Sim:WTF Tech Demo

The WTF Tech Demo of November 2015 was a not-very-fun (if you had fun with it, I will gladly refund your money) test app intended to show development team members (and potential team members) to see what I am working on. It is now longer available, as the server code has long since changed. This page is here for historical purposes.

November 28, 2015

This first pass had two identical destroyers, one steaming to the east at a moderate speed and another you can walk around on and can control the engines and rudder of the other via a rudimentary "busy box" interface.

The destroyer model is Troels Hansens's recrafted version of Tone's H.M.S. Acheron model. The sky, ocean, first person controller and happy waving flag are purchased, licensed assets on the Unity3D platform.

UI Cheat sheet

• W,A,S,D == walk around
• mouselook to look around
• Press and hold F to reveal the cursor (to adjust the sliders in the GUI in lower left):
  • rudder angle for your own ship
  • throttle for your own ship
  • Time multiplier for time of day and clouds
  • time of day
  • wind direction
  • wind speed
• Space bar to jump

Bugs

• you can fall through the ship in heavy seas (remedy: restart the app)
• destroyer model is partial, with missing polygons and parts
• buoyancy modeling is first-pass... the hull is treated like a box
• engine and rudder modeling also rough
• no means of getting off main deck (ship is treated as a box with walls to keep you from falling overboard)
• you can walk through the deckhouse and the funnels

Next Steps

Some of the greatest issues in this first tech demo will require the involvement of others.

3D Art

The model is nice, but needs work to help my code understand how it should float on the water, and how a simulated sailor can walk its decks.

In decreasing order of importance:

• all scales so that 1 unit == 1 meter
• add reverse faces to the hull where they can be seen while onboard (so you can see the inside of the hull forward, with the foredeck overhead)
• add the bulkhead between the open main deck and the enclosed forward berthing area under the foredeck
• separate the hull into its own layer/named group to assist in modeling its buoyancy
• create simplified deck-and-walls model (which will not be rendered) to help the first person deck walking code know where the sailor can go
• add missing ladders from main deck to fore deck (and replace missing slats in those from foredeck to bridge)
• remove the guns for now, replacing them with null items that record the position where the center bottom of a separate mounting model will be installed (these will be programmatically added so they become usable)
• remove doors from forward superstructure, leaving voids (extra credit: install inner faces to the walls so they are visible, ideally with a 20mm sill for the door frame
• extra credit: can we texture the model, even roughly as a test?
• etc, etc

December 4, 2015

I uploaded a new version. Addition of some test terrain made the file sizes balloon to 130M.

Changes

• The Silverlining cloud and sun package has been replaced by UniStorm. It is not as good at clouds, but does precipitation and climate-related environmental audio
• Added some ropes for signal halyards
• Added the island of Graemsay (which is in Scapa Flow)

I broke the time of day slider. I really dislike UniStorm's time concept, relative to Silverlining's, but the precipitation options are nice and the asset is being actively developed.

UI Cheat sheet

• W,A,S,D == walk around
• mouselook to look around
• Press and hold F to reveal the cursor (to adjust the sliders in the GUI in lower left):
  • rudder angle for your own ship
  • throttle for your own ship
  • Time multiplier for time of day and clouds (broken)
  • time of day (broken)
  • wind direction
  • wind speed
• Space bar to jump
• F12 to access a working time-of-day slider for UniStorm and a little text field where you can enter codes to change the weather type:
  • 01 = Foggy
  • 02 = Light Rain/Light Snow (Snow Winter Only)
  • 03 = Thunder Storm/ Snow Storm (Snow Winter Only)
  • 04 = Partly Cloud 1
  • 05 = Partly Cloud 2
  • 06 = Partly Cloud 3
  • 07 = Clear 1
  • 08 = Clear 2
  • 09 = Cloudy
  • 001 = Mostly Cloudy
  • 002 = Heavy Rain (No Thunder)
  • 003 = Falling Fall Leaves (Fall Only)
  • 004 = Butterflies (Summer Only)

December 10, 2015

Changes

• The Silverlining cloud and sun package has been restored. UniStorm may get to put in a few bits, but its interface was shitty
• Added stairs and colliders ... you can get to foredeck and cannot walk through funnels.
• Controller is now UFPS and it is pretty good (you can still capsize your ship by running against the gunwale!)

UI Cheat sheet

• W,A,S,D == walk around
• mouselook to look around
• right mouse to squint
• Press and hold F to reveal the cursor (to adjust the sliders in the GUI in lower left):
  • rudder angle for your own ship
  • throttle for your own ship
  • Time multiplier for time of day and clouds (broken)
  • time of day (fixed again)
  • wind direction
  • wind speed
• Space bar to jump

August 2, 2016

I have a multiplayer demo running. Not worth looking at just yet!

October 26, 2016

I have a multiplayer demo running and am inviting select friends and prospective contributors to "play test" it with me.

1. First, run your client in full screen mode at a time you know Tone is running the server and "log in" with a short player name.
2. Pick a Ship or Port. For your first log in, please choose H.M.S. Acheron
3. You should shortly thereafter find yourself a sailor on the deck of a destroyer (please excuse the art)
4. Use W,A,S,D, to walk around. Shift will make you run
5. right mouse click to squint and see a higher zoom level
6. you should be able to carefully climb the stairs to the bridge or to descend from the foredeck
7. manual controls on the server can adjust weather and time of day
8. / initiates chat. Escape dismisses a chat composition. Enter sends the composed chat. Tab cycles chat window size (small, large, gone)
9. an AI helmsman has the wheel
10. try the following commands to the helmsman:
    1. (speed/direction: "slow/half/full ahead/astern" or ""stop") (engines: "both/port/starboard")
    2. (rudder angle: "rudder amidships" or "rudder port/starboard 5/10/15/20/25/30/35")
    3. (heading order: "steer [compass point]" or "steer [digit] [digit] [digit]" (say "oh" rather than "zero")
    4. (turn: "turn [number] points to port/starboard")
    5. "what is our heading?"
    6. "what time is it?"
    7. "what does a cow say?"