Spotting the enemy?

[klem]

Originally Posted by VO101_Tom

Hi. This question appears two weeks ago, when we flying on ATAG. My mates saw nothing, meantime I'm telling them the contacts. We take a closer look, and we found, that the problem was their MONITOR settings. Different monitor profiles, light and contrast, etc. I made a screenshot, you should see 5 contact (1 o clock, low):

(1680x1050 pixel, .bmp)
Contact test

Obvious, you have to see this picture in original size, without any zoom. Here is a little help if you don't find them.
If you see nothing, your monitor need adjust.

I can just about see some of them but it depends on the angle of my eyes to the screen which may mean my eyes or my eyeglasses. I am sure I wouldn't detect them in flight looking like that yet I am sure I would see them at that range in-game as I estimate they are about 6km distant (only about half a sector) if on the deck. I tried the many different settings on my monitor without improvement over my current settings (I find dynamic contrast gives me the best result especially with the SMAA files). I wonder if one person's screen shot can truly carry across to someone elses screen.

Just how clear are they to you Tom and what is their appearance like?

[Bonkin]

Thanks for all your comments - very much appreciated. Yet to fly with squad mates so I can't verify if any of the changes I've made really work - so initial findings (flying around on my own) are somewhat subjective.

First off I tried Farber's suggestion and ensured that the stream cloud syncronisation checkbox was unchecked. At first it was enabled but greyed out so I couldn't change it - although I figured out that you have to set the generic settings (Downloads+Cloud) to enabled first. Only then can you change it for an individual game. Fired up the game and took off from Manston and headed for France. Managed to intercept a Staffel of He111's which I spotted from some distance... perhaps it's working?

Next tried out MusseMus suggestion and set AA to x8, native resolution, textures to "original" and model details "high". I did not try the MeshShowLod setting or the FXAA mod (can you apply this for online use?). Had a fly around and was able to track a few aircraft reasonably OK but still had difficulty with them against the ground. Very difficult to tell if there is actually any difference.

Klem suggested SweetFX rather than FXAA. Sorry didn't try that... still unsure it would be OK for online use.

Now we come to VO101 Tom and his "Contact test" calibration picture.

Originally Posted by VO101_Tom

Hi. This question appears two weeks ago, when we flying on ATAG. My mates saw nothing, meantime I'm telling them the contacts. We take a closer look, and we found, that the problem was their MONITOR settings. Different monitor profiles, light and contrast, etc. I made a screenshot, you should see 5 contact (1 o clock, low):

(1680x1050 pixel, .bmp)
Contact test

Obvious, you have to see this picture in original size, without any zoom. Here is a little help if you don't find them.
If you see nothing, your monitor need adjust.

Now this I thought was a good idea - but it is plane for me that I just couldn't see the dots (even with the help picture). So I set about changing my monitor settings and was able to tweak so I could see something. However, I'm absolutely certain that I wouldn't see them in game. The in game colours are now really rich and more life like - however outside of the game there is just too much contrast for normal windows applications.

I'll add more when I've been online with my squad. Initial findings would suggest that monitor settings and mode (mine has different ones for different uses), and disabling the steam cloud syncronisation, have the most effect.

[MusseMus]

Originally Posted by Bonkin

I'll add more when I've been online with my squad. Initial findings would suggest that monitor settings and mode (mine has different ones for different uses), and disabling the steam cloud syncronisation, have the most effect.

I'm glad your spotting has improved using some of the tricks mentioned in this thread!
I still highly recommend you to try the MeshShowLod setting and install FXAA or SweetFX since this is what made the biggest impact on my personal spotting. You can use it online without any trouble. It's not a cheat

Cheers/m

[VO101_Tom]

Hi guys.

I see the contacts as 2-3 pixel wide, small, grey dots. Not easy to see (as you read, I wrote 5 contacts, but there is another one, and a whole bomber squadron too), but it visible. I admit, from this distance this is a pixel-hunt.

The AA is an interesting thing. I don't use Anti Aliasing since IL-2, because when I turned on, I lost the contacts - mostly over ground). The game blurring the one pixel contacts into the background. Not good. Some of you wrote, that the CloD's FXAA improve his visibility... i will try it, but my experience, that every smoothing, blurring, etc effect only degrade the "one pixel contact" visibility.
Very important: The LCD monitors must be use in native resolution!
Increase monitor brightness and contrast helps*, but my mate said that he tried the dynamic contrast, but the screen flashed dimly. It is certainly not good.
Very important the ergonomy, sit an arm's length in front of the monitor.
* I'm tried to set the brightness-contrast 0-100. I saw the pixels all time, so if anyone simple don't see the pixels, that is an another problem then.

I don't know it helps or not, i write my monitor settings:
Samsung 226BW monitor, 1680x1050 native resolution.
Brightness 100
Contrast 75
Magicolor Off
Color Tone - normal
Color Control - 50-50-50
Gamma - mode3
Sharpness - 60
All other menu is indifferent, or "not available".

A small note at end: The contact visibility is the same, but the contact detection easier in the game, because the dots are moving. If you flying straight and don't move your head ("fixed the background"), you will see the contacts much easily than you see in a photo.

[klem]

Thanks Tom,

I have the same monitor as you and I made minor adjustments to my Custom settings to be like yours but it doesn't help me much. Not that it's a problem because I am happy with what I see in-game but I am curious about one thing because I can only see two of the dots if I look very carefully. So just for interest's sake, which LCD panel do you have in your 226BW? THere are three types A, B and C and the letter is on the top line of the label where it states the model and the LCD screen letter is on the far right of the line. Mine is C.

And no, I don't want to start a screen panel discussion here, I'm just curious

btw my Dynamic Contrast doesn't cause any flashing. It does adjust to a new level when I switch between applications as the monitor dynamically adjusts to the overall screen picture but not in-game.

[Storm of When]

1024 x 768 works for me ,it may be miles less than the monitor a 23" Samsung is capable of but I see things far earlier than when I ran at the monitors native setting.

[VO101_Tom]

Originally Posted by klem

Thanks Tom,

I have the same monitor as you and I made minor adjustments to my Custom settings to be like yours but it doesn't help me much. Not that it's a problem because I am happy with what I see in-game but I am curious about one thing because I can only see two of the dots if I look very carefully. So just for interest's sake, which LCD panel do you have in your 226BW? THere are three types A, B and C and the letter is on the top line of the label where it states the model and the LCD screen letter is on the far right of the line. Mine is C.

Model code: .../EDC

[VO101_Tom]

Originally Posted by Storm of When

1024 x 768 works for me ,it may be miles less than the monitor a 23" Samsung is capable of but I see things far earlier than when I ran at the monitors native setting.

But you see bricks, not pixels

[ATAG_Snapper]

Not too long ago I was at the point of utter frustration in spotting distant contacts online. My mates on Teamspeak were calling them out long before I could discern them, including large AI bomber formations. It seemed like I was continually getting bounced by opposing fighters no matter how frequently I checked six. I tried the low resolution route and it does work -- but it's soooo UGLY which runs counter to the inherent beauty of the graphics which this sim offers. What to do?

I've read through Zapatista's excellent and very knowledgeable posts on monitors, and how their quality and setting can directly influence our ability to spot tiny dots on-screen. My take was that ironically the better your monitor the less likely a single pixel is likely to stand out from the others - by design! Similarly, graphical-smoothing effects like FSAA, FXAA, etc tend to BLEND the odd single pixel into the background....again by design.

A couple of things I've tried on my system (Asus 27" monitor, GTX 680 card):

I run at the monitor's native res: 1920 x 1080 @ 120 Hz, using adaptive Vsync with the latest Nvidia drivers.

I set FSAA in-game to 0

In the Nvidia Control panel I disabled FSAA and FXAA

I use SweetFX (using Les' "Neutral 6 setting)

Many monitors have their own menu settings which can be adjusted "on the fly" (pun intended) while actually playing Cliffs of Dover. I found that the otherwise-beautiful "theatre" setting actually was too saturated in rich colours and high contrast and hampered me in tracking targets, even close ones, against a dark early morning/late evening sky, not to mention terrain or ocean! In my case I simply flipped through the settings menu and settled on "standard". A little drabber than the "theatre" and "gamer" settings, but the increased dynamic visual range lightened up the shadows a lot and toned down the glaring mid day sky. I still lose an opponent in the sun, but can readily track the dot against the bright sky as he approaches the sun, then pick him up again after he's traversed it and emerges on the opposite side.

The trade off to the above is 1) a slight loss in richness of colours (which actually still looks very good with SweetFx), and 2) distant terrain is slightly jaggy/shimmery. However, these two downsides are offset by picking up opponents (and friendlies) at what I consider to be reasonably "normal" distances. Certainly early enough to avoid a bounce (if you diligently check 6 constantly....and it's not directly out of the sun). Also you can spot an adversary early enough to position yourself tactically, rather than always being on the defensive in a disadvantageous position.

Good luck!

[klem]

Originally Posted by VO101_Tom

Model code: .../EDC

No. the line immediately above that. Mine reads

226BW [R] C

with quite a gap between the ] and the C