Hit Decals

[popeye]

I believe Randy1, the "fuzzy" gauges you keep talking about is due to the anti-alias option in the graphic details.  Uncheck that option, if you want the gauges to be sharper.

In AH2 (2048), with anti-alias turned up to maximum, the gauges and cockpit graphics look sharper than AH3 (4096) with anti-alias turned off.  Is this due to a different method of producing anti-alias?  Hope this will be addressed in a future patch.  No matter how much the out-of-cockpit view is improved, the cockpit graphics are always there.

[Gman]

Anyone else having or noticing that the smoke trails on the tracers are 90 percent of the time not visible through the gunsight at any zoom level, resolution, etc?  I've tried a wide variety of FOV, GPU/LCD combos, and this problem still persists for me, which compounds the smaller tracer and hit sprites, as the smoke trail is the largest visible part of all three.  If I'm on the runway, or even in the air now, and look left/right 90 degrees, I can see smoke trails near the top of the screen, like they are beside/behind the plane, yet they are completely NOT there when looking forward, all I can see is the smaller tracers/hit sprites.

[hitech]

Anyone else having or noticing that the smoke trails on the tracers are 90 percent of the time not visible through the gunsight at any zoom level, resolution, etc?  I've tried a wide variety of FOV, GPU/LCD combos, and this problem still persists for me, which compounds the smaller tracer and hit sprites, as the smoke trail is the largest visible part of all three.  If I'm on the runway, or even in the air now, and look left/right 90 degrees, I can see smoke trails near the top of the screen, like they are beside/behind the plane, yet they are completely NOT there when looking forward, all I can see is the smaller tracers/hit sprites.

What plane?

HiTech

[hitech]

Anyone else having or noticing that the smoke trails on the tracers are 90 percent of the time not visible through the gunsight at any zoom level, resolution, etc?  I've tried a wide variety of FOV, GPU/LCD combos, and this problem still persists for me, which compounds the smaller tracer and hit sprites, as the smoke trail is the largest visible part of all three.  If I'm on the runway, or even in the air now, and look left/right 90 degrees, I can see smoke trails near the top of the screen, like they are beside/behind the plane, yet they are completely NOT there when looking forward, all I can see is the smaller tracers/hit sprites.

Smoke trails fixed for next patch.

HiTech

[Gman]

Hah, awesome.  I was worried it was maybe just my end. 

[JimmyD3]

From what I've seen, I like the new hit sprites. In AH2 hit sprites to often Cover up the target, in AH3 that is not the case. I am currently running an FOV of 101 and can still see the tracers and the hit sprites. 

[shift8]

Anyone else having or noticing that the smoke trails on the tracers are 90 percent of the time not visible through the gunsight at any zoom level, resolution, etc?  I've tried a wide variety of FOV, GPU/LCD combos, and this problem still persists for me, which compounds the smaller tracer and hit sprites, as the smoke trail is the largest visible part of all three.  If I'm on the runway, or even in the air now, and look left/right 90 degrees, I can see smoke trails near the top of the screen, like they are beside/behind the plane, yet they are completely NOT there when looking forward, all I can see is the smaller tracers/hit sprites.

Yeah, thanks for bringing this up too. They disappear seemingly at random. Sometimes I have trails, sometimes I dont. Its also something that needs a fix.

[bustr]

]

Thanks for the attempt but this isnt my problem. This is a universal issue. Adjusting certain settings may or may not alleviate some aspects of the problem but the hit decals are simply far too small to be seen properly as they should. This is a issue both for "fun" reasons and for realism. It is more fun to get that feedback when you hit a target. It also is important to know when you have struck, otherwise you cannot correct your aim. This is the entire reasons IRL that said flashes exist in the first place.

Tracer hit flashes are very easy to see IRL. For a whole slew of reasons, real human vision is not the same as looking at even the best 4k OLED computer screen. Computer screens do not even come close to how the human eye works. Your real vision is far superior. Your eye can see far greater level of contrast, changes in lighting, and is binocular. This is why aces high has changes to aircraft lod at a distance, and why having a zoom toggle in games like AH or even ARMA is overall more realistic. Some things in games have to be exaggerated or adjusted in order to mimic real life for practical reasons.

Is your issue outside of 400yds? The vast majority of gun cam allies\axis from ww2, the shooting is inside of 400. Both sides discovered very few pilots in the heat of the moment could really tell range. This was discovered from the after action reports compared to the films. 

At this time the base game fov is 80. At 80, 400 and closer the sprites can be easily seen. Your wish in this case instead of yelling at management seems to be directed at the base scale fov starts at. Or ask that the hit sprite size for 80 fov be increased to some gamey gigantic size to show up the same size at 106 that it is at the current 80. Or ask that the vibrancy value for the core tracer and core hit sprite be turned up to a significantly higher value. If you turn off post lighting, tracers and hit sprites show up.

I have wondered if how post lighting treats icons may be in play here for the tracers and hit sprites.

[Gman]

I tried that as well Bustr, same result in every plane with the 4 post lighting on or off.  Shadows off I find has a huge effect on the general brightness of the game, example go into the hangar and look at the ground with them on/off, but that doesn't really affect tracers for me either.

I really think that the reason people are seeing the smaller tracers is due to their not being smoke behind them as before or the same as AH2 has been - so far as the sprites, yes, they're smaller, and it's debatable if it's more/less realistic, and it will affect gunnery, but IMO, it's HTC's decision so far, and I'm not too fussed about them.  Again, IMO it rewards more accurate shooters, and makes gunnery harder.  The argument is there that in AH2 gunnery was very easy, maybe too easy, who knows.  Sakai said getting hits in the air is akin to shooting a butterfly with a rifle, so who knows, maybe if it's made harder through more difficult trader/hit/damage eye tracking, it'll make the gameplay different, and perhaps more interesting. 

HT did say he's adjusting the smoke/tracer trail in the next patch, so I think waiting until after that before getting worked up is probably best. 

[bustr]

In 106 zooming to 80 while shooting, 400 and closer sprites are very clear. 80 being the reference for the AH3 world. Is then the real complaint from the point of view of a none zoom using shooter in the game, preferring a personal fov higher than 80? Helps to get the nature of the complaint over a feature like this very specific.

At this point it is a Hitech thing.

[shift8]

Is your issue outside of 400yds? The vast majority of gun cam allies\axis from ww2, the shooting is inside of 400. Both sides discovered very few pilots in the heat of the moment could really tell range. This was discovered from the after action reports compared to the films. 

At this time the base game fov is 80. At 80, 400 and closer the sprites can be easily seen. Your wish in this case instead of yelling at management seems to be directed at the base scale fov starts at. Or ask that the hit sprite size for 80 fov be increased to some gamey gigantic size to show up the same size at 106 that it is at the current 80. Or ask that the vibrancy value for the core tracer and core hit sprite be turned up to a significantly higher value. If you turn off post lighting, tracers and hit sprites show up.

I have wondered if how post lighting treats icons may be in play here for the tracers and hit sprites.

Who is yelling at management? What.

To be clear, Im not having any problem actually hitting the targets. The gunnery skills required are the same. I am having a hard time seeing the hit decals at virtually any range, not just over 400m. They are simply too hard to see.

As for the size of the hit markers, AH2 didnt seem to have any problem whatsoever making the hit flashes a reasonable size regardless of your FOV. No more so than a plane is larger when you zoom in, vs when you zoom out. IRL, tracer strikes can been see VERY far out. I have seen them hit metal and other objects at ranges of 800m. They are not hard to see, certainly far easier than in AH. In addition, there are other things in real life that also give you feedback of where you are hitting.

Its not "gamey" to adjust things so that they are effectively closer to the end result IRL. This is a necessary compromise in sims, particularly where vision is concerned. AH2 did the tracers very well. This is also why in AH2 you can see lod changes to exaggerate certain aspects of planes to compensate for the poor contrast/scale/resolution of your display. IF you dont do these things, you end up with the dung-hole visual system in DCS, where you are pushing your luck to see an airplane more than a mile off.

Human vision IIRC, defaults to something like 130-160 FOV peripheral, and your eyes focus to something like 30. Your brain adjusts all this etc. This is why in games you have to have a combination of higher FOV, zoom, scaling, and contrast adjustments to get something in the ballpark of real human vision. This is simply how it is.

If this issue is because of some internal game FOV, then that needs to be significantly upped. 80 is lower than most FPS's, which typically default to 90. 106 was a good default in AH2.

[bustr]

AH2 versus AH3 graphics engines cannot be compared to each other. What ever took place in AH2 does not convert 1to1 into AH3.

You never answered if 400 and closer with zoom do you see the tracers and hit sprites. This leads me to believe you want to shoot with no zoom with a fov larger than 80. Fine, then trying to use a litany list of everything wrong propped up with anecdotal info from other games is not how you communicate your problem.

Your wish is to have tracers and hit sprites a magnitude brighter when your fov is set larger than the default so you can see them. From here that is up to the programmer.

Otherwise, if what other games do matters, we would have 1946 monster rides and flying pink unicorns shooting lasers in the game. 

[shift8]

AH2 versus AH3 graphics engines cannot be compared to each other. What ever took place in AH2 does not convert 1to1 into AH3.

You never answered if 400 and closer with zoom do you see the tracers and hit sprites. This leads me to believe you want to shoot with no zoom with a fov larger than 80. Fine, then trying to use a litany list of everything wrong propped up with anecdotal info from other games is not how you communicate your problem.

Your wish is to have tracers and hit sprites a magnitude brighter when your fov is set larger than the default so you can see them. From here that is up to the programmer.

Otherwise, if what other games do matters, we would have 1946 monster rides and flying pink unicorns shooting lasers in the game.

I only compared the size of the hit sprites. Hit Sprite size can be adjusted and it can also be compared. As can many other aspects of the two games, considering that ah3 is ah2 with new lighting/shaders and textures. They are even using the same 3D models for most planes.

I did answer your question. Please reread my post.

Second, most of what I posted was neither anecdotal nor relating to other games. The facts of human vision vs monitors is something ALL games deal with. It is impossible for ah3 to be an exception. All games require adjustment or scaling etc. when you don't do this, you get what happened in dcs. And that is not anecdotal, that is a fact.

Also I think you are confused with the reason as to why they are hard to see. It has do with lighting. It has to do with size. The decals are too small to be practically scene consistently when using a reasonable fov.