Blue Water Development Diary

[AzureSkies]

A day and a good number of hours late - but I've been burning the midnight oil to try to get this out ASAP.

Hello again!

First things first, though - just a little catch-up, this week cruise missiles, helicopters and aviation facilities have gotten some touches, nothing quite ready to show off - but next week perhaps, now that I've got a workflow for videos, perhaps something with the Seasprite...

And about the video thing. First videos released of the game!

Awhile ago someone asked how the water looks in motion, and I said it looks even better than it does in still pictures - well now I finally get to show that off!

Sadly I don't think Youtube links embed here, but here's some links: [Edit: They do! Huzzah!]

The more interesting video with a ship sailing around - but a little preface, the strange black cubes with white outlines in the background are sort of calibration tools I've been using to make sure the ocean's actual wave heights line up with what the "Sea State" variable is. Also, the video capture didn't record my mouse, so you don't see me clicking buttons, but they aren't clicking themselves.

Whenever a new speed is ordered from the presets (all stop, ahead 1/3, ahead full, etc.) the ship's bell rings - that'll probably get removed with a bit more research on nautical tradition, since I don't think that's accurate? I also zoom the map in, lay a nav point, remove it, and click the buttons for auto-steer and auto-navigate.

And finally, if I had a more general audience I'd probably have cut out the part from Sea State 7.5 to 9 and back to 7.5 - there's lots of clipping - but I trust this audience to understand it's a WIP, and Sea States 7.5-9 probably won't even appear in gameplay much, anyways, since that would indicate an exceptionally severe storm or even a hurricane. Very unusual.

But at any rate, I'm quite excited to show off the varying time of day and the ocean in its full animated splendor.

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And here's the one centered on the calibration cubes - each are properly sized for their labels - "Sea State X limit" is the correct number of meters tall to indicate the maximum wave height for the ocean at Sea State X. Keep in mind Sea State X.1 will go over those (fencepost problem).

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Enjoy.

[Phaeton]

A very interesting project! Looking forward for it and will be happy to buy it when it will be ready. Also happy that Soviet side will be playable.
Best wishes with development!

[Aktungbby]

Phaeton!

[THEBERBSTER]

A Warm Welcome To The Subsim Community > Phaeton
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[Herman]

Originally Posted by AzureSkies

And finally, if I had a more general audience I'd probably have cut out the part from Sea State 7.5 to 9 and back to 7.5 - there's lots of clipping - but I trust this audience to understand it's a WIP, and Sea States 7.5-9 probably won't even appear in gameplay much, anyways, since that would indicate an exceptionally severe storm or even a hurricane. Very unusual.

Will Sea State play a great role in sensor detection or combat resolution such as sea-skimmers?

Aircraft operations? NWAC had aircraft actually crashing due to severe weather.

[AzureSkies]

Originally Posted by Phaeton

A very interesting project! Looking forward for it and will be happy to buy it when it will be ready. Also happy that Soviet side will be playable.
Best wishes with development!

Thanks! And I'm looking forward to it, myself.

Originally Posted by Herman

Will Sea State play a great role in sensor detection or combat resolution such as sea-skimmers?

Aircraft operations? NWAC had aircraft actually crashing due to severe weather.

Well, I guess if NWAC did it I'll have to do it.

As of the moment, a high sea state already decreases the effective seeker range of cruise missiles.

So implementing a high sea state making it harder to detect the missiles themselves should be coming soon...

Aircraft handling will be a bit of a tougher one to implement, but it's definitely worth a shot.

I'll also have to experiment to see if the sea state already naturally decreases ships' max speed. I don't know if you noticed, but in the sailing video, the velocity indicator of the ship was bobbing around on the map - the waves actually push and pull on the ship. Theoretically, this should naturally create the speed reduction seen IRL by high seas. But it doesn't seem to be showing up on the speed dial - but that may be because of how it determines speed.

So, basically, I'll have to play with it.

...Wait, did I say something about cruise missiles?

Next update coming real soon here...

[agathosdaimon]

sea state looks superb! will there be included some splash and spray for when the ship crashes back into sea in the heavy conditions?

[AzureSkies]

Originally Posted by agathosdaimon

sea state looks superb! will there be included some splash and spray for when the ship crashes back into sea in the heavy conditions?

I'll definitely at least look into it. That's gotta be almost a requirement if I'm including sea states above 6 or 7.

[AzureSkies]

Hello again everyone!

Not a day late this time, though a good number of hours. But if trends continue then I should be early on the next update... right?

Anyways, very close to the Spruance getting a highlight, but not quite yet without her AN/SPS-40 and AN/SPS-55 radars. Though finally, the placeholders for all her weapons are gone. You'll get plenty of good views in the two videos, as well.





Also, worked with the water mastermind and got the reflection shader updated to work beautifully. Reflections are clear on close ships, but become very scattered on distant ones. Here's a little demo I arranged with a lot of Spruance duplicates:



But you can also see it at various angles and distances in the following videos. Especially in the one with cruise missiles closing on the Azov.

First - showing some helicopter starts for the SH-2F Seasprite.



Starts with a focus on the helo (An SH-2F Seasprite), then resets and shows the helo start with the camera focused on the ship. Provides some beautiful views and a better feel of how this will look in-game in the finished product.

Improvements to water interaction are planned. Some stuttering from video recording software. May change workflow for recording these videos at some point to get better framerate.



And, cruise missiles. Please keep in mind the Harpoon model is just a placeholder graphic. The real one's gonna be pretty great, knowing the modelers.

Starts with some shots, camera follows one, then about halfway through it follows one all the way from launch to premature detonation.

They're set to get destroyed - as if they were shot down - just shy of the target, just since impact detonation hasn't been modeled yet. So the warhead isn't even going off.


[edit - slight change to the video]

As of yet, no way to launch them using the game's UI - or a number of things. But they're destroyable, can follow waypoints, and after their last waypoint "pop up" if that's enabled to a given altitude, acquire a target, and homes in.

I'd say it's pretty good progress for a week.

Though I probably won't be doing such a fancy update again for awhile. Just enjoying the new ability to put out videos, now.

Thanks for joining us!



Note on both videos: Music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au, used under CC BY 4.0

[Herman]

Originally Posted by AzureSkies

As of the moment, a high sea state already decreases the effective seeker range of cruise missiles.

So implementing a high sea state making it harder to detect the missiles themselves should be coming soon...

Sounds very promising. I was also wondering if severe sea states might actually inhibit missile engagements due to the sea-skimmers hitting high waves.

Originally Posted by AzureSkies

I'll also have to experiment to see if the sea state already naturally decreases ships' max speed. I don't know if you noticed, but in the sailing video, the velocity indicator of the ship was bobbing around on the map - the waves actually push and pull on the ship. Theoretically, this should naturally create the speed reduction seen IRL by high seas. But it doesn't seem to be showing up on the speed dial - but that may be because of how it determines speed.

Good to see the effect of sea state on speed. I urge some restraint on the number of calculations or updates. For example, if there is constant fluctuation in the sea state indicator due to constant revision of the final digit, then it can be more of a distraction than a help. i.e. if the state is 6.27 and the '.7' is forever an amorphous blur as it constantly goes up and down, then the precision really isn't helping the game. Is it really necessary to know sea state to that 100th level of precision?

[AzureSkies]

Originally Posted by Herman

Sounds very promising. I was also wondering if severe sea states might actually inhibit missile engagements due to the sea-skimmers hitting high waves.

A solid possibility. Presumably a real missile would be using radar to determine height and attempting to avoid hitting the water. I'll see if there's something computationally efficient I can do with the code to simulate this, because there may be...

My bet is that it won't be able to function reliably above Sea State 7 or so. Being all-weather capable is an advertised feature of the newest Harpoon missiles, implying old versions had a max sea state. These would be Block Is, Block IBs and Block ICs, a far cry from the modern block IIER+.

Also happen to know from old research on the Juliet that it couldn't fire its missiles above Sea State 6. Technically that's very different, but broadly it shows how even 70's and 80's navies could be rather severely limited by weather with their missiles.

Originally Posted by Herman

Good to see the effect of sea state on speed. I urge some restraint on the number of calculations or updates. For example, if there is constant fluctuation in the sea state indicator due to constant revision of the final digit, then it can be more of a distraction than a help. i.e. if the state is 6.27 and the '.7' is forever an amorphous blur as it constantly goes up and down, then the precision really isn't helping the game. Is it really necessary to know sea state to that 100th level of precision?

Oh, the sea state indicator shown was just for that demonstration video. Real UI for that will be very different.

[longface]

This looks really good! I can't wait to hear more!

Just some questions I have off the top of my mind:
1. Do you plan for a sound delay due to distance for any loud transients/explosions? Cold Waters does that thing where you watch a target explode ten kiloyards away and the explosion comes instantaneously, which of course isn't realistic (but seeing that CW allows you to view events from many different positions not modeling a sound delay is understandable).
2. The Harpoon seems to be tracking the stern of the Azov instead of dead center. Is this true to life?

[Phaeton]

AzureSkies, will you integrate CIWS in game for anti-missile duties? If CIWS will be operational, could it engage surface and air targets?
I know, CIWS weapon range in naval warfare is like a punch range in gun fight. Still, possibility of it is amusing.
For example, in War Thunder AK-230 in close ranges (<2 km) is a threat even to a destroyers.
Example #2: in Wargame: Red Dragon CIWS alongside with autocannons can be used to engage naval and air targets (especially when missiles were exhausted).
Anyway, best luck with development!

[AzureSkies]

Apologies, but this week's update won't be ready tonight. It will be posted by tomorrow night, though, and I'll reply to questions here, as well.

[AzureSkies]

Originally Posted by longface

This looks really good! I can't wait to hear more!

Just some questions I have off the top of my mind:
1. Do you plan for a sound delay due to distance for any loud transients/explosions? Cold Waters does that thing where you watch a target explode ten kiloyards away and the explosion comes instantaneously, which of course isn't realistic (but seeing that CW allows you to view events from many different positions not modeling a sound delay is understandable).
2. The Harpoon seems to be tracking the stern of the Azov instead of dead center. Is this true to life?

1. I've noticed that, and personally love the feature. Wouldn't be simple to implement within the Unity game engine, though, unfortunately. Other things are taking priority, but this is a detail I'd like to be able to include.

2. It depends on the particular missile, but old enough ones will go for whatever the biggest radar reflector is, I'd guess. As to the video I posted, though, I'll probably fix that pretty easily by implementing lead into the terminal homing phase. There's already lead in some of the other calculations the missile does, so it'd be a simple fix.

Originally Posted by Phaeton

AzureSkies, will you integrate CIWS in game for anti-missile duties? If CIWS will be operational, could it engage surface and air targets?
I know, CIWS weapon range in naval warfare is like a punch range in gun fight. Still, possibility of it is amusing.
For example, in War Thunder AK-230 in close ranges (<2 km) is a threat even to a destroyers.
Example #2: in Wargame: Red Dragon CIWS alongside with autocannons can be used to engage naval and air targets (especially when missiles were exhausted).
Anyway, best luck with development!

Definitely for anti-missile and anti-aircraft. Most CIWS systems are highly autonomous and will shoot anything closing in too fast and too close. How sensor systems are planned to be scripted, it won't even bother to differentiate between incoming missiles and aircraft.

And I do plan to have them able to engage other ships, too. That's very simple to do, especially given there's a variety of other weapon systems that will be able to target multiple platform types, anyways (SS-N-14 "Silex" missiles, RIM-66 SM-1 SAMs, and ship guns like the Mk45 or AK130 just to name a few).

Thanks!

Weekly update coming shortly. It's about time for that vehicle highlight...