Tracer/hit sprites sizes

[Gman]

Is it just me, or have the tracers and especially the hit sprite sizes gotten a lot smaller?

I thought I was in 1440p or 4k on my monitor today, they were very small compared to AH2 - I was in 1080p.  1080p Beta vs 1080p AH2, there is a large size difference in both tracer and the impact sprites on enemy planes, but it's the sprites especially that are smaller.  Is this by design?  It's not a major deal, it does make shooting and seeing hits a LOT harder, at least for me, just wondering if it's something on my end, like the tracers/sprites being stuck in some sort of higher rez mode, as I didn't really notice this until now.  If anyone else has noticed that they are smaller, please sound off so I don't think it's just my eyes getting old.

Tons of fun in the beta arena today - nearly 30!!! people in there with a great fight between bases.  It felt like the old days, with so much new stuff to look at and see.  Some great 1v1s, lots of jet combat due to perks being disabled too.  Going to be fun times when it goes live, for sure.

[FESS67]

Same for me.  Very small.

I suspect people are going to have to get in a lot closer to know they are registering hits.  I think we will see less 800m snipers.  Not that they will not take the shots but without a positive feedback loop that they are actually hitting they may hold off for a more confirmed hit rate

[Gman]

Well said, I've been thinking the same.  While hitting may be harder evading just got easier.  I like change generally anyhow.  A ton of fun today for a couple hours.

[Ack-Ack]

While the hit sprites for machine guns and (at least the 20mm cannon) cannons seem to be smaller, the sprites are a lot brighter making it easier to detect hits on far targets.

[bustr]

Just finished some tracer testing.

Monitor - 24 inch
FOV - 60, 80, 106, 120
Texture Mode - 4096

FoV 60

Closest to the actual dimension of the cockpit which are very cramped and a 100Mil gunsight recital is 1.8 inch diameter, the same as real life. Looking through the reflector plate no longer darkens out what you look at. You do not need zoom for aiming, and you can tell the "angle off" the con is traveling out to about 1000yds. Ground tracers from auto ack are bright from the air but in all FoV, less bright watching from the ground going up. Air to Air tracers are bright enough to use for aim correction and hit sprites are bright. You do not need zoom to see small pieces falling off. The post lighting sun effect negates the tracers size and brightness to some amount.

FoV  80

Much the same as 60, a bit more peripheral and slightly less cramped. From the air the orange color component was visible in the ground to air tracers and may be something with my graphics card or monitor. The gunsight reticle is about 1.75 inch but, still usable for aiming without zoom to 1000yds. The reflector plate does not appreciably darken the view area. Hit sprites are good along with being able to see small parts falling off.


FoV 100

There is enough peripheral view to be a comfortable setting with TR. The reticle is 1.00 inch diameter not needing zoom for aiming out to 800 yards and the cons "angle off" can be determined to about 600 yards. Tracers can be seen but it is obvious they have started to become a bit smaller than in the previous two FoV settings. Hit sprites are viewable and some small parts can be seen falling off. Post lighting effects the ability to see tracers in the air. Ground tracers are viewable. Cons start to disappear here against the dark blue water needing zoom to pick them out.

FoV 106

Good peripheral view and the gunsight reticle is now 0.75 inch diameter needing zoom at times to tell the "angle off" of cons and at times for gunnery. Tracers are on and off viewable along with hit sprites which are now getting perceptibly smaller. Ground tracers are viewable but get lost in post lighting or over large tree and clutter areas from the air. Cons are best seen against the upper blue sky or ground and disappear into the darker blue water needing zoom to pick them out.

FoV 120

Continuation of a shrinking theme here. Great peripheral view with a fish bowl effect and pinched instrument rings. Gunsight reticle is now 0.625 inch diameter and you need zoom to pick out "angle off" travel by cons even at 200 yards. Tracers are useless along with hit sprites. The tracer smoke can now clutter up the gunsight view plate along with the view plate darkening out what is viewed inside of it. Using zoom to shoot or getting inside of 200 is the best solution.

 

[Gman]

Thanks Bustr, I wouldn't have figured on FOV affecting the tracers/sprites, I'm going to mess around a bit myself now.  I'm going to a 34" single monitor as soon as I can get it shipped, and I'm wondering if that'll make tracers/sprites a bit larger along with everything else at my preferred AH resolution (1080p).

At least I know it isn't just me.  I do agree with AkAk, when I was zoomed in the 50 cal hits were pretty bright, but were also of course small.  I'll have to mess around offline myself now with FOV and various gun types.  I am pretty certain that this will be a common topic of discussion, as it REALLY has affected my shooting.  The first 90 degree bank/deflection shot I was making I thought something was wrong as I couldn't see the usual AH2 tracer and impacts and make corrections off of that.  I think for me right now just going tracers off will eventually be the end result if I can't make them bigger/brighter in various settings somehow, as I can't really pick them up all that well anyway.  That way the only thing I"ll be looking for is the hit sprites/damage.  I did notice that the dust puffs when you hit targets are pretty good now, better than in AH2, I saw quite a few of those today - I was mostly flying the KI43 which has to weak .50s.  I think planes with very weak guns that rely on good accuracy/tracer-tracking are going to do a nose dive in the accuracy stats and department.

This isn't a complaint either, as I said, change is good, and this will make hitting a lot harder I think for a lot of people who shoot a certain way.  IMO those who fly with tracers off are going to notice it a bit too as the usual large and bright hit sprites won't be there to give you the "on target" sight picture now either. 

Thanks again Bustr, that's a lot of work in a couple hours.  I'll play with mine and see what it looks like, as I'm at 106, the old AH2 default, and perhaps I should experiment with other settings as well. 

I'm really liking the time I'm spending in the beta now that there are guys to fight.  The ground game just got a lot more interesting too - HT brought up an idea in the arena the other day as well I think would work swell in terms of making action faster/more certain in that area.

[SNO]

I like that the tracers are more like bright specks marking bullet trajectory and don't have the huge smoke trails that are in AH2. This using 106 fov.

[bustr]

Gman,

Does your handle mean you were a guberment spook once? Both my parents retired from the NSA. Father was a Russian linguist and Russian military analyst as so my mother was military analyst.

Keep the following in mind.

I tested 60, 80, 100, 106, and 120 for the diameter on a 24inch monitor of a 100Mil diameter reticle. In a real cockpit, a 100Mil dia. reticle would be just about 2 inches(1.8in) at 18 inches from your face. Germany it was 50mm dia. at 450mm.

  60 FoV - 1.80 inch dia.
  80 FoV - 1.25 inch dia.
100 FoV - 1.00 inch dia.
106 FoV - 0.75 inch dia.
120 FoV - 0.625 inch dia.

That nice projector lens and gunsight barrel top reflection Waffle put in the reflector plate mask. You may have noticed at 106 FoV the reflector plate seems a bit dark. And the smaller you squeeze it down by setting a larger than 106FoV, the darker it will get because of those additional arcs, curves and rings applied to the mask. And the smaller you squeeze the reflector plate down, you will have to use a single LARGE dot unless you use zoom to shoot as your primary habit for gunnery. Also at 60 when you make small rudder corrections for lead they are small corrections. As you make the 100Mil ring aim portal smaller, small rudder corrections become bigger misses unless you are inside of 200 yards. At 120 you need to zoom to tell the "angle off" for a 400 yard low E lead shot.

Below are screen shots from 60 - 120 FoV. The text buffer is being left in the same place for each screen capture as a scale. Remember, FoV 60 is about scale for real life cockpits and your ability to view around.

[Gman]

Very informative - this should be stickied IMO in a "how to aim/shoot" part of the training forum, along with a few other posts over the years on the topic.  I'm messing around today with all the above myself now just to understand what you've posted first hand.  I'd really noticed the bit with the rudders when I was playing all day yesterday at 106, so I'm interested to see how lowering the fov settings will affect not just the tracers/etc but the aiming adjustments made with the controls.  I've never even heard that before today, that FOV would have such an effect, this is great stuff regarding a very important part of the game, accuracy. 


As far as the name goes, I got stuck with it long ago due to having an odd Gaelic first name starting with G that makes everyone do the double take when seeing it and trying to pronounce it, even though it's pretty simple really.  I worked with a few guys formerly of No Such Agency and the Christians In Action at a couple of the private military companies I worked for, but never worked for our version here (CSIS) myself.  My father worked for the RCMP version before there was a CSIS agency, it was called "Special O" back then and was the early Canadian version of an intelligence agency.  After that he helped found the first national hostage rescue unit called SERT, which was taken over by the military and renamed JTF2 shortly after he retired.  Same sort of thing initially as your folks, just in Canada, so they mostly just spied on hockey teams and stuff.

I bet you had some great conversations with your folks, I know I'd love to, cold war era Soviet military and political books are all I could read as a teenager on a military base in the mid/late 80s during the end of the Soviet empire.