Quote:
Originally Posted by Pursuivant
The fixed guns on any plane could be set so that individual guns converge with the sight reticule at a certain range. Typically, however, pairs or sets of guns on opposite sides of the plane were set so that they converged, so that the recoil of the guns didn't throw the plane off course when maneuvering or aiming.
At least for the USAAF, it wasn't that uncommon to have one pair of wing-mounted MG set to converge at 300 yards, another pair at 350 and yet another pair at 400 yards to create a "beaten zone" where at least some of the bullets were likely to hit. I don't think that it was just the P-47. I believe that the P-51 and P-40 could have the same option.
The problem is that, in the game you've got just two convergence settings - "cannons" and "machine guns." Furthermore, some planes had the ability to shoot single guns, or just pairs of guns, rather than the current "guns or cannons" option.
So, for realistic fixed gunnery, you need to add the option of setting convergences for each pair of guns (or single gun), and the option of shooting just single guns or pairs of guns.
Neither option seems like it would be that much work, mostly just reworking key bindings and some messing with the GUI.
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I've seen historic records saying that the all the guns were harmonized to create a 1 yard wide circle at 'convergence' at some range with each gun aimed slightly off a central point.
I read about bullet scatter and so much of it is empty speculation that I just laugh. I've fired M-60's on bipod which is more scatter prone than the fixed guns on planes and got nowhere near the scatter often mentioned even out to 800 yards.
Planes do vibrate in a mostly parallel way, not twisting. Some bullets will get an up-down vector (you can figure out why sideways is more constrained) but that's inches per second where in 1 full second the bullet goes how far?
Imperfections in the bullet will cause less to more, they were not shooting modern match ammo. The tracers especially aren't even and still --- in less than a second they only get so far off the mark.
Look at the convergence geometry not as the out-of-scale diagrams used to emphasize the concept but as about 5 meters wide (for outer guns) at the wings versus 200 to 300 meters out to 'convergence' and figure out from how far to how far you get a 2 or 3 meter wide pattern of 'beaten zone'. Answer is about halfway to convergence to about the same distance beyond.
Convergence is about rise and drop and how much below the line of sight is as well. Spend time reviewing tracks made in gunnery practice and see how often the tracers go just above or below where you thought they were aimed. Know your range and when to shoot high or low.
I find closing speed affects aim. The faster I close the shorter the range effectively becomes. I like to shoot deflection, coming in not from six and that does make my closing speed higher. I trigger at 400 meters while aiming as if 350 meters to start my fire when I will be within 200 meters very soon. It lets me see where the first burst goes to get in one more before I have to avoid ramming.
If I am shooting horizontal I get more drop than shooting either up or down at more than a few degrees. Shots aimed in steep dive or climb, more than 10 degrees, will go high compared to the pipper but only by a fraction of the drop when horizontal. That changes with range.
A tail gunner firing at a following target has an easier task than a nose gunner. It's the side gunners who have the hardest job. That is just from moving geometry. With practice you can still get good but when the attrition gets high your average gunners won't be so experienced.