SUBSIM Radio Room Forums



SUBSIM: The Web's #1 resource for all submarine & naval simulations since 1997

Go Back   SUBSIM Radio Room Forums > Silent Hunter 3 - 4 - 5 > SH5 Mods Workshop
Forget password? Reset here

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 02-03-21, 12:20 PM   #61
gap
Navy Seal
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: CJ8937
Posts: 8,214
Downloads: 793
Uploads: 10
gear

Quote:
Originally Posted by Viktor_Prien View Post
This evening while working on other stuffs I've also made some initial tests about if is possible to have pennants in game ( Note that the one in the image it's just a basic one used only for the tests and that I've blurred the swastika in the image for forum purposes; In game it will be visible as per normal ).
Well the reply is, definitively yes! ( I will later make the various 3D stuffs needed to have the victory pennants located in the correct position/attached to the right place ).
In addition I have also made some tests about the semi-automation of the flags/pennants ( Flags/Pennants on/off depending on user choice ) and also this seems to be fully feasible ( It will require just a bit of " Magic Mod Powder " and time )
As far as I know, the only documented usage of pennants aboard U-boats was relative to the victory pennants. Apparently, flying them from the flagstaff was rather uncommon. In most cases they were hoisted on a line hanging from the top of the fully extended attack periscope; check the following document for more on this subject:

https://amp.rokket.biz/docs/victory_pennants.pdf

In game, the above could be simulated by adding a new bone to the top of the attack periscope. A simple 3D line should be linked to this new bone either via eqp file or merge controller. The line, on turn, should have several equipment bones bound to it at regular space intervals, so to enable the linking of the appropriate pennants to the lanyard the same way as U-boat flags are linked to the flagstaff.

If memory serves, there is a controller which can switch on/off the rendering of objects depending on their height on the sea level. If set appropriately, that controller would make the line together with its child objects (the pennants) only visible when the U-boat is surfaced and the attack periscope is fully extended. Some fine-tuning might be needed here as the pennants might be popping in and out in stormy weather, but that should not be a big issue either as we would only hoist our pennants in the immediate proximity of land, where waves are never too high.
__________________
_____________________
|May the Force be with you!|
...\/
gap is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-04-21, 04:27 PM   #62
Viktor_Prien
Navy Dude
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Italy
Posts: 178
Downloads: 313
Uploads: 0
Default

Yep, obviously I was referring only to the victory pennants. Yep I have in mind something similar to let them work...

Viktor_Prien is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-05-21, 09:50 AM   #63
gap
Navy Seal
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: CJ8937
Posts: 8,214
Downloads: 793
Uploads: 10
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Viktor_Prien View Post
Yep, obviously I was referring only to the victory pennants. Yep I have in mind something similar to let them work...

Okay, you seem to know your stuff

Quite a while ago I had started collecting pictures of antique U-boat victory pennants (or possibly their copies) on sale on the internet, and I had converted them into SH textures. Unfortunately the HD where they were stored has crashed and I wasn't able to recover them, but finding again decent quality pictures and re-processing them for usage in game shouldn't be a big issue anyway.
Let me know if you need help with that or with any 3D model. Lines and flagstaff are simple objects that I can create in a matter of minutes.
__________________
_____________________
|May the Force be with you!|
...\/
gap is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-21, 05:43 AM   #64
Viktor_Prien
Navy Dude
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Italy
Posts: 178
Downloads: 313
Uploads: 0
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by gap View Post
Okay, you seem to know your stuff

Quite a while ago I had started collecting pictures of antique U-boat victory pennants (or possibly their copies) on sale on the internet, and I had converted them into SH textures. Unfortunately the HD where they were stored has crashed and I wasn't able to recover them, but finding again decent quality pictures and re-processing them for usage in game shouldn't be a big issue anyway.
Let me know if you need help with that or with any 3D model. Lines and flagstaff are simple objects that I can create in a matter of minutes.
Thanks mate for your help and support!

When the basics will be ready I'll will surely contact you for some 3D models I need ( I know how to make them but if we can share some work the times will be surely shorter ).
Again, many thanks for your support, is really VERY MUCH appreciated here!



EDIT: If you need it here you can find a base template for the victory pennants. LINK: https://mega.nz/file/7552HL4J#y57SmW...hRp71rg7AjSN-g

( It's in .JPG format so it can be easily changed to any file format needed like .png, .dds, etc. Background transparency yet to be added. )

Last edited by Viktor_Prien; 02-06-21 at 05:56 AM.
Viktor_Prien is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-21, 07:14 AM   #65
Viktor_Prien
Navy Dude
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Italy
Posts: 178
Downloads: 313
Uploads: 0
Default

UPDATE #5

Development is proceeding at a good rate.

The main new additions I've brought recently are the following:

- Fixed the stopwatch texture so now the first 5 minutes marks on it are well visible and not covered anymore by the glass reflection that was rendering them hard to be seen

- Now the warning icons have been disabled so to stimulate the player to interact more with the sub crew characters. The only one I've left so far is the one when disactivating/enabling the hydrophone but I've reduced it's size to be less intrusive on the HUD. For all the other stuffs the player will have to interact directly with the U-boat crew characters to know what is active or not ( as in real life ). Also the warning icons for the shallow depth, we're underwater and we're close to the bottom have been removed so the player will have to check more frequently the parameters of interest with the U-boat items available ( Echolot, hydrophone, etc ) and he will have to act more carefully while planning his depth change actions. Now you can't simply go down fast having the warning icon advsing you when you're close to the sea level...You have to check your available on-board instruments and you have to make a risky educated guess of the current ocean/sea depth or you will hit the bottom!

- For the same motives as above also all the orders in progress icons are not visible anymore. You have to visually/directly look/check to know the current state of the order given.

- Improved a lot of aircraft engine and environment sounds. No more flying farts!

- Improved crew voices and internal/external U-boat environment sounds. Now there are more realistic sound voices ( obviously when needed ) and the " feeling " of being inside a living/populated U-boat is improved. I'm also in the process of fixing the crew screaming when on silent running. Further updates about this aspect will follow in the next updates.
All the necessary scripts have been updated accordingly in respect to the modifications made so far

- Fixed the problem with the gramophone that sometimes seems to act in a weird way when you hit the " Next song " button on the gramophone icon visible on the screen ( Obviously when enabled ).
Sometimes the gramophone was overlapping tracks or playing tracks only for few seconds than switching to the next one

- Roughtly counted, so far, including aircraft, sub, environment sounds, voices, etc more than 100 sound files have been improved/edited

- Fixed the map tool marking colours ( Too faint and barely visible ). About this, due to the fact that this is something that must be done by the player directly, I will realise a detailed info document about the " How To " due to the fact that the info about this are scattered all around the forums an, often, hard to be found. The instructions will cover the " How to " both via the TDW patcher or via hex editing so the player can easily chose the way fits him the most.

- Improved the map tools icons size ( when a tool is selected/used ) so now they are well visible even in high resolution like 2K and 4K (.. and you don't have anymore to become blind attempting to see them due to their current " ant size " )

- Limited the max zoom of the navigation map so also for players using lower levels of realism will be not possible anymore to zoom so close that you can see the ship's silouettes making range/course estimations extremely precise. Now the max zoom you can achieve will display only the squared icons rendering more hard and imprecise, but not terribly difficult at the same time, making the necessary calculations, rendering, hopefully the experience a little bit more " realistic " even for players using lower levels of difficulty settings.

- On the same line of thinking I have modified the detected sound contact lines so to have them still visible but with the high change of more imprecise, or even totally missing, under certain conditions, sound contacts lines reported/displayed on the navigation map

- Edited the U-boat overlay selectable in the navigation map so that it reports less accurate readings and less informations ( Too many additional info IMHO achievable using it ). Now using it you will have a general idea of the contact heading and distance but you can't have anymore " 100% sure " data provided by it ( Like in real life a U-boat commander could only make an estimation about the distance from his U-boat to a certain objects, there were no " centimetric precison " devices available for this purpose at that era ). Now you can't even precisely locate the position of your U-boat using it but you can get only a rough estimation of it. I've presume this is a good balance between full realism and lower settings of difficulty.
I know that some players may not like these modifications but all the stuffs on which I'm working are attempting to increase the level of " realism " of the current TWoS mod ( That is surely already high/very good! ) so also in lower levels of difficulties this my way of acting will be reflected in some way.
Take in mind that, somehow, every additional mod I'm realising is a stand alone one so the player will remain always fully free of deciding what he wants to enable and what's not. The realism is imortant, sure, but the most important thing, IMHO, is that the game must remain fun to be played at the maximum possible level. Every one is fully free, at least for me, to play the game with the settings he prefers, I'm not surely an " extremist " in favour of the " Extreme realism " or for the " some concessions to keep the game fun ". In brief, chose only what, in your opinion, provides you the most satisfying experience.
I'm pretty sure to say that if we could interview 100 players we will probably hear/get 100 different versions of what they intend for " realism " in a PC game or a U-boat sim in this case.

- Removed from periscope, TDC, etc the annoying ( IMHO ) and not historical " modern days style " torpedo depth indicator ( Top left when you open an aiming device ). Now you can set the torpedo depth only acting on the TDC settings

- When selecting a tube now the light displayed for it is green instead of light yellow. It's not yet the ideal system I would like to implement ( Green selected/working, red not working/depleted ) but it's better than the light yellow light IMHO

- Removed the torpedo icon displaying the torpedo path once a torpedo is launched. Now as in real life you have to wait for the impact ( or for the miss ) of it/them. No more torpedo icons displayed on the navigational map.

- Less intrusive hand icon when mousing over a selectable crew character

...and lots of other stuffs but now I do not want to bother you too much with an extremely long " poem "!

Further news about the current development will follow in the next report!


End of the report.

Gute jagd Herr Kaleun!

Last edited by Viktor_Prien; 02-06-21 at 05:43 PM.
Viktor_Prien is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:16 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 1995- 2024 Subsim®
"Subsim" is a registered trademark, all rights reserved.