Visibility in IL-2

[HFC_Dolphin]

So guys, after all these years I still cannot find the best settings to get maximum visibility of dots.
There are people who can see dots from much farther than I can and I really wonder what it takes for this.
I have an Nvidia 6800ultra and flying in perfect settings, 1024x768, 4xaniso, 4xantiali & using a 17" EIΖΟ LCD screen.
Is there some kind of change that I can make in conf.ini in order to get better visibility of enemy dots?
Some other trick I can use?

[tagTaken2]

iconTypes=3

[HFC_Dolphin]

iconTypes=3

But I think this is 3 by default.
Maybe I should put some other value?

[335th_GRAthos]

Geia sou Dolphin,

I have (had) IL2 running on machines with ATI9800, NV6800, NV7800, NV7900SLI, NV7950GX2(SLI), ATI1950...

Answer #1: Buy an ATI card :mrgreen:
Not being funny, ATIs quality of picture is better and allows to distinguish better.

Answer #2: Do NOT buy a 7800 or 7900 series card
They are fast but, the quality of picture is a lot worse than your 6800, you will be surprised...

I was told the 8800 series have a much better picture quality than the older series - did not have the time to test yet...

Answer #3
Human eye can identify "movement" ten times better than distinguishing the shape of a static object (do not nail me about the ten factor, it is long ago I watched Discovery channel...). So, it comes down to how clear can you identify small moving objects subsequently how well your card shows that.
For this reason you need to test the following:
a.) conf.ini (always make a backup)
Get all Nividia Optimisations out ! In the OpenGl area, everything that ends with xxxxNV=1 is an optimisation for an NVIDIA card. Put this back to 0

b.) graphics drivers: Some drivers are better than others. Unfortunately it is very time consuming re-installing drivers. The NGO drivers are supposed to be very good (at least I confirm this for my 7900GTX SLI).

CAREFULL: You have a risk turning off all optimisations: Your 6800 is a very good card (still) but it may not have enough power at the end to let you enjoy a stutter free game.

Hope it helps,

~S~

Manos

[carguy_]

AFAIK GeForce series 7 and 8 are better than ATI counterparts(performance).

[EAF331_Hans]

Here is an answer that works:
Get a larger screen, run it at the same resolution. Then the pixels (=dots) will be larger and easier to spot.
Note that you can use a widescreen too, should you prefer that.

[Avala]

Maybe you could try with some of the tweaked extreme g drivers, makes wonders for me :)

http://www.tweakforce.com/

[msalama]

What / which ATI drivers do you guys recommend?

[zapatista]

Here is an answer that works:
Get a larger screen, run it at the same resolution. Then the pixels (=dots) will be larger and easier to spot.
Note that you can use a widescreen too, should you prefer that.

HFC_Dolphin,

what hans said is basically your main issue, its probably mainly caused by a combination of your small monitor size and its resolution, and i would suggest the FoV setting you fly in is important to.

the il2 dots which represent distant aircraft are made up of 2 pixels, and the pixel size on your monitor depends on the resolution you have set the screen at. with your 17' monitor being set at 1280 x 1025, your pixel size is about 0.25 mm. since you are using an lcd, using a 1024 x 768 resolution to increase pixel size isnt really very realistic, because the pixels become more fuzzy, so might be larger but will be harder to see.


additionally, your "normal" FoV setting for a small 17' screen should probably be about 35 or 40 degrees. so if you fly in a wider FoV like 70 or 90 while you are searching for dots, you will be searching for a very small dot whereas another person with a 30' monitor set to the same FoV will see that same distant aircraft as a small LoD model (being about 4x larger than a 2 pixel dot). this is a very true problem for aircraft modeled between 1000 and 2500 meters away from you, the LoD-to-dot transition point (where the smallest LoD model transitions to representing the aircraft as a 2 dot object) in the il2 game engine can vary that much depending on the size of your monitor, and the FoV setting you have set your monitor at !


in the short term you can try and fiddle with your driver and display settings, but your main issue is simple the monitor size, the resolution, and flying in the correct FoV for your monitor size.

[DKoor]

There was some thing you can do with VGA and everything (IL-2 world, houses, ground, sea, trees.....) would just disappear.... except aircraft.
The bad side was you can lawn dart easily.

Someone even posted a pics.

Imagine the visibility 8)

[Kandiru]

What really helped me is transitioning from a 720p to a 1080p projector (Mitsu HC5000) with 2 million pixels for data. I connect via the RGB cable from my 7900GTX.

I say WOW, the 110" screen now comes alive. I spot bogeys way before they can see me, my shooting still shucks :)

[DKoor]

I spot bogeys way before they can see me, my shooting still shucks :)It's better to say I can outspot them :lol:.... by spotting one gray pixel against the light blue background.....
Great vis man! 8)

I guess that makes the game experience totally different and much more cool.

[HFC_Dolphin]

Thanks guys for all replies!

Yesterday I had the same conversation with a guy and he told me that it's my monitor's "fault" that I can't see dots from far away.
I have an old EIZO L557 (http://www.eizo.com/SUPPORT/discontinued/lcd/l557.asp) and if you check its specs, I'd say that they are quite outdated.

Maybe with a new monitor I'll be able to solve the problem.

[335th_GRAthos]

Three 20" monitors are better than one :wink:

3072x768
http://www.e-335thgr.com/Athos/TripleHead2Go_01.JPG

I like 4:3 monitors, I have experienced difficulties tryig deflection shots with wide screen (16:9) monitors...

~S~

[HFC_Dolphin]

lol Athos!!!

But you definitely need a better joystick :)

[Snuff_Pidgeon]

open confi ini and set new value for visibility distance..