Aircraft Visibility

[ericoh]

Does anyone know where i can find properties of the labels? Maybe theres some tweaks for us low resolution people.

[Mar]

Does anyone know where i can find properties of the labels? Maybe theres some tweaks for us low resolution people.

 

That's in config>view>labels. Observe the readme file in that folder, they want you to save your changes to your system user > documents folder. Probably so that they don't get overwritten when the game is uptdated.

[ericoh]

That's in config>view>labels. Observe the readme file in that folder, they want you to save your changes to your system user > documents folder. Probably so that they don't get overwritten when the game is uptdated.

 

Oh nice, thank you.

[IonicRipper]

Maximizing plane visibility distance?

 

Back when I was flying the Huey or the Warthog, the visibility of distant planes wasn't that important. Now that I've got the Dora, priorities changed quite a lot and I find myself having a very hard time spotting enemy planes so I would like to improve my visibility distance. What are the optimal settings to maximize the dot draw distance? I have a 21.5" monitor running 1920x1080 native resolution. I've also included a screenshot of my current graphical settings in DCS. Is there any way I can improve the visibility?

 

[Falcon_S]

I don`t know for other guys but on my high settings i can see other plane in only few km. So, we have same problem and i think no way to improve it. :(

[Blooze]

Click HERE for a mod that increases visibility of ground objects but I don't know if it will help with increasing the visibility of aircraft. Either way it's a cool mod to have and worth a try.

[Bushmanni]

Dots are actually visible for quite a long distance but they are hard to spot. I have found that disabling anti aliasing helps the most as it will make object edges and dots stand out better. I used to use Mustangs sky color mod but that made sky darker and dots harder to see so I stopped using it.

[wolfstriked]

DCS needs to implement a real dot system where the dot is very noticeable.I cant understand why its not top priority to the devs?

[159th_Viper]

DCS needs to implement a real dot system where the dot is very noticeable.I cant understand why its not top priority to the devs?

 

What?

 

Top priority?

 

It's there. How do you want the engine to make the dot more visible? Strobe lighting? It's frakin' difficult to spot targets in real life, even knowing where to look. In DCS it's easy to spot targets, again, if you know where to look.

 

They are there - cannot make what's already there any more visible.

[Cibit]

Use labels;)

[Uriah_]

CS and change labels to black dots

You can try this modification of "Labels.lua" Labels will now appear as black dots with no additional info.

E:\Programs\Games\DCS World\Config\View

 

AirFormat = {}

AirFormat[10] = ""

AirFormat[5000] = "}"

AirFormat[10000] = "}"

AirFormat[20000] = "]"

AirFormat[30000] = "'"

GroundFormat = {}

GroundFormat[5000] = "{"

GroundFormat[10000] = "~"

GroundFormat[20000] = "`"

NavyFormat = {}

NavyFormat[10000] = "{"

NavyFormat[20000] = "~"

NavyFormat[40000] = "`"

WeaponFormat = {}

WeaponFormat[5000] = "["

WeaponFormat[10000] = "|"

WeaponFormat[20000] = "|"

-- Colors in {red, green, blue} format, volume from 0 up to 255

ColorAliesSide = {0, 0, 0}

ColorEnemiesSide = {0, 0, 0}

[Uriah_]

If black for a dot is too visable another color will do. But I don't know what the values are for the colors.

[Sabre-TLA]

For small monitors I recommend labels. This page can show you the color number equivalents.

 

A bigger monitor works much better. Once you go big you never go back.

[ericoh]

Fiddled around a bit earlier. I am using 1680x1050.

 

I am using this setting:

 

AirFormat = {}
AirFormat[4000] = ""
AirFormat[16000] = "'"

ColorAliesSide = {0, 0, 0}
ColorEnemiesSide = {0, 0, 0}

Color is 0,0,0 (black, friend and foe)

 

 

Like this you have a small black spot at 16km, no identification if it is enemy or friend, no additional infos.

 

The advantage of the black dot is that you cannot see them throught your cockpit while manouvering, makes it less of a "cheat".

 

Label dissapears entirely at 4km. As i have found 5km to be somekinda pixel pop-up distance.

 

It doesnt seem to be an extreme advantage on my lower resolution settings. At 16km the small black dot is still not easy to pickup if you dont know where to look exactly.

 

Hope this helps someone.

 

P.S.: Put a copy of the labels.lua into your C:\Users\<your name>\Saved Games\DCS\Config\View folder, as it is adviced in the readme.

 

EDIT: Added the file here incase anyone needs it. This file makes it so you only get labels for aircraft. Try it. (activated with shift+f10)

Labels.lua

Edited August 17, 2014 by ericoh

[IonicRipper]

It's there. How do you want the engine to make the dot more visible? Strobe lighting? It's frakin' difficult to spot targets in real life, even knowing where to look. In DCS it's easy to spot targets, again, if you know where to look.

 

They are there - cannot make what's already there any more visible.

 

I think spotting a plane in the distance is marginally easier in real life compared to DCS.

[ericoh]

I think spotting a plane in the distance is marginally easier in real life compared to DCS.

 

Depends entirely on your resolution/screen size.

[gavagai]

How big a monitor does one need to make spotting contacts practical in DCS? 27" or even bigger?

[MacEwan]

Depends entirely on your resolution/screen size.

 

It wont matter what resolution/screen size you have, none of it will match the effectiveness of the human eye. Real world spotting is easier and more natural because of a million different factors, a few of them being the resolution of the human eye, depth perception, trillions of colours, etc... DCS needs some sort of spotting technique (e.g. smart scaling, light reflections, better colour contrast, etc...)

[NineLine]

Depends entirely on your resolution/screen size.

 

 

Also in real life it depends on the conditions and situation....

[otto]

In real life you don't have to zoom .So DCS is not real life.

[NineLine]

In real life you don't have to zoom .So DCS is not real life.

 

 

DCS isnt real life? Thanks for the update ;)

[Kuky]

Do you think you can spot small plane at 16Km in real life? Unless there is high light reflection you won't see it even at 10Km. And talking about light reflections, that is what I think is missing completely in game for far LODs.

 

One wrong thing most people have is high FoV... Set it to more actual FoV your monitor takes as you are looking at it... And I am sure you will find objects are easier to see... I would say mainly because at correct FoV the game renders image to your eyes at 1:1 ratio.

[zaelu]

I don't get this "hardcore" strive of some people. Sorry to say but this asking for better visibility of far planes without icons looks like a wish for a "labels on game" but with "labels off game" tag.

 

It's like... "Oh I would have been so much of a better pilot if only... I could see like in real life". Well... you can't and there is nothing between icons on and icons off where the sweet spot of some people is, which is actually "Icons on" but with "icons off" label and "fame". This might sound offensive but if one search inside himself will find that is just that... a bit of vanity.

 

Dots are very affected by Antialiasing. It's a trade off. I accept it.

It's no shame in using icons.

[ARM505]

Spotting in real life (of which I have done a lot) is all about 'relatives', much like in DCS; relative motion, contrast in relation to the background, relative size of the contact, relative light levels (ie looking at the shadow side of an aircraft against the sky means looking for a darker, easier to see dot) etc

 

Somehow, in real life, the 'relatives' tend to stand out a bit more than in DCS. In DCS for example, a contact can easily acquire the almost exact same colour as the background (a camouflaged green aircraft against a forest from above for example) and the pixels of the one will be identical to the other, making the contact essentially invisible. Does anybody remember that 'illegal' IL2 skin that was made from the exact same texture as the default grasslands from most of the map? It basically disappeared if it was below you! In real life, that simply doesn't happen - you can't get an aircraft to be the same precise shade or texture as the forest below it in a way that makes it utterly disappear, AND it's relative motion seems to stand out quite a bit more IMHO (yes, in the civilian world most aircraft are not camouflaged but I watched some that are, and it doesn't really make a difference IMHO, at least to tracking the contact - the best way to disappear is with a light shade of grey when viewed from below or co-alt, and surprise surprise, that's what most modern airforces use!)

 

That being said, exaggerated dots do result in getting a visual at too long ranges - to spot another airliner (generally big and bright, but I am talking 737 size, not A380) for example, I know that conditions must be right to see them beyond ten nautical miles - if the conditions aren't right, it can be really hard, and thats when looking at almost the exact spot, guided onto it by ACAS. Funnily enought, once you do see it, it seems really obvious :) Then comes the laugh a minute action as you try and talk you fellow crew member onto it....'He's just above that sausage shaped cloud....see? About a finger above......come on, he's bright orange!' And finally the guy sees it and then kicks himself because it seems obvious. Things that stand out are often the shadows, for example in the intake of the engine nacelles. Most airliners have white as a base colour, which can blend in quite well actually, it's not always super bright.

 

Tl;dr - spotting, and especially TRACKING another contact in DCS as it stands now is IMHO quite a bit harder than real life, but conditions (bright sun, shadow, early morning and late day light, canopy artifacts etc) don't cause as many problems as they do IRL. The light seems a little artificial in a way, we'll have to see how EDGE manages it.

 

Two sims that stand out for real looking lighting in my book are the current CLOD, and the new IL2:BOS seems good, albeit an eyestrain with the constant white world (much like real snow cover I suppose)

[Kuky]

In real life, that simply doesn't happen - you can't get an aircraft to be the same precise shade or texture as the forest below it in a way that makes it utterly disappear

 

oh really... so all this camouflage patters are for nothing? We better tell military to stop bothering doing it :music_whistling: