Uh, no. My eyesight has nothing to do with it. Corrected to 20/20, especially at monitor distance!
BTW, 24'' monitor running the game at 1024x768 with hi-res texture and all the "candy" cranked up...so that piece of equipment is about as good for anyone for seeing.
However, there is some other equipment that could make difference. Having done some experiments with zoom, and mouse view, I can see why by using greater level of zoom than and the ability to pan quickly, TrackIR can make the proposition more practical than for those who have been playing the game forever with a simple hatswitch for view.
For the record, I don't think icons as we know them now are an ideal solution either. I have some ideas about "iconography", but that is for another topic.
On the other hand, things like TrackIR, bigger and better monitors, higher resolutions, TripleHead, etc, could quite possibly render the whole point moot and make icons something we tell our grandkids about...assuming the genre survives. *crosses fingers*
Here the most important point I want to make: I don't think no icons being the standard setting for the AvA
*all the time* is a good idea. I'd like to see some compromise here.
bnz-- the whole icon thing has you all twisted up. if we all had shotguns mounted on our monitors, and it would go off when we got shot down, icons would actually matter. Since that doesn't happen, it boils down to being a game. some like icons, some don't. we respect the fact that you dont like icons because of poor eye sight. im very sorry that eye sight is a contention with you and keeping you out of the AVA. i guess that's our loss. since eye sight is the reason i feel you should continue to fly in the Main arena's just for ease of finding bad guys.
for those of us who find the no icons more realistic, and can see planes(barely), we don't really deserve a chastising for playing that way. to be honest, i lose planes right in front of me all the time and actually use their shadows to catch them. is it like reality? no! i fly with a friend in a cesna all the time. at 2 miles you can tell if its a high wing or a low wing plane, but not much else. but then again this isn't reality, so who cares! its fun and exciting for us flying without icons, as much as it is fun and exciting for you flying with icons. we all have our preferences. lets agree to disagree about icons and just have fun! have a nice day