Fighters, eyes and visibility

[earl1937]

  I know this is going to sound like a "whine", but trust me, it is not! I don't fly fighters much at all in this game because my reflex's are not what they were a few years ago, but mainly because of bad eye sight! I just had another shot in the left eye today, as they are trying to save my sight in that eye, but I don't think its going to get better. Just a hunch.
While flying the other night with a fellow from another squad, I was curious as to how far away I could see him with out the aid of "icons" Both of us were in 51D's and I would have him move a couple of miles away, turn on and off the icons and wow, after about 4K away, could no longer see him at all!
Then I had him lose a couple of hundred feet and lo, there he was, 4K away and I could still see him! 5K and away, nothing! Which brings me to the meat of this thread. At what altitude above or below your altitude, can you see another aircraft.
As in real life, any aircraft on your altitude is going to be right on the horizon and without good eyesight, you are going to have a difficult time picking him up. "Chuck" Yeager was know to have 2 of the best eyes in the Air Force when he was flying over Europe looking for bad guys. One of the DC-6 captains I flew with at Shamrock, said he flew 4 missions with "Chuck" and was in the flight of fighters when "Chuck" was shot down over France.
Again, that brings me back to the game which we all like to play, Aces High, and visibility. I could name a bunch of guys in this game who are outstanding fighter "jocks", Snailman being one of those, but many, many more whom I would rate as excellent fighter pilots in this game. Is he or the other guys better pilots than the average, and if so, why?
I say a lot of it has to do with eyesight and of course experience! If the eyes are good enough, then you have the advantage of positioning yourself over your selected opponent early on in the fight, so as to have an advantage right off the bat! The first thing that I almost always see "Greebo", Snailman, and other top sticks in this game do, is always have a altitude advantage prior to engaging their selected targets. How would these two guys do in a "Spit V", down in the dirt against each other? I don't know, but sure whould like to see that. I suspect "Greebo" would have a slight advantage because I do see him down an low and slow sometimes. Not saying he is better than Snail, but because he operates down low more, that might be a small advantage.
Does "track I R" really give anyone an advantage? I have often wondered about that! Any comments on that!

[kvuo75]

I can't see for crap in real life (nearsighted), I had to finally use glasses to pass the eye test at my last drivers license renewal..  

but in the game I can see as good as anyone else.. I sit about 18 inches from a 23" 1920x1080 monitor, so I can see a single pixel without glasses.


actually in here it's probably less to do with actual eyesight but knowing where to look.. (especially in a dogfight)


I have trackir, but I hated it. I used it for a month or two and went back to hatswitch views.

[bustr]

TrackIR lets your neck and head do what's natural while saving your hat switch buttons and thumb for other things. TrackIR will allow you to keep the con in your field of view as though you are looking around in your cockpit. If you don't like having to be a bit of a chair contortionist, use TrackIR in 2-axis mode which will inherit all of the hatswitch views you saved.

I think icons are Hitech's tribute old farts and bad eyes.

[Lusche]

Greebo and me in a Spit V down low, going for each other?

I have not a single doubt who would win most of the time - Greebo. He's a much better fighter than myself, which everybody will agree to who has seen us both in the MA over the time.
Which may  not be that many players, as both Greebo and I do have very much different mode of operations and are rarely been found in the same airspace at the same time, and if we are you could bet I'm 15,000 feet higher than him 

Greebo is a true dogfighter. I am not. I'm a killer. A shark. I prey on bombers, heavy Jabos and the occasional AFK fighter. Greebo flies the F6F like no other, I often try to optimize my plane choice for the situation at hand.
I know that I'm still much above average as a dogfighter, but I'm miles away from those true fighter/furball/duel jockeys, and the gap is increasing with advancing age.


And speaking of age - you don't need to be Methuselah to notice the impact of age on your fighting ability in AH. Being just a grasshopper compared to you, Earl, I already encounter some difficulties when flying fighters compared to 9 years ago. I exhaust more easily, have to do more and longer breaks between sorties and dogfighting is actually a strain. When I joined AH I was able to furball for 2 hours in a row, I couldn't do that today anymore .
While my eyesight itself is still adequate enough for the computer screen, my SA is slipping these days nevertheless. Sometimes I simply forget to swirl my head around, I suffer from increasing target fixation, and I even find myself kinda 'freezing' up in HO situations. 

One main reason I started to fly bombers more and more over the past 3 years is that fighter combate is slowly starting to get too fast-paced for me. 

Overall this is still being offset by my vast amount of cartoon combat experience (more than 10K hours in Late War Arena alone!), and the fact that I mainly hunt bombers when flying fighters, which is a much slower paced thing, especially at 25k

If I came new to AH today, I would have a much harder time getting used to the game.

Does "track I R" really give anyone an advantage? I have often wondered about that! Any comments on that!

hmmm.... difficult question. You might get a lot of different answers to that from different players, according to how well they have set up their TrackIr (an art by itself) and how much they really got used to it.
I simply can't fight without it anymore. My trackir once broke down for a week, and I just couldn't cope with stick views anymore. I really tried, spending hours in the DA... to no avail.
In comparison, going back from pedals to twisty stick was a piece of cake.
TrackIr just feels all natural to me, and from the start I enjoyed it particularly in dogfighting situations like rolling scissors.

[mthrockmor]

I can't see for crap in real life (nearsighted), I had to finally use glasses to pass the eye test at my last drivers license renewal..  

but in the game I can see as good as anyone else.. I sit about 18 inches from a 23" 1920x1080 monitor, so I can see a single pixel without glasses.


actually in here it's probably less to do with actual eyesight but knowing where to look.. (especially in a dogfight)


I have trackir, but I hated it. I used it for a month or two and went back to hatswitch views.

Does that mean you are parting ways with your Trackir? I've always wanted to give it a shot, though not enough to buy a new one. Used, sure. Let me know.

Boo

[The Fugitive]

I agree eyes are the biggest issue for us old guys. I compensate by playing the game on a 39 inch TV monitor. At 400 out even LAs are almost 4 inches across. I hate using zoom, but sometimes chasing a guy I need it to see which way they are rolling for their turns. That info seen as they roll gives me a tad bit more time to make my move to counter it. My brother in law is a bit vane and doesn't want to wear glasses.... makes him look old. I keep telling him, at 52 you ARE old! But be that as it may he won't wear them and he has a hard time seeing the turns and which way they are heading.

I like TrackIR because it becomes second nature to keep your eye on the bad guy. With the hat switch/keyboard you have a small amount of time you loose site. Switching from the overhead view to the up/front view as you push the bad guy to your nose you have to re-acquire the plane each time the view changes. With TrackIR it is all smooth and you can fly NEVER losing site of him, even for that milli-second.

[FLOOB]

Personally I love trackir, and it allows one to map different functions to your hat switch. If you're like me and don't wear hats then I recommend getting the proclip with it. Track ir makes it much easier to look around cockpit obstructions. I have vid on youtube of playing AH with trackir, crappy quality but it shows me looking around canopy bars, and you can tell when I'm predicting or anticipating the enemy to come into view as he flies underneath my plane etc.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqwGRmZjidE

[kvuo75]

Does that mean you are parting ways with your Trackir? I've always wanted to give it a shot, though not enough to buy a new one. Used, sure. Let me know.

Boo

the cheap POS trackclip pro is broken, and I don't know where the metal passive clip is.

now that u mention it, I don't know why I haven't tossed it.

[Randy1]

Earl I would go bigger screen before Trackir money wise.  You can use you flat screen tv if you have one.  Might even be worth moving your computer for a test run.  Check your video out from your computer and see what you have.

the cheap POS trackclip pro is broken, and I don't know where the metal passive clip is.

now that u mention it, I don't know why I haven't tossed it.

Call them, they will work with you on the broken clip.  If you are having difficulties turn off, the roll, the z and the y.  Use steep curves then use the speed slider  to slow it back down.  In a couple of weeks, you will suddenly feel like you are looking around with no conscious thought your head is moving and your eyes are not.  Then star adding back the other axis.

[kvuo75]

Call them, they will work with you on the broken clip.  If you are having difficulties turn off, the roll, the z and the y.  Use steep curves then use the speed slider  to slow it back down.  In a couple of weeks, you will suddenly feel like you are looking around with no conscious thought your head is moving and your eyes are not.  Then star adding back the other axis.

oh I had it setup as good as it could go, i found it caused more eyestrain/neck soreness than i cared for (from turning head while keeping eyes ahead).. it was either discomfort, or i make it so sensitive that the view is useless..

I gave it a good couple weeks chance.. it just aint for me.

if someone ever makes a good head tracking VR goggle i'll probably try that.

[Zimme83]

Of course it can have a big impact on your play what hardware u use. I sit on my laptop an on a 16 inch screen it can be hard to see your enemy especially in a dogfight. I also used to have a-little-too-old Extreme 3d pro stick and at best i could keep the target whit in the ring of the sight but find adjustments where impossible to do. With a new stick my accuracy is a lot better. I also use hat switch views and its hard to have complete SA and i belive that a Trackir can give u a lot better SA. The think that i dislike most with flight sims is that i cannot "move my head" like in irl. It makes things a lot harder.

I might add that with only 3 complete tours under the belt I'm far from a pro, especially in fighters. I'm at the level now that i can get into a furball and in average get 1 kill before i die. (unless upping with 5 cons overhead). But my SA isn't that good and once i get someone on my 6 i usually die pretty quick.

[Sombra]

Falcon BMS (falcon 4 too IIRC) has so called "smart scaling". Objects get "blown up" at a distance. Visually less realistic, functionally more realistic.

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/2357-spotting-icons-labels-smart-scaling-and-other-ideas/

[morfiend]

Earl,


   While track IR may help I think a larger monitor would do you wonders! If you are like me you see better at distance than up close,I was legally blind for a year or 2 and had to give up sim flying completely.I was lucky and they were able to "fix" my eyes somewhat but it isnt perfect.

  I need to sit about 24 inches from the monitor or further back to see it clearly,I had special glasses made to watch the computer but they were only good at certain distances and if I moved back or close too much everything was out of focus. Plus on top when I took them off I would have trouble with focus so awhile and often got headaches from it.

  The solution for me was to use a TV monitor so I could sit back about 4 or 5 feet and I was able to see clearly,well certainly better than up close!  As for size,Fugi has a 39 in and I use a 55 in model but I would say you just cant go too large I hope to get an even bigger monitor in the near future,something close to 80 inches should give me close to lifesize cockpit views!

  Earl,not just any TV will do despite what some may say,look for the fastest response times even if the numbers are fudged....  I would have the store connect a laptop to the screen,if they want to sell the unit most will do this for you!  Then watch some videos of the game on youtube.  I would suggest a 120hz min tv and a 240 hz would be better but neither will run that fast with a computer but some can and will smooth the picture with little input lag.  AS I said they are not all the same,I use LG's atm. I've used a 47 in 3d model but didnt like it much so I gave that to the wife and got a 55 in unit which was cheaper because it didnt have all the "smart" features added to it.

   You can find some deals as they clear out all the nonsmart units,these connect to the net and have built in browsers but if you connect your comp these features are not required so why would you pay for them!  Same as 3D, you dont  need it and infact mine cause some interference,they call it 3d crosstalk....whatever that is....

   Earl,trust me you'll enjoy the bomber runs,you'll venture out in fighters if you can see what you're doing!

   You could go the route of 3 monitors but my 55in has the same view area as 6 24 inch wide screens,you need 3 across and 2 high to equal the screen size,I know I have a 24 in monitor mounted beside it to surf the web when ingame!

  If you saw how my laptop is setup,most can read the text from across the room,but I need it that size so I can see it on the puny 17in screen!!!


   YMMV.




   

[earl1937]

Earl,


   While track IR may help I think a larger monitor would do you wonders! If you are like me you see better at distance than up close,I was legally blind for a year or 2 and had to give up sim flying completely.I was lucky and they were able to "fix" my eyes somewhat but it isnt perfect.

  I need to sit about 24 inches from the monitor or further back to see it clearly,I had special glasses made to watch the computer but they were only good at certain distances and if I moved back or close too much everything was out of focus. Plus on top when I took them off I would have trouble with focus so awhile and often got headaches from it.

  The solution for me was to use a TV monitor so I could sit back about 4 or 5 feet and I was able to see clearly,well certainly better than up close!  As for size,Fugi has a 39 in and I use a 55 in model but I would say you just cant go too large I hope to get an even bigger monitor in the near future,something close to 80 inches should give me close to lifesize cockpit views!

  Earl,not just any TV will do despite what some may say,look for the fastest response times even if the numbers are fudged....  I would have the store connect a laptop to the screen,if they want to sell the unit most will do this for you!  Then watch some videos of the game on youtube.  I would suggest a 120hz min tv and a 240 hz would be better but neither will run that fast with a computer but some can and will smooth the picture with little input lag.  AS I said they are not all the same,I use LG's atm. I've used a 47 in 3d model but didnt like it much so I gave that to the wife and got a 55 in unit which was cheaper because it didnt have all the "smart" features added to it.

   You can find some deals as they clear out all the nonsmart units,these connect to the net and have built in browsers but if you connect your comp these features are not required so why would you pay for them!  Same as 3D, you dont  need it and infact mine cause some interference,they call it 3d crosstalk....whatever that is....

   Earl,trust me you'll enjoy the bomber runs,you'll venture out in fighters if you can see what you're doing!

   You could go the route of 3 monitors but my 55in has the same view area as 6 24 inch wide screens,you need 3 across and 2 high to equal the screen size,I know I have a 24 in monitor mounted beside it to surf the web when ingame!

  If you saw how my laptop is setup,most can read the text from across the room,but I need it that size so I can see it on the puny 17in screen!!!


   YMMV.




   

Thanks for the info! I recently purchase a 32 LG TV, which I am using as a computer monitor and it is working much better. The shots that I have been receiving in my left eye, the bad one, is really helping but still hampered and most time, I put my "patch" on my left eye, as it makes it easier from a depth perception point of view, or at least I think it does!

[Flench]

earl1937 , you mean they give you a shot right in the eyeball ? Ouch !!!