Help anybody.. stars in the night sky

[vanjast]

As it says...
I'm busy with a 'Real Navigation' Mod that will make it that much harder to play the game.

The key to this mod is knowing the whereabouts of the star (night sky) information in the game. I've scanned all the game files with a Hex editor and this info looks as if it's buried in one of a few files that I've narrowed it down to. I thought that it might also just be a great big bmp/jpg file (with white dots) that is used as a backdrop but cannot see this !!

Does anyone have any info in this regard. Is there an 'star editor' of sorts..etc.

Getting hold of this info is crucial to the accuracy/working of the mod and it'll help a lot.

Thanks
Van (Kaleun_Freddie, K_Freddie)

[Sailor Steve]

No clue, mate, but I sure like the direction you're heading. I hope it works out and we can actually play with celestial navigation. There's already a good thread on dead reckoning.

[Jimbuna]

Sorry...not a clue from me either...but it sounds like a good idea you got there

Oh!....and welcome aboard kaleun

[Letum]

Even if you can find a star map file, don't count on them changeing according to your lon/lat

[vanjast]

Originally Posted by Letum

Even if you can find a star map file, don't count on them changeing according to your lon/lat

I would like to modify(add) the star map/positions to be as accurate as possible, so I can use the maps/docs I've created - still looking (Manual labour => backup file - modify - run game - crash - OK next trick - backup file...).

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Oh!....and welcome aboard kaleun

Thanks .. been around for a while.
Never been sunk before, career(100%) got as far as june/july'43, then got distracted..

I'm going to start AGAIN with NYGM (2.3), but would like to get this Nav mod out first.

[don1reed]

...you've peeked my interest, vanjast. Have you discovered/developed an accurate means of measuring altitudes of celestial objects in the game?

Some of us have learned that the astronomical data for the moon in the game is no where near accurate with real phase/illumination etc. Using external navigation programs and applying 1939-1945 sight reduction data, we've discoved that the celestial canopy in the "game" is just eye candy.

edit: also the "clock" in the game is without seconds...unless you want to use a stop watch to time the clock between minutes...

cheers,

[AVGWarhawk]

Just do what I do, I wet my thumb, put it up in the air whilst on the conning tower. The side of my thumb that becomes colder than the other is the the direction I go

In all reality I do not think you will be able to create such a mod with what is offered in the game to work with.

[_Seth_]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Just do what I do, I wet my thumb, put it up in the air whilst on the conning tower. The side of my thumb that becomes colder than the other is the the direction I go

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Vanjast, this is a great idea! i have surely missed the possibility to navigate for real in shiii. The nav-map & other navigational issues is the only thing in SHIII thats still arcade... I hope you get this working, mate!

[vanjast]

I won't get pin-point accuracy, but it would be nice to get within a few Kms of the waypoint. If close to land, the navigation will be to avoid running aground until you find what your looking for (as he breaks out into song.. )

I'm trying to make it close to what is was like then, to navigate with a sextant and mechanical timepiece. I don't think the bases had homing beacons, maybe someone knows about this.

----------------------------------------------------
An example. You set out patrol to GridXY, you know your current position, and set your waypoints. You know that it should take you so many days/hours at cruising speed to get to a certain point where you must change course, and so forth. I expect the SH3 world is flat like a mercator projection (look in maps folder) and no anomalies (it'll make this job easier). You can check your approximate position via a Sun/Star Almanac (I have a nice navigation proggy that will give you all the details for the whole war period), and a sextant.

As the screen view is limited to various physical sizes, I'll provide a high res sextant 'vertical ruler' that you can scale to your screen height and print or it may be inserted as a graphic like the scales on the Tactic map. This is where I need the game Star position data, coz we need accurate reference stars to scale the sextant to your individual screens (manual labour but worth it).

So you get a convoy report in gridAB, now you need to navigate there ???. After doing a convoy battle for a few days, do you know where you are ?. You're damaged and have to get home - hoo boy you're in trouble now!

The one mod I installed previously made the sub icon dissapear. the only problem with this is that you could still obtain your position even though there's no icon. Have to work a way to disable this, via minimum zoom values.

I have a planisphere Southern and Northern hemispheres which give you correct sky orientations wrt to positions and time. I'll scan this but it much nicer having the real thing. And all the educational stuff will be provided - just bring your sub loaded with crew weapons and beer!!

Gee I'm going off a bit... but this is the BIG plan anyway
van

[vanjast]

Originally Posted by _Seth_

Vanjast, this is a great idea! i have surely missed the possibility to navigate for real in shiii. The nav-map & other navigational issues is the only thing in SHIII thats still arcade... I hope you get this working, mate!

The map is a bit of an issue so it's either, creating my own map (got mapping software), or doing a thousand section screengrabs of the SH3 map and putting it together. Or you can just work with the SH3 Map which will be the easiest.

I'll provide various options for all three so you can choose whatever suites yourself.

[vanjast]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

In all reality I do not think you will be able to create such a mod with what is offered in the game to work with.

It is going to be difficult if not impossible, but if it's impossible I'll change the real physical night sky to the SH3 night sky and work on that. This would make it, be it not really real, more workable !.

It will require a lot of time testing... Maybe I'll only end up leaving port with NYGM 5.39

I LOVE BEING A BILGE RAT !!

[Hartmann]

The problem is know were is the stars database in sh3.

perhaps a file with data in numbers, :hmm:

orbiter, a very acurate space simulator, has a 100.000 stars database and is a 1300 kb file (1,28 mb) but i don´t know if is the same format or not.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Hartmann

The problem is know were is the stars database in sh3.

perhaps a file with data in numbers, :hmm:

orbiter, a very acurate space simulator, has a 100.000 stars database and is a 1300 kb file (1,28 mb) but i don´t know if is the same format or not.

:hmm:

[jimmie]

I don't even know how to really navigate by stars and sextant and sun etc in real life so let me say this in mind...

I heard most those famous star positions are correct (how precise I don't know) so even I can observe a constellation on right time and date.. We talked about this idea when SH3 just came out. So the moon and stars are generally "useful" to some people (well not me obviously. Ah, but moon table (historical) is useful to make up attack plan)

Now we don't have anything to measure. Then I'm not very sure if this does matter but I don't think SH3 world is spherical - and the seemingly Mercator projection map may be not accurate..

And then we need to somehow kill our perfect GPS..

There's a Star Radius setting in Scene.dat
Never messed with it though.
Envsim.act References Star Radius setting as meters also.