Speed of Aircraft

[BO109]

Gents,

I'm not sure how to put this, but I think the in-game speed of aircraft is wrong, and I'd like someone to put me right on this.

I played the SP level where you had to transport the BF-110 up the coast, and left it on autopilot. The speed gauge registered 430 kmph throughout, and when I took over to go NOE, at the same speed, it seemed more like a gentle rail journey than 430 kmph. Coupled with that, I had an approach speed to the runway of 260 kmph, which seems outrageous, though it only felt like I was coasting. On landing I was apparently doing over 50 kmph, but I seemed that I was barely ticking along.

I have this unnerving feeling that a decimal point in the coding has slipped and something is fundamentally wrong. I've landed on commercial jets doing 150 - 180 knots, and it doesn't tally with my in-game experience. Perhaps someone with more real life & sim experience than me may allay my fears.

Thanks in advance,

Bo109

[FS~Phat]

It has to do with your field of view, perspective, distances involved and peripheral vision.
In games with short distances to 3d object scenarios, (FPS, driving, etc) where objects are measured in meters or feet from the virtual players view, you can get a much better feeling of speed, especially if they have a wide angle of view.

Many games have been using fakery to simulate the effect of speed, because at the end of the day we are looking at a 2d flat screen with 3d rendered objects with virtually no peripheral vision to speak of. (incidentally this is where surround and eyefinity gaming really pay off, by increasing the effective peripheral vision. I mentioned this in another thread here about surround gaming)

Anyway I digress, as you can imagine, sitting in a cockpit miles above the ground and away from any objects, compared to a running/driving around in FPS/driving where things flash past you within meters, you just can't get the sensation of speed.

And landing, well the nearest objects are still usually 100s of meters away and you don't get a very good view of the ground from within a cockpit when the ground is below you, so sensation of speed is therefore even more limited again!

If you played on a surround/eyefinity setup you would get a better sensation of speed because of the increased field of view and increased peripheral vision.

Also the size of the screen has a lot to do with it too, a 40" screen is going to give you a better sensation of speed compared to a 24". This again has to do with peripheral vision. The more of the game world you can include in the peripheral vision the greater the sensation of speed.

Another thing that would no doubt help is the 3d effect, which I'm yet to experience in a game (because I don't have 3d monitors), but I'm pretty sure looking at a 3d world with 3d vision would also increase the sensation of speed.

So at the end of the day, we are limited by the fact we see in 3d and are viewing a 3d world on 2d screen that is too small to give us an effective peripheral view of the world. It is a game after all!

Read this for a game developers view on this problem> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/arc...rspective.aspx

[BO109]

Many thanks for the replies Cheesehawk and FS~Phat.

I do have a triple monitor setup on an ATI 6970, but I haven't set up the eyefinity yet. I might have a look at doing that over the weekend, since all three are on brackets that can be tilted to create the illusion of peripheral vision.

As regards speed of aircraft, my reference game for saying this is B-17 Flying Fortress, where flying at 36,000 feet you felt as if you were going at speed, until the Me109's came out of the clouds at vastly higher speeds, such that one had to slow the game to 1/8th time to even get a bead on one with the turret guns.

In COD, I have yet to do a mission where I zap past the bombers, give them a squirt, and thank god I've survived. It seems I have to creep up on them slowly, get into 400 yard range, knock out the rear gunner, knock em down, rinse and repeat for his comrades. I know its not an ME-262 I'm flying, but I'd thought from reading books & combat footage there should be greater speeds.

Anyhow I'll report me findings on eyefinity, though I'm not confident my rig has the oomph to run COD quite like I hope.

Regards,

Bo.