My AH rear views actually look like your "real-life" views. Look back and to side and slide head over. Not sure what the problem is here.
AH has a variety of different planes modelled with each new version it has seen up to date, and the restrictions given to head positions differ greatly from plane to plane.
For instance, the really old models(Typhoon Mk.Ib, Fw190A-5, Fw190A-8.. etc etc..) have very lenient head movements. On the other hand, some of the newer models(such as P-47D-11 with its razorback) have more realistic limitations. However, in both cases, the head movement is fairly lenient enough to give out a very wide 6-view that is sufficient enough to cover the entire "rear-half" of the plane at a single glance.
The point Schaden and I are making, is that in real life, we'd get as much rear view as we would in AH, but it would take two head movements(looking over left shoulder and right shoulder) to get that much info, not one.
Look at the head position in my first picture. It might not look that strange, but if you look close enough, you will realize that to get that kind of 6-view, you'd have to be sitting in the cockpit backwards with the back of your head resting on the front windshield. With that kind of head position, the pilot can see the entire rear quarter of the plane at a single glance.
That 'single glance' is what bothers me and Schaden.
Like Shane(and Pyro, in that thread) said, normal people have no problems in twisting the torso and neck to see directly behind. However, to get the view we have in Aces High currently, one needs to let go of the stick and throttle and twist his torso to an uncomfortable level - and one would still not be able to see all of his rear area.
In other words, like Shane or Pyro said, it is possible to see directly behind, but that's about it. If you look over your left shoulder, you would be able to see the 8, 7, 6 oc areas and a small part of the 5 oc area is caught in peripheral. Most of the 5 oc area, and the entire 4 oc area, is totally obscured. Vice versa when looking over your right shoulder. If someone can see all of the 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 oc area at a single glance by looking back, then that guy is has a spinal column that twists almost 180 degrees!
Therefore, in real life, the pilot that is consciously trying to scan behind him for evasives would be "HOTAS". In this condition, there's no way this guy can get a panoramic 6 view as we have in AH. He would have to check his left rear half, and right rear half respectively.
..
Now, the 'IL-2 approach' was clearly a step backwards. They made it impossible to look directly behind. No customizable head positions at all. You'd only have enough rear view to check 8, 7 and 5, 4 oc.. and the 6 oc area is totally inaccesible unless you twist and turn your plane around. This is plain wrong, and it's not what Schaden or I want.
What we do want, is having to check left and right - so we'd get about 50% of our current AH 6-view at each glance. Looking left rear and right rear respectively, we would get the whole 100% of our current views.
So, what we actually want is;
1) harsher restrictions in head position customization when the hat-key is flicked to look 6 oc
2) two programmable 6 views that come out with different hat key inputs;
- when hat key is moved
to , it would give out "50% of 6 oc view, by looking over left shoulder"
- when hat key is moved to , it would give out "the other 50% of 6 oc view, by looking over right shoulder"
Now, like I mentioned, some people might find this annoying and tedious the first time they try it. I felt exactly the same when first playing IL-2. However, after a while, I realized that having to constantly check 'both sides of your aircraft' was very immersive.
So, in a summary, the IL-2 view system in regards to visible angles sucks. But the fact that you have to look both sides to get the whole picture, is really cool.. and if we have this in AH, it would improve immersion levels to one step further.
More uncomfortable than what we have now? Yeah, it is. But it's still more fun!
