I don't know how the model works now, but I would like the game to "simulate" the vision of people on the ships. Like, the game simulates one person on the bridge looking in the forward direction of the ship. That results in an oval shape in front of the ship, on the water, where he is looking right now. Like a beam (obviously not rendered in-game). That beam would move around the ship as he is looking in different directions. If your submarine is inside of the oval beam shape, you are detected (or at least there is a risk of detection). The closer to the ship he is currently looking, the bigger the beam is. And the further away, the smaller it is. This means that the risk of detection from afar is very low, because this beam would be very small and very unlikely to "hit" your sub. But if it does, he could see you!
Multiple ships will all have these beams wandering around, making it risky to approach a convoy because of so many eyes. Also, if you've been detected, a lot more people on the ships will be on alert and many many more beams will look for you!
The risk for detection when you're inside the beam could depend on things like sun position, moon position, sea state, speed etc. Even if he looks directly on your periscope a rough night, there is a chance he misses it.
The purpose of this, besides achieving some realism effects, is to add a lot of randomness to it.
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