"New" free subsim "Danger from the deep"!

[Catfish]

Hello,
indeed it already exists for a while, but it slowly becomes a serious sim. Just got a free software CD from a compuer magazine, with this game "Danger from the deep" on it. Deals with german subs of WW2, you can have a look at the game, and even download it for free. It runs on Windows and Linux, water graphics are great, ships not yet polished as in SH3, but ... promising.

Screenshot gallery is here:
http://dangerdeep.sourceforge.net/gallery.html

It is an open source project and everyone is invited to help and develop it.


Greetings,
Catfish

[Deamon]

Thanks Catfish, but if you scroll down a bit you will notice that there already are several threads dealing with this game and you surely have noticed this game on the project list on the indi game project list thread.

[Catfish]

Hello,
ok sorry, while i knew about this (showed up at subsim long ago) i was dumbfounded how the graphics have improved ! Does anyone from subsim help this project ?
Thanks and greetings,
Catfish

[Deamon]

Originally Posted by Catfish

Does anyone from subsim help this project ?

Not to my knowledge. Seems they have some profesional artists there. But I see it in the future when it has evolved to the critical point there might be a run on it. All the moders might move over to it. Yes, I see this comming.

Cheers

While Mikhayl is waiting for a ATI friendly verison, I'm wating for an American sided version like instead of Danger of the Deep, It's Danger of the Pacific or something like this.

[kiwi_2005]

I remeber looking at this game months back and forgot all about it. Glad i saw this thread.

This time have bookmarked the site.

[Ilpalazzo]

So this doesn't work on ATI cards?

[rconstruct]

Hi

We've been silent for some time, but that only means everyone's busy working
The ATI issue, well, some time ago we were trying to fix this, dealing with a OSX package, and run into the ATI problem, particularly GLSL shaders failing to build/compile, and they were/are validated by 3DLabs GLSL validation tool, and Apple's GL validation tool, then one of Apple's engineers told us the problem was a (known) bug in ATI's driver. We don't have many developers, so we can't afford to spend much time with this atm, but ATI's drivers are improving daily (specially since they released the documentation for their architecture), you'll just have to wait, and report the problems in the dangerdeep mailing list (dangerdeep's sf.net project page), it'll be fixed eventually.

As for the status, work is underway for quite some time in lots of things.

New boyancy is done, so when you for instance, torpedo a target, there's a flooding simulation being run on the target, so that you can have the ships listing, sinking bow first, or whatever, they never sink in the same way twice
Torpedo code is being worked on as well, particularly depth keeping/steering, and end-of-run sinking, in fact this is working already, but needs some polishing.

Major work is under way with the terrain, this because the terrain is data based, so you actually have full bathymetry (correct) data, and oceanic currents will follow later (and tides), but the 1st stage is finishing the terrain/bathymetry. This is WIP (Work In Progress).

Captain's cabin is done, Kriegsmarine Soldbuch is done, the player's GUI is done, now when you start a mission you can select the uboat, player name, photo, the list of uboats and flotillas are historically correct, for uboat type/period of war.
Ship's recognition manual was also added, and it's already working, both as subscreen of the captain's cabin, and in popup of the periscope + UZO screen.

The data files were updated to have uboat bridge models (and this will allows us extra goodies later), so, the type II already has a custom bridge (and new GLSL shaders).

U-boat diving with the new boyancy is working and in-game, both dynamic (depth rudders) and static (ballasts) diving. Work is under way on the screen that will allow you to control the ballasts and the trim tanks, so that you can balance boyancy, center of gravity, do emergency diving, etc... The code is in-game and working already, the interface for it is being worked on atm.

There are also new models, Empire Dabchick, Empire Faith (CAM), Empire Lawrence (CAM), Empire Protector, as well as skins for these, and new destroyers, (J, K, L, O classes, with several skins/schemes).

We should have a new release soon, couple of monthes or so, things just take time, and we don't have a 10-15 million usd/euros budget

Just a couple of screenshots for the more curious, and don't worry if things are quiet/silent, that's a good sign. Stay tuned

[Letum]

Thanks for the Update, I hope the ATI issues work out one way or another.

[rconstruct]

Hi

Still about the ATI issue, it'll be fixed, we just need some time for that, and meanwhile since AMD/ATI released their GPU architecture documentation, drivers have been improving amazingly, which also makes our lifes easier when it comes to diagnosing/debugging issues.

One note about the ballasts, trim tanks, navigation, etc... there's heavy work going on in the AI core, because well, if you play alone, an AI has to help you control all the devices - the importance of this is everything's being put in place for the career mode, so that you can play in multiplayer/network collaborative mode - and you will definitively need this, example: the person in charge of the navigation will have at his/her disposal, bathymetric charts, the kriegsmarine charts, weather reports, currents/tides charts. The person responsible for dealing with ballasts/trim tanks will also be very busy
We're considering incorporating mumble in dangerdeep, so that in collaborative mode you would be able to have chat, for each "u-boat" channel, etc..

That's pretty much it, i'll post some more updates soon, stay tuned.

[rconstruct]

Hi

About cellestial navigation, yes, it'll be implemented, but the sky simulation etc... depends on finishing the implementation of the weather system, so it'll take a bit of time, but yes, it will be done
Another thing, regarding the currents, tides, etc... this isn't just surface currents, i mean, the way things are being made, there will be layers (altough limited to 2 or 3 layers though, since it's expensive to compute this), so you'll have thermoclines, and a bathythermograph. There's some controversy about use of bathythermograph aboard u-boats, but it seems they were indeed used (as you can see from the U-505 capture report, the US Navy intelligence officers did an inventary of all the equipment on board, questioned the crew, etc... http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-505.htm
If anyone has any more information regarding this, it would be apretiated

The thermal layers probably won't make it into this release (next couple of monthes), but they'll be implemented (along with the weather system).
I'll post some news regarding the upcoming 0.4 release soon, stay tuned

[dcb]

This is shaping up as a most interesting project and I admire the dev team's dedication
Just a question. Somewhere in the future, will the sim also feature a '39-45 single-player campaign?

[Radu]

This might be a really silly question, but does that ATI card problem exist only in Linux or it's in Windows too ? For the moment I only have debian squeeze installed on my laptop and indeed only the main menu of the game it's loaded, when I'm trying too load a mission it crashes, but I noticed this problem was allready discussed. Now does this problem exists in Windows too, 'cause if not I'll install Windows too, but i just wanna be sure.

[artao]

... I've got win xp sp3, and the ATI problem exists there too aparently, as I can't even get the game to start loading. Oh well. I need to upgrade my card anyhow. Still looking VERY forward to this game!! Our newest and bestest hope, IMHO!!