is the ability to see planes realisticly represented in game?

movies are just that, movies, but in the game the planes are damn near invisible until within 500 yards and I think this is unrealistic.

sure the paint schemes are designed to make them harder to see but I think its way way too hard to see them to the point of being unrealistic.

never mind your opinions on weather you should be staying on the surface and looking for planes or not, but stick to the question at hand. I don't think the planes blended in any where near as well as they do in the game.

I have seen in person many ww2 planes with the correct paint schemes flying around at air shows and they are not very hard to spot at all even at a good distance.

im thinking the color schemes might need to be tweaked to darken them for more contrast against the sky colors or maybe its a question of the distance rendering of the planes but they seam to be invisible even when you know exactly what direction they are coming from and then they just suddenly pop out into thin air when they are right on top of you.

im not looking for unrealistic neon flashing lights on them, I just want to be able to see a plane at distance the same way it is in real life

opinions and or files to mod suggestions to correct this issue please?

[Crannogman]

I think there's a problem with how largely things are rendered, and how far away. It's possible this is hard-coded to accomodate the GPUs of yesteryear. Capn_Scurvy has ben doing some work on visibility for his Day of Infamy mod, and I suspect he will have a more technical answer.

[CapnScurvy]

Originally Posted by Crannogman

Capn_Scurvy has ben doing some work on visibility for his Day of Infamy mod, and I suspect he will have a more technical answer.

No, not me!

I'm at a loss to tell you anything about the planes distant rendering. I'm guessing it would have to do with the Mip Maps that should be within the modeled graphic file. The Mip Maps create a compounded smaller image of the object, so at various distances the image will keep details clearer than a single image would. There are usually about 5 separate images, each smaller in size than the next, within the Mip Maps. The game renders these images at certain times to allow for the observed object to be seen clearly. Least that's how it's supposed to work.

Just how, when, and at what level this takes place in-game is beyond me.

[Crannogman]

Originally Posted by CapnScurvy

No, not me!

I'm at a loss to tell you anything about the planes distant rendering. I'm guessing it would have to do with the Mip Maps that should be within the modeled graphic file. The Mip Maps create a compounded smaller image of the object, so at various distances the image will keep details clearer than a single image would. There are usually about 5 separate images, each smaller in size than the next, within the Mip Maps. The game renders these images at certain times to allow for the observed object to be seen clearly. Least that's how it's supposed to work.

Just how, when, and at what level this takes place in-game is beyond me.

See, way more technical

[Rockin Robbins]

I think visually we're really handicapped. It's very difficult to find a plane spotted on radar that's five miles away, when action report after action report shows submarines visually sighting aircraft and routinely staying on the surface to assess whether the plane will pass overhead.

In the game this is only possible with radar. Time after time my crew spots a plane and I can't find it. Often the crew doesn't spot the plane and the first I know about it it's in its final run. I think visually sighted airplanes in SH4 are really broken.

But I can live with that and doubt that it can be fixed.

well I hope someone can think of something to figure this out, if its just a size rendering thing maybe the texture can be changed to a black dot so it can at least be spotted and located

[TorpX]

Now that you mention it, they do seem very hard to spot.

I know it is 99% likely impossible, but it would be nice if you could hit a key and have your 7x50 view locked on the plane.

I play without map-contacts, and will try to observe a/c through periscope, but as you say, even knowing the bearing, it is almost impossible to find them.

Maybe some kind of vapor/smoke/reflection could be added so we could see them?