Frankly, these lasers...

[winny]

Originally Posted by ChrisDNT

Obviously, many here have only seen tracers on pictures or videos.

Basically, when you fire something with a tracer, you just see the shining ass of the bullet, some kind of a moving point, but again no "Star Wars" lasers.

This is true only if you're looking down the sight of the gun that fired it.

If you're off to the side and slightly above (in the cockpit for example) then you'll see some degree of streaking.

I do think that the tracers are too fat though. I think I remember Oleg saying that they had to compromise them slightly in order to make them work though.

[Blackdog_kt]

I won't bore you all to tears with the exact details once again (i explained everything in a very recent thread here, post #26: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...087#post231087 ) but from my personal experience the summary is:

1) Tracers look like streaks when close to you because the closer distance exaggerates the effect of the angular offset between aimer's viewpoint and line of travel. Angle offset at close range translates to a lot of lateral displacement/apparent size during their motion, the eye/brain can't keep up and they seem to streak.

2) As they move out the same angle offset translates to less lateral displacement over longer ranges, so they change over from streaks to dots.

3) You can see this modeled perfectly in Oleg's fighting sequence video of last week's update during the attack on the Defiant, just pause frame by frame between 0:35 and 0:37 and you can't miss it. Or click on the link provided above, there's a relevant screenshot.

4) Possible improvements? Not many to be honest.
They look a bit too uniform overall and a little "fat" when they are close to the player's viewpoint (personally, my only criticisms), but very similar to real ones after just a second or less of travel.
I can't decide on how "fat" they should be since it depends on ambient light conditions. I would like to see ricochets modeled at some point. Otherwise they look spot on to me.

Finally, in-game camera shutter speed will be adjustable so if anyone wants cinematic tracers and propellers they'll be able to adjust it to their preference.

Overall conclusion: Almost everyone will be happy with what they see eventually.

I hope it helps

[GOA_Potenz]

i saw tracers with my bared eyes and yes it looks like in game, what you see in guncams is due to shaking camera and poor light caught

[ChrisDNT]

This is true only if you're looking down the sight of the gun that fired it.

If you're off to the side and slightly above (in the cockpit for example) then you'll see some degree of streaking.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


I was AA gunner on the Oerlikon54, basically an improved WWII design cannon.

I fired the cannon from the gunner seat and I saw the cannons firing away from the battery.

I never saw even a single time any "lasers".

The most realistic thing about tracers I evers saw in a sim is the latest mod for gunnery available for IL2 (I can't remember its name).

[JG52Uther]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6rE32Js6Go

I think the tracers both look real and not real at the same time.
A tracer used in aircraft has way more smoke trail from the phos on the bullet base (more phos to get a longer burn i would imagine)
So on screens the clean line without smoke trail emitting from the line isnt strictly right in my opinion, but the tracer itself is.
I think someone mentioned they look too clean, well the tracer itself should be clean, its the smoke trail from it that should twist and snake, and that smoke trail should be there for as long as the tracer is burning.

[ChrisDNT]

Nice VIDEO, Uther.


P.S. have you human eyes in your head or some kind of bionic video system for seeing ?

[Robotic Pope]

Originally Posted by ChrisDNT

Nice VIDEO, Uther.


P.S. have you human eyes in your head or some kind of bionic video system for seeing ?

lol. This is part of the problem huh, Some people think they should look as if some one is videoing the action complete with overexposure effects, while others think they sould be shown as they would look with our own eyes.

Another problem is that everyones brain and eyes aren't identical, one person could see tracers as long SW lasers while the other percieves them far shorter, just like you would get different results if you used two different makes of video camera to film the same gun firing tracers.

[choctaw111]

Originally Posted by Robotic Pope

lol. This is part of the problem huh, Some people think they should look as if some one is videoing the action complete with overexposure effects, while others think they sould be shown as they would look with our own eyes.

Another problem is that everyones brain and eyes aren't identical, one person could see tracers as long SW lasers while the other percieves them far shorter, just like you would get different results if you used two different makes of video camera to film the same gun firing tracers.

I had given some thought to this.
It is very true that different people have different levels of visual acuity.
A good example of this is the famous baseball player Joe DiMagio.
He could actually see where his bat was making contact with the spinning baseball.
To be able to see things that happen that quickly can only mean that his eyes had a much higher "framerate" than mine.
When I saw tracers, I saw streaks. Someone like Joe DiMagio would probably not have.

[winny]

Originally Posted by BigPickle

I think the tracers both look real and not real at the same time.
A tracer used in aircraft has way more smoke trail from the phos on the bullet base (more phos to get a longer burn i would imagine)
So on screens the clean line without smoke trail emitting from the line isnt strictly right in my opinion, but the tracer itself is.
I think someone mentioned they look too clean, well the tracer itself should be clean, its the smoke trail from it that should twist and snake, and that smoke trail should be there for as long as the tracer is burning.

(This is RAF specific) The smoke trail tracers were not actually tracers they were Buckingham incendiaries. They ignited on firing and burned on their way to the target. No visible light. They had a small hole in the casing which let the smoke out (spiral tracer smoke). The acutal G Mk II type tracer round, a flaming tracer (visible light, source of the 'laser debate') was smokeless, as was the 'de-wilde'.