Dar-bar?

[Randy1]

I would have thought the dar-bar would be seen the same by every person but even eliminating any delay from one Player's location to another the dar-bar can be drastically different as seen by different players.  I know this is nothing new.

Why is this?  Just a curious question.  Is the dar-bar's length generated by the individual player's computer based on player's position in the game?

[Latrobe]

The way I've always understood it is if you are flying over 200ft AGL then you will produce a dar bar. The more people over 200ft AGL, the larger the dar bar.

It has rarely worked this way though. You'll see sectors full of dar bar with very few to no one in it and the dar bar will finally update to show this only after you enter the sector. Or, there will be a large raid flying in a sector producing no dar bar at all. Only after you get within 10K of them will the dar bar update.

It's been this way for a while. Hopefully it gets fixed in AH3.

[Tumor]

DarBar can be ~HIGHLY~ unreliable.  I've been at 25k in bombers, 2 sectors away from ANY base at all with NO darbar... only to find a bad guy at the same alt just over 6k away. 

[Randy1]

My squad mate and I did several comparisons between what I saw on the dar bar and what he saw last night.

Only about 25% of the time did our two dar bars match in the sector we were looking at.  We allowed for ping differences and  errors in judging dar-bar size.  At times the difference in green and red dar-bars was quite large.

[Wiley]

From what I've seen, usually it works as advertised.

However, I have seen it turn unreliable in ways similar to the above.  I remember one case in the MA where a squaddie was sitting on top of a bandit a ways away from me, he was seeing the bandit at 15k or so and the bardar, I was not.  He was following the bandit and I was on an intercept course for more than 10 minutes.  Following the squaddie's dot, seeing no bardar.

I have no ironclad proof on precisely what happened, but what appeared to happen to me is, when I got within 10k range of the bandit, my bardar showed him and then continued to function normally.

No idea what causes it, it seems situational.

Wiley.

[ImADot]

In theory, the darbar shows the relative numbers of friendly and enemy planes in a given sector, that are above a given altitude. If the green bar is longer than the red, there are more friendlies, and vice-versa. There needs to be at least two friendly (you and someone else) for you to see the green darbar, but only one enemy is needed to see the red darbar.

There are two arena settings, which you can look at yourself, that control the darbar:
SectorCounterAlt = Number of feet AGL that enemy planes need to be above, to show a darbar
SectorCounterRange = Number of feet from a radar tower that enemy planes need to be, to show a darbar

I think the feature might have some issues, as stated earlier. I've noticed no red darbar until I've entered the same sector as the enemy. I know everyone's darbar updates a different times (seen it first-hand during FSO with my squaddies); I think it has to do with when you log in and the refresh rate of the radar on your client, versus everyone else's client.

[NatCigg]

bar dar problem was reported years ago. i have not seen a response from htc that addresses the issue.  update times could cover most problems but the hidden bandit on your 6 at 20k has never been covered.  some rationalize it for htc by saying fog of war but i call it a glitch, if i die, a hack. 

[Lazerr]

bar dar problem was reported years ago. i have not seen a response from htc that addresses the issue.  update times could cover most problems but the hidden bandit on your 6 at 20k has never been covered.  some rationalize it for htc by saying fog of war but i call it a glitch, if i die, a hack. 

this might be the case about saving your rear.. a lot of guys rely on that darbar to find or defend a fight (base).

[Randy1]

I always WAG the dar-bar image was generated in the main AH program so everyone would see the same size dar-bar.

 MY WAG now is he dar-bar length is generated in the player's pc portion of the program as arena information arrives to my pc every so often i.e. it is not continuous. My pc then figures what the dar-bar size should be from the last update while figuring in my location.  My dar-bar information update schedule might be entirely different from a squad mate.

Since we want our flight location to be as accurate as possible, any arena information like dar-bar would be a low priority.  That would lessen the amount of information that had to be sent to my pc and calculated making for better game play.

The point is as I see it now is AH puts lower priority on dar-bar accuracy to make the actual combat portion of the game as accurate as it can be. So t seems that any anomalies in dar-bar is there for our own good.

Keep in mind I have no idea what I am talking about just my WAG.

[ImADot]

It might also be that way to add to the "fog of war".

[icepac]

Dar bar is an awesome tool of misdirection.

They bite every time.

[hitech]

I always WAG the dar-bar image was generated in the main AH program so everyone would see the same size dar-bar.

 MY WAG now is he dar-bar length is generated in the player's pc portion of the program as arena information arrives to my pc every so often i.e. it is not continuous. My pc then figures what the dar-bar size should be from the last update while figuring in my location.  My dar-bar information update schedule might be entirely different from a squad mate.

Since we want our flight location to be as accurate as possible, any arena information like dar-bar would be a low priority.  That would lessen the amount of information that had to be sent to my pc and calculated making for better game play.

The point is as I see it now is AH puts lower priority on dar-bar accuracy to make the actual combat portion of the game as accurate as it can be. So t seems that any anomalies in dar-bar is there for our own good.

Keep in mind I have no idea what I am talking about just my WAG.

This is a reasonable description , but we purposely make dar bar not display 100% up to date accurately.
For instance I could make the bar grow on a per player basis, but we grow it at a 2 player increment. So if dar bar \appears you do not know if there is 1 or 2 players in in the sector.

We purposely delay updates so to generate some fog.

Radar positions are also purposely delayed to generate some fog.

HiTech

[Lusche]

This is a reasonable description , but we purposely make dar bar not display 100% up to date accurately.
For instance I could make the bar grow on a per player basis, but we grow it at a 2 player increment. So if dar bar \appears you do not know if there is 1 or 2 players in in the sector.

We purposely delay updates so to generate some fog.

Radar positions are also purposely delayed to generate some fog.

HiTech

But the darbar is broken way beyond that 'fog', for a long time now.

[NatCigg]

most notably when a enemy fighter can spot a bomber formation but a bomber formation can not spot a enemy fighter. 

 

 

[Scca]

I could do with a little less fog. Nothing like flying towards a fight and boom, 4 cons appear and there was no darbar at all. How can you go afk for a fresh drink????