Turning off the external camera - a thrill unto itself

[Eagle Eye]

I'm trying but its such a beutiful game and I love to look around.

[Tijn]

i turned of the xternal camera a couple of month ago and although i miss the the times that i could look at my boat, it's just much more intense. Same people play with external camera and just don't cheat with it. I can't do this, i have i have it i use it. So for me it's 100%.


Grtz Tijn

[TarJak]

IIRC you can turn it off using SH3commander. Otherwise there must be an option to do it. I know I don't have it now but I can't remember where and how I turned it off it was so long ago.

[Hartmann]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Making a wild guess here, im guessing most people have the external camera on. I mean, lets face it, we all love eye candy. External camera gives the game a cinematic feel. Seeing your own uboat (complete with that real cool tower emblem, and rust that makes it look like an old salt and war veteran) is very appealing and gratifying. What's more seeing the damage you've wrought onto your target with debris (or bodies) flying with massive explosions is REALLY gratifying.

However....
with all that goodness comes some negative's, at least in my opinion. But to summerize the negative, the external camera takes away an element of uncertaintly, suspense, and beleivablity.

For example, you have one or more sound contacts. You have no idea what they are. One quick push of the , or . keys and you instantly know. Or you could cycle views on every ship in an entire convoy and see what you have in there. The reality is, you'd never know what these sound contacts are until you pop the scope. (same goes for RWR or radar contacts too). The short of it is, the external camera gives you far far FAR more info then a real submarine captain would have had. A sub has two primary sensors really. The good ole fashined eyeball fixed on a periscope or pair of bonoculars or sound.. your hydrophones. In a situation where your submerged, the hydrophones become your eyes.

Another example is all the building and landscape. Its beleive able when viewed from the bridge, but looking at it up close, things tend to look a bit on the lame side.

other exampbles would be seeing exacly how your torpedo's hit, or the status of a target that was hit when submerged beyond periscope depth.. something you'd never be able to do in real life.

But the biggest example is that element of suspense and claustphobia. Not present to any large degree when your boat is 250 meters deep, and yet your looking at your pursuer on the surface as if bobbing around in a life boat. Imagine yourself under a depth charge attack, without the ablity to hit F12 or any other camera hotkeys. Sound plays a much bigger role, and like the captain in dasboot, you have to wonder, "What's going on up there, running away? ".

With your view confined to essentually the control room. All you have to rely on is your brains, wits, your sonar, and your gut instincts. Personnally i find myself alot more attentive - closing my eyes, trying to visualize whats going on up there. Other times i even find myself on the edge of my seat because the antcipation of what might about to happen is just killing me! The desire to hit F12 to releive that is immense, but when you don't do it, and succeed, its pretty satisfying.


Point of all this is..... Try turning off that external camera for at least one patrol and see how your experience changes - particuarlly if your being depth charged. I know the eye candy is hard to give up, but personnaly i think its worth it.

Yes . i know it , wen i played AOD and SH1

In sh3 i tried it time ago with deph charge shake mod in u-505 mission. lol ! it was really scary, i had external camera enabled but i don´t used it because i have to see the shakes in command room, and was like if the boat was breaking in pieces .very claustrophobic and realistic.

Unfortunately External view is focus in a fixed view in the surface , could be interesting a external camera focused in the boat.

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Making a wild guess here, im guessing most people have the external camera on. I mean, lets face it, we all love eye candy. External camera gives the game a cinematic feel. Seeing your own uboat (complete with that real cool tower emblem, and rust that makes it look like an old salt and war veteran) is very appealing and gratifying. What's more seeing the damage you've wrought onto your target with debris (or bodies) flying with massive explosions is REALLY gratifying.

However....
with all that goodness comes some negative's, at least in my opinion. But to summerize the negative, the external camera takes away an element of uncertaintly, suspense, and beleivablity.

For example, you have one or more sound contacts. You have no idea what they are. One quick push of the , or . keys and you instantly know. Or you could cycle views on every ship in an entire convoy and see what you have in there. The reality is, you'd never know what these sound contacts are until you pop the scope. (same goes for RWR or radar contacts too). The short of it is, the external camera gives you far far FAR more info then a real submarine captain would have had. A sub has two primary sensors really. The good ole fashined eyeball fixed on a periscope or pair of bonoculars or sound.. your hydrophones. In a situation where your submerged, the hydrophones become your eyes.

Another example is all the building and landscape. Its beleive able when viewed from the bridge, but looking at it up close, things tend to look a bit on the lame side.

other exampbles would be seeing exacly how your torpedo's hit, or the status of a target that was hit when submerged beyond periscope depth.. something you'd never be able to do in real life.

But the biggest example is that element of suspense and claustphobia. Not present to any large degree when your boat is 250 meters deep, and yet your looking at your pursuer on the surface as if bobbing around in a life boat. Imagine yourself under a depth charge attack, without the ablity to hit F12 or any other camera hotkeys. Sound plays a much bigger role, and like the captain in dasboot, you have to wonder, "What's going on up there, running away? ".

With your view confined to essentually the control room. All you have to rely on is your brains, wits, your sonar, and your gut instincts. Personnally i find myself alot more attentive - closing my eyes, trying to visualize whats going on up there. Other times i even find myself on the edge of my seat because the antcipation of what might about to happen is just killing me! The desire to hit F12 to releive that is immense, but when you don't do it, and succeed, its pretty satisfying.


Point of all this is..... Try turning off that external camera for at least one patrol and see how your experience changes - particuarlly if your being depth charged. I know the eye candy is hard to give up, but personnaly i think its worth it.

I used to play with the external camera off, and for exactly the reasons you state. It's a lot more nerve-wracking having NO clue or idea what's overhead than it is if you 'cheat' and use the camera to look about.

Thing is . . . SHIII/GWX is a marvelous, awesome eye-candy graphics game for me. I enjoy the ability to take screenshots of things like: leaving port . . . 'riding off' into the sunset . . . close-up shots of torpedo hits and sinkings . . . depth charges raining down around me (which isn't exactly something I enjoy happening :p ) . . .

All of your negative points become moot and invalid if a player does one thing: he/she scrupulously does NOT utilize the external camera to 'cheat'. That means not using it to scope out a convoy contact at range to predetermine nationality by examining their flags, not using it to explore the convoy and spot out the fattest juiciest targets, etc.

"But to summerize the negative, the external camera takes away an element of uncertaintly, suspense, and beleivablity."

Yes, it does. But only if a player allows it to do so. The external camera is like most other tools: completely neutral and dependant upon how it is used. I, myself, have never been tempted to use it to help me out of a tight jam, or give me information that I 'realistically' would not be able to acertain and acquire. And I've not been tempted because, as much as I enjoy the 'eye-candy' aspect, I enjoy the palm-sweating, bowel-tightening, bone-chilling thrill and exhilaration of the unknown, wondering if, this time, my skill and experience isn't going to be enough to have me, my crew and my boat survive.