. The reloading of external torpedoes is the obvious example. If anyone thinks that torpedoes should not be loaded at wind speeds above 6 m/s, then check the weather before reloading, and don't reload if the wind speed is above 6m/s! If anyone thinks you should not be able to dive at once if surprised on the surface while reloading the torpedoes, then don't dive until a sufficient time interval has elapsed! (I always allow 10 minutes to 'jettison' the torpedo). [Incidentally, I once asked an old U-boat sailor what the emergency procedure was if the U-boat was suddenly surprised on the surface by a fast-closing destroyer. He said there wasn't one, and he had no idea what anyone would have done if it had occurred. He never heard of a single instance of it occurring, since you only reloaded in remote areas.] It would be much more useful for everyone if the talented H.sie devoted all his efforts to things which can NOT be fixed by the player himself. Obvious examples are the CO2 problem (which he has done), the too-accurate range reports (which he has done) and similar. The most useful improvement of all would be to fix the weather bug, which causes persistent protracted storms with zero visibility. The devs made a very complex algorithm for SH3 - too complex, as it turned out - which they no longer understand themselves. What is needed is a much simpler replacement for the broken code. Being simpler, it would be shorter, and thus could patch the existing code as an overlay. All that is really needed is an algorithm that moves the wind randomly up and down in small increments, and moves the rain up and down when the wind is sufficiently strong, and which reduces the visibility when the rain is sufficiently high. This might not be as clever as that of the original SH3 code (which took into account seasons and latitude), but would be much more useful. That part is easy. What is not so easy is to locate the damaged code (I've tried). If H.sie can find the code, and discover its extent (that is, what subroutines it uses and the start and exit points of the weather routine) and can understand the parameters it uses (we would need to know what triggers a call to the routine, and how often it calls, as well as which variables control the input and output clouds, rain and visibility), then the replacement coding would be trivial. Stiebler. __________________ NYGM Tonnage War Mod - More than a mod: it's an experience!