[NO LONGER PASSES IC] Improved Contact Dot Spotting (Updated v1.1)

[Why485]

What is it?

This mod aims to address two specific issues with the current implementation of contact dots in DCS:

1. Dot size is always one pixel, which means smaller dots at higher resolutions, and that the lower your resolution, the easier it is to find contacts.
2. Dots are rendered too far. As long as an objects model is not culled, it will get a dot drawn on it. DCS' draw distances can go out to >40 miles, making it possible to see the dots of an aircraft before even your radar can pick it up.

This is accomplished by adding these new rules to how dots are rendered:

1. The size of the dot gets bigger with screen resolution, using the reference resolution of 1920x1080.
2. The dot becomes fully opaque at distance of ~6 miles.
3. The dot is completely transparent at a distance of ~18 miles.
4. When between those two extremes, the dot will fade at an exponential rate.

Download

The mod is available on the DCS user files here:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3330454/

How to install

Unpack the "Bazar" folder in your DCS World root directory. This will overwrite the "dots.fx" file. By default, this is located in "C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World".

As of the May 18 2.8.5.40170 openbeta patch, this NO LONGER PASSES IC.

FAQ

So what does this actually mean?
1. It means that dots are no longer visible from extreme ranges. You won't see planes 20-50 miles away.
2. Playing a high resolution (in this mod, defined as a screen height of >1080) you should have roughly the same "dot acuity" as somebody playing at 1920x1080. This corrects the common practice in DCS of people reducing their resolution to make the dots bigger.

Are ground vehicles easier to see?
Generally, no. At high resolutions, the dots become rectangles, since half the 2x2 dot is now under the ground. The dot also fades with distance the same as aircraft (the shader can't tell the difference), so you won't be able to spot vehicles from 30 miles like you could before.

Why did you pick the ranges you did?
Experimentally gathered data, from a paper that is infamous on this forum and won't be named, found that T-38s were spotted around 4-6 miles, depending on conditions. Knowing where the target already is can boost this detection distance by about 5 miles. Based on that information, I tweaked the opacity values and formula such that I was able to consistently find a dot around 4-6 miles, and could find and track distant dots (which are faded to ~50% transparency by this point) at around 10 miles, when I already knew where to look.

Are dots completely invisible past 10 miles?
Not completely invisible, but they are extremely faint. You'd have to already know they were there to find them, and they are very easy to lose. By about 15 miles they are basically impossible to see.

Do I need to turn on labels to use this?
No, the dot system in DCS is completely independent of labels. There is some confusion around the label system having a couple "dot" settings, but what those do is draw a label with a little . over the target. Labels are (at present) not obscured by clouds or the cockpit frame.

The dots in DCS meanwhile are a completely separate function and do not interact with the label system at all. They are always on, cannot be turned off, and cannot be modified by players without messing with the shader itself as this mod does.

To eliminate the chance of confusing labels with the dots, I recommend turning off labels completely when testing this mod.

What makes 1080p special?
In my experience, the dot size at 1080p resolutions is big enough to be useful, but not so big that it becomes distracting and strange looking. Therefore it was chosen as the reference resolution for which I wanted higher resolutions to have parity with.

Does this mod do anything if I already play at 1080p?
The only difference you'll notice is that contact dots fade away as they get further.

Does this mod work on ultrawide?
Yes. The only thing the mod takes into account for sizing the dots is the vertical resolution.

Does this mod address the ability to see dots through clouds?
No. I did make a brief attempt to see if I could fix that, but it's likely something that Eagle Dynamics will have to fix themselves the correct way.

If I zoom into a dot that's far away, does that cause it to fade in?
No, the dot opacity is based on a hard distance calculation. FOV has no effect on the opacity of dots.

Does this mod address the exploit of raising the FOV to max in order to enlarge dots?
It does not. The old impostor mod I made many years ago did this, but I wanted to keep this mod as simple as possible. I might add it in later if there is demand. As with the impostor mod, I'd likely just fade the dots over some field of view.

What happens if I play at a resolution under 1080p?
Dots will still increase in apparent size at resolutions lower than 1080. Initially I wanted to either try and make the dots "subpixel" by rendering them appropriately smaller at low resolutions, but this isn't feasible without engine changes. I also tried fading the dots proportionally when under the reference resolution, but this created problems with flickering models.

The biggest advantage that low resolutions used to give was seeing dots from tens of miles away. Since the dots are now guaranteed to fade with distance, I figured it was best to just let the low resolutions keep their slightly larger dots.

Why can I see missiles now?

Unfortunately the only information I have to work with in the shader is the object's position. The shader is completely unaware of the model that is under it, so all the logic applies equally to all visible objects, regardless of their size. For objects larger than the average fighter, this works itself out and isn't an issue. However for smaller than average objects such as missiles, this can look a bit strange. Fixing this requires Eagle Dynamics to provide more information to the shader such as an object size.

Does this mod pass IC?
As of the May 18 2.8.5.40170 openbeta patch, this no longer passes IC.

Update v1.1

See the below link for more information.

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by Why485
Made note of how this no longer passes IC

[Amarok_73]

Can it be installed as server mod? If so, where should it be placed?

[Lekaa]

can this mod be used if no labels is enabled in the settings? or does it require Dot only?

[303_HOLY]

This is just SCANDAL that for all those years our beloved dev team done...not enough in this most important matter for combat sim!!!
In real life spotting is dependent on light, weather (humidity and clouds) and distance. In DCS on...dots :(.
For WW2 spotting is EVERYTING.
Come on ED... Please.

[StandingCow]

It's pretty hilarious that this doesn't break IC... but I am also glad it doesn't so that the community can fix what ED has been seemingly ignoring.

[Hiob]

14 minutes ago, 303_HOLY said:

This is just SCANDAL that for all those years our beloved dev team done...not enough in this most important matter for combat sim!!!
In real life spotting is dependent on light, weather (humidity and clouds) and distance. In DCS on...dots :(.
For WW2 spotting is EVERYTING.
Come on ED... Please.

Well,  easier said than done I would assume.....

@Why485 Very cool approach! Though I would take into account, that spotting a pixel in a pixel soup is a always harder (given the same appearent size, color and contrast) than spotting a similar physical object in the real sky. (Because it doesn't move basically).

[BIGNEWY]

We have raised the issue of this passing integrity check to the team. 

I suspect labels.lua / dots will need to be added to the IC

Thank you 

[StandingCow]

8 minutes ago, BIGNEWY said:

We have raised the issue of this passing integrity check to the team. 

I suspect labels.lua will need to be added to the IC

Thank you 

Newy, wrong file.  This is dots.fx.

Can ED at least improve the dots before removing our ability to alter them?  Maybe implement the mod as a permanent change so that playing at a higher resolution isn't a negative?

Edited April 17, 2023 by StandingCow

[BIGNEWY]

Just now, StandingCow said:

Nooooooooooooooooo.   

Can ED at least improve the dots before removing our ability to alter them?  Maybe implement the mod as a permanent change so that higher resolution isn't a negative?

We have highlighted it to the team, however currently we have no plans to change spotting in DCS so I can make no promises. 

thanks

[Lekaa]

imagine having a 8k resolution 

[BIGNEWY]

4 minutes ago, StandingCow said:

Newy, wrong file.  This is dots.fx.

edited thanks

[Mad_Shell]

22 minutes ago, BIGNEWY said:

We have highlighted it to the team, however currently we have no plans to change spotting in DCS so I can make no promises. 

thanks

I don't understand that... there are obvious flaws with current ED implementation, and a guy makes a mod which, even if not perfect, improves things a lot, and ED is like "we don't plan to change anything".

Just... why? It's minimal development time, and would improve one of the most important aspect of air combat for WW2 and early cold war!

[BIGNEWY]

21 minutes ago, Mad_Shell said:

I don't understand that... there are obvious flaws with current ED implementation, and a guy makes a mod which, even if not perfect, improves things a lot, and ED is like "we don't plan to change anything".

Just... why? It's minimal development time, and would improve one of the most important aspect of air combat for WW2 and early cold war!

Mods will still work, but they should not be passing pure integrity check. 

I have mentioned spotting to the team already. 

thank you

[Why485]

2 hours ago, Lekaa said:

can this mod be used if no labels is enabled in the settings? or does it require Dot only?

This has nothing to do with the labels. It affects the dot.

2 hours ago, Hiob said:

Well,  easier said than done I would assume.....

@Why485 Very cool approach! Though I would take into account, that spotting a pixel in a pixel soup is a always harder (given the same appearent size, color and contrast) than spotting a similar physical object in the real sky. (Because it doesn't move basically).

I don't think dots in isolation are a particularly good solution to spotting, but they're all I have to work with. The old impostors were much better, since you could read a silhouette and aspect from them, but we all know how that went. They were flawed, but the problems were totally fixable.

4 hours ago, Amarok_73 said:

Can it be installed as server mod? If so, where should it be placed?

It cannot. It's only a shader.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Why485

[Why485]

1 hour ago, BIGNEWY said:

We have raised the issue of this passing integrity check to the team. 

I suspect labels.lua / dots will need to be added to the IC

Thank you 

This mod has nothing to do with labels. There is also no reason for labels.lua to be IC checked since its contents are already enforced by the server-side configuration.

[Hiob]

32 minutes ago, Why485 said:

I don't think dots in isolation are a particularly good solution to spotting, but they're all I have to work with. 

 

I don't have a problem with dots/pixels. Given enough distance - everything shrinks to a dot before it vanishes in the background. I was aiming more at the shortcomings of a artificial sky on a screen versus the real thing. The human eye can perfectly pinpoint a single dot in the sky and keep track. Regardless how much you move your head around, the sky and the dot (when far away) will stay put. On the screen both will change positions erratically when moving the head (especially in VR and with TrackIR) which makes it a ton more difficult to keep track of a single dot.

Personally I would suggest to make them a bit bigger and fade them out later to compensate for that shortcoming. But that is only my opinion/preference - nothing more.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Hiob

[Sarowa]

2 hours ago, BIGNEWY said:

We have highlighted it to the team, however currently we have no plans to change spotting in DCS so I can make no promises. 

thanks

This is a very frustrating response to something that is clearly broken.

There is no reason spotting dots should outperform radar, and there is no reason for spotting to be easier or harder depending on your screen resolution.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Sarowa

[BIGNEWY]

25 minutes ago, Why485 said:

This mod has nothing to do with labels. There is also no reason for labels.lua to be IC checked since its contents are already enforced by the server-side configuration.

the team will look into it and determine, thank you

2 minutes ago, Sarowa said:

This is a very frosting response to something that is clearly broken.

There is no reason spotting dots should outperform radar, and there is no reason for spotting to be easier or harder depending on your screen resolution.

 We do not agree it is broken, but like I have said I have raised it with the team. 

------------------------

I have hidden petty squabbling posts, please keep the discussion friendly and respect peoples opinions even if you do not agree with them. 

thanks 

 

 

[Hiob]

I wouldn't say that it is broken.

It's propably better framed as a topic "that leaves room for improvement".

All things considered, the lack of masking the dots by structures and especially clouds is a bigger deal than the dots themselves and most likely way harder to solve.

[Mad_Shell]

Just now, BIGNEWY said:

We do not agree it is broken, but like I have said I have raised it with the team. 

Sorry, but when in a Rift S I can instantly see a fighter at more than 30 miles because there is a big fat dot appearing, something is wrong. Irl spotting a jet at this distance is insanely hard, borderline impossible if you don't know where to look. 

Meanwhile people at 4K have difficulties spotting anything at more than a few miles. Knowing that ED is satisfied with that is unbelievable to me.

[nuNce]

Agreed, amazes me how ED can think dots and spotting are not broken while they completely are, especially on higher resolutions. And what fascinates me, is that these are long lasting problems which would require a pretty easy temporary fix while waiting for a definitive solution (like the bomb splash damage) or even better, have already been patched up by the community.

I'd rather have slightly too easy spotting, than the situation we face now where you can literally lose track of an object in front of you just because it has passed through your canopy frame for a second (problem is particullary bad in the Mig-21 and F-14 for example) or because you glanced at your instruments. And I don't buy the "spotting is hard IRL" thing, since living near an airport makes it pretty clear to me how "hard" spotting but more notabily tracking airplanes is.

[Zholik]

Welp back to playing at sub 1080p for massive dots you can spot 30+ miles out rip

 

The fact that you can spot planes before your radar at lower resolutions definently sounds like something working as intended

Edited April 17, 2023 by Zholik

[comie1]

I can spot where this thread is going...

Because I fly in VR

[ironhard]

Whatever airquake, thanks for the AC spotting fix!

[Sardines]

I don't think spotting is fine until we can get resolution parity. It cannot be intended that the optimal way to spot targets at a distance is to reduce your resolution below native. This mod has shown that we CAN get resolution parity, and I think it's worth acknowledging that maybe at least that aspect of this mod should be the default behavior.

It seems like a clear improvement to spotting; even if the team says spotting isn't broken doesn't mean it can't be improved.