About plane view distances

[[TWB]otavio]

I wonder with all the recent changes if Jason or anyone from the dev team could answer if we're going to see an increase on the distance that we can spot planes? It's been a while since the past dev team had the not so wonderful decision to give us a view distance "bubble" on airplane spotting, and im hopeful that a fix is on the way.

[KaC_Richard_Rogers]

I had been contemplating the same thing...

[WIS-Redcoat]

This is probably the biggest remaining drawback, I have faith

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

what fix do you suggest?

Like wt where you can spot way way too far

Like now in game 10KM is pretty realistic

IRL no pilot is going to spot another Cesna flying 15km ahead of them you wont even be able to tell its a plane

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

what fix do you suggest?

 

Like wt where you can spot way way too far

 

Like now in game 10KM is pretty realistic

 

IRL no pilot is going to spot another Cesna flying 15km ahead of them you wont even be able to tell its a plane

"10KM is pretty realistic" No is not, and you can't have whole plane recognizable to its type just disappear (on full zoom view).

[FuriousMeow]

It's a LOD problem, present in all games. The solution is dots, which are just terrible.

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Sorry i agree its not realistic

Ingame we can spot and ID a plane from much further than in real life where accurate visual ID of a plane is maybe 2-3km. (Thats why they have nav lights) 

 

[royrayter]

This is probably the biggest remaining drawback, I have faith

Agreed.

[Finkeren]

It's a LOD problem, present in all games. The solution is dots, which are just terrible.

Doesn’t have to be dots. They could increase render distance to something like 15km, which would be more realistic and should more or less completely remove the pop-up effect, even for 4K graphics.

 

This would take a lot of work both on LOD for all objects and optimizations to reduce performance hit, but it can be done.

 

There is no inherent limitation of 10km render distance in sims.

[Field-Ops]

Go super low polly at 10-15k distance perhaps 

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

wait wait..
you can spot and ID a plane from 15,000 Meters Away with your naked eyes..
Thats amazing i would call Guiness world records.

Now way sorry thats pure gobledeguk..
Humans can't even do that with Binoculars

You are talking EAGLE Vision (and they can actually Zoom in with their Eyes to see a mouse from 1,000m)

But 20meter wingspan @ 15,000meters would be around 2mm wingspan with binocs..
Many Photos of Modern Airports from only 20,000ft and yes you can spot Airliners on tarmac but a cessna looks like a white dot

Here List the Models of LIGHT GA Aircraft parked at this airport taken at only maybe 5,000m
Make
Model
Colour

 

Edited November 18, 2017 by =TBAS=Sshadow14

[SeaW0lf]

Sorry i agree its not realistic

 

Ingame we can spot and ID a plane from much further than in real life where accurate visual ID of a plane is maybe 2-3km. (Thats why they have nav lights) 

 

You have to check the visibility threads on DCS and you are going to see that 2-3km is nothing (a mere 1-2nm). There are real life pilots contradicting you big time. In general the consensus is 6-7nm to 12nm. There is a pilot saying he could see a Cessna 172 on traffic arrival at 15nm. From what I gather, 5nm is the barebone minimum / basics (what we have in BOX). From 5-6 to 10nm is when you have to know where to look, but still visible. And there is the 10+ range that many people see. So 1-2nm as you say seems beyond preposterous. You also have to understand that neither DCS nor BOX has a good reflection rendering. In fact DCS has near to none. Real life aircraft lit up often against the sun.

 

I did a quick test on DCS Normandy map and the current visibility on my monitor (IPS 2560X1080) is of 11-12nm (20-22km at 9am-12pm IIRC), well in range of what real life pilots are saying and more than double than what we have in BOX. Of course that beyond 5-6mn I need to know where to look and zoom (I don't have a real life view in my monitor), but I'm able to follow an aircraft if I want to and if it is flying above the horizon.

 

In fact, the 5nm we have in BOX if compared to DCS is too little and it makes no sense. They are too close to cease to be visible, which brings the BOX bubble and aircraft popping up from thin air as people often mention (and we all have seen it). And by the way I see no drawback in dots. They are very subtle and believable in DCS after 7nm.

 

So yes, I do hope they come with a fix if the new modules have good sales (I expect they would).

Edited November 18, 2017 by SeaW0lf

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

Sorry i agree its not realistic

 

Ingame we can spot and ID a plane from much further than in real life where accurate visual ID of a plane is maybe 2-3km. (Thats why they have nav lights)

But in game we have zoom in. If there would be no zoom in game for sure at max realistic view distance you would not recognize plane type but just point.

[1_Robert_]

I’m curious what the visibility is in VR. Understandably, it’s tough to see anything unless it’s fairly close but the strange thing is, sometimes the other aircraft almost look too big, like they’re scaled up or something.

I’m curious what the visibility is in VR. Understandably, it’s tough to see anything unless it’s fairly close but the strange thing is, sometimes the other aircraft almost look too big, like they’re scaled up or something.

[dburne]

I’m curious what the visibility is in VR. Understandably, it’s tough to see anything unless it’s fairly close but the strange thing is, sometimes the other aircraft almost look too big, like they’re scaled up or something.

 

Visibility is pretty good, especially as things are in pretty much full size. Spotting is good.

The problem is with the resolution and ability to identify the object/target at a distance. Zoom can help some, but does not alleviate the resolution issue. Only next gen headsets with higher native resolution will help that.

Edited November 18, 2017 by dburne

[v44n]

I know this is an old topic, but can we talk again about It? I started to play the game once more. But Its frustating the low visibility range.

Planes appear & desappear from nowhere, you can sometimes even see planes "freezed" in mid air before disappearing. As a bomber you can't predict any incoming attack because even If you pay attention to your sorroundings you can be engage at any time be a ghost fighters from nowhere. Sames goes as a defender. Is almost imposible to spot a bomber, you can't only see It when is already to late to defend ground units, you just can do a revenge manueaver.

[DD_Arthur]

Check out dev diary 227

Edited September 1, 2019 by DD_Arthur

[jollyjack]

10 minutes ago, v44n said:

I know this is an old topic, but can we talk again about It? I started to play the game once more. But Its frustrating the low visibility range.

Planes appear & disappear from nowhere, you can sometimes even see planes "frozen" in mid air before disappearing. As a bomber you can't predict any incoming attack because even If you pay attention to your surroundings you can be engage at any time be a ghost fighters from nowhere. Sames goes as a defender. Is almost impossible to spot a bomber, you can't only see It when is already to late to defend ground units, you just can do a revenge maneuver.

 

Yeah, and flying over a battle where tracers flash all over the ground, without a source they came from you can bomb out of the way ...

[v44n]

3 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

Check out dev diary 227

Wow, I didn't knew this. Thanks a lot for sharing!. I can't wait to see It implemented

Edited September 1, 2019 by v44n

[LQuinze]

On 8/31/2019 at 7:06 PM, v44n said:

I know this is an old topic, but can we talk again about It? I started to play the game once more. But Its frustating the low visibility range.

Planes appear & desappear from nowhere, you can sometimes even see planes "freezed" in mid air before disappearing. As a bomber you can't predict any incoming attack because even If you pay attention to your sorroundings you can be engage at any time be a ghost fighters from nowhere. Sames goes as a defender. Is almost imposible to spot a bomber, you can't only see It when is already to late to defend ground units, you just can do a revenge manueaver.

 

This is something that was missed in the earlier discussion - the 10km limit affects all dynamic objects, and the spotting issue is not just about aircraft. Even a large cargo ship will disappear from view as soon as you hit the 10km boundary. A fierce contrailing battle can be happening 11km above your runway, but you won't see a thing if you're on the ground. Likewise, someone flying top cover at 11km will have a hard time seeing any battles on the ground. There's unfortunately nothing to do at present except play around it - as the previous post mentioned, it is being worked on.