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Tell me what you think; too dark, shadows along the edge or prefer clear edge with gradual shadow (like current version). Any comments are welcome. 
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The real attack periscope with its thin head had a noticeable image quality (Blurr and colour) deterioration at the sides of the field of view. Aproximately 1/4 at each side would degrade the colour to blueish/turquoise, while at the centre the image was perfect.
You can achieve this effect by extending the shadow in the mask to that 1/4, and painting the main graphic dark blue in that external rim, and black in the centre. This will cause that when the mask appears in the game, you see the edges deteriorating to blue and blurred, and the centre simply with lower light level.
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because of the water pressure/resistance, the perisopes which are just long tubes, would vibrate very noticably at 6x which would not make it practical for anything other than pinpointing and identifying the target. There was also problems with lenses fogging up, getting scratched.
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That's pretty much the reason for the twisted cable that runs along the upper part of the tube. It changes the vibration frequency of the tube and makes it move less. In any case, yes, high speeds would mean vibration and bad image. But no captain would anyway use the scope at high speed, as the big wake would be a complete give away of his position.
One more thing about the attack scope: Because it was used sparingly and with maximum stealth (The captain would make it pop in and out the water quickly like a cork) in quick glances, the markings are simplified (1 mark per 2 mils) and overall the design is intended to simply help the intuitive feeling of proportions by the observer. It was never intended to be used as a detailed observation tool, nor to plot an enemy attack with exact observations. The commander sat there and gave quick glances to control the advance of the target in the last and closest stages of the approach, eyeballing range, AOB and speed if it had not ben already determined during the previous overhaul maneuver at surface.
In my experience, and using my own custom optics mod in SH3, once you have enough practice with this system it becomes very effective and intuitive for short ranges attacks (As will always be the submerged ones). But it requires that the user has contantly the same mod installed and monitor used, to get used to the size of the ships as presented in the screen. When you are good enough at it, however, the feeling is AMAZINGLY satisfactory
