Depth Charge Click

[Reno]

I have quite a few books on submarine warfare in WW2 and remember reading in a few of them that when the DC was close an audible click would be heard just before the detonation. Depending on what you were reading at the time the click was attributed to either an arming mechanism or a sound wave. Anyway, I've had more than a few close calls but never heard a click. Is it just not modelled or has my hearing gone too?

[Reno]

Originally Posted by aad-marine

theres no click, just BOOM

Ah, that's a relief. Might be nice, though, to have the click just so we'd know when to duck.

[Chock]

Never heard it in the sim. Obviously it would be easy to mod it, requiring nothing more than a tweek to a sound file (as long as it stayed within the 15 second loop limit), but I guess you'd have to be careful that the sound didn't double up for another type of explosion somewhere else in the sim, or that would spoil things elsewhere (don't know if it does, but I know some weaponry sounds do serve double duty). Then again, if it was heard before every explosion, it might start to sound somewhat unrealistic and repetitive too, which is another risk with sound mods.

I can well believe that the trigger mechanism would be heard and transmitted through the hull if a DC was close, since sound is generally magnified quite a bit in those circumstances. I suspect the real difficulty would be getting a 'realistic', or at least 'believable' sound; since none of us were members of a U-Boat or Fleet Boat crew in WW2, it would be largely guesswork as to what the click actually sounded like, i.e. how loud, how long before the boom, what pitch etc? Of course you could simply go for something 'cinematic and atmospheric' as most movies do, i.e. real bombs and guns tend to sound crappy in comparison to the sounds in the movies!

Chock

[TheSatyr]

That was actually in SH1. If you heard the "click" you knew the DC was going to be close.

[tomoose]

Chock;
you got that right! LOL! Another is the ship collision sound, the same one is used for the rubber dinghy bumping the sub when you're dropping off marines or a spy! I'm sure everyone got one helluva shock when doing one of those missions for the first time........it's quiet, it's dark, the marines are on the deck, the little rubber raft is in the water and..........KRAANNG! SCREEEECH! CRUNCH! BOOM! WTF! Where did the destroyer come from, is it invisible, has it got stealth technology? Panic, looking around! Jump to external view to have a look around for the mysterious ramming source and there is the tiny raft causing all the ruckus!!!!!

I found some quiet canoe sounds which I attempted to replace the raft sound with but unfortunately when I got hit by a merchant in a future mission it resulted in the quiet burble/bump of canoe noises, LOL, then the game crashed so I had to go back to the original file to be safe.

I don't know about other people but EVERY single time I've had a spy or marine mission the rubber boat bumps into the sub and causes that sound. No biggie in itself but how on earth the beta testers missed that one is beyond me!!

[mrbeast]

Somebody relesed a DC sound mod that had the click before the boom of the charge. But I can't find it unfortunately.

It sounded like more of a crack than a click.

IIRC, I read somewhere long ago that the double sound is caused by; the charge detonating....click/crack.....which instantly vapourises the water in the centre of the explosion creating a vacuum, water rushes back in to fill the void.....the roar or boom after. I might be wrong on that though, but underwater sounds are quite different to those we hear through air and things can sometimes sound pretty unusual.

[Laffertytig]

if u guys head over to the SH3 mod forums there were plenty of sound packs that had the click sound. those files could be used with SH4 as well

[-Pv-]

My impressions is it was usually the sound man that heard splashes and the click just before he got his hears slammed "depth charges in the water!"
-Pv-

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by mrbeast

Somebody relesed a DC sound mod that had the click before the boom of the charge. But I can't find it unfortunately.

The one I used for my SH3 sound mod has the click. It is still available at http://u-boot.realsimulation.com/

Many of the sounds used in that mod were included in GWX for SH3. I don't know if the depth charge sound was one of them.

It sounded like more of a crack than a click.

IIRC, I read somewhere long ago that the double sound is caused by; the charge detonating....click/crack.....which instantly vapourises the water in the centre of the explosion creating a vacuum, water rushes back in to fill the void.....the roar or boom after. I might be wrong on that though, but underwater sounds are quite different to those we hear through air and things can sometimes sound pretty unusual.

I have always heard that the click was the depth-setting detonator going off just before the charge. I don't recall reading any official statement, though, so I too could be wrong.

[mcarlsonus]

The sound man would hear the splashes. However, there WAS a distinct "CLICK" prior to the explosion. If the charge itself was close enough, the entire crew could hear the "click" clearly and distinctly inside the boat. Psychologically, the "click" alone was devastating!

Source: my late father. A WW2 aviator, he was shot down and fished out of the water by one of our fleet boats on lifesaver duty. On the way to drop him off back home, said sub, pursuing a target, came under depth charge attack. The volume and timbre of "CLICK" was an excellent indicator of how well Japanese ASW had "bracketed" its adversary. One was no longer that interested in the inevitable "BANG!" "CLICK" said SO much more!

[mcarlsonus]

(I should read ALL the posts before responding! Sorry!)

The "CLICK" is, indeed, the depth setting device, but it's not an explosive in and of itself. It's a mechanical device - basically a barometer/altimeter. Depth setting reached, mechanism trips, firing pin hits primer concurrently ("CLICK"), 1...2... (if one's really lucky!), "BOOM"

As mentioned, sound in water travels differently. It's much amplified, and harder to localize. A sound with many harmonics, such as an explosion, is really difficult to glue into a cohesive pattern. But, "CLICK" is a different story.

[mrbeast]

Thanks for the info mcarlsonus