Dot Visibility in COD and Other Flight ims.

[ytareh]

Its fairly well known that in IL2 its waaaay harder to see 'dots' (distant planes) at higher resolutions .I play exclusively at 1024x768 online as I simply am not competitive at higher res.I cant even see planes take off from airfields directly below me at 1km alt or less at higher res.Needless to say Im acutely aware this is kinda a crying shame on a screen with a 2560x1600 native resolution!My question is will COD be the exact same .Is this a game engine issue or simply due to the number of dots used to show distant planes and 'pixel size'?
{Im also aware that the 'pixel density' on monitors affects this ie a 'dot' on a 17inch 1280x1024 will be harder to see than a 19 inch 1280x1024 as pixels are 'clumped' closer together and hence smaller }
Id appreciate some sound advice on this topic as I wont have any need to upgrade if its the exact same I reckon...

[Royraiden]

What do you mean you are not competitive at higher res?You have a 2500x1600 resolution monitor and you are playing at 1024x768?What?Why?

[Gromic]

Probably for the same reason that I have my 24" scaled down when flying online and don't use native res. Dots are hard as hell to see the higher the resolution is set and I ain't getting any younger

Offline is a different matter.

[Qpassa]

Its sad to have a new PC and use 1024x768, I use native resolution, I hope if I do the same in COD I wont have any disadvantage
Some official answer would be great

[Chivas]

I agree, and have to fly at 1024x768 online to see the dots. Even then I have people calling out boogies I never see. Hopefully the developers will render dots the same size at different resolutions, but I'm not sure how much work that is or if its even possible.

[David603]

Technically it is quite possible, it is simply a matter of programming the system to use an object instead of just a single pixel to represent distant aircraft.

Since the object will always be the same size, it will always occupy the same proportion of the screen, so if the screen size is the same, the object will be the same size, regardless of resolution. The only restriction is that the object must be big enough to appear as one pixel at max view distance on the lowest resolution supported by the game.

Unfortunately I'm not sure if Oleg is aware that people exploit the current system, because he was asked about it a while back and his reply was to the effect that he thought the pixel system was fair, and that it was always one pixel whatever the resolution.

[David603]

Originally Posted by Royraiden

What do you mean you are not competitive at higher res?You have a 2500x1600 resolution monitor and you are playing at 1024x768?What?Why?

Playing at a lower resolution than your screen is designed for causes the dot that represents a plane at long range to appear bigger.

For example, if you had a screen that displayed at 2000x1200 (not a real resolution), and you used that setting, a plane at the extreme distance of visibility will appear as 1 pixel on your screen. If you lower the resolution to 1000x600, the plane will appear at the same distance, but it will now be represented by 2x2 pixels, because your screen is adapting to the lower resolution and magnifying the number of pixels input by 2x2.

[The Kraken]

Originally Posted by ytareh

Is this a game engine issue or simply due to the number of dots used to show distant planes and 'pixel size'?

Il2 initially used bigger and more visible dots but many people complained so it was changed in some early patch. Now it's exactly 1 pixel, and as pointed out that pixel gets smaller with higher resolution.

Cliffs of Dover will most likely have planes and other objects visible much further out because technology has improved, people use higher resolutions and anti aliasing is an established feature now - all of this makes it sensible to render planes as 3D objects where Il2 already switches to the dot representation.

I guess we'll have to wait for the release to find out how it works now; this isn't something that can easily be shown on screens or videos.

[Flanker35M]

S!

Not to mention that the LOD values on many planes in IL-2 are way off, even today. Making some look like Lego blocks at a distance where the other plane is smaller. This affected for example Bf109-series as you could tell which one was a 109 over enemy plane because of the bigger dot and plane model at certain LOD range.

[Flying Pencil]

IRL it is possible to see a small airplane at least 5 miles if contrast is good.

Their is a trade off in game between realistic view distance and finding your "fun".