[REL] Rik007: SH-3 Night surface attack project [REL]

[rik007]

I feel I'm not 20 anymore. So I'm a slow modder and for years SH-3 didnot have my attention anymore but everything came back a year ago when I upgraded my video card...
On an average I now worked a few hours per week on this project which delivers an enabler. Basically it could be a breakthrough or a failure: who knows?
For me it is a breakthrough and I hope it will be the same for you all. I create some movies this week to explain it and some demo's.

First I explain the project itself and my experiments into night surface attacks and what I think of it:



Then an example of a night surface attack in 'Otto Kretschmer-style', unprecedented I think:



Then a sample of the wheather transition bug which is in most environment mods. The wheather will suddenly switch around 00:26:



And the version with a correct - smooth wheather transition:



Then a demo with Northern Lights and detection:



I want to thank:
- Hsie for his exellent hardcode mod. If you read this: a few of your discoveries in your assembly files I re-used!
- hughesjr for his basic voice attack profile (unreachable on Steam)
- Jerry Mason and crew

Here you find the site with the u-boot journals:

https://www.uboatarchive.net/

Go to U-boat KTB for the logs.

Update 29-8-2024: Release 1.20 has arrived
This is what has changed compared to 1.19:

- Date/time bug:
There are multiple date/time variable in sh3. One of them controls the moon and the environment and one is the current date/time you see on the watches etc. The first one is not correct after a save/reload. After a reload this date is set to the start date/time of the current patrol or in case of a first patrol in a campaign this will be start date/time of the campaign. What is expected is that after a safe/reload sh3 should set this date/time to the current date/time.

The effect of this bug is that every time you reload a patrol your environment including the moon phase/position will jump back to the start of the patrol instead of to the current date/time.

The fix implemented in the moon mod for this is to overwrite the date/time for the environment with the current game date/time to make sure the calculations are done with the correct date and the moon and environment are shown as expected.

- SH-5 Moon mod settings for GWX 3.0
Profile for users who use GWX.

Of course I like to thank Fubar295, Dieselglock, JohnCarterOfMars, Doolar & Fitzcarraldo for their help during the testing!

Please find below the link to the project which contains instructions how to install or upgrade. Please read the installation instructions carefully.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/f920w...v1.20.zip/file

Please consult the documentation that comes with the mod but for your convenience:

For people who have never installed the Night surface attack project:

- Add all 1.20 mods from the zip-archive to your MODS folder
- run the patcher
- Enable all 1.20 mods using JSGME

For people who switch from 1.19 to 1.20:

- Disable all 1.19 mods using JSGME
- Remove all 1.19 mods from your MODS folder
- Add all 1.20 mods from the zip-archive to your MODS folder
- run the patcher
- Enable all 1.20 mods using JSGME

Run the patcher:
- Use your explorer to go into your MODS folder. From there go into the folder: SH-5 Patcher.
- Start Sh5PatchExe.bat, follow the instructions ("Press any key to continue") and if you get “Patch done succesfully, you can enable the mod: SH-5 Moon mod" with JSGME!” the patching is done and the "SH-5 Moon mod" is ready to be enabled with JSGME

Fix for Windows 11 and improved environment date handling.

• This will fix the CTD in the moon mod when running Windows 11 with KB5044030 or KB5044033 (.net framework) installed
• Also this fix contains an improved handling of the environment date bug.

For details of the latter: https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...&postcount=116

How to add the patch for Windows 11 KB5044030 or KB5044033 on top of v1.20?

- unzip the "SH-5 Fixes for v1.20.zip" archive
- move the 2 mods inside the "SH-5 Fixes for v1.20" folder into your JSGME MODS folder
- In JSGME enable "SH-5 Fix for Windows 11 KB504403X and improved environment date for v1.20"
- this mod should be enabled on top of (after) the v1.20 "SH-5 Moon mod"
- if you use Stiebler's wheather fix you should enable "SH-5 Moon mod optional - Stiebler's wheather fix with improved environment date for v1.20" after "SH-5 Fix for Windows 11 KB504403X and improved environment date for v1.20".

You can download the fix here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/rj54h...v1.20.zip/file



Regards,

Rik007

[FUBAR295]

Wow, really something. All of them would make nice addition mods.




I really like the weather transition ... Nice !!

[stork100]

Well this looks extremely interesting. Thanks for the videos. Congratulations on the work achieved thus far. Potentially a phenomenal breakthrough - this could change the way we all play SH3. Best wishes towards your work and the project Sir.

[Mister_M]

Hello Rik007,

Environment and detection are indeed extremly important to create a good submarine simulation... And the moon light (and northern lights) was an extremly important factor. So definitely an excellent idea to get this factor work correctly...

I suppose all this works with a fix to the hardcode itself, especially to get the albedo effect? BTW, I'm really happy to have watched your video where you explain what it is, I've learnt something today!

"If people are willing to learn how=to-hard-code-fix I might organize an online workshop."

==> Oh, yes, learning how to hard-code fix would interest me a lot.

"As how to contine: I will ask some people to 'beta-test' and depending on the results further steps will follow."

==> I'm interested.

[Dieselglock]

This sounds awesome. Cant wait to try it out. It would really change everything.

[rik007]

Thank you all very much! At the moment I'm working on notifications so that you are informed when it is full moon, quarter moon etc or if northern lights are sighted.

These messages should not appear when the u-boot is submerged. Ideally also if there is no WO on the bridge. Though I do not think only the WO sights the moon...

Then I will do some testing and polishing in the config files

If that is working fine I will contact the beta's for testing ...

Mister_M: you have been added to the beta list as well as for the to be hardcode modding workshop...

Stay tuned!

[iambecomelife]

Was very impressed with the weather transition and Northern Lights ... they look very eerie as they should.

Eagerly await more!

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by rik007

Thank you all very much! At the moment I'm working on notifications so that you are informed when it is full moon, quarter moon etc or if northern lights are sighted.

These messages should not appear when the u-boot is submerged. Ideally also if there is no WO on the bridge. Though I do not think only the WO sights the moon...

Then I will do some testing and polishing in the config files

If that is working fine I will contact the beta's for testing ...

Mister_M: you have been added to the beta list as well as for the to be hardcode modding workshop...

Stay tuned!

Nothing wrong with having notifications of moon status when submerged. Charts, timetables, etc. of it's phases and their dates and exact times every month were around long before WW2.