Quote:
Originally Posted by Nisgeis
It was made as portable as possible. All of the 3D TDC should be under parent / child nodes, for easy portability, which means if you can import those nodes, you just have to position the one parent node and all the dials / markers under it will change position relative to the parent node. Much easier than modifying lots of different controllers.
The Range unit is a bit different though, as that is an additional model and would need to be imported and placed somewhere (in the later boats where the TDC is in the control tower, it goes between the TDC and the radar). In the Balao, it is between the Sonar Stack and the 'A' Scope. The 3D model for the radar scopes in stock, for whatever reason, had part of the sonar stack incorporated, so when I moved the radar rightwards (aft), it also moved one of the sonar buttons (send range maybe?), so I had to redo the sonar stack and radar models as well, which was a complete pain. This meant the sonar stack model and radar models had to be reimported into the .dat file and adjusted so the sonar buttons all 'belonged' to the sonar model - all because of a miscellaneous button. If you are not moving any models around, and ignoring the radar range unit, this should not be a problem.
The range unit is also set up in a parent / child manner, so moving the parent node moves all dependant nodes and you in theory only have to move one node. This a good thing, as there are literally thousands of extra nodes added to make the range dials all work. To make the range unit work though, I think you may have to add the 'Precision' mode, which requires an extra mode in the settings and some 3d model and texture updates., so probably the range unit is the most difficult to import.
Probably the easiest way to import the TDC only is to find the node for the TDC in any of the mods using S3D (a brilliant tool, without which the mod would never have been attempted and also which I thought I broke making this mod) and remove all the other nodes, then save that dat and then import it into the target dat and position it. I think the other boats had the TDC in the Control Room, not the Conning Tower, so, you should be able to import the parent node of the TDC into the CT dat and position it.
Unfortunately I don't have SH4 installed, or even a DVD drive to install it, but am available for moral support?
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First of all, glad to see you are still around and want to complement you on the 3TDC and Radar Range Mod, really a game change and in the top five mods of all time for SH 4. I play without map contacts or external camera probably 60 percent of the time with a lot of success and having an accurate, working radar, and the TDC to update the information is just awesome, something we should had from the get go, but really do appreciate hard work, it sounds like it was a real pain lol.
I looked of the files when was working on my TMO Update so have a vague idea of what you ae talking about lol. I would love to incorporate both radar range unit and 3D TDC into the Salmon/Sargo/Porpoise at some point, so thanks for the information and moral support.
Interesting you mention the TDC being in the control room of the older boats. My understanding is that the original TDC was a table top, like the fire control computers of surface ships and was in the control room as it would not fit in the conning tower, but skippers did not like it, since wanted the TDC in conning tower, close to them during attacks. So it was improved and redesigned and installed to fit in the conning tower. To my knowledge all of the Porpoise class boats kept their TDC in control room but the Salmon and Sargos had theirs moved to the conning tower eventually. I am sure some had it, some never did. In the sim, not sure where would put it in the control room without a major redesign.