Difference between revisions of "Sim:Main Page"

From The Dreadnought Project
Jump to: navigation, search
(See Also)
(Development History)
(32 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="display:none">{{FULLPAGENAME}}</span>}}
 
{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="display:none">{{FULLPAGENAME}}</span>}}
 
 
 
{|align="right"
 
{|align="right"
 
|{{SimSlideshow}}
 
|{{SimSlideshow}}
 
|}
 
|}
 +
In 2002-2006, I created a technically-minded 3D naval simulation I called '''Fleet Action Imminent'''.  I hope to create a massively multiplayer game featuring these same details, and have prototyped it on several platforms.  I've reached the point where I need to collaborate to develop something stable I can openly share beyond video demos with others.
  
 +
==Videos demonstrating the Sim==
 +
The first three educational videos are... ''ok''.  The last two are more involved, but I had not enough scripting of what I wanted to show and explain.  And so I ramble quite a bit (sorry).
  
In 2002-2006, I created a simulation I called '''Fleet Action Imminent'''.  I hoped to then create a massively multiplayer game called '''With the Fleet''', but except for a few prototypes, WTF never got very far before I set it aside for other pursuits &mdash; notably, this wiki.
+
There are some mistakes in the videos, particularly in the voiceovers.  I encourage you to follow the links to Wiki articles that more accurately describe some of the details.
  
==Fleet Action Imminent==
+
N.B.: for best results, watch the videos on Youtube in full screen.
FAI was written in Java, and delivered a Spartan 3D interactive environment using an extinct, WIndows-only 3D plug-in called Wildtangent Web Driver. It delivered low frame-rates and a dated appearance, but these were not a barrier to what I wanted to focus on:  creating a realistic simulation of the ships, duties and mechanisms of fire control.
+
  
FAI embodied realistic ballistics and implementations of 20+ distinct AI behaviours for sailors with different shipboard duties, manning a virtual Dreyer table, wireless transmitter, many data transmitters and receivers, Vickers director, coincidence rangefinders, dumaresqs, etc, etc.  It was fairly glorious.
+
===Torpedo Aiming Systems===
  
I toyed with the idea of tearing out Wildtangent in favour of [http://jmonkeyengine.com/ jMonkeyEngine], but didn't proceed with it, as the FAI architecture was unlikely to ever deliver me the massively multiplayer experience I felt was necessary to achieve my broadest vision.  This does not mean that I would not permit a talented and motivated hacker from trying to achieve this.
+
<video id="xq-4Z8UDCYI" height="150" width="200" desc="Aiming Torpedoes from the Tube" frame="true"/>
  
One limited fruit of the switch to using jMonkeyEngine was that I took out the ballistics code into an application called '''Blammo''' that creates very accurate HTML range tables for simulated weapons based on very little input data.  I may eventually release Blammo.
+
<video id="R1VFYBDCV6U" height="150" width="200" desc="Aiming Torpedoes remotely" frame="true"/>
  
==With the Fleet==
+
These videos illustrate use of a [[Torpedo Director Pattern 2006]], the basic model of torpedo aiming the Royal Navy used from the 1880s to 1915.  The first video demonstrates how such a director works when placed on the torpedo tube, and the second illustrates how it can be used from a remote aiming position by use of a [[Tangent Bar]] to factor out the parallax.
  
When I was setting aside FAI's Java code, I made a few prototypes of the proper game I wanted to createThe first was based in [http://www.garagegames.com/products/torque-3d Torque Game Engine], and the second built atop [http://ogre3d.org/ Ogre3D].  The prototypes had some innovative features I won't divulge, but never got very naval.  I sorely needed a better coder than myself to get where I was going.
+
Some time during the war, the British realized that their torpedo directors were overly complicated, and the corrections offered by the Tangent Bar were miniscule when compared to the sources of error endemic to torpedo fire at real world rangesIn light of this, they moved to abandon the torpedo directors in favour of the simpler [[Torpedo Deflection Sight]]s, which relied on a single scalar value, computed in the sheltered quiet of the ship's interior spaces, to convey to the men at the sight how to establish the proper sighting angle.
  
I since have looked at [http://unity3d.com Unity3D], which tries to be easy to use but is harder to understand than a C++ game engine... how did they do that?
+
===The Dumaresq===
 +
The Royal Navy used a device called a [[Dumaresq]] to relate the relative motion of a target ship to the very helpful frame of reference to how fast the enemy ship appears to be moving along the line of fire versus across the line of fire.  These measures are very helpful in mature fire control systems, as the first is the [[Range Rate|rate of change of range over time]] and would be a value you could integrate on a [[Range Clock]] to generate a continuous range hypothesis for continuous hitting, and the latter can be massaged further to calculate the small lateral [[Gun Deflection|aiming deflection]] angle that will cause the fire to be correct for bearing.
  
==Developer Blog==
+
<video id="ZQTBfvJH_xc" height="150" width="200" desc="The Dumaresq" frame="true" />
I am working to bring the FAI sim up on jMonkeyEngine.  I have a subset of the old sim working nicely.  My hope is that I can share it with others.  Things are promising, but no guarantees.
+
  
[[User:Tone|Tone]] 20:30, 5 September 2011 (EDT)
+
===Putting it all together: Ship-wide Fire Control===
  
I have been working hard and have destroyers with helmsmen, 4-in guns and gunners working. I find myself now spending time getting smokestacks to throw their smoke in the right direction and volume, etc.  Everything is slow but progress ever day.  Here is a super short video.
+
<video id="iZZ7wdnRLsE" height="150" width="200" desc="The Dreyer Fire Control Table" frame="true" />
  
<video id="mUofK0auqGI" height="300" width="400" desc="4-in gun fire" frame="true" position="center"/>
+
<video id="ObKJQBKOn6Q" height="150" width="200" desc="Director Firing" frame="true" />
<br>
+
 
 +
The Royal Navy took the basic components of gun sights, rangefinders, spotting, and communications devices to build a sophisticated computer, the [[Dreyer Fire Control Table]] and a system to harmonize the effort by pointing and firing all the guns at once using a [[Gunnery Director]].  The overall effect was to transform a capital ship, such as a battleship, into an early form of networked computing system, which would allow each man to work a small part of the overall problem of converting observed ranges and bearings to the elevation and training angles required to place shells on target.  The many people so engaged could communicate their results over dedicated electro-mechanical data networks few consider today.
 +
 
 +
==Development History==
 +
FAI was written in Java, and delivered a Spartan 3D interactive environment using an extinct, Windows-only 3D plug-in called WildTangent.  It delivered low frame-rates and a dated appearance, but these were not a barrier to what I wanted to focus on:  creating a realistic simulation of the ships, duties and mechanisms of fire control.
 +
 
 +
FAI embodied realistic ballistics and implementations of 20+ distinct AI behaviours for sailors with different shipboard duties, manning a virtual Dreyer table, wireless transmitter, many data transmitters and receivers, Vickers director, coincidence rangefinders, dumaresqs, etc, etc.  It was fairly glorious.
  
[[User:Tone|Tone]] 16:26, 11 October 2011 (EDT)
+
I eventually replaced Wildtangent with [http://jmonkeyengine.com/ jMonkeyEngine], but didn't take things much further, as the FAI architecture was unlikely to ever deliver me the massively multiplayer experience I felt was necessary to achieve my ultimate vision.
  
I have made steps toward making the sim multiplayer, but am not going to press ahead on this for a bit.  I dashed ahead and worked to create the battlecruiser with its entire fire control systems againIt will require much debugging and I see some art is around 5 times too big... I will have to go and check why that is and apply fixes to orientation (Wildtangent was in a righthanded graphics space, and JME is lefthanded).
+
==Continuing Work==
 +
I decided to write a simulation because renders of 3D models and textual description of such mechanisms seems lifeless and flatHowever, it is now painfully clear that videos of someone else using a sim is also a little like having someone eat a pizza on your behalf.
  
[[User:Tone|Tone]] 18:11, 11 December 2011 (EST)
+
I am now working on a successor to FAI which I call [[Sim:WTF|With the Fleet]].  This simulation has the following main goals:
  
I have been working, slowly, on getting the battlecruiser up and running and adding unique gameplay elements.  The battlecruiser and its many instruments is imported, but I have to do much of that work again, as I have most parts yawed 180 degrees from the most convenient normArgh!   
+
* it will be multiplayer; each player is a sailor or officer, never a ship
 +
* it will use voice pervasively to better model the teamwork and fraternal/sororal nature of serving aboard a ship
 +
* it will have a sedate pace with infrequent battles, to augment their impact
 +
* it will run on current popular platforms of suitable types: Windows, MacOS, possibly Linux
 +
* it must be stable enough to invite regular outside playIdeally, it will become a commercial offering
  
[[User:Tone|Tone]] 16:26, 3 January 2012 (EST)
+
As of early 2019, the work is at the prototype stage.  I need collaborators &ndash; primarily artists and coders.
  
 
==See Also==
 
==See Also==
* [[Sim:Videos|Videos of Fleet Action Imminent Simulation]]
+
{{refbegin}}
 
* [[Sim:Ballistics|Discussion of simulated ballistics used]]
 
* [[Sim:Ballistics|Discussion of simulated ballistics used]]
 +
{{refend}}

Revision as of 22:46, 15 January 2019

SimBattleshipUnderFire 512.jpg
SimFireControlMechanism 512.jpg

In 2002-2006, I created a technically-minded 3D naval simulation I called Fleet Action Imminent. I hope to create a massively multiplayer game featuring these same details, and have prototyped it on several platforms. I've reached the point where I need to collaborate to develop something stable I can openly share beyond video demos with others.

Videos demonstrating the Sim

The first three educational videos are... ok. The last two are more involved, but I had not enough scripting of what I wanted to show and explain. And so I ramble quite a bit (sorry).

There are some mistakes in the videos, particularly in the voiceovers. I encourage you to follow the links to Wiki articles that more accurately describe some of the details.

N.B.: for best results, watch the videos on Youtube in full screen.

Torpedo Aiming Systems

Aiming Torpedoes from the Tube
Aiming Torpedoes remotely

These videos illustrate use of a Torpedo Director Pattern 2006, the basic model of torpedo aiming the Royal Navy used from the 1880s to 1915. The first video demonstrates how such a director works when placed on the torpedo tube, and the second illustrates how it can be used from a remote aiming position by use of a Tangent Bar to factor out the parallax.

Some time during the war, the British realized that their torpedo directors were overly complicated, and the corrections offered by the Tangent Bar were miniscule when compared to the sources of error endemic to torpedo fire at real world ranges. In light of this, they moved to abandon the torpedo directors in favour of the simpler Torpedo Deflection Sights, which relied on a single scalar value, computed in the sheltered quiet of the ship's interior spaces, to convey to the men at the sight how to establish the proper sighting angle.

The Dumaresq

The Royal Navy used a device called a Dumaresq to relate the relative motion of a target ship to the very helpful frame of reference to how fast the enemy ship appears to be moving along the line of fire versus across the line of fire. These measures are very helpful in mature fire control systems, as the first is the rate of change of range over time and would be a value you could integrate on a Range Clock to generate a continuous range hypothesis for continuous hitting, and the latter can be massaged further to calculate the small lateral aiming deflection angle that will cause the fire to be correct for bearing.

The Dumaresq

Putting it all together: Ship-wide Fire Control

The Dreyer Fire Control Table
Director Firing

The Royal Navy took the basic components of gun sights, rangefinders, spotting, and communications devices to build a sophisticated computer, the Dreyer Fire Control Table and a system to harmonize the effort by pointing and firing all the guns at once using a Gunnery Director. The overall effect was to transform a capital ship, such as a battleship, into an early form of networked computing system, which would allow each man to work a small part of the overall problem of converting observed ranges and bearings to the elevation and training angles required to place shells on target. The many people so engaged could communicate their results over dedicated electro-mechanical data networks few consider today.

Development History

FAI was written in Java, and delivered a Spartan 3D interactive environment using an extinct, Windows-only 3D plug-in called WildTangent. It delivered low frame-rates and a dated appearance, but these were not a barrier to what I wanted to focus on: creating a realistic simulation of the ships, duties and mechanisms of fire control.

FAI embodied realistic ballistics and implementations of 20+ distinct AI behaviours for sailors with different shipboard duties, manning a virtual Dreyer table, wireless transmitter, many data transmitters and receivers, Vickers director, coincidence rangefinders, dumaresqs, etc, etc. It was fairly glorious.

I eventually replaced Wildtangent with jMonkeyEngine, but didn't take things much further, as the FAI architecture was unlikely to ever deliver me the massively multiplayer experience I felt was necessary to achieve my ultimate vision.

Continuing Work

I decided to write a simulation because renders of 3D models and textual description of such mechanisms seems lifeless and flat. However, it is now painfully clear that videos of someone else using a sim is also a little like having someone eat a pizza on your behalf.

I am now working on a successor to FAI which I call With the Fleet. This simulation has the following main goals:

  • it will be multiplayer; each player is a sailor or officer, never a ship
  • it will use voice pervasively to better model the teamwork and fraternal/sororal nature of serving aboard a ship
  • it will have a sedate pace with infrequent battles, to augment their impact
  • it will run on current popular platforms of suitable types: Windows, MacOS, possibly Linux
  • it must be stable enough to invite regular outside play. Ideally, it will become a commercial offering

As of early 2019, the work is at the prototype stage. I need collaborators – primarily artists and coders.

See Also