[TEC] IRAI question

Hello modders and all captains, i read in some post, where DarkWraith wrote that he can't get real AI, becouse, at the begin of the war destroyers was poor and after become much stronger, so he is put settings to IRAI with hard difficulty. I'm not a modder, but i can redact the file sim.cfg. So the question is what settings will be optimize for real destroyers behavior in the begin of the war? I don't wan't poor destroyers, but i want behavior close to reality, in any case in next years i can adjust settings, and destroyers will be strong as much as in reality. There are the few parameters, that i don't very good understand (though there are explanations). For example, sensivity in OM for sh 4 is 0.01 and here 1 anywere. As i can imagine, more sensivity - more reaction, stronger sonar, hydro and other. But what those numbers mean?

For example, for hydro:

[Hydrophone]
Detection time=3.0 ;[s]
; lower values then 1 make it harder for AI to detect you
Sensitivity=0.9 ;(0..1)
Height factor=0 ;[m]
Waves factor=0.75 ;[>=0]
Speed factor=16 ;[kt]
;1 is on the deaf side
;0.10 is on the uber end
Noise factor=0.325 ;[>=0] was 1.3, decreased by 74.5%
Thermal Layer Signal Attenuation=1.45 ;[>0], 1 means no signal reduction, 3 equals signal reduction to 33% was 3.0, decreased by 55%
Min Signal Strength=0.125

[Aktungbby]

Bystryi!

[gap]

Welcome aboard Bystryi!

Please read below my understanding of the parameters that your question refers to.

• Detection time: the minimum time in seconds a submarine must be within the detection cone of an enemy hydrophone, before it can be detected (that simulates sensor's latency + operator's reaction time)
  
  
• Sensitivity: a positive number bigger than 0 and smaller or equal to 1; it determines the maximum detection time: at Sensitivity x MaxRange* distance, we have a double detection time. Let's say that MaxRange = 8500 m and (minimum) Detection time = 3 s. With a sensitivity value of 0.1, we would have a latency of (3 x 2 =) 6 s at a range of (0.1 x 8500 =) 850 m. If the sensitivity is increased to 0.9 the same latency time will occur at a range of 7650 m.
  N.B: if not set to 0, the Sensitivity parameter in each sensor's obj_Sesor controller, will override the global Sensitivity factor is sim.cfg file.
  
  
• Height factor: I am not sure about this one, all I know for sure is that its unit is in meters, but I have read that if a potential target is found between that height and the sea level, it can't be detected by the sensor. Therefore for hydrophone and ASDIC negative values should be used.
  There are individual Min and MaxHeight parameters in the obj_Sensor controllers, but I ignore how they interact with the global height factor.
  
  
• Waves factor: a value comprised between 0 and 1. It it seems to determine how much the sensor will be affected by waves. 0 = no effect, 1 = maximum effect (i.e. poorer detection).
  
  
• Speed factor: this is the maximum speed, in knots, at which the destroyers will be able to hear anything. Beyond that speed they become completely deaf.
  
  
• Noise factor: comprised between 0 and 1, this is how much the sensor detection will be affected by own engine noise. 0 = no effect, 1 = maximum effect.
  
  
• Thermal Layer Signal Attenuation: a positive number, this value determines how much sensor's signal will be attenuated for a target below the thermal layer. The higher this number, the stronger its effect with a linear correlation.
  
  
• Min Signal Strength: the signal strength is an internal variable that the game calculates on the base of all other factors. Min Signal Strength is the threshold value below which no detection is made.

______________________________

* as set in sensor's sim file controller.

Thank you for big answer , Gap. If you, i know you made DynamicEnvironment, answer me on that question, may be you answer for another. I tried to use sh5 shaders on sh4, as i understand, it's not work, yes? Anyway, i have a trouble with my sh4 environment now - water too transparent, or to transparent underwater. How i can resolve this problem, what parameter in what file i have to change? I have a expirience with S3D editor.

[Bilge_Rat]

There are many components to the AI: the sim.cfg file, sensors.cfg file, the sensors themselves and crew rating. Adjusting any will influence AI behaviour.

Building a killer AI that will detect you and kill you every time is easy, i.e. "Bungo Pete" from SH4, a IJN destroyer with an elite crew and super sensitive hydrophones. The trick is to build an AI that will act in a "realistic" manner, i.e. like a human manned escort would act at any particular time in the war.

Early war escorts have gotten an unfairly bad rep. RN fleet destroyers in the 1939 to mid-40 were actually very well trained and were staffed with pre-war professional crews. They should have a high crew rating, veteran or elite. The problem with early war escorts was their equipment, early war sonars and DCs.

The dip in crew quality occurs in mid-1940. With France out of the war, the Royal Navy was over stretched. Escort duties were taken over by smaller escorts like corvettes or sloops, many manned by poorly trained crews. The Royal Canadian Navy which provided roughly half the escorts during the "Happy Times" had very green crews.

Now back to the game, personally I would not touch the Sim.cfg file. It acts as a traffic light, "green", the AI detects you and comes gunning for you or "red", it does not detect you and goes about its merry way. It also affects all AI, air, merchant and escorts and if one detects you, the info is instantly relayed to all units in the area. TDW in IRAI had already pushed the Sim and sensors cfg files to the max IMHO, at least the ones included in TWOS.

To tweak escort behaviour, I would look more at the crew rating in the mission/campaign files and the range/sensitivity of the sensors they are equipped with.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Sokolov

Thank you for big answer , Gap. If you, i know you made DynamicEnvironment, answer me on that question, may be you answer for another. I tried to use sh5 shaders on sh4, as i understand, it's not work, yes? Anyway, i have a trouble with my sh4 environment now - water too transparent, or to transparent underwater. How i can resolve this problem, what parameter in what file i have to change? I have a expirience with S3D editor.

Hi sokolow, you can't edit shaders using S3d. They are plain ASCII files, so they can be opened/saved using Notepad.

I don't think you can reliably use SH5 shaders in SHIV as SH5 added support for the granny format and its shaders were rewritted for that task. A few of them might backward-compatible, at least in part, but I wouldn't recommend you following that path.

I don't understand your question though. Has SHIV's water surface always been too transparent for you, or it became too transparent after you tried SH5 shaders in SHIV?

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

There are many components to the AI: the sim.cfg file, sensors.cfg file, the sensors themselves and crew rating. Adjusting any will influence AI behaviour.

You have made some good points Bilge_Rat

Hi, Gap, I posted that in Dark Waters thread: i installed DarkWaters v. 6 (on sh4 stock) and after that i installed OMEGU environment without some no needed stuff, becouse i like more original OMEGU. But i have the problem - seafoor visible trough water surface, it's like water too clear, that is not real for my opinion. First, i thought that deal in scene.dat file, but not, i checked. Almost all files in my OMEGU equal that in the game (stock + DarkWaters), and i can't find the solution. Seems the deal are with a shaders (sh4 shaders only installed), some shafers different (in folder clouds, for exapmple). What file may cause this, or how i can fix it?

I tried to find any information about technical abilities of hydrophones and sonars, but didn't, may be someone know where i can find information?

Hello,Gap, you here?

Threr are no night factor on sh4? can i just write it in sim.cfg or sensors.dat?

In the sensors.sim there are 2 lookout sensors, one with range 50000 m and surfase 0.00001? For what is this?