What is the correct FOV? I see people playing with such a FOV that when looking straight through the reticle you can see the wings at each side, I assume this would make matters worse to see distant planes.When I play I can only see the front part of the cockpit and the top instruments only.

Good comments. I think I'll try out a reduced FoV as default. While I don't like looking through a tube, having aircraft disappear is much worse!

Fwiw, I have a 23 inch monitor. Maybe someday I'll spring for a much bigger display.

After buying that monster-card, you could try downsampling..

The transition from dot to disappearing LOD seems to be worse at afternoon. 3-5pm in the game.

When looking a a distant bomber with its wing close to horizontal the wings will disappear and reappear as the angle changes. The AA has always been poor is this regard. I suspect the small size of the most distant LOD is behaving like the bombers wing and disappearing momentarily. I have watched 109s in the afternoon against the horizon transition from a clear dot to nothing at all then reappear as the range closes with my wing man reporting the same.

Its the same for me gavagai, like in old Il2.
In one of the missions, where you got to engage Ju88s to defend the ships its very visible to me. At long range you can make out the bombers easily, then they "disappear" against the water and "come back" when nearer.
The funny thing is I remember really getting used to it in the IL2 days. But flying mainly ROF and ClOD only once in a while, that is one point that is really noticeable.

Salute

Here's a quick guide to improving your ability to spot aircraft in CoD:

1) Resolution. The higher your resolution, the more difficulty you will have in spotting the enemy. Some players go as low as 1280 X 800 to get max. improvement, personally I use 1680. Find your best compromise between eye candy and efficiency.

2) In your Documents/1CSoftClub/IL-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover folder you will find a notepad file called 'conf'. Open it and scroll down till you see the section called '[core]'. Halfway down the section you will see 'VisibilityDistance=?'. Most have this set to 3, change it to 5. Going higher does not improve the situation.

3) In your options section for Video, eliminate 'Anti-Aliasing'. You can get this back by using SweetFX without the visibility penalty.

4) Under Textures, use 'Original Textures'

5) Install the TEAM FUSION mod. The reflections from cockpit glass and wings will allow you to spot aircraft more easily

Searching for the enemy:

When you are searching for dots, you will see them more easily if you are in the widest view, ie. 90 degrees.

On the other hand, if you are looking for aircraft close by, you will see them more easily by using the 30 degree view.

Hope these suggestions help.

Thanks for the tips Buzzsaw. I'm curious, why are the original textures best for aircraft visibility?

Additionally the single best thing to do is get a true 120HZ monitor...caution here, because many monitors are not true 120hz.

Because some of the visual effects are not visible without that setting. (especially in the TF mod)

For example, contrails.... very helpful in spotting the enemy.

Hmmmm... I can see contrails with all of the texture settings.