help with spotting planes

[danomite]

I've been playing IL2 for about a month now, and doing poorly for one major reason.  I can never spot planes, enemy or friendly, at any appreciable distance.  It seems like they appear out of nowhere 500m away.

 

I have TrackIR, and I have at least a thousand hours spent in War Thunder sim before buying IL2.  I am always scanning the sky, trying my best to maintain situational awareness.  But I still never see them coming.  And when I do spot a plane first, I have to keep my eyes glued to it until I approach very close.  Look away and it seems to disappear.  Watching youtube videos of people playing IL2 is like a night and day difference.  They can spot planes far away, and in youtube videos I can easily spot planes that I know I wouldn't see in game.

 

I've done extensive tweaking of my graphics settings in an attempt to help improve my spotting.  I'm running a 1440p240 monitor, and my computer is a 3600x/2080s.  Does anybody have any recommendations to help improve this situation?  I find the game to be nearly unplayable when every fight I start at a huge disadvantage, because the enemy pilot almost always spots me before I spot them.  I would greatly appreciate any help here.

[Frakkas]

Welcome to IL2 community! Don't worry you will get it right eventually!

 

It took me time but now I can spot pretty good despite my low end computer (for example I can see a plane on deck from 6k above). I will give tips that I do, I don't pretend to know everything nor being an expert.

 

Some graphic tips:

- landscape filter on blurred

- sharpen on

- gamma = 0.68000 (default is 0.8 - just play with these numbers until you're satisfy with results)

- Nvidia option - you can make the picture more crispy (see screenshot bellow)

- screen options (I increase sharpness + so called samsung magic angle set to 'standing mode')

 

Maybe you want to test extensively these in QM with opponent at different altitudes and distances AND maps (some are easier to spot than others). With icon on/off it's easy to train your eye and tune your graphics. Try to do this daily for 1h.

 

Release frustration:

- patrol over friendly objectives

- patrol between front line and friendly objectives where enemy bombers are supposed to be flying

- escort a bomber

- follow friendly fighters and observe

 

Scanning:

- Don't expect that a plane will pop up magically

- Part the sky in boxes, then concentrate your attention for 2 secondes on each box (zoom in/out) - check you 6 every 10 sec

- Bank your plane or fly in curves to check bellow

- Once enemy plane spotted, estimate his altitude and heading then use your cockpit details and ground/cloud details as references. (It will remove this sensation that the plane 'disappeared' because it must be above that long narrow cloud and the screw on the left bar of cockpit.)

 

Overall, train your eyes daily, use QM in all situations possible, I guarantee you will progress fast.

I hope this helps!

 

Nvidia crispy option:

[danomite]

Thank you!  I'll give those changes a try when I get home from work tonight.

[JG700_Benek]

You can try mine:

 

\

 

 

 

 

I found best results using MSAA x 8  if your rig  can run them set shadows to extreme - they have bigger drawing range it helps by creating more static background (shadows are disappering at certain distance which dont help with spotting)

 

Also my personal preference is not to use smooth zoom instead I set 100% speed and inertia for zoom and only use 3 zoom levels maximum 30deg  custom at 67deg and 110 deg you cen see the values of zoom if u press backspace in game. Thanks to this you waste less time setting views plus you always shoot at the same zoom it help your muscle memory ?

 

Also worth trying is taking care of camera smothness option I use it at 20%. 

 

For me if you have proper monitor calibration gamma at 1 or 0.9 depending on map works best. 

 

Bear in mind that sometimes you will not see contact especially against the earth or forrest the game is far from perfect in that regard but still they managed to improve that lately.

 

*************

Because seeking perfect settings never neds ? here is small update: at the moment I switched landfilter in game to sharp and swaped NVCP sharpening for the ingame one - seems even better.

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by JG700_Benek

[von_Tom]

17 hours ago, Frakkas said:

 

Release frustration:

- patrol over friendly objectives

- patrol between front line and friendly objectives where enemy bombers are supposed to be flying

- escort a bomber

- follow friendly fighters and observe

 

Scanning:

- Don't expect that a plane will pop up magically

- Part the sky in boxes, then concentrate your attention for 2 secondes on each box (zoom in/out) - check you 6 every 10 sec

- Bank your plane or fly in curves to check bellow

- Once enemy plane spotted, estimate his altitude and heading then use your cockpit details and ground/cloud details as references. (It will remove this sensation that the plane 'disappeared' because it must be above that long narrow cloud and the screw on the left bar of cockpit.)

 

 

These things.  But this is missing the most important tip of all.

 

Fly with someone then you have 2 pairs of eyes looking.  When you do, fly line abreast around 400m apart so you can watch each other.  Practice flying as a pair to get the turns right.  Give the heading e.g. turning right onto 180 then you can look for each other.

 

 

von Tom

[danomite]

Wow, its like a whole different game!  Thank you guys for the help.  Those adjustments to the Nvidia & game settings and lowering the gamma (had to figure out how to go to the startup.cfg file for that one) really made a huge difference.  Completely night and day.  I can spot planes so much farther away now (no more disappearing!), and it no longer feels like I'm flying around in a 500m bubble of awareness.  Target ID is 10x easier now as well, particularly against ground clutter.  I feel bad for anybody who tries this game without adjusting their settings like this.  The developers really should do some tweaking to the default graphics settings.

 

As far as wingmen go, most of my buddies fly exclusively War Thunder still.  I'm trying to convert some of them, but I've also joined some IL2 discords to meet new people.  Completely agree that flying as a pair is a huge force multiplier, and tons of fun.

 

Thanks again everybody.

[Hobel]

Wow, that's a completely different feeling.

And at the same time it's fair to those who don't have it?
at least I was quite blind before compared to now.?

[Xray-Delta]

On 4/15/2021 at 3:43 AM, danomite said:

Wow, its like a whole different game!  Thank you guys for the help.  Those adjustments to the Nvidia & game settings and lowering the gamma (had to figure out how to go to the startup.cfg file for that one) really made a huge difference.  Completely night and day.  I can spot planes so much farther away now (no more disappearing!), and it no longer feels like I'm flying around in a 500m bubble of awareness.  Target ID is 10x easier now as well, particularly against ground clutter.  I feel bad for anybody who tries this game without adjusting their settings like this.  The developers really should do some tweaking to the default graphics settings.

 

As far as wingmen go, most of my buddies fly exclusively War Thunder still.  I'm trying to convert some of them, but I've also joined some IL2 discords to meet new people.  Completely agree that flying as a pair is a huge force multiplier, and tons of fun.

 

Thanks again everybody.

 

Noob question here... where/how did you find the startup.cfg file to adjust programme settings?

I also have the same 'where the hell is everybody' problem. Last time I was playing IL2 it was on windows XP, very different game now!!!

[Chief_Mouser]

Look in Il-2 Sturmovik Battle of.../data.  It's also one of the files you should keep backed up - you don't want to lose your changes.

Cheers.

 

 

[Xray-Delta]

Thank you!

[Roland_HUNter]

Anybody has this issue?

My spotting is good, but my mate can see the planes in the far, much earlier.
Example:
11 clock, enemy plane far: I checking it. Nothing. We are closing in, then on the exact spot the enemy plane suddenly "pop in/comes out"

What is wrong? Options?

[Hobel]

20 hours ago, Roland_HUNter said:

Anybody has this issue?

My spotting is good, but my mate can see the planes in the far, much earlier.
Example:
11 clock, enemy plane far: I checking it. Nothing. We are closing in, then on the exact spot the enemy plane suddenly "pop in/comes out"

What is wrong? Options?

quite simple.

What resolution does he have and what resolution do you have?

[Roland_HUNter]

18 hours ago, Hobel said:

quite simple.

What resolution does he have and what resolution do you have?

Same, 1080p.

[Hobel]

Then a little more.

Which monitor and which graphics settings.
Both the same brand Nvidia or AMD?

the devil is sometimes in the detail

[Roland_HUNter]

AOC 24G2U5 Monitor
Same, I have GTX 1060, he has 1660.

[Roland_HUNter]

On 11/10/2021 at 11:40 PM, Hobel said:

Then a little more.

Which monitor and which graphics settings.
Both the same brand Nvidia or AMD?

the devil is sometimes in the detail

So? ?