aircraft disappearing against terrain.

[reflected]

It's indeed VERY hard to see enemy aircraft, not only against the ground but against the sky too. A lot harder than in il2. Is this more realistic?

I noticed that at high FOV it's easier to spot them while they're far from you. as soon as you zoom in, they disappear.

[seiseki]

Yeah, it's really hard..

I even lose track of large bombers in formation..
One wrong turn, I look back and wait.. where did everyone go?

But for me it's most likely the unstable framerate which plays a big part too..

I read these war stories and it seems like spotting planes is really easy in real life..
Why is it much harder in games? A lack of depth perception? Low resolution?

[patrat1]

yep, i can lose a flight of 20 bombers by just glancing away.

i got fps avg in the 50s, min in the 20s over land and am playing in 1920x1080 res.

so in my case i doubt its res or fps.

[Raggz]

Problem is that there are no collision detection in trees. I've seen enemy fly low in trees many times making them impossible to see.

[xnomad]

It is very difficult to see them but they shouldn't necessarily be easy to see either.

I've read accounts of planes disappearing into the ground clutter a few times.

Helmut Lipfert in his war diary often resorted to diving down low and looking up. A few times when he did this he suddenly would see whole swarms of aircraft on the horizon that he hadn't noticed from above.

He also used to lie his plane on it's back to get a better view too. I do this in the sim and have always wondered if real pilots ever did this and it turns out they did.

So back to the topic, it's probably too hard in the game but shouldn't be too easy either, it's just harder to detect movement against the ground in a sim when the ground is so detailed like it is now.

[Skoshi Tiger]

From experience flying light aircraft, some times its hard seeing light coloured aircraft in the best of conditions.

"Wiskey India Foxtrot, join circuit down wind behind white Cessna", "Hmmm! OK!"

I think I remember reading Chuck Yeager discussing the technique he had for visually searching for E/A's, People kept on saying he had fantastic vision, he just put it down to focuing at infinity and mantaining a consistent search pattern.

That said In COD I've been flying around in circles right on top on an enemy aircraft and only saw it when it was attacked by another friendly. Once I saw it I could follow it, but had to keep direct visual contact.

That made me think it was modeled fairly good in COD.

Cheers!

[Pluto]

Something else about sights in CoD, ....

when I am for example flying the 109 and dogfighting with a Hurricane,
I do not loose it so quickly out of sight even if we turn and turn quite a bit, I still keep track of it. Of course harder against the ground than against the sky but still, I can follow it and eventually bring it down, if it does not bring me down first.

On the other hand, when I fly as the last bird in a formation and start leaving the formation just to fly behind it some barrelrolls or some other maneuvers, I loose the formation faster than the Hurricane in the dogfight, although, it should be easier to keep track of a steadyly moving big object like a formation of planes.

That happened of course also some times in the old IL2 but there you found your formation again very quickly, whereas in IL2-CoD you might need a few moments to find it again. If it takes too long, you have lost them for good.

[timholt]

As a (used to be) pilot in real life I think it is realistic.

[Pluto]

I can report the same experience here.
Good to read that I am not the only one.
I first thought I need again new glasses, because it is really hard to see aircraft on a distance, no matter if against the ground or the sky.

From the old IL2 I was used to see aircraft already from quite far away but you also had that rather unrealistic zoom option.

I dont know what is more realistic, the sight now in Cliffs of Dover or the old one from Sturmovik?
I have flown real planes (small ones 2-4 seats) from time to time, when the pilot allowed it but of course I never experienced a real air combat.
In reality I also didnt meet so many other planes in the air, so I have no "real" experience on how good and how far you actually see in reality.

Anyway, it is harder to see in CoD than it was in the old IL2.
Maybe some of the developers are real pilots who could judge that issue better?

[reflected]

Well, it's true that it shouldn't be easy. In many pilots accounts I've read that one they they were in the thich of it, then after a few seconds the whole sky was empty. It was quite common during the BofB. However, I do think it's way too difficult now in game.