TGP Visual range?

[J3ST3R]

Hi all, does anyone know what the visual range of the hornet tgp is? I designated a waypoint, which was just over 60 miles away and couldn't see anything on the tgp. As I got closer, around 40 miles, I could see the terrain appearing on the ddi as I I got closer. I have visual range set to ultra. Just wondering if this is normal behaviour in the sim or I'm missing a setting somewhere. 

[Tholozor]

Normal behavior.

[MacEwan]

I don't think the way it's done in DCS right now is correct because you see terrain appearing very unnaturally. Looks like a game limitation or something that still needs to be fixed.

[Andartu]

2 hours ago, J3ST3R said:

I designated a waypoint, which was just over 60 miles away and couldn't see anything on the tgp. As I got closer, around 40 miles, I could see the terrain appearing on the ddi as I I got closer. 

 

No offense buddy, but you pretty much answered your own question. The TGP range in DCS is at about 40 nm.

[Foka]

It's arounf 43 nm, this same with A-10C - it's some kind of game engine limit.

[Tom Kazansky]

Maybe it would look much better/real if the objects and the terrain would not pop up between 43nm and 42.9nm by having a kind of fading in like coming slowly out of fog or something at that range.

[Swift.]

1 hour ago, Tom Kazansky said:

Maybe it would look much better/real if the objects and the terrain would not pop up between 43nm and 42.9nm by having a kind of fading in like coming slowly out of fog or something at that range.

Preferably a lot earlier than that, depending on Wx etc. 40NM is... optimistic, afaik.

[Joni]

On 1/6/2021 at 5:37 PM, Tholozor said:

Normal behavior.

 

So IRL the image starts to pop in like a shadow when reaching 40nm?

[Tholozor]

3 hours ago, Joni said:

 

So IRL the image starts to pop in like a shadow when reaching 40nm?

Normal behavior for an engine limitation. OP asked if he was doing something wrong; he's not. It's like this on all aircraft.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Tholozor

[wilbur81]

Nobody here wants the performance penalty of terrain rendering many, many miles out from your a/c. There have to be some compromises... and that's what we have with the current TGP, which is reasonable.

Edited January 8, 2021 by wilbur81

[Joni]

 

2 hours ago, wilbur81 said:

Nobody here wants the performance penalty of terrain rendering many, many miles out from your a/c. There have to be some compromises... and that's what we have with the current TGP, which is reasonable.

 

 

But would we have any? I mean, maybe ED can sort it out. Like rendering the far most pixels with extremely low resolution. This will make the image look more realistic with low performance impact.

[wilbur81]

I'd think so, but certainly if they could pull it off w/o a performance hit, that'd be amazing.

[Bunny Clark]

Performance hit or not, being able to identify targets at 40 miles is about the realistic limit for modern pods anyway. The main thing that should be done is just make the terrain load-in look better. 

[Padonis]

When this was the case with the A-10C, the image from the blurred image became sharp, more readable. Now it looks like a curtain in the theater. Before it looked much more realistic - it was nicer. It looks strange now.

[Andartu]

1 hour ago, padonis said:

When this was the case with the A-10C, the image from the blurred image became sharp, more readable. Now it looks like a curtain in the theater. Before it looked much more realistic - it was nicer. It looks strange now.

Agreed.

[Joni]

6 hours ago, padonis said:

When this was the case with the A-10C, the image from the blurred image became sharp, more readable. Now it looks like a curtain in the theater. Before it looked much more realistic - it was nicer. It looks strange now.

 

Yeah, that shadow effect kills immersion. Would be nice if ED sorted it out some day, so we don't have a big hit in fps. Maybe the further away the lower resolution.

Edited January 9, 2021 by Joni

[Swift.]

2 hours ago, Joni said:

 

Yeah, that shadow effect kills immersion. Would be nice if ED sorted it out some day, so we don't have a big hit in fps. Maybe the further away the lower resolution.

 

They should really should haze the horizon so that you cant see beyond 40NM anyway for the dust and haze. The currently visibility range is optimistic anyway.

[Fri13]

Just now, Swiftwin9s said:

They should really should haze the horizon so that you cant see beyond 40NM anyway for the dust and haze. The currently visibility range is optimistic anyway.

 

I wouldn't say it even optimistic. Maybe at the sea you can spot the ships, but on the ground you need nice weather to avoid all thermal layers and heat waves and such that blocks the IR and visuals nicely.