Please take a look at max zoom/fov.

[StickMan]

Hi I may take some flak for this but at this point I really think it's worthy of discussion at least from a multiplayer environment standpoint. I think we are allowed to zoom in too far, allowing for some ridiculously accurate long range shots. Now my disclaimer, I fly both sides as I like aircraft in general no matter who they belong to. Also I am guilty of exploiting the zoom to snipe at far away aircraft.

 

I am not in favor of doing away with the zoom entirely as it's highly useful for spotting and identifying, I just would like to see it limited a bit more.

We are just too good at shooting and giving us a sniper scope to use with our aircraft is just making for rather ridiculous and unrealistic long range shooting IMHO.

[ShamrockOneFive]

I can see far better than what the in-game fov/zoom offers me when I'm in a real aircraft. Some of the best ace pilots of WWII could spot enemies at a significant distance and possibly further away than IL-2 draws aircraft. So I don't think this is a-historical or unfair. It's something necessary to simulate the wide range of viewpoints that our eyes and brains in combination offer and then try and make that work on a flat screen (or VR HMD).

[StickMan]

I can see far better than what the in-game fov/zoom offers me when I'm in a real aircraft. Some of the best ace pilots of WWII could spot enemies at a significant distance and possibly further away than IL-2 draws aircraft. So I don't think this is a-historical or unfair. It's something necessary to simulate the wide range of viewpoints that our eyes and brains in combination offer and then try and make that work on a flat screen (or VR HMD).

Now I see the point that we can see better in real life than what the resolution of a screen offers us. That's why I do not want it entirely removed. However being able to zoom in on the gunsight as if there was a scope attached to the top of the panel instead, is what I have issue with.

[Dakpilot]

Picture it this way..

 

Full zoom in is how it should be all the time, this is roughly correct for vision

 

you are then allowed to zoom out to get a more realistic field of view and situational awareness due to limited monitor size

 

Cheers, Dakpilot

[Pail]

 

 

Picture it this way..

 

An eminently sensible explanation.

[Yogiflight]

I can see far better than what the in-game fov/zoom offers me when I'm in a real aircraft. Some of the best ace pilots of WWII could spot enemies at a significant distance and possibly further away than IL-2 draws aircraft. So I don't think this is a-historical or unfair. It's something necessary to simulate the wide range of viewpoints that our eyes and brains in combination offer and then try and make that work on a flat screen (or VR HMD).

That is not quite correct. It depends on the size of your monitor and the resolution, how much zoom you need. When you fly with a 27" monitor, you will need much more zoom than someone who flies on a 42" TV screen. And when I see youtube videos, there are full zooms, that have much more to do with binoculars than with what a human eye can see. So the truth is somewhere in between.

Edited February 17, 2018 by Yogiflight

[rolikiraly]

I for one can't identify sh*t even at full zoom, so i wouldn't like to have it reduced.

[sniperton]

It depends on the size of your monitor and the resolution, how much zoom you need.

You must also add viewing distance as a factor. Anyone watching a monitor smaller than 45" from a distance larger than 0.5 m needs some degree of zooming to see objects in the size they appear in RL. Exactly as Dakpilot explained.

As to the OP, you cannot restrict zooming on server-side unless each player has the same display or you factor in their respective display size individually.

[Pupo]

We are just too good at shooting and giving us a sniper scope to use with our aircraft is just making for rather ridiculous and unrealistic long range shooting IMHO.

 

Your average Il-2 player is a better shot at the game than a WW2 ace in real life mostly through experience. Hartman only shot down 350 planes, which is about the same number of planes I shoot down every month (not bragging here, I just spend too much time playing in quick mission  ).

 

Removing the zoom won't change this (I frequently hit 400m shots with no zoom), but will greatly hamper the ability to identify contacts at realistic distance, which is already too hard in my opinion.

 

Cheers.

Edited February 17, 2018 by Pupo

[SharpeXB]

The degree of zoom isn’t necessarily about size, it’s also about resolution. You’re trying to replicate 20/20 eyesight on a screen with a fixed resolution of pixels. Imagine the task of reading a roadsign on the taxiway from the cockpit and how much you’d need to zoom in and read the letters. That’s why the zoom view is a feature.

There’s no need of a setting to regulate the zoom because it’s a self regulating feature. You are just trading one advantage for the other. Exchanging size for FOV. Any advantage gained by zooming in is traded off by losing peripheral view.

Edited February 17, 2018 by SharpeXB

[ShamrockOneFive]

That is not quite correct. It depends on the size of your monitor and the resolution, how much zoom you need. When you fly with a 27" monitor, you will need much more zoom than someone who flies on a 42" TV screen. And when I see youtube videos, there are full zooms, that have much more to do with binoculars than with what a human eye can see. So the truth is somewhere in between.

 

I have really good distance vision... So my sense is that the zoom in IL-2 isn't as good on my 24in 1920x1200 (16:10) monitor as it is with my own eyeballs. Just saying

 

Speaking more generally, something like a FOV changer is really just exposing the artifice of what a flight sim is. There are differences between the real world situation where you're actually there and the flight sim world where its on a flat screen (or a pair of them on a HMD). This is probably obvious.

 

Having the ability to change your field of view is necessary to get the most out of the experience. I don't agree that it makes us better shots or that it gives us better vision and I don't think it should be reduced.

Edited February 17, 2018 by ShamrockOneFive

[Jabo_68*]

Personally, zoom is essential in expert mode to identify aircraft to avoid friendly fire.  I wouldn't dare not use it in MP, as it would just cause heartache.

[Field-Ops]

I get away with not having my zoom bound and leaving it at the default FOV because I'm on a 42 in TV with good resolution. 

 

 

Something the devs might consider is giving the user an option to limit how far they can zoom in and out. DCS provides this, but their default min/max is such an insane range of motion that I couldn't stand the default setting. IL2, while not as bad, could benefit from such a function.

[SharpeXB]

If IL-2 gets the ability to customize the axis responses like RoF, then players could adjust their own min and max zoom.

[blitze]

Unless the program can detect the size of display device it is being used on, I think what we have is a good compromise.  Even at full zoom on a 27" monitor I am not seeing gauges and details at full scale.

 

Going full zoom on a 16:9 screen brings your FOV right down so you hardly know what is going on outside of target focus.  Having the ability to pull back zoom helps especially in a dog fight when you need better FOV to know where planes are in relation to yours.  It is the limitations of what we fly on.  The best remedy to this will be a HMD with 180 + FOV and decent resolution.

 

At the moment non commercially exist but one is in the works and it will be interesting to see how it pans out when released.

 

Some here fly on 24" screens, some fly on 46" screens, some fly on 110 degree FOV low res HMD's  all different and also some when traveling fly on 15"displays.  Great fun that.

[Ghost666]

Don't even try to get rid of my zoom!   Or even limit it!     I fly on a 17 inch lap top screen and limiting zoom would make the game impossible to play IMHO.

 

I travel at the least 4 days a week and fly mostly when I am away from home, sorry but family a little more important when I'm home. This limits the size of my rig, carrying a 42 inch monitor may be a little bit of a problem.

[SharpeXB]

I think the reason this topic seems to surface so often is that a variable FOV is a feature unique to sims, not really found in other games. Sims, being games that attempt to replicate reality, whether flying, driving shooting, need to also replicate real world visual acuity. But this needs to be done on a 1080p computer screen. Most of us aren’t fighter pilots so we aren’t connecting how poor your vision on a PC screen really is. So consider driving simulators like Truck sims. Without a zoom view you can’t even read your own dashboard let alone road signs etc. Can you read the instruments on your own cars dashboard without leaning in close to it? Probably not.

“Game” games unlike sims don’t require players to use real world distances for seeing targets or shooting etc. Without the zoom view a flight sim game would be impossible to play.