Bridge Command - Ship Models

Introduction

There are two classes of other ship models that can be defined in Bridge Command. These are 'own ships' and 'other ships.' Ownships are models that have their full dynamics modelled, and are for use as the user's own ship. 'Other ships' are used to model all other ships in the environment, and can be loaded as 'otherships' or 'controlledships'. For details of what you can do with these, and how to load them in scenarios, please see the Scenario specification and the Scenario writer.

The most fundamental part of any ship model to load in Bridge Command is the 3D model itself. This can be in DirectX (.x) or 3DS Max format (.3ds). With this, the text file boat.ini is used to define the other characteristics of the model. The specification of this file is detailed below, but for a general introduction to the .ini file format used by Bridge Command, please read the .ini file format.

Each vessel is contained in a folder, with the vessel's name, under Models\Othership or Models\Ownship as appropriate. So if Bridge Command is installed in its default location, an own ship model called 'Protis' would be at 'C:\Program Files\Bridge Command 4.7GPL\models\Ownship\Protis'

Sections

Own ships

The 3D model to load, and all of the characteristics of the own ship model are defined in the file Boat.ini in the model's folder. In addition, a file Radar.ini sets up the parameters for the radar. A complete example of both files is given below, and the effect of each line is explained below this:

Boat.ini


FileName="boat.x"

ScaleFactor=0.3

YCorrection=-3

AngleCorrection=0



Depth=3.0



Views=3



ViewX(1)=-0.3

ViewY(1)=15.74

ViewZ(1)=-6.0



ViewX(2)=9.4

ViewY(2)=16.0

ViewZ(2)=-9.8



ViewX(3)=-9.4

ViewY(3)=16.0

ViewZ(3)=-9.8



Sailing=0



Max_propulsion_force=3000

AsternEfficiency=0.667

Mass=5000



MaxRevs=2500



DynamicsSpeedA=18.71

DynamicsSpeedB=100



PropSpace=2.0

DynamicsTurnDragA=180000

DynamicsTurnDragB=12000

Inertia=120000

RudderA=5

RudderB=0.05

RudderBAstern=0



centrifugalDriftEffect=0.03



PropWalkAhead=100

PropWalkAstern=300

PropWalkDriftEffect=0.000007



Buffet=3.0

Swell=1.0

Windage=0.05

WindageTurnEffect=1.3



DeviationMaximum=5

DeviationMaximumHeading=10

If there is a file horn.wav in the directory, this will be used as the ship's horn sound. If not, Bridge Command will default to it's own horn sound.

Radar.ini

If no radar.ini file is present in the vessel's ownship folder, defaults will be used for all of the Radar's parameters.


NumberOfRadarRanges=6

RadarRange(1) = 12

RadarRange(2) = 6

RadarRange(3) = 3

RadarRange(4) = 2

RadarRange(5) = 1

RadarRange(6) = 0.5



FullARPA=1

MARPAContacts=20



radar_sensitivity=3.0

radar_range_sensitivity=5.0

radar_height=10

radar_noise=0.000000000005

radar_sea_clutter=0.000000001

radar_rain_clutter=0.00001

plot_pi_data=1

radar_bg_red=0

radar_bg_green=0

radar_bg_blue=200

radar1_red=255

radar1_green=220

radar1_blue=0

radar2_red=0

radar2_green=255

radar2_blue=0

radar3_red=255

radar3_green=0

radar3_blue=0

Other ships

The 3D model to load, and all of the characteristics of the own ship model are defined in the file Boat.ini in the model's folder. A complete example is given below, and the effect of each line is explained below this:


FileName="boat.x"

ScaleFactor=0.3038

YCorrection=-17

SolidHeight=45

AngleCorrection=0



Filename2="radar.x"

x2=0.427

y2=99.026

z2=-28.382

ScaleFactor2=1



weapon_x=0.00

weapon_y=43.713

weapon_z=189.0



NumberOfLights=5



LightX(1)=26.4

LightY(1)=59.2

LightZ(1)=105.4

LightRange(1)=6

LightRed(1)=0

LightGreen(1)=255

LightBlue(1)=0

LightStartAngle(1)=-1

LightEndAngle(1)=112.5



LightX(2)=-26.2

LightY(2)=59.2

LightZ(2)=105.4

LightRange(2)=6

LightRed(2)=255

LightGreen(2)=0

LightBlue(2)=0

LightStartAngle(2)=247.5

LightEndAngle(2)=361



LightX(3)=0

LightY(3)=103.3

LightZ(3)=93.3

LightRange(3)=6

LightRed(3)=255

LightGreen(3)=255

LightBlue(3)=255

LightStartAngle(3)=247.5

LightEndAngle(3)=472.5



LightX(4)=0

LightY(4)=35.1

LightZ(4)=-171.6

LightRange(4)=6

LightRed(4)=255

LightGreen(4)=255

LightBlue(4)=255

LightStartAngle(4)=112.5

LightEndAngle(4)=247.5



LightX(5)=0

LightY(5)=116

LightZ(5)=6.6

LightRange(5)=6

LightRed(5)=255

LightGreen(5)=255

LightBlue(5)=255

LightStartAngle(5)=247.5

LightEndAngle(5)=472.5