Illumination flares masking target in TGP

So I have reached the final advanced training mission in Maple Flag's excellent qualification campaign (night deployment of AGM-65Ds and Hs against stationary and moving targets) and have come up against a strange issue. Watching Recon Stewart's video of this mission, it is obvious that he can see both the illuminated and non-illuminated targets clearly. When I fly this mission, however, the stationary illuminated targets are masked with billowing clouds of smoke (odd since it appears that the illumination flares are being dropped from height) which make target designation quite "iffy". Targets that move away from the illumination zone show up clearly on the TGP once away from the zone.

I have tinkered extensively with the gain and level adjustments, as well as WHOT, BHOT and optical settings, and they help to a degree but I rarely am confident that my SPI is really spot on. Recon made this video of the 10th mission 4 years ago, so maybe something changed either in the mission script or the TGP itself. I have no problems with either IR or optical Mav deployment in daylight conditions or with non-illuminated targets at night using IR Mavs. After 3 weeks of thrashing with this I have decided to come to the experts! Many thanks for your assistance.

There has been a huge change in FLIR rendering a few updates ago that now causes the FLIRs (it's not just the A-10Cs TGP that is affected, but also others like the Tomcat's LANTIRN) to be "blinded" by light sources from flares, explosions or fire. In theory this is a pretty cool effect, but the way it looks in DCS right now is rather bad :noexpression:

It actually looks so bad that I'm thinking about creating a bug report for this.

To fix the buggy textures for FLIR's saturation all you should need is to delete "fxo" and "metashaders2" folders in your DCS' Saved Games directory.

The fact that the FLIR gets blinded can be worked around by just using visual mode insteal of FLIR and actually use the flare's illumination.

I don't have this mission so i don't know exactly what the situation is like but that should do it

Hi,

yes it's a bug a no only delete fxo and metashaders2 isn't a solution.

see those threads:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=239818

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=239907

Please open a report bug for this gamebreaker bug (yes it's gamebreaker because sometimes it's totally impossible to target a zone where they're burning objects), perhaps it will motive ED to correct it… since months we have this issue, and I'm pretty sure that when the TGP for Hornet will come out, this issue will be not fixed…

Have a nice day

Kid18120, I have tried visual mode but even with illumination there isn't enough contrast for target ID. The RDN, I read both of those threads start to finish and will try some suggestions and will post my observations tonight. If no joy after trying the proposed "fixes" I will submit a bug report for what it is worth. Thanks to all!

To fix the buggy textures for FLIR's saturation all you should need is to delete "fxo" and "metashaders2" folders in your DCS' Saved Games directory.

I delete fxo and metashaders2 folders after every update, yet the buggy FLIR textures remain. :dunno:

Hi QuiGon,

thanks for testing… I have myself try all know "solutions", but my conclusion is that this bug is totally random… I even bought a new graphic card and have done a totally full install (dcs and cg drivers) and sometimes I have the bug, and sometimes not… :music_whistling:

OK, I can report some success. Following hornblower793 recommendations from the https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=239907 thread, I deleted the fxo and metashaders2 folders from my saved games directory (I did NOT do anything else). Launched DCS and started the night mission mentioned in the OP. The difference was quite significant. Although there is still significant smoke, it isn't sufficient to prevent quick and confident targeting.

I did try using boat switch center for illuminated targets but the contrast is still lacking. With FLIR working, for the most part, the EO targeting isn't really necessary IMHO. I exited DCS and restarted to see if the changes were persistent and I can report that after 3 restarts the TGP/illumination issue is still manageable. Hornblower793 listed additional steps but the first step seems the trick at least for now and for me. Many thanks for giving me options to try. You guys rock!

I also didn't get any improvement by just deleting fxo and metashaders, but deleting the map metacache files fixed it.

They're in \DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\terrains\<mapname>\misc\metacache

I also didn't get any improvement by just deleting fxo and metashaders, but deleting the map metacache files fixed it.

 

 

 

They're in \DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\terrains\<mapname>\misc\metacache

The map metacache? :huh:

That suprises me a bit, as I don't see why it should mess with smoke textures of burning vehicles. But I will give it a try and see if it works for me as well. :thumbup: