Blue Water Development Diary

[Herman]

Originally Posted by AzureSkies

Blast fragmentation heads are modeled, resulting in some interesting things when there are multiple targets flying relatively close by each other, such as a salvo of Harpoons. Even if debris meant for the lead missile misses, other missiles in the line could still fly into it - though the odds are lower since by the time the next missile has arrived, the frag debris cloud is relatively dispersed.

You have described some very complex fragmentation behaviour.

IIRC, one of the big concerns regarding point defence weaponry such as Phalanx intercepting Soviet high-speed missiles, like Kitchen and Sunburn, is the fact that fragmentation and ballistic effects of destroyed missiles. Will those effects be simulated within the game?

[FPSchazly]

Game is looking nice, I'm enjoying following this.

Originally Posted by Herman

You have described some very complex fragmentation behaviour.

IIRC, one of the big concerns regarding point defence weaponry such as Phalanx intercepting Soviet high-speed missiles, like Kitchen and Sunburn, is the fact that fragmentation and ballistic effects of destroyed missiles. Will those effects be simulated within the game?

If I may, I think what Herman was asking here is that if a Kitchen, for example, is "destroyed" by a Phalanx, i.e., no longer works as a missile anymore but was blown up close enough to the ship such that its fragments still have a large amount of kinetic energy and could still impact the ship, would the effect of a destroyed missile's fragments impacting the ship be modeled?

[AzureSkies]

Originally Posted by FPSchazly

Game is looking nice, I'm enjoying following this.

If I may, I think what Herman was asking here is that if a Kitchen, for example, is "destroyed" by a Phalanx, i.e., no longer works as a missile anymore but was blown up close enough to the ship such that its fragments still have a large amount of kinetic energy and could still impact the ship, would the effect of a destroyed missile's fragments impacting the ship be modeled?

Thanks!

Given this has been requested twice now, I'll definitely have to bump up the priority. As it is, a system of complex missile damage is already partly modeled - to the extent that bullets will sometimes (or oftentimes, depending on the missile) merely damage the missile instead of destroying it altogether.

I think I have some ideas on how to implement it more fully. Could also even incorporate the frag model to make even small pieces capable of causing damage to crew or stored helos if they retain enough energy after penetrating the hangar.

Weekly update to come momentarily.

[AzureSkies]

Hello again, everyone!



To start with, a new ship - sort of. The Azov is a modified Kara, so we finally have another Kara-class without the S-300F Fort (NATO name: SA-N-6 "Grumble") modification.





Here we see in the aft, instead of the battery of 5V55R missiles and a 3R41 Volna (NATO name: TOP DOME) radar, it's a dual rail M-11 Shtorm (SA-N-3 "Goblet") with a 4R60 Grom (Head Lights) radar director.

Also note the quintuple torpedo racks (PTA-53).



On the Azov, besides replacing the rear SAM system, the direct torpedo capability was also reduced due to reduced deck space, replacing the two quintuple launchers with two dual launchers.



A side-by-side view makes the Azov's (top) unique modifications more apparent.



Other changes: high-altitude appearance. Seen here is the view from about 90,000 feet:



With slightly more cloudy weather:



And a view from the altitude of a low-passing spy satellite altitude at around 220 km:



And finally... For missions especially far north such as in the Barents Sea, or near the Bering Strait or Alaska, sometimes the sun's weather reaches across the 98 million miles of space to touch the Earth's Thermosphere:



That's all for now. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, clear sailing.

[longface]

Great work, looks wonderful! One thing to add: at low earth orbit, I believe that the lower atmospheric limb becomes visible as a sort of blue haze climbing into space. It would be wonderful to see that modeled!

Edit: I see that it's already there to some extent, but it's not all that apparent.

[FPSchazly]

Damn, those northern lights are pretty cool

[BungoJungo]

Really excited for this, it looks great! Appreciate the updates

[AzureSkies]

Hello again, everyone,

Much of the work recently has been clearing up programming debt (ie, debugging and optimizing) and code not quite ready to show off, but there is one thing ready to show off: improving the high-altitude visuals with respect to the Earth's atmospheric haze is relatively easy, so here's some update on that.

If you find pictures of Earth from the ISS (and make sure it's not a narrow field of view or high-exposure picture) you'll realize the haze is actually very narrow from orbital altitudes.

280 km.


From high endo-atmospheric altitudes, it's considerably more visible. After all, this is more than 3x closer to the ground.

This kind of altitude may be relevant for things like ballistic missile interception.

80 km.


And going down to the service ceiling of the U-2 or SR-71/A-12 spyplanes or the MiG-31 (just a little higher than the MiG-25's service ceiling)...

80,000 feet.


Around the service ceiling of most aircraft, 50,000 feet.


Familiar as a typical cruising altitude for long airline flights, 30,000 feet.


15,000 feet


and just above sea level.


That's all for now. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, clear sailing.

[AzureSkies]

Hello again, everyone.

A day late, but not a dollar short... hopefully. Recent work has continued with more back-end code and implementing radar directors for SAMs. These are pretty important, placing somewhat significant limitations on the engagement and performance abilities of a system (such as some serious performance limitations when engaging enemies from multiple directions), as well as being the vulnerable target of Anti-Radiation Missiles such as the AGM-78 Standard ARM (the predecessor of the AGM-88 HARM, which wouldn't enter service until '85). Knock out a radar director, and the armament of missiles is useless - unless there's another the enemies could use.



The guidance simulation also has some interesting realistic effects - like for example, the effective range against a maneuvering target is going to be significantly lower than the effective range against a slower or less maneuvering target. So although the range of the Grumble may only be listed as 75 km, a helicopter may not be safe from even 100 km, and a fast and maneuverable jet will probably be relatively safe at 70 km (if it responds appropriately).

And when it comes time to simulate decoys and jamming, it's already halfway written and should work very realistically as well.

That's all for now. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, clear sailing.