A pause to think...

[CAP1]

I'm color blind, so naturally I'm more inclined to think it's mostly the small size of some of the planes that determine the effect pointed out in the original quote, but keep in mind that even in a "snow" terrain, a builder might decide to whitewash some of the rides making them remain invisible. 

it's size and paint schemes.

seriously......wouldn't you think there was a reason that the us navy painted the top half of corsairs, hellcats, etc. dark blue, and the bottom half pale blue, grey, white, etc?

 or the usaaf......olive drab? pretty much blends into anything, 'cept the sky.

 then there's the camo schemes they all used.......desert camo......the bug was rocking a very nice one the other night.......the pee40's should blend nicely......

 it's just somethign we need to get used to. at least we(unlike the real heros) get to try over and over, till we figure it out. 

[MonkGF]

Paint scheme makes a huge difference. OTOH, we almost need some sort of minimal graphic detail for the arean, before this turns into Quake1 with everyone turning off clouds and going to 4x4 terrain and object textures so the detailed planes stand out as was hinted about.

(anyone else remember the Quakers that would expand FOV to 140 and crank their MIP levels all the way down to get better views but keep framerate sky high?)

[sparow]

Paint scheme makes a huge difference. OTOH, we almost need some sort of minimal graphic detail for the arean, before this turns into Quake1 with everyone turning off clouds and going to 4x4 terrain and object textures so the detailed planes stand out as was hinted about.

(anyone else remember the Quakers that would expand FOV to 140 and crank their MIP levels all the way down to get better views but keep framerate sky high?)

What are you talking about?!  Cripes! I believe I only got the first period... Could you explain it to me like I was a two year old?... 

Cheers,

[MonkGF]

What are you talking about?!  Cripes! I believe I only got the first period... Could you explain it to me like I was a two year old?... 

Quake had lots of optional graphics setting. One was a custom FOV (like AH), that you could expand to see pretty much all around you. The edges of the screen would be behind you, the center was a compressed view in front of you.

Another one was to turn mip-map settings to only use the smallest mips. It's like the anti-hi-res texture pack: you're using say 16x16 textures instead of 1024x1024 textures. Turn off filtering, and what you get is a world view that is big giant blocks of color. If you knew the map and what to look for, you could easily navigate anyway.

The FOV change meant you could see all around you, the mip change had the dual effect of greatly increasing framerate (software renderers back then) while also making enemies and weapons stand out against that background. The guys that got good at navigating in this environment had a huge advantage.

Dawger is suggesting the same thing: by turning down graphic detail on the terrain, you get a washed out terrain that small objects will show much better against since they can't hide in the detail, and since those small objects are generally airplanes, you get around the no icons setting and any skin scheme chosen by your opponent. Basically turn down graphic detail and make the game look worse in order to gain a competitive edge.

If that's not clear, maybe later I'll get some time for some screenshots. A quick web search didn't turn up screenshots of those old Quake days.

[CAP1]

Quake had lots of optional graphics setting. One was a custom FOV (like AH), that you could expand to see pretty much all around you. The edges of the screen would be behind you, the center was a compressed view in front of you.

Another one was to turn mip-map settings to only use the smallest mips. It's like the anti-hi-res texture pack: you're using say 16x16 textures instead of 1024x1024 textures. Turn off filtering, and what you get is a world view that is big giant blocks of color. If you knew the map and what to look for, you could easily navigate anyway.

The FOV change meant you could see all around you, the mip change had the dual effect of greatly increasing framerate (software renderers back then) while also making enemies and weapons stand out against that background. The guys that got good at navigating in this environment had a huge advantage.

Dawger is suggesting the same thing: by turning down graphic detail on the terrain, you get a washed out terrain that small objects will show much better against since they can't hide in the detail, and since those small objects are generally airplanes, you get around the no icons setting and any skin scheme chosen by your opponent. Basically turn down graphic detail and make the game look worse in order to gain a competitive edge.

If that's not clear, maybe later I'll get some time for some screenshots. A quick web search didn't turn up screenshots of those old Quake days.

i run everything at max.....including the hi res pack.

 i sometimes have trouble spotting the 109's. they're friggin tiny airplanes, with excellent camo, so it makes sense.

 i found however, if i fly low, where i think they are, that they are quite easy to spot at co-alt, or if they're a little higher. once they're spotted, then it's only a matter of getting a little alt.

 that being said, i got my bellybutton kicked last night.....but then again, it was mostly higher guys pretending they were in the latewar arenas.

[sparow]

Basically turn down graphic detail and make the game look worse in order to gain a competitive edge.

Thank you Monk, although I never played Quake  I get what you mean. But if I turn down my details more I'll be back to Atari days... 

Cheers,