8km or 16km? which is mor realiscic?

scalpel · Joined: 05 Apr 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Danzig, Polen

hi,
which is the average visibility distance at good weather at sea?
i heard that over 10km or 4-5NM it is bearly possible to spot any ship... so the 16KM mod is not very realistic... is it right?

Sailor Steve · Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 11:38 am Post subject:

From the bridge of a destroyer on a perfectly clear day you can see another ship's masts at about 20 miles, or 30 kilometers.

I've been there.

vodkajello · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 105 Location: Calgary, Canada

The question that should be asked is which causes more problems in the game.

8km mods have very few problems. 16kms mod have issues with the sea meeting the sky on the horizon, with ranges that your crew identifies ships at in different conditons and there are also problems with disappearing weather/fog effects.

16km also puts a lot of extra load on your computer, so you'll need at least a mid range machine. (I'd say a 2.5Ghz, 1gb ram, GF6600 or x700 video card)

Stiebler · Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 109 Location: London, UK

U-boat conning towers were designed to be as low as possible, so as to be hard to detect by other ships. By contrast, the bridges of warships, as Sailor Steve says, are designed to offer the best view.

This had the natural consequence that the view from the U-boat was reduced to about 8 km (5 miles).

However, this is not the whole story, since the U-boat watch could often see the smoke from a ship or, especially, a convoy at much greater ranges. Thus the 16 km view is not wholly unrealistic. It has also the effect of appearing to populate the oceans with more ships than you would normally see in the sparsely-populated SH3 world, since you are viewing a radius-squared universe (area of circle = pi x radius x radius). To my mind, this seems to be overall more realistic.

But, as Vodkajello pointed up, the 16km radius does put a bigger strain on your computer.

Stiebler.

scalpel · Joined: 05 Apr 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Danzig, Polen

yop, the 16KM horizon looks awful... that's the reason i've reverted to GW standard 8KM...

thanks for info Thumbs Up

Sailor Steve · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:18 pm Post subject:

I think the 16 km mod looks fine. Which version are you using?

scalpel · Joined: 05 Apr 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Danzig, Polen

the last one i tried was "16Km_scene.dat_file_Fog_Fixed.rar" and it is here: http://rapidshare.de/files/8543118/16Km_scene.dat_file_Fog_Fixed.rar.html

i was useing it with Env from 16KM mod from GW optional mods folder
version which came with GW doesn't have any fog or haze, so it looks unnatural for me
i tried to find one that has the haze effect... the version from above link has a little fog, but there is still very sharp boundary between the fogged water and the sky, and what most annoying even when there is a heavy fog weatrher, when there should be a soft courtain of fog covering the horizon and smoothly expose the water near the POV and the sky above... is that right? i, ve never been in open see, so correct me if i'm wrong...
i would post a screenshot, but actually... i donk know how... as i don't use forums very often... Embarassed

ps. sorry for my English... i've fallen into secondary illiteracy with this language last years... Confused

http://rapidshare.de/files/18777387/SH3Img_1-1-2004_16.56.31_218.JPG.html

http://rapidshare.de/files/18777690/SH3Img_1-1-2004_16.56.56_906.JPG.html

http://rapidshare.de/files/18777749/SH3Img_1-1-2004_16.57.18_562.JPG.html

JDHartman · Joined: 20 Mar 2006 Posts: 7

it does look very bad on the screens.

Sailor Steve · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 6:41 pm Post subject:

As I said, I'm using the 16km Atmosphere mod (Dark) and it looks just as good as the 8 km, only you can see more than twice as far. I've spotted lighthouses at 18 km.