Water shade/plane invisibility.

[RTHolmes]

totally disagree with this one - its called camoflage and thats what its for

I mean theres a great big red flag over the con telling you what plane and its range, how much more help do we need?

[moot]

No.. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you ought to be able to spot a painted chunk of metal (maybe even flying low enough to lift some spray) from the sea. It's especialy unreal at low light conditions like dusk and dawn. The lighting engine showing its age..

[BnZs]

totally disagree with this one - its called camouflageand thats what its for

I mean theres a great big red flag over the con telling you what plane and its range, how much more help do we need?

Did you see my screenshots? A plane against certain terrains with certain lighting conditions isn't camouflaged, it's invisible at very short ranges. It is demonstrably impossible to do any ACM when you can't see the planform, wingline, or hell, can't even tell whether the bandit is "coming or going". Ever seen other airplanes from a real airplane? Traffic a mile away sticks out like a sore thumb, and you can easily make out the wingline/planform of something like a Cessna at that distance. In AHII, under the right lighting/terrain conditions, you can't make out the planform of a Ju-88 at 200 yards.

[RTHolmes]

yup looked at the screenies and in none of them is the a/c invisible. it is, however hard to make out because its a dark skin against a dark background, as it should be. if they are invisible to you, you either need to recalibrate your system or get a new monitor.

moot, at dusk and dawn not only is it darker, but the eye perceives less contrast and (need a GWC to help me out here ) ?desaturates colours.

so basically AH is simulating RL here - camo works to a degree and visibilty is worse at dusk and dawn.  


PS there was an AEW Nimrod parked up at Heathrow when I departed there once. from only 1000' at lunchtime on a cloudy day it was practically invisble on the concrete hardstanding. all the other (brightly painted) a/c stood out a mile...

[Kazaa]

Can we have better and brighter water tiles please,  kkthxbye.

[BnZs]

yup looked at the screenies and in none of them is the a/c invisible. it is, however hard to make out because its a dark skin against a dark background, as it should be. if they are invisible to you, you either need to recalibrate your system or get a new monitor.

Are you kidding me? Of course it's not literally invisible,  but seeing the plane's aspect well enough for ACM is impossible the way they wash out.

The monitor is about 4 months old, and there is noting wrong with the adjustment on my system.

so basically AH is simulating RL here - camo works to a degree and visibilty is worse at dusk and dawn.  

Ah, the old AH as infallible argument...

Except that against virtually every custom water texture-you know, the ones that actually look more like water-planes stand out much, much better...so it is a paradox. Which AH terrain is the infallible representation of reality? 

PS there was an AEW Nimrod parked up at Heathrow when I departed there once. from only 1000' at lunchtime on a cloudy day it was practically invisble on the concrete hardstanding. all the other (brightly painted) a/c stood out a mile...

And there you've hit upon what aircraft camouflage is actually most useful for-concealment when parked. Perhaps also in certain circumstances when NOE over certain terrain, but not useful for much more than that.

Camouflaging in general works really against the human eye for stationary objects against a broken background...but once any apparent movement is seen or the object is "spotted" the effect is broken. And you've got to factor in the 3D effects when the airplane is ~1000 feet above the background, particularly if that background is more or less flat. It is like a hunter in camouflage. Stock-still against some bushes or a tree, he may be nigh impossible to spot. But once he moves, or you spot him, the outline is apparent. And a plane against the water is like that same hunter lying on a bare floor-no matter how well his camo pattern is synced with the floor, his outline will be readily apparent.

Just compare some of my sunset screenshots from the game with this:



The paint job is really irrelevant against a water background...

[1pLUs44]

The reason is some of the times, is that your Gamma is 1.00, turn it up to 1.1 and it'll be a lot better.

[BnZs]

I actually keep it at 1.7

[moot]

RTHolmes - What BnZ said. You're arguing the general principle, I'm talking about AH's case specificaly.  The lighting is just way too flat to render things correctly..

[RTHolmes]

lol thats a very "selective" pic you've used there. how about this:


5-10x the zoom in your screenies, highlighted against a very bright background. is it in a RH bank heading away or a LH bank incoming? you got 0.1s to decide and your life depends on it...
(and before you mention "stealth" its a big aircraft and radar sig is irrelevant here)

[moot]

lol thats a very "selective" pic you've used there.

That's sky behind it, not water. And I dont remember any WWII planes wearing that sort of paint, tho it could be comparable to dusty finish.

[RTHolmes]

That's sky behind it, not water.

yeah that was my point  

[moot]

You lost me there. What are you arguing?

[BnZs]

Pic is not selective at all. It is an airplane against water at sunset. Zoom? I could shrink that pick to 25% this size and still be able to see the airplane.

I can see the planform of the plane perfectly in our pic. The plane's outline "melting out" against backgrounds was my complaint i the first place. If this was a movie instead of a still pic turn determining direction would be no problem.. (Very few pilots in AH or r/l make prolonged hard turns with neg Gs, for obvious reasons LOL)

[RTHolmes]

by selective I mean you chose a pic where the aircraft is
1. 3x closer than your screenies and
2. backlit with a massively bright and clear sunset and
3. of a type which has very clear visual clues of its orientation.

I tried to find a pic taken from a suitable distance and angle of a navy camo small military aircraft flying at 50' over a sea which is roughly the same colour as the camo. Couldn't find one, probably because the aircraft would be very difficult to make out, and thats not generally what photographers want for their subject...

I do agree that there should be alot more variety in the terrains in the MA. Both for land (snow, desert, forest etc) and sea (real sea ranges from bright blue to dull grey/green with all sorts of variations inbetween.) That way different camo schemes would work better on different terrains.