Best graphics settings for spotting enemies

[skyrusher]

Hello, everybody

 

I am still quite new to IL-2 and my search in the forum for the best graphics settings to recognize enemies was not successful.

Probably this topic has been discussed several times and I just can't find it. Can someone steer me in the right direction, or directly recommend which settings will give you the best results in enemy detection?

 

Thank you very much

[THERION]

10 minutes ago, skyrusher said:

Hello, everybody

 

I am still quite new to IL-2 and my search in the forum for the best graphics settings to recognize enemies was not successful.

Probably this topic has been discussed several times and I just can't find it. Can someone steer me in the right direction, or directly recommend which settings will give you the best results in enemy detection?

 

Thank you very much

 

Well, welcome here on the forum. So, your question is quite challenging because everybody is going to tell you what the best settings are, but very often

these settings do not work as expected for everybody, because there is so much diversity in hardware setups, configurations and tweaks.

 

I think, first of all you should tell us what hardware specs you currently have, so we might have a better chance to help you with optimal settings. Yes, I

said "optimal" because it is not always the brightest (eye candy) setting that is going to help you in spotting and recognize enemy planes.

[skyrusher]

Hi Therion,

 

it's exactly what I'm looking for - optimal settings for enemy detection. Eye candy is not that important for me.

 

My specs are as follows:

i7 4790k, 16 GB RAM, SSD, GTX970 and an Iiyama 27" screen

 

 

[Hawk-2a]

You could manually change the gamma in the startup.cfg to set it to a lower value than 0.8, but this is personal perference.

What made spotting easier for me was really adjusting the Monitor settings (brightness, color, contrast etc.). I did it in Quick Mission when having an enemy at around 8k away and then pausing the game. Then tweak the monitor settings.

All other graphic settings ingame however, must be changed in the main menu and require a game restart... Only gamma can be adjusted mid flight.

[THERION]

14 minutes ago, skyrusher said:

Hi Therion,

 

it's exactly what I'm looking for - optimal settings for enemy detection. Eye candy is not that important for me.

 

My specs are as follows:

i7 4790k, 16 GB RAM, SSD, GTX970 and an Iiyama 27" screen

 

 

 

Fine - we have almost the same system specs, so here are my settings:

 

 

After you have set the slider to "Quality" and saved - you change to the advanced settings.

Here, make sure you have "maximum power setting" and VSync "Off".

 

Next are the settings in game:

 

 

Use the preset "ULTRA" and then you can tweak a little bit the different settings as you like. With my settings you should be able to spot enemies on the 27" monitor.

 

Try this and tell me about your experience, OK?

 

Cheerio

[skyrusher]

Great mate,

 

gonna try this in the evening and give you feedback!

 

Salute!

[JonRedcorn]

The blurred filter for the ground is probably the biggest helper in spotting.

[=EXPEND=Capt_Yorkshire]

yes untick cinematic on camera options  you can do this in game while flying.

[Bilbo_Baggins]

16 hours ago, =EXPEND=Capt_Yorkshire said:

yes untick cinematic on camera options  you can do this in game while flying.

 

But cinematic is only for external view right? That’s what it says in camera options.

[Feathered_IV]

I think it gives you a motion-blur effect as you turn your head in the cockpit too.

[Guest deleted@50488]

Yes, in-cockpit effect too, rather annoying for me - one of the first default settings I un-tick whenever I install IL2 BoX.

 

I then set only 4x AA, and HDR, 60 fps, dynamic resolution factor full right. No Nvidia settings other than "single monitor performance" and "prefer best performance".

[Livai]

If you can't see the enemy why not make the enemy bigger? - To make the enemy a bigger Pixel

Example

 

  VS  

 

 

 

[Rjel]

On 3/1/2019 at 3:48 AM, -IRRE-Therion said:

 

Fine - we have almost the same system specs, so here are my settings:

 

 

After you have set the slider to "Quality" and saved - you change to the advanced settings.

Here, make sure you have "maximum power setting" and VSync "Off".

 

Next are the settings in game:

 

 

Use the preset "ULTRA" and then you can tweak a little bit the different settings as you like. With my settings you should be able to spot enemies on the 27" monitor.

 

Try this and tell me about your experience, OK?

 

Cheerio

Doesn't selecting Advanced settings in the nVidia control panel negate any other settings? I always thought that was the purpose of the screen where you choose specific settings. In your screen shot, the Quality tab is grayed out. To my mind that means your graphics card isn't seeing it. 

 

As to turning off VSync, it has been mentioned many times that induces screen tearing. A better option for me has been to use the  "Fast"  setting in the nVidia panel and turning it off in the BoX game settings. 

Edited March 2, 2019 by Rjel
Spelling

[THERION]

6 hours ago, Rjel said:

Doesn't selecting Advanced settings in the nVidia control panel negate any other settings? I always thought that was the purpose of the screen where you choose specific settings. In your screen shot, the Quality tab is grayed out. To my mind that means your graphics card isn't seeing it. 

 

As to turning off VSync, it has been mentioned many times that induces screen tearing. A better option for me has been to use the  "Fast"  setting in the nVidia panel and turning it off in the BoX game settings. 

 

Well, I think this is a misunderstanding concerning my NVidia settings. Let me explain what I did:

1. I selected the Quality option using the slider, then saved this setting.

2. I went into Advanced settings to modify what has been set with the Quality preset, only to modify the power management setting

    and to turn off VSync.

 

Concerning the VSync option, well, I made a lot of tests with in game VSync off and NVidia VSync "Fast" and I came to the conclusion, that

on my system with my settings I got rid of those micro stutter when I selecting VSync on in game. This is my observation for my system.

[Ptk]

Adding a bit of sparse grid supersampling with nvinspector helps for me. There is a performance hit though. 

[skyrusher]

Therion, I checked my settings and compared them with yours. It seems we not only have similar hardware but also similar graphics settings  Unfortunately that means I could not further improve my settings.

 

I like the idea Livai posted above. For some reason it is for me way more difficult to spot enemies than it was in the old IL-2 or is in CloD. Worth to mention that I'm  color blind (green/red) to some degree. This probably also has an impact....

[THERION]

1 hour ago, skyrusher said:

Therion, I checked my settings and compared them with yours. It seems we not only have similar hardware but also similar graphics settings  Unfortunately that means I could not further improve my settings.

 

I like the idea Livai posted above. For some reason it is for me way more difficult to spot enemies than it was in the old IL-2 or is in CloD. Worth to mention that I'm  color blind (green/red) to some degree. This probably also has an impact....

 

Sorry to read this - I'm sorry, but I think I forgot to post my NVidia settings in detail. So, maybe this will help you further. Here they are:

 

 

Sorry for inconvenience, mate.

 

Cheerio