Radar sweep "hiccups" near 0 bearing

[flapjack]

This is version 1.5, stock.

I'm experiencing some "hiccups" with the PPI radar around zero bearing. For example, if the line is moving clockwise, when it hits zero bearing, it jumps to about bearing 003, stops there for a moment, then continues (at the position and speed it would have had it not jumped). Same thing happens in mirror-image when the line is moving the opposite direction, i.e. jumps from zero bearing to about bearing 357.

I distinctly remember not having this problem before upgrading to 1.5.
Does anyone know how to remedy this?

Thanks in advance.

-- fj

[magic452]

Me thinks you better keep the radar operator away form the medicinal alcohol.

Haven't ever noticed this as I don't use the radar manually much. so I don't have a solution.

Magic

[G2B]

From the "Peanut Gallery" Is your periscope up?

[LukeFF]

It's something that was introduced with 1.5. No known fix for the issue at this time.

[tomoose]

I was going to ask the same question. Hadn't noticed the stutter around the 360/0 mark before. Notice it everytime now, LOL.
Glad to hear it's a game problem and not a mod problem. A little distracting but not a showstopper.

[Keelbuster]

I find it annoying too - especially when you're trying to take a bearing/range for a target around that point. You basically have to guess on the bearing.

Another semi-related radar Q:

When you are in focus mode on the PPI, and you fix on a target to get range, I find that the range on the A-scope reaches maximum when the radar sweep arm is slightly off center of the target. In fact, often if you place the radar arm dead-center on the contact blip, the A-scope does not have a reading. Anybody know about this? If I maximize the height of the contact on the A-scope (e.g., position the radar sweep arm slightly off-center such that it maximizes the A-scope return), then am I getting the real bearing, or is it off by a few degrees because of an interface bug?

[tomoose]

Hmmmm, I hadn't noticed that before. Now you got me thinking. You've noticed too no doubt that when you click on 50ft for depth you get the response "new depth....49ft" or you click on 100ft and you get the response "new depth....99ft". Just a little off center so to speak.

Coincidence or giant conspiracy to mess with our minds, LOL???

In short, I think both issues are simple interface bugs. Not sure if they're moddable.

[KlassenT]

From what I've seen in a lot of other games, sometimes programmers just get lazy with their rounding. It's kinda pushing the envelope a bit for the sake of efficiency, but he consensus is sometimes "Why waste an extra CPU cycle to determine if something needs to be rounded up or down? Just do the same thing to every case."

I don't think it's too far of an assumption to think that in the case of depth, 99.9 could be reported as 99 instead of 100, even though it looks like your gauge is dead-on. Not a gamebreaker for me by any means, as I've never seen one foot make a distinct difference. Generally, I'd imagine that proper tactics should negate such trivial differences from ever playing a deciding role.

[Keelbuster]

A few degrees at 15000m can make a big difference. Mind you, if I plot systematically, I get a solution that is still correlated with the truth. Just wondering about it. I use radar mainly just to get a rough course and then I get the hard data visually.

[Hitman]

... and to worsen things, as Nisgeis noticed, it seems that SH3/4 works with a 361º circle

You have 360 and then ALSO 0 (zero), which seems to be also one of the reasons why it does a small jump at that bearing.

[Keelbuster]

Originally Posted by Hitman

... and to worsen things, as Nisgeis noticed, it seems that SH3/4 works with a 361º circle

You have 360 and then ALSO 0 (zero), which seems to be also one of the reasons why it does a small jump at that bearing.

That's wonky. Real wonky.

[Nisgeis]

Originally Posted by Keelbuster

Another semi-related radar Q:

When you are in focus mode on the PPI, and you fix on a target to get range, I find that the range on the A-scope reaches maximum when the radar sweep arm is slightly off center of the target. In fact, often if you place the radar arm dead-center on the contact blip, the A-scope does not have a reading. Anybody know about this? If I maximize the height of the contact on the A-scope (e.g., position the radar sweep arm slightly off-center such that it maximizes the A-scope return), then am I getting the real bearing, or is it off by a few degrees because of an interface bug?

The radar is weird, it doesn't give a return from the centre of the radar arc, but rather to the side of it, plus the radar width, so if the target is at a bearing of 10 degrees, the radar will give a return from 1 degree to 10 degrees, but stop at 11. This is exactly the same behaviour that the sonar has.

So, if you pick up a contact whilst sweeping clockwise, when you have lost the contact, step back anti clockwise and as soon as you pick up the target will be the correct bearing.

[G2B]

You could keep in mind radar was still somewhat new and bound to have a few glitches and work around it, maybe adjust the boats course a couple degrees port or starboard.

[Admiral8Q]

Originally Posted by G2B

You could keep in mind radar was still somewhat new and bound to have a few glitches and work around it, maybe adjust the boats course a couple degrees port or starboard.

I would think it was more useful at the time as an early warning system rather then a mean to attack on an exact bearing and range until after the war when they perfected it.

[Nisgeis]

Originally Posted by G2B

You could keep in mind radar was still somewhat new and bound to have a few glitches and work around it, maybe adjust the boats course a couple degrees port or starboard.

The real world radar worked perfectly, in that the contact would be the strongest at the bearing the radar was actually poiting. It's the SH4 radar that is all screwed up. Adjusting the boats course won't do anything to help, as the radar gives a relative bearing, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by Admiral8Q

I would think it was more useful at the time as an early warning system rather then a mean to attack on an exact bearing and range until after the war when they perfected it.

It was extremely accurate for range, within 25 yards give or take 0.1% of the range. The bearing could be measured with lobe switching to within a quarter of a degree (according to the manual), but it took time to do this, so sight was the preferred method for bearings and radar for range.