ZSU/ZU-23 tracers color

[swift]

Personally I know squat about the technical details of the tracer rounds, but one of the things that amazed me reading those books about operation Desert Storm is the thrilling visions of the triple-A attack at night.

 

Here is some excerpts about the those red hose streams:

 

Warthog: Flying the A-10 in the Gulf War. William L. Smallwood.

P. 120 - Anyone who saw the CNN scenes of AAA fire over Baghdad will remember the red hose-like streams of 23mm fire that were erupting over the city during the air strikes. Those red streams were a chilling sight for pilots because they knew that only one in five of the bullets was a tracer - that the other four in the bullet stream were invisible.

P. 129 - Imagine if somebody stood along the coastline, one person every quarter of a mile with a large hose with red colored water spraying it all out in the direction of the ocean, but up.

P. 199 - Zeus is what we call the ZSU 23-4, the radar-guided, four barrel AAA gun that sends out a red stream of bullets.

Strike Eagle: flying the F-15E in the Gulf War. William L. Smallwood.

P. 63 - For others it was the triple-A, especially the red hose streams of the radar guided, four barrel, ZSU("Zeus") 23mm machine gun. "Guys, listen to me; every seventh bullet is an incendiary and yet it makes a red hose stream - does that tell you how dangerous that sucker is?"

P. 74 - I was watching it, mesmerized, an orange and red cascade of triple-A going over and under us.

P. 74 - I can't believe there is so much of it. It was orange and red and I'm watching it, trying to see how close it is.

P. 77 - Then it happened, just like at Alqaim. Seconds after their bombs went of - but after Chevy One-One had pulled off and away from the airfield - triple-A from more than one hundred guns began ripping through the skies. Visible were the burning, red-hot tracers, orange and red in color, and deadly ominous as the others in Chevy flight stared in horror and with the realization that the tracers they were seeing were only a fraction of the hot, deadly metal that was filling the airspace over their target.

P. 93 - The triple-A really got intense by the time we left the IP and headed inbound. I mean, it was everywhere - lots of 14.5 [mm] and quite a bit of 23 [mm] - like red fire hoses - that's how it had been described and that's how it looked.

P. 94 - Krause, the pilot, continues, "We did a mapping leg and then a jink, and we were smack in the middle of the triple-A again. Then a red stream that looked like it was aimed started coming toward the nose.

P. 94 - Said Hill, "The triple-A was incredible. It was nothing like I could ever imagined. Picture a football field with firemen along the sidelines. Each one has a high-pressure hose and out of those hoses comes red and orange Kool Aid.

Vipers in the Storm: Diary of a Gulf War Fighter Pilot. Keith Rosenkranz.

P. 208 - AAA on the nose. Red tracers shoot up in front of me. Every muscle tightens.

P. 250 - Five-eight's got AAA left seven! I check hard to the right and look back over my shoulder. I can see the red tracers rocketing skyward, and my only concern is for Jackal.

P. 269 - I check thirty degrees to the right and spot a stream of red tracers over my shoulder.

This awesome thread about tracers color is full of information:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=28144

 

 

My question is simple, and I hope is not silly. Why yellow-white tracers instead of orange-red?

[Echonomix]

I was waiting the entire time for an a-10 to attack! :D

 

Cool vid though. I was wanting them to shoot in the air, full auto style, but I can understand why they wouldn't.

 

I'm reading those books right now and would also hope we can get red tracers on these. I know the hinds have green tracers in black shark so I'm sure it can be done. Heck, I dunno, could it be something as simple as changing a hex color value somewhere? Surely the tracers aren't actually textured.

[Krebs20]

I had red tracers coming off a t80 in daylight. Beta 2. I'll double check when I get home.

[SmokeyTheLung]

Great point swift, I'm hoping to see this changed as well.

@Krebs20, they've stayed green and yellow for me in beta 2. I have yet to check all vehicles, but russian t80 was spitting up yellow and green for me

Edited November 4, 2010 by SmokeyTheLung

[sobek]

The dark side has always had the green lasers :D

[Laud]

Not a Shilka but a Tunguska. Great vid anyway...

 

 

I give up... :(

Edited November 4, 2010 by Laud

[kylania]

 

Fixed for Laud :)

[Laud]

Could you be so kind and tell me how the f#*$ that works??

[kylania]

Click Go Advanced, then click the YouTube button. You'll get this:

 

 

Then just put the "code" for the video between it. So for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-A268u9GPA you'd put:

 

[YOUTUBE]K-A268u9GPA[/YOUTUBE]

[Laud]

Aaaaahhhhh...... Got it! TY Sir!

[kylania]

Happy to help! The one drawback is that it plays in default 320p mode, you can't run HD from that little tag. So if the video has a 720p version you can just add a link below it directly to the HD version, and add &hd=1 to the end of the URL. That will link you to YouTube and automatically select 720p.

 

[sobek]

I love how the tunguska has flames coming out of it's 'ears' :)

[Tracer2k]

ohh how i hate tunguskas!! GRR :P (in the sim) awesome irl tho

 

the missiles get me every time.. it seems i just cant dodge them :(

[leafer]

MMM...tracers...

 

Me want tracers as an option - I KNOW IT'S NOT REALISTIC! Me loves them.

[topdog]

Happy to help! The one drawback is that it plays in default 320p mode, you can't run HD from that little tag. So if the video has a 720p version you can just add a link below it directly to the HD version, and add &hd=1 to the end of the URL. That will link you to YouTube and automatically select 720p.

 

 

Adding the &hd=1 works for me with the tag just the same.

 

Example here: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1017279&postcount=2

[kylania]

Oh nice! Didn't work on another forum, hehe.

[leafer]

Oh, dam. I did not know the practice rounds have tracers! Thank you!!!!

 

Now, is there a way to add color to it?

[Dash]

Would be cool if the Tunguska in game belched as much fire and smoke and brass as it does IRL!

[swift]

Finnish upgrade 'Sergei' 23itk95

[Tracer2k]

Finnish upgrade 'Sergei' 23itk95

 

ooh the latter clip brings back some memories! i was a so called spotter for these bad boys "sergeis" (zu-23) in the army :) also got to shoot with few too, and 12.7mm nsv, called "12.7mm itkk" in finnish army :)

[Laud]

I wonder why the rounds explode. Always thought they'd fly ballistic and only explode when they hit something.

[ARM505]

The fuze generally goes bang after a certain time as well. I'm generalising, but all HE AAA rounds I've seen fired (20mm, 40mm, 76mm) did the same. The theory being that if they haven't hit anything after that amount of time, they certainly weren't going to be hitting what you originally aimed at :)

[Frederf]

I wonder why the rounds explode. Always thought they'd fly ballistic and only explode when they hit something.

 

Safety fuse timer so they explode in mid air if they miss before they hit the ground.

[Tracer2k]

the way those guns spray lead in the air, they could very well hit something non intended on their way down.. and they still are lethal all the way to the ground, especially if they are HE

[swift]

My apologies for resurrecting this old thread.

 

By chance I found that by the Doppler Effect, a light source moving away from the observer causes a shift toward the red end of the light spectrum, so it is called a red shift. When the light source is moving toward the observer causes a shift toward the high-frequency end of the light spectrum, and such frequency shift is actually called a blue shift.

 

That's what causes the effect of the tracers appear to be red? All depends on the point of view, and therefore may be too much to ask that this effect is simulated :smartass:

 

Edited February 22, 2012 by swift
Question mark added :)