Fighter Rear View Mirrors

[Westy]

 I'm hoping some day too Nexx! IT may be when the average players cpu is  800mhz or higher and  64mb video cards are the norm.

-Westy

[-lazs-]

guys.. the pic shows a pretty good view of the glider behind you.   The Corsair had 3 or more mirrors and two of em were side view looking down the side from a buldged (just like a Spit) canopy.   Certainly they would be no more useful than those found on your car but I don't think many would condem the mirrors on their car as being useless.  I personally use my car mirrors but I turn around to look just to make sure.   In a truck or van with no rear view I depend on the side view mirrors.

Another pertinent point is that, even if their usefullness  for spotting planes might be limited.... they would still be very usefull when you allready knew that a plane  was back there.  You would know if/when you were extending away.   Just like corsair and Hellcat pilots did against zekes in the Pacific.
lazs

[Duckwing6]

Lazs that glider is only 30 yards behind me ..

i can tell you that i have  tryed very often to locate a plane the i just passed just to find out it's too small already by the time it enters the field of view of the mirror ..
also the pic shows the mirror pretty close .. that's about 3 times it's real size due to the zoom ..

We got pretty good 6 views here why put a frame rate hogging rear view mirror in in which you would see close to nothing (well 'xcept the icon.. and i can hear the whine about that already..)

DW6

[This message has been edited by Duckwing6 (edited 11-29-2000).]

[Citabria]

its a lost cause duckwng6.

most here already have their preconcieved notions about being able to see every aircraft in the sky with one passing glance. they even think that is realistic.

surely they understand how the human eyeball picks up long range tiny objects (the aces high equivelant of dots) with only a field of view the size of a quarter at arms length.

the big sky takes a while to scan. and it takes a lot more than a casual glance to pick up any small fighter sized aircraft. and if visibility is poor you wont see anything at long range.

the concept of mirrors offering to small a field of view to be usefull does not compute to the average computer flight simmer who thinks clearing turns are to much work to waddle wings or turn even 30 degrees to check your 6.

in fact to some of these people even ripping out your eyeballs and placing 1 on each side of the top front of the canopy frame facing backwards is totally realistic. with such eyeball configuration it should be easy to see around each side of the bulkhead to give a clear view of both sides of the horizontal stabilizer.
this is in fact what the current direct 6 lind blair view provides.

lost cause  

[-lazs-]

guys... I'm pretty happy with the views in AH since I came from the other sim but... Face it... they would be useful to check on that con that you were extending away from.   If you can't see a highway patrol car getting on to the freeway (or not) after you have passed him more than a quarter of a mile back...

As for the icons... If we got icons then we got icons.   They would and should appear in a mirror just as they would in any view and for the same reasons.

claim that they would be too hard to do if you like but don't claim that they would be "useless"  or vibrate too much.  
lazs

[Citabria]

lazs have you ever even flown a real plane and looked for actual nearby aircraft?

do you think the 2d world of automobile driving and traffic spotting is the same as the 3d world of flying and traffic spotting?

you have a first hand acount from duckwng6 of how limited mirrors are in aircraft but dismiss it as if its nonsense.

lost cause  

[Midnight]

Mirrors might be useful if only to display a dot, like the planes appear when they are at long range, just to let you know someone is back there somewhere.

With the current view system, you can look fully backward with the touch of a button, even when pulling high Gs. And all of this takes less than a second.

Mirrors allowed a pilot to see his six by just looking up/left/right a bit and I believe were the type on the right of your car.. wide angle.. objects closer than they appear.

I flew at Air Combat USA last year and you better believe that turning to look over your shoulder while pulling 4-5 Gs is no easy venture. And like I said, since there is no G effects on how fast you can switch views, who needs a mirror? You would have to take up some of your forward view to see it, and if you had it as an alternate view, you might as well just use the six view the way it is.

------------------
"Wing up, Get kills, Be happy"

Midnight
13th TAS

[hblair]

punt