How do I tell how far a plane is?

[Uriah]

In another post Ape suggested changing the gamma setting to .5 to be able to see planes better at a distance.

Well now I need to know how far out I am seeing a plane.

 

In offline I have been doing some testing with a one on one but the icon come on I think at a much

shorter distance that when some pixels start coming on to represent the enemy plane.

And as far as that goes to really be figuring out the distance I need something that stays still,

at least in relative terms.

[TG-55Panthercules]

I suppose one way might be to create a mission using the mission editor where you could control and know the distance between your plane and the target plane(s), and maybe even position some static cameras at preset distances (and then maybe pause the game and cycle through the various camera positions) to get an idea of how things look from various known distances.

[Wulf]

Well, unless I misunderstand the question, (wouldn't be the first time) you'd do it much the same as in RL.  When you see a distant aircraft in RL up against the sky, that appears no bigger than a speck; how far away is it?  I suspect for most people that's a question that doesn't have a ready answer.   Somewhere between about 5 or 15 km I suspect - depending on atmospheric conditions.  All a bit of a guess really.

 

At shorter ranges things are a little better because you should be able to use your reflector sight to estimate range.  How far I'm not sure but maybe out to about 600m or so.  Maybe a bit further??

[johncage]

the game uses level of detail. so the plane dimensions are based on level switching distance. you cannot accurately judge distance using object dimension outside of a few hundred meters, because the game switches to a simplified model

[AndyJWest]

The game switches to a simplified LOD with increasing distance, certainly - but as far as I'm aware, the lower LOD models are the same overall dimensions.

[johncage]

they turn into sprites

[AndyJWest]

No they don't.

[TP_Jacko]

All I can say is that the game only renders distant targets to 10 Km so if its a clear sky thats the furthest you can spot. Its ok for a fighter but not for a bigger plane like a He-111 which suddenly pop into view as black shapes.

 

When you are closer to a fighter its wingspan about 10m which normally fits in the gunsight ring at 100m so when the wingspan is half of the ring the target is at around 200 m, and 1/4 ring for 400m distance etc. Beyond that its not worth shooting at a fighter.

 

Anything in between is a guess for me

[Y-29.Silky]

If you're talking about a distant aircraft, you can judge by the nearest landmark. There's a map somewhere in these forums and in the Level Bombing Guide by Chuck where it shows you the length of each square on the map. 

 

 

When you are closer to a fighter its wingspan about 10m which normally fits in the gunsight ring at 100m so when the wingspan is half of the ring the target is at around 200 m, and 1/4 ring for 400m distance etc. Beyond that its not worth shooting at a fighter.

For targeting ^

[Matt]

The game switches to a simplified LOD with increasing distance, certainly - but as far as I'm aware, the lower LOD models are the same overall dimensions.

They are not the same dimensions. The lower the LOD model (= the further away the plane), the bigger they are. 

 

So it's  very hard to tell how far away a plane is.

 

(only true for human or AI controlled planes, nothing else)

[Uriah]

Looking at the chart produced by Indiaciki the smaller squares are 4km. That means that it should be possible for someone in a fighter to see someone doing tight circles over Verh. Ahtuba and another person in a fighter doing the same over Kilyakovsky which is 8 km away.

Ryok is 15 km away from Ahtuba but there are plenty of forest and rivers and towns to get an idea how far away one plane is if one stays in tight circles above Rynok and the other comes closer.

I would like to partner ups with someone and get online and see just what we can discover.