please open a proper bug report F18 Radar

[Onni]

The new update seemed to make the radar so much worse

Cant find a target even 30miles out eventhough I know the altitude, am I missing something or is this a bug?

Several other people were complaining about it on the GS server aswell.

[Vortex225]

Definitely haven't noticed that. Used the radar extensively last night in both RWS and RWS. Works great and without the bugs mentioned in the patch notes.

Could you post a track file or be specific about parameters and context?

[LaFleur]

Yes the Radar is kinda messed right now. Doesn't show donors' tracks from friendly planes and AWACS on ATTK RDR. Also, I noticed that looks break too easily, even when target is how without changing direction or altitude. 

[FortunateSon]

Can confirm. Easy test: Start up the "Fighter Sweep" Mission. Radar is unable to pick up enemy fighters until they are within 20-30miles. The SA6 was already launching at me close to WP3 before I even got any contacts on the radar. Before the patch, one was easily able to pick up the bandits after take off from the carrier. Now I am almost in visual range and still no contact... 

Was on BlueFlag MP server before and wondered why the F16 have their way with me. F18 radar has serious problems seeing targets and looses track easily. :( 

[Wobbly]

Before the Update you could find people a bit outside your Radar Elevation, that is now gone. you can only see them if they are strictly within your Elevation. I don't know if it's intended like that or not. The Radar no longer locks up during F poles which is nice, but it has become quite annoying, a couple of times now i had a hard Time maintaining a lock on Helicopters at rougly 20 miles distance, also a couple of times i could not find cold fighters in front of me (10-15nm range) with the Radar, even though i knew they were there through SA aswell as GCI.

Ohh and the Fighters were f16s, as far a i know they don't have a jammer, correct me if im wrong

 

[2RGT Oberst]

I confirm, the radar has deteriorated after the last update.

[Katte]

I confirm too! The radar is much less accurate than before the update. Contacts suddenly appear and disappear. He struggles to hold the lock

[Arnaud]

Quote

And I have experienced weird range jumps and unusable locks with target that are 20-30 Nm but said to be 99+Nm by the radar. Had to unlock, relock many times before having a correct launching cue. Weird and annoying, cannot use the Hornet anymore on MP PVP servers as I'm a sitting duck right now.

As it turns out, it seems that's a feature due to jammers...

Edited January 28, 2021 by Arnaud

[dorianR666]

Yep, several new bugs have appeared in AA radar.

 

Pic attached is "fake" priority trackfile which sometimes appears. Notice how cursor was placed on it, but HAFU doesnt replace the cross (because its not a real trackfile). They sometimes appear in Dugout too.

 

Edited January 28, 2021 by dorianR666

[AKULA_OPTIMUS]

Yep, came as a surprise in a mission I did today, targets disappear from the radar, no matter the distance to the contact, near or far away, they are gone, come back for 3 seconds, and disappear again for minutes straight only to come back for another 2 sec... A/G works fine, A/A is useless now.

[Onni]

I had a problem seeing hot fightrers around 40nm away, cant really do anything if I can only pick 1 out of 3 up

Edited January 28, 2021 by Onni

[Smashy]

I just spent some time A/B'ing the release version (2.5.6.59625.1) and the current open beta (2.5.6.60720) and air radar contacts are definitely a lot more slippery in the beta.

 

I set up a test mission with 4 Su-27s at 10/20/30/40 miles off my nose, co-altitude.  They were set to just orbit their starting waypoints.  I was in active pause.  I'm not sure if this affects anything so I ran a couple tests w/o active pause and didn't notice any real differences.

 

With the release version, all 4 contacts were solid all the way up until the notch and then they'd reappear after the Flankers were no longer beaming me.  I'd lose 1 or 2 a few times but for the most part, radar contact was pretty consistent.

With the beta version, I had a very difficult time maintaining radar contact with all 4 Flankers.  The worst part was that different contacts were dropped at different times for no apparent reason.  It could be the 40-mile contact heading away from me or the 10-mile contact heading right at me.  It seemed random.  I ran the test multiple times, moving my scan center around and altering PRF but could not find a way to achieve the consistency seen with the release version.  I wondered if the Flankers had some magic ECM enabled so I modified the test to use MiG-15s, assuming they had no ECM.  Same results.  I then tried with 4 Il-76s and then saw behavior closer to the release version, but still not quite as consistent.  So now I'm wondering if something was changed with the Hornet's radar, RCS profiles, or both.

 

Perhaps the new AA radar behavior is a reflection of the Real Life (TM) Hornet but it could also be something that needs fixing.  I'm ok with either, but the uncertainty is what kills it for OCD me.  I'm going to be using the release version for now and dip into the beta to check out the new features every now and then.  Not a big deal, that's why it's called a beta.

[HILOK]

confirm too. affected are RWS as well as TWS. also RAID only worked in very close range (<8nm). happened on a training mission that i have been playing several times. so i clearly see a difference here.

[wilbur81]

provide tracks, guys, or this will go nowhere.

[marcoscosta]

The last OB messed up with the Hornet radar so much is barely unplayable in GS right now. The TWS Auto simply can't be used, the targets disappear in front your eyes on radar and Data Link.

[Smashy]

I took the time to setup a couple of missions and the results are inconclusive.  Also, I was incorrect in my previous post.  In my previous tests, I was not co-altitude with the targets, but above.  That makes a significant difference I think when it comes to Doppler notching.

 

I set up 3 tests:

- co-altitude over water at 18,000 ft

- co-altitude over land at 18,000 ft

- differential altitude over land, me at 18,000 ft and Flankers at 12,000 ft

 

I used AA master mode, TWS with a 4-bar/40-deg scan using interleaved PRF.  I kept it in manual and tried to keep the scan centered of the group of 4 contacts.  In all co-altitude tests, my results were practically identical.  No glaring differences.  In my overland tests with differential altitudes, I had mixed results.  It seemed that the beta would have a hard time reacquiring contacts after they stopped beaming but so did the release version occasionally.  The behavior seen in the beta could be seen in the release version every now and then.  However, I could not get the beta to reacquire the contacts quite as reliably as in the release.  That said, the differences were minimal and could be accounted for another factor in my admittedly poorly-controlled experiment.  Tracks attached of some differential overland tests for anyone interested.  The big difference can be seen after the headings of the Flankers swing through 90 degrees and come out of my notch.  I've also run this mission multiple times using active pause and time acceleration to see contact acquisition behavior.  In those tests, it was harder to see differences between the release and beta versions.

 

I might do some more testing later if I get some time.  I'd also be interested in seeing tracks of those reporting that they are seeing a definite problem.

Tracks.zip

[FortunateSon]

Have to agree with Smashy. Another test run today showed it working fairly normal on both MP and SP. Was able to see and consistently lock targets.

 

Apologies for the confusion. Don't know what the issue was yesterday.

[Reaper_Actual]

Donor tracks are not showing on ATTK RDR most of the time for me.

[Sn8ke]

Honestly don't know how this was not picked up immediately upon testing the update prior to release...I'll leave that for another conversations. Radar is basically borked. Are we looking  at at least another month before we can use the Hornet in air-to air engagements or we looking at a hotfix?

[BIGNEWY]

Moved to main discussion,

 

the issue is reported, as soon as I have any news I will let you all know. 

 

thanks

[BIGNEWY]

Hi,

 

the issue with contacts not showing when the scale is changed from 160 to 80 is reported. 

 

thanks

[Vortex225]

Update from my previous post. I appeared to be one of the few that didn't observe the subject radar performance anomalies, so I went back for more data with a more careful eye. TWS behavior appears largely okay, but the L&S track does drop more frequently now when in RWS/LTWS. I spend most of my time in TWS so I didn't really notice it at first.

Nevertheless, I think folks in this thread are definitely on to something and it's important for the ED team to check it out.

Thanks for the update, BN!

[leon737]

Test environment:

3 targets F/A-18C cold aspect same level 25, 50, 75 nm ahead

 

A/A radar is in RWS mode

Cannot lock any target except closest (25 nm)

When locked on this target and selected 140deg/6bars, the radar lost the lock between sweeps on the target

 

Track attached

20210130-02.trk

[VIXEN413]

So sad that updates or fixes are breaking down so often what was already done in A/A radar. 

While focus is on less essential A/G radar (is so with use of modern ordinance and pod) I could only wish the A/A part could at least be somewhat on spot and bug free. That's a bigger priority TBH...

 

(sorry if it looks like ranting, not my usual doing normaly) 

 

[NineLine]

Even though the Hornet has been out a while, it still remains an active development module in early access, these things can be expected during that period. We try our best to make sure these things done happen, but the more complex the Hornet gets, the easier for something to slip through. Thanks.