A potential fix for the Aircraft visibility problems?

[mazex]

Originally Posted by zapatista

some possible solutions discussed in previous years:
- make all the smaller LoD models much darker (or a bright blue ?) so they stand out more (instead of sing a paint scheme that aims to represent the real color of the object it represents)
- give the smaller LoD models "3D volume" by using something like bump mapping, so they stand out more against the scenery background
- paint the smaller most distant LoD models in "non realistic" colors so they stand out more (or use some highlighting method around the edge of the shape, as the OP suggests)
- instead of focusing on having distant very small LoD models maintaining the shape of the aircraft they represent (which is done very poorly anyway because our smallest pixels arnt small enough to give that level of detail), use instead a "blob" or fixed larger number of black/grey pixels of some shape that makes the object stand out a bit more and overcome the problem we have of using a 2D screen. once you come closer to it, or use the zoom function, the larger LoD models would still keep the shape of the object of course.

Good proposals all of them. The last one is probably the easiest one to do (like they do in RoF?). It may not be "realistic" - but neither is spotting a few pixels above a landscape of the same "color" I have a couple of hundred hours IRL stick time at least, and aircraft in the air are actually easier to spot than many may think, if you manage to spot them first at least