Sim:WTF Tech Demo

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The WTF Tech Demo is a not-very-fun (if you have fun, 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.

November 28, 2015

This first pass has 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.

Download and Install

There is no public download. If you are a capable coder/modeler/artist and would like to help, we could talk.

For those who have obtained a download link, you will find a ZIP file for Windows or Mac.

OS X Install

Download the ZIP file (about 30MB) and uncompress it wherever you choose -- it contains just a .app file. Double click the app to run it. If security settings make that difficult, right-click it and insist that you trust this non-App Store code.

Uninstalling it is as simple as deleting that file.

Windows Install

Download the ZIP file (about 30MB) and uncompress it wherever you choose -- it creates a folder with a .EXE file and a sub-folder with required data.

Double-click the EXE file to run the tech demo.

Uninstalling it is as simple as deleting that folder.

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)

Next Steps

  • Troels has promised to work on the destroyer model
  • I will make a Google spreadsheet to track the issues in the model and elsewhere
  • The developers of a nice first-person controller are looking into a bug that prevents me from using it. If they can fix it, I might switch to that, which MAY resolve the "falling through the deck" bug.
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