outside views, tactics, and realism

[Nemo66]

Hi folks!

There are 2 major sorts of cams in the game: (forget the stupid pop-up-action cam)

F12 - FREE CAM

Starting right above your tower, you can go wherever you want with it. Nice, but totally unrealistic.

semicolon/point key - UNIT CAM

You see your sub from the outside, and by stepping further, you can see all units, either friendly, neutral or enemies that you or you crew have detected yet.

The UNIT CAMS make the game way too easy and unrealistic i think. You can check out enemies in far distances, identifying targets is way too easy then. Also you can see other units in visual range of the detected unit, that have not been detected yet.
So if you want to go for more realism, you can choose "outside view off", so you just have the perspective from your boat, and no outside view at all.

But i would like to have another option: No F12 FREE CAM, but my own boat in unit cam, and no other units whatsoever. Also i would like to get a lot closer to my boat with unit cam, this is possible with F12 FREE CAM, but not with unit cam.

For now i handle it that way, that i never use F12 by myself, and only use unit cam with only once hitting the key, so i just see my boat and no other units as i don't step any further. But this is hard discipline for me, and from time to time i catch myself not following my own orders.

I would like to have a third option for that realism setting, so i don't have to rely on my own discipline only.
How do you see this issue, how do you make use of the outside views /cams, and how do you think it affects realism?
Does anyone of you know if these two issues are adressed in any of the mods/supermods?

To my oppinion, it's not possible to get full realism in a game or even a PC sim. I think it is ok to use some "unrealistic" features in order to compensate some things that can't be modelled in a PC, like the wind on your skin, the shaking of the boat in your guts, a general sense of orientation or just your sense of balance. Also the communication with your crew is restricted due to the programm, in real life you would get a lot more detailed information. So i don't want to be too restricted in what i do in my boat, because i am restricted anyway by playing in front of a PC and not being in a real boat. The unit cam for my own boat only would give me better orientation, but would not give away too much tactical information about the enemies.

[sublynx]

That would be a nice mod. Maybe you can post your question to SH3 Mods Workshop and see if someone can help. At least Rubini has modded the way F12 works (making the external view bob and weave with the waves) and h.sie made the F12 view blur when travelling fast. So it might be possible but would need some sophisticated modding work.

[Nemo66]

This annoyed me from the very beginning. I truly love the game but i think the settings are not very well balanced.UBI did it only in a very "raw" style, not really thinking about the tactical implicationas i think.
I will leave the thread in here for a while, because i hope it gets more attention here. Maybe after a while i will reopen it in the modders place, or one of the admins will put it over there anyway.

[KapitanFrank]

i would love to have a unit cam like that, i sadly force myself to turn of the outside cam , although before becoming a serious DEF player, i used to have it enabled to watch my enemies sink . now im somewhat sad that i force it off to be more realistic, and cant enjoy at least a little glimpse from an outside
perspective.

[CCIP]

One really simple tweak that I've used before is 1) disable the key shortcut for unit view; then 2) edit the speed of the free camera to a low value, so it would take a very long time to scroll over to any distant units, negating any tactical advantage from it.

[Nemo66]

@ KapitanFrank

Yes, that's another good idea mate. We could have a unit cam that shows only our sub and SINKING ships, which would not give too much tactical information away.


@ CCIP

Nice, i see what you mean. But how did you disable the key? I suppose there is a programm for redefining the keyboard but i don't remember now.

[UKönig]

I leave the exterior views on because ...I know it is only a game. I am allowed to see the action whether I use the "<" key to scroll through the units, or use "F12" to run around the field and check out all the players.
I love to watch my boat as it comes back up out of the depths. I love the sound of the waves breaking and the tower coming up. Then the watch crew goes on duty.
I love to watch the boat as it dives. The sound of the waves as they close over the casing. The moment when the electric drive engages and the screws start to turn.
In a way, it's like directing and taking part in my own version of "Das Boot".
I use the views to enhance the cinematic experience.
Also, I had the "Das Boot -original filmmusik" imported from Germany, And I like to play track 04 - U-96, when chasing down a contact, on the surface. It fits very well with the game.

[Nemo66]

@ UKoenig

To listen to the "Das Boot" soundtrack while chasing a convoy never came to my mind, although i'm german and saw the movie maybe 100 times or more. I will try this myself, i already imagine how cinematic this will be!

By the way, did you know that there is a 6 hour version of "Das Boot" they produced for german TV? It was intended as a TV series first, but the costs exploded, so they had to bring it to the big screen accidentaly...most people don't know this.

I don't know if it's available in english, though...


all-guns-up-640480.jpg

[UKönig]

Yes, I did know about the Das Boot, extended, extended director's cut, but thank you for pointing it out to me anyway!
I think it was said that there are like, 5 or 6 different edits of that movie. I personally have the 3 hour director's cut, the 563 page (english) novel, and the original sound track. Silent hunter 3 was the crown jewel in my U-boat collection. I have also completed 3 U-boat models recently, a 144 scale U23, a 125 scale U99, and a 144 scale U2540, port-side cutaway to show the interior. Yeah, I really like this kind of stuff, for some reason...
I play this game on the settings that I do because I can be the hero in my own movie, and it kinda sucks if the hero don't win. My careers are not played as 'dead is dead' but 'dead is a bad dream'. However, when I play, if I get killed because of being careless or clumsy, I will reload as many times as it takes until I get it right. Sometimes, getting it right is no more than 'sneak away until we're in the clear'. Maybe I don't get any or much tonnage, but we live to fight another day, and that's good enough for me.

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by Nemo66

@ CCIP

Nice, i see what you mean. But how did you disable the key? I suppose there is a programm for redefining the keyboard but i don't remember now.

No program required

Simply go to Silent Hunter III/data/cfg/ and open the file commands_en.cfg (or commands_de.cfg if you use the German version; I generally edit both just in case), and find the following lines:

[Cmd50]
Name=Camera_on_next_unit
Ctxt=1
Key0=0xBE,,">"
Page=0x34000000,3714

[Cmd51]
Name=Camera_on_prev_unit
Ctxt=1
Key0=0xBC,,"<"
Page=0x34000000,3714

Simply remove the last two lines from each entry, so you're only left with

[Cmd50]
Name=Camera_on_next_unit
Ctxt=1

[Cmd51]
Name=Camera_on_prev_unit
Ctxt=1

Then you simply won't have a key programmed for that function!

[BigWalleye]

Originally Posted by Nemo66

Nice, i see what you mean. But how did you disable the key? I suppose there is a programm for redefining the keyboard but i don't remember now.

There are several programs for remapping the keyboard bindings. My fave is SH Keymapper.exe by Jimimadrid. You can find it under his name at Plissken's. As CCIP indicates, it isn't difficult to edit the command.cfg file. But Keymapper also gives you a visual display of all current key assignments, which is handy.

[sharkbit]

Set Keys is another program which does the same as Keymapper. (I think I've used Keymapper with SH4. I would think both would work for both games.)

One thing I like about those programs is you can set multiple commands for one key stroke. For example I have "S" for surface, ahead standard, and lower attack and obs periscope.(I got tired of sailing for days around the Atlantic after surfacing and forgetting to lower a scope and noticing later on external view.)

Another is "CTRL-G"- it will man my deck gun, aim at water line, and fire at will at closest target. That works really well in the heat of the moment. I have similar commands for the AA guns as well amongst others.

[sublynx]

Wow, that easy. Just take the commands out and I can still have a look at my own boat. Cool

[GoldenRivet]

You say you want to take a closer view of your own boat with unit camera?

in unit camera... cant you use arrow up and arrow down to zoom in and out in the unit camera view??

[Nemo66]

cant you use arrow up and arrow down to zoom in and out in the unit camera view??

well of course i can do this...but this has it's limits, i want to get a lot closer to the boat in unit-cam, as close as in F12 Freecam.

Can't get close enough to my boat! Someday i will crawl through my screen and enter the boat like the old pirates did