More realistic machine gun tracers?

[Fuchs]

men in black are near!!

[Wolf_Rider]

Originally Posted by hoarmurath

yes, they are supposed to look straight. in cod, they look straight and ugly. Old ones from il2 looked better imo.

i also like those from rise of flight.

Because, you know, if they look like lasers in the videos posted, it's because of the speed at which the camera capture the images.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz8QsBxcOMw

and the difference , is?

[hoarmurath]

The difference is, speed at which the camera record images, sensibility of the film, time of exposition (given by speed of recording), and the fact the camera is mounted on a moving, vibrating frame.

Lots of factors that have nothing to do with the actual tracers.

Yet, i did shooting when i was in the military, and we fired tracers, and i never thought they were looking like lasers, because they weren't. Cameras can see them as lasers, but our eye doesn't.

As far as i can remember, tracers looked just like tiny color lights flying very fast to the target, it lasted very short time, less than a second.

[ChrisDNT]

"Tracers in real life look like star wars lasers."

Once again, I've been AA gunner on what was basically an improved WWII design canon (the Oerlikon54) and I NEVER saw, during day or night, any "lasers", either from the gunner seat or looking at the battery from a certain distance.



@the fanboys : before saying that the tracers look in real life like lasers because "God" or his saints said it, just remember the "atomic" muzzleflashes from IL2, which were also "really real", until they disappeared.

[Blackdog_kt]

That's strange...i've been a flak gunner on dual 20mm Rheinmetal guns and they looked very similar to CoD, including their transition from "streak" to "dot" as they move away and the angular offset effect diminishes.

The only issue i can find is that the ones in CoD are a bit too thick when they are close to your viewpoint, but if i remember correctly this is due to a limitation in the way they are rendered.

[Wutz]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

That's strange...i've been a flak gunner on dual 20mm Rheinmetal guns and they looked very similar to CoD, including their transition from "streak" to "dot" as they move away and the angular offset effect diminishes.

The only issue i can find is that the ones in CoD are a bit too thick when they are close to your viewpoint, but if i remember correctly this is due to a limitation in the way they are rendered.

Yes that is how I remember them too! Out of curiousity at which squadron where you serving?

[Babi]

Originally Posted by Dores

This has been discussed a million times.

To make this short - tracers are wobbly on film/video because the gun camera shakes. Tracers in real life look like star wars lasers.

One could argue that the pilot's head inside the cockpit shakes as the planes moves and the guns are fired; so he could see wobbly tracers too, but maybe this effect is small and can be neglected (don't know actually)

I'm fine with the tracers as they are, but i don't like the impact effect on planes, or to be more precise the lack of them. in all the guncamera that i saw, hits where very clearly visible with flashes, followed by dust and debris flying off the aircraft. In Cod i can hardly tell that i'm hitting the enemy plane until an aileron/elevator falls off.

[Blackdog_kt]

Hmmm that's strange, i get a lot of visual feedback with my effects set to medium in the graphics options

Originally Posted by Wutz

Yes that is how I remember them too! Out of curiousity at which squadron where you serving?

I assume you mean in Germany, right? Well, i live in Greece and served in the local air force, so it's not very likely that we would have any common memories of places/units

To answer your question though, i was in an air defence/flak and guards squad which was part of a guided missiles wing that's operating Patriot missiles (i did see a memorial plaque from the Schleswig-Holstein at one point though in one of the missile squads' HQ, maybe from joint missile firing exercises)
Initially it was a bit of a let-down to be honest, since i was expecting to be posted at some kind of operational airfield with jets and what not and hoped to be an armorer or something similar, but overall i liked the kind of stuff i was trained on and did well thanks to having some flight sim background.

I always scored well in the simulation, often better than commissioned/professional personnel, at some point the squad commander even assigned me a training session explaining some of the gun's procedures (how to set the no-fire sector) and how to lead targets to them in advance of some kind of exam they were about to get
That gun is excellent and one of the most reliable pieces of machinery i've ever come across, it worked just fine at -10C and 90% humidity in the winter as well as at 30C and an atmosphere full of dust in the summer.

Well, i'm rambling again, let's go back on topic.

[Babi]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

Hmmm that's strange, i get a lot of visual feedback with my effects set to medium in the graphics options

I have effects set to medium too. i can hardly see anything from 200-300 meters.. not the bright flashes of the hits like in il-2 anyway. When i'm VERY close i can see some sort of persistent red/orange flashes that compare on the aircraft skin and then fade away very slowly... don't really know what those are supposed to be. I'ts with the british 303s.

Perhaps i loaded my Hurricane's ammo belts with plasma rounds by mistake

[Blackdog_kt]

The lingering flame effect also exists in some of the Luftwaffe rounds. According to the manual, they are so called "observer rounds" which burn on the surface but don't cause any real damage, apparently they serve as an indicator of whether you are hitting anything or not.