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Using tank compass


Sid

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  • 1. DDz Quorum

Well, anybody trying to navigate cross country should have a compass and know how to use it........shouldn't they....?

Anyway, there are compasses fitted to some of the driver positions within the in game tanks so hopefully this will explain how to use them should you choose to do so. The tanks fitted are:

PzIII M

PzIV

PzV

PzVI

M4A2

There are only 2 keys needed for use with the compass, 'Compass director: left' and 'Compass director: right' the default ones are LSht Z and LSht X. Don't pay attention to the keys on the piccies, they are my custom ones.

All of the compasses fitted are electrically powered and power up automatically so the engine must be running for the compass to work. Also, the compass needs to settle down for a couple of seconds before it is usable.

The idea is simple. There are 2 scales, the lower one is floating, the upper one can be set by the driver. The floating one gives the actual tank hull heading and is displayed in the HUD, the other can be set to your desired heading using the assigned keys. Keep the 2 lined up and away you go on your desired heading.

The M4A2 has a familiar compass rose of 360 degrees so is quickly understandable. The German tanks however use a scale of 1 through to 12. I did think it may have been linked to the alternative compass rose marked out in mils but there are 6400 of those in 360 degrees so I think not. So, you can either use the German ones like a clock face where north is 12 o'clock (3 o'clock is 90 degrees, 6 o'clock is 180 degrees etc.) or multiply any headings by 30 to give you a compass heading (eg. 9 o'clock multiplied by 30 gives you 270 degrees).

What isn't modelled is the effect of magnetism (not the type Painless usually deploys) as this wouldn't be possible. Magnetic variation due to the earth's magnetic field, hull magnetism and all the other effects could be too difficult to incorporate because we are now in 2021 not the 1940s - magnetic variation was a different figure then and it also depends where in the world you are. It doesn't stop the adjusters being modelled, we just can't do anything with them....thankfully. This is one of those things that needs to be kept simple, eh Dogz?

Don't ya just love this game....hope this helps....don't get lost out there.....although you won't because you will have your HUD on....

Cheerzen

 

 

Tank compass keys.jpg

M4A2 compass.jpg

German compass.jpg

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