[No Bug] F-4E radar (clean sky) can't see a Mig-21, but with bad clouds/rain it can see it at 27NM?

[Realizm]

Hello,

Loving the F-4E, great job guys, it is absolutely amazing. I'm having issues with the radar, however. I included both mission files for you to experiment with. The Mig-21 doesn't pop up what so ever, and when I tell Jester to up the gain he turns it way down again immediately. I wish there was a way to say, "Jester, KEEP THE DAMN GAIN HIGHER!". IE, if I turn the WSO gain up from the front seat, it would be like telling Jester to bias whatever gain he wants by that amount up/down (whatever you selected). Maybe in the Jester menu you could have set radar defaults if someone gets things too out of wack.

 

Anyway, when flying in the clear blue, the Mig-21 never showed up (I'm at 20k, he's at 23-24k), head on. Same exact scenario with bad weather, Jester finds the Mig at nearly 30 miles.

Suggestions? Typically garbage weather attenuates RF, not enhances it. Could be Jester is preferring a higher gain in such inclement weather, but that goes back to me wanting him to hold a higher gain when told.

Syria-f4e-radar test - bad weather.miz Syria-f4e-radar test - good weather.miz

Edited May 31, 2024 by HB_Painter
Classification of Bugs and User reports

[FusRoPotato]

Most of the time, he sees contacts that I can't see, or can't see targets that are very clear. Other times I can't see the ground or clouds, but can still see contacts, or the radar fails to grab CAA in perfect conditions. When CAA does grab something near where my target is, the lock floats up towards the sky and into the sun even though the aircraft is nowhere near it. I can only imagine something under the hood is going out of sync. Wait till you see what happens when you attempt to lock onto a target head on, it fails, you attempt to sling a sparrow as if it had successfully locked, but it refuses, and then replay that track file.

[Nimbur]

with me it is also the case that jester does not see any targets, even if the radar is set to 25 nm narow and the corresponding altitude to the target, and the target flies directly head on towards me, jester sees absolutely nothing... bvr not possible at the moment...also as a pilot i miss pressing the aspect button because jester doesn't do it automatically depending on the situation...or does it? Well, many questions, but no answer...I have the feeling that jester is simply too overwhelmed for such a complex radar...

[FusRoPotato]

1 hour ago, Nimbur said:

with me it is also the case that jester does not see any targets, even if the radar is set to 25 nm narow and the corresponding altitude to the target, and the target flies directly head on towards me, jester sees absolutely nothing... bvr not possible at the moment...also as a pilot i miss pressing the aspect button because jester doesn't do it automatically depending on the situation...or does it? Well, many questions, but no answer...I have the feeling that jester is simply too overwhelmed for such a complex radar...

Yeah my best success with the radar on that plane so far is to very quickly get in the back seat and work the scan myself. I think Jester himself is actually locking up. Sometimes he even stops responding until a minute later and starts spamming no-can-do's.

[Longiron]

8 hours ago, FusRoPotato said:

Most of the time, he sees contacts that I can't see, or can't see targets that are very clear. Other times I can't see the ground or clouds, but can still see contacts, or the radar fails to grab CAA in perfect conditions. When CAA does grab something near where my target is, the lock floats up towards the sky and into the sun even though the aircraft is nowhere near it. I can only imagine something under the hood is going out of sync. Wait till you see what happens when you attempt to lock onto a target head on, it fails, you attempt to sling a sparrow as if it had successfully locked, but it refuses, and then replay that track file.

This has been my experience also.

The times I do get a head on shot off it comes off at <3nm and will mostly hit. If I manage a lock it's almost always a cage with jester command to lock, the azimuth floats off to one side and  I can't tell actual range because the scope is stuck in 5nm and the interlock never gives a shoot que.

A repeat t of the above with interlocks out and the sparrow goes dumb off the rail.

Now strangely this behavior seems to be online only, I suspect latency related to STT.

[SgtPappy]

16 hours ago, Nimbur said:

with me it is also the case that jester does not see any targets, even if the radar is set to 25 nm narow and the corresponding altitude to the target, and the target flies directly head on towards me, jester sees absolutely nothing... bvr not possible at the moment...also as a pilot i miss pressing the aspect button because jester doesn't do it automatically depending on the situation...or does it? Well, many questions, but no answer...I have the feeling that jester is simply too overwhelmed for such a complex radar...

I also wonder if he is using the nutation, 2 bar (RADAR mode scan pattern).

My WSO and I have had much more success (when the radar wasn't broken due to desync) with MAP-B mode.

I would like to see if it is possible for either Jester or myself to use MAP-B to search for contacts more consistently.

[Realizm]

It could be something with the Mig-21 RCS, or the way the F-4E radar is trying to handle it. The next aircraft with a similar RCS is the F-16 (close enough), but the F-4E can see it no problem at nearly 50 miles. The Mig-21 for me was only popping up at around 5 miles. Basically, by the time jester saw it, locked it, the Mig-21 was going by me. The Mig-21 seems like a stealth fighter when I'm flying the F-4E. When the AI F-4E is flying, and I'm in the Mig-21, they AI fires an AIM-7M at me at around 20 miles.

Also, would hope they could fix the AI flight models to closer match the "good" flight model. Had the F-4E AI sustaining 8.3G's in a turn non-stop when I was messing around in the F-15E.

[HB_Painter]

Hey thanks for the reports! We will take a look on how to improve it!