What is better?

[KCDitto]

OK,

I get FPS and why that is important and having a 144Hz monitor is good.

 I fly FSO and there is no radar like the MA so dot visual is more important then seeing the art on the enemy plane.....

My question is this, what is the optimum settings to see the dots of the enemy plane when it renders? <-- if that is the right terminology?

I know that years ago I would get a stutter when an enemy plane was visible and would look around to see where it was.

I got a new Alien-ware computer and I am sure it is ok, but I was about to buy a gaming monitor and then saw that the best deal for seeing dots at 10K away was actually a TV with a small number of pixels per inch.

What is the best  TV? Or Gaming monitor?  what size? 1080P?  4K?  720?  obviously a higher refresh rate is better..


Discuss   

Thanks

Ditto

[Bizman]

Basically I believe the native resolution of your monitor should give you the best image quality.

Enlarging the single pixels in the image will improve seeing them. For bigger pixels you'd need a larger monitor at the same resolution.

If you're not a huge fan of Minecraft, I wouldn't recommend going below 1080P on a large monitor.

As for a TV as a monitor, there's a feature called input lag. It means there's a delay between your computer and the screen. Some TV's have it more than others, there's sites that test and list them, like this or this or this.

As for size, since your need is to see a single dot as early as possible, I wouldn't go below 27" on a 1080P. Note that on a 4K monitor a 54" has the same pixel size!

[OldNitro]

Don't know much about 4k monitors, except that they cost A LOT.
I roll with the Eisenhower principle, "Bang for Bucks", so I stayed with 1080p.

I am using a Sanyo 55" 1080p 120hz, it cost under $400 on sale at Wallyworld.
Vid card is a GTX1060sc, game settings maxed out, FR's are always way over 100, and it looks FANTASTIC to my eye!

Like anything else, ya pays yer money, and takes yer chances. Good luck and happy shopping!
 

[KCDitto]

So a TV with fast response time and 1080P with 120 hz?

Got it

Thank You

[Bizman]

Response time is not the same as input lag! You'd need both to be small.

Response time means how fast the screen can go from black to white to black, or grey to white to grey depending on the measuring system. The latter gives smaller numbers so it's quite popular among marketing people. A long response time causes ghosts following a moving object on the screen.

Input lag is a delay between your computer and the screen. It can be measured in screens, i.e. your system can be several frames ahead of what you actually see. In a fast paced shooting game that can mean a bullet between the eyes from an enemy you think is far beyond shooting range. If my calculations were correct, two planes flying 250 mph towards each other will get 4 yards closer in one frame @ 60 FPS.

[MADe]

its about frametimes.
 A 144Hz refresh rate will allow for a frametime of under 8?ms. 60Hz is a frametime of 16.3xxms.

The game server sends data to you at a rate. Get that data and your vid card renders enemies every 8ms with your monitor. Which means that you are ultimately your server ping time and 1 frametime away from realtime AH gaming.???? generalization....

60Hz monitors with v sync enabled can loose frames, v sync itself creates a type of display lag. I use a 60Hz monitor with v sync disabled and a frame cap.

Ur lucky 144Hz should keep u well.
 

[zack1234]

When do you start noticing input lag? How mili seconds.

[Bizman]

MADe explained that pretty well.

On a regular 60 Hz monitor one frame will last 16.3 ms. Multiply that by the amount of frames you think you can afford to lag behind. By looking at the TV input lag charts, they seem to think that 2 frames is still acceptable, meaning 32.6 ms.

[KCDitto]

So I got a DELL gaming monitor with Native Resolution QHD 2560 x 1440 at 144 Hz and a Response Time 1 ms FAST Mode.

I have all the bells and whistles on and the game runs fine with a steady 136 FR. with no lag and super smooth when in the saddle.

But alas back to my original problem. I cannot see the dots until they are at ICON range, how can I address this?  I want to see them when they render at 10K away.

Thanks

[Bizman]

Do you have anti-aliasing on? At that resolution a single dot will get masked into the background by anti-aliasing.

For those who don't know how it works: Take a piece of grid paper. Draw a diagonal line by colouring the squares black. You should now see a line of black squares joined by their opposite corners. That is how your screen works. - Now take a grey pencil and colour the squares along the joining corners in various shades of grey, also change some of the black squares to grey. That's how anti-aliasing works. Our eyes and brains finish the job.

Below is a one pixel wide line, and a screenshot of the town building beside the pond from some 6k away, both zoomed to 3200%.

[KCDitto]

So turn anti-aliasing  OFF?

[The Fugitive]

So turn anti-aliasing  OFF?

I turn it off. I find that it makes things seem to be sharper so easier to pick out  and define the differences of one thing or the other.

[Bizman]

So turn anti-aliasing  OFF?

At least it's worth a try. Remember to also check your video card settings to make sure that AA is "Application controlled" which I believe is the default. That's a good setting for most games unless you're a hardcore tinker - in which case you wouldn't ask...

[Skuzzy]

The in-game anti-aliasing is going to soften everything in the game.  If you want it super sharp, then disable it.  The single dot/pixel plane will be difficult to pick up if you have it enabled.

[KCDitto]

OK,

I did some testing.

In the first pic I had the anti-aliasing OFF and the plane in the circle is a fighter.




In the second pic I have the anti-aliasing ON and the plane in the pic is closer and a bomber formation.



I think OFF allows you to "SEE" the dot better