That Silent Hunter IV World.....

[Seminole]

As far as the map changing, it is to simulate "rigging for red" at dusk and going back to normal lighting at dawn. It serves the purposes of (1) keeping night vision so if you have to go outside or look out without warning you won't be blind (can take 30 minutes or so to adjust vison to dark), and (2) keep some reference for crew as to night/day.

...Only problem with that theory is that the dawn,day, dusk,night lighting changes occur according to time shifts relative to your home base.

It does very little good to "rig for red" when it is broad daylight up on deck and it remains hours to nightfall at your current location.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Seminole

...Only problem with that theory is that the dawn,day, dusk,night lighting changes occur according to time shifts relative to your home base.

It does very little good to "rig for red" when it is broad daylight up on deck and it remains hours to nightfall at your current location.

Couple of things here, My map only turns 'red ish' when it is dusk till dawn locally. In fact I use it as a rough indicator of when the sun is setting so we can come up for fresh air.

"Rigged for red" was only used when the ship was preparing to surface after dark. It was done to allow the sailors pupils open and have better night vision. Under 'normal' conditions surfaced, submerged, day / night normal 'white' lighting was used. No they did not spend all night under red lighting. Some guys may have turned the lights down / off while sleeping.

I remember reading somewhere that modern subs alter lighting levels to simulate day / night cycle for moral purposes. See as how the boys literally havent seen the sun for months.

[Task Force]

Wow were sailing in a ailean world. Better look out for ufos, They might take my sub.

[Lexandro]

Originally Posted by Task Force

Wow were sailing in a ailean world. Better look out for ufos, They might take my sub.

Haha your saying that but the first time I was on patrol I saw some glowing shapes floating in the air and getting closer to my periscope during an attack and I thought the martians had decided to watch . Then reality slapped me and I realised it was starshells

Originally Posted by Lexandro

Haha your saying that but the first time I was on patrol I saw some glowing shapes floating in the air and getting closer to my periscope during an attack and I thought the martians had decided to watch . Then reality slapped me and I realised it was starshells

Maybe the martians were firing star shells?

[Task Force]

Originally Posted by Rilder

Maybe the martians were firing star shells?

So the martians are on there side.

Originally Posted by Task Force

So the martians are on there side.

Lets hope they don't have depth charges!

[kylania]

Originally Posted by Task Force

Wow were sailing in a ailean world. Better look out for ufos, They might take my sub.

I heard some in SH3!

[BlueFlames]

I think that the slight color variances all over the map are meant to show that it has been creased and left in a high-humidity environment. That will leave paper wrinkled and unable to sit flat on the table, so there will be slight shadows on parts of the page. Silent Hunter III did much the same thing, but the creases were positioned in a fixed position, relative to your eye, rather than relative to the map, so when you dragged the map around the table, the creases didn't move with the map, like they should have.

Methinks the Roswell aliens landed in Germany years before the crash in New Mexico but didn't leave anything behind nearly as useful as the velcro the Americans picked off of Little Gray's rotting carcass.

[groomsie]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

"Rigged for red" was only used when the ship was preparing to surface after dark. It was done to allow the sailors pupils open and have better night vision. Under 'normal' conditions surfaced, submerged, day / night normal 'white' lighting was used. No they did not spend all night under red lighting. Some guys may have turned the lights down / off while sleeping.

Can you find support for this, because I'm dubious. My understanding is it can take 30 minutes or more to fully acclimate your night vision, and in wartime steaming why take the chance on having to wait 30 minutes if some need to look around at night suddenly comes up (potential target or emergency). If you were sure you wouldn't need night vision on short notice I could see this, but what captain could be that sure?

Certainly on surface I'd question any sub running with normal lights inside. We always set night time lighting on surface ship, and a WWII sub was nothing much more than a small surface ship that could submerge part of the time. Sub isn't big enough to isolate your watch reliefs to allow night vision to fully acclimate, easier to darken ship.

Originally Posted by SteamWake

I remember reading somewhere that modern subs alter lighting levels to simulate day / night cycle for moral purposes. See as how the boys literally havent seen the sun for months.

Again, my brief (overnight on USS Gurnard) at sea experience on a modern US Navy sub confirms this is done, and part of the reason is to keep some sort of reference fram on real world.

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by groomsie

Can you find support for this, because I'm dubious. My understanding is it can take 30 minutes or more to fully acclimate your night vision, and in wartime steaming why take the chance on having to wait 30 minutes if some need to look around at night suddenly comes up (potential target or emergency). If you were sure you wouldn't need night vision on short notice I could see this, but what captain could be that sure?

This comes from the Feet Submarine Manual, in the section about duties of the CPO of the Watch:

At night, insure that each oncoming lookout is fitted with and wears dark adaptation goggles continuously for at least 20 minutes before being allowed to proceed to the conning tower.

And farther down, in the same section:

Half an hour prior to surfacing, rig the hatch skirt. Turn out the white lights; turn on the red as designated for the control room.

[tomoose]

As mentioned previously the light and dark aspects of the map page, at least to me, where simply there to simulate creases in your map chart. I've found no correlation between these shaded areas and time of day. One thing I have noticed however is the time of dawn and dusk once I get near japan whereby dawn can be close to 10am and dusk damn near midnight in some cases!! I know there's DST etc and I don't have any real life exposure to that end of the world but the dawn and dusk timings seem a bit strange sometimes.

Ref red lights, we still use red filters on flashlights at night to maintain night vision "in the bush". There's a good episode of Mythbusters which investigates this type of thing, it was their "pirate myths" episode. Supposedly one myth states that the famous pirate eyepatch was not from wounds but a method of keeping one eye ready for night vision by keeping it covered!!

[tomoose]

As mentioned previously the light and dark aspects of the map page, at least to me, were simply there to simulate creases in your map chart. I've found no correlation between these shaded areas and time of day. One thing I have noticed however is the time of dawn and dusk once I get near japan whereby dawn can be close to 10am and dusk damn near midnight in some cases!! I know there's DST etc and I don't have any real life exposure to that end of the world but the dawn and dusk timings seem a bit strange sometimes.

Ref red lights, we still use red filters on flashlights at night to maintain night vision "in the bush". There's a good episode of Mythbusters which investigates this type of thing, it was their "pirate myths" episode. Supposedly one myth states that the famous pirate eyepatch was not from wounds but a method of keeping one eye ready for night vision by keeping it covered!! I know in the military it's common to be told to close one eye at night when a light source appears in order to keep your night vision.

[Seminole]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Couple of things here, My map only turns 'red ish' when it is dusk till dawn locally. In fact I use it as a rough indicator of when the sun is setting so we can come up for fresh air.

"Rigged for red" was only used when the ship was preparing to surface after dark. It was done to allow the sailors pupils open and have better night vision. Under 'normal' conditions surfaced, submerged, day / night normal 'white' lighting was used. No they did not spend all night under red lighting. Some guys may have turned the lights down / off while sleeping.

I remember reading somewhere that modern subs alter lighting levels to simulate day / night cycle for moral purposes. See as how the boys literally havent seen the sun for months.

..well we must have diffent games then 'cause mine changes to red while it is still broad daylight up on deck...guess that could be termed a rough indicator if by that you mean it is 3 hours to nightfall... ...and as I said already ..it makes very little sense to rig for red while it is still daylight...irregardless of what the "book"calls for.

[Seminole]

were simply there to simulate creases in your map chart.

Are you certain the charts were paper? ..folded paper?

I have an actual one in my collection ...and it is printed on silk, rolled up silk at that..not folded. I assume silk was used to resist rot and mildew better than paper in warm ,humid, tropical conditions..like one would find in a submarine operating in the PTO.

I'll say it again...these dark...and light areas are not static.They change. Look at the screenies I posted. There must be a reason for the change.

My suspicion now is that they correlate to weather conditions. More investigation is required.My opinion is subject to change depending on developments.