Adjusting escort visual sensors in TMO RSRD

[Bubblehead1980]

Trying to make TMO escort's vision a little more realistic at night....editing a visual mod I believe.What do I need to do? Have the AI_visualsensors_RSRD.dat open.
Correct file?

[irish1958]

I don't know the file. During WWII, the Japanese had an almost unreal ability to spot our ships at night. This lead to a disaster in the Slot Battle in 1942.

[Robin40]

Originally Posted by irish1958

I don't know the file. During WWII, the Japanese had an almost unreal ability to spot our ships at night. This lead to a disaster in the Slot Battle in 1942.

so they do in the game

a warning / note of caution here

i learned from Ducimus long ago that even small tiny changes to sensors can have broad side effects on all sorts of other things way beyond the tweak you are trying to make.

i suggest you seek his advice on what you want to do and he may be able to help you avoid messing up other things with the AI by mistake

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by irish1958

I don't know the file. During WWII, the Japanese had an almost unreal ability to spot our ships at night. This lead to a disaster in the Slot Battle in 1942.

True EXCEPT submarines bc subs are tough to see, esp at night.Read many accounts of subs coming within 1000 yards of an escort at night and not being spotted.Done this a few times in the game but more often than not they spot me at around 2000-2500 yards, which makes night surface tough to do in a realistic manner and esp with Mark 18 in later war due to its limited range.Read CLEAR THE BRIDGE! by Richard O Kane or THUNDER BELOW they came close, damn close without being spotted.Subs are small compared to most ships and sit low in water, tough to see on surface esp at night as said.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Trying to make TMO escort's vision a little more realistic at night....editing a visual mod I believe.What do I need to do? Have the AI_visualsensors_RSRD.dat open.
Correct file?

I have no idea how RSRD assigns visual sensors, but i can tell you how it works with TMO by itself.

There are several different visual sensors, and they vary by max range. I assigned these various sensors based on unit type.

For example, in TMO:

m_Visual is assigned to merchants.
AI_Visual (the default, stock visual) is assigned to all warships that are not capital warships. DD', DE, corvettes, etc.
F_Visual, is assigned to all capital warships. CA's, CV's, CE's, BB's, etc.

And so on and so forth. (FYI, i listed that in order from shortest to farthest range for surface units.)

Again, the primary difference between those is max range. The AI_Visual.dat file in TMO only specifies the geometry of those sensors. The framework if you will. Size, shape, etc.

A block of code in the sim.cfg is what specifies how those sensor behaves. Unfortunatly, a change in this file, is universal, and is applied to ALL visual sensors. So a change here, is a change to all visual sensors, and it is this file that specifies enviormental dampeners to the AI's visual acuity.

As i recall, the visual sensors max range at night, is around 60% of what it is during the day, and this percentage, ive been told in the past, is hardcoded. I'm not sure if i believe that or not, but thats what i was told. You can experiment with the visual light factor in the sim.cfg and see if that makes them less sensitive at night, but i suspect that will only get you so far. It's been awhile since I adjusted the visual sensors, so the specifc parameters on what numbers work and what don't in the sim.cfg are a bit hazy to me. I can tell you that testing visual sensory changes is a PITA. Which is why once i dialed it in, i avoided making changes to it as much is i could.