[REPORTED] Model Visibility Issues

[Mohamengina]

Even with model visibility on high it looks small.

 

Any statement from ED about what their idea is for model changes? I think large actually needs to be large.

[grunf]

I agree.The visibility was a bit extreme in the last few updates, but now it's taken into the opposite extreme - even with Large I can't see anything beyond 5-6 km.

[Zeke]

Me too! Can't see targets once they merge with the ground. I don't see what the big deal is with the model changer, doesn't make much difference to me, I still have a very hard time keeping track of targets.

[CoBlue]

Yes agreed, please give us back the old option we had in 1.5.1.

Keep the Large option for those who want them & adjust the rest.

Edited December 24, 2015 by CoBlue

[sirscorpion]

I had some major issues spoting even ground targets with the SU25T camera, which i never had any issues doing so before.

 

Its like the models melt to the ground, i can see them shooting but i cant see the model clearly for an aspect camera that's very strange.

 

Forget about flying the mig21 or any non PGM weapons unless you get them to shoot at something.

 

This is a Major Major issue in my book and needs to be fixed for both air and ground.

[WinterH]

Yesterday we have tried with 3 people to have some dogfight training going in MiG-21, with occational F-15 and Mirage thrown in.

 

Well long in short, it seems we are back to square one regarding visibility. The old days of aircraft disappearing right in front of your eyes in a second is back and WVR combat is just back to being not too enjoyable, especially in aircraft where there isn't much of a radar to talk about.

 

Although I understand on the flipside, earlier one was also bad in being abusable and even make planes visible in BVR ranges, which is just as bad.

 

I hope a way will be found to optimize this, and make it work. Improved aircraft visibility in visual range is something that I and many welcomed and was / is sorely needed.

 

 

Edit : Well... apparently part of the reason seems with the update model enlargement setting was reset to OFF on my computer for some reason. Setting it to medium did make some difference, still difficult though.

Edited December 26, 2015 by WinterH

[iLOVEwindmills]

Note that the visibility settings are set in the mission file in MP now, so your own settings do not matter when playing online. Unless you are the one hosting I guess.

 

The default settings in 1.5 now also depend quite heavily on aspect, where a contact is much harder to spot when viewed directly from the front or side.

[CoBlue]

Model enlargement, aircraft invisible?

 

Latest v 1.5.2.

 

Model enlargement option, single mission.

If I select Large or Medium, the aircraft is visible at distance first, then the closer you get, it suddenly disappears in front of you & you lose sight.

There is no continuous visibility.

 

Also the Large option should be visible from further away, like 50-60km Large should be Large.

[CoBlue]

Model enlargement option, single mission, the same aspect ratio.

If I select Large or Medium, the aircraft is visible at distance first, then the closer you get, it suddenly disappears in front of you & you lose sight.

There is no continuous visibility.

I made a bug report on this.

[tysonbishop964]

Yeah i believe the sprite for the aircraft at distance doesn't taper but has set change distances

[Damocles]

Why is it ? Aircraft visibility

 

I know their are several threads about aircraft spotting, but they seem to be mostly about size with regard to resolution and zoom level.

 

I was trying to dogfight an F86 over Nevada, no labels, and had the very devil of a time trying to keep tabs on my opponent, especially at middle distances, even though the F-86 isn't exactly camed up.

 

When the F-86 is set against a light background, like the sky, I can see my opponent but when he goes below the horizon i tend to lose track, unless I'm quick with the zoom button and have reckoned correctly on where he will appear, after changing my view orientation, even though the aircraft should be relatively bright compared to the background if I'm between the sun and the target.

 

Why is it that I can have scratches and stress fractures in my cockpit canopy that react to the orientation to the sun but not have other aircraft do the same. It would make an enormous difference to tracking targets, without having to revert to labels, if the way middle distance targets reflected light better.

 

I did learn one thing though. Having become incredibly frustrated at trying to find targets when not using labels, even if I knew pretty much exactly were they are,, cockpit FOV and target spotting are linked (sorry for being a bit behind on the uptake). Wide field of view in cockpit- spot bugger all, narrow field of view, lack of SA, but you have an outside chance of spotting and tracking another aircraft.

[DrDetroit]

Yea, I can't see A/C past 5-miles and even then it's difficult at best. I use the smart scaling setting at it's lowest, but if you bump that setting higher to see AC better the cars on the road get very large - crazy large - enough to kill immersion.

 

I use a slightly wider FoV when taking off or cruising to/from AO for better and more pleasing view (not super wide, but maybe 30% wider than default) and when engaging I zoom back to default so I can see A/C a bit better (not too harsh on SA imo). In reality the pilot is sitting nearly on top on the front panel and the HUD is right up in his/her grill...not all pulled back so you can see everything on screen.

 

Anyhow, you're not the only one. Hope a solution is in the works.

 

PS: I think the dynamic lighting isn't that great with the models yet...looks like that and dynamic shadows needs to be implemented.

 

Good day,

 

DrDetroit

Edited December 29, 2015 by DrDetroit

[SharpeXB]

I have the Zoom View command mapped to the toe axis on my right rudder pedal. It works really well and keeps all my fingers free. The zoom view is much more useful than separate R and L brakes.

[DrDetroit]

That might be an excellent idea! I can only program my left pedal with the M2000 (Saitek Pro Combat pedals), so I can use the right one for BVR visual aide. Gets a little tedious to use the slider while rolling into combat at times.

 

Thanks for the heads up!

 

DrDetrioit

[SharpeXB]

Yeah it's a good trade off. I just use hotas buttons for the R and L brakes in WWII and a single mono brake for the jets. They don't need R and L

Your brakes get used for only a few turns on the ground whereas the zoom view is used constantly. And in planes like the A-10 there is not a single button left on the hotas to assign zoom to. So having it on the foot is great.

It gets a little tricky in Rise of Flight since those planes use the rudder so heavy, and WWII here as well. Flying with the feet on the rudder and at the same time twisting my foot to zoom. But I've got it all figured out and been doing it for years.

 

One day if I every fly a real plane I'll step on the right brake to "zoom in" on the instruments and run myself off the taxiway...

Edited December 29, 2015 by SharpeXB

[Damocles]

Thanks for suggestions.

 

However I'm still curious as to why I can get aspect/angle specific scratch highlighting/shading in the cockpit canopy but the highlighting doesn't seem to apply to other aircraft.

 

What happens to the canopy that can't be applied to other aircraft ?

 

I think what I find surprising is when I have a bandit go from up above and thus an easily seen dark silhouette against the sky, pass under my aircraft and as I roll and look out the other side of the canopy I lose track of the bandit against the ground even though the target is quite close, within guns combat range. To reacquire the bandit I then have to zoom in my view. It all feels very unnatural. To cap it all the silver/grey F-86 or Mig 15 seem to take on a dusky pink tone at close to mid distances when viewed from above that makes them even harder to spot without lots of zooming in.

[gavagai]

Yea, I can't see A/C past 5-miles and even then it's difficult at best. I use the smart scaling setting at it's lowest, but if you bump that setting higher to see AC better the cars on the road get very large - crazy large - enough to kill immersion.

 

It doesn't do that anymore with the latest updates.

[Aginor]

Yeah, IMO right now the medium option looks pretty ok, at least on my resolution.

[DrDetroit]

Ah, good to know. I'll bump it to mid level as well.

[dumbaos]

In addition to that, objects seem to draw much further and clearer in external views. I flew some training around the oil platforms just out of Sochi, and they appear clearly in the external view. Switch to cockpit, can't see them, they are not drawn at all. Go to external, clear to see as you'd expect a bloody oil rig to be... If I zoom in HARD in cockpit view, I can see them, but obviously that's not really usable... draw distance is high, details high, etc etc.

 

IS there / will there ever be a solution to this? If one can't spot an OIL PLATFORM from a few km out...

[OnlyforDCS]

 

 

Why is it that I can have scratches and stress fractures in my cockpit canopy that react to the orientation to the sun but not have other aircraft do the same. It would make an enormous difference to tracking targets, without having to revert to labels, if the way middle distance targets reflected light better.

 

 

+10000000. This is really a brilliant idea. I can't stress how cool this would be. Aircraft glinting reflected light? Bring it on.

[Exorcet]

In addition to that, objects seem to draw much further and clearer in external views. I flew some training around the oil platforms just out of Sochi, and they appear clearly in the external view. Switch to cockpit, can't see them, they are not drawn at all. Go to external, clear to see as you'd expect a bloody oil rig to be... If I zoom in HARD in cockpit view, I can see them, but obviously that's not really usable... draw distance is high, details high, etc etc.

 

I think this is FoV difference between F1 and F2 view. I've noticed this too, but have not investigated.

[DrDetroit]

In addition to that, objects seem to draw much further and clearer in external views. I flew some training around the oil platforms just out of Sochi, and they appear clearly in the external view. Switch to cockpit, can't see them, they are not drawn at all. Go to external, clear to see as you'd expect a bloody oil rig to be... If I zoom in HARD in cockpit view, I can see them, but obviously that's not really usable... draw distance is high, details high, etc etc.

 

IS there / will there ever be a solution to this? If one can't spot an OIL PLATFORM from a few km out...

 

Yea, kinda bothersome for sure. I notice this when tracking a TU-65 recon (I think that's the one - big slow prop recon ac) that the ac went almost invisible from my cockpit when viewing it against the ground, to the point I'm within a mile or less and couldn't see the damn thing at all except from outside view.

 

Medium smart scaling is much better too...still effects ground vehicles though at a certain distance, but I think only active military ground movers. I could see the trucks at a target range were scaled up until I was within a few miles.

 

Anyhow, hope there is a decent resolution to the visibility issue.

 

Good day,

 

DrDetroit

[Fab]

One thing I discovred aften starting to ude Oculus is, that The zoom option, is The greatest cheat of Them all.....

With Zoom you Can zoom in like you have monucolos attached to your forhead

[Fri13]

While many are happy to the smart scaling feature, I am not so much.

 

In lowest values it does improve the speed to spot aircraft in dogfight, but it same time makes game very laggy as it starts drawing all ground vehicles at max drawing distance.

 

And the worst thing is, without any scaling I can spot C-130 size aircraft from about 15km distance, a F-15C or even F-5E size aircraft I can spot from 8km distance when sky is at background, without using any zoom or other things.

Ground vehicles like BTR-80 or ZSU-23-4 is easy to spot from 10-12km distance without any aids, and that renders the whole flying little cheating because they actually are like balls in billiard table, you can not miss those.

 

Then when taking the smart scale in use, FPS drops and I can only spot the vehicles from 4-8km range and then they are so huge that they are like christmas lighted trucks in pitch black night.

 

 

So something needs to be done, and that something is that the engine still needs to be reworked. There needs to be something to be done for vehicles etc. A stationary ground vehicle should be impossible to be spotted from until 1-1.5km distance when next to semi-clear background. Somekind blending should be applied that would hide the ground vehicles hidden next to trees/grass etc.