[Catahoulak9]

Looks good to me.

If this really is the correct size for the Mk8 reticle, I wonder if the Japanese reticles are too small too.

[NonWonderDog]

The Japanese reticles probably are too small, but it will be very hard for me to find sources. I can struggle through Russian and German sources, but I know no Japanese whatsoever.

That said, I did find a YouTube video of a Type 98 gunsight. If I had to guess, I'd say the rings are at 20, 50, 100, and 150 mil radii. Hard to tell. [EDIT: More likely, the rings are at 1, 3, 5, and 7 degrees.]

I also decided that I don't much like the K-14 reticle I have now. I did some screwing around with image masks, and I've managed to convince myself that the gyro reticle on the K-14 should look pretty much like this:


I'll use the diamond shape from the middle image in the next version. (EDIT: actually, I decreased the thickness by 25% from what's seen here, based on a photo.)

[dorkfish]

You need the P-47 Cockpit Mod to use the P-47 reticles in this mod! If you do not use the P-47 Cockpit Mod, you must delete the NWD_Reticles\3do\cockpit\P-47D-10\ and NWD_Reticles\3do\cockpit\P-47D-25\ directories.

Yes, very important. And if you disable a mod, don't accidentally disable the wrong one, (P-47 Cockpit Mod,) and try to fly a P47. LOL..







Great work, btw!!

[elephant]

Great mod!
Thanks a lot NonWonderDog...
I enjoy the most the blank K-14 option. 8)
Any chance making an alternative gyro reticle option, for the K-14, with more dimonds to resemble the F-86's one?



This is how it looks...(Pakistani guncam from 1965 Indo-Pakistan War).
You Tube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaJ8phw3WPs

[NonWonderDog]

Any chance making an alternative gyro reticle option, for the K-14, with more dimonds to resemble the F-86's one?

It's possible, but I'd have to change the cockpit script for the F-86 to add the extra dots. It's probably better to ask whoever made the F-86 mod. Isn't that a picture from a radar-ranging gunsight, though? F-86s were apparently fitted with K-14 and Mk.18 gunsights to start with, but I can't imagine that they had any more diamonds than the ones used in WWII (there's no room for more spiral lines on the reticle mask).


I have, however, managed to integrate the cross-only reticle such that you can choose in-game between the full reticle and just the cross, but I need to take a vote. Would it be better to have the cross of the reticle always visible, even in gyro-only mode, or should I replace the reticle with a cross-only version in both-reticles mode? The first option would be [fixed only; fixed+gyro; cross+gyro], while the second would be [fixed only; cross+gyro; gyro only]. The second option also requires me to change the cockpit scripts. That's not a problem, but it hurts compatibility and pushes this mod further away from a reticle texture replacer.

I also need some input on the Corsair; what do people think about this?

That's normal view, gunsight view, and leaned all the way in with 6DoF. Without 6DoF you can get occasional glimpses of the entire reticle from the cockpit shake, but you can't use the whole thing. Is this better than having the reticle projected anywhere on the glass? I tend to think so, but I use 6DoF.

[choctaw111]

Looks good. Will give it a try. Thanks for your effort.

[JAMF]

That's normal view, gunsight view, and leaned all the way in with 6DoF. Without 6DoF you can get occasional glimpses of the entire reticle from the cockpit shake, but you can't use the whole thing. Is this better than having the reticle projected anywhere on the glass? I tend to think so, but I use 6DoF.

It looks better, but for those that use the method of applying gunnery with mill gunsight in accordance with the gunnery manuals(*), it will foul their aim. It's also not realistic, as the reticle (in real life) will stay the same size as projected on "infinity" (or the horizon) and shrink relative to the gunsight, when leaning closer to the gunsight.

* "How to get hits with the illuminated sight"

[NonWonderDog]

That's normal view, gunsight view, and leaned all the way in with 6DoF. Without 6DoF you can get occasional glimpses of the entire reticle from the cockpit shake, but you can't use the whole thing. Is this better than having the reticle projected anywhere on the glass? I tend to think so, but I use 6DoF.

It looks better, but for those that use the method of applying gunnery with mill gunsight in accordance with the gunnery manuals(*), it will foul their aim. It's also not realistic, as the reticle (in real life) will stay the same size as projected on "infinity" (or the horizon) and shrink relative to the gunsight, when leaning closer to the gunsight.

* "How to get hits with the illuminated sight"

No, the reticle is the same angular size in all three pictures. The center ring is 50 mils radius in all three (I forgot to turn the auto-zoom off for the third picture, so it's at a smaller field of view -- EDIT: I put up new pictures with auto-zoom off). What I've done in those pictures is change the spot size to be more realistic. It is perfectly impossible for a collimated image to be projected larger than the lens, since rays of collimated light are by definition parallel. The total visible reticle area (in steradians) will be equal to the apparent area of the lens as seen through the reflector, even though the reticle itself won't change in size as you move closer. It's hard to find a video of this (although this one comes close, about 30 seconds in), but it's necessarily true.

I'm not quite sure on what I've got, though, for a few reasons. First, it doesn't fade out when you're off-axis (I tried adding bits of mask at right angles, but it had no effect). It looks pretty silly seeing just the outer third of the reticle when you lean to the side. There's also a sharp edge on the projection, which looks very video-gamey and fake. Finally, it's a departure from pretty much every other gunsight, which has the entire reflector glass show the reticle; if I wanted to make them all consistent it would take a LONG time.

It also turns out in IL2 that the reticle isn't actually projected at infinity; it's projected about 10 meters in front of you. I had to move the reticle in the Corsair closer to the camera in order to keep it from clipping behind the nose of the plane, too, so it's now much more inaccurate off-axis. I think I'll have to use the smaller mask just to hide that. (The sight isn't really any less accurate within the spot in those pictures--about a 5-7 mil error at the extremes--and you won't notice any loss in accuracy at all if you don't use 6DoF.)

EDIT AGAIN: It turns out that I just hadn't made the second layer of the mask big enough (I thought 200% would be enough, but nope). The reticle masks are very, very confusing, but I've managed to move the reticle back to where it's supposed to be and still keep it from clipping. Hopefully I can fix the way the reticles in the P-47 razorbacks are drawn behind the canopy frame, too.

[JAMF]

Rgr. Those pics are clearer.

I'll see if I can get pictures and footage, by rigging up something. Might still be just on 12V, so I'll have to remember to ask around if someone has a 24 battery.

[Blitz_KG200]

See this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7KvpWloagE

[JAMF]

No pics tonight. Mislaid the memory card. No 24V, just 12V still.

[NonWonderDog]

See this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7KvpWloagE

Yeah, I've found a whole heck of a bunch of a lot of photos of the Mk.VIII reticle, and several from that gunsight at the Smithsonian. I've only found one picture that wasn't a ladder reticle--this is the reticle described in detail in a 1944 Navy gunnery manual--but I haven't found any pictures or references or anything to the reticle used on the USAAF version of the Mk.8 on the P-47. I assume it was a 50 mil ring, but I don't know that. In the next version you'll have the option of using Navy reticles on it if you wish.

I've found a couple pictures (this one is the only good one) of British GM2 reticles, and I think I've determined that the ring is, once again, a 50 mil radius. The horizontal bars should be adjustable in and out for ranging, but I think I'm going to put any adjustable GM2 Mk.II project on hold for a while.

I can't find much on the Russian gunsights. A search for "прицел ПБП-1а OR ПБП-1б" turns up lots of references, but no actual info. I did find a manual for a 14.5 mm AA machinegun's sight with a very similar reticle, and it said that the hash marks were every ten mils (up to 100 mils, for this particular sight) and that the rings were set for 1/2 and 3/4 of a crossing speed of 400, 700, or 1000 km/h (you could change the reticle, and there was a second reticle design that had a ring at the full crossing speed). One English webpage of dubious credibility (and which I failed to bookmark) confirmed that the circles on the PBP-1 reticle were set for crossing speeds of 200 and 300 km/h, and assuming a ShKAS muzzle velocity of 800 m/s, that gives the radii of the circles as 70 and 100 mils. All of that matches Oleg's gunsight. HOWEVER, photos of reticles here and here pretty clearly show the inner ring radius to be ~80 mils. I don't know what sights those are, though. The first one looks like it's license built (it's labeled MGS in Latin letters--East German?), and the second one seems to be some kind of frankensight.

I've also found plenty of pictures of ReVi reticles (and now even better Revi pictures, telescopes, periscopes and a Stuvi too!), and I've got enough sources for the dimensions. The circle is 10% of a radian in diameter (so 100 milliradians, just about the same as on the US gunsights), the hash marks are at one degree intervals, and reticles with open crosshairs have a 10 mil gap to the left, right, and above the post. The ingame reticles have a couple dimensions off, and all the gunsights use the same Revi C/12D reticle.

[Lurch1962]

JAMF,
To get 24V, simply connect two 12V batteries in series. That is, connect one batt's neg. terminal to the other.s pos. terminal. Then connect the sight's lamp circuit to the other two terminals. Easy Peasy!

[Lurch1962]

NonWonderDog,
- Excellent, well-researched work!
- I admire your attention to detail.
- You clearly understand the optical principles behind gun sights. (I know, because I fabricate precision optics, and have designed and built telescopes, binoculars AND finders based *exactly* on the principles of gun sights, i.e., employing a target reticle, collimator and flat reflector glass.)

As to the choice between K-14 modes, I like your (more compatible) #1. I.e., [fixed, fixed+gyro, cross+gyro].

I've always been disappointed by IL-2's projection of the reticle beyond the limit imposed by the collimator's apparent angular diameter. But in a number of instances I've never been sure if it was more a case of the lens graphic not being dimensioned properly. At any rate, it's more important to me that the projected reticle be sized at least close to what the pilot would see.

I'm gratified to see that you give due consideration to the fact that the masking-off of the reticle as the viewpoint moves fore-aft can change markedly. Even though I don't (yet) use 6-dof (I get 4-dof from my single-point tracker, by mapping *both* panning and translation to the X and Y axes), I think it's preferable to have the F-4U's sight at least reasonably masked when the viewpoint is moved back and/or well off-axis. Its default representation, whereby it remains fully visible at all times, is too unrealistic. (Or am I confusing this with the Tempest?)

Do keep up the good work. I look forward to your USN treatment!

Glenn

[JAMF]

JAMF,
To get 24V, simply connect two 12V batteries in series. That is, connect one batt's neg. terminal to the other.s pos. terminal. Then connect the sight's lamp circuit to the other two terminals. Easy Peasy!

Maybe if you have them lying around. 8) I do now how to get 24V theoretically, as I still have the basic knowledge. Like calculating "Tau" for a cap&resistor circuit or resistance of a parallel/serial mixed resistor circuit. It's the practice of the thing.

12V is nigh invisible in the daytime, so it was 12V at night-time for some good shots:

The setup in front of the window (which is due for cleaning )




Beware, images below are clickable. The linked images are 1920x1920 res and are between 580 and 720kB in size.








I suspect the blotches to be secondary reflections or illuminated fingerprints from the long exposure.