What a tracer should look like (before spazzing just look).

[Mysticpuma]

Well looking at those tracer in the video above it would be good to know what shutter speed was being used as 1/2 second shutter speed would give a tracer about 40-yards long per round, but a shutter speed of 10000th of a second would give a tracer length of about 10-inches. Sadly unless you see tracer first-hand there is no-way that a video can represent the length

HOWEVER... it can represent the thickness and looking at the above they all seem pretty thin and like the new version and not that great big thick slab of light-sabre that currently appears!

So I would certainly load this mod and ask for it to be made official.

MP

[DK-nme]

Hmmm, so funny. If one mentions the propeller disk everyone jumps you and tells, that in real life the propellers are invisible and what we see on telly is caused by framerates - okay, I get it.
But when talking 'bout tracers, suddenly movie effects are ok???
Tracers doesnt look like they do in game - it is again framerate that causes long laser effects...
Again, and now I will seek cover, the tracers in Il-2 wings of prey, they seems to have got it almost right - so why can't it be in this game???

[pupaxx]

I'm well aware about the lenght of tracer is determinated by frame rate and shutter-speed and other factors. I accept all is said about in the past, is technically correct and convincing. i'm aware the video I posted has a relative valor for this discussion cause the gatling is not comparable with spitfire armament etc. If u assure me the ingame (modded or non modded) tracer effect are 100% lifelike, however I'dont like them, it give me the impression of a banal visual phenomenon even if full real. I'd like some cinema fx even if not full realistic. I find nothing wrong in 'warming up' the game ambience with some (well calibrated) effects.
Just my thought
Cheers

[Baron]

Completely and utterly indifferent.


Would be cool with more effects from fire hitting targets/ground targets etc. though.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by machoo

I don't care what experts say. The tracers should have a squiggle like on Tv. Why? Because you are pressing a button that vibrates the crap out of your body , the aircraft is vibrating , the perspex would be vibrating.

It just makes sense.

Is your vision blurry when driving down the highway in an older car or a truck? Because there's all sorts of vibration in that one too

The amount of tissue in your body and the reflex motions of your eyeballs can dampen these vibrations out to the point that they are non-perceivable until the vibration gets really severe.


As for the topic at hand, i agree with Heliocon that making them slightly thinner and using lighting instead of geometry to give the impression of glow would make them just right, but i disagree that viewing them 90 degrees off to their line of travel would give off dots (unless one was very far away). At least that's my perception from personally firing 20mm rheinmetal AA guns while i was serving my conscription term in the local air force, the whole gun was shaking when i was watching others fire but when i was firing myself i was on the gun and didn't feel a thing, tracers didn't squiggle at all, etc. All i would see is thin lines of light that turned into small dots as they got about a kilometer or so away from me. I could estimate range from knowing the shell's maximum flight time (it has a self destruct fuse) and the amount of time it flew before it turned into a dot, so it was easy to make a rough calculation, eg "it turns into a dot 1/3rd of the way before it explodes, i know it explodes at 2km, so it's about 600-700 meters".

As for extra effects, there are ricochets modeled in CoD. Best way to see it is to have a steady firing platform with a battery of rapid firing guns: just crash land a 110 and let it rest with its nose low, then start firing those mg17s and the rounds will start impacting a few hundred yards off your nose, you can easily see the ricochets.

[SQB]

Originally Posted by Strike

*Epic facepalm*

what? It's common knowledge that when the ground you are standing on vibrates your eyeballs vibrate as well, making everything blurry!
Also the propeller should look like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxdLg50il20

it's just common sense!




{that's sarcasm btw}

[Doc_uk]

Weres darth vader
They look far to long, and far to neat and tidy

[choctaw111]

Originally Posted by machoo

I don't care what experts say. The tracers should have a squiggle like on Tv. Why? Because you are pressing a button that vibrates the crap out of your body , the aircraft is vibrating , the perspex would be vibrating.

It just makes sense.

Sorry. Even the when human body is shaking or vibrating our eyes are "cushioned" and have the ability to see things clearly, unlike a camera that is hard mounted to the plane.
If you fire some machine guns for yourself, you will see that this is true.

[SNAFU]

You never experienced life on board of a slow running, 2stroke 40MW diesel engine driven vessel I guess? But vibrations can render you vision blurry to even hurting if you even try to focus something at certain revolutions and certain points in your cabin.

But I don´t think wing mounted cannons or guns can induce such vibrations into the pilots seat.

I don´t mind the look of tracers, in my limited playing time (maybe 4hours of abt. 150 hrs in FMB logged via steam) I now don´t use tracers anymore. But I would like the option to switch off guns sounds, because in all the literature I read, it was mostly mentioned that the pilot could not hear the guns being fired, only notices the shaking and nose dropping of the plane, when he pressed the trigger. But that`s another story...

[choctaw111]

Originally Posted by Mysticpuma

Well looking at those tracer in the video above it would be good to know what shutter speed was being used as 1/2 second shutter speed would give a tracer about 40-yards long per round, but a shutter speed of 10000th of a second would give a tracer length of about 10-inches. Sadly unless you see tracer first-hand there is no-way that a video can represent the length

HOWEVER... it can represent the thickness and looking at the above they all seem pretty thin and like the new version and not that great big thick slab of light-sabre that currently appears!

So I would certainly load this mod and ask for it to be made official.

MP

Good point MP.
I did see somewhere on these forums (from Oleg) about the shutter speed of the average human eye. I cannot remember exactly the duration. 1/60th of a second or something like that. If this is true, how many of us have rigs that can display ClOD at this speed? If our rigs cannot keep up with the shutter speed of the human eye then how can we expect to get "realistic" tracer effects?
On to the thickness. The thickness of a tracer also depends on the amount of ambient light. Of course at night, tracers are much more defined and have a greater apparent thickness.
On the other hand I have been in places that were so bright, from the sun reflecting off the sand, that tracers (5.56x45) were not even noticeable even with dark sunglasses. The 7.62x39 and 50 cals were more distinguishable. The difference is that the "tracer hole" diameter varies from one type of bullet to another. The bigger the hole that the tracer burns through means a brighter, thicker and more visible tracer.
I am probably not the foremost "expert" on this forum, but the literal millions of tracers I have seen throughout my career of all types and calibers should certainly have my opinion respected.
I still have not had the pleasure of flying around with ClOD so until then I cannot say, aside from Youtube vids, how I feel about the tracers in ClOD.