F5 nearest AC view - exclude wingman

[Newbie62]

When you have a wingman, F5 nearest AC view will inevitably snap to your wingman, because well, he's nearest - obviously.  That isn't particularly useful though.

Wish list: exclude wingman from F5.

Why?

In a dogfight, when looking through blank canopy you don't have much in the way of visual references.  Basically you don't get the spatial awareness that a real pilot in a real dogfight would have from turning his head and knowing where he's looking relative to his own body and by extension, his aircraft.

A reasonable proxy to get that spatial awareness is F5 nearest AC view.  Or at least it would be, except for the wingman thing.

That's also what Num. "Lock view (cycle padlock)" is for, but padlock is a cockpit view, so again once you're looking up through blank glass in a turning fight, you have very little in the way of visual references or spatial awareness.  If you are padlocked and switch to F2 aircraft view, you lose the padlock.  Also, taking a quick look at the HUD is very cumbersome with padlock, whereas with F5 and F1, it is very natural.

[razo+r]

While I'm not against the idea, I don't think switching to an external view is more natural than learning to interpret the many visual cues you have even when looking through blank glass. 

With TrackIR or VR, you have very clear cues as to where you are looking to. 

If you don't have these, you still have plenty of cues to orient from. You know which way you moved the view to. You know what orientation your aircraft had before the merge. You know what maneuvers your aircraft makes because you command them. You know where you are looking and what your aircraft does because of the many cues that there are. You just need to learn to read them. 

Don't see the wings? You are probably looking up. 

Ground taking up more and more space on the monitor? You are lawn darting into the floor. 

Etc.

[Exorcet]

37 minutes ago, Newbie62 said:

When you have a wingman, F5 nearest AC view will inevitably snap to your wingman, because well, he's nearest - obviously.  That isn't particularly useful though.

It's extremely useful. Damage, weapons, is wingman even there?

 

Changing something like this should never be done lightly as it can cause as many problems as it solves (and in my case, it doesn't solve anything). If you want a quick target view, make it its own button so it doesn't screw up existing functions.

[Newbie62]

On 6/20/2023 at 2:37 PM, Exorcet said:

It's extremely useful. Damage, weapons, is wingman even there?

Okay, so include wingman unless there is an enemy within some number of miles.  3 miles, perhaps.  If you are in a close engagement, you're probably not gonna want to be looking at your wingman.  Alternatively, a new command (Alt+F5?) nearest enemy AC view.  The latter would require more engineering effort, obviously.  I was suggesting the path of least resistance in the hope of seeing this implemented.

[Newbie62]

On 6/20/2023 at 2:12 PM, razo+r said:

While I'm not against the idea, I don't think switching to an external view is more natural than learning to interpret the many visual cues you have even when looking through blank glass.

Haha, and what might those be?  I'm not seeing them...  You listed a few, but I've found them to be all but useless.  When you're view chasing the opponent, you lose track of it really fast.

I don't know about track IR.  Don't have it, but if I'm looking back over my shoulder, all I'm going to see is the corner of my office.    Maybe the way it works is a 30 degree turn of the head corresponds to 150 degrees in virtual view as displayed on the monitor or something like that, but I have no idea...

 

 

[SharpeXB]

38 minutes ago, Newbie62 said:

I don't know about track IR.  Don't have it, but if I'm looking back over my shoulder, all I'm going to see is the corner of my office.    Maybe the way it works is a 30 degree turn of the head corresponds to 150 degrees in virtual view as displayed on the monitor or something like that, but I have no idea...

Yes, TrackIR magnifies your movement so a small turn of your head equals 180 in the game. Head tracking is a must have, there are free solutions as well. Get this and you won’t need to worry about the topic here. 

[razo+r]

1 hour ago, Newbie62 said:

Haha, and what might those be?  I'm not seeing them...  You listed a few, but I've found them to be all but useless.  When you're view chasing the opponent, you lose track of it really fast.

Well, for a start, one giant indication is in which direction the ground is moving. You can guess already a lot by that, rough speed, altitude and direction of travel. Next, if you don't have your view all the way zoomed in, you will also most likely always see a part of your aircraft, and that gives a lot of additional situational awareness. 

But generally, if you don't know what direction you are facing based on the inputs you make, then you just need to learn how to do that. There is a reason why pilots need some basic understanding and interpretation/imagination of spatial orientation. If you don't have much of that, you need to learn it. 

1 hour ago, Newbie62 said:

I don't know about track IR.  Don't have it, but if I'm looking back over my shoulder, all I'm going to see is the corner of my office.    Maybe the way it works is a 30 degree turn of the head corresponds to 150 degrees in virtual view as displayed on the monitor or something like that, but I have no idea...

Yes, like previously states, TrackIR measures the motion of your head, magnifies that motion by a certain amount and inputs that into the game. Depending on your settings, 10 degrees of your head might represent 180 degrees in the game. 

[Exorcet]

3 hours ago, Newbie62 said:

Okay, so include wingman unless there is an enemy within some number of miles.  3 miles, perhaps.  If you are in a close engagement, you're probably not gonna want to be looking at your wingman.  Alternatively, a new command (Alt+F5?) nearest enemy AC view.  The latter would require more engineering effort, obviously.  I was suggesting the path of least resistance in the hope of seeing this implemented.

The latter is much preferred. There are still reasons to look for wingmen mid fight, plus this change can be disruptive for those used to the system as is. A new command is the best way.