Spotting the enemy?

[klem]

Originally Posted by Bonkin

Does anybody else find it extremely difficult to spot the enemy? I’ve been suffering for a while and last night on ATAG was no exception… my fellow squad mates are calling out targets left right and centre and I’m just not seeing them until I’m virtually on top of them. It’s got so bad that I’m wondering if it’s actually not just me being crap but something to do with my set up. I’ve tried changing resolution but that didn’t help, I’ve tried fiddling with anti-aliasing and that doesn’t help either. Could it be my monitor? I have a Dell 2208WFP Ultrasharp.

Whilst I applause the latest (final) patch it actually seems to make matters worse – especially if the sun is behind you and the target dips below the horizon. Everything just gets lost through the prop haze – which incidentally is not at all realistic.

On YouTube I’ve watched other people’s videos and I wonder how on earth they can spot and track a target against the ground from altitude. MK.Mr.X for example… tried running his at full screen and max resolution and I just don’t know how he does it.

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Any thoughts or comments that could help me out?

This may also help. Your setup is almost the same as mine but my monitor is a Samsung 226BW at 1680 x 1050.

It is hard to see aircraft against the ground. One tip is to watch for movement rather than an aircraft then focus on that area. Also get a sense of the direction and the way the target is flying to help pick it up again if it briefly becomes unseeable. Several times Mr X's target seems to disappear but by following on the target's apparent track and waiting it reappears against changing landscape or when it pops up above the horizon. It is also probably easier to see than appears in Mr X's video which was probably captured on FRAPS and doesn't have the resolution of the original so he may not have the super-eyeballs you may be attributing to him from the video.

The most distant dots are, to me, very vague pale blue/grey dots that grow in strength until they are clearly a dot. There is a transition between dot and aircraft shape which at the beginning causes the aircraft shape to flicker (when it is still very small, perhaps 10 pixels or about 2 mm on my screen). As it closes it becomes steady and more visible but at dot-to-shape range it can be difficult to see. Over terrain the camouflage seems to work well (whether this is clever graphics work or in fact lousy graphics rendering I am not sure). Again, the trick is to stay on the apparent target track, watching for movement against the background and remembering to glance either side of track in case he has turned.

It's easy to say, but it gets better with practice.

Mr X doesn't appear to use TrackIR so I am amazed at how he manages to switch those views around. If you are using a Hat switch you are probably at a disadvantage versus those with TrackIR.

I also strongly recommend the SweetFX file set (rather than the injFX or FXAA file set) which you can find here:-
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...&postcount=141