One very interesting feature (undocumented):
the shift-F2 view, that in SH3 enabled a free roaming camera inside the sub, now works also outside the sub, and any other vessel (from the external camera view). This way you can explore every minute detail of the 3d models and the textures, and produce some very impressive visuals.

But beware: you may then find out that the American sailors all have the same Japanese facial features. If your feeling of immersion is as sensitive as mine, it may never recover

Ciao,
nibbio

Here one, It seems the realism settings keep restting for myself and some others.

Set them, hit apply, alt+tab out go to [USER]\My Documents\SH4\data\cfg and make gameplaysettings.cfg read only.

This might be useful, copied&pasted from a Subsim thread http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=107766&page=8

Originally Posted by fullmetaledges
-periscope depth takes you about 2 meters to deep so all you see is waves breaking over the periscope lens

Reply by ACSoft:
There is a ".cfg" file where you can easily edit this parameter for each sub. Unfortunately, I don't have the beta version anymore installed on my machine, so I can't anymore tell you which file it is with certainty. Probably it is the same like in SH3:
So look in data\submarine\
Then, in each submarine sub-directory, you should have a file "*subname*.cfg".
In this file, you will find probably in the section [Properties] the parameter "PeriscopeDepth" you can set to your taste.
ACS

Anyway, for now I implemented this because my settings reset . . . maybe because when you start a campaign there is a drop-down menu that lets you select difficulty, but no custom option. Perhaps this resets the config. Maybe there should have been separate config files for the various play modes.

Jeevz, when making a file Read Only, does it keep that file from getting overwritten as well? Asking just in case this interferes with patching.

Anyway, for now I implemented this because my settings reset . . . maybe because when you start a campaign there is a drop-down menu that lets you select difficulty, but no custom option. Perhaps this resets the config. Maybe there should have been separate config files for the various play modes.

To be safe I would set it back before patching. The campign difficulty selection is what I figured it was but this way lets you have custom difficulty in the campaign.

// original file by Ubisoft
// modified by Frank "Seeadler" Kaune
// changes: slowed down the cloud morphing effect

float4x4 matWVP : register(c0);
float4 tTrans0: register(c4);
float4 tTrans1: register(c5);
float3 SkyColor0 : register(c6);
float3 SkyColor1 : register(c7);
float4 fogParams: register(c8);
float4 sunPos: register (c9);
float4 sunColor: register (c10);
float4 CloudColor: register (c11);
float altitude: register (c12);
float2 windDirectionTime : register (c13);
float4 hazeParams: register (c14);
float4 geom_params: register (c15);

struct VS_IN
{
float4 Pos : POSITION;
float4 Normal : NORMAL;
float2 Tex0 : TEXCOORD0;
float2 Tex1 : TEXCOORD1;
};

struct VS_OUT
{
float4 ProjPos : POSITION;
float4 T0 : TEXCOORD0;
float4 T1 : TEXCOORD1;
float4 T2 : TEXCOORD2;
float4 T3 : TEXCOORD3;
float2 FogHaze : TEXCOORD4;
float3 CloudColor : TEXCOORD5;
};

float HazeExpCurve(float d)
{
float k=0.95;
float p = d*d / 1000;
return pow(k,p);
}

VS_OUT main( VS_IN In )
{
VS_OUT Out;

Out.ProjPos = mul( In.Pos, matWVP);


float4 p=In.Pos;
p.y=p.y*fogParams.z;
float f0=dot(p,p);
f0=sqrt(f0);


float L=dot(-In.Normal,sunPos);

float f=-f0*fogParams.x+fogParams.y;
float h=-f0*hazeParams.x+hazeParams.y;
Out.FogHaze.x=saturate(L*fogParams.w+f);
Out.FogHaze.y=saturate(L*hazeParams.w+h);

float4 k;
k=sunColor*L;
k=k*sunColor;


float r=1000;
float d=distance(In.Pos.xyz/r,sunPos.xyz);
float3 SunGlow=lerp(SkyColor1,SkyColor0,exp(-d*d));

float2 t=In.Tex0;

float r0=5000;
float r1=r0+4*altitude/25;
float3 U=float3(0,r0,0);
float3 V=normalize(In.Pos.xyz);

float A=dot(V,V);
float B=dot(U,V);
float C=r0*r0-r1*r1;

float delta=sqrt(B*B-A*C);
float k0=(delta-B)/A;
float3 pos=V*k0;
float3 vSun=normalize(sunPos.xyz);
float3 pSun=vSun*k0*5;

t=float2(pos.x,pos.z)*0.01;
float2 SunDir=geom_params.r*normalize(pSun-pos).xz;

float2 Tex0;
Tex0.x=t.x*tTrans0.x+t.y*tTrans0.y+tTrans0.w;
Tex0.y=t.x*tTrans1.x+t.y*tTrans1.y+tTrans1.w;

float4 t0;
Out.T0.xy=Tex0;
Out.T0.zw=Tex0+(windDirectionTime/4);

float4 t1;
Out.T1.xy=Tex0+SunDir;
Out.T1.zw=Tex0+(windDirectionTime/4)+SunDir;

float4 t2;
Out.T2.xy=Tex0+SunDir*2;
Out.T2.zw=Tex0+(windDirectionTime/4)+SunDir*2;

float4 t3;
Out.T3.xy=Tex0+SunDir*3;
Out.T3.zw=Tex0+(windDirectionTime/4)+SunDir*3;

Out.CloudColor = (SunGlow + CloudColor) / 2;

return Out;
};