[TEC] Coastal Searchlights

[Bubblehead1980]

Is there a working coastal search light for SH 4? The stock lights and ones TMO do not light up, just there. Would be nice to have some that actually work, as now had working land based radar, radio direction finding, and radar warning in TMO.

[Jeff-Groves]

With a little work? I'd say one could be created.
I'd look at the Air Raid Siren effect in GWX 3 for SH3 as how to produce one.


Looking at the files? Attaching the search light to a land Unit should work.

[Mad Mardigan]

Not to derail but to add to this, what of when light houses have the light rotating, in sim/game... there's no beam of light that rotates out, sort of like searchlights, but in a... straight line out. Would be nice to have that effect in there, as well.



M. M.

[Jeff-Groves]

It should be. All the controllers say the light houses work.

[Mad Mardigan]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

It should be. All the controllers say the light houses work.

When I'm playing, all the lighthouses do, is brighten up & give a... sort of lightning bug flash... there is no beam running out from the lighthouses, as does the searchlights off ships do... but without all the moving about as they are looking for you...

is there any possibility, of a search light beam, as used by say... destroyers, able to be added to the lighthouses so they shine out in a straight unmoving about line & rotate about... think... like a flashlight stuck on a pole attached to a motor that rotates the pole... & the flashlight doesn't move but stays fixed in that 1 position... pointing out, forming the top of the "T".

Best I can describe what I'm asking here... hope from that, you can understand what I'm asking here... from that.



M. M.

[propbeanie]

Keep that Stock version of the search light though, as well as the lighthouse, because like the AA gun emplacement that is empty, it will draw fire from attacking airplanes, and improve the bombing without knocking a hundred planes from the sky in sixty seconds or less, the way a working gun emplacement does... Witness the air attack on Wake Island in FotRSU, where one little 20mm on the s/e point of the island takes out most of the Betties, even when set to Competent... The Betties do avoid that spot after a run or two though.

[Jeff-Groves]

I find it kind of strange no one has addressed this is what? 17+ years?

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

I find it kind of strange no one has addressed this is what? 17+ years?

Yes, I do as well. Hopefully someone with the knowledge will address it. I have observation posts , land based radar sites, including radio direction finding now in TMO, so working coastal searchlights would work in nice. No more casual cruising the coast on the surface near shore and blasting off radio messages without any potential danger.

[propbeanie]

Uh...



The beams are a bit short, and you do have to be within roughly 1500 yards at night for detection.

[propbeanie]

We just did some "tours" of other coastal areas in FotRSU while finishing-up the next release testing. We found that the Tall_LightHouse has a "reflector", like those Coastal Lights above, whereas the "regular" LightHouse is like that Dock lighthouse above, in that there is no reflector, and no focused light, only a simulation of one. Also of note is the fact that you CANNOT use the LightHouse and Tall_LightHouse assets from MapLocations in a regular Single Mission file, for some inexplicable SH4 reason. These two, as well as several other assets must be used through the Campaign_LOC.mis file. You WILL CTD your game trying otherwise... - ask strikeback, he witnessed it - the LCD_SearchLight is fine to use anywhere, as witnessed above. I have more pictures if anyone wants to see them.

btw - the SearchLight does follow airplanes, which is very, very cool...

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

We just did some "tours" of other coastal areas in FotRSU while finishing-up the next release testing. We found that the Tall_LightHouse has a "reflector", like those Coastal Lights above, whereas the "regular" LightHouse is like that Dock lighthouse above, in that there is no reflector, and no focused light, only a simulation of one. Also of note is the fact that you CANNOT use the LightHouse and Tall_LightHouse assets from MapLocations in a regular Single Mission file, for some inexplicable SH4 reason. These two, as well as several other assets must be used through the Campaign_LOC.mis file. You WILL CTD your game trying otherwise... - ask strikeback, he witnessed it - the LCD_SearchLight is fine to use anywhere, as witnessed above. I have more pictures if anyone wants to see them.

btw - the SearchLight does follow airplanes, which is very, very cool...

Okay, so now need to figure out how to get this working in TMO, the coastal searchlights do not work, do not follow aircraft etc in TMO.

[propbeanie]

Refer to the picture above - it has to be dusk to dawn. No daylight use... lol - and you have to be within roughly 1500 yards for sight detection. If something else finds you further out, I'm sure they'd turn on. When the plane came in, we were on the surface and already detected, and the lights diverted to following the plane, and tracked it further than 1500 yards. I'll see if I can get a video here. You do have to place them close to shore it seems, but NOT in the water. If you are not getting anything, then there is a link somewhere that is off... I have your mod in the other computer, so I'll give it another whirl with this FotRSU mission, and give it a go that way...

[propbeanie]

Well, I had to endure a Windows Update, and then a Vegas Update... it had been a few weeks since I had used Vegas... but anyway, this is a rough edit, but you can see what the lights do, especially toward the end.

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Well, I had to endure a Windows Update, and then a Vegas Update... it had been a few weeks since I had used Vegas... but anyway, this is a rough edit, but you can see what the lights do, especially toward the end.

Whoa. This is TMO? Did you modify something or just my mod? If so, I am annoyed and a little embarrassed/confused lol because in all time have ran SH 4, never have observed the coastal searchlights functioning and Ive quite close, esp in late war when convoys are in shallows and on surface a lot.

One example is june 1944 off nagasaki/in kishik straits, the 8 ships 12 escort convoy Tang attacked. Per history, it hugs the coast in the sim and at one point I was very close to shore and expected searchlight to come on, but it did not. Multiple other times so assumed they did not work, were just scenery. hmm, interesting.

Perhaps my post should have been. How to increase their range lol AHHH this sim. Thanks for checking on this, Prop.

[propbeanie]

You might notice in the "still" of the video there, or any underwater periscope shots, "pixelation", since I have not installed the Sea Life fix, but other than that, that is the mod. Those lights that follow the planes and spot the sub, are the LCD_SearchLight, which have to be placed in locations on purpose. The Tall_LightHouse and the normal LightHouse and placed as MapLocations, of which the base game has quite a few. Rather generic looking, and always on, no matter the state of the "war" around them. You'll have to pick where you want the lights to be, because neither the Stock game, nor TMO placed them anywhere that I have found...