TGP image issues

I have decided to go back through the Maple Flag A-10C advanced qualification missions to sharpen up on my skills.

I have been trying to pass the flare illumination mission (#5), it seems in vain, for many days now and I am getting increasingly frustrated with it. I looked up advise on it on the forum and got some helpful hints; fly just below 6000 ft and hold down the weapons release for a second or 2 when the flares are released to make sure the software sees it. All good things!

However, last night I tried the mission again. This time I set the elevations of WP5, WP6, and WP7 to 100 ft so I could slew the TGP to the WP and acquire the targets more easily. Then I could adjust the crosshairs slightly to be on the target and TMS UP LONG to designate the SPI.

Should be simple, right? Well, I have noticed with this mission that when the TGP comes up, the image is terrible and I have to screw with the contrast, brightness, gain, etc. to get something that I can discern well before I make landfall.

I get to WP5 and find the trucks, SPI them, drop the flares. "2 AWAY", "Well done, target illuminated!"

I boresight the TGP (CHINA HAT BACK LONG), switch to WP6 on the TAD, CHINA HAT FWD LONG to slew to the WP marker and adjust to find the artillery. On the TGP, I see the artillery , but it is much more faint than the trucks at WP5, and see a big dark blog over them like smoke. Weird. I center the crosshairs on the arty and drop the flares. "2 AWAY", "Check target area". What?! I dropped the flares right on their heads!

I go on to WP7. CHINA HAT BACK LONG to boresight the TGP. CHINA HAT FWD LONG to start looking for the convoy and I see.... NOTHING! Just a gray screen. I slew thinking that it is just on a landscape with little detail. I can see the pod head moving, but I see nothing on the TGP. I adjust my contrast again, my brightness again, and my gain again to no avail. I cannot see anything no matter what I do.

Can anyone explain what may be going on? And how do I pass this freaking mission?

Seems to me that the Auto Gain Control is bugged in the current OB version. I have to manually tweak the tgp contrast, brightness, gain and level before I get a decent image.

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Turn Chimney Smoke all the way off in settings.

Yeah this needs complete adjustment, it's about lighting and as mentioned lighting is a touchy thing that will take time so don't expect it to be solved so soon, if you don't like it you would need to use the release version.

Hm, I'd be surprised if only that setting would fix it.

I went through hell several months ago trying to get through this same mission because of the same issues. If I recall correctly the single biggest solution was changing the MFCDs from night to day. I know it seems screwy but I found the night settings were blurring smoke to the extent that targets were completely masked. I have used day settings for the MFCDs ever since. Hope you get it sorted since it kinda sucks doing the same mission over and over when you know you aren't the problem!

TGP is also very problematic at dusk. While I can see targets as dots perfectly with D mavericks, the Litening pod sees nothing in FLIR mode and absolutely nothing in CCD mode, I fiddled with gamma contrast and brightness, but still . Litening FLIR should be much better than mavs?

I use flir in my real life job and to fair it's not a magic bullet. The software does a fair job to match most scenarios but, there are a few when it's completely defeated or needs tuning from the operator. There is a period that happens twice every 24 hours known as the thermal crossover period,, dusk and dawn are really difficult as many objects are a similar temperature, add in mist or smoke and it can be impossible to define a target.

Many modern armoured vehicles can deploy thermal masking camouflage as a passive counter measure and thermal masking smoke as an active measure. Our system enables us to fine tune by assigning colour gradients to the temperature range at each 10th of a degree and more so we can investigate a suspected target by separating it from its background but it takes time, skill, and experience, so many aircraft systems such as fighters etc don't have adjustable systems.