BF109 - Can't we just have the gunsight in the middle?

[RE77ACTION]

Ok, guys, my bad... But you can't expect me to read through more than 30 pages of rubbish small talk to find out where the initial discussion ended.

EDIT: I assumed that the current gunsight was correct because I've read a lot of posts stating that. Maybe I could have done more research, but I didn't find any indication to do so.

[Blackdog_kt]

Custom centering hotkey: lean to the side (either with 6DOF headtracking or with the mouse), press the hotkey and your centered point of view now defaults to the new position.

That's all that's needed to be honest, not eliminating the view restrictions.

The reason we can't turn around much in gunsight view is that it corresponds to tightened shoulder straps. Judging by the now famous videos of the RAF pilot giving an appraisal on the 109 and Spitfire cockpits, it seems that having your shoulders tightly bolted on to the seat would severely limit a pilot's ability to look around: we only move our heads (at least those of us with hedtrackers) because we are using accelerated input/output curves in the relevant interface, but in reality to look back one needs to turn the torso around as well.

Anyone who's driven a car and had to reverse at some point or parallel park knows this, to look back you need to turn the entire upper half of your body around and not just your head.

This is what the gunsight view simulates first and foremost, with the straps tightened there is less headshake at the cost of reduced ability to turn the our virtual body around, with loosened straps we can look back easier but there's more headshake.

That's why i am firmly against eliminating this feature:
1) It's realistic.
2) The gunsight troubles are a side effect that can easily be fixed.

How? By making the reticule visible from the normal centered position (to simulate the fact that in reality our right eye would be able to see it) or giving us the ability to set a custom center viewpoint.

There's no need to do away with a realistic feature just because of an easy to fix side-effect, it would be like disabling the mixture controls on RAF aircraft because they are reversed: "this is confusing, let's completely delete it instead of properly fixing it", it's a throw the baby out with the bath water approach

[Lixma]

Originally Posted by RE77ACTION

Ok, guys, my bad... But you can't expect me to read through more than 30 pages of rubbish small talk to find out where the initial discussion ended.

EDIT: I assumed that the current gunsight was correct because I've read a lot of posts stating that. Maybe I could have done more research, but I didn't find any indication to do so.

The gunsight is correctly modelled....it's just that our in-game pilot only has one central eye so only half the reticle is visible. The Shift-F1 view in CoD (and IL-2 classic) is a workaround; an attempt to compensate for the inability to accurately simulate binocular vision on a 2D display.

Type 'Cyclops' into the 'search this thread' thingy and you'll find the relevant posts.

[carguy_]

Originally Posted by Lixma

Please have a scan through the thread again, especially the posts/pictures dealing with what a real 109 pilot would see through his left and right eye compared with the Cyclops depicted in CoD.

You missed this :

After reading the FULL thread and generally agreeing with Lixma, I think that the classic IL2 SHIFT+F1 view was more correct, because one doesn`t have to lean close to the revi to see the crosshair, IF HE IS SITTING SLIGHLY TO THE RIGHT.

Hence, the old il2 gunsight view should be restored.

So it is easily visible I don`t agree with you 100%. Only thing is that I figured that currently the crosshair view in the game sets the pilot leaned in, and slighly to the right when only one of those should be performed to see the crosshair. That is why I prefer the classic il2 - gunsight view - over the new view. In that view, the pilot is set slightly to the right without the need to lean in closer to the revi (which means narrowing the field of view).

[klem]

Originally Posted by carguy_

...............That is why I prefer the classic il2 - gunsight view - over the new view. In that view, the pilot is set slightly to the right without the need to lean in closer to the revi (which means narrowing the field of view).

I think you're still missing the point. In the "IL-2" view, and in CoD, the pilot is "moved" to "sit to the right" of the centre line but it is only a crude attempt to make it feel like you're using your right eye.

Look at the diagram Lixma posted. The Revi sight is immediately in front of the pilots right eye without him having to move. MG just need to show the reticle in the offset gunsight of the 'normal' view. An offset of 40mm from centre would have made virtually no real difference to the aiming point in RL although MG may need to look at the aiming code for CoD.

I'd go further and say I don't see a need for a shifted 'gunsight' view at all. With the reticle visible in 'normal' view there is no need for an offset view and IMHO no need for a shifted 'gunsight' view in any aircraft, just an FOV change if you want to narrow/zoom the view.

The "shifted pilot view" is not realistic at all. It never existed. We've simply come to think it must be right because its always been there in IL-2.