Tracers Fix

[Wmaker]

In AHII, the excessive smoke trails is one big thing that makes them more visible than the tracers in AHIII beta. Looking at real life footage where .50 cal is fired, generally the small amount of smoke emitting from the rounds seems to come from the burning tracer material which produces very little smoke compared to the tracers in AHII. German cannon ammo used smoke tracers which really do leave a prominent smoke trail.

I do think that the tracer itself is less visible in AHIII compared to AHII as well but to me the lack of smoke trail probably makes the biggest difference, which is definitely more realistic as far as .50 cals are concerned. I still think the tracers in general would get looked at. It depends on the lighting conditions of course but on many gun cam films .50 cal tracers seem much brighter than they are in AHIII and German ammunition should have more prominent tight corkscrew-like smoke trails.

One possibility regarding the smoke trails difference between AHII and AHIII is that it might be a bug. I've noticed that while most of the time the smoke trails are barely noticeable and disappear quickly. Sometimes they suddenly create very similar smoke trails that are found in AHII (see attachment).

Shooting at things is quite a big part of the game. I'd like to see the tracers getting a major look in general. For example, seeing periodically correct colors for different tracers would be welcome.

[Wiley]

I'm a fan of making it look however it looked IRL.  If Axis tracers were different from Allied, I'm all for showing that as well as whatever color variations there were.

I just want things to look as close to reality as possible, whatever form that takes.  Although I will admit, if smaller is more correct, I am going to miss the larger hit sprites a bit.

Wiley.

[LCADolby]

I like how it is in the beta and if the beta effect is how RL tracers are, then it needs to be kept untampered for realism and immersion reasons.

[Gman]

So the real demand is then what? Hitech increase the master scale so FOV 106 tracers will look like FOV 80 tracers?

Hah, that sounds about the size of it I think.  I really don't care if it's changed or not, it'll be adjusted to like anything else, remember when the hit bubble and damage changed?  You could pepper level targets with 50 and 10 mm out to 1000yards with ease in the early game, now it's much, much harder, and rightfully so - yet it was a major point of contention for a while.

I do think some tweaking may improve how they look and function overall, but they do look pretty good right now still.

[guncrasher]

they way the tracers look now, might as well not have any.


semp

[Gman]

I did notice that when zoomed in, at pretty much any FOV, I tried 80, 100, and 106 at least anyway, the smoke trails completely disappear.  Just the tracer dots is all you can see.  I tried shooting at drones with the tracers off and various FOV, and found that at 100 I found the best compromise between FOV and tracers.  Works pretty good for me now now that I have the gamma at 1.2ish, the FOV at 100, and tracers off.  You can really see the hit sprites this way.  Looks like I'll be a tracers off pilot from now on.

[bustr]

Just about everyone turned them off by 44.

[Chilli]

My tracers seem to look just fine.  The hit sprites are definitely harder to see, but I usually catch a glimpse of the debris, much easier.  As for walking bullets to target, the tracers seem to stay on screen longer than in AH2 and do pretty good job for me at 106 FOV.  I do have my color settings on my monitor increased, possibly this is the advantage needed to view them better through the much foggier AH Beta skies. 

[Chilli]

Talked with Semp in Beta today.  The biggest hinderance to visability of tracers and hit sprites, may just be the screen resolution that you have chosen....  doh!  1360 x 768 looks great for me.

I just can't shoot worth a dang.. 

[guncrasher]

I am playing with 1440 i can see them 3 feet in front of me then they dissapear.  it's really bad.


semp

[bustr]

1080p 1920x1080 24in monitor

Unzoomed at 100 fov I see tracers until they reach their max time\distance. On zoom, I don't see them close in but appearing short of the con by 100-200yds then streaming into the con. Increasing fov to 120 I still see tracers to the target un-zoomed, just very small. Same issue zoomed.

I bet if you guys turn off post lighting your tracer problems go away.....

[Gman]

I've done a lot of testing today, with post lighting effects on/off, shadows on/off, gamma from 1.0 to 1.3, fov from 60, 80, 100, 106, 120, reflections on/off, 1440p and 1080p and so forth.

Something I've noticed - when sitting stationary on the ground, LA7 for example, when you fire, with any of the above on/off, you can see the old spiral smoke tracers such as in AH2.  Once airborne however, regardless of zoom level, those smoke trails disappear, and change to very tiny/thin smoke, or disappear entirely if you zoom in too far.  Zoom greatly affects them, however as I said, when sitting motionless on the ground, you can see the tracers look almost the same as in AH2.  I included a couple screenshots below demonstrating this.  I took them at FOV 80, at about 80% zoom, with the tracers having flown about the same distance both airborne and on the ground stopped.  The more you zoom once airborne, the more the smoke trails seem to vanish.  On the ground - if that effect happened in the air, I don't think there would be a peep from anyone, as they really look much the same as AH2 IMO.  I was also in a shallow climb just after take off only doing about 140 MPH when I fired and took the screenshot.

Could someone else try this and see if they get the same effect?

[shift8]

Well for me this is a realism issue more than anything else. And it is not just FOV related. Mainly it is that the effect itself is very very hard to see, and what you can see looks too laser esque when it is up close. In real life, Tracers are VERY easy to see. I have used .50cals with tracers in real life from a M2. Extremely easy to track. You can even see them in the grainy old gun cam footage.

[Stang]

So you can't see through the armor plating to shoot?

[shift8]

So you can't see through the armor plating to shoot?

I dont follow