A potential fix for the Aircraft visibility problems?

[HR_Naglfar]

Originally Posted by David198502

and the disappearing problem is a specific spitfire problem they introduced with a patch...
at least for me, all the other planes stay visible...but the spit disappears completely..

i cant believe that this really annoying bug made it into the last update of clod......gosh im angry

To me it happens with all fighters with MeshShowLod=0, it's not just the Spitfire.

[David198502]

the disappearing also depends with with FOV you prefer to fly....i noticed yesterday, that the planes only seem to completely disappear with a FOV from ~80° or higher...
if i fly with the standard 70° FOV, the planes start to flicker in the critical range,and are hard to spot, but dont disappear completely...

[Blennydude]

I'm at a complete loss with plane disappearances so far. I can't remember the last time planes stayed visible from detection to close range.
Now that the game appears at least playable, with some FM components approaching reality, this is the next game-breaking bug that keeps me from having any fun with CoD - it's just SO frustrating I could almost cry.

I run a 1920*1080 resolution (ATI HD 5xxx series, 1GB VRAM), which is the native one for my monitor, and so far, nothing has helped. Quite often, I feel that I can't spot anything at all (which is not a problem of me needing better glasses, if you suspect that - normally, I can spot things from pretty far out). As an example: A few days ago, on ATAG, people reported 6 109s on the deck, right where I was - but the first thing I saw of them was when I checked my 6 after getting fatal hits...
And, at other times, I've got the problem most people report - that I can spot planes from far out, only to have them disappear, and (sometimes) reappear when it's way too late.
As I said, I'm at a complete loss, and it's just soo frustrating. I just want to play a combat flight simulation and I don't see why I'm not allowed to do that! *sigh*.

I tried everything that has been proposed so far, chiefly among it the MeshShowLod=1 setting in conf.ini. Setting this costs some FPS, but it's certainly still playable - except that it does seemingly nothing.
I also overheard(read) somebody mentioning that object detail has to be at "high" - which it is, per defauilt, on my setting - nothing.
Playing with other graphic settings, p.ex. setting texture details to "original", also yielded nothing at all.

I always feel like I'm flying completely alone on ATAG - the "biggest" proof that there are other people in the air are flak puffs over home territory... but, strangely, as long as I am on the ground, things *seem* to work, with fellow pilots being visible, taking off alongside me, and if airspace is busy over the airfield, the action is quite clearly visible...

Sooooo, if anybody has a tip how to finally get rid of this da*** problem, I would be very, very, VERY grateful. I even would fly with a skin with the words "I <3 <helper>!!11" on it, if provided with one!


Just one time having a good time in CoD - just one time - please...

[SQB]

Well, I think I've found the problem. There's a gap between the fade out range (where the model of the aircraft disappears) and where the dot comes in. This is why FOV appears to make a difference (which LOD to use is a product of distance and FOV). To change this... setting the LOD to run out to infinity (meshshowlod=1) will do the trick, but you'll kill your computer. If I knew what lines changed things I would make it so the dot appears on any aircraft at any distance, it's still to have it come in at a certain range.

[SlipBall]

Originally Posted by Blennydude

I'm at a complete loss with plane disappearances so far. I can't remember the last time planes stayed visible from detection to close range.
Now that the game appears at least playable, with some FM components approaching reality, this is the next game-breaking bug that keeps me from having any fun with CoD - it's just SO frustrating I could almost cry.

I run a 1920*1080 resolution (ATI HD 5xxx series, 1GB VRAM), which is the native one for my monitor, and so far, nothing has helped. Quite often, I feel that I can't spot anything at all (which is not a problem of me needing better glasses, if you suspect that - normally, I can spot things from pretty far out). As an example: A few days ago, on ATAG, people reported 6 109s on the deck, right where I was - but the first thing I saw of them was when I checked my 6 after getting fatal hits...
And, at other times, I've got the problem most people report - that I can spot planes from far out, only to have them disappear, and (sometimes) reappear when it's way too late.
As I said, I'm at a complete loss, and it's just soo frustrating. I just want to play a combat flight simulation and I don't see why I'm not allowed to do that! *sigh*.

I tried everything that has been proposed so far, chiefly among it the MeshShowLod=1 setting in conf.ini. Setting this costs some FPS, but it's certainly still playable - except that it does seemingly nothing.
I also overheard(read) somebody mentioning that object detail has to be at "high" - which it is, per defauilt, on my setting - nothing.
Playing with other graphic settings, p.ex. setting texture details to "original", also yielded nothing at all.

I always feel like I'm flying completely alone on ATAG - the "biggest" proof that there are other people in the air are flak puffs over home territory... but, strangely, as long as I am on the ground, things *seem* to work, with fellow pilots being visible, taking off alongside me, and if airspace is busy over the airfield, the action is quite clearly visible...

Sooooo, if anybody has a tip how to finally get rid of this da*** problem, I would be very, very, VERY grateful. I even would fly with a skin with the words "I <3 <helper>!!11" on it, if provided with one!

Just one time having a good time in CoD - just one time - please...

Try watching my track file up above. If the dot disappears, then maybe it is in your system some where.

[David198502]

Originally Posted by SQB

Well, I think I've found the problem. There's a gap between the fade out range (where the model of the aircraft disappears) and where the dot comes in. This is why FOV appears to make a difference (which LOD to use is a product of distance and FOV). To change this... setting the LOD to run out to infinity (meshshowlod=1) will do the trick, but you'll kill your computer. If I knew what lines changed things I would make it so the dot appears on any aircraft at any distance, it's still to have it come in at a certain range.

yeah its exactly that, a gap between the dot model and the 3d lod model, where just nothing is rendered...
when they introduced this bug, i thought this was only a matter of a few days until a hotfix will be available...its really puzzling, as this is a major bug and really ridiculous that it actually made it into the final release...

the last two days i was spending much time and fiddled with the conf.ini file, to see if there is a workaroung except the meshshowlod=1 trick.up until now, without any result unforutantely...
having to zoom in to avoid the vanishing is of course possible, but you will lose situational awareness....
i dont believe, that this would be hard to fix for the devs, but what do i know.

[SQB]

Originally Posted by David198502

yeah its exactly that, a gap between the dot model and the 3d lod model, where just nothing is rendered...
when they introduced this bug, i thought this was only a matter of a few days until a hotfix will be available...its really puzzling, as this is a major bug and really ridiculous that it actually made it into the final release...

the last two days i was spending much time and fiddled with the conf.ini file, to see if there is a workaroung except the meshshowlod=1 trick.up until now, without any result unforutantely...
having to zoom in to avoid the vanishing is of course possible, but you will lose situational awareness....
i dont believe, that this would be hard to fix for the devs, but what do i know.

Well, part of the reason is that back when the game was released the dot was rendered at ALL ranges, even when taxiing next to a spitfire you could see a little 2D dot just under/behind the cockpit. They must've taken that out to make the game more photogenic, but put the distance out too far.

[David198502]

yeah i think you are right....
but back then, the lod model didnt grind my pc to a halt.....now when i put in the conf.ini the line mehsshowlod to 1, i get terrible fps...it would be playable offline for some reason though, online its totally unplayable...fps between 1-30 jumping up and down in split seconds, stutters and freezes for more than a few seconds...

i definitely didnt have that in the release version or in any other version when the lod model was different.

in the meanwhile i seemed to found out, that putting the resolution to the native one seems to cure the probelm....but again, people with weak systems just like me, really dont want to do that....with lowering the resolution i get the biggest performance gain next to disabling shadows...

[Blennydude]

As I wrote above, I run with the native Monitor resolution and I've got massive LoD problems, so this doesn't cure the problem for me, sadly
I have disabled shadows, too, though.

[Blennydude]

Originally Posted by SlipBall

Try watching my track file up above. If the dot disappears, then maybe it is in your system some where.

I watched your track. The text, as well as the actual aircraft "dot", is visible all the time; from the starting distance (about 1.20 or so), down to .80, where you slow down, and then up to around 5.30, where the text is no longer readable on my resolution - but I estimate it stays there up to 5.60 or so.

Then, I watched the track again, this time with MeshShowLod=1. This yielded the exact same result; the plane as well as the text remained visible all the time. Exactly the same, with no newly introduced stutters or so.

Meanwhile, on ATAG, I searched in vain for a 14-plane Ju88 formation, as advertised by "Chain Home" - nothing, except for a few flak puffs.
Then, I got shot down over France in the usual manner - Bang, Bang, critical dmg, Pilot dead - and after pressing Alt+F2, I was able to see the corresponding Me109 for the first time...
This must've been a happy time for the Me - Pilot

So I'm still at a loss and still begging for help!


P.S.: That other file, "confs.ini" in the Documents/1C.../il-2 sturmovik.../ folder has an option, under [core], called "LinearObjectManager(=1)". Could this be relevant in any way?