Friday 2010-11-19 Dev. update and Discussion

[philip.ed]

Thanks, all, for the input on the tracers. Lots of helpful knowledge shared here.
Winny, I wasn't sure on the issue mate. I've had many people swear against the spiralling tracers, stating that the effect is down to the camera shake in gun-cam videos. As has been shown, a lot of evidence suggests that this might have added to the effect, but the effect is definately there

To be Devil's advocate, how large can the spiral get? I'd imagine it's a lot smaller for the .303's and gun-cam videos that I've seen would support this.

Thanks in-advance.
I love the contrails too, they look great.

Oleg, are all effects shown 3D?

[winny]

Originally Posted by philip.ed

Thanks, all, for the input on the tracers. Lots of helpful knowledge shared here.
Winny, I wasn't sure on the issue mate. I've had many people swear against the spiralling tracers, stating that the effect is down to the camera shake in gun-cam videos. As has been shown, a lot of evidence suggests that this might have added to the effect, but the effect is definately there

To be Devil's advocate, how large can the spiral get? I'd imagine it's a lot smaller for the .303's and gun-cam videos that I've seen would support this.

Spiral size is dependant on the size of the projectile. Because they travel nose first they can only spiral by a few degrees off centre before they nose would drop too far and the bullet would start to tumble (nose over tail). The zig-zag effect you sometimes see is due to camera shake but as your video shows, no ammount of shaking camera can recreate a spiral smoke trail.