I’m lost. Cannot spot enemies etc

If I turn off labels or whatever in game setting highlights enemies, I simply cannot see them 90% of the time. Plus since I’m so new I can’t seem to employ my sensors right as either the f15 or su27 variations don’t see my enemies in radar etc. I can see the rwr And in the su27 the data link for enemy vector, but radar and my vision conspire to have me fail. What do I need to practice to get better? I have fc3,f86, Persian gulf, Nevada, and some campaign for su27/f15 I bought. Sorry I’m just overwhelmed right.now. I can fly about, and land etc but I seem to be clueless otherwise . Ai missions seem buggy but I do them. Multiplayer is pointless as I’m so bad.Sorry, on phone. Forgive mistakes

As somebody who came from WWII fighters, I feel your pain. These jets fly so fast, and have missiles that can (or are supposed to) be fired from farther than the eye can see, it's no wonder I had a hard time understanding wtf was going on.

So, since the enemy is coming from so far away, you have way to much space to scan for him in. You need to narrow it down somehow.

First (and always first), use the Mk. I Eyeball (look around with your eyes) to make sure he hasn't already snuck up on you.

Second, check your sensors (radar, EO) in case they already found him.

And finally, use your Situational Awareness (SA). Besides the Mk. I Eyeball, this is going to be your most important (and it will be your most difficult) tool to use. By being "Aware" (remembering what the briefing said about where the enemy will come from, paying attention to radio calls from friendly planes like AWACS (BULLSEYE helps here, more on that later), paying attention to where that bandit was last heading before you lost track of him, etc. etc.), you can build your internal picture of the "Situation" (where is everybody and what are they doing?).

No matter how hard you think just spotting planes visually is, trying to keep your SA up will seem far, far worse. It will take time and patience to learn it.

I would suggest training your use of the Mk. I Eyeball first. Don't start with a needle in a haystack, fly a mission (or make a mission if you want) where you can stick with at least one friendly plane without worrying about anything. Practice buzzing all over the friendly plane while keeping him in sight at all times.

Then you should get started on SA. I know I put using sensors as the second step, but even those powerful tools can only scan a tiny fraction of our great blue playground.

Give this a try: Fly around staring at your HSI (Horizontal Situation Indicator, has a compass on it and you use it a lot for navigation) getting used to the compass numbers. Then practice looking out in random directions and seeing if you can tell what bearing (compass direction from you) you're looking. This will help a lot with those radio calls I mentioned.

When a bandit is close enough to you AWACS will give you BRAA (Bearing, Range, Altitude, Attitude (attitude is hot/cold, coming towards you/going away from you). Use your compass practice to quickly know which way to look. If he's really far use your sensors in that direction, adjusting for the called-out altitude at the called-out distance.

If the bandits are farther from you, AWACS will give you their BULLSEYE location. BULLSEYE is a common reference point for all friendly planes. It can be anywhere on the map. Say you as the mission maker make BULLSEYE on top of your favorite city. If I tell you BULLSEYE 176 43 miles at angels(thousand feet) 16, I'm telling you BRAA from your favorite city. As long as you know where you are and where BULLSEYE is, you can figure out where the bandit is. Using BULLSEYE (I know, bullseye doesn't always need to be shouted in all caps) takes a bit more practice though.

Remember: Whether you're trying to decide which way to point the radar or the Mk. I Eyeball, SA always comes into play.

Boy I typed a lot more than I thought I was gonna. Hope it isn't too much for you.

The first thing you need to learn is how to properly use your radar, if you manage your radar well it should be hard to miss enemies approaching to you.

Since you have FC3 I would recommend starting with the F15, since its radar is the best in the game and will give you so much SA up to 120 degrees in front of your plane. There are some good tutorials out there about the radar but the first thing you need to understand is that the area scanned in front of you is similar to a square cone, that is very narrow near your plane and widen as distance increase. With this said, you have to guess how to manage the altitude you are scanning. Remember that the highest and lowest altitude indicator in the left of your B-Scope refers to the maximum distance selected (Remember what i told you about widening

as distance increase, you can also think of this as a flashlight).

After you have managed to understand your radar, and i mean you need to be really proficient with it, you need to build your SA, knowing where friendly forces are (at least at the beginning of the mission), understand the RWR to know who is looking for you and from where. Use the AWACS, understand what he says, there are also many posts about this in the forums.

Also, download TACVIEW, there is a free version, it will let you analyze what you have done after every single player mission, so you will know the moment where you got disorientated and why.

And lastly, use your eyes, IS POSSIBLE IN THIS GAME TO SEE FIGHTERS UP TO 15MN, they are tiny black dots but you can certainly see them againth the sky, use your radar and rwr to know where to scan.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, you will get better

Here are some guides for you that maybe you find useful, it covers some basic but also some good recommendations on radar use. First two are for the Su27 and the third is for the F15.

SU27

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=197963

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=150315

F15

https://www.mudspike.com/dcs-f-15c-combat-guide-for-beginners/

If I turn off labels or whatever in game setting highlights enemies, I simply cannot see them 90% of the time.

Practice w/labels to get hang of how things work, how and when the missiles/aircrafts usually fly but then ditch the labels asap to practice SA. There is really no point in trying to spot the aircraft until you're trying to merge which is less then 5nm. If it's jet over 30k (engines running) it leaves contrails - very much visible from far away. All the missiles leave smoke trails until their fuel is burned out. So look for these cues.

This tool will help you understand the F-15C's radar:

https://tawdcs.org/radar-f15/

Apart from painting the target you need to use different PRF settings. In very short and much simplified: High for high speed, hot and far away; Med for low speed, flanking/cold and near.

Even then, when you are perfectly set, you could still lose track of radar contact if he's notching, behind the mountain or the other reasons because of how doppler radar works.

Sorry, on phone. Forgive mistakes

So you cannot correct what you type? Ditch the phone.

Since you have FC3 I would recommend starting with the F15, since its radar is the best in the game and will give you so much SA up to 140 degrees in front of your plane.

It's 120 degrees, 60 both sides in RWS(LRS) mode.

It's up 120 degrees, 60 both sides in RWS(LRS) mode.

EDITED

Spotting is a big issue in this Sim and other products that are out there . People with 2k and 4k and also VR suffer i have a 4k but only use 1080p in this sim .

Take alook at this ..

Spotting is a big issue in this Sim and other products that are out there . People with 2k and 4k and also VR suffer i have a 4k but only use 1080p in this sim .

 

Take alook at this ..

 

 

When I was on 1080p setup I had much higher chances for spotting other aircrafts. But now, using 1440p setup, I have difficulties in spotting unless if you know where to look.

But guess what. Which one is more realistic? In other words. What is the realistic range to spot an F-5 or Mig-29 for example?

Sent from my E6833 using Tapatalk

Well i've spoken to real pilots and i've also been in many many aircraft cockpits got a few hours only in real flight but spotting in real life seem easier once the naked eye picks up the moving target, it can focus and track plus the 3rd person situation awareness is higher in real life .

I just think game Devs need to add something to make every gamers lives easier across the board in flight sims.

There seems to be a trend that content gets pushed out but real game braking issues dont get addressed until it's too late .

Spotting is a big issue in this Sim and other products that are out there . People with 2k and 4k and also VR suffer i have a 4k but only use 1080p in this sim .

 

Take alook at this ..

 

 

Actually is not an issue in VR... with proper settings, i have done some post regarding the issue and the settings that let me spot target as if i were in 1080p.

It seems to be a real issue in 1440p and 4K, accoridng to many users, but i cannot comment on this since i do not own such a monitor.

The real problem here is the discrepancies in spotting distance between different resolutions, though i understand is a real difficult problem to solve for the devs, hopefully they will keep improving in this regard.

Lastly, regarding spotting distance i think that in 1080p is better than IRL, under certain circunstances is really easy to see bandits 25MN away, which i doubt you can do on a regular basis but this is a difficult topic and there are opinions for eveyone, having said that, is 1440p and 4k what ED need to improve.

Spotting is a big issue in this Sim and other products that are out there . People with 2k and 4k and also VR suffer i have a 4k but only use 1080p in this sim .

 

Take alook at this ..

 

 

I forgot to mention, what this video mention is exactly what i have experienced in VR, this is, with any kind of AF or MSAA i had a huge problem spotting target while with them turned off, i am able again to see target almost at 30/40km away.

I just think game Devs need to add something to make every gamers lives easier across the board in flight sims.

There seems to be a trend that content gets pushed out but real game braking issues dont get addressed until it's too late .

Exactly. This is what DCS needs to continue its success.

The sim it self needs alot of attention to be a solid ground for other modules.

I wish ED take a break from pushing content and continue developing the sim it self, fix all the issues then push whatever content they want or demanded by the customers.

I'm afraid these issues will be as ghosts and connot be hunted down same as current Prepar3d. They are still finding and fixing issues from FSX after all these years.

Sent from my E6833 using Tapatalk

 

After you have managed to understand your radar, and i mean you need to be really proficient with it, you need to build your SA, knowing where friendly forces are (at least at the beginning of the mission), understand the RWR to know who is looking for you and from where. Use the AWACS, understand what he says, there are also many posts about this in the forums.

 

This is probably the most important element.

Much easier to spot enemy A/C if you know where to look and what to look for.

ok thanks guys. Got some direction with what to work on. Thx

Exactly. This is what DCS needs to continue its success.

 

The sim it self needs alot of attention to be a solid ground for other modules.

 

I wish ED take a break from pushing content and continue developing the sim it self, fix all the issues then push whatever content they want or demanded by the customers.

 

I'm afraid these issues will be as ghosts and connot be hunted down same as current Prepar3d. They are still finding and fixing issues from FSX after all these years.

 

 

 

Sent from my E6833 using Tapatalk

Totally agree. How long has this topic been discussed now? Scalable labels is another one that needs looking.

Actually, OP said that he can not SPOT enemies. LODs in DCS are imo a little bit messed up. You may ask "why?". MSAA/SSAO/Anti-aliasing makes these tiny dots completely invisible on long range, unless it's a huge tanker or bomber like KC-135 or Tu-160. Couple of days ago when I've been playing with a couple buddies of mine, I've had AA set in Nvidia control panel to 8x, then I've changed it to 4x and still couldn't spot anyone visually (I'm flying the Hornet, so for now I'm not really using it's radar). Then I decided to turn off AA completely, and magically, dots, or even small short lines are visible so I can fight. Resolution of your screen also affects LODs, the higher resolution, the less you can see. Fortunately for me I've got 1680x1050 :).

Model visibility is the Achilles heel of DCS. ED needs to get on this soon now that the great merge is more or less complete.

Spotting is a big issue in this Sim and other products that are out there . People with 2k and 4k and also VR suffer i have a 4k but only use 1080p in this sim .

 

Take alook at this ..

 

 

I have a 4K monitor, and have my DCS set at 1920x1080. It really helps with spotting.

1920x1080 on 27". AAx2 and the other filter at x2 also. Textures, viewdistance etc. on high setting. I don't have problems spotting A/C as such. It's not easy, but it's definitely possible.

But again. I believe SA is also a player here.

So, taking some advice....... I practiced using zoom for several hours yesterday. Also, I have turned off labels for several days now as it created a bad habit for me in expecting them. I was able to spot some planes now at times. At other times, still painfully oblivious I am(Yoda voice). Even so, when spotting the enemy they move so damm fast in relation to me I have a hard time finding them again once I lose sight of them. Yeah SA is a big factor :(. I think as a newer pilot just running the plane and basic systems is taking so much of my time etc... Hopefully, that improves in time and also being able to more easily estimate distances, heading changes based of geography etc... will help. Right now it's all brand new.

PS thx for the additional information/tips. Keep em coming.

Resolution is a factor. I did a test in 3440x1440 and 1366x768. Same mission, same distance to target. The target aircraft was clearly visible in low rez and completely gone in high rez.

But I can deal with long range spotting issues. It is the medium-short range spotting that is really suffering in DCS. You loose sight of anything that you should be able too see without issues at close ranges. Like buddies, bandits, tankers, awacs etc.

WWII or Korea gameplay without radar or labels? Forget it unless you want to spend the entire evening trying to find someone... Altitude advantage? Nope, cause you can't see anyone far below. Speed advantage? Nope. You need to turn in a circle 15 times after the "merge" call to hopefully get a tally.

Sorry to sound a bit bitter, but this has been an issue for years and years and years :(

If DCS aims for simulation, spotting at realistic ranges should be simulated aswell.

At the moment, sound is actually more helpful than eyesight to get a tally on another aircraft

in close.

Since model enlargement was scrapped and smart scaling has it's own issues... maybe an "enchanced spotting" option would be a good idea? Like canopy reflections, higher color contrasts on distant aircrafts etc... some subtle ways to make DCS a bit more playable.

It's also an FOV issue. I run my FOV at 80 and only zoom in / out 20* for a range of 60 to 100. This puts my face in the HUD and I loose all SA so what I do is set FOV at 80 and then get my face really close and hit the center button for TIR5. This kind of screws up the Hud in that not all of the info is visible when you sit back to normal but it SURE helps spotting the planes..... A Lot!! Anyway, when I really need the HUD for a shot I always stick my face up there anyway and then I can see all of the HUD. I can spot planes around 20nm now... maybe 5nm before.

I noticed before when I opened up my ZOOM view (FOV) to see more around me (around 100-110) I couldn't pick out a bandit in the terrain right in front of me less than 1nm..... Now I see them but my view is opened up enough not to completely loose SA. This is my solution. I really just used the radar on the other modules to make up for not being able to spot bandits until the F-18... Radar is so bad right now I had to do something to locate the bad guys. I play at 1080P on a 15" laptop though. Also been playing sims since Jane's in the 90's :P

Maybe that would work for you? Maybe not? Good luck!

I have noticed certain zoom ranges to be better. How would I go about setting up zoom ranges as you describe? Right now fully zoomed I have a hard time comfort my vision/panning. I have a zoom button setup on hotas along with Un zoom. It’s gettt better but still quite a painful process

Btw I have now resorted to playing missions I downloaded from a thread I dug up re problematic ai in one of the campaigns for the f15 I bought. These missions are quite helpful