Where do you stand on Map Updates?

danmir · 06-14-07, 02:39 PM

I'm wondering about the visual acuity so I looked it up. See if you guys think these numbers are right. Wiki lists 20/20 vision as being:

"20/20 is the visual acuity needed to discriminate two points separated by 1 arc minute"

I assume it means 2 points seperated by 1 arc minute at 20 feet.

20 feet * 12 inches/feet* 2.54cm/inch * (1/100 m/cm) = 6.096 meters

Considering a right triangle approx, you get 6.096*sin(1/60)= 1.77325449502e-3 meters ~= 1.8mm

It means with 20/20 vision: at 20 feet (6.1m), you can distinguish 2 dots 1.8mm apart.

So what about at say 8 km? You have similar triangles, so

8000/6.096 = x / 1.77325449502e-3, x=2.32710563652 m

Thats about 2.3 meters of resolution at 8 km with the naked eye. I haven't done the math, but I'm confident that at the default 1024 resolution we are not getting about one pixel every 2.3m of a 8km distant ship. And this is with the naked eye view.

I don't have the game in front of me, so I can't give evidence. Though consider a typical ship length of say 100m and beam of 15m. I'd expect it to extend 43 pixels from the side, or 6.5 pixels looking at it from the bow or stern. (at 8 km range). If we make the assumption that each pixel is one of the "seperable dots" as defined above (in reality, two dots, pixels next to each other are blurred, so it would take at most a pixel between to squeeze in a gap between two dots. I say at most because I think you could bring them closer, and with shading the area between with antialiasing, the two as dots may still be distinguildable.).

My monitor has a 20.1" diagonal, say a 4:3 aspect ratio, so its about (3-4-5 triangle) 16.1" across. This means each pixel is 0.01572265625". So it would extend 0.67607421875"(1.72cm) looking along the port or starboard (90d aob) or 0.1" at the bow or stern. I'll have to measure in game, but I'm confident that at 8km, a 100m long ship is not 1.72cm long in a naked eye view @ 90d AOB. Thus we are losing resolution.

If you have an optical aid, as long as its aperture is bigger than the eye, and it has passable optical quality, it will improve your resolution. So think of 2.3m@20km as a worst case. With binos, you'll likely have much better resolution. I would expect it at the upper limit to improve by the ratio of the area of the area of light gathering aperture of binocs / area of your pupil. Considering a typical pupil diameter of only 3-8mm, it seems there is much room for improvement with binocs.

In conclusion, I think the monitor costs us resolution and the real eye, especially aided with binocs would give much better detail on ships at range.

06-14-07, 02:39 PM	#16
danmir Swabbie Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 12 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I'm wondering about the visual acuity so I looked it up. See if you guys think these numbers are right. Wiki lists 20/20 vision as being: "20/20 is the visual acuity needed to discriminate two points separated by 1 arc minute" I assume it means 2 points seperated by 1 arc minute at 20 feet. 20 feet * 12 inches/feet* 2.54cm/inch * (1/100 m/cm) = 6.096 meters Considering a right triangle approx, you get 6.096*sin(1/60)= 1.77325449502e-3 meters ~= 1.8mm It means with 20/20 vision: at 20 feet (6.1m), you can distinguish 2 dots 1.8mm apart. So what about at say 8 km? You have similar triangles, so 8000/6.096 = x / 1.77325449502e-3, x=2.32710563652 m Thats about 2.3 meters of resolution at 8 km with the naked eye. I haven't done the math, but I'm confident that at the default 1024 resolution we are not getting about one pixel every 2.3m of a 8km distant ship. And this is with the naked eye view. I don't have the game in front of me, so I can't give evidence. Though consider a typical ship length of say 100m and beam of 15m. I'd expect it to extend 43 pixels from the side, or 6.5 pixels looking at it from the bow or stern. (at 8 km range). If we make the assumption that each pixel is one of the "seperable dots" as defined above (in reality, two dots, pixels next to each other are blurred, so it would take at most a pixel between to squeeze in a gap between two dots. I say at most because I think you could bring them closer, and with shading the area between with antialiasing, the two as dots may still be distinguildable.). My monitor has a 20.1" diagonal, say a 4:3 aspect ratio, so its about (3-4-5 triangle) 16.1" across. This means each pixel is 0.01572265625". So it would extend 0.67607421875"(1.72cm) looking along the port or starboard (90d aob) or 0.1" at the bow or stern. I'll have to measure in game, but I'm confident that at 8km, a 100m long ship is not 1.72cm long in a naked eye view @ 90d AOB. Thus we are losing resolution. If you have an optical aid, as long as its aperture is bigger than the eye, and it has passable optical quality, it will improve your resolution. So think of 2.3m@20km as a worst case. With binos, you'll likely have much better resolution. I would expect it at the upper limit to improve by the ratio of the area of the area of light gathering aperture of binocs / area of your pupil. Considering a typical pupil diameter of only 3-8mm, it seems there is much room for improvement with binocs. In conclusion, I think the monitor costs us resolution and the real eye, especially aided with binocs would give much better detail on ships at range.