Litening pod poor contrast/generally useless?

[Aluminum Donkey]

Anyone else finding it hard to locate much of anything with the pod? I find the display gives very poor contrast. Even in white or black mode it's almost impossible to find tanks etc. because the display is very washed out.

 

Know issue? Work in progress?

 

Thanks

AD

[Gringosky]

You're right.... almost useless....

 

it's really a shame that we have to fly modern and high-tech aircraft at noon and without cloud cover because the FLIR bug doesn't allow us to use the sensors to their full potential... 

[Aluminum Donkey]

I've noticed it with Mavericks as well, especially the IR Maverick. The IR version absolutely will not lock on anything. I wonder if it's something that somebody else has solved?

 

C'mon ED, it's a big-time module, fix all this already! How hard could it be?

 

AD

[Mausar]

I believe they are working on new FLIR/heat signature.

[Captain Orso]

This thread is about the Litening II Targeting Pod and not the IR-Mavs.

 

The quality of the TGP's CCD feed doesn't even come close to the ancient Zenith BW TV I watched as a kid in the 60's. The contrast is almost non-existent; it's just a green-gray garble of splotchy nothing. The only time I ever use it is if the targets are on a road or parking lot in bright sunlight. Otherwise I almost only ever use IR with Black-Hot. 

[dporter22]

This is a known issue that I brought up a while ago.  ED's only response is that they're supposedly working on a new FLIR system, but as was pointed out, we don't need a new FLIR, we just need them to fix what they broke with the current system.

 

There have been no fixes in the most recent updates and the TGP and MAV are still essentially useless under most conditions.

 

 

 

[Harlikwin]

Personally, I can't wait for the disappointment with the new "FLIR" system... 

 

It might be a bit more amusing if the posters whining in this thread had some basic clue as to what "thermal contrast" was. And how it might relate to time of day.

 

[silverdevil]

the FLIR systems in this sim are not thermal imaging devices. they are infrared. they merely 'see' IR reflections off targets. IR is blocked by clouds and buildings just like other light.

 

good reading and possibly some education found here.

 

What’s The Difference between Thermal Imaging and Night Vision?

 

Can Thermal Imaging See Through Fog and Rain?

[DAZnBLAST]

Make TGP SOI and adjust the Gain value. I find it easier on something like 6 instead of 4.

[Hammer1-1]

They've yet to make a satellite that can see through clouds with a digital camera using optical light. The only way you're going to get those kind of sensors to track in clouds is if its tied in to some radar painted picture, and even then an IR laser is still going to degrade through cloud layers. Hell even the newest version of the litening pod can see in color.

[dporter22]

48 minutes ago, DAZnBLAST said:

Make TGP SOI and adjust the Gain value. I find it easier on something like 6 instead of 4.

Adjusting the gain does not rectify the broken TGP imaging problem, it only alters the overall image on the MFD.

14 hours ago, Harlikwin said:

Personally, I can't wait for the disappointment with the new "FLIR" system... 

 

It might be a bit more amusing if the posters whining in this thread had some basic clue as to what "thermal contrast" was. And how it might relate to time of day.

 

Identifying a major problem and asking ED to fix what they broke is not whining.  And it has nothing to do with time of day, the TGP and MAV imaging are currently inaccurate under all conditions.

[Foka]

You could just read the Bugs sections.
 

 

[Harlikwin]

21 hours ago, silverdevil said:

the FLIR systems in this sim are not thermal imaging devices. they are infrared. they merely 'see' IR reflections off targets. IR is blocked by clouds and buildings just like other light.

 

good reading and possibly some education found here.

 

What’s The Difference between Thermal Imaging and Night Vision?

 

Can Thermal Imaging See Through Fog and Rain?

 

The FLIR's we have in the game are either MWIR or LWIR imagers, so very much Thermal Imaging Devices. How well thats actually modeled (poorly tbh) is a whole other conversation. And yes thermal reflections are very much a thing, especially during the day since Mr. Sun is the biggest IR source on earth. 

21 hours ago, dporter22 said:

Adjusting the gain does not rectify the broken TGP imaging problem, it only alters the overall image on the MFD.

Identifying a major problem and asking ED to fix what they broke is not whining.  And it has nothing to do with time of day, the TGP and MAV imaging are currently inaccurate under all conditions.

 

Fair enough if it is a bug. But I find most people expectations of what FLIR can or can't do to be hillariously wrong. "Magic predator vision" generally speaking isn't, and almost any video posted is laughably out of context. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by Harlikwin

[Caldera]

Harl,

 

TGP FLIR Broken

 

Caldera

[Harlikwin]

1 hour ago, Caldera said:

Harl,

 

TGP FLIR Broken

 

Caldera

 

Yeah I get this one is bugged, my comments are more general how TGP's are presented in DCS as well as alot of players expectations. Kind of like the whole ground radar finding tanks fiasco.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Harlikwin

[Faelwolf]

As explained to me in a similar discussion years ago, the FLIR in DCS isn't actually "looking at IR", it is displaying, as best I can think to describe it, baked-in images, that get borked almost every time there is an update to the maps or the map system, as it is part of the map coding itself. This is like what, the third time the FLIR has been crippled by changes in the maps?  This is also why it seems to be hit-or-miss with some maps having an issue but not others, and takes so long to fix. There was one time that vehicles were simply invisible to the TGP no matter what map/mode you were in, and in 1.1 you could see vehicles through even the heaviest cloud cover, as clouds did not show up on the TGP at all in IR. Currently, the FLIR is not a separate autonomous sub system in the sim, it's just a graphics display receiving map data and hard coded visuals/animations for objects. I am hoping they are working on a true subsystem for FLIR that will work accurately in all aircraft. I don't know programming to know if or how they could get away from translating map data in some ways, but it should be it's own system enough to avoid bugging out when there are map changes, at least.

[MIghtymoo]

It is not super easy to find target only using the TGP.

 

I prefer to look out of the side of the cockpit and when I see something usefull, slew the TGP to HMCS cursor. Then it is pretty easy to locate targets.