Visibility of aircraft shadows vs the aircraft that cast them

[=BOOLET=MiGdonalds]

I have noticed long time ago that shadows of planes in this game seem to be quite noticeable, even if the plane is not near the ground.

 

Spotting aircraft shadows is several times fold easier than spotting the aircraft casting them, even when said aircraft is at considerable altitude which  is incredibly distracting especially in a dogfight and has caused me to lose tally or lose a dogfight many times.

 

Attached is an example:

 

3 He-111 shadows appear very obviously against dark coloured terrain, yet the aircraft themselves take a while to find, even when one of them is against a brighter background.

These aircraft are at 1000m/3000ft. they should not be casting such clear-cut shadows even in bright sunlight. an a380 at that altitude doesnt create anywhere near clear a shadow as even tiny fighters do in this game (they fly overhead very often). 

 

its hard as is to spot ;(

 

[Matt-357]

Google "aircraft shadow on ground".

[Drum]

I agree, someone mistakenly put the planes on the ground, and the shadows on the planes.  That needs to be reversed.

Edited January 5, 2022 by Drum

[Strewth]

I have done enough time in aircraft looking out the window to be quite happy with the representation of shadows in this sim.
Most people do not notice the shadows passing over them because they are a rarity and a 800kph jet gives you shadowing for an absolute fraction of a second.
But I have sat there many times following the shadow of the aircraft I was in from inside the aircraft at altitude. It is amazing what takes your interest on many many long haul flights mixed with shorter ones.

Cheers.

 

[Drum]

You can see a shadow, but not a black shadow, that's all we're saying (my above post was fairly veg, I agree).  In this sim a plane at 5K will cast a black shadow on the ground that is darker then the shadow on it's own underside, how is that physically even possible?

Edited January 5, 2022 by Drum

[AEthelraedUnraed]

6 hours ago, Drum said:

how is that physically even possible?

By the ground reflecting sunlight. Also, define "darker". Do you mean absolute or relative darkness? If you mean absolute, it's very likely ground shadows are darker since the ground is darker as well. If you mean relative, then there's a whole lot of nonlinear adjustments made to fit the very high dynamic lightness range that our eyes can perceive, to the rather limited range monitors can display. Some algorithms exist that try to mitigate the problem (such as HDR), but those bring a lot of disadvantages themselves and may not always work (or in fact, even worsen the problem in some cases).

 

Lastly, the shadow in the screenshot posted above is hardly black. It's about the same level of darkness as the forest. Also, the view angle and distance to the targets is such that they appear much smaller than their shadows, which helps to make them less visible in comparison.