Can This Be A Work Around For The 8 KM Visibility?

[Jungman]

CCIP: All that was changed with Skycolors is the 3D model was made larger in size to fit the bigger world.

You can still make changes to actual color reflection etc as much as you wish. ASFAIK looking at the file and comparing it to stock the last few days.

Observor: As for precise range and max range, the crew still spots exact contacts at maximum distance.

Berry: I hope someone can figure out why the light modifiers are not being used in the sensors.cfg files. Or figure out a work around. It is not good to see the same distance at night as in the day. But FOG distances works OK it seems so far.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by CCIP

I hope this can be made compatible with RUb's darker reflections; I would do it myself but I'm not familiar with the SkyColors files at all...

Once work on this mod is pretty much done, I'll look at it to see if it can work with RUb. It should work, but I'm wary about looking at it at this early stage, because I'm not overly familiar with the files in question, and it sounds like fine tuning of the mod is still underway.

[Beery]

I've been looking at the skycolors files, and although there are definitely some changes that have been made (a comparison of the files made with a hex editor shows differences between the modded files and the originals), I'm finding it hard to see any real perceptible difference in terms of colour or shade (the files contain only two *.tga files, so they are graphical in nature). Their size has not changed either, so I'm a bit stumped as to where the changes lie, or what the changes do.

[Manuel Ortega]

Originally Posted by Beery

Manuel, when you get this working to your satisfaction I'd love to plug this into the RUb mod if you're willing to give us your permission.

Sure
I was disappointed when I saw the 8 km default limitation. And I don't know why the devs put that fog that fades the ocean at about 2 km, making the water awful at those distances (just a colored plane ). But now it's different. Sure that you will make the mod perfect, and I can tell you all the discoverments done.

About the skycolor files, the only item changed is the sky 3d hemi-sphere. In the three files it is from address 111 (decimal) to 5402. No more changed, so you can copy that entire block.

[Laffertytig]

the more people are lookin into this sim the more cracks are showing.
why oh why would the devs have visual ranges at day and night the same? plus the radar issues

[oRGy]

Not to mention that save game bug where scripted ships lose their waypoint information after a load, making things like harbour traffic etc **** up? Nasty.

The only way I can see around the above bugs of the night/day thing not working would be for someone to write a program in the background that dynamically monitors and changes the values held by SH3 when running. A program for Morrowind (TES Optimiser) did something like this for lots of settings.

[redstorm101]

Wow! great work guys....

[Immacolata]

Originally Posted by Manuel Ortega

Sure
I was disappointed when I saw the 8 km default limitation. And I don't know why the devs put that fog that fades the ocean at about 2 km, making the water awful at those distances (just a colored plane ). But now it's different. Sure that you will make the mod perfect, and I can tell you all the discoverments done.

It looks as if the devs did make the game capable of doing what you now find out. But I think they were forced to "nerf" their own game before release for some reason. No man with proudness in his work would allow for a 8km visual range. That is why we get so many radio contacts. They knew all along!

Originally Posted by Laffertytig

the more people are lookin into this sim the more cracks are showing.
why oh why would the devs have visual ranges at day and night the same? plus the radar issues

Money. It was all about making the simulation pass QA and the critical eye of the reviewers who can spot a pretty game 10 miles off, but can't identify whether its a good sim or not. That and experience, if Ubi Soft romania haven't made a subsim before, we must agree they did a very good first impression. Unfortunately there is no money in spending another 2 months fine tuning the game, when you are fine tuning the innards of a very complex simulation engine. And those changes would never be noticed by most people.

[Duke of Earl]

@Manuel or Jungman... what changes, if any, were made to the Camera.dat file?....

Right now, I am using CCIP's unlocked Camera mod (the Kaleun version)... is this the same Camera.dat file that is being used in this mod?

@CCIP.... any progress on updating your Camera.dat mod (Kaleun version) to unlock the Camera in the 'Periscope Seat' station?

Cordialement, Duke of Earl

[shipkiller]

Do we need to download jungman's sensors mod separately or is it included in this mod?

[Jungman]

The changes are only to the size of the sky so it fits the bigger world.
Any color changes are there to be made. Compare the files. Only the size of the sky was made bigger to see.

It will fit all RUB new color.

Do we need to download jungman's sensors mod separately or is it included in this mod?

It is very modable. what do you want in it? We need to figure out why or a work around for the night vision being too big.

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by Duke of Earl

@CCIP.... any progress on updating your Camera.dat mod (Kaleun version) to unlock the Camera in the 'Periscope Seat' station?

Ah, good reminder. I've been busy with another project lately, but I think I can squeeze this in for release in the next few days

[jasonb885]

Originally Posted by Laffertytig

the more people are lookin into this sim the more cracks are showing.
why oh why would the devs have visual ranges at day and night the same? plus the radar issues

Development deadlines or design decisions. The system can obviously handle the bigger world, so far. But seems like the RWD issue seems to indicate a decision was made at some point early in development of the engine that they'd limit it to 8km.

It could be any number of things from a fatal flaw to system requirements. Perhaps it's too FPS intensive for older machines. Who knows. I just hope the 8km limit isn't due to a fatal game engine flaw, or all of this work will be for not. And yet 8km seems like a hell of a way to cripple a subsim's game engine without a good reason.

It's clear why the free cam high is limited like it was, though. The game looks like crap if you go much above the original limit. From several km up the water looks boring and repetitive.

[CCIP]

Well there IS a drop in FPS, and you know how people get all "omg, FPS sucks=bad game"

Personally, I can sacrifice 30% of my FPS for having ~250% more visibility :hmm:
I guess that's not the way the Devs saw it though...

[jasonb885]

Originally Posted by CCIP

Well there IS a drop in FPS, and you know how people get all "omg, FPS sucks=bad game"

Personally, I can sacrifice 30% of my FPS for having ~250% more visibility :hmm:
I guess that's not the way the Devs saw it though...

I mean for part of their target market the FPS might have been fatal, moving into, say, sub 24fps territory.

Who knows.

It's a shame no one can share with us why they made the decision they did to cripple Mark One in the game.