F14 Night vision goggles

[Taslehoff]

Is there anyway to refocus the NVG’S for looking at the instruments and then change back for long sight?

I ask this as a British Army veteran. As a cold war soldier, we had this facility in the 80’s / 90’s. not sure if it was the same for aircrews.

[IronMike]

I am afraid not. In DCS the max you can adjust is brightness up and down.

[falcon_120]

Maybe someone with RL knowledge will chime in, all I can add is... this discussion was brought up long ago in the forum, I guess a search will throw some results, but back to the topic, the consensus back then FTTOMH was, night vision gear mostly used in fighters are focused to infinity making difficult or impossible to read instruments, and it was not common practice to change focus setting while in flight (if that is even possible for the type of equipment/model). Most recent NVG are able to autofocus but definetely not the ones we have simulated.

 

The other point was, due to the nvg being separated from the eye, it allowed pilots to "peak down" to read instruments without needing refocus.

[Akrescue130]

Maybe someone with RL knowledge will chime in, all I can add is... this discussion was brought up long ago in the forum, I guess a search will throw some results, but back to the topic, the consensus back then FTTOMH was, night vision gear mostly used in fighters are focused to infinity making difficult or impossible to read instruments, and it was not common practice to change focus setting while in flight (if that is even possible for the type of equipment/model). Most recent NVG are able to autofocus but definetely not the ones we have simulated.

 

The other point was, due to the nvg being separated from the eye, it allowed pilots to "peak down" to read instruments without needing refocus.

 

 

Spot on. That's how we still do things

[beppe_goodoldrebel]

Maybe someone with RL knowledge will chime in, all I can add is... this discussion was brought up long ago in the forum, I guess a search will throw some results, but back to the topic, the consensus back then FTTOMH was, night vision gear mostly used in fighters are focused to infinity making difficult or impossible to read instruments, and it was not common practice to change focus setting while in flight (if that is even possible for the type of equipment/model). Most recent NVG are able to autofocus but definetely not the ones we have simulated.

 

The other point was, due to the nvg being separated from the eye, it allowed pilots to "peak down" to read instruments without needing refocus.

 

I dont think new NVGs can "autofocus" , that would probably means a "motor adjusted" focus just like cameras.

 

There are accessories to add on NVG lens that can "switch" focus from infinite to close.

Those things are something pretty much invented around 2010 or so , really out of F14 business, let alone fighter pilot's business.

 

[Taslehoff]

Hi All

 

I just wanted to say thanks for the reply's some great responses. The NVG'S I used had a twisty end to focus on a map you were reading or to infinity. I never though about being able to peek down at the instruments. To be honest mine were 1st gen technology and the picture was made up of honeycomb shapes and quite grainy.

[IronMike]

Fun fact, one of our (fighter pilot but) non Tomcat SMEs told us that wearing NVGs would result often in headaches, as they were heavy on top off the helmet and would strain the neck. It sounded like a very unpleasant experience.

[MurderOne]

Would there be a way to change the FOV of the NVG? I ask specifically for VR pilots; the VR takes up the entire FOV as it is, and the only option is to turn them off to look at gauges. A way to peek under them would be perfect.

[todd022]

They sit about an inch or two away from the eyes and we adjust them to sit a little high so we can read instruments by slightly glancing down/under the goggles...for looking outside the cockpit we look "up" through the goggles.

[EntropySG]

in the same context, the green hue on the front glass (hud) is brutal. flew a night mission the other day, could see targets by mk1 eyeball just fine when looking over the wing, but as soon as we turned hot, could not see shit due to the green tint on the hud. :O

 

provides some extra challenge to tune down the NVG brightness once facing the targets in order to compensate for that effect ^^

[grant977]

Gotta turn the hud down to nearly below visible without the goggles. Then you can use both with some what acceptable vision.

[Harlikwin]

I've posted this in a few other threads...

 

Its a regulations thing. The AVS-6 or 9 can certainly "close focus". However its the last thing you want to do in fast jet, you want those things focused at at infinity so you actually have stereo vision with depth perception which is crucial. And for the most part you don't want to be futzing with the focus when your hands should be on the stick and throttle. For reading instruments in the pit, you "looked under/around" or for admin tasks flipped them up. DCS does an ok job of that on the flat screen but not in VR. You can find a bunch of docs on dtic about the specific why's and hows of how this all came about, but it involved quite a few fatal crashes.

 

And no modern NVG "Auto focuses" as the previous poster showed there are some "refocus" devices out there, but not authorized for aircrew use and totally irrelevant for the F14 due to date of "invention" anyhow.

[Harlikwin]

Would there be a way to change the FOV of the NVG? I ask specifically for VR pilots; the VR takes up the entire FOV as it is, and the only option is to turn them off to look at gauges. A way to peek under them would be perfect.

 

I haven't used it but there is something called "frenchy's NVG mod".

[WindyTX]

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3306387/

 

Try this one it's close to real life the black around the view is a little large in the Rift S but at least you can see underneath just enough.

 

It's dam close to what I remember but it's been 17 years since I flew on NVGs

 

It breaks integrity check but tbh I have given up waiting for ED to fix this problem I requested the change about 3 years ago.

 

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Edited October 31, 2019 by WindyTX
Clarification

[beppe_goodoldrebel]

Fun fact, one of our (fighter pilot but) non Tomcat SMEs told us that wearing NVGs would result often in headaches, as they were heavy on top off the helmet and would strain the neck. It sounded like a very unpleasant experience.

 

No fun fact at all , I used a single tube NVG mounted on a helmet for airsoft activities for many hours ... it weights so much I had to use a counterweight to counterbalance and not let the helmet fall on my nose every time.

 

Using a dual tube nvg without counterweight on a heavy-G turn must be a painful experience.

[IronMike]

Hud brighness down, VDI brightness down, HSI brightness down, inst, acm panel and light all set to 3. This gives me a light setting in the cockpit so that I can read the gauges with the NVGs as well. Check here:

 

NOTE: the video is from before release.

 

 

[WindyTX]

Normally you can only read the HUD through the NVGs the rest of the guages are read underneath the goggles. NVGs circa 2000 were fine to fly with but I never pulled more than 5 g while wearing them. Our aircraft were eventually modded with green floods etc so the lights wouldn't effect the goggles, in the early days around 92 it was a goat having to use bits of tape on some lights.

 

The current way of trying to read the guages through the goggles due to the FOV is totally a DCS ism.

 

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[Fri13]

Fun fact, one of our (fighter pilot but) non Tomcat SMEs told us that wearing NVGs would result often in headaches, as they were heavy on top off the helmet and would strain the neck. It sounded like a very unpleasant experience.

 

That it is. At least on the infantry where the helmets are even lighter but far less well strapped on your head (no masks etc) and this is reason why a small night vision monoculars are used by many, that you can attach to helmet when you move and in combat you can attach it to your rifle. And you can attach two together to get a stereo vision back as well.

 

Now think about all the weight that NVG does when you pull G's. Constantly at longer lever on front of the helmet and you are fighting to keep it up.

[falcon_120]

So I stand corrected about the autofocus on modern Nvg equipment.

 

Enviado desde mi SM-G950F mediante Tapatalk

[Harlikwin]

 

The current way of trying to read the guages through the goggles due to the FOV is totally a DCS ism.

 

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I thought it worked ok with the flat screen? You can see around the TP tube NV view right? In VR ED should fix it. but you can pretend you're wearing AVS-10's...

[WHOGX5]

Admittedly I have a 21:9 monitor but I always check my gauges out the sides of the NVG's. Since the vertical FOV is so limited even on a 16:9 monitor it's easier to look out the sides, especially the bottom corners. In the F-14 for example, I can still look at the speed gauge and vertical speed indicator without moving my head at all when using NVG's.

[WindyTX]

I thought it worked ok with the flat screen? You can see around the TP tube NV view right? In VR ED should fix it. but you can pretend you're wearing AVS-10's...

Sorry I carried on from an earlier post I was talking VR.

 

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