Model Visibility

[xXNightEagleXx]

I don't know if it is a bug or issue, however the model visibility has this strange transition where the model is visible at distance and suddenly it becomes hard to spot to then becomes visible again as the distances close in. This behavior is noticeable specially with the option set to small and a medium/small target.

 

I don't think it is due to the model itself but to the render transition that seems to suffer of an abrupt render snap (goes immediately to the normal rendering when the target is still too far to be seen without aid).

 

 

The mig 21 easy target mission is a good place to check this, where you are against a f16 and even with the large setting you can still see this behavior in a smaller scale. I have even paused the simulation in a situation where a the head movement would totally show or hide the target.

 

NE

Edited November 10, 2015 by xXNightEagleXx

[Why485]

That F-16 in the MiG-21 mission is a good example.

 

There's 2 reasons why this might happen. One is aspect, the other is crossing the threshold between drawing the imposter and drawing the physical model.

 

The aspect which a target is facing determines the image that gets used for the imposter. The changing aspect can sometimes cause small changes is apparent size, and oftentimes very large changes in visibility. This is kind of realistic, so I'm okay with it. Although the times when an aspect change causes the apparent size to change looks a bit strange.

 

The second is likely what you're seeing in the MiG-21 mission. For a variety of reasons (lighting, coloration, fog, etc.) the visibility of the imposter can sometimes be more visible than the physical model. When you cross the threshold between when the model switches from its sprite imposter to the physical model, you sometimes get a jarring change in visibility.

 

The reason that moving your head can cause it to change back and forth is because doing that can change how many pixels the plane takes up on the screen, which is why you can get it pop back and forth. Changing your FOV is another easy way to trigger this.

 

This actually used to happen before with some planes and their LOD models. The Tu-95 was one of the worst, where its far LOD model was highly visible, but its high detail model was extremely difficult to see. Once you got close enough that it switches to the high detail LOD, it suddenly became significantly harder to see.