Gunsight glass edge: opaque or transparent?

[Woke Up Dead]

Hey guys,

I noticed something about the edges of gunsights: in some planes they are transparent, in some the are opaque, in some they are very thick, and some gunsights don't seem to have any thickness or glass edge to them at all.

When the edge is very thick and opaque (not transparent), it can be distracting when aiming. The Yak9 is probably the worst plane for this, particularly since it also has the thick bullet-proof windscreen with opaque edges. The other Yaks and the I-16 are also pretty bad for this. The gunsight edge on the LaGGs and La's is also opaque, but a bit thinner. Spitfires also have a thick edge on the gunsight that you can't see through.

The German planes on the other hand don't seem to have any thickness to their gunsights at all, it's like looking through a little piece of plastic wrap.

On American and Japanese planes it's inconsistent. The P47 has a thick, opaque gunsight edge almost as bad as the Yaks. The Zeros and J2Ms have a thinner, opaque edge. The P51 has a very thin and opaque edge, the P40 has a transparent edge, the P38 has a semi-transparent gunsight edge, and the Ki84 has a thick edge that is perfectly transparent.

Anyway, is this all "historically accurate," or is the way each gunsight edge shown in game just a guess by whoever modeled it? I would think that glass is glass, some of it may be of better quality than other, some gunsights may be thicker than others, but I don't see why some gunsight edges should be opaque, some transparent, and some in-between.

Just a minor detail, but it is noticeable and sometimes distracting when flying the Yaks, the Spits, and the P47.

[Laurwin]

I could not find answers to you specific gunsights but here's a modern picture of a B-25 forward mounted gunsight N-3 model (for fixed nose gun presumably)

http://www.aircraft-gunsights.com/

[Woke Up Dead]

Thanks Laurwin. It's opaque, makes sense, glass edges are opaqe.

Your post made me think to search for pictures of other gunsights:

Soviet PBP gunsight: http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/3336/44968635.jpg
German Revi gunsight: http://www.deutscheluftwaffe.de/inst...s/Revi3d-7.gif
American gunsight from P-38: http://www.ebay.com/itm/P-38-LIGHTNI...-/110429361254

The reflector glass is always opaque, and roughly the same thickness on every gunsight. In-game, that's not the case, some consistency would be nice. I think a thin, opaque strip at the top of the gunsight would be the ideal balance between providing some depth to the gunsight edge, and not being a thick eyesore and distraction; the Mustang III gunsight is a good example.

I know that many cockpits in this game are old, need updating, and that it's a huge task. Updating a handful gunsights should be easier than updating entire cockpits and will make a big positive difference.

[Laurwin]

is it any worse or better in new battle of stalingrad IL-2 ?

from what I remember it looked quite nice but that's just me, I don't have the early access though so I cant look into it.

realistically I think this game probably wont get many more patches, sad as it may sound. Future is in Battle of Stalingrad I think, for better or worse?

Logically though you would assume that they made the gunsight, so that whe you look directly thorugh it, in the centre of the cockpit, then the picture would be the clearest.

As far as Ive thought about it, youre kind of supposed to sit in the center of the cockpit when shootinng the guns (even if the reflector image can be seen from other angles at the side)

I know the german gunsight was angled to the side a little bit though. But I suppose the pilot, would still sit in the center of the cockpit (small bf109 cockpit) and woould lean forward a little bit to see better ?

[Woke Up Dead]

Here's a good video explaining why the infamous "190 bar" shouldn't exist because of refraction of light through glass:
I think the opaque areas I mentioned, particularly in the Yak 9, should be reduced for the same reason.

[TexasJG]

Interesting!!

[Laurwin]

http://books.google.fi/books?id=gztL...ockpit&f=false

Check page 19 for a schematic of complete REVI gunsight in focke-wulf.



There is real life cockpit of real life Fw-190. Captured in 1945. Slightly damaged protective leather band, around instrument panel.

In WW2 the armored glass for aircraft canopys was always the best optical quality armored glass, which provided least amount of distortions. This causes available light towards the pilot's eyes to be of highest quality. This aids in spotting the enemy. That was the German theory of aircraft building for example.

Purpose of the gunsight was to provide good target picture to the enemy who you are shooting at. And also help in stadiametric rangefinding.

Perhaps an aircraft glass expert would be more knowledgeable when it comes to the differences and similarities between gunsight glass and optical armored glass canopy.