MacBradley Posted January 9, 2016 Posted January 9, 2016 Hi. I just started playing DCS after playing a fair amount of sims in the 90's and 2000's. I have a X52 and prefer light to moderate sims. I like more realistic flight models and want to run the actual plane's avionics. The problem I'm having, however, is that I have a hard time seeing the radar values in the cockpit, and due to the nature of the human eye having a higher resolution than my 27" monitor can provide at 1680x1050, I can't see things that until they are at much closer distances than I would spot them in real life. Are there any aids/settings/mods for displaying some more info on screen? I have a hard enough time even clearly reading some of the smaller units on the HUD. It would be nice if stuff in visual range could be marked, and if a small radar could be placed in one of the corners of the screen. Right now, to even see what range my radar is set to I have to move the mouse down, zoom in close enough to read it, and then reset my view. Doing this for one small check that should be a 200 millisecond glance with my eye makes the simplest of tasks in this game cumbersome and unrealistic. Note: I do NOT want the game mode radar. I tried it and it appears it doesn't let me use the radar. It turns the "radar" into a WVR only mode. I'm not sure if its supposed to do that or is bugged, but I can't even change radar distance or settings with it.
DarkFire Posted January 9, 2016 Posted January 9, 2016 Firstly, welcome aboard! :) So for me to understand, you're looking for mods or options that will provide more information on-screen, rather than actually making objects (aircraft, ground vehicles etc) more visible? The two options that are currently in-game are unit labels and "model enlargement." Left-shift & F10 toggles all labels on & off. Labels will display a coloured dot and unit information (type) over the unit on the screen so you'll be able to see them at much greater distances that would otherwise be the case. Very, very useful when you're learning how things work but many (most?) PVP servers have them disabled by default. "Model enlargement" is a much more subtle effect and might be just what you're looking for. What this does is at ranges where a unit model would ordinarily not be visible, the game engine increases the apparent size of the model, so at longer ranges it will appear to be larger than it's real size, if that makes sense. You don't get information about the unit but it will be more visible than normal. "Model enlargement" has two settings, one having less effect than the other. The keys for the various label commands are under options --> controls. The option for "model enlargement" is to be found under options --> gameplay. Hope this helps, and happy flying! In general DCS is very much a game that rewards patient learning and long-term practice. System Spec: Cooler Master Cosmos C700P Black Edition case. | AMD 5950X CPU | MSI RTX-3090 GPU | 32GB HyperX Predator PC4000 RAM | | TM Warthog stick & throttle | TrackIR 5 | Samsung 980 Pro NVMe 4 SSD 1TB (boot) | Samsung 870 QVO SSD 4TB (games) | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. Personal wish list: DCS: Su-27SM & DCS: Avro Vulcan.
MacBradley Posted January 9, 2016 Author Posted January 9, 2016 Thanks for the information DarkFire! It looks like the devs planned for the pixel viewing distance issue with the Model Enlargemnet. I'll try it out! Does it throw off perception of distance since models remain a more similar aparent size as you close it? If I seem to have that problem I will try the labels. As for the radar and other gauges...I just went over the settings again and noticed the instrument resolution was 256...that explains a lot! I'm about to try it at 512 and 1080.
DarkFire Posted January 9, 2016 Posted January 9, 2016 Thanks for the information DarkFire! It looks like the devs planned for the pixel viewing distance issue with the Model Enlargemnet. I'll try it out! Does it throw off perception of distance since models remain a more similar aparent size as you close it? If I seem to have that problem I will try the labels. As for the radar and other gauges...I just went over the settings again and noticed the instrument resolution was 256...that explains a lot! I'm about to try it at 512 and 1080. No problem. I'd forgotten about the instrument res! Yes, if your system can handle it I'd definitely recommend running the sim in "1024 per panel" or whatever the exact text says. The current EDGE game engine is much more graphics dependant than CPU dependant so most modern graphics cards will run the game very nicely. As for the model enlargement, as I understand it the actual model remains real size but at far distances is overlayed by a sort of dark blob. Makes things subtly but definitely more visible at what would otherwise be just about BVR ranges. As the range decreases the 'blob' gradually contracts until the point where all your seeing is the actual model. System Spec: Cooler Master Cosmos C700P Black Edition case. | AMD 5950X CPU | MSI RTX-3090 GPU | 32GB HyperX Predator PC4000 RAM | | TM Warthog stick & throttle | TrackIR 5 | Samsung 980 Pro NVMe 4 SSD 1TB (boot) | Samsung 870 QVO SSD 4TB (games) | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. Personal wish list: DCS: Su-27SM & DCS: Avro Vulcan.
TAW_Blaze Posted January 9, 2016 Posted January 9, 2016 You should post a screenshot what's your most common view. Some people have the idea that being almost totally zoomed out is the way to go. Generally zooming in until you can barely see the canopy bow or the mirror in the F-15C would be good. Something like this, maybe even a bit more. To spot planes visually you usually have to use max zoom or very close to it unless they're within 1-2 miles.
MacBradley Posted January 11, 2016 Author Posted January 11, 2016 Higher resolution instruments made them readable for me! I've tried both the labels and model enlargement. Both are working well as intended. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to use long term. Also, I am zoomed in as far as I can go while still seeing most of the top mirror. Any further out and the "fish-eye lense" effect is too much for me, even with using labels to see aircraft still.
DarkFire Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 Higher resolution instruments made them readable for me! I've tried both the labels and model enlargement. Both are working well as intended. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to use long term. Also, I am zoomed in as far as I can go while still seeing most of the top mirror. Any further out and the "fish-eye lense" effect is too much for me, even with using labels to see aircraft still. Glad you got the instrument visibility sorted out :thumbup: Personally I find model enlargement to be much more effective for aircraft than it is for ground targets. I have real trouble finding ground targets in any aircraft that doesn't have dedicated A2G sensors. At the moment I tend to use model enlargement at its highest setting plus ground target labels, with air target labels turned off. All that being said, it comes down to personal preference. System Spec: Cooler Master Cosmos C700P Black Edition case. | AMD 5950X CPU | MSI RTX-3090 GPU | 32GB HyperX Predator PC4000 RAM | | TM Warthog stick & throttle | TrackIR 5 | Samsung 980 Pro NVMe 4 SSD 1TB (boot) | Samsung 870 QVO SSD 4TB (games) | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. Personal wish list: DCS: Su-27SM & DCS: Avro Vulcan.
MacBradley Posted January 12, 2016 Author Posted January 12, 2016 Personally I find model enlargement to be much more effective for aircraft than it is for ground targets. I have real trouble finding ground targets in any aircraft that doesn't have dedicated A2G sensors. At the moment I tend to use model enlargement at its highest setting plus ground target labels, with air target labels turned off. All that being said, it comes down to personal preference. I'm starting with the F-15 because its the most similar the the Jane's F-15 I played more back then than any other sim. I remember the most about it than other aircraft. I figured after I get the A2A stuff down in the F-15 I'll try the A-10 or Tu-25 to learn some A2G before moving onto both in the same plane.
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