"SH3Gen" Campaign enhancement (version 0.6.0)

[FIREWALL]

Hi Global Explorer
Only 1 ?. Does this great mod work with GWX ?

[JScones]

Originally Posted by GlobalExplorer

I didn't have time to download and test anything during the last days ..
y'know Christmas time and all. I hope that your problem is not related to Sh3Gen, though I wouldn't discount it completely. At least Sh3Gen is altering those files, and distorted text should be theoretically possible. Though there have been no problems of this sort for almost a year, and the only one I know of was discovered by myself (i.e. text spanning more than 1 page and causing a permanent crash).

Thanks everyone for the kind words! There is something in the works by the way, and it's not just another version of Sh3Gen, but something completely new. Hopefully I will be able to ready to release it sometime next year.

GE

SH3 does have a maximum display window. The limit is most noticable when reloading saved games while running SH3Cmdr and/or SH3Gen. Basically, when developed SH3 simply didn't expect the text to be as long as SH3Cmdr and SH3Gen makes it.

In SH3Cmdr I tried to alleviate the problem a bit (about a year ago now) by replacing all ---- text with --- and removing a lot of the punctuation (ie full stops and the like) from the monthly summary text to make the length less.

FWIW it's only visual and usually limited to when reloading saved games. The "extra text" as you've mentioned is always the save file name, which simply overtypes the existing text. IIRC, some other random characters are displayed as well.

[GlobalExplorer]

Originally Posted by JScones

SH3 does have a maximum display window. The limit is most noticable when reloading saved games while running SH3Cmdr and/or SH3Gen. Basically, when developed SH3 simply didn't expect the text to be as long as SH3Cmdr and SH3Gen makes it.

In SH3Cmdr I tried to alleviate the problem a bit (about a year ago now) by replacing all ---- text with --- and removing a lot of the punctuation (ie full stops and the like) from the monthly summary text to make the length less.

FWIW it's only visual and usually limited to when reloading saved games. The "extra text" as you've mentioned is always the save file name, which simply overtypes the existing text. IIRC, some other random characters are displayed as well.

I keep getting confusing information about that topic from users.

When I tested it one year ago I found that there is a limit at 256 characters. This only occurs when SHIII is saving, not when it is loading savegames - therefore the entries will show up correctly first, and truncation only occurs when you re-save and reload. I therefore changed all output in a way that it is split into entries or blocks of 255 character length.

However, recently someone posted about manually extended patrol logs getting truncated and he complained that Sh3Gen would be the culprit. He swore that messages of arbitrary length would show up without problem as long as he was not using Sh3Gen.

The text limit for map entries (.map files) is ~20 characters, this is a well established fact.

To be honest I don't feel like making any more tests into this atm. Just wanted to say that imo what JScones says about text limitations is correct, and every external application must make preparations for that. If someone has more reliable, precise information than I have, please let me know.

GE

[thehiredgun]

Does anybody know if it is compatible with Uber Boat?

[Canuck-Errant]

I'm having trouble getting the TatukGIS viewer [v. 1.8.7.342] to work correctly with the latest version of SH3Gen - the terrain refuses to display at all, though everything else - flags, markers, etc. - all seem to display correctly.

Is there any way to fix this?

[GlobalExplorer]

There was a problem with the terrain and the newer TatukGIS viewer [v. 1.8.7.342], but the corrected Sh3Gen v0.8.2 can be downloaded from:

http://www.global-explorer.de/contentpage_download.html

I have exchanged terrain.gml with a more compatible version in ESRI shapefile format - no other changes were made.

I have tested a few times with the new viewer release, and it worked again (loads faster as well).

Originally Posted by thehiredgun

Does anybody know if it is compatible with Uber Boat?

Sorry I have no idea ..

[TteFAboB]

This tool is absolutely brilliant.

GlobalExplorer, congratulations and thank you very much for making this. Personally I prefer using the TatukGIS thing on a second monitor when I have room in my desk or alt-tabbing when I don't instead of marking the map. It's just a preference for keeping my map clean and preserve my ability to use the Erase All as I draw on my map alot when doing 90AOB hydrophone attacks.

Anyway, I miss encountering the odd Warship task force in SH3. I can't remember the last time I bumped into one in the campaign. With SH3Gen set to the highest fidelity and amount of intelligence (I wonder if these max setting are like an 100% spysat) I can use the "Tactical Room" in the TatukGIS program to hide the Merchants and see only the Task Forces giving me a chance to intercept one eventually without blowing the fun by learning the location of all the nearest merchants and convoys. And since I'm currently not using GWX or any mod with additional harbor traffic it's also a good tool to let you know if there's anything on the port you're planning to raid while there's still time (before radar and etc.), a "cheat" that is compensated by the ridiculous possibility of raiding an empty port with vanilla harbors. Gee, you'd expect something, at least one little merchant or a trawler, a fishing boat, maybe a corvette. So it saves you from the frustation by making sure you raid a populated port.

Even so it's still useful as it was meant to be used, with lower accuracy levels: when the norwegian campaign began I diverted to Norway to eliminate their merchant fleet. After spending a few days with only one contact I decided to use SH3Gen at 50% to give me one miserable contact before I died out of boredom.

In short, SH3Gen is a fantastic tool that will increase your satisfaction whenever SH3 would've frustrated you.

[GlobalExplorer]

Long time since there has been such a reaving review so of course I answer your question:

Even at 100% S3Gen is no spysat mod. I cannot explain the whole process, but it is not easy to find the targets that Sh3Gen marks at sea, and while it is fairly realiable with the ones in harbours, its near suicide to go into them - and thats what t should be.

Patience, and persistence is the key, and constant use of hydrophones a must. At least the tool will tell you where to look for the interesting targets but it doesnt make it too easy to find them for you.

I personally have set the default settings as a compromise between what I consider realistic and the demands of people who want some results. That means, I would personally recommend to lower the settings so that you get only one or two high value targets per missions, but it seems thats what you are doing already.

What obviously not many people have realized is that arguably the most useful feature I ever added is the traffic concentrations layer in the GIS map. It gives you detailed, precise indications of traffic routes without exactly pointing to the exact locations. Personally I think that is my favourite feature of Sh3Gen, as well as the standing orders, which were not compiled by me (though I was the driving factor in integrating them in the tool).

I had hoped for a stronger influx of Sh3Gen on the SHIII community, but I an glad that almost anyone who was looking for the kind of realism/athmosphere I envisoned, and tried the tool has obviously liked it.

GE

[danurve]

Greetings; Checking out this nifty app - seems to generate thr report/orders correctly, ok. Saved game seemed to take a little longer to load, then the F5 screen shows I have -icebergs- all over the map, including in the Med!



Figgured I'd see whats up with that.

[Jimbuna]

Better cancel my summer hols

[GlobalExplorer]

Originally Posted by danurve

Greetings; Checking out this nifty app - seems to generate thr report/orders correctly, ok. Saved game seemed to take a little longer to load, then the F5 screen shows I have -icebergs- all over the map, including in the Med!



Figgured I'd see whats up with that.

Hmm. Climate change, I suppose.

Which config are you using (campaign files)? It`s possible that something is going wrong with some new kind of environmental onject, dolphins or lifeboats for instance. I might have to look into that and offer a fix.

For now you can try switching off the _LND / _SCR / _RND layer in Sh3Gen settings.

The screenshot isnt showing up for me.

[GlobalExplorer]

Your screenshot is showing up now. Could it be that there are a lot of dolphins in these areas? This might confuse Sh3Gen because the dolphin recognition is a hack (because they use the same classid as icebergs but only a different objectid) - and its not easy to implement a perfect recognition.

If thats the case, ignore them for now, and think of them as dolphins. If you`re really desperate you might as well go into Sh3Gens text config files and change the string "Iceberg" to something else like "Environmental". I think the file is in dictionary/english/map.names

[boneman]

IS IT COMPATIBEL WITH GWX 2.0???????? i am downloading it now

[GlobalExplorer]

Yes. Your question was answered here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...ghlight=sh3gen

[Venatore]

These are must have utlities for any SHIII gamer.

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