Timing on sunken ships

[miner1436]

Hello, I have been wondering this since I started playing SH4, when you are in deep water, over 3000ft when you sink a ship and watch it go down after a while it dissappears, what makes this happen?

[CaptainHaplo]

Miner, water does not act like air when it comes to sunlight. What occurs is that as you get deeper, the light disappears to the point where the ship does too - its still there - you just cant see it.

[andycaccia]

I think he is talking about something different...
well miner ...you said that when a sinking ship comes to 3000ft it suddently disappears, right?

That is because the game engine doesn't render anything below 500-503 meters..or at least it's around 500 meters (1650ft more or less actually). Whenever an object (ship, submarine..) goes that deep the game engine simply deletes it.
Also if you could bring your sub down to 500 meters than it would disappear as well.

Do not do this or the game will stuck!!

Good Hunting!

[miner1436]

Originally Posted by andycaccia

I think he is talking about something different...
well miner ...you said that when a sinking ship comes to 3000ft it suddently disappears, right?

That is because the game engine doesn't render anything below 500-503 meters..or at least it's around 500 meters (1650ft more or less actually). Whenever an object (ship, submarine..) goes that deep the game engine simply deletes it.
Also if you could bring your sub down to 500 meters than it would disappear as well.

Do not do this or the game will stuck!!

Good Hunting!

Yes this is what I mean, is there a way to get the game to ender things that deep?

[andycaccia]

I don't know for sure...but I fear it's hard coded in the game mechanics...even SH3 had exacly the same "disappearing effect" at 503 meters. And since sh4 is derived directly form sh3 it retained also this effect.

It would be nice indeed to dive over 500 meters, but I do not know how to "tweak" the engine's limits and make it capable of rendering things below 500 meters.:hmm:

But if you are interested (and i am sure you are not the only one ) I suggest to start a new Thread or to ask around. Maybe someone knows...

Good luck!

[WernerSobe]

Originally Posted by miner1436

Yes this is what I mean, is there a way to get the game to ender things that deep?

so why would someone want it?

There must be a certain point where the engine deletes objects. Otherwise you might find yourself in overstrained system.

Example: When making NSM mod ive accidently turned the crates from sunken ships to be unsinkable. The game engine didnt delete them at all. That caused heavy lag during time compression. Anything beyond 1024 wasnt possible.

[andycaccia]

Well, i guess that if we simply double the render limit setting it to i.e 1000 meters the game would not suffer...but if we delete the rendering limit making sunken ships and objects never disappear THAT would cause serious performance lag. Besides, when you sink a ship in a place where the sea is not deep, the wreck hits the ground and sits on sand, but after a few minutes the engine always deletes it.

So I guess that there are more values to be considered than the simple depth. (I suppose that every "dead" object that doesn't pass the 503 meters limit in maximum 5-10 minutes after sinking will be automatically deleted. Otherwise everu ship sunken where the sea is less deep than 500 meters would remain there forever.

so why would someone want it?

Maybe some people are interested in a deeper sea?? If they ask for they must be interested in some way...:hmm:

[miner1436]

I would just like to see a ships hit the ocean floor in deep water, its fun to watch tem pick up speed and slam into the ocean floor.

[andycaccia]

I totally agree miner!!!!

And keep in mind that the ocean floor in sh4 is modeled faithfully according to the diverse real depths in the various regions of the globe, so I do not see the need of limiting the rendering depth at only 503 meters. If I only knew hot to mod that...

Does anyone know how to change that?