New Interface for Uboats

[karamazovnew]

This mod has been included by Lurker_hlb3 in OMEGU V300 WITH Patch, and OM Plot v402 so make sure to download his latest versions and patches.


Optional fixes, enable them with JSGME AFTER all OMEGU mods:
- AOB wheel marks remover: http://www.filefront.com/17001559/Ki...s%20remove.zip
(This removes the green marks that show up when you turn on the AOB finder wheel).

- AOBF and Stadimeter bright buttons: http://www.filefront.com/17001601/Ki...%20buttons.zip
(On low resolutions, these buttons can be hard to see. I've made them a bit brighter in the OFF status).

Documentation links:
http://www.filefront.com/14992013/KiUB-User-Guide.zip/
http://www.filefront.com/15351513/Manual-Targeting.zip/ this is a big one, 28 MB.


KiUB (or Kriegsmarine Interface for UBm, or "Cube" for short) is a mod that adds TDC and torpedo panels, miliradian marks and an AOB wheel to the Attack Periscope screen.
- it works for any resolution
- no optional files for different types of Uboats (only if you play Type 21 and want to see a correct salvo dial)
- doesn't affect the American Interface
- easy to customise marks and filters (details in the first documentation link)

Many thanks to all that helped me and kept me company during the 3 months it took to make. This thread is open for any question regarding the KiUB interface and the SH4 interface in general. If you make modifications to my image files (which I tried to encourage by making the files themselves as easy to change as possible) feel free to post them here and I'll update this main post, with all credit awarded to the respective modder. Since OMEGU is a big mod, it would be best to have small fixes and visual upgrades here instead of spamming Lurker for updates.

Unlike in SH3 where we had multiple options of campaigns and interfaces, Operation Monsun is THE mod to have when playing Uboats. Because of the simplicity of changing from RFB/TMO and other american side mods using JSGME, I've decided that making multiple versions of this interface for other super mods would be pointless. However anyone can integrate this into any interface (including vanilla, by using the resource files at the bottom of this page).

Making this mod has been difficult and many shortcuts had to be made. The SH4 interface has more hard coded elements and to make a mod that works on any resolution requires a good understanding of the object structure and a bit of planning. My mod should be regarded "as it is", adding new objects or moving/replacing current objects would be very difficult. While I am available for any bug reports, advice and open discussion about using and changing this mod, the main layout is final. The lessons learned are here on this thread and available to all that want to enhance the SH4 interface (and SH5, since they share the same 2d engine).

Special thanks:
- OLC, Hitman, Makman94, h.sie, Joegrundman and Mikhayl for their work with SH3 and showing us what a Sub sim interface should look like.
- again Hitman and Makman94 for their continued support with this mod
- Lurker_hlb3 for actually giving me a reason to make it
- the Subsim community for it's wealth of information and support for the game
- not least, the Ubisoft Romania dev team for making this game as modable as it is



Kit for modders: http://www.filefront.com/17110215/KiUB%20Files.zip
WARNING: this is NOT the mod itself, don't be fooled by the folder structure. DO NOT enable this in JSGME. The playable mod is already included in OMEGU.
These are all the files on which I have worked. Since the mod is integrated into OMEGU, to prevent weird situations, I'll offer them as resources here, separately. You can use, modify, integrate, do whatever you want, as long as you don't charge money (or I'll come to your door and beg for some). There's no need to ask me for permission to use them. Go ahead, have fun. A little credit would be nice, but don't bother too much with that either.

[DarkFish]

I'm working with dials too at the moment, but from what I read you know a lot more about them than I do, so I'm afraid I can't help you.
I hope you can help me out though with a small problem I've got. I need to make a clickable dial accessible from the ConningDeck view. I can get dials to display the things I want, but whatever I do I can't get them to be clickable. Do you know how to do this?
for your information, I want to do something similar as you want to do with opening 3d-hatches, but instead on the conning deck.

[karamazovnew]

Well, in the *.dat file get the id of any 3d node. Then go to the *.sim file and make sure the id isn't already used as the Parent ID of a dial node. To make the object a proper dial, just look how the Dial nodes are structured. To make the object clickable there are 2 ways. You can either make the dial itself send a command, or, better, make a new object (there are tons of these dummies on the dials which are invisible but can be clicked) and apply to it a Focusable3Dobj node which can send a command. Again, it's not rocket science, just look how it's already made on the current nodes. The deck should work the same. Let me guess you want to click on the UZO and make it show? When you want to work with a command like that, it's better to see how that command behaves in the commands.ini (or is it cfg?) file. You'll see that these commands that activate cameras also show the proper page of the 2D interface.

[Rosencrantz]

karamazovnew wrote:

Toggle_open_close_torpedo_tube: this command used to flip the switches that opened the tubes by recieving a parameter. They still work, but only for the selected tube.

How about studying TMO170 commands-file? With TMO you can open the tubes you want at the same time. Or maybe you could just replace the command-file with one from TMO and give it a try. I'm testing TMO commands right now and even it's not the perfect one for the U-boats it still works and with IX boat it's actually pretty nice.
I'm not sure if this could help you to move on with you project, but anyway... my hint is free.

-RC-

[karamazovnew]

Phew, been gone for a while. Thanks for the tip Rosen, I've been following Dulcimus' progress and he was stuck on the torp problem too. The way he solved it was to comment out all the commands except the Toggle_open_blabla one. It works for the 2D interface ofc, because you click to select a tube, then press Q to open/close it. When you select another tube, the "Close Tube" command is commented out so it doesn't close the last tube. But my problem was with the 3D objects. As I said, it's impossible for me to comment out the Close command so I will actually disable the possibility to see what tubes you have selected. You will have to look at the torpedo selector dial. It's more realistic anyway. Well, I'll put that part on hold for the moment while I iron out the Periscope interface. Comming soon .

[karamazovnew]

Well, it's been a while and I have to confess I almost gave up at one point. I actually had to go back to understanding how the SH3 interface worked. After that I had to trimm down my list of features with a sledgehammer. The best I can hope for right now is a 2D interface for the Periscope screens. GWX 4 seems to have fixed a few 3D interior issues, but unless they want to share with me how they fixed it, I'm stuck on that part .
Anyway, here are a few tips I've learned. These were made by my own observations and are personal conclusions. If I'm wrong, please correct me:
- it is impossible to add clickable buttons anywhere outside the layout page (or the order bar).
- the game makes a specific check for Id's in the Menu_1024_768.ini to decide which to use in the German and which to use in the US interfaces. Moving any of these items from one page to another will result into a CTD. Parenting any item to an item outside the page will result in a "Menuid not found" error. The US side uses different pages for the TDC and PK(torpedo settings) and the Torpedo Panel. The German interface ignores those and uses the ones in the corresponding Periscope Page. Adding items to these "german" menu groups is the only way to ensure the new items will be invisible in the US interface.
- Some graphic files, the background for certain, require a hardcoded adress-change. That's why the background item points to the same file for both sides, but then you see different backgrounds. This is not based on the item ID, but on the file adress. This can be usefull if you want to integrate new items in the interface that appear on both sides, but look different. As explained above, these items must be parented to an item that does appear in both interfaces, such as the main periscope page.
- The periscope lines are hardcoded (you knew that already) as is the periscope bearing (but this one can be moved). The scaling is decided by the Angular Distance and minimum zoom level so that 1 degree at minimum zoom will always be 1 degree when using the stadimeter. The best course of action is to leave them alone and use them as they are.
- The notepad pages for the german side work just as they did in SH3. That means that each periscope page has 1 free show/hide button, but it requires care when used. The Speed/AOB/Range pages and all other items from the notepad can be parented to the main periscope page to break them free from the side movement of the notepad. That is hardcoded to only the main notepad menu group and the movement is equal to the width of the menu group.

Working with the menu.ini file is tricky and next to impossible without some tools. The first tip is to break each page you want to mod with comments. That was the first step I did altough it took me a few hours for the AP page . Adding items requires a renumbering tool. I've mad eone myself in Word, a simple macro, PM for it or use the Menu.ini Renumbering Tool here on the subsim forum (it just didn't work for me). Figuring out zone lines can be a chore. I made myself an Excel Spreadsheet that not only calculates the tricky parts, but also generates complete Pos and Zone lines. It's still a lot of manual input but beats calculating each item after you move a menu group. Again, PM for it, but remember that these are made for personal use, meaning that it might be difficult for me to explain how to make them work .

And the big goodie in the next post

[B25]

Really great work Karamazow. A lot of us appreciate your afford.

I have a little suggestion before you finished final version.
Do You think, is not a good idea to place your dials to the left side of screen and let notepad right where originally was? So the result would be well distributed panels (similar to US): Notepad on right, "torpedo launch screen" on right bellow, YOUR GREAT ADDITIONAL DIALS (TDC) on left. And periscope view would be covered as minimal as possible.
Maybe then could be considered to change the sizes.


(1600*1200 pic http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4591/94781645.jpg)

As You can on the picture, german periscope view is balanced and give all needed information.
Periscop height (50% width, 100% height) - left
TDC (75% width, 75% height) - left [tested with recognition manual and very good]
Notepad (80% width, 80% height) - right
Torpedos (80% width, 80% height) - right below

PS: I am sorry for noncomplete TDC. Tested on TM 1.7, followed your instruction, edited menu_1024 and dials.cfg, but was only partially succesful. Anyway dials are functional, only background is missing.

PPS: But for those with wide screen the sizes of elements could be OK. It is upon you. Recover your health soon.

[Tomi_099]

Originally Posted by B25

Really great work Karamazow. A lot of us appreciate your afford.

I have a little suggestion before you finished final version.
Do You think, is not a good idea to place your dials to the left side of screen and let notepad right where originally was? So the result would be well distributed panels (similar to US): Notepad on right, "torpedo launch screen" on right bellow, YOUR GREAT ADDITIONAL DIALS (TDC) on left. And periscope view would be covered as minimal as possible.
Maybe then could be considered to change the sizes.


(1600*1200 pic http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4591/94781645.jpg)

As You can on the picture, german periscope view is balanced and give all needed information.
Periscop height (50% width, 100% height) - left
TDC (75% width, 75% height) - left [tested with recognition manual and very good]
Notepad (80% width, 80% height) - right
Torpedos (80% width, 80% height) - right below

PS: I am sorry for noncomplete TDC. Tested on TM 1.7, followed your instruction, edited menu_1024 and dials.cfg, but was only partially succesful. Anyway dials are functional, only background is missing.

PPS: But for those with wide screen the sizes of elements could be OK. It is upon you. Recover your health soon.

#####################################


Is it not possible to have outsid of the viewing window, a 3D model.
It may still possible mechanism outside the viewing window on the surface to make Transperente Tga one.
Underlying this is then the 3D Madell.

[karamazovnew]

Having some real life issues that prevent me from working on the mod . One of them is being 300km away from my main pc. On this laptop I can barely watch Star Trek. However, I promise that next week I'll have the Alpha 2 version up.

Tomi, I understand what you say, I've tried to do it at first, when I didn't know how to scale resolutions, but I didn't succeed and I don't think it's possible in SH4. They said that in SH5 the interface will be moddable through Python. If World Of Warcraft is any indication of what can be done with it, then we'll have a lot of freedom to integrate 3d and 2d interfaces. I myself would prefer no 2d interface whatsoever, but a better control of the cameras and a perfect crew order system. We'll see then.

By the way, I have a problem with the torpedo control panel. I mean the small one with buttons for torpedoes and the fire button. I want to integrate the open/close dial but that means that I need to deal with 3 separate types of dials:
- tube status (ready, loading, empty)
- selected tube
- opened/closed tube
I'm thinking about doing it this way:
- bulbs show the tube status, they will not have roman numbers on them.
- the separate labels (check the 3d version in the conning tower) will light up to show what tube has been selected
- switches similar to the 3d version to show opened/closed status.

But then there are other problems:
- first of all, I'm running out of screen space . I need to put all the torpedo items on one panel, on the left of the screen, both the settings, and the fire control. I would've prefered to have the fire control panel show up all the time but it would cover up the periscope depth dial and also, when extended, it would reach the center of the screen
- the opened/closed dial only updates when the transition from opened to closed has been made. That means that even if I find a way to allow you to click the switches to open/close the tubes (I'm yet to find out how to send parameters within the commands), there will be a 1-2 second delay until it updates. There are 2 sets of commands that allow this: Toggle_open_close_torpedo_tube and Open_torpedo_tube. Unlike the Open_sel_torpedo_tube, these 2 accept parameters (1 to 6, i think). But when attaching them to 3d objects, the Toggle one didn't work.
- Every time you switch from one tube to another, you automatically activate the "Close Tube" for the last selected tube, unless the Close command (or the Toggle command) is removed from the commands.cfg file. This however doesn't happen when you change the tubes with the torpedo selector dials (both single and salvo). SO.....

How about this:
- The fire control panel will sit under the settings panel and will only consist of the fire button and 6 bulbs (or 5 or 3, depending on the type of uboat), identical, with no roman numerals. You will not be able to click them and they will not indicate which tube is selected.
- There will be one label under each, and a switch under it to show which are opened and which closed.
- To select a tube or to see which tube is selected you'll have to use the torpedo selector dial (either the single or the salvo one).


I'd like your opinion on this: would it be a major inconvenience if you only switch tubes from this dial and there is no visual reference apart from the dial to show you wich tubes are selected?

[makman94]

take your time Karamazovnew ! we are not in a hurry...are we?

now about your question for the torpedoes's buttons why not to leave them as it is ? that part is ok i think ,maybe some new images (texturing) will refresh them and will be allright ! (sorry if my answer is not exactly to your question but i am not sure that i have understand exactly the issue with the torpedoes.....my english ,you see, are...)

bye

[Wilcke]

just a bump.

[crisi]

@karamazovnew: excellent mod You have created. It's planed to redesign the observation persicope?

[karamazovnew]

I don't see any point in changing the other scope or the UZO. I admit I had planned to do this, but it would take too long and SH5 is just months away. I believe that this attack scope provides all the necessary items for easy but rewarding manual attacks. Plus I have an engineer degree to worry about. Plus, I want to actually PLAY the game .

[looney]

I actually like the choice in aiming

My pc is fixed now only reinstall all *Sigh* what a crapload of progs I had to make my life easier

[MTotenkopf]

i love it. great job, so i did read the manual how to use it but i cant still understand it. can someone make a video on youtube or something like that?