[TEC] Sensors, Environment and the 30km project

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Hey guys!

Listen, I'm back to SH3 and modding and I was about to tackle an issue
but before I do I'd like to talk to experts so I don't start from scratch.

Tried contacting h.sie since I remember he worked a lot around these areas
but unfortunately his mailbox is full. Hopefully he'll read this and join the chat!

So tell me, what do you guys know about Scene.dat and increasing the environment radius?

Has anybody tried anything bigger than 20km env?
What file controls the environment size?

By the way, I just finished reading a 5 page long topic "sensors"
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=189425
back from 2012 where some guys were working on a new mod.

The topic ends with no mention of this new mod... which one is it?


So the idea is to push the environment size and graphics a bit further.
Years have passed and we all have better computers now which can handle the extra workload.

Smoke plumes from convoys could be spotted from much greater distances than 20km.
I've been reading quite a bit into WW2 uboat books and there are plenty of accounts
of big stacks of smoke being spotted in the horizon at 30km distance, sometimes more.
A big convoy produces a lot of black smoke which rises and can be spotted much sooner than their masts.

So I was aiming for something like that.

Have been a long time since I've modded SH3 and for the past 3 or 4 weeks I've been reading everything that I could find
around TEC discussions here at Subsim and been fiddling with the game files myself to get all that rust removed.

I've done a lot of search but I cannot find any tech talk about the environment render distance.

Instead of starting from scratch and wasting weeks if not months working on something, I think it's
preferable to talk to you guys who have perhaps been around for all the time I wasn't and have
been modding or seeing mods come out and can update me so I can start further ahead on the road.

So, lets talk!

[Niume]

Good luck

[Tycho]

Originally Posted by Philipp_Thomsen

So tell me, what do you guys know about Scene.dat and increasing the environment radius?

Has anybody tried anything bigger than 20km env?
What file controls the environment size?

You need to start with new 3d models for sky, clouds and maybe fog.


Here, some posts I quickly found with google:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//sho...2&postcount=26

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//sho...23&postcount=8

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Originally Posted by Tycho

You need to start with new 3d models for sky, clouds and maybe fog.


Here, some posts I quickly found with google:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//sho...2&postcount=26

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//sho...23&postcount=8

Well, if Seedler is correct and there's a hardcoded limit at 20km,
this is a big bucket of cold water for what I had in mind. =/

Anybody knows if the same applies to SH4 and SH5?

[Tycho]

Originally Posted by Philipp_Thomsen

Well, if Seedler is correct and there's a hardcoded limit at 20km,
this is a big bucket of cold water for what I had in mind. =/

But makman wrote this:

Originally Posted by makman94

we need one up to about 32 - 33 km (which is possible in sh3. i had builted some large enviro 3d models just to test sh3 engine and ships were spotted way further than 20km ,up to 30 km and more.i made these models just for testing purposes and prooved that sh3's engine is working just fine that far away but i never finished them)

It is not clear for me, are the ships are "spotted further than 20 km, up to 30 km and more" by the boat visual sensor or by the player eyes.

So, you first need to make this clear, ask makman to explain, or just make new 3d models and test by yourself.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Originally Posted by Tycho

But makman wrote this:

It is not clear for me, are the ships are "spotted further than 20 km, up to 30 km and more" by the boat visual sensor or by the player eyes.

So, you first need to make this clear, ask makman to explain, or just make new 3d models and test by yourself.

Well making sensors able to spot ships at 30km away is not a problem, I've done it.
Problem is being able to spot them yourself...

I'll have to run some tests.

Any news here ? Is it possible to make a 30 km horizon mod ??

[gap]

Originally Posted by Philipp_Thomsen

Anybody knows if the same applies to SH4 and SH5?

As far as I know, in SH5 there is an hard-coded 3D rendering radius, which is the radius from the player beyond which any object becomes a simple point on the map without physical properties. The game will still keep track of units beyond this limit as they follow their planned route, but their damage, ammo storage, etc. get reset to the standard values, and neither the player nor AI crew can spot them, neither visually nor with any other sensor.

IIRC, in stock game this limit is set to 20 km, but TDW released a patch for increasing it at wish. No tweaks to environment 3D models are required when the patch is enabled