Hello!
I made a post here for a modern submarine simulator I was working on a few years ago but I removed it because work and finances got in the way and now i'm bored because of covid so I'm working on it again.
I just did my first draft of sonar, here's a picture.
This sonar works by casting a projection of light from the submarine and it sends it back to the active sonar screen (think lidar). This is because using sound for returns in a game engine would be more work than its worth and chances are no one will notice the difference.
Basically the submarine in the image has a light casted on it that can only be picked up by the "Active Sonar Camera", so an actual contact that appears on sonar will be more "filled" than a false positive due to noise or the terrain. This is important because of the water engine we are using realistically blocks sunlight from getting into the depths of the water so therefore nothing would actually be picked up on the sonar besides the terrain.
Now, you can see a black spot in the middle of the submarine. I don't know if this is accurate to real life but that is the mast of the submarine creating a "blind spot" for the forward part of the sub. I can remove the shadow if that's not realistic but I think it makes sense.
I also know that there is random dithered pixels of red around the sonar. I will do my best to remove them so it remains monochromatic.
Any and all feedback is apprectiated.