[JG14_Jagr]

I know people have made mads to the look of tracers, but I was wondering if anyone has made or would consider making a mod that changed the tracers in the following way...

When flying the YP80, the tracers come out in a very broken burst with large gaps rather than a stream from those concentrated guns.. It just doesn't look all that good visually because of the "pulses" and gaps.. any way to make it more of a consistant stream of fire?

[Ingo777]

Its because of the way you put the bullets in the "Gurt" (Sorry dont know the english word now). For Example: One Amour piercing bullet, Three Incediary Bullets and One LP-Bullet...

[Tesla]

Yes, about every 5th round is tipped with sulfur, making it have a "trace" so the gunner or pilot can see where they are shooting without having to always have an eye down the sights.

[Ingo777]

But every pilot could choose how many LP-Bullets he want. Every 3rd, 4th, or 5th. The pilot could choose.

[Tesla]

But sulfur tipped rounds were more expensive, and served their purpose fine with 1/5, 1/6, or less.

[JG14_Jagr]

I understand how the tracers work, my issue was that with a tight grouping of MG's in the nose of the P80, the tracers come out in clusters, a blob of tracers..then a gap..then a blob of tracers and another gap. I've seen the gun films..it should look more like a P38's (obviously minus the 20mm) where there is a consistant stream of bullets in more or less a line out to the convergence point...

[JG14_Jagr]

FYI, they were not "tipped", the pyrotechnic material was inside the code of the projectile and open to the rear of the bullet.. the material dictated the color of the tracer..there were various shades of yellow/orange/pink, green blue etc.

[RichardH]

But sulfur tipped rounds were more expensive, and served their purpose fine with 1/5, 1/6, or less.

if the tracer was on the tip of the bullet, the pilot wouldn't see it..
and actually tracer rounds are usually made of phosphorus, not sulfur.

[Tesla]

Oh, I could have sworn it was sulfur. I get sulfur and phosphorus mixed up a lot.

[PDelaney]

I know people have made mads to the look of tracers, but I was wondering if anyone has made or would consider making a mod that changed the tracers in the following way...

When flying the YP80, the tracers come out in a very broken burst with large gaps rather than a stream from those concentrated guns.. It just doesn't look all that good visually because of the "pulses" and gaps.. any way to make it more of a consistant stream of fire?

That might be by design?

By the end of WWII all phosphorus based tracer was designed not to become visible until it was a minimum of 100 m from the muzzle of the gun that fired it - this often gave the impression that rounds were being fired in clumps rather than sustained bursts. Tracer was manufactured in this way so as to make the source of the fire less obvious. Unless it was being used to point out a target for other guns/artillery on the ground tracer was only ever used 1 in 4 to 1 in 6 rounds although Russian aircraft often had their guns loaded with the last 50 or so rounds all tracer to warn the pilot/gunner that they were getting low on ammo...



EDIT: In modern aircraft such as the A10 Thunderbolt the ammunition loadout for its 30mm cannon is determined by the "mission software", the standard being affectionately known as a "party mix" one in 5 rounds being an armour piercing phosphorus tracer the other 4 being 1 x ap, 1 x he, 1 x ap-sabot (depleted uranium), 1 x he (schrapnel).

[aviatorsneah]

hehe...party mix. those 4 together sound like fun.

weren't the ballistics of tracer rounds noticeably different than the rest as well? i.e. different weight because of the phosphorus? if i remember right they were heavier than a plain round and fell short of the target compared to the rest? especially in low muzzle velocity weapons...like what was found in the mk108 and other cannons alike.

[Jaypack44]

guys, I think he means that the tracers come out of all of the guns at once, so you get all 6 tracers at once, then however many non tracer rounds, then all 6 tracers again. I have noticed that too, and it's really annoying. Some a/c have the tracers staggered, so that you get tracers coming out constantly instead of all at once, which is what I think he wants to be done for the P-80.
I must say I agree. it's the same for a lot of a/c, it would be nice to have staggered tracer loadouts.

[aviatorsneah]

i did a little test w the p80...and i think that what you mean stems from the fact that the MGs (in ANY airplane) don't fire unsynchronized as they would in real life. this fact has been brought up before about the game limitation. if you look at any airplane that, say, has MGs or canons in each wing....the tracers will leave each wing at the same time (guns firing in sync...which is not necessarily realistic). i think thats why you see the globs from the p80. all guns in the nose...all tracers leaving at the same time...a glob of tracers followed by a glob of tracers, when in reality it would be spread out randomly.

[ArcticViper]

i did a little test w the p80...and i think that what you mean stems from the fact that the MGs (in ANY airplane) don't fire unsynchronized as they would in real life. this fact has been brought up before about the game limitation. if you look at any airplane that, say, has MGs or canons in each wing....the tracers will leave each wing at the same time (guns firing in sync...which is not necessarily realistic). i think thats why you see the globs from the p80. all guns in the nose...all tracers leaving at the same time...a glob of tracers followed by a glob of tracers, when in reality it would be spread out randomly.

That's exactly what he's been trying to say and I do agree with him, it is really annoying.
I don't think it's the syncronized guns that's the problem, it's the fact that the tracers apparantly are in the exact same place on the ammo belt on every gun, and thus make non solid lines of tracers if continuously fired. |== ------ ------- ------- if you will... :roll:

Try out the Spitfire mkVc(4) for instance; the first time you fire, they're synchronized, but if done correctly, you can tap the trigger and force them out of sync so you get more "spread of the tracers.

[fly_zo]

... moved, please use beta discussion section only for your actual WiP threads

thank you
Z