Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Open Beta Test => Topic started by: shift8 on August 14, 2016, 10:01:21 PM

Title: Hit Decals
Post by: shift8 on August 14, 2016, 10:01:21 PM
After some flying me and some friends of mine have really liked the beta so far. Especially after the performance improvements from the dx11 patches.

One big issue however is the hit decals from the tracer flashes when tracer rounds strike planes. In AH2 they were excellent. In AH3, they are awful. Not sure what factors or combination of factors cause it, but they are unreasonably hard to see. This is imo a big gameplay problem, as seeing the hit decals from the tracer impact flashes is a major part of the "reward" feedback to the player in the game. Aces High 2 does a good job of giving the player feedback from your strikes. It is a lot less fun to shoot other planes when the hit decal is not is not giving my brain the "reward" feedback by indicating I have gotten strikes. Not to mention that its not very realistic. Even in ultra grainy black and white footage of gun cameras, it is exceedingly obvious when a airplane has been struck. Even when there is no major structural damage. Again, this feedback from strikes is a big part of the fun in game imho.

Please make the impact flashes bigger or more obvious somehow. It doesnt have to be exactly the same as AH2, but something to the same effect please.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: Chalenge on August 14, 2016, 11:14:09 PM
I think the way the hits are represented in AHIII is intended to be a more accurate representation (within reason) of the real thing. AHII was always out of scale, for a reason. AHIII improves upon that because of improved technology which allows an effect closer to true scale (again, within reason). It may be a happy accident that it happened like that, or not.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: Chilli on August 15, 2016, 03:56:03 AM
The first thing that I noticed from this patch has been an improved hit sprite and tracer visibility.  I believe this has to do with the contrast between background and the effects.  Someone else noted that the explosions have a shockwave effect.

Neither of these two observations were listed as changes / fixes with the patch readme.  What did occur was the removal of the .sliders command.  Is it possible that better visibility as noted over tracers, hit sprites and shockwave effects is due to a standard tweak that went along with the sliders being locked?
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: oboe on August 15, 2016, 08:47:57 AM
Somewhere I thought I read that hit sprites' visibility was possibly related to FOV setting.  The suggestion being, that at the new default FOV of 80, they are quite visible, but if you go back to the AH2 standard (106?) they become hard to see.  I haven't verified this however.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: shift8 on August 15, 2016, 12:54:46 PM
If it is FOV related they need to revert to the 106 standard. 80 is far far too congested.


And the hit sprit size is not more realistic. The AH2 sprite was about right with regards to ease of seeing it. Ive seen hit flashes from 50's IRL. The are effortless to see, even 800m away and farther.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: JimmyD3 on August 15, 2016, 01:15:47 PM
If it is FOV related they need to revert to the 106 standard. 80 is far far too congested.


And the hit sprit size is not more realistic. The AH2 sprite was about right with regards to ease of seeing it. Ive seen hit flashes from 50's IRL. The are effortless to see, even 800m away and farther.

Now  you know  you can change your FOV, right?
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: Randy1 on August 15, 2016, 02:41:54 PM
The FOV as been an issue for some time.  Since the cockpit graphic quality is set to 80, it would seem like the only good answer to the fov issue is make it fixed based on your setup.  A lot whining would happen but it would soon wear out.

The goggle users will have a clear advantage for sure with near 100% scale views.

Right now, your choice is blurry gauges and good sa or reduced sa and clear view of the gauges.

I use a fov of 93 so I have gauges that are fussy and reasonable sa.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: Skuzzy on August 15, 2016, 03:02:12 PM
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.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: bustr on August 15, 2016, 03:37:51 PM
It's like night and day for a sharper image when you uncheck AA. And all of the jaggys are really crisp then...... :O
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: Lazerr on August 15, 2016, 05:47:57 PM
the field of view deal is rough... can't we make this work somewhere between 106 and 80?

Even people currently playing the game are not liking it much...

I fully understand how to change it.  I also fully understand how it won't look as "good" when I do.

Is it a trade-off to see tracers or see bad guys easier?



PS... Being a mouse player in the beta (maybe the only one), whenever I pull up the map, or text buffer, having the crap "mouse commander" mode turn on automatically is really crap.

This is about the 5th time i've posted it.  Can you acknowledge if it even "might" be changed?  I will figure it out either way, but I have abnormally fast fingers accustomed to a keyboard that i special order so my hands rest in the same spot. (Yes, I pay $50.00 for a 8 year old standard keyboard)

Typically if you are flying with a mouse, you are using a keyboard.  Having to hit two keys every time you type or look at a map is rough.

I figured since you made this mouse command mode, you are looking at making things easier for people without gaming gear.

I can assure you that's not the case.  If someone in this game can even get a shot on me using mouse commander mode, I will shut up about it.

Anyone using it will likely be a piece of chum in the MA getting ripped apart and quitting before their trial expires. (even more so, and even quicker than a regular new guy)

if anything, it is even more troublesome for someone using free flight mouse controls.





Think.... new... players.....  Make things easy. 

I hope this doesnt go live before some playability/gameplay things change.. id rather wait longer to see it done right and work in the long run.


Sorry for the hijack, but you should look into this a bit deeper rather than a "new feature".

Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: shift8 on August 15, 2016, 06:26:44 PM
Now  you know  you can change your FOV, right?

From what I have read elsewhere, the FOV issue regarding the hit sprites has something to do with the default FOV setting. There appears to be a issue where upping your FOV over default makes everything far more tiny than it usually would due to the native FOV of the game. Although to me it just seems like the sprites were made too small, so the only way to see them is to have a unreasonable tight fov. Things need to be scaled to accommodate higher FOV.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: oboe on August 15, 2016, 07:11:47 PM
From what I have read elsewhere, the FOV issue regarding the hit sprites has something to do with the default FOV setting. There appears to be a issue where upping your FOV over default makes everything far more tiny than it usually would due to the native FOV of the game. Although to me it just seems like the sprites were made too small, so the only way to see them is to have a unreasonable tight fov. Things need to be scaled to accommodate higher FOV.

My understanding is they chose a default FOV of 80 to match the FOV of other current and popular flight sims.   There are good things about it; skins look very impressive up close...
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: bustr on August 15, 2016, 07:45:36 PM
From what I have read elsewhere, the FOV issue regarding the hit sprites has something to do with the default FOV setting. There appears to be a issue where upping your FOV over default makes everything far more tiny than it usually would due to the native FOV of the game. Although to me it just seems like the sprites were made too small, so the only way to see them is to have a unreasonable tight fov. Things need to be scaled to accommodate higher FOV.

Check this post and see if it might apply to your problem.

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,380360.0.html
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: hgtonyvi on August 16, 2016, 12:25:12 AM
I can be wrong here but HTC made the FOV to 80, meaning that its basically automatic zoom right?? Via bracket keys.....it's basically a zoom in that stays as default. It's the same as setting the native 106 fov and using brackets to zoom at a blank closer FOV.....they might did that due to new players joining.....yet I can be wrong but as an old schooler here I think that's the case.... :headscratch:
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: shift8 on August 16, 2016, 02:22:02 AM
Check this post and see if it might apply to your problem.

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,380360.0.html
]

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.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: popeye on August 16, 2016, 08:09:18 AM
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.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: Gman on August 16, 2016, 09:04:58 AM
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.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: hitech on August 16, 2016, 11:54:38 AM
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
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: hitech on August 16, 2016, 12:35:22 PM
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
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: Gman on August 16, 2016, 01:09:29 PM
Hah, awesome.  I was worried it was maybe just my end. 
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: JimmyD3 on August 16, 2016, 01:19:00 PM
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.  :old:
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: shift8 on August 16, 2016, 02:04:26 PM
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.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: bustr on August 16, 2016, 03:14:14 PM
]

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.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: Gman on August 16, 2016, 03:59:50 PM
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. 
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: bustr on August 16, 2016, 04:10:25 PM
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.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: shift8 on August 16, 2016, 06:18:26 PM
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.
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: bustr on August 16, 2016, 08:36:20 PM
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. 
Title: Re: Hit Decals
Post by: shift8 on August 17, 2016, 11:00:27 AM
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.