A life sign from Mike 'Red October' Hense!

[Deamon]

Here are 2 new screenshots of his project, that he sent to me, demonstrating some volumetric clouds:







Hopefully the waiting will have an end some day.

Cheers

[Reaper51]

Noticed that the other day, hopefully he'll be releasing more information soon. Looks pretty interesting.

[Hitman]

I suppose that the release of SH4 might have affected his plans for his fleet boat simulator, but hopefully that will mean he now can just concentrate in finishing the Cold War one, which is in fact still an empty spot in naval sim gaming and a sim i would gladly buy

[Bartolomeus]

Yeah!! That looks very cool! I hope for more news from Mike!

Marko

[Deamon]

Originally Posted by Reaper51

hopefully he'll be releasing more information soon.

I doubt it. He still don't seem to have found a proper engine for his sim. Although there is one now that he considers closer.

Originally Posted by Hitman

I suppose that the release of SH4 might have affected his plans for his fleet boat simulator

Lets hope so. Mike give us an early cold war sim.

but hopefully that will mean he now can just concentrate in finishing the Cold War one, which is in fact still an empty spot in naval sim gaming and a sim i would gladly buy

Yeah, especially after sonalysts will unlikely pop up with a new game in the future.

[PeriscopeDepth]

Originally Posted by Deamon

Yeah, especially after sonalysts will unlikely pop up with a new game in the future.

Yes. Serious submarine simulations will become the domain of indy developers it looks like. And the one you're working on looks like it well be a hell of a sub sim. With a very original premise.

PD

[Deamon]

Originally Posted by PeriscopeDepth

Yes. Serious submarine simulations will become the domain of indy developers it looks like. And the one you're working on looks like it well be a hell of a sub sim. With a very original premise.

I am just not sure now is this directed to me or to Mike ?

[Chad]

More life signs of progress of Mike's sims coming along I'm quite partial to the 2nd one, looks really good!

[Bartolomeus]

Yes the, second one is amazing!
Very nice water environment in both screens!! Wundeful work Mike!


Marko

[Deamon]

Hey guys a new update from Mike:

i've had a chance to do a lil work on the submarine game... i've still got a loooong ways to go, but here's a few in 3drad editor shots of the type23 submarine interior and crew...


the sub frame and compartments


first person view from inside the control room


engine & motor room


crew quarters looking fwd to torpedo room

most textures are placeholders, as are the andro crew... also, a lot of small stuff hasn't been added as of yet... this is basically to check dimensions and to see if the pieces fit... and if the thing actually looks like the insides of a WWII type23 sub...

the interior is mostly conjectural as i couldn't get any interior shots of a type23 and am working from some rough plan drawings... so there are bound to be many things not exact... but i think it'll be close enough to give the illusion of being about one of those small, crowded, canoes...

it'll look a lil better (hopefully) as i work out the textures and bumpmaps and the lighting...

right now it seems as if i've already added a million pieces, and it's still not filled out as of yet... i'm beggining to think i should've chosen to make a simple shooter instead...

I spent the whole day working out lighting issues... i think i'm near what i'm looking for... real real time lighting would be great, but i think this'll do for now (the game engine i'm using doesn't have real real time lighting)...

here's the crew inside the sub... rigged for red (night operations) ;D





the textures aren't finalized as of yet... just placeholders and close to what the final ones will look like... and the shadowing needs a lil work... the angles seem a lil off, or something... gotta work on that...

of course, ole Andro will be replaced by some characters that'll look a lil more like WWII uboat crewmen in a few... i got my first crudely animated person done today (using Pacemaker for the bones rigging and anims... all he does is jerk his arm back and forth, but it's a big step for me)... he'll be joining the crew as soon as he gets enough animations to stand watch at some station...

anyways... that's the latest... it's coming along... slowly, but it is coming...

This time also a bunch of short videos:

a lil video preview of the progress so far... these are the first tests of sub hull and interior composited together into a single functional unit in the game/sim...

over the next few hours (days) i'll be posting several short videos of the sub running and diving as i get em working...

the first video shows basic bouyancy properties of the submarine as it is dropped into the game... there is also a quick peek inside the sub to show that the rolling and pitching action of the sub on the surface is apparent to the crew inside (my attempt to add to the immersion factor)...



click on image to view short video

now keep in mind... this is still early in the project (even though it seems as if i've done quite a bit already) and most of the textures and figures are placeholders, and merely close representations of the final stuff...

the ocean fog has been removed for testing, and the lighting is set for the sub interior at night, even when viewing the scene from outside the sub...

the ocean is still visible when inside the sub and on the surface...

shadows still need work... and the dive planes you are seeing are oversized to help in tweaking... they are not representative of those found on a TypeXXIII UBoat...


the sub is controlled by the crew with references to instruments and gauges inside the sub... there will be no gui to speak of... there is a simplified ballast system where you can flood negative... close vents and pump to neutral... and blow to positive...

there are also dive planes and a rudder which also affect the movement of the sub above and below the surface...


next lil video shows the submarine vertically submerging by "flooding ballast" tanks only...



(click on image to view short video)

bouyancy is enabled using physics (ODE) in 3DRAD and adjusting mass of submarine rigidbody object...


next, vertically surfacing... again, by "blowing ballast" only...


(click on image to view short video)


here's one more showing the sub running on the surface...



and the last one showing the last bit of work i'll probably be able to finish today... this video shows the sub diving under power, using negative ballast and the dive planes for a quick dive... the dive planes don't become effective until the sub reaches a certain depth, and their effects are dependant on the the hydrodynic force caused by the speed of the sub...



(click on image to view short video)

after tweaking everything i'll be returning to fitting out the interior... adding working gauges... and (arrrggghhh, the most painful) getting some proper crewmodels and animations...

after that, well... honestly, that's a lil far to see clearly right now...

--Mike

[Chad]

Huge day of updates for Mike! Awesome stuff

[Deamon]

A few new screenshots from Mike. Finally cold war era again ...from the late 50s, thru the 70s, and into the 80s.... That looks a lot better Early cold war subsim would be really awesome:

[Deamon]

Two short new teasers from Mike:

a sturgeon class sub surfacing at the pole...



the uss skate surfacing from under the ice...



Very nice mike, that looks a lot better

[Deamon]

Mike released more images and videos:













Videos:





Knowing Mikes project more intimately than most of you, i knew Mike struggled for a long time to give to his sim the right look and it seems he finally achieved that. I take from that, and from the fact that he is working on his sim for 10+ years now with an unbroken obsession, that he is indeed approaching the beta state!

[Castout]

Wow really impressed with the graphics.

But modern sub games must have modern sonar capabilities and electronics. I don't mind playing without 3D interior just give me proper sound, TMA, etc station like the ones in DW.

Looking very good.