Is there a mod to hide map contact updates but keeps sonar lines?

[cuervo111]

Hi all.

I've been around for some time but I don't use to post, as you may guess I'm rediscovering SH3 with GWX1.03 right now. It's really impressive stuff!

I like manual TDC, so I like map contact updates disabled. However, I think the sonar lines are cool and not very unrealistic, as they don't give you range to contacts. However, I don't know a way to use sonar lines but no magic satellite style ship icons. I've been trying to explore some tga files to eliminate the contact icons without success.

Is there a mod to do this? Has anybody tried it before?

Thanks in advance and good hunting!

[CaptainAsh]

I m looking for exactly the same

[Hitman]

The files that show ship silhouettes in the map are the _shp.tga ones in all individual ship folders in Silent HunterIII/Data/Sea, for example "NCO_Flower_shp" displays the Flower silhouette from above in the map. Some mods like the venerable Real U-Boot made those tga fully transparent so that even with "Map Updates" turned on, you could not see in the map where the enemy ship is. However, you can still get the rest of items not blanked out, like in this case, the sonar contact lines (Which are "contline.tga" in Silent HunterIII/Data/Menu/Gui).

So, if you want to delete ship silhouettes but keep the sonar lines, create new, empty _shp tgas for all ships and overwrite the existing ones.

[cuervo111]

Thanks a lot!

That info will help a lot. However, I'd like to remove also the contact icon the map shows when you zoom out. I thought they would be the tgas in data\menu\gui\units, but I dont find anything similar there.

Also, I'd like to keep the sonar lines when my sub is surfaced or my periscope up. SH3 puts the icons in place of the lines as soon as you up the periscope, is there a way to alter this behavior?

Thanks again and... please forgive my poor English!

[Hitman]

However, I'd like to remove also the contact icon the map shows when you zoom out. I thought they would be the tgas in data\menu\gui\units, but I dont find anything similar there.

Also, I'd like to keep the sonar lines when my sub is surfaced or my periscope up. SH3 puts the icons in place of the lines as soon as you up the periscope, is there a way to alter this behavior?

Hey! You have not even completed the first step and are already asking for more?

When zooming out is controlled by another item, I can't remember now which one. As for sonar bearings when surfaced, that is not possible because it is encoded, and anyway, most of the U-Boot sonars only work when submerged as they are above the deck (But not all, f.e. the Balkon Gerät is fixed at the keel)

[cuervo111]

Thank you again Hitman!

It's been quite a busy week and I forgot about this topic

I have another question (I hope its the last one): how can I edit the tga files? I tried with Photoshop but most of the files appear just a single color image. I've tried several free tga viewers and I have the same problem. Do you know a free editor I can use?

Happy hunting!

[Hitman]

In Photoshop you can see the real image by loading the Alpha Channel. Toolbar---->Mask---->Load from Alpha Channel.

It is a normally invisible channel that can exist in some files (TGA for example, but not BMP) which gives the game a transparency.

Good luck