Model Visbility in 2.5?

^^ I think what you actually meant is you miss seeing the stuff you should be seeing, and not the stuff you shouldn't be seeing, therefore you don't want the black dots back, what you want is visible planes at the visible range, right?

^^ I think what you actually meant is you miss seeing the stuff you should be seeing, and not the stuff you shouldn't be seeing, therefore you don't want the black dots back, what you want is visible planes at the visible range, right?

Yes, you are correct. I want to be able to spot aircraft at distances I feel I would be able to see them IRL. Currently in 2.3 I have a far harder time spotting aircraft than I do IRL.

something needs to be done about the model visibility. Its basicly impossible to spot anything on the ground unless you are very close and max zoomed in .

sorry ED but this is a very bad step backwards

In 2.5 the spotting in WVR is much better for me :).

No more dispreading aircraft's in front against the sky. Also against the ground it's much clearer now. No problem following bandits.

I dunno if it's because I'm using Nvidia Control & different settings or if ED improved it in 2.5?

But whatever it is, it's a huge improvement & I can enjoy dogfight's again:thumbup:.

Can you share your Nvidia settings and what you did to improve spotting for you.

In my experience following the target has gotten easier for sure. But actually spotting the target and trying to acquire it visually is still challenging.

Can you share your Nvidia settings and what you did to improve spotting for you.

In my experience following the target has gotten easier for sure. But actually spotting the target and trying to acquire it visually is still challenging.

Sure, here you go. That what I did & the DCS settings I'm still experimenting with.

After playing 2.5 for some time now, with deferred shading on and no anti-aliasing at all, I can say that model visibility has increased noticeably in relation to 1.5, IMO. Everything looks significantly more vivid and sharp now.

But the infamous 'black dot' is still there and still visible at distances up to about 60 km, though (even missiles). It's still easier to see aircraft over enormous distances than aircraft close to you and this visibility increases even more if you zoom out. I think visibility should be very low for aircraft far away and gradually increase as it gets near (same for zoom)...

I have no problem spotting ground targets and air targets after 2.5 /thread

I completely agree that the 'black dot' is a relic and I hope they get rid of it or severely reduce the range at which it appears. It really nerfs radar atm. There's absolutely no reason to use the F-5's radar since you only pick up targets at about 18 miles and yet you can see the stupid dot from 40+...

I really don't think we should be seeing dots beyond 10-15miles. Have you ever tried to spot airliners at 30k feet? Thats around 5.5 miles and a GIANT plane and, without a contrail or some glint, they are virtually invisible unless you know exactly where to look (btw I have 20/15 vision)

I think the black dot was quite good actually, but just not for the distance. It should be used for close in instead, from say 5000-100m, and that way help spotting in the current 'blind zone'.

There really needs to be separate mechanics for visibility for vr vs monitor.

I still use my translucent grey dot labels in vr as spotting hasn't been fixed with the limited rez combined with the screen door effect.

It's better and there's a shimmer from far off contacts >8km, but that shimmer can get lost in the screen door. Easily.

I think the black dot was quite good actually, but just not for the distance. It should be used for close in instead, from say 5000-100m, and that way help spotting in the current 'blind zone'.

The problem with the black dot, even if it gets adjusted for realistic distances, is that it's black, thus too easy to spot against the sky and almost impossible to spot against dark terrain (reason why everyone only flies very low to the ground). There's probably a reason why fighters aren't usually painted in black, but in light blue or silver... Some even are light blue when looked from below and dark green/brown camouflage when looked from above...

I don't have much knowledge of 3d engines, but maybe there should be a way to have good model visibility still using the aircraft own colors, or close to it?

Anyway I have the feeling that they are still adjusting the black dot, it seems to me that now they remain visible for longer and grow in size as the aircraft gets closer, until it disapears, where before it would just disappear still kinda far. It might be just my impression though. Anyway I like to think that the black dot is a temporary solution and they will implement a more realistic visual representation of the aircraft, considering how important it is to have have the right visuals, both for the game and for the simulation.

What is this black dot that people talk about? I cannot spot aircraft at any range beyond something like 2 kilometers. At normal zoom level aircrafts disappear at anything beyond visual formation flying range and don't appear at any further distance. I have never seen any black dot. is it an option to enable?

^^ No option to enable, but you won't see it depending on your graphic settings. Also, it's much easier to see against the sky than against the ground (usually impossible). I can see it very clearly in 2.5 with deferred shading on, MSAA set to off or 2x, Gamma set to 1.8 or 1.6... Don't know how visible it is at other MSAA settings, but I know it is almost invisible if you use Nvidia's FXAA. And I think it's harder to see at higher Gamma settings, but I'm not sure.

I've been really pleased with the 'JustDogFight' Server in multiplayer. They use a blue dot/Blue Player team vs. the red dot/Red Player team. The blue or red dots for the aircraft are only visible from a reasonable distance away from each other. Perhaps a similar system would help other Servers in Multiplayer? Or in 2.5.

I've been really pleased with the 'JustDogFight' Server in multiplayer. They use a blue dot/Blue Player team vs. the red dot/Red Player team. The blue or red dots for the aircraft are only visible from a reasonable distance away from each other. Perhaps a similar system would help other Servers in Multiplayer? Or in 2.5.

Playing with "dots" (icons in DCS, you can edit the range, the symbol and the colour) is already possible. However full realism servers do not use this, generally.

Playing with the long-range (i.e. 5km +) dots is not normally theproblem any way in DCS. Most of us can see dots that are a long way off. The real trouble is that when they a near-ish (the 1km to 3km range) they have a tendancy to disappear.

My feeling is that this is a result of the lighting/ shadow modelling not working on the aircraft models in this range. They tend to adop a flat colour which, often, seems to blend in almost prefectly with similar backdrops. For example, aircraft with green/ grey skins tend to adopt a single flat green-ish grey color which, whne only 5 to 10 px wide basically disappears over any grass/ forest landscape.

An aircrfat with grey/ blue skin will adopt a single flat grey-ish blue and almost disappear over water, winter forest or up in the the sky 1000m overhead.

Other games whichj get this to "work" tend to be those that continue to do a good job of adding strong shadow and lighting (sun reflectino both direct and diffuse) to the aircraft from very close range, out to 5km or so - rith out until the point where they turn to a dot or single pixel. As in real life, it becomes much easier to visually track the object once aquired when the lighting effects don't shut off at medium range.