The Silent Hunter 4 TDC discussion

[elanaiba]

You do have a bearing readout, just as in the war versions of the TDC.



I think there's a bug, though, and the position keeper will not update the bearing once you use the periscope lock feature. Try to just attack ships without the lock, and see if it works correctly.

[heartc]

Well, I already thought that this is what you described in your initial response. However, if that is all there is, it is a highly inadequate and gross method of displaying relative target bearing to check for solution errors, especially on a tiny PC monitor. From your image scan and SHI, I got the impression that iRL they indeed had an additional numerical bearing readout. Did anyone check the manual yet and is seeing what I'm seeing there?

[elanaiba]

The real US TDCs that I've seen in pics didn't have the digital readout for bearing error that Friedman has drawn there.

Granted, they had a second relative bearing dial (actually a pair) which helps to read it precisely. But the interface in the game was meant to be kept simple and straightforward.

Perhaps the future will bring a clearer readout.

[gmohr]

elan,

I'm not sure what you are saying makes sense, or I'm mis-understanding you.

Examine the pic of the SHIV TDC. You are saying that the relative bearing is read from the inner dial, but from what index? As far as I can tell, the inner ring of the lower dial is a fixed compass rose around your ship, and the "arm" moving across your bow is the gyro angle of the solution as read against that inner ring. In your example, the relative bearing is reading zero, but It will *always* read zero....

Edit: Ahh, it seems that the outer ring of the bottom dial represents true heading of own ship. It's basically a compass when read against the inner ring "ownship" image. So, that sums up the bottom dial... ownship heading on outer ring, gyro angle on arm.

That leaves the top dial yet to be understood by my challenged brain hehe.

[elanaiba]

Draw a line between the centers of the two dials, that will be your index.

The inner ring is not always fixed, its rotating in connection to the bearing. So if the bearing to target is 90, you'll see the submarine pointing to the left.

But, there's a bug when using the lock on target feature, which sometimes locks the inner ring in the "bearing 0 is up" position.

[joea]

Dude you guys have made one of the most detailed analog FC computing device sims I've heard of yet it looks like. Congrats for this little triumph (no can't get SH4 yet).

[elanaiba]

I'm a sucker for little machines that do clever things, and I always try to make the player use them "as in real life".

[gmohr]

Not in my experience... Nothing I do can make that "ownship" picture change from a north/south orientation on that inner ring of the bottom dial, and zero is always at the 12 oclock position... I've tried setting up a complete solution in subschool without doing a periscope "lock". I get everything looking great then turn the sub 90 degrees... that inner dial never moves.

[ryuzu]

Originally Posted by heartc

Well, I already thought that this is what you described in your initial response. However, if that is all there is, it is a highly inadequate and gross method of displaying relative target bearing to check for solution errors, especially on a tiny PC monitor. From your image scan and SHI, I got the impression that iRL they indeed had an additional numerical bearing readout. Did anyone check the manual yet and is seeing what I'm seeing there?

If you look a bit more closely at the manual, what you read as

"Target 10 001"

Is actually

"Target ID 001"



Sorry, no bearing readout to be unlocked there...

r.

[rknhorse]

Originally Posted by elanaiba

You do have a bearing readout, just as in the war versions of the TDC.



I think there's a bug, though, and the position keeper will not update the bearing once you use the periscope lock feature. Try to just attack ships without the lock, and see if it works correctly.

aye! Just needs a bit of Ole Relative Bearing Grease!

[fullmetaledges]

Originally Posted by rknhorse

the "arm" on the botton dial is the gyro angle

[Torpex752]

That explains why I thought my calculations were off..hmmmm why didnt they just copy SH1's TDC???

Frank

[heartc]

Originally Posted by fullmetaledges

the "arm" on the botton dial is the gyro angle

Yep. And the inner ring on the lower dial is meant to indicate to COMPUTED relative target bearing on its 12 oc position in real time, so that you can check the solution for accuracy if this bearing matches the sighted relative target bearing you can see from your scope, or if it outruns / lags behind it. Unfortunately, as of know this dial is bugged and will only work (move) for starboard side targets or something, otherwise it will always center on a bearing of 0°. But this has already been reported.

Also: Even when this dial is fixed, it would still be cool to have a numerical (as in "312") target bearing readout, like in SHI, because to find out solution errors you need a pretty accurate and readable readout, which the inner ring is not. Remember, that dial was lot bigger iRL. For long range shots, even slight bearing errors will lead to missing the ship, and the less accurate the readout, the longer you will have to track the target to note a difference.