Well dawger, my only gripe about that is, most skins were made to sort of blend in with the terrain. I think the skins should provide that value. When I take my sortie seriously, I often choose skins that blend in with the terrain to make me blend in better. Think about about battfield 4, where camouflage really does work. I think putting this kind of ring around the plane, or highlight of plane, would defeat the skins purpose and make it too easy to aim. While I do agree that it is difficult to see the plane in some circumstances when the sun is down, I don't think highlighting the plane, and giving it's camo away, is the best option either. Just being honest here. I dont think the plane should he totally transparent, but I don't think it should be completely given away either.
My personal preference is no icons IF the game is doing everything it can to replicate real life conditions. DCS with no icons is an example of this. AH isn't quite there (nor will it be given its target audience.)
So we have to make do with compromises for the low end gaming hardware AH is aimed at.
AH has the potential to be a visually stunning experience and neon icons hamper that experience in a very real way.
In the real world, 3D objects cast shadows from the light source that we perceive with binocular vision, giving us our sense of depth perception.
In AH, leaving the sun at high noon and removing the gangster tint from the gunsight combining glass would probably totally alleviate the issue present.
However, I don't think either is likely to happen.
The halo icons at short range do two things for me. I can see the target and the butt ugly text icons go away when I get close. Win/Win.
There are many other options or ideas.
WWIIOL had an interesting icon system that is less obtrusive than the text block with a full circle that reduces counterclockwise to nothing when you get close.
i have never seen a game with the soft glow halo. I have seen plenty with text blocks.
Primarily I want to be able to see the aircraft I am pursuing when he is 400 yards away or less where camouflage is useless if I know exactly where he is (which I do because of the icon). That is the goal in this thread. I don't really care how HTC achieves that.