Can't See Exhaust Plumes Very Far...useful for spotting targets

[dresoccer4]

I'm chasing down a 747 to attack at FL350 without radar so I'm looking for the large engine exhaust plumes to help me spot it. Well turns out you have to be pretty close to the plane before the exhaust plumes are rendered, which means it took me much longer to spot the plane than it should have. 

View from cockpit not zoomed:

View from cockpit zoomed in 1 click on mouse wheel: entire exhaust plume instantly drawn:

As you can see from the screenshot the exhaust plume is extremely helpful in spotting targets far away. However it seems like the draw distance of the plume isn't very long compared to how it should be. Does anyone know of a way to increase this draw distance?

Edited June 15, 2024 by dresoccer4

[Bosun]

Also interested in this.

[Lace]

Agreed, same for SAM launch smoke and dust.  Should be independent of draw detail distance settings and be visible from much further IMHO.

[dresoccer4]

8 hours ago, Lace said:

Agreed, same for SAM launch smoke and dust.  Should be independent of draw detail distance settings and be visible from much further IMHO.

thanks for pointing that out as well. i was hoping there might be an easy config file fix (such as with smoke life) but haven't found that out so far

[buceador]

Is the visibility linked to the preload radius?

Edited June 21, 2024 by buceador

[Lace]

12 minutes ago, buceador said:

Is the visibility linked to the preload radius?

 

I think preload radius is the amount of the map which is preloaded to memory at mission start, not the visibility distance.

[buceador]

Possibly Visib* Range?

[Moonshine]

5 minutes ago, buceador said:

Possibly Visib* Range?

not that. i got my visibility range maxed out yet exhaust smoke and contrails only show up at a certain zoom level or distance (or a combination of both).

this btw also applies to any sort of smoke plume (like from destroyed ground units).

Edited June 21, 2024 by Moonshine

[buceador]

33 minutes ago, Moonshine said:

not that. i got my visibility range maxed out yet exhaust smoke and contrails only show up at a certain zoom level or distance (or a combination of both).

this btw also applies to any sort of smoke plume (like from destroyed ground units).

Then perhaps we need to bring it to the attention of 'moderators / devs' - I have noticed for years that contrails are only visible, at certain distances, using the zoom facility which, clearly, goes against any realism mooted by ED.

Edited June 21, 2024 by buceador

[Moonshine]

thats already a bug report. im sure there are more older ones than that one. need to search further

 

found more

and funny enough, this one is 13 years old:

 

Edited June 21, 2024 by Moonshine

[dresoccer4]

1 hour ago, Moonshine said:

thats already a bug report. im sure there are more older ones than that one. need to search further

 

found more

and funny enough, this one is 13 years old:

 

 

good find. yeah looks like it's been around a while. thats unfortunate as it means the likelyhood if it getting fixed is pretty low

[Moonshine]

i understand that when looking at the issues most all of the modules have in some capacity this thing seems like a low priority thing. but there is so many small things in the core game that if fixed, would make the the game/sim significantly more enjoyable.