Radar Stratégique

La fonction radar dans SEOW ne fonctionne qu'avec le mode History SFX 4.0. Cette fonction n'est pas un mode de détection intégré au cockpit mais plutôt une reconstitution du "Radar Operations Control Centre" tel qu'on a pu le voir dans le film "La Bataille d'Angleterre". Dans SEOW, le principe est de centraliser sur un écran radar dédié tous les appareils détectés à partir de détecteurs actifs placés sur la carte. Cet écran est mis à jour de façon dynamique et en temps réel durant le vol de la mission. Les résultats sont visibles par tout joueur autorisé à accéder au "Radar Control Centre" situé à l'intérieur du Mission Planner de SEOW. Ces joueurs, qu'on nommera Contrôleurs Radar, n'ont pas besoin de prendre part au vol. La seule chose qu'ils ont à faire est de suivre sur leur explorateur les informations de l'écran radar et transmettre par radio (TeamSpeak) les caps et ordres à leurs pilotes. Cela va apporter une approche totalement nouvelle de SEOW et IL2.

• Comment créer des accès pour les "Contrôleurs Radar".

Par défaut, 2 comptes sont créés, "AlliedRadar" et "AxisRadar", qui donnent accès aux fonctions radar de chaque camp. L'Administrateur a aussi un accès permanent à cette fonction. Pour donner l'accès à un pilote particulier, il suffit de mentionner "RADAR" dans le champ "Commanding" de ses droits. Une fois ses droits RADAR validés, le joueur verra apparaître les liens suivants sur la page du secteur:

Simplement cliquer sur le lien "Radar Control Centre" pour voir apparaître l'écran Radar Control

• Comment activer la fonction radar dans votre campagne SEOW.

Deux éléments fondamentaux sont requis. Le premier est de placer l'objet Radar Control Centre de la même façon que le siège du host (coop host seat). A partir de la version 3.2.4 du SEDCS, ceci apparaît comme une option de l'appareil pour le host. Cet avion ne participe pas aux combats, est non-armé et doit être laissé seul. Aussi longtemps qu'il est présent dans le jeu, en vol ou stationnaire, il remplira ses fonctions radar. Le deuxième élément important est de placer un ou plusieurs objets détecteurs radar (Radar Detector)dans le jeu, par exemple "Radar Chain Home High" ou "Radar Chain Home Low". Ce sont des objets sol du mode HistorySFX4.0 et correspondent aux stations radar longue-portée (80km) et courte-portée (30km). Ils peuvent être gérés par les deux camps, en nombre quelconque, exactement comme les autres objets sol combattants. Ils ont la classe "VTR" et peuvent être détruits, déplacés et même produits dans les usines. Ils peuvent être placés directement dans le template de campagne ou affectés aux points de renforts. En raison de leur portée, leur emplacement aura une importance significative sur les informations que vous recevrez. Les informations reçues peuvent comporter des imprécisions, les radars courte-portée étant plus précis que les radars longue-portée. Les radars embarqués sur navires sont une autre option.

• Comment configurer les opérations radar dans votre campagne SEOW.

Comme d'habitude, le SEDCS est l'outil de réglage des options radar. Dans SEDCS 3.2.4, un nouvel onglet " Radar" est présent. Vous pouvez l'activer ou non à n'importe quel moment de la campagne. Chaque camp possède ses réglages séparés, vous pouvez par exemple n'attribuer la fonction radar qu'à un seul camp. La fonction radar embarqué sur navires est automatiquement configurée pour les porte-avions, les bâteaux de guerre, les croiseurs et quelques destroyers ( essentiellemnt les destroyers US de la fin de la guerre ainsi que un ou deux destroyers japonais. Les navires ne peuvent détecter que les avions, il n'y a pas de détection de navire à navire. IFF (Identification Friend/Foe, Identification Ami/Ennemi) est aussi implémentée pour chaque camp en option. A noter que la RAF utilisait déjà l'IFF avant la Bataille d'Angleterre.

• Comment utiliser l'écran Contrôle Radar.

Here is a screenshot of the Radar Control screen during an actual SEOW mission, in Admin view.

There are several tools to take note of. First there is a small box in the top left that gives the Radar config settings for each side. If you login as an Allied or Axis commander, you will only see your side's Radar settings. At the bottom of that box is a link to the display legend. Clicking on this link displays/hides another overlay box that shows the graphic legend. This legend can be dragged around the screen. Across the top of the page are several large buttons:

• The first on the left is the Map Style tool. This contains several map image filters: most people tend to like the green filter.
• The second is the Radar Refresh button. The map screen refreshes automatically, but you can click this button at any time to force an immediate refresh.
• The third is a button to recalculate icon locations. Use this whenever you resize your browser window to get the icons repositioned correctly.
• The fourth will toggle on/off display of sector infrastructure icons, complete with mouse-over tooltips.
• The last button will return you to the sector homepage.

Now, there are some new graphics to understand. The red and blue "R" icons denote radar stations. This is the Kuban map, so red means Allied and Blue means Axis. A coloured bar immediately beneath the "R" denotes a ground radar station (long or short range). A white bar denotes naval radar station (on a ship). Large ships get long range radar, small ships get short range radar. You will see that each side has 2 ground radar stations and one naval radar station. Musing over these icons will display text that identifies the radar station type. Note that as radar ships move, their icon locations will also move as the radar screen refreshes.

In this Admin view, all Allied radar contacts are coloured red/orange and Axis blue, equivalent to permanent IFF for Admin. Each coloured square represents a single aircraft, with the transparency increasing the further back in time the contact was made. We can see two Axis flights, one of four aircraft (light blue) southwest of Anapa, and one single aircraft approaching Krymskaya. There is one Allied flight of 3 aircraft (partly obscured) south of Kerch. The fading contacts give the player information on the direction and speed of the contacts. Approximate altitudes are denoted by the border colours on the contact squares. No information on the type of aircraft is ever available.

Here is the identical view from the Allied side (with no IFF):

In this case, ALL aircraft contacts are drawn with orange and green icons, regardless of side. The Allied radar stations around Novorossiysk can only see two flights nearby. The friendly flight near Kerch in the earlier picture is out of Novorossiysk radar contact range. With this IFF setting, the Radar Controller player has no way of knowing these these two flights are hostile, unless he/she is in communication with all friendly flights in the sector and can check locations verbally.

The feedback during testing is that this feature now makes sensible a whole new range of SEOW campaigns, including strategic bombing, night fighter operations, carrier defence and so on.

• Technical Details

The Radar feature for SEOW is written entirely in PHP. The background maps are generated directly from the existing sector-intel maps for each sector, using GD2 image filtering. If you don't have GD2 enabled in your PHP, the Radar display will not work. Image filtering scripts are defined in MP4/Scripts/MP-RadarMap.php. The Radar feature expects that your host HSFX4 game will write radar data files to the $RadarLocation folder specified in the usual MP4/Scripts/MP-Configuration.php file:

 //$RadarLocation MUST be an absolute filesystem pathname
 $RadarLocation = "C:/Program Files/Ubisoft/HSFX4/Radar/RadarLogs/";
 $RadarHistoryLength = 3;            //Number of previous radar logs to display on the radar screen.

The MP scripts must have read access to the $RadarLocation folder. The Radar Screen will re-scan this folder periodically using Sajax calls.

Radar station information is subject to inaccuracy, with the short range stations having greater accuracy than long range stations. Ship-based Radar is another option.

• How to Configure Radar Operations in your SEOW campaign.

As usual, the SEDCS is the means by which Radar configuration can be set and adjusted. In SEDCS v3.24, look for the new Radar tab. You can enable/disable Radar from mission to mission. Apart from the overall Enable/Disable switch, each side has independent Radar settings, so you can set your campaign up with Radar for only one side, or for both sides. Ship-based Radar is automatically available for all aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and some destroyers (principally late-war US destroyers and one or two Japanese destroyers). Ships can only detect aircraft; there is no ship-to-ship radar functionality. IFF (Identification Friend/Foe) is also available for both sides, optionally. Note that the RAF were using IFF before the Battle of Britain.

• How to use the Radar Control screen.

Here is a screenshot of the Radar Control screen during an actual SEOW mission, in Admin view.

There are several tools to take note of. First there is a small box in the top left that gives the Radar config settings for each side. If you login as an Allied or Axis commander, you will only see your side's Radar settings. At the bottom of that box is a link to the display legend. Clicking on this link displays/hides another overlay box that shows the graphic legend. This legend can be dragged around the screen. Across the top of the page are several large buttons:

• The first on the left is the Map Style tool. This contains several map image filters: most people tend to like the green filter.
• The second is the Radar Refresh button. The map screen refreshes automatically, but you can click this button at any time to force an immediate refresh.
• The third is a button to recalculate icon locations. Use this whenever you resize your browser window to get the icons repositioned correctly.
• The fourth will toggle on/off display of sector infrastructure icons, complete with mouse-over tooltips.
• The last button will return you to the sector homepage.

Now, there are some new graphics to understand. The red and blue "R" icons denote radar stations. This is the Kuban map, so red means Allied and Blue means Axis. A coloured bar immediately beneath the "R" denotes a ground radar station (long or short range). A white bar denotes naval radar station (on a ship). Large ships get long range radar, small ships get short range radar. You will see that each side has 2 ground radar stations and one naval radar station. Musing over these icons will display text that identifies the radar station type. Note that as radar ships move, their icon locations will also move as the radar screen refreshes.

In this Admin view, all Allied radar contacts are coloured red/orange and Axis blue, equivalent to permanent IFF for Admin. Each coloured square represents a single aircraft, with the transparency increasing the further back in time the contact was made. We can see two Axis flights, one of four aircraft (light blue) southwest of Anapa, and one single aircraft approaching Krymskaya. There is one Allied flight of 3 aircraft (partly obscured) south of Kerch. The fading contacts give the player information on the direction and speed of the contacts. Approximate altitudes are denoted by the border colours on the contact squares. No information on the type of aircraft is ever available.

Here is the identical view from the Allied side (with no IFF):

In this case, ALL aircraft contacts are drawn with orange and green icons, regardless of side. The Allied radar stations around Novorossiysk can only see two flights nearby. The friendly flight near Kerch in the earlier picture is out of Novorossiysk radar contact range. With this IFF setting, the Radar Controller player has no way of knowing these these two flights are hostile, unless he/she is in communication with all friendly flights in the sector and can check locations verbally.

The feedback during testing is that this feature now makes sensible a whole new range of SEOW campaigns, including strategic bombing, night fighter operations, carrier defence and so on.

• Technical Details

The Radar feature for SEOW is written entirely in PHP. The background maps are generated directly from the existing sector-intel maps for each sector, using GD2 image filtering. If you don't have GD2 enabled in your PHP, the Radar display will not work. Image filtering scripts are defined in MP4/Scripts/MP-RadarMap.php. The Radar feature expects that your host HSFX4 game will write radar data files to the $RadarLocation folder specified in the usual MP4/Scripts/MP-Configuration.php file:

 //$RadarLocation MUST be an absolute filesystem pathname
 $RadarLocation = "C:/Program Files/Ubisoft/HSFX4/Radar/RadarLogs/";
 $RadarHistoryLength = 3;            //Number of previous radar logs to display on the radar screen.

The MP scripts must have read access to the $RadarLocation folder. The Radar Screen will re-scan this folder periodically using Sajax calls.