Tracer Smoke

[AKIron]

Ok, this has likely been debated/discussed ad nauseum but at least I've yet to mention it; tracer smoke seems to go the wrong way. If you're pulling up, the smoke moves up above you, and down if you're pushing forward on the stick. Just seems wrong to me.

[lucull]

Yepp, it seems to be the other way round than it should be.

[DREDIOCK]

tracer smoke also seems too pronounced. that is too thick.
Should be about half the current thickness imho

[Zanth]

Tracer cannon on/off as an individual setting from the MG (i.e. can leave tracers on for MG and off for cannon) would be a nice feature.

[Pyro]

Originally posted by AKIron
Ok, this has likely been debated/discussed ad nauseum but at least I've yet to mention it; tracer smoke seems to go the wrong way. If you're pulling up, the smoke moves up above you, and down if you're pushing forward on the stick. Just seems wrong to me.

If you're maintaing a hard turn, the smoke trail will initially rise up above you, reach a zenith, and then drop back down until it is below you.  The reason for this is because of the plane's angle of attack.  The plane's nose, and therefore the direction the guns are pointing, are elevated above your actual flight path.  You are basically shooting across the arc that you are flying.  Initially, that arc takes you away from the bullet path until you are halfway between where you fired and where the bullet trail crosses back over the arc of your flight path at which point it you get closer to it until you eventually cross it.

The easiest way to see this is to sketch it out on a piece of paper.  Draw the flight path of a plane doing a hard vertical loop.  At the bottom of the loop the pilot fires his guns.  Even though he's at the bottom of the loop, his plane has a positive pitch and his bullets are firing upwards across the arc of his flight path.  His flight path will initially dip under the bullet path but then it will enventually move back up until it crosses the bullet path.

[lucull]

Thanks for explanation.

[Delirium]

Try flying a P38 in AH2, the smoke literally obscures whatever you're shooting at. Its like pilot wounds in AH1, cool the first couple times but gets annoying.  

[mason22]

what about the topic about the spiraling tracer smoke vs. the linear tracer smoke?

will they always be together or will they eventually be seperated into cannon round vs. MG rounds and thier corresponding smoke trail?

or am i missing something?

[Citabria]

the tracer smoke should be very faint

less is more.

make it almost invisable but able to be seen when lots of guns are firing

[Kweassa]

AH1 style tracers for MGs, AH2 style for cannon rounds.. I think that would be pretty good..

[AKIron]

Thanks Pyro, I did consider that when increasing your pitch your attitude will always be positive relative to your flight path but it just didn't seem right that the tracers would move away from you. After drawing it out I can see that you are right. Thanks again.

[WhiteHawk]

Yes akiron, but your right.  There just is something that isnt natural feeling about them, although the explaination is sound.
  I think its due to the fact that the real world is in 3d and the computer screen is 2d.  The transition just loses something and the more detail that the tracer has, the more pronounced the feeling that something isnt right.  The single projectile looks  great, but the tracer trail looks strang.  I think becuase the  projcetile has the 'perception bend'  going for it but the tracer tail always stays straight.  Il-2 has awsome graphics, but they have the same deal.  As long as your flying straight, everything is great, but the 'shoot while banking' tracers are just a but strange.
  I wouldnt mind a 'leave the projectile glow but eleiminate the trail' option.
  Anyway, was the trail smoke from the round or condensation steam from the cold air?  I think the intent of the tracer was to just light up the projectile and the trail was just a side effect during certain atmospheric conditions.  I remember seeing the p47 strafe the donkey cart on the History Channel and just the orange glow of the projectile was visible.  (the donkey didnt make it)

[Pyro]

We can have different effects for different guns, we just haven't gotten that far.  We'll probably use the current one for cannon and a different one for MGs.

[peterg2]

The Aces High 2 tracers look like moving corkscrews spiraling off into the distance, through a pair of 3D stereo shutter glasses. When zooming in on the tracers, the corkscrews get huge. The effect is a bit Unreal Tournament-like.

IL2 tracers look like smoke tubes running in parallel with the tracer lines. The IL2 tracers in both 2D and 3D seem to be a bit less distracting than the AcesHigh2 tracer smoke.

It's probably the spiral effect of the AcesHigh2 tracer smoke that gives it a strange appearance on the usual 2D flat screen.

(Flying a p51 in Aces2 at treetop level with 3D stereo on with a head tracker for mouse-view, is simply amazing. to the HiTech team.)