Spotting contacts

[ATAG_Endless]

Hey guys any tips on spotting contacts I'm having some difficulty

[Vlerkies]

Have you run this little quick test yet to benchmark where you are?
http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13915

[Screamadelica]

DCS is definitely a little harder when it comes to spotting contacts, it's easy to lose sight of them against the ground. There has been a fair bit of discussion about this on the ED forums, and a couple of possible options, worth a look over there.
This is an important issue for the DCS WW2 side of things, so I'm sure they will end up doing something to improve the visibility problem.

[gavagai]

It's the weakest point for DCS in terms of WW2 simulation. They haven't done anything to the way the models are drawn at distance to prevent them from disappearing in the ground clutter. Right now everyone is waiting to see if EDGE will help because of its lighting enhancements.

Surprisingly, some folks there are dead set against any kind of LoD optimization (think Falcon BMS smart scaling) to make contacts easier to see. They argue that it would make it hard to perceive rate of closure, so I don't waste my breath trying to convince them otherwise.

[Vlerkies]

:doh:

LOL, assumption!
Click new posts and responded without seeing it was DCS related/DCS WW2 forum, my bad :)

[ATAG_Freya]

Hey guys any tips on spotting contacts I'm having some difficulty

F5 ! :) I feel the same way, Endless. It's imposible to DF when you can't see crap all. I've tried everything I can think of this past week and haven't made much improvement. Once you see a target, don't look at anything else!! Once you lose him. F5. (speaking in single player terms here)

[ATAG_NakedSquirrel]

DSR helps. If you have Nvidia you can run at a higher resolution and downscale to your native resolution. It reduces that pixel vanishing you see with narrow wings or thin struts. I was surprised that my 780 runs it pretty well, since it was designed for the Maxwell version processors.

Otherwise yes, it is difficult to spot aircraft. EDGE may help a bit with its new lighting features. I find one of the most difficult things about spotting is that the aircraft have poor lighting/reflection, and they are bland when compared to the ground, so it is very difficult to keep track of one when it dives below you. I just hope they tweak LODs a bit in the future.

[5./JG11_Rain]

What helped me to see better, I turned MSAA and HDR off in ingame video settings. Now I still didn't test with HDR on, when I do I will get back and edit this post.
Everything else is maxed out, and I am running it at 1920x1080 screen res.
The rig is:
i7 3820 @3.6ghz
4 GB RAM 1600mhz
MSI GTX660 2gb OC
Screen: 24' Samsung Series 3 350 LED native 1920:1080, 16:9, wide view angle (video preview on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpqZLIuj6xM)

It helps alot, contacts don't blend with the background and they are not magically disappearing, but you will have slight rough edges (cockpit edges, revi gunsight etc.) which is negligible and fine aslong as you can fly and enjoy it, not wondering when the next Mustang or Dora will appear on your tail all of a sudden and start shooting at you.

Would like to see more solutions from people who tweaked their video settings,
Thank you,

5./JG11_Rain

[Remon]

What helped me to see better, I turned MSAA and HDR off in ingame video settings. Now I still didn't test with HDR on, when I do I will get back and edit this post.
Everything else is maxed out, and I am running it at 1920x1080 screen res.
The rig is:
i7 3820 @3.6ghz
4 GB RAM 1600mhz
MSI GTX660 2gb OC
Screen: 24' Samsung Series 3 350 LED native 1920:1080, 16:9, wide view angle (video preview on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpqZLIuj6xM)

It helps alot, contacts don't blend with the background and they are not magically disappearing, but you will have slight rough edges (cockpit edges, revi gunsight etc.) which is negligible and fine aslong as you can fly and enjoy it, not wondering when the next Mustang or Dora will appear on your tail all of a sudden and start shooting at you.

Would like to see more solutions from people who tweaked their video settings,
Thank you,

5./JG11_Rain

I know that you'll probably have much lower performance, but try using DSR. There were reports on the ED forums that it helps with this problem.

[Catseye]

I know that you'll probably have much lower performance, but try using DSR. There were reports on the ED forums that it helps with this problem.

Drop this file in your main DCS or DCS Openbeta folder.

Backup your labels.lua first.

Then in the DCS main Page under Options/Gameplay - turn labels on.

This will make target dots visible a long way off.

Give it a try.

ps. whenever there is an update you will have to re-install the labels.lua file.

That's why I use JSGME for this.

14372

[gavagai]

I like that mod a lot, but it doesn't help for multiplayer where icons are enforced off.

From time to time I've been running a multiplayer map where aircraft are visible on the F10 map. Of course it's not realistic, but I'm not going to wring my hands over whether or not I'm "hard core" when spotting is so much worse in DCS compared to other sims.

[ATAG_Flare]

DavidRed in his ACG modpack has a mod that changes the LODs to make contact spotting easier. Maybe you could try that? (and you can use it on the ACG DCS server)

flare

[gavagai]

link?

Nevermind, I found it in DavidRed's signature. The LoD changes don't help much at all. Fw 190s still disappear at 1500m.