Target visibility

Originally Posted by Insuber

To ensure some playability, and avoid boredom killing this game, we need above all to improve DETECTION range by increasing the dot visibility and contrast to 15-20 km, with normal visibility (as in the US Navy document posted by Manu earlier), and also solve the issue of disappearing contacts - linked to the LODs probably. A darker dot would do, imho.

Then, as far as IDENTIFICATION, I agree that in RL you can tell a Spit from a Bf from a longer distance than in this game (I think to events like Duxford, where the plane's silhouettes and colours are identifiable from very far away, let's say 3-5 km). Color of camo helps a lot, and in old Il2 the LOD's at far range were typical of a certain model (more squared for Bf, thinner for Spit); working on LODs to differentiate them a bit may be a solution. Skilled players could then ID a distant contact from the predominant color of the camo and the form of LOD.

Cheers!

Keep in mind that the aircraft to be spotted in the US Navy experiment was about or even more twice the size of the planes we discuss here (why do I have to repeat myself?). So I have very very strong doubts that you just can take the findings there and transpose it to fighters here.

I think the dot contrast is fine so I do not need a change here. If you have some difficulties finding the dots due to contrast please first tweak your own monitor settings or the graphic card settings before requesting a change in game that is fine for many others

I agree that something should be done with the presentation between first appearance as dot at 4 km and a presentation as a scaled down model at 2 km). I'd propose to use a something like a dash or so (could be a bold dash at a certain distance).

Sorry but I think it is absolutely unrealistic to see a fighter plane in 20 km distance even as a dot. These fighter planes have a wingspan of about 10m only. Do not compare it to airliners that have 6 or 8 times that wingspan.

The 4 km may be to pessimistic but the 20 is imho unrealistic. Please keep in mind that the 15-20 km in the US Navy experiments were obtained with a bigger aircraft and with the pilots knowing EXACTLY where to look. Both conditions (big aircraft, exact knowledge of position of plane to be spotted) do not apply for fighters in the situations we discuss here. So probably if you knew exactly where to look for a plane you could see a fighter at 7-10 km. But only if you knew exactly where to look.

The only real big issue that I see is that planes with a 3d model suddenly disappear into a dot or what I frequently experience that when zooming my view on a dot or a small plane (at about 2km) it gets invisible (perhaps a smooth zoom in function could work).