[RESOLVED] Angle-of-Attack Indexer Light to dark

[Wildwind]

 

No amount of instruments or exaggerations will help you if you're unwilling to learn. You have 3 hints for AoA alone. You can also ditch it and rely on oldschool IAS, vertical velocity and/or pitch angle. For carrier you have ICLS, then meatball - just adjust to proper vertical velocity or IAS. If you still prefer computers go full autothrottle and ACLS. Btw: you don't have to land at all if it's not what you like - it's just a sim.

 

I'm just going to say, that as much as I love the Tomcat, I'm starting to become exasperated with trying to learn proper carrier landing technique in it, and the invisible AoA indexer is one of the largest reasons why.

 

The other indicators of AoA in the Tomcat's cockpit are not accurate. This is known (and accurate to the real aircraft, from what I have heard). The "E" in the HUD is especially useless. The AoA tape isn't much better.

 

Sure, I can land on the carrier without these things - if I say "Screw it, I'm going to land however I want," I can trap every single time. But I'm trying to learn to do it the right way. And the indexer not being visibile makes it a lot harder.

 

Proper technique depends on an accurate AoA reading. Even more so when you're trying to learn it. And so, not having it is really, really frustratinng.

 

So I can't speak for anyone else, but I can tell you that my problem isn't unwillingness to learn. It's that not having the right tools impedes my ability to learn it correctly.

 

From what you said, I kinda get the impression you don't really care about that? But I do. And I for one would really like to see fixing this made a priority..

[draconus]

From what you said, I kinda get the impression you don't really care about that? But I do. And I for one would really like to see fixing this made a priority..

 

Mind that I replied to a guy who "can't even fly" because of this. Your case of learning is a bit different. What I do care for is for AoA indexer to be realistic - that's all. Is current state realistic as HB guys say? I don't know - I have to trust them. Afair it's working fine in any condition other than under direct sunlight on the instrument. All in all it is tagged as [KNOWN ISSUE] so I guess it awaits fixing :thumbup:

Edited November 9, 2020 by draconus

[Skysurfer]

If you look above, I posted a screenshot from a Tomcat video off of youtube where the indexer is cleary visible and bright during daylight. This thread is also marked as [KNOWN ISSUE] so we shall wait and see.

[DimSim]

Just got the Tomcat. Came here to try and find how to turn up brightness on the indexer.

I see it was already at max brightness setting 9.

Looks to be a common issue.

Edited December 13, 2020 by DimSim

[Skysurfer]

Still not fixed.

[Gunslinger22]

Just going to have to keep bumping this, sigh... 

[RustBelt]

They repeatedly insist it's not broken. So I don't know what else we can do at this point. 

[Blinde]

How about just making it clearly visible and then just review that thought again? 

 

It's obvious that IRL it was clearly visible in daylight.

[RustBelt]

I really wish all the indicator lights were less terrible, Unlike real life, I can't shade a light with my hand to see if it's lit. 

 

It's cute that it's "Realistic" but this isn't reality it's a screen and/or a primitive look only VR experience. 

 

Same old Fidelity Vs. Functionality bit as always with sims. 

 

Also the export viewports still have a dang dim filter on them in the cockpit. That would be sweet to have go away too. 

[DimSim]

It's probably realistic in terms of their current graphical lighting simulation.

However our eyes perceive 1 million : 1 contrast but screen usually shows 255 : 1 contrast at best.

Even games doing HDR well still mostly behave like poor quality cameras photographing a window from inside a building.

I'm sure they can find a solution to make it appear more visible.

Edited December 21, 2020 by DimSim

[RustBelt]

It used to be more visible before......The Dreaded 2.5.6 Event!

[IronMike]

We will revisit it, it just isn't a priority atm, we still have our hands full with lots of other stuff. But it is back on the list. I cannot promise you if this or the next patch, because it isn't just a value you can turn up or down. We also want to solve the brightness wheel, but so far there was no smooth way to animate opacity. Cobra knows this stuff better, but you would have to do something like duplicate the surface 10x at each wheel step, and so on and so forth. Naturally this does not exactly yield the results one would wish for. However ED might implement an opacity controller (or might have implemented it already, but not yet shared with us), which will let us solve this issue, without throwing the brightness completely out of whack towards the opposite extreme.

I know these "small issues" appear like a "small task", but they are most often quite the opposite and can sometimes take many hours to solve, some "small tasks" can eat away several days. It's not a daunting task either, but significant time enough, that it needs to be "stolen" from somewhere else. Hope that makes sense. Thank you for your very kind patience.

 

[RustBelt]

"Animate Opacity"?

 

So DCS doesn't treat light as having intensity control, you have to choke it back instead? That's downright baffling.

 

Is that also why the VDI export is dim only when In cockpit? does everything lit in the cockpit have an opacity filter over it to mimic brightness?

[Skysurfer]

9 hours ago, RustBelt said:

"Animate Opacity"?

 

So DCS doesn't treat light as having intensity control, you have to choke it back instead? That's downright baffling.

 

Is that also why the VDI export is dim only when In cockpit? does everything lit in the cockpit have an opacity filter over it to mimic brightness?

 

No idea, all I know is that AOA indexers work perfectly fine in the Viper and Hornet and can be adjusted in brightness fairly easily. Why not in the Tomcat?

[IronMike]

On 12/22/2020 at 5:31 PM, Skysurfer said:

 

No idea, all I know is that AOA indexers work perfectly fine in the Viper and Hornet and can be adjusted in brightness fairly easily. Why not in the Tomcat?

 

 

I explained that 2 posts above.

[RustBelt]

Your explanation only made it more confusing not less. 

[Gunslinger22]

2 hours ago, RustBelt said:

Your explanation only made it more confusing not less. 

Glad I'm not the only one who thought that!

[FoxTwo]

Eureka.

 

Can we get a fix asap? This explains everything.

[RustBelt]

I'd love an Apology too.

[sLYFa]

An apology for what? That EA modules have bugs or that noone in the team has a full overview of the code/art assets in this highly complex module? Everyone's time here is spent better on investigating/reporting bugs then throwing unconstructive criticism at HB or EA in general.

[Slant]

4 hours ago, RustBelt said:

I'd love an Apology too.

 

This is a bit uncalled for. They are not your enemies. You don't need to be this confrontational.

[draconus]

9 minutes ago, sLYFa said:

Everyone's time here is spent better on investigating/reporting bugs then throwing unconstructive criticism at HB or EA in general.

I remember Mike spending much time describing that's how it looks IRL and also confirmed by SME... so the comment is probably about that.

[IronMike]

7 hours ago, draconus said:

I remember Mike spending much time describing that's how it looks IRL and also confirmed by SME... so the comment is probably about that.

 

I did, and nothing changed in regards to that. Not sure what I should apologize for, honestly?

 

@RustBelt

The AOA indexer brightness has been tweaked to realistic looks, and we prefer it like that. Period. If another bug affected it, it didn't affect it all time in congruance with the DECM switch, and we're still talking about the top brightness, not how it is stepped up or down. Despite that, we said we would increase it. We went out of our way to accommodate your preferences and make it brighter, which will be in the next patch. Should I apologize for that?

 

I am all for open discussions and disagreements and trying to make you guys as happy as possible, but yes, asking me to apologize for doing exactly that, is sorry, simply put, "a bit" off.

This thread should have been dead the moment I said we will increase it... So wait till the next patch please, see if you like it better now. The DECM switch affecting it probably won't be fixed yet though, we discovered this too late. 

Edited January 25, 2021 by IronMike

[draconus]

44 minutes ago, IronMike said:

I did, and nothing changed in regards to that. Not sure what I should apologize for, honestly?

To be clear I don't expect any apology. I would like to know though if the max brightness with DECM in RPT position is just a bug and is way over your designed brigthness? Which position gives correct level then?

We'll see in the next patch.

[Skysurfer]

Just keep the current values and re-assign the brightness control to the actual indexer brightness wheel - anyone can then set his or her preferred values. Don't understand how this can be such a heated topic.