The man in the mirror

[Geskes]

I was checking out if using mirrors still has a big impact on performance and then I realize something.. Did you know you can look in the mirror at yourself and that your mirror image follows your head movement? Very nice! :thumbup:

[Konrad Friedrich]

Sure.

The first thing I noticed ;)

I allways use the mirror. The mirror is your friend. ;)

 

Every now and then I look at our brave, focused-looking virtual pilot...

...hmmm, would be fun to replace it with my real face... :P

Should be pretty easy with Photoshop...

 

Btw: check out the 302nd Fighter Group plane ("Red Tails").

The Dev-team did not forget to change the color of the pilots skin. Cool. :thumbup:

I was smiling when I looked into the mirror :)

Edited January 21, 2013 by Konrad Friedrich

[Konrad Friedrich]

Here he is, our 302nd Red Tail pilot:

The developers seem to be obsessed with details.

 

Edited January 21, 2013 by Konrad Friedrich

[Fakum]

Thats a pretty intersting view,, you can see alot behind you. I tried looking from that view, but my head was so large in it, it was no where near the same view, I figured zooming in and out while looking would help, but it didnt??? Suggestions?

[104th_Crunch]

Using Trackir, and looking in the mirror is a great way to show off the P51 sim to a friend, and look like a geek at the same time :)

[Echo38]

Thats a pretty intersting view,, you can see alot behind you. I tried looking from that view, but my head was so large in it, it was no where near the same view, I figured zooming in and out while looking would help, but it didnt??? Suggestions?

 

Changing the zoom level--both in a sim and in real life--won't change the relative apparent image sizes any. You need to move your virtual head back instead of zooming out.

 

Think of a real-life camera or telescope. You can either increase the zoom (e.g. putting on a high-zoom lens), or you can walk closer to the object you are looking at through the telescope. Both make the image appear larger to you, but only the latter will change the relative apparent image size. The former will make everything look bigger, while the latter will make the object look bigger relative to the things behind it.

 

Moving the virtual camera closer is not at all the same as zooming in. In the past, I've had people accuse me in the past of being a pedant for pointing this out, which perplexes me, because they are very different phenomena, and confusing the two causes much trouble for people. (E.g. when the solution to a particular problem is to move your virtual head forward, but someone tells you the solution is to zoom in instead, then you won't get the desired results if you follow their instructions.)

Edited January 22, 2013 by Echo38

[Fakum]

So If I understand you correctly, I will NOT accomplish getting this view if I dont utilize the "Z" axis on my TrackIR, correct? I currently do not have the "Z" axis enabled on TrackIR as I found it annoying, and prefer to use the zoom in/out from the sim.

[Echo38]

So If I understand you correctly, I will NOT accomplish getting this view if I dont utilize the "Z" axis on my TrackIR, correct? I currently do not have the "Z" axis enabled on TrackIR as I found it annoying, and prefer to use the zoom in/out from the sim.

 

I don't know what your TrackIR Z axis does. I use DCS key commands. You can use key commands to move your virtual camera (or virtual head, if you prefer to think of it that way), and you can also use key commands to alter its zoom level.

 

The key commands for moving your virtual camera (I'll abbreviate it as VC) forward and back are: Cockpit Camera Move Forward, and Cockpit Camera Move Back, respectively. The commands for zooming your VC in and out are: Zoom In, and Zoom Out. Note that there are separate commands for doing these things with external cameras; the ones I listed are for the cockpit camera.

 

Since you have a TrackIR, you can configure it to do either of these so that you only need to use button or key binds for the other. For myself, if I had a 6-degree TrackIR, I think I would assign my Z-axis to move my VC forward and backwards, but I know that some simmers prefer to instead bind it to zoom.

 

All of that, however, is beside my main point; your original problem appears to be that you were "switching to a high-zoom lens" instead of moving the camera closer. If you're trying to change the pilot's apparent relative image size in the mirror, don't try to do it by zooming out the VC. Instead, do it by moving your VC back.

Edited January 22, 2013 by Echo38

[Fakum]

You are correct, I was attempting to change the pilots relative image size in the mirror via Zoom in/out. I appreciate your feedback, it has been extremely helpfull. I now understand how to accomplish this, many thanks

[Echo38]

One more thing--here's a pair of screenshots (old screenshots from Rise of Flight--one of these days I should replace them with DCS screenshots, since DCS is the only sim I fly now) showing the difference between moving your camera closer and zooming in. The two shots were taken at the same time, from the same direction, looking at the same airplane. In the top one, the camera is farther away but has a higher zoom. In the bottom one, the camera is closer but has a lower zoom. Notice that, aside from the different relative sizes of objects in the distance, some objects are obscured behind the aircraft in one shot, but visible in the other; other objects are hidden outside the edge of the shot in one, but visible in the other.

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img851/1314/zoomfov.png

Edited May 16, 2013 by Echo38
Fixed link

[Fakum]

Thanks, yeah I mapped the cockpit camera views to my HOTAS, went in and found that the binding wont work with TrackIR running. Not sure why yet, but works fine if I dont have TrackIR running. Anyway, I wound up just enabling the Z axis of TrackIR instead,, man, what a difference! I will have to figure out how to get the bindings to work while TrackIR is running as I would prefer to have it disabled in TrackIR, but thanks for the insight.