I used to agree with Flanker (Moi moi) that the zoom was unreal. Buuut, have come to discover that it is dependant on the display size, view distance from display, and the resolution of display.
It is true that for most larger modern monitors (24" 16:10 1920x1200 viewed from 50cm distance) the scale is too large - objects appear larger than they would in reality to our actual eyes. But the resolution is lacking. As a consequence, when using the smallest available FOV (gunsight) in IL-2:
- Objects are larger than reality.
- Objects appear closer than reality.
- Movement is easier to detect than reality (not significant as view field is tiny).
- Objects are considerably less detailed than reality, appearing smudged (pixellated) - not only for the larger scale that the zoom in view shows, but even compared to real eyes, real cockpit, real FOV.
It is a compromise, trading distorted scale and peripheral vision for more object detail (and even then it is not enough compared to reality). This is no doubt what Oleg was trying to communicate.
If we used real FOV (number dependant on user display size, resolution and distance from view screen. Fov 55 at the example specs given above at 50cm from screen), scale and distance would be correct but objects would be 'blurred' with pixellation, severely impairing gunnery.
I do wish that Team Daidalos could include a FOV calculator with a patch
but I don't think that will happen.
I use max FOV (WIDE) for general flying despite feeling the pain of distorted scale and pixellation. FOV 55 (surprise!) for looking at instruments, non-distant gunnery and looking around. And min FOV (Gunsight) for viewing objects at a distance, trying to ID objects and medium/long range gunnery. All three controlled by a single button.
Not one of the three are in any way as good as the constant real FOV of reality would have offered in the real aircraft. Better than reality will only occur with LARGE view screens together with HIIIIGH resolution. As hardware improves, minimum FOV in games will become cheaty in that it will be possible to gun more accurately and most of all, identify friend or foe from further out than reality. But apart from moving from crappier than reality to better than reality, the impact will be no different to the disparity already exists because of hardware differences between users.
Armed with this knowledge, IL-2 hardcore pilots with more flight time, more training, extreeemely much more air combat experience and possibly thousands of kills more than any WW2 pilot; having access to 70 years of collective recorded analysis and knowledge since the war began, being able to experiment in ways that no pilots have been able to in reality in putting their aircraft and lives in harms way... these guys posess unbelievable marksmanship and piloting skills and would become legendary aces had they gone back in time to fly in WW2 (not counting the other real strains of war). The superior in quality and quantity Allied pilots in Western Europe in the late war fighting few and poorly trained Axis pilots made the American aircraft used historically seem better than they were, and the Axis aircraft worse. Our hardened IL-2 virtual veterans have a similar effect on ahistorical outcomes of air combat.