On-line/MP Play: How to tell Friend from Foe at Distance

How do you distinguish friend from foe?

There is only one way, get close and you should be able to recognize them.

No radar, IFF or HUD are for WWII planes fortunately.

You don't. At least not visually.

What helps is good situational awareness. Read the briefing to know where to expect the enemy and where to expect friendlies. If in MP use communication to know what's going on.

Thanks. I come on to a server (ACG WWII), take off, fly to the combat zone and see two aircraft chasing a third in a dogfight. No idea who's who, so I cannot get into position on the correct one(s). I circle and circle trying to figure out the identities. By the time I make out that the third is on my side, he's already shot, and I have picked up someone on my tail who, in turn shoot me down.

P51s have red tracers. Germans use Green tracers. Learn the look of an airframe. Focus on engine cowling, shape of the wing, canopy and tail section.

When they is a star its US, when they is a cross its german. Not much hard :P

The ones chasing you and firing the tracer that flashes past your cockpit - they're the baddies!

The ones chasing you and firing the tracer that flashes past your cockpit - they're the baddies!

Except for when it's a friendly who mistook you for a foe. :D

With or without imposters, it's difficult, spcially for a 52 yo guy having an increasingly lousy close vision and a cheap LED 22" monitor :-/

It is an area, together with the weirdiness of the view perspectives when using my TIR5 and the zoom axis, that I find rather distracting in DCS World.

I believe it shapes the fact that this sim was developed with modern air war as it's main focus, and I would really like to find in it the visual quality I get in my other ww2 flight simulator, where everything looks so natural and, even if also difficult, much more plausible, comparing to my real life experience flying VFR, sometimes across crowded ( by other gliders ... ) skies.

I look primarily at their shapes, with or without those strange "imposter" effects being active at the server I am using. The Bf 109s and Fw190s are easier to glimpse, with their longish tails...

In the beginning I shot down a few friends... :-/

Imposters are not strange. They are part of every 3d game. Even Wolfenstein 3d used them. They help objects stay visible instead of flickering out of existence and help keep higher framerates due to unimportant objects not being in full detail. But yes in DCS they need work.

P51s have red tracers. Germans use Green tracers. Learn the look of an airframe. Focus on engine cowling, shape of the wing, canopy and tail section.

LOL great, being red-green colorblind, that helps me a lot :lol:

Thanks. I come on to a server (ACG WWII), take off, fly to the combat zone and see two aircraft chasing a third in a dogfight. No idea who's who, so I cannot get into position on the correct one(s). I circle and circle trying to figure out the identities. By the time I make out that the third is on my side, he's already shot, and I have picked up someone on my tail who, in turn shoot me down.

I've started to just dive down to get into the conga line . If the A/C following the lead is friendly, I pull back up and look for another target. If not ...

When they is a star its US, when they is a cross its german. Not much hard :P

I find that from the correct angles you can recognize the invasion stripes pretty well from a greater distance than their national insignia, which is what they were meant for .