Announcing "WOTA: Seehund Type XXVIIb"
(A kind of special preview version of WOTA)



(Video shows the current water running on the iPhone 3GS)


"WOTA: Seehund Type XXVIIb" will be the first release of the "WOTA: Wolves of the Atlantic" series.

It's about midget submarines only, so you can think about it as a kind of reduced version of the final WOTA subsim - to increase development speed it will offer less types of enemy ships and because it's about midgets it will use a portion of the map limited to the historical area of operations and range of the Seehund.

You want to help me to finish the project(s)?: Just spread the word!

Now to answer the most important question: WHEN?

The plan is to submit it to Apple in late december 2012 / early january 2013. Which means you possibly won't see that many types of ships in the initial release of the midget subsim.

12/2013 - Current visual state of the game (quality settings of iPhone 4S / iPod touch 5)

more screenshots and a movie in some days

"WOTA: Wolves of the Atlantic - Arcade Missions" …Winter 2014 for iOS

[youtube]5PYCpmEKu5U&hd=1[/youtube]

This video just shows the start menu of the first title of the WOTA submarine simulation series: "WOTA: Wolves of the Atlantic - Arcade Missions". (Graphics quality of iPod touch 5 gen., iPhone 4S, iPad2)… Well, actually I think it also shows some nice mobile 3D Graphics and I really didn't thought I could even add this PostFX… but it works :-)

Does "Arcade Missions" mean "arcade mode"? No!
It's a realistic U-Boat simulation for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. But instead of freely navigating during the missions of a campaign the games offers a fast arcade style campaign mode to go from battle to battle without the need to use a map and with no land at all in V1.0 - hence the name "Arcade Missions". Also it does not offer "super extra realism" like the later titles will do.
Some more details after Christmas…

Release date: this winter

Please note: The Seehund sub sim will be delayed because of this title - I've changed target of development to "Arcade Missions" already in october.

Name of the first title changed to "WOTA: Wolves of the Atlantic - U 96"

I am holding this seat open for wiggins. Do they hunt in Wolf packs ? I d buy any U Boat sim with a Wolf pack addition. In fact I'd buy any U Boat sim.

Sorry I totally missed your reply.
In the main title/version: yes - In the U 96 version: no

This video shows the water surface refraction and real time global illumination in WOTA. It does not show any game play! (but a weird rotating boat ;-) ). In the 2nd half the time of day is accelerated to show the effect of the global illumination: basically everything always automatically visually fits together - at any time of day or any weather. Unfortunately my touch solution isn't really smoothed yet which causes the camera movements sometimes to stutter, but the device can handle it at constant 60 frames per second.

Heavy sea

WIP - Example of lighting - Flower Corvette in different light situations. (overhauling the model a bit)

…yes, that is iOS :-)

Wow. That looks gorgeous! Can't wait!

I've released a Spin-Off App of the game.

A little part of this app offer a look on some parts of WOTA and how they perform on your iPhone or iPad

It's a highly detailed working simulation of a daughter repeater of the Anschütz gyrocompass. You can look at the compass from all sides by moving your device. The app displays a panorama of the command room of U 995 in the background. You can zoom in and out and virtually look around in the command room. Select different materials for the compass (even transparent).
Both compass rings work like the real thing and it offers a precision of 0.1 degree assisted by the gyroscope-chip of your phone.
It also offers a so called "Animated Compass Tour" (in the information menu) when you run this tour you will learn some things about the compass installations aboard the Type VII submarine and while reading the text you can watch real WOTA graphics running on your device (a submerged scene and the 3D interior of the command room)

The App is not only a nice gadget for all sim fans - it was made in cooperation with the Technical Museum U 995 of the Deutscher Marinebund (German Naval Association) which is the last surviving Type VII U-Boat. By buying this app you will support both: the development of WOTA and the preservation of U 995

You can buy it here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wota-u-boat-compass/id956825556?mt=8

From my newsletter:

Progress made in 2014:

- Visually WOTA definitely reached desktop quality on mobile now.
- Implemented my custom high performant global illumination system.
- new custom physically based shaders with real time IBL (Image based lighting).
- Improved the water shader with transparency and refractions.
- Water color based on weather and lighting.
- Water shader works now for higher altitudes of the camera - up to 10,000 meters.
- New realistic underwater environment with correct visibility, crepuscular rays and caustics.
- new FX, fire, smoke, depth charge explosions, large water splashes and new ship trails.
- New dynamic clouds with correct lighting. Weather FX like thunderbolts (this all works with real time IBL).
- All new 3D model of the Type VII U-Boat „U 96“.
- Highly detailed 3D interor of the command room.
- New buoyancy and underwater physics system.
- Correct hydrodynamic simulation - matches historic Type VII test data by 90% in all situations.
- Correct simulation of the diesel engines and propulsion. (which means for you: absolutely correct acceleration and fuel consumption).
- Correct simulation of all ballast tanks (including damage) based on newest scientific research for computer controlled ballast tanks. (my head is still smoking)
- Physically correct aircraft simulation based on the blade element theory
- Aircraft AI which really flies the aircraft with a virtual joystick. (crazy stuff, would in theory even work with RC models if they are fitted with sensors)
- New skin shader for the new characters.
- School of fish implemented into my underwater environment :-)
- Tons of stuff and optimizations under the hood.

Some youtube movies (please visit my channel to watch more):
- A great example of the visual quality of WOTA and the new lighting/shaders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAL_24bfb4
- Heavy seas and new clouds (note: this shows the outdated buoyancy system): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28y_UB-9xEs
- AI example, aircraft and gunners (note: the graphics in the video are terrible, they are made for testing of the AI only!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kujnOkUNRIs

Interactive example:
- Test bed of the diesel engine simulation (requires Mac or PC): http://www.wolves-of-the-atlantic.com/downloads/WOTAengine/WOTAengine.html

Name of the first game changed to "WOTA: U 96"
It will be released in 2015 (more earlier than later). Learn more about "WOTA: U 99“: http://www.wolves-of-the-atlantic.com/games/simulation/submarine/mobile/WOTA-U_96-Uboat-subsim.html
(the website is available in english and german language)

New Screenshots:
http://www.wolves-of-the-atlantic.com/ga...Atlantic-1.html

A realistic U-boat compass for my iPhone!? How could I not get this! Surely this is what the iPhone was invented for!

Lovely little app. Incredibly polished! And the tour is a joy to watch. Very promising.
Thanks for the update by the way! The videos are stunning.

Indeed, isn't it a classic example of a killer application?

WOTA cannot come to PC fast enough!!!!

I currently don't expect a release date before end of Q1 2016.

The "WOTA: U-Boat Compass" App (which has a little preview of WOTA artwork included) is FREE for Black Friday and at least some hours on Saturday. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wota-u-boat-compass/id956825556?mt=8

Hello,

I’ve wrote a new newsletter about the state of the game: https://hessburg.com/state_of_the_game/

Starting in late summer I can continue to develop the game 24/7 again. Some animated GIFs: