Which is the realistic zoom?

[AVZ]

I was just wondering, is the view you get at the start of any flight (the one that zooms out slightly and slowly at the very beginning) the actual, real world view a pilot will get of the cockpit, or is the realistic view the one that you get when you press "Enter" on the numpad (whereby it is up-close (and personal :D))?

[YeaImRota]

The one where you press enter is a more realistic FOV. You still have to go "heads down" to see the MFCDs, and you should be able to see the HUD symbology clearly.

[AVZ]

Is this your personal opinion, or would you quite solidly say that it's definitely the more realistic field of view? Since, if it is more realistic, it's definitely much better when it comes to reading information on the HUD :)

[Irregular programming]

None, since you don't have an orthographic camera in your face, all zoom levels are more or less realistic.

 

Except of course the negative ones.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Irregular programming

[benargee]

I would say any ingame cockpit zoom level, since the human eye can see in very good detail and has good peripheral vision, the unrealistic part is only having only 1080p or 1600, and the screen taking up a small field of view, multi-monitor and track ir bring you closer to realism, but still lag way behind reality.

[mjeh]

Is this your personal opinion, or would you quite solidly say that it's definitely the more realistic field of view? Since, if it is more realistic, it's definitely much better when it comes to reading information on the HUD :)

 

Definitely the zoom level where you press enter is more realistic, as you get view distortion from the starting zoom level (also, enter resets zoom and hitting enter when starting the game most definitely changes the zoom level), and HUD items and labels can be hard to read. To see this very clearly just fly in formation with someone and look over your wing at them; Their aircraft will be stretched and distorted. To see it even more clearly, zoom further out to exaggerate the effect, then go to the default zoom and see the difference

 

In a couple other games I've played, this type of zoomed out view distortion effect has been used to simulate intoxication, among other things :)

[AVZ]

Thanks for the info guys! To be honest, I was really wondering more about the distance between the pilot's face and the HUD, in real life - looks like it must be the view that you get by pressing "Enter" :)

[Maximus_G]

BTW, you can calculate the angular width of your monitor (in degrees) and set this FOV width in the game, so your monitor would act like a window.

To do that, you need to:

* measure your screen width and the distance from your eyes to the monitor (doesn't matter if that would be inches or cm);

* Put that data into the Excel file and get FOV width;

* Change the default FOV in game by editing SnapViews.lua (in BlackShark, it's in the ...Ka-50\Config\View\).

At the end of file, there will be your line Snap[9][13]["viewAngle"] = 89.777544238285

---

Excel file: http://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=40058&d=1276657673

 

Don't get surprised about how small is your actual FOV! ) It's not very practical, but worth trying if you're interested.

[Sorin]

I have 116.8 FOV.

[julian265]

Imagine a triangle formed by running a line from the left side of your monitor to your head, and from the right side of your monitor to your head.

 

"Realistic" FoV is when you set the in-game FoV angle to the angle between those lines.

 

However, you will not be able to make out distant objects as well as humans do, so this is not realistic for resolution - which is why sims/games include variable zoom. You can zoom out to get wide FoV as humans have, and zoom in to get the resolution that humans have.

 

So there is CERTAINLY not ONE "realistic" FoV.

[benargee]

Imagine a triangle formed by running a line from the left side of your monitor to your head, and from the right side of your monitor to your head.

 

"Realistic" FoV is when you set the in-game FoV angle to the angle between those lines.

 

However, you will not be able to make out distant objects as well as humans do, so this is not realistic for resolution - which is why sims/games include variable zoom. You can zoom out to get wide FoV as humans have, and zoom in to get the resolution that humans have.

 

So there is CERTAINLY not ONE "realistic" FoV.

 

EXACTLY what i said

[WildBillKelsoe]

Unrealistic at all cases. Real hog pilots can see all exterior ground details to the point of color differentiation. I read they positively identified jeeps with white tops or green tops from very high (10,000) using mix of eyes dominantly and gyro stabilised binos during Allied Force. In DCS, you can't tell if the speck on the ground is a tank or IFV unless you're very low and very close. Wish there was a cheat like vehicle bobbing that decreases as your range closes... My approach is mark by eye, detail by TGP.

 

with all the above said, it IS realistic inside the pit when you press ENTER after the initial zoom out.

[Maximus_G]

Unrealistic at all cases. Real hog pilots can see all exterior ground details to the point of color differentiation. I read they positively identified jeeps with white tops or green tops from very high (10,000) using mix of eyes dominantly and gyro stabilised binos during Allied Force. In DCS, you can't tell if the speck on the ground is a tank or IFV unless you're very low and very close.

Well, those dudes in A-10s positively identified big orange dayglo panels on tops of a group of five Spartan APCs (British),

however, they couldn't tell if those specks on the ground were APCs or "flatbed trucks" as they said or "rocket launchers with orange rockets". They couldn't get it even at the GUNS range.

So we get a pretty realistic picture.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/mar/31/iraq.military1

02:30 mark

[mjeh]

Atmospheric and lighting conditions obviously make a huge difference. Look at the ground next time you're on an airliner and have a window seat, if the conditions are right your view of the ground details is far superior to that in the sim. Picking out individual cars, trucks, trains etc is sometimes even possible from cruising altitude!

 

Edit: On the flip side, in RL it is also possible to camouflage a tank to the point where you couldn't see it within 100 meters. According to Rudel in his book, the only way you could see them then is if they turned on their engine, in which case blue exhaust fumes would be visible from some distance

Edited April 5, 2013 by mjeh

[WildBillKelsoe]

Well, those dudes in A-10s positively identified big orange dayglo panels on tops of a group of five Spartan APCs (British),

however, they couldn't tell if those specks on the ground were APCs or "flatbed trucks" as they said or "rocket launchers with orange rockets". They couldn't get it even at the GUNS range.

So we get a pretty realistic picture.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/mar/31/iraq.military1

02:30 mark

 

Sir, I am not going down that aisle. This was both ground, CAOC, and pilot mistakes. Iraqis dont use orange camo on their vessels.

[ScottishMartialArts]

Well, those dudes in A-10s positively identified big orange dayglo panels on tops of a group of five Spartan APCs (British),

however, they couldn't tell if those specks on the ground were APCs or "flatbed trucks" as they said or "rocket launchers with orange rockets". They couldn't get it even at the GUNS range.

So we get a pretty realistic picture.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/mar/31/iraq.military1

02:30 mark

 

While I have no way of knowing this for sure, that particular incident was about 1.5 weeks into the invasion. In all likelihood the pilots in question were probably lucky if they had gotten 36 hours of sleep total in that period. This isn't to excuse the negligent mistakes they made but just to point out that when operating under the degree of fatigue and stress they were almost certainly under, you probably aren't going to be seeing things properly or with as much acuity as usual.

[Maximus_G]

While I have no way of knowing this for sure, that particular incident was about 1.5 weeks into the invasion. In all likelihood the pilots in question were probably lucky if they had gotten 36 hours of sleep total in that period. This isn't to excuse the negligent mistakes they made but just to point out that when operating under the degree of fatigue and stress they were almost certainly under, you probably aren't going to be seeing things properly or with as much acuity as usual.

That was just an example when you can't really tell the vehicle type even if you see bright coloured specks on it. That's quite normal, afaik.

[SharpeXB]

Hey maybe someday we can all have 4K monitors. Problem solved. Till then there's zoom and labels.